Search the Community

Genting Skyworlds - 16 April 2023 https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/genting-skyworlds I went to Malaysia for a couple of weeks in April and had the opportunity to visit Genting Skyworlds, a park which finally opened back in Feb 2022 after countless delays. This park was originally going to be Fox Studios World until Disney bought Fox. Coupled with the park continually missing deadlines, it was all fuel on a fire, causingthat licensing deal being dropped. Eventually the park opened, with some of the themes scrubbed out, but it still has plenty of other IPs like Ice Age, Night at the Museum, Planet of the Apes etc. Genting Group are also the ones who run Resorts World Sentosa and Universal Singapore, so in a way this feels like the long lost brother of Universal Singapore. It’s a compact, yet highly themed park, with a good mix of dark rides and flat rides, though only 2 of the 4 coasters are operating due to Dynamic Attractions basically running out of money to finish them (though to be fair, one of them has been testing and reportedly wont take as much to finish). (see https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/03/22/leading-disney-ride-manufacturer-puts-itself-up-for-sale/ ) The huge orange SFX coaster still has half the track sitting in a lot behind the park you can see when riding Acorn Adventure. The whole Genting Highlands complex is immense. Imagine you took somewhere like Mt Tamborine or Katoomba up in the rainforest, and just chucked in huge high rise developments, malls etc at the top of the mountain. Locals love it because its a bit cooler and less humid at that elevation Theres also a temple you can stop at on the Skyway for free, which had bizzare business going on. Getting to the park is easy enough. You can get a coach for like $5 AUD up from KL Sentral Station. This coach takes about 90 mins and drops you at the Awana Bus Station up at Genting, and from there you catch a cableway up to the top, where there is a huge mall, casino and hotel complex, and of course the park. Theres a whole indoor park inside the mall too with a Zamperla Volare (More on that later) and some other touristy stuff like VR attractions, a Ripleys etc. It’s quite cool coming in and seeing the whole park below you. The entrance is well done, and they do a nice little 5 min dance routine as an opening ceremony. With the app you are entitled to 3 Virtual Queue booking, no paid option as of yet. You pick from the available time slots and come back at that time, which is nice bit of flexibility since you dont have to rush back to whatever the first slot availble is. Started off on Samba Gliders since I figured it would be low capacity. A continuous belt loading system in the station helps, but there still were a few stoppages. Ended up with a backwards facing ride. Nice and nippy, especially after a bigger drop halfway through which leads into a highly banked helix. Though this was better than Canopy Flyer at USS. Next up i headed to Ice Age Expedition Thin Ice, a trackless “Hockey Puck” dark ride just like the Antarctica one at SW Orlando (Which I followed being built, but never got to ride) Impressively, the whole ride is underground below the main park level (or IDK i think the park is basically just one huge elevated slab) so you head down into a cave to reach ride level. The theming in the queue ranges between “awesome” and “why did they bother”, but the ride is good fun. The story centers around Syd losing track of the kids at his summer camp, and you having to go around and round them up, and of course in the process getting caught in dangerous situations like an eruption, avalanche etc. A few ride vehicles are sent out at once, and they follow and interact with each other in each scene, and then all typically stop in front of a big screen where the action happens. A great family ride. I had snagged an early VQ slot for Acorn Adventure so headed to that. The story centers around scrat trying to find his acorn, so you see him throughout the ride chasing after it. This is my first experience with a chinese built coaster, and it actually was quite good! Was seated in the back, and the best way to describe the ride is that it picks up speed but the turns dont get any bigger, so by the end you are just hauling through the turns and transitions. It’s a bit like the ending of Phantoms Revenge where the train feels like its going a bit too fast for the layout. And the theming is top noch too, like this full sized 3d dino trapped in ice. My next priority was Invasion of Planet of the Apes, another trackless dark ride using exactly the same hardware as Acorn adventure, though this one has you wearing 3D glasses. The queue had a bit of a post apocalypic theme. You are led into a preshow where you discover a virus has wiped out most of humanity, but made the apes super intelligent, and now everyone is at war. You are a friend of the apes and need to find one of them before the anti ape league does. The ride vehicles move really well and do shake you around a bit, which was quite cool. The first part has you scooting around inside a warehouse as various teams of soliders try to shoot at you. 3D wasn’t always synced well with the vehicles, so you'd see some weird stretching of the graphics since the vehicle wasnt quite programmed to be at the correct vantage point. SFX were ok, but there was one bit that seemed a bit crap where it was just static soldier mannequin props shooting at you from behind a plastic curtain with flashing lights. Did i mention the ride is set in San Francisco, so there is an unintentionally hilarious sequence where you smash out of the warehouse and your ride vehicle is then running downhill along a stereotypical SF street. And of course you are being shot at by some bad guys in cable car tram, also skidding downhill. Felt like something out of an 80s cop show lol. Not too far away is Night at the Museum, another trackless dark ride, but this time using the Toy Story Mania type system where you pull a cord to shoot at a screen. The queue theming is great. Taking you from the museum halls to the Back of House area, where they need new night time security guards. The actual ride area was very plain. Just totally black apart from the screens, with each screen being themed around a museum exhibit coming to life. My favourite was the neanderthal one, where they learn how to make fire, proceed to set their rags on fire, and its up to you to shoot to extinguish the flames. Another sequence has you being chased by hordes of terracotta warriors, and you shoot lollypops at them, which causes them to pause and be placated by the sweets. Great concept, but i just wish the bits between the screens had been properly themed like the galleries of the museum to match the standard seen in the queue. The other “Good” ride available was Epic: Voyage to Moonhaven. It’s a film i hadnt even heard of, but its by the same studio that did Rio and and Ice Age, but in summary it's one of those movies where tiny leafmen creatures live at the bottom of your garden and war with each other. The theming was well executed, and actually spoke to me because I immediately recognised the house was based on Olana house in upstate NY (A place ive been to) The house is themed around a professor who tries to spy on these leafmen. You board a boat for a garden tour, and go down a drop, which causes you to shrink to bug size. A warning, this drop is WET. Like ice age, the main dark ride is below ground level. Lots of colourful garden scenes, leading into darker more ominous scenes inhabited by the bad guys. Eventually you escape, up a lift hill and into a short outdoor section where you are welcomed back and congratulated for helping beat the bad guys by sitting on your arse on and riding. My other VQ slot was for Boot Camp Training, a combined ropes course / climbing wall / zipcoaster complex. You HAVE to use VQ on this attraction, so if you wish to experience keep one of your slots spare. Right on cue the Malaysian afternoon rain storm rolled through, so after getting to do the ropes course I took cover until the zip coaster opened again. Was reasonably fun, good amount of swinging on the turns, and the finale was interesting because instead of a brake run the track turns uphill sharply and anti rollbacks catch you. The clip n climb walls had you climbing to the top, where you then had to jump off and let the belay system take over as you lowered back to ground, which is admittedly somewhat nerve racking. Was funny though seeing ,multiple people coming back to earth but not having their legs ready and kind of just butt planting on the ground, It reminded me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKpitX0k4Nc Of course, I knew already Mad Ramp Peak, the motorbike version of Radiator Springs Racers wasn't going to be ready, and as for the SFX coaster, who knows. But it was a bit disappointing the Independence Day Defiance flying theatre was also closed, as was the Terraform Tower Challenge space shot ride. As the day wore on, breakdowns seemed to become more frequent and it took a few attempts to ride some stuff. Both of these rides have been open for a while so was hoping the soft opening jitters were long gone. The flying theatre i've been told has quite a good film, and the ride system looks interesting because it actually lifts you up from the floor (a bit like how the bonnet on a car opens) And the space shot too I was curious to try because spoilers (there is a trap door below the load area, so you drop down into a show scene before being launched up) There was also supposed to be a fountain show at 4.30. Turned up at the lake where it was supposed to be on. Nothing. Not even a message on the screen to say it was being cancelled. So, the rest of the day I spent trying most of the smaller attractions. In no particular order. ESD Global Defender. Aerobat ride Just like Apocalypseburg Sky Battle at Legoland Billund. This was part of the Independence Day area, so had a cool little ultra modern queue building. Tilt the wings to make your seat flip but you do have to work at it, and it was easy to get stuck upside down and end up with blood rushing to your head. PS anyone else think its odd the original park was supposed to have Alien Vs Predator AND Independence Day? Epic Hummingbird Flyers Dumbo type ride with a lever to move your bird up and down. Gorgeous theming on this, and there was a sound track with the good guys instructing you to avoid the water squirts from the bad guys by flying up or down at the right time. (so potential to get wet on this) Bigwelds Zeppelins Turns out Disney is not the only place to have more than one dumbo ride in the same park. This one was more gentle, but the whole robot town area also had a great aesthetic. Rivet Town Roller Took a few attempts to get on this since it seemed to go down a lot. I actually could have ridden this at Nick Universe in 2019 but was a bit jet lagged back on that day so skipped it. Its like a matterhorn ride crossed with a 4D coaster. Your seat has a joystick and a motor, so you can make your seat flip forwards or backwards. Whatever direction you tilt the joystick the seat will continuously flip in that direction. If you let go, the seat will reset to upright. I worked out you could emulate a flying coaster by tilting the stick till you were face down, and then repeatedly tilting and correcting it slightly back and forth to remain horizontal. Good interactive ride. Blue Sky carousel Double deck carousel with some really creative things to ride on, eg a Rio moped, a mammoth, a baby T rex, slugs etc. Clearly the brief was “imagination” and being whimsical and they pulled that off well. Did re rides on Acorn Adventure, Planet of the Apes and night at the museum. Overall, its a good park with great theming and plenty of details to spot if you look. The rides they have open are pretty good. If they had the other two coasters open it would totally be A-league and really balanced. If you are in KL definitely head up and check it out, but I probably wouldn’t make a dedicated trip just yet until they get those two flagship coasters sorted.