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IMG Worlds of Adventure | Dubai | Theme Park

gavin

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Fine for what they are (haven't tried Untamed). They're decent enough and suit a small park. Definitely a filler in a bigger park like this one though. Not the best choice in my opinion.
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Oh, immature me. When it comes to the name of this park, I just can't shake off the memories from the days when CF used those lovely little sprites for censoring swear words, which were changed into the word "<img>" when the post was quoted.

It looks <img> good, however!
 

Dubai_Smoggie

Roller Poster
So all reports say IMG is still scheduled to open on Monday 15th August, drove past yesterday and will be a race against time to complete the access roads and car park but fingers crossed.

Call me a pessimist but can't help but think not every attraction will be open for 15th! I was going to visit on the 18th but going to opt for 25th August instead for my visit to hopefully give them a little time to sort out the teething problems!

Will get a report up when I visit

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Ben

CF Legend
Yeah we're meant to be going August 28th but I'm not holding my breath!

Hopefully there's news before then because if loads isn't open might not bother. Not like I won't return to the UAE.
 

Ben

CF Legend
Spiteful opening date pushed to 31st August.

Womp womp there on 28th.

Oh well will be back to the UAE I'm sure.
 

TheCoasterCruiser

Giga Poster
Dubaidave said:
And it's amaxing!


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Have you been? It looks a bit bare, a lot of the stuff looks like it needs more detail. How does it all work in real life?
Can't argue with the quality of the coasters and the impressive building though.
 

Dubaidave

Hyper Poster
Didn't feel bare to me at all. I thought the themeing was amazing. Didn't notice any holes at all. Each land changes nicely between each one and I thought it was stunningly well done.


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Dubaidave

Hyper Poster
Double post!!!

Heres my report from opening day

I was lucky enough to attend opening day at IMG worlds of adventure.

This review is quite wordy so you might want to skip to the photos at the end.

I was working there so didn't get to ride all the rides but did ride the three rollercoasters and managed to see most of the park. Therefore this review will mostly be about the rollercoasters and the general park. I will be returning to the park soon in order to ride the other rides and will post that review soon as I can.

First impressions when you enter a quite impressive. As you enter the Q area to get entry to the park on the right is the soon to be opened multiplex cinema. Once you enter through the turnstiles you are straight into IMG Boulevard. This area has several restaurants and shops and is also home to the haunted hotel attraction.

First impressions here are that it does look somewhat dark as you enter however once your eyes get accustomed to the light it actually looks fabulous. The seeming on this area is amazing and it includes the main IMG shop, coffee shops and full service restaurants.

Moving towards the bottom of IMG Boulevard on the left there is an entrance to the Cartoon Network zone and the haunted hotel. Again the theme in on the outside of the haunted hotel is unbelievable and there is great attention to detail. There is a bell boy outside beckoning people to enter. The make up and acting of this person was amazing. I can't wait to see inside.

If you take the path to the left just before the haunted hotel you like to the Cartoon Network zone. Again the theming is amazing and they have done a nice job of blending one zone into another.

In the cartoon network again features many restaurants and shops and quite a few rides. The only ride I went on here was adventure time the ride of ooo. This is a suspended monorail which goes out around the park and also features some nice dark ride sections. The right system is made by IE Park and provides a nice smooth ride. The dark right sections are based on the cartoon and it is a great way to get a view over the cartoon network zone.

A special mention has to be made for the queue line which goes up inside A tree house from the cartoon.
Also in this area is a Ben 10 5D ride, are gumball dark ride and a climbing ropes course. This is also home to the power puff girls ride. The area also features roaming characters and shows.

The next area is the last Valley. Again as you walk into this area it does initially feel a little dark however once you enter The feeling is absolutely stunning this area is home to 2 of the three rollercoasters.

Predator is a heavily themed gerstlaur Eurofighter. It features a beyond vertical drop and several inversions all amongst the highly themed dinosaur area. Also in this area is forbidden territory A large-scale dark ride that was not operating when I was there. The adventure Fortress is an amazing kids play area and the dino carousel is a very unique carousel.

The velociraptor is the other rollercoaster here. This is a blue fire clone that launches you out of the building into several inversions outside. I have not ridden blue fire however this is a truly great ride. There is a small dark ride section inside before you are launched out of the building. The only thing I would say about this ride is that the entrance is quite hard to find. Around the back of the other rides.

This whole area is dotted with animatronic dinosaurs and fantastic themeing.

The final zone is marvel zone. This has several rides including the hulk 3D experience, an avengers dark ride and the Spider-Man spinning coaster.

Again the theming of this land is stunning. The whole area is like walking into the marvel universe. The Spider-Man coaster is a really good spinner. It sends you out over the park then inside for a nicely themed inside run. It's a very good ride and is one of the best in the park.

This area has some amazingly well themed restaurants. Including Tony's sky deck a steak and seafood fine dining restaurant.

Overall I can say this is the best indoor theme park I have ever been to anywhere in the world. And certainly the biggest!
Videos and photos don't do it justice. The sheer scale is unbelievable.
All the staff are extremely helpful and friendly.

Here some photos.























































 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Thanks for the report Dave!

Are all of the coasters up and running fully now? I'm planning to head across the weekend after next, and I know they have a habit of opening things partially out here. I won't bother with a trip until I can get all of the creds, but from the looks of your report I'm going to be sure of a full day out when I do visit!
 

Dubaidave

Hyper Poster
All the creds were running. Spider-Man spinning coaster didn't open til later. Almost everything else was running. Some of the big dark rides are a bit temperamental but they did seem to be on the Maintanace fast and got things up and running pretty fast. You will easily spend a full day there. Despite 7 days newspaper saying they did the park twice in three hours! And there are only 3 rides for adults! Their review actually said the Eurofighter was boring after the first drop.


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owentaylor121

Giga Poster
This park looks fantastic, I remember driving past this watching get built! I'll be back out to Dubai next year so am looking forward to trying this out!
I didn't realise the park has so many rides, I knew about the coasters and the air race but I didn't realise they had a top spin, etc!
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
I visited IMG yesterday, and can't really be bothered to do a separate trip report, so thought I'd do a bit of a photo and thought dump in here instead. I'm just going to collate things by area - I went round the park in this order, but didn't take all the pictures until much later. As you'll probably be able to tell, most of the park is fairly dark, so I did have a hard time taking many good pictures. :lol:

IMG Boulevard

This section of the park is mostly just concourse and restaurants. I didn't eat in the park, but they looked like they had a good selection of options. It's also quite an impressive entrance to the park, and gives you some sense of the size of the place (it really doesn't look that big from the outside).

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Cartoon Network

This area is mostly for families, but I did ride most of the attractions here. The theming is varied, with various sub-sections themed to different shows (Adventure Time, Ben 10, Lazy Town, etc). It's quite colourful and the abstract theming is generally very good throughout.

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Some thoughts on the rides:

Adventure Time - The Ride of Ooo - A suspended monorail travelling all over the Cartoon Network area with some dark ride style scenes themed around Adventure Time. The queue is lovely, you climb up inside the large tree (pictured above), and board from a "tree-house" type structure. Unfortunately this was one of the worst operated/slowest throughput rides of the day, so I ended up waiting around 30 mins for it (should easily have been 10 mins) .

The Amazing Ride of Gumball - Essentially just a dark shooter, but with some nice combinations of shooting at screens and shooting at real objects. Worked fairly well and seemed to be pretty popular.

Ben 10 5D Hero Time - A huge 5D cinema, really impressive. The movie was okay, but I think I'm just a bit too old (and cynical) with these things nowadays - after a while the gimmick wears off. That being said, the whole audience was loving it, which is all that really matters I suppose. It was very good quality as far as these things go, they're just not really for me.

The Powerpuff Girls – Mojo Jojo’s Robot Rampage! - I do like Air Races. I think they provide a good ride experience, as well as a very impressive visual display. It's especially entertaining when there are loads of people who've never seen one before - the moment when the cars start flipping always gets a gasp from the crowd!

Lazy Town Pirates Adventure - I generally don't bother with these high ropes courses, they're never particularly exciting, but this one looked like it might be quite fun. You have to book a lot early in the day, so if you want to do it I suggest heading there early. It was good, and the staff were very relaxed about making sure you were safe. It didn't feel quite as "strict" as other ones I've done - which is good.


Lost Valley

This area was generally pretty dark ("atmosphere" or something I suppose), but it was clear that they'd put a lot of time into it. The theming was generally very good, and it didn't feel too forced or synthetic.

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On my way out of the park I stopped to grab these pictures of the fabulous lighting on the trains for Velociraptor.

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Some thoughts on the rides:

Predator - A Rage clone. Not bad really, good fun and quite intense. Especially as it's quite dark, meaning you end up getting a bit disorientated with the spotlights. Generally quite smooth. Another one to do early, as the queue was awful towards the end of the day.

Velociraptor - A blue fire clone. I haven't done one of these before and it was pretty good. It did seem to rattle an awful lot, but not to the point of being uncomfortable. Maybe just something you pick up on being an enthusiast, but I was surprised for such a new ride. A very enjoyable coaster, with a decent launch, nice layout and some good forces. Plus at night it looks amazing thanks to the lights on the trains. <3

Forbidden Territory - A fairly good dark ride. Had some nice physical theming and decent animations on the screens.


Marvel

Another completely different area, and very different to the other two. It feels like it has the largest sets and biggest rides (whilst Velociraptor is the biggest ride, you can't see any of it from inside and the queue is just a fairly discrete sign). The theming really is very impressive and feels very much like the big sets at Islands of Adventure or Universal.

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Some thoughts on the rides:

Spider-Man Doc Ock's Revenge - To be honest, I didn't really like it. The theming in the queue is good, the layout is okay (it's fairly short and doesn't really encourage much spinning), but it just didn't feel as impressive as the rest of the area. Besides the short section above the main street, the rest of it was just in complete darkness - so I had a hard time working out why the spinning was thrilling.

Avengers Battle of Ultron - It's been a long time since I rode Spiderman at IoA, but I remember being blown away by that at the time (back in 2006). This thing was extremely impressive, and rivalled that feeling for me. The combination of sets and screens was almost seamless. Really, really good.

Hulk Epsilon Base 3D - I've never done one of these 360° cinema things before. It was fairly good, but I can't help feel everyone was always turning around to see the action behind them. Again another large and elaborate set, which was well detailed throughout.

Thor Thunder Spin - A top spin, and probably the most intense ride in the park. It felt like it was on a really powerful setting, and although the cycle was only short, I have to admit I was glad it was over at the end! :lol: Plus, it looks fantastic!

So that's everything! I spent most of the day in the park, arrived around 11:30 and left around 19:30 (they're open to 22:00 I believe). At the start of the day it was very quiet, basically just walked on everything, however by 16:00 it was heaving with long lines for most rides. I think a lot of that is a product of really **** operations. The staff are very friendly and polite, but maybe too much so. They spend minutes per train sorting out one specific guest - and it just really drags. Velociraptor had a really good team, and even accounting for the larger trains, they were getting through the queue at a good steady rate.

In hindsight I should have rushed round at the start and grabbed everything with loads of re-rides, and then just chilled and left early, but I still managed to get everything done and have time to wander around and soak it up.

It's an extremely impressive park. The theming is massive and detailed and really sells each area. The roof feels a lot less noticeable than at Ferrari World, which helps a lot I think (although it's hardly like Ferrari World has any theming to speak of :lol: ). It's going to be really interesting to see what they do to expand, there were a few areas sectioned off that could house more, but they must have filled upwards of 80% of the space now.

I do recommend visiting if you're nearby, I think it's probably the best "complete" park in the UAE. Sorry Ben...
 

SaiyanHajime

CF Legend
Maybe this is just me, but I feel like an indoors park will ALWAYS be lacking. There's no natural ambiance to make up the holes in placed content. No birds, trees, weather...

Plus the fact this place is always so quiet.

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TilenB

Strata Poster
Joey said:
Maybe this is just me, but I feel like an indoors park will ALWAYS be lacking. There's no natural ambiance to make up the holes in placed content. No birds, trees, weather...

Plus the fact this place is always so quiet.

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Dubai isn't a place where you'd encounter too many trees outside, though. Given that this is located in the middle of the desert, I think it's a good thing the whole park is indoors...
 

owentaylor121

Giga Poster
Joey said:
Maybe this is just me, but I feel like an indoors park will ALWAYS be lacking. There's no natural ambiance to make up the holes in placed content. No birds, trees, weather...

Plus the fact this place is always so quiet.

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This place is far from always quiet. It's actually doing really well.


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