emoo
Hyper Poster
I've wanted to get on Battlestar Galactica since before the issues threatening its existence. Singapore itself looks enticing with a wide variety of food options alongside fun dramatic buildings. Even the airport looks ridiculous in the best way and everything is connected with an effective transit system. But the cost to coaster ratio and distance means I could always find more to do closer to home. Thankfully it was the time for my friend to go so it was also the right time for me.
That said I still wasn't feeling a non stop 14 hour flight. A stop over with coasters would be a double win and I ended up with half a day in Abu Dhabi. Sounds like there would be time to rush YAS island and get anything new or missed a couple of years ago when visiting properly.
While waiting for my first flight I had a drink in the Gatwick spoons. A pretty poor Bloody Mary but I did enjoy the table number being underlined so you read it 69 and not 69. Nice.
After landing, waiting for a bag that had already been transferred to the next flight, and thorough security it was about 8:30am. Earliest park open on that day was 10am. It's theoretically doable to walk to the YAS island parks from the airport. Aerial maps show cross walks and pedestrian options over every major road. Common sense prevailed and I starred at this window for a bit while trying to nap.
I dropped my carry on luggage at the storage service and taxied to SeaWorld where my best pic on arrival was apparently the shade canopies out front when looking away from the marquee and Manta.
But as there hasn't been any pics of track yet here you go
All very well presented. It would be a while till I found the only reason for visiting as its an indoor maze on many levels.
If a theme park ever wants to recreate the corridors of Red Dwarf I'd be so happy. But this place is a very different vibe to the Cat ordering 6 Trout a la Creme or manually fishing for dinner.
Its enormous tanks and glass walls. Due to the low attendance and everyone spread out there was no one in the way of this to give a sense of scale. Assume people are in frame but smaller than a pixel - you get the exaggerated idea.
This concave window allows you to feel surrounded by water. Try not to fall over from the disorientation or awe.
Excuse me fishy, do you know where the rollercoasters are? They didn't but I got lucky after choosing the right tunnel. and this room with a small but very well presented selection of rides. Flats were open, Eel Racer was not.
A spite to kick things off for reasons unknown but inline with other peoples recent visits. Great celling and light effects. It took an hour just to get this far so I finally ask and got pointed the right way.
This means you are very close and looked better than the actual ride entrance sign, just to the right.
A very blue queue that looked decent and didn't take too long to dash through. Walked straight onto my very first ride, solo front seat. Neato! Really fun and long, running better than the other outdoor Macks in the UAE. Not Intamin in the desert smooth, but I found it more enjoyable than Flying Aces (easier on the thighs). No wait was longer than one train & could usually pick front or back. Front is best here for the views and ride quality. I expected to get more laps in but I had to take a break for food and trying to take useful pictures. On lap 6 it didn't launch out the starting tunnel so I got an evac! ID have liked to ride more times but a cool ending and a needed signal to move on.
Heading to to the exit I finally got a pic of this in the main hub room and thought to myself "That's how you do a screen sphere Nemesis eye". The room was wrapped by a large and ever changing projection screen as well. So much stunning tech and engineering in this place that my schedule has very little time for.
Yet somehow I spent a painful amount of time outside the parks entrance where I could see Manta and Formula Rossa. Neither tested for so long that 2 security guards on different shifts probably wondered what I was doing. Manta tested a couple of times with no riders but there was no movement from over the road.
The cutback was my least favourite bit. There should also be a higher water level in this area and looked a bit naff when I realised. On ride it didn't matter and the few interactions with scenery worked for me. However I've been hanging around suspiciously and wasting time for too long, gotta move on and hope for the best. It was a shorter walk than Google maps suggested but longer than I expected. At least I walked past this (there is an English version the other side of the road.)
Dozens of these stone balls line YAS Drive all the way to the hotels. The eyes light up at night and does anyone else see Marvin's head from the HHGTTG movie??? Ok the eyes are not triangles but I still see his sad face.
This would have given anyone else a smile though, FR is actually running! No riders though and long after the park has opened. And me with this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side. The lack of sleep, time pressure and uncertainty was getting to me.
Before we find out if I can have a go there is a very important assignment : Get on that crappy mall coaster which was closed every time I tried before. Its been a stain on my spreadsheet. I had a German Donna Kebab while waiting for YoloWorks to open at 2pm (2 hours after FunWorks itself opened...) so I suppose it doesn't matter too much I'm running a bit behind.
Ride was garbage, absolute trash and now forever marked in my sheet with a
which is honestly better than a red line highlighting missed opportunity. After Yoro it's another dash across the full length of the mall to a park with one of one of my favourite coasters that I hope is open. I remember Ferrari World being fairly quiet and the fast pass being cheap and useful so its all good from here right? 
What we find is the worlds longest and slowest customer service counter. So much time was lost here with every customer taking an age to process what they needed. But its the only way to pick up a wristband to get either a one time timed slot for Formula Rossa or Fast Pass for everything else. Or in my case, both. While queueing I tried to save some time and purchase online. 3 different cards failed but was able to just pay so, so much money at the counter. With a days wage wrapped round my wrist I head out to do as much as possible in the few hours that remain. As long as things are open of course. I'm advised Turbo track will open around 4pm (it didn't) and Formula Rossa is due to open before my allotted slot (it opened so incredibly late). Flying Aces is down for annual maintenance.
A week before my visit there was a report with evidence of both, yes both sides to Fiorano GT Challenge being open. Having only got the usual left side I was sceptical I'd get the other but at least there was a chance. They were only running 1 side today of course. Grumpy and irritable me couldn't believe my eyes. No freaking way its running the right side, the one I wanted. Back row too, woohooo. Might have taken multiple park visits and never all at once but boom all credits checked off. The ride itself has unbanked turns and not that enjoyable beyond being a bit unique.
And now, to make things even better its finally for the best coaster to me for miles around - Mission Ferrari. I love this thing and the stuff it does. Even the janky gnarly bits. Not even the ride sign location was well thought out but its there and well done for getting this working.
The special stuff happens inside hidden from view of course
This mannequin slides back and forth rotating just a little. Very amusing but not enough to suffer through the full standby queue with all original marbles. Do yourself a favor and get fast pass if you can. Have multiple rides fairly quickly instead of possibly none due to breakdowns. Eventually you board a very interesting ride vehicle. 4 people in the front row and 5 in the back. At least 3 cars were running.
Turbo Track remained closed all day. Its a weird ride but I'd have given it a spin. It would have given needed capacity with 2 the 2 majors coasters unavailable.
Worst of all the major draw of the park (recently reopened after a year SBNO) still hadn't opened for the day and was long past mine and many other peoples assigned times.
Long before you get to the ride sign and queue entrance people were gathering in an unorganised clump. Some sort of filming was going on out of view. I don't know if guests were actually told anything, it was just apparent from all the kit they were wheeling out of the ride area at a snails pace. If this was advertised ahead of time I didn't see it.
I dashed between the growing hoard and rides on Mission Ferrari, even took the car ride just to get some more pics and have some chill. Standby for that looked a chore as well.
Once the ride opened there was a brief moment of collective relief. No time to cheer as everyone is immediately back into stress mode being left to fate and the bundle to get to the queue line. The park had all day to manage this but all staff were clearly untrained for such an event and there was no evident or commendable plan. I guess this is a one off event (20th Jan) that doesn't sound worse than the Voltron incident but still I'd look for better in any park operator.
I'll cut the misery of the moment as I did eventually get my ride. Its great, terrific launch and intense all round. Eyes slightly watering even with the goggles. The only obvious changes were the lockers before riding have been swapped out for shelves. It was also a better controlled flow of people at that point. Props to the staff member putting his hand over the alarm to muffle the sound caused by a rider trying to leave through the wrong door. So minor but another bizarre event in a long day. Also I noticed a lot of water being sprayed on the wheels but cant tell if its more than before. One more Mission Ferrari for the road and its time to head to the airport.
A much needed beer and I was indeed able to reflect on a great day. I could have spend a couple more hours at the park, or perhaps even made it to the new Hamster Wheel coaster in the city. But was a good time to call it a day, I didn't want to risk the start of the actual trip. Zayed International Airport suggest arriving 4 hours before departure which is way to much. The common instruction is 3 hours to allow for issues especially travel and customs. Turns out, as expected this was a very efficient airport and they want you hanging round airside spending money. Like at the bar with the best mixed cocktail I'll have all trip.
A 7 hour red eye flight followed and I've never slept better on a plane.
That said I still wasn't feeling a non stop 14 hour flight. A stop over with coasters would be a double win and I ended up with half a day in Abu Dhabi. Sounds like there would be time to rush YAS island and get anything new or missed a couple of years ago when visiting properly.
While waiting for my first flight I had a drink in the Gatwick spoons. A pretty poor Bloody Mary but I did enjoy the table number being underlined so you read it 69 and not 69. Nice.
After landing, waiting for a bag that had already been transferred to the next flight, and thorough security it was about 8:30am. Earliest park open on that day was 10am. It's theoretically doable to walk to the YAS island parks from the airport. Aerial maps show cross walks and pedestrian options over every major road. Common sense prevailed and I starred at this window for a bit while trying to nap.
I dropped my carry on luggage at the storage service and taxied to SeaWorld where my best pic on arrival was apparently the shade canopies out front when looking away from the marquee and Manta.
But as there hasn't been any pics of track yet here you go
All very well presented. It would be a while till I found the only reason for visiting as its an indoor maze on many levels.
If a theme park ever wants to recreate the corridors of Red Dwarf I'd be so happy. But this place is a very different vibe to the Cat ordering 6 Trout a la Creme or manually fishing for dinner.
Its enormous tanks and glass walls. Due to the low attendance and everyone spread out there was no one in the way of this to give a sense of scale. Assume people are in frame but smaller than a pixel - you get the exaggerated idea.
This concave window allows you to feel surrounded by water. Try not to fall over from the disorientation or awe.
Excuse me fishy, do you know where the rollercoasters are? They didn't but I got lucky after choosing the right tunnel. and this room with a small but very well presented selection of rides. Flats were open, Eel Racer was not.
A spite to kick things off for reasons unknown but inline with other peoples recent visits. Great celling and light effects. It took an hour just to get this far so I finally ask and got pointed the right way.
This means you are very close and looked better than the actual ride entrance sign, just to the right.
A very blue queue that looked decent and didn't take too long to dash through. Walked straight onto my very first ride, solo front seat. Neato! Really fun and long, running better than the other outdoor Macks in the UAE. Not Intamin in the desert smooth, but I found it more enjoyable than Flying Aces (easier on the thighs). No wait was longer than one train & could usually pick front or back. Front is best here for the views and ride quality. I expected to get more laps in but I had to take a break for food and trying to take useful pictures. On lap 6 it didn't launch out the starting tunnel so I got an evac! ID have liked to ride more times but a cool ending and a needed signal to move on.
Heading to to the exit I finally got a pic of this in the main hub room and thought to myself "That's how you do a screen sphere Nemesis eye". The room was wrapped by a large and ever changing projection screen as well. So much stunning tech and engineering in this place that my schedule has very little time for.
Yet somehow I spent a painful amount of time outside the parks entrance where I could see Manta and Formula Rossa. Neither tested for so long that 2 security guards on different shifts probably wondered what I was doing. Manta tested a couple of times with no riders but there was no movement from over the road.
The cutback was my least favourite bit. There should also be a higher water level in this area and looked a bit naff when I realised. On ride it didn't matter and the few interactions with scenery worked for me. However I've been hanging around suspiciously and wasting time for too long, gotta move on and hope for the best. It was a shorter walk than Google maps suggested but longer than I expected. At least I walked past this (there is an English version the other side of the road.)
Dozens of these stone balls line YAS Drive all the way to the hotels. The eyes light up at night and does anyone else see Marvin's head from the HHGTTG movie??? Ok the eyes are not triangles but I still see his sad face.
This would have given anyone else a smile though, FR is actually running! No riders though and long after the park has opened. And me with this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side. The lack of sleep, time pressure and uncertainty was getting to me.
Before we find out if I can have a go there is a very important assignment : Get on that crappy mall coaster which was closed every time I tried before. Its been a stain on my spreadsheet. I had a German Donna Kebab while waiting for YoloWorks to open at 2pm (2 hours after FunWorks itself opened...) so I suppose it doesn't matter too much I'm running a bit behind.
Ride was garbage, absolute trash and now forever marked in my sheet with a
which is honestly better than a red line highlighting missed opportunity. After Yoro it's another dash across the full length of the mall to a park with one of one of my favourite coasters that I hope is open. I remember Ferrari World being fairly quiet and the fast pass being cheap and useful so its all good from here right? What we find is the worlds longest and slowest customer service counter. So much time was lost here with every customer taking an age to process what they needed. But its the only way to pick up a wristband to get either a one time timed slot for Formula Rossa or Fast Pass for everything else. Or in my case, both. While queueing I tried to save some time and purchase online. 3 different cards failed but was able to just pay so, so much money at the counter. With a days wage wrapped round my wrist I head out to do as much as possible in the few hours that remain. As long as things are open of course. I'm advised Turbo track will open around 4pm (it didn't) and Formula Rossa is due to open before my allotted slot (it opened so incredibly late). Flying Aces is down for annual maintenance.
A week before my visit there was a report with evidence of both, yes both sides to Fiorano GT Challenge being open. Having only got the usual left side I was sceptical I'd get the other but at least there was a chance. They were only running 1 side today of course. Grumpy and irritable me couldn't believe my eyes. No freaking way its running the right side, the one I wanted. Back row too, woohooo. Might have taken multiple park visits and never all at once but boom all credits checked off. The ride itself has unbanked turns and not that enjoyable beyond being a bit unique.
And now, to make things even better its finally for the best coaster to me for miles around - Mission Ferrari. I love this thing and the stuff it does. Even the janky gnarly bits. Not even the ride sign location was well thought out but its there and well done for getting this working.
The special stuff happens inside hidden from view of course
This mannequin slides back and forth rotating just a little. Very amusing but not enough to suffer through the full standby queue with all original marbles. Do yourself a favor and get fast pass if you can. Have multiple rides fairly quickly instead of possibly none due to breakdowns. Eventually you board a very interesting ride vehicle. 4 people in the front row and 5 in the back. At least 3 cars were running.
At one point the car races towards a domed projection screen. The car is locked to the track that moves and bobs around pointing you up down, side to side. Most of my rides even had the screen with moving visuals!
Turbo Track remained closed all day. Its a weird ride but I'd have given it a spin. It would have given needed capacity with 2 the 2 majors coasters unavailable.
Worst of all the major draw of the park (recently reopened after a year SBNO) still hadn't opened for the day and was long past mine and many other peoples assigned times.
Long before you get to the ride sign and queue entrance people were gathering in an unorganised clump. Some sort of filming was going on out of view. I don't know if guests were actually told anything, it was just apparent from all the kit they were wheeling out of the ride area at a snails pace. If this was advertised ahead of time I didn't see it.
I dashed between the growing hoard and rides on Mission Ferrari, even took the car ride just to get some more pics and have some chill. Standby for that looked a chore as well.
Once the ride opened there was a brief moment of collective relief. No time to cheer as everyone is immediately back into stress mode being left to fate and the bundle to get to the queue line. The park had all day to manage this but all staff were clearly untrained for such an event and there was no evident or commendable plan. I guess this is a one off event (20th Jan) that doesn't sound worse than the Voltron incident but still I'd look for better in any park operator.
I'll cut the misery of the moment as I did eventually get my ride. Its great, terrific launch and intense all round. Eyes slightly watering even with the goggles. The only obvious changes were the lockers before riding have been swapped out for shelves. It was also a better controlled flow of people at that point. Props to the staff member putting his hand over the alarm to muffle the sound caused by a rider trying to leave through the wrong door. So minor but another bizarre event in a long day. Also I noticed a lot of water being sprayed on the wheels but cant tell if its more than before. One more Mission Ferrari for the road and its time to head to the airport.
A much needed beer and I was indeed able to reflect on a great day. I could have spend a couple more hours at the park, or perhaps even made it to the new Hamster Wheel coaster in the city. But was a good time to call it a day, I didn't want to risk the start of the actual trip. Zayed International Airport suggest arriving 4 hours before departure which is way to much. The common instruction is 3 hours to allow for issues especially travel and customs. Turns out, as expected this was a very efficient airport and they want you hanging round airside spending money. Like at the bar with the best mixed cocktail I'll have all trip.
A 7 hour red eye flight followed and I've never slept better on a plane.
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