Saudi Arabia + Turkey 01/26 – Malls + MOi Park

Another late finish, another late start. Not that it mattered much on the Friday as it seemed most of the mall parks had later hours for the day anyway.

Started out at one of the Saffori brand establishments, one with just another SBF spinner, to figure out their pricing (slightly better than Sparky’s), but though all the lights were on and some staff were kicking around, the rides weren’t ready.

Had some lunch and headed over to the first of our RM Romas, hoping for better pricing and success. On the surface it seemed that way, with one kid on one ride, but then found a staff member who said they weren’t open for another hour or so.

Went to BLVD World as it was the most ‘significant’ park in the city of Riyadh. Car park was absolutely disgustingly busy however and it looked like it would be both very expensive and hell on earth for a coaster I despise (a Sky Rocket) and a flying theatre I’m never usually bothered about.

Day 4 – Sparky’s Salam Mall

Obviously struggling to commit to the bit at this point, on a come down from what had come before, we finally ended up and the third and last Sparky’s to get maximum value out of the poxy card.

Coaster here was this hilarious looking #1 ‘Dragon’, with another sprawling custom layout.

And curved lift hill.

Having seen what both of the other chains were offering, decided to commit to the RM Romas to finish the night.

Firstly they seem to have acquired a job lot of these ex-commercial simulators.

My favourite of which was this one.

RM Roma Land Albadeah Mall

Picked up a card here for this I.E.Park actual #2 Dragon. Had a funky little layout to it.

RM Roma Land City Mall

Then came here for a powered dragon that wasn’t a dragon, only to be told by the operator about 5 times, jovially, that the top up card didn’t work across multiple locations.

Seemed to want to humour us anyway though and let us on for free, so that was both the answer we needed to not go back to the first location, and #3 Tornado was a bonus happy ending to our time in Saudi.

It’s been good to us.

– – –

Flew back to Istanbul the next morning and had a few hours of layover, with plans to strike one more park. One more mall.

Metro lines are useless for getting there, so jumped on a bus using our old faithful (second) transport cards.

Day 5 – MOi Park

Was our destination, within the Mall of Istanbul.

Getting in is slightly annoying as they use yet another top up card and credit system, which is purchased from outside the park. This means guests get to the front of the admissions queue and then have to stand at the desk reading a menu of attraction names which probably mean nothing to them, deciding up front how they want to spend the next couple of hours of their likely ad hoc visit, while everyone else waits impatiently.

Obviously we knew exactly what we were here for, but it still required the use of a calculator before purchase.

Pretty cool place once you get inside though, bit of a step up from the other mall parks of the trip.

Started off on #1 Çuf Çuf, the smaller of the two coasters, the train on which was a bit of a squeeze and then delivered 8 laps of vicious laterals. Better than Sea Stallion.

Then this custom spinner, #2 Çilgin Mekik, was a real surprise. Span a lot and kicked some serious ass. Easily one of Turkey’s finest coasters and Zamperla’s worldwide. Better than Top Thrill 2.

They also had a shooting dark ride featuring the charming one eyed mascots of the park. Might have a POV for you at some point.

And a haunted walkthrough that we ran out of time for.

Back on the bus, back on a plane, back home. What a week.