Ferrari World Trip Report

[DJKostya]

So I just got back from a visit to Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately I only had time to visit Ferrari World. Here's a quick trip report.

The park itself is quite small but well thought out. The theming is very impressive throughout.

Some of the things that the park did well:

- Lockers/Storage of loose items was FREE for every ride. If you got a locker you got a wristband to wear whilst riding

- Whilst on Formula Rossa you were provided with glasses to wear due to the speed, this was a great idea!

- For those who wear glasses you were provided with "goggles" to wear on all rides so you didn't have to take your glasses off, which is another great idea!

- To cater for those who wear traditional headdress they also provided special hoods to wear over your headdress, which I thought was a great way to accommodate the local cultural dress.

- Food was acutally quite cheap. A slice and drink cost about $14AUD and the pizza was surprisingly good.

OK some negative things:

- I understand that Ferrari is a premium brand but merchandise prices here were ridiculous. I bought a fridge maget as I was given a 20AED voucher but it still cost me over $10AUD. T-shirts started at about $80AUD, the most expensive item I found was a leather jacket for about $1900AUD!

- The opportunity to drive a Ferrari is available and costs about $300AUD, which is reasonable IMO, but it is on the streets around Yas Island, so you are limited to about 60km/h. There's the F1 racetrack nearby which would be so much better if they could use that so you could actually drive a Ferrari how you should drive a Ferrari, FAST!

- Unfortuantely I don't think that this is a full day park yet, unless it was busy. It only took me about 2.5 hours to ride EVERYTHING once. Yes it was somewhat quiet the day I went (The only ride with a queue was Formula Rosa at 40 minutes, yay for free fast passes!). That being said they are constructing more rides at present (Including Mission Ferrari, their new coaster which looks amazing (I got a sneak peak inside the show building where they are building the dark portion of the ride, no photos unfortunately as they were moving a crane through the door and opened and closed it pretty quickly))

So the 4 roller coasters:

Formula Rossa

Is fast of course but was so much better than being a one trick pony. The long low helixes were great and the hills provided some ok airtime. I'd much prefer to ride this than the one trick ponies like Kingda Ka and TTD

Flying Aces

This was quite good. Lots of speed and airtime over the hills although it was already getting a bit rough and bumpy unfortunately. Themeing for the ride queue was amazing except for a small section of the Silver/Gold queue which is just a staircase.

Turbo Track

This was really dissapointing. Slow and a bit meh IMO. You can either go forwards or backwards, but not both. Doesn't feel particularly fast or thrilling either. What worried me most however was watching the spire from the queue, that thing wobbles a LOT in the breeze. I think they would have been better using the space in the middle for a really tall drop tower.

Fiorano GT Challenge

So much opportunity that has gone to waste. They duelling coasters have no real "near miss" opportunities which was dissapointing and there is a lack of banking on some turns, which make the ride quite bumpy.

I went on everything on offer and found that most of the attractions were well themed and thoughtout. The Viaggio in Italia was great so hopefully Dreamworlds new ride is of a similar quality.

Overall the park was great to visit. It was expensive but worth the day out.

 

(I've submitted some pages to be added and removed from the Ferrari World page here on Parkz as some rides are missing and or closed)

Edited February 15, 2018 by DJKostya
Added in details on Parkz submissions

[Gazza]

Ill sort those pages too over the weekend.

 

Its funny, they used to have a space shot on the middle, and now they have that turbo track thing.

Is that Speed of Dreams "Spiderman type ride still going?

The Fiorano GT challenge is an odd one....I can see why they didn't bank it, it was in order to make it like a race track with hard cornering.

But trying to translate motor racing realistically into a roller coaster always ends up lame...see Motocoaster.

What about that kids shooting dark ride?

Edited February 15, 2018 by Gazza

[Flea]

Thanks for the report! I’m heading over in early April and will be checking it out - have been in two minds about the place in terms of what to expect though. Videos and photos make it look largely unappealing, so it’s encouraging to hear that the theming and park overall is good.

Is there any word on an opening date for Mission Ferrari?

Edited February 16, 2018 by Flea

[DJKostya]

4 hours ago, Gazza said:

Is that Speed of Dreams "Spiderman type ride still going?

Do you mean Speed of Magic? Yea it was, that was a weird one but still pretty good although the 3D glasses were a bit useless as it was very blurry IMO.

4 hours ago, Gazza said:

What about that kids shooting dark ride?

The kids dark shooting ride is still there and TBH it is probably one of the better ones I have been on. It wasn't just point and shoot you had to do other things such as click and drag, cutting motions etc. which made it more interesting, although more difficult for smaller children (There was a maybe 7-8yo in front of me who struggled a bit).

7 minutes ago, Flea said:

Is there any word on an opening date for Mission Ferrari?

No update on when Mission Ferrari is openeing other than "Summer 2018" so likely somewhere around June/July/August would be my guess, inside it does look like it is pretty close to completion.

Overall looking at the Parkz listing for rides there appears to be quite a few ride changes since it opened. The V12 log flume ride has closed, as has the drop tower that was previously in the middle.

Edited February 16, 2018 by DJKostya
Spelling

[DJKostya]

On ‎16‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 3:16 PM, Flea said:

Is there any word on an opening date for Mission Ferrari?

According to tweets from Ferrari World, Mission Ferrari is scheduled to open in May this year.