Finland + Italy 08/19 – Mirabilandia

Day 8

Mirabilandia

As I said at the start of this report, Italy had been thrown around for years as a possible trip idea and it was mostly Mirabilandia that was drawing us to the country, or more so 2 of the coasters that call this park home. Mirabilandia was in the lucky position to be home to not 1 but 2 supposed World class coasters and it was about time we checked them out.

We were off to a less than great start though. Despite booking a hotel close to the park and making every effort to get to Italy’s “best” park for before opening, it all went wrong. The roads on approach to the park were disgusting and we found ourselves stuck in a massive traffic jam for nearly an hour. It became apparent what was causing it soon enough, it was the park itself. Mirabilandia make you pay for parking on entry to the car park and the ticket machines were positioned far too close to car park entrance, resulting in the absolute mess we saw today. Surely the staff were making every effort to get things moving and to ease the strain on the public road though? Nope, not at all.

While finally parking up we noticed a lot of people were heading into the water park. Knowing the park was open until late today we assumed they’d at some point migrate over, but now would be best time to dust off the coasters with shorter queues right? If only we knew…

iSpeed

The first of the 2 supposed World class coasters was iSpeed, an Intamin LSM launch coaster. No I’m not calling it a Blitz coaster until someone explains what a Blitz coaster actually is.

I should have just trusted my judgement and went in thinking it was just another Intamin Accelerator coaster, because let’s be honest it pretty much is. Sadly I let myself get slightly caught up in how highly rated iSpeed is and this led to me being even more disappointed when the coaster wasn’t very good.

Don’t get me wrong, iSpeed isn’t a bad coaster, but it’s nowhere near deserving of the praise I’ve seen it receive. I’d compare it heavily to Superman Escape in Australia. Both are Intamin launch coasters, both have restraints that kill half the elements and both travel too quickly through the other half for them to have any effect.

Right, it’s all on you now Katun….

On route to the beast things started to look desperate. The park was heaving and several of the coasters we strolled past had queues pouring out past their entrances.

Katun

I’d been excited to ride Katun for years now. I’m a massive fan of B&M Inverts and this was meant to be one of the best in the World. Me and Heartline had even given the coaster a cute nickname years ago.

How was it though? It was alright, though slightly forgettable. Yes that’s right, this Invert fan is calling the legendary Katun forgettable, because someone has to.

No part really stood out or did anything that special for me. The coaster itself lacks a sense of character too. We hit the brakes and the first thought that came to my head was what’s the point of having a massive B&M Invert with loads of inversions if none of it’s all that exciting?

So, yeah, there’s no nice way of saying this I don’t think. Both of Mirabilandia’s supposed World class coasters aren’t very good…

Master Thai

From that crushing disappointment we entered one of the worst queues of my entire life. In nearly 40 degrees, with the sun pounding down on us to the point that I thought I’d faint at some point, we waited over 90 minutes for a stupid Preston & Barbieri Möbius loop coaster. Due to shockingly poor operations the queue barely moved at all and we just stood there sweating and dying. It was deeply unpleasant and our moods towards the park began to shift from disappointment to anger.

Next we went to look at the park’s latest investment, Desmo Race, a Maurer Spike coaster that we delayed our trip for. How did it repay us? By missing it’s July opening date, opening for a week, breaking itself and then not running since then. While dying in the queue for Master Thai we watched them sending around cars with half of the panels missing and they were violently juddering themselves to pieces, it’s not looking likely it’ll open for us today then…

Moving on, we went to ride the park’s L&T kiddie coaster, a clone of the one with the twisted airtime hill from Cavallino Matto. Sadly as soon as we entered the lengthy queue it broke down…

Divertical

I’d been excited to try out Divertical from the moment I first saw a picture of it’s crazy lift structure. Sadly it turns out the lift is the best part of the ride, because from that point onwards Divertical is a forceless journey towards foul tasting green water.

Gold Digger

After a much needed break from the sun for lunch, we joined yet another digusting queue, this time for the park’s L&T Wild Mouse coaster. The queue was miles past the entrance and it took a good half an hour to even enter the official queueline. I began to feel quite unwell after once again baking in the scorching sun. In no way does it excuse what we went through to ride it, but the coaster itself was hauling in an extremely brutal manner which led to us all crying with laughter on the brake run.

Rexplorer

After another much needed break from the sun, this time for ice cream, we joined yet another disgusting queue, this time for the park’s ghetto powered coaster. We queued far too long, this time with no shade at all, all while my body was screaming at me to stop being stupid, I seriously wish I could.

During the longest queue ever for a Ferris Wheel, we decided despite not wanting to, it would be best to make use of our 2 day park tickets and return tomorrow morning. I knew today hadn’t gone well, but at the time I had no idea just how badly things truly were until Heartline pointed it out. We had ridden almost 7 things in 11 hours…

We returned to Katun after this crushing realisation. Had giving it all day to warm up made any difference? No… And it really annoyed me because it looks amazing and I really wanted to love it but it really isn’t anything that special.

Then we ended what had been one of the most frustrating park days in recent memory with a 90 minute queue for iSpeed. Is it my ultra mega heatstroke talking or is it riding slightly better now? We will have to return tomorrow morning to find out, yaaay…

Wanting to get pizza before our new favourite restaurant closed, it was essential we left the park in a timely manner after leaving iSpeed. So of course we got lost, then ended up walking through the middle of a massive rave where everyone was throwing packets of coloured powder on each other…

Finally we got to the park entrance but we couldn’t leave just yet. We needed join yet another queue, this time to validate our tickets for tomorrow. We’ve paid for 2 day tickets, what’s is this mess?

Now late we left the park going slightly faster than the limit on the completely deserted road, only for Heartline to get a speeding ticket in the post 9 months later. Mirabilandia just keeps on giving…

Thanks for reading, click here for day 9, where we visit Fiabilandia and EuroPark Milano Idroscalo.