China 04/24 – Glorious Orient Huai’an
Elsewhere in Huai’an, but also not really in Huai’an is the newest Glorious Orient park from Fantawild. Like several other of their resorts it’s a good hours drive out of the city centre in a bit of a no-mans land, but that also means they have plenty of room to grow I guess.
Case in point, one of their new Boonie Bear Harbour parks is going up over the road. One of these has opened so far and it was a smaller lineup of park aimed more at families – no big cred. Still had a unique dark ride though, so that’ll be enough for me one day.
Day 3 – Glorious Orient Huai’an
And so we’re here again, sort of. Glorious Orient Ningbo was an experience, a highly competent park that was a bit of a disappointment in terms of tone. Going in knowing this, I think the theme has grown on me.
*Flying Theatre music plays* Skip!
This one isn’t hiding in military guise however, spaceships?
Started strong on the cold steel of #1 Sky Track. Other guests hadn’t made it into the park yet, which was a bonus.
And it’s best to take advantage of this fact to hit #2 Fighter Jet nice and early.
Case in point, I walked on to the first train solo.
Then walked on to the second train with 6 other guests. It ran noticeably quicker with the extra weight, an effect that must be exacerbated by the baby trains. It completely changed the dynamic of the ride, it was significantly more intense with the positive forces and absolutely hauling.
And then a larger group of guests arrived and the queue was ruined instantly, so I left. It soon posted a 90 minute wait.
I remain impressed, though not blown away by this Vekoma. The launch initiation is still beautifully smooth and the first element airtime inversion thing is glorious. Then it just gets a bit new-gen V in the wrong way for me. Lots of corners, positives, a couple pops of airtime but with nothing particularly characterful about it. It goes through the motions of being a high speed rollercoaster with gallops and vrilles and then you’re done. I can say that it’s technically great, but it doesn’t give me a buzz.
#3 Frontline Charge rounds out the creds. Standard Vekoma Junior here, not a Boomerang.
Next to Railway Guerilla, which went up a lot in my estimation this time.
Beginning with the fact that we got the pre-show this time. It’s acted out like a professional drama, but the key takeaway from me is that it entirely resisted having the actors turn to the camera, point and say ‘we need you! Jump aboard these high tech all terrain early 20th century war machines and help save the world.’
They do however more cleverly weave an animation of the ride vehicles into the ‘plot’ which involves blowing up a train to stop munitions and supplies. We’re just observers.
The ride itself was always spectacular, a real culmination of a lot of Fantawild creativity and technology. Big impressive sets, an array of clever special effects, immersive screens and the vehicle movements are absolutely on point.
Should have a POV for you in a couple years.
I was less buzzing from new Fantawild and more focused on what was actually going on in the shooting dark ride this time.
This led to noticing that you’re shooting the bombs and missiles in this one, so I guess the actual message of Sharp Shooter is stop the war! Which is nicer.
Here’s what it looks like when there’s nothing to shoot.
I had Amorous Northwest Feelings about one of my favourite Fantawilds over in Taizhou. This one only has Amarons Northwst Feelings.
This confused me, I was expecting the dark ride Hangar Breakout somewhere in this park and the building here looks rather like it. The clue was that it had timeslots, though that can be common for rides on quiet days.
It wasn’t, it was a China is so great 3D cinema that amused me somewhat. You’re seeing here a race for GDP between countries around the world, punctuated by technological achievements and advancements in China. They were claiming that by 2030 they would be beating the US (a low bar if ever there was one).
Later on there was a vision of a city from the future. It had rollercoasters running through it, which was a plus, but they also misspelled their own company name so… it’s just not up to par with the other attractions of this generation.
Construction, get excited.
This contained a show called Heroine.
It told the brave wartime stories of several women using their usual fancy projection and stage tech. It’s the first one I’ve seen that didn’t actually end up using any live actors, usually there’s a mix. Not enough paying customers. As for the story, not the most engaging but conveyed some good emotion.
This contained a show too, but it was too quiet to run, so that’s twice I’ve missed it now. Ganzhou, you’re up.
Apparently the ‘Old Summer Palace’ was given to the British but, being the bastards we are, we wrecked the joint and are the reason a number of historic artifacts are now missing.
The massive frontage of Zhiyuan Zhiyuan still impresses me, as does the ride.
Shanghai Pirates tech still impresses me too.
The ship sinks because the Emperor likes to party. Or because the British built it.
And from here I noticed a key difference to the Ningbo ride. Instead of passing underneath a big wreckage set of the ship, you drift by this haunting and eerie scene of people and debris sinking to the bottom of the ocean in the darkness. It’s very well done.
Until they bang on about their technological advances again, which kinda ends it weird.
Some school trips had been arriving throughout the day, steadily making the queues less manageable. These would start to impact the trip for the foreseeable, must be the season for it I guess.
As such, there wasn’t a whole deal of opportunity for rerides, though I was thoroughly enjoying the park itself. Instead we turned sights to a couple of creds in the city before our train that evening and booked a Didi back a little earlier than originally planned in order to grab the +1s.
In the car, it rained, hard. And so that was that.
Imagine being in the 90 minute queue for Fighter Jet when that happens though.