REVIEW : Monna Lisa – An immersive art exhibition

If 2021 saw the opening of two major attractions in Provence (Rocher Mistral and Luma Arles), 2022 sees the confirmation of the region as a true arts and culture powerhouse. One example is the choice of Marseille by Grand Palais Immersif for its first digital art exhibition, Monna Lisa – An immersive art exhibition, in collaboration with the Louvre. An ambitious new format, which offers a convincing alternative to the wave of 3D mapping art experiences produced by Culturespaces, Grande Experiences and (too) many others now.

The exhibition is hosted in the beautiful stock exchange building, a stone’s throw away from the old port. It is set in a big white cube sitting in the central courtyard, perfect for a traveling exhibition.

A ticket costs €14.50, the same as most exhibitions in Paris, but more expensive than the MUCEM ticket (€11), although this massive state-of-the-art museum presents several large-scale exhibitions of high quality. This shows the increasing gap between ‘premium’ art experiences and traditional state-owned museum exhibitions, built on a philosophy of accessibility and inclusion. This explains probably why Grand Palais initiated this Grand Palais Immersif venture in order to tap into this new audience, unapologetically looking for premium and playful cultural experiences. And if you still need more convincing, let me tell you the main sponsor of the exhibition is Tik Tok, and the last station of the exhibition is creating a ‘story’ of Monna Lisa with filters, emojis, etc. Spoiler alert!

After my e-ticket is scanned and I am told the experience would last 45min to 1h (I am not sure if it was to reassure me that it would not be too long or, on the contrary, that I would get my money worth!), the visit starts with the perfect immersive portal: a beautiful zoom of the Monna Lisa painting projected on a large screen with high quality surround sound. The message is clear. We are diving deep into the masterpiece.

A map of the exhibition displayed at the entrance shows a clever layout with a succession of shells in a big box. Each shell houses either a video projection or a series of large touch-screens, and an explanation panel. The videos are short and full of anecdotes. I liked that they all have a timer on the bottom right so you know at which point of the video you are at. The content on the interactive displays is probably more for kids but fun to explore as a family too.

The back of each shell serves also as a seat. It’s clever. Groups of visitors move from one shell to the other, standing or sitting, and at all times they can admire the giant projections on the four walls of the cube while listening to a superbly poetic soundtrack by RONE (who also composed the music for Jacques Audiard’s movie “Paris, 13^th District”). It’s all very organic and efficient.

The format works really well. It is a powerful evolution of the 3D mapping model (Lumières series, Alive series) into something still 100% digital but much more meaningful and totally replicable. It’s easy to imagine using the same hardware and plugging in new content for a similar experience about another masterpiece, or monument, or city, it’s endless.

Leaving the building and on my way to MUCEM, I felt optimistic about the future of digital art exhibitions. There was only one thing missing: the real painting!!!

Indoor snow centre with rooftop water park opens in China

Published by blooloop.com on 21/07/20

Xiangjiang Joy City Snow World, boasting a giant indoor snow centre and a water park on the roof, has opened in the Chinese province of Hunan.

According to InTheSnow, the attraction has been under construction in a former quarry for six years, with building work done by China Construction Fifth Engineering Division Corp (CCFED).

Xiangjiang Joy City Snow World’s indoor snow park occupies 30,000 square metres. This makes it the joint sixth largest snow centre in the world (via IndoorSnowNews).

China now operates four of the seven largest indoor snow centres, including the three largest in the world. Chengdu Sunac Snow World opened in June 2020.

Xiangjiang Joy City Snow World, designed by Austrian architecture firm Coop Himmelb(l)au, is 150,000 square metres.

The indoor snow park, designed by Canadian company CTC Ice & Snow, is themed on the Alps and features a snow playground, skiing, skating, and snow sliding.

The ski hall covers 5,672 square metres and boasts a 1,200-square-metre ice lake and a large snow play area with 13 slides.

The ski run leans against the slope of the mountain, and other areas include an indoor mountain covered in snow, a penguin zone and a winter village. Snow activities include a snow maze, snow castle, and snow sliding.

Xiangjiang Joy City Snow World reportedly cost approximately 12 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) to build. It is expected to create more than 8,000 direct jobs and 50,000 indirect jobs, generating an annual income of around 3 billion yuan ($429 million).

The resort was originally set to open in 2016 and then 2019, before officially launching in summer 2020. It’s hoped that Xiangjiang Joy City Snow World will attract 15 million visitors annually from Hunan and nearby provinces.

15 new attractions to look forward to in Asia in 2020

Angkor Water Park – Cambodia

The country’s first international water park located in Phnom Penh will feature rides from Polin and Whitewater at a cost of US$55million.

X Museum – China

Spearheaded by two collectors in their mid-twenties, X Museum, housed in a two-story building being renovated and transformed by studio TEMP, will have nearly 26,000 square feet of space spread across 10 galleries.

Smurfs Village – China

Shimao Group will be opening a brand-new Smurfs theme park (phase two of Shimao Dream City Theme Park) in Shanghai. One of the rides in the indoor Smurfs Village will be a Smurf themed GameChanger, completely developed and installed by Lagotronics Projects. Other rides include a Smurfs Berry roller coaster, an AR Gargamel attraction, climbing courses and a themed golf game.

Hainan Ocean Paradise – China

Located adjacent to the Mytikas Waterpark already open and modeled after SeaWorld, Hainan Ocean Paradise looks like it will finally open in 2020, some 10 years after it was first announced. It is no longer managed by Village Roadshow.

Ocean Flower Island – China

One of the most ambitious projects in China, this massive integrated resort developed by Evergrande Group on Hainan Island will feature a theme park (Fairyland), water park (Water Kingdom) and marine park. The theme park and water park are expected to open in Oct 2020.

M+ museum – Hong Kong

The museum is set to be the centerpiece of Hong Kong’s revamped cultural district, West Kowloon. If not delayed by the recent events in the city, the museum should open in 2020 and include three theaters, a public roof terrace, 17,000 square feet of space, a library, and multiple restaurants, among other attractions and amenities.

 Bali Marine Park – Indonesia

The long-awaited second gate of Bali Safari Park will feature freshwater and seawater aquariums, rides and attractions, and a variety of quality educational animal shows the Taman Safari Group is renown for. The underwater dinner show will be one of the highlights of the park.

 Super Nintendo World @ Universal Studios Japan – Japan

The highly anticipated Super Nintendo World will open at Universal Studios Japan in 2020. Visitors will enter through a warp tunnel to reach a video game world complete with Bowser’s fortress and Princess Peach’s castle. Two attractions have been confirmed for the first phase of construction: Super Mario Kart racing ride and Yoshi’s Adventure interactive dark ride.

 Studio City Water Park – Macau

The US$100million water park, which might be “one of the biggest” indoor water parks in Asia, will be the highlight of the second phase of Studio City.

teamLab SuperNature – Macau

Art collective teamLab, working with Sands Resorts Macao, are set to open a museum of immersive digital artworks based on the collective’s SuperNature concept, through which they create a world of interactive artworks aimed at blurring the boundaries between people’s bodies and art.

 Genting Theme Park – Malaysia

Set to open towards the end of the year, the long-awaited former 20^th Century Fox World and now Genting Theme Park will top up a massive renovation master plan aiming to bring over 30 million visitors annually to this unique highlands casino resort destination. The US$700million theme park will boast 20 rides mostly based on Fox IP’s, 7 restaurants and 11 food kiosks.

Yangon Aquarium – Myanmar

Designed by Singapore company Surbana Jurong, this world-class aquarium will feature over 20 different tanks, including one with a walk-through tunnel. Its rooftop will boast great views of the Kandawgyi Gardens in the heart of the city.

Carnival Magic – Thailand

The 40-acre Carnival Magic theme park will be divided in four areas: Kingdom of Lights, Carnival Fun Fair, the 2,000-seat River Palace parade stadium and the 3,000-seat Bird of Paradise buffet restaurant. The Kingdom of Lights will boast more than 40 million lights that will illuminate a vibrant carnival-themed fair with street dancing, parades and rides.

The Sea Shell Aquarium – Vietnam

Designed by Legacy Entertainment, the turtle-shaped aquarium will be one of the most cutting-edge and innovative aquariums ever designed and part of the large Vinpearl Land integrated resort in Phu Quoc.

Cat Ba Cable Car – Vietnam

At 21km in length, Sun Group’s latest cable car will be the world’s longest, connecting the towns of Cat Hai and Cat Ba in Vietnam’s popular Halong Bay.

10 years of attractions history in Asia – the winners and the losers

As Celebrating Life turns 10 and the visitor attractions industry enters an exciting new decade in Asia, we take a moment to look back at the past ten years with a focus on the big losers and the big winners. Will we learn from these lessons? Let’s try at least…

The losers

The Wanda farce in China

No summary of the last decade would be complete without mentioning the impressive rise and fall of Wanda in China. Famous for having said “One tiger is no match for a pack of wolves. Shanghai has one Disney, while Wanda, across the nation, will open 15 to 20”, Wanda’s chairman was forced to sell its loss-making theme park division in the midst of financial difficulties less than 2 years later.

But the real loser here is China at large, where authorities were lured – by Wanda and other large developers well connected in Beijing – into relaxing regulations put in place in 2011 to restrict granting permits to property developers to build theme parks in exchange for residential land. This lead to a new wave of theme parks defying feasibility studies including the infamous Wuhan Wanda Movie Park, which was forced to close only 19 months after opening. Chinese authorities have gone full circle and are now tightening regulations again.

The ride of IP’s

It’s been quite a ride for IP’s in Asia. Pushed by declining revenues from broadcasting/publishing, a big wave of international IP’s came to Asia looking for licensing fees from the growing Location Based Entertainment (LBE) market. Developers showed a big interest as it often times helped them get permits or financing. So it translated into a myriad of announcements.

But as we get into the 2020’s things are looking grim for IP’s facing disputes (Fox vs. Genting, Dreamworks vs. MAPS) and underperforming venues (Hello Kitty Town in Malaysia, Marvel Experience in Bangkok) resulting in shut downs. IP’s realized long term LBE licensing is not easy in Asia because of restless populations always looking for the “next big thing” and difficulties in updating IP-based content. This resulted in venues – no matter how good they were – loosing footfall after 1-2 years, e.g. DreamPlay in Manila, Nickelodeon zone in Sunway Lagoon, Malaysia and Angry Bird activity park in Johor, Malaysia.

In the future, we see IP’s focusing on shorter term deals (exhibitions, live shows, etc) and more integrated in their 360^o strategies, including digital. It might not mean the same licensing fees but possibly a better outcome for the brands.

The Orlando of Asia didn’t quite happen

We had predicted it in Malaysia in Sept 2015 but it did not happen. DreamWorks and Fox pulled out, Ubisoft, Six Flags and Sea World were planned but never got built.

However the last decade has seen the emergence of two fascinating multi-park destinations in the most unexpected locations. Jatim Parks in East Java, Indonesia and Ocean Kingdom in Hengqin Island, China (next to Macau) are great examples of mini Orlando built by determined entrepreneurs working closely with progressive and very supportive local governments.

The winners

China became a happier place

Halfway through the decade, the big day the whole industry had been waiting for in Asia was the opening of Shanghai Disneyland Resort, which took things to a whole new level in China. Possibly the best Disney park in the world and certainly the biggest, Shanghai Disneyland achieves a near perfect multi-sensory immersion in the happy world of Disney, something China had never seen before.

Wet times

There is no doubt the big winners of the last 10 years are water parks. The intense activity was driven by a number of trends we discussed in Apr 2016. With year-round warm weather, growing middle class and strong tourism, South East Asia is prone for water park development. The region saw great new facilities such as Adventure Waterpark in Desaru, Malaysia, Aquatopia in Phu Quoc, Vietnam, CN Amazone and Ramayana in Pattaya, Thailand, Vana Nava in Hua Hin, Thailand, Aquaventure @ Atlantis and Wet’N’Wild in Hainan Island, China and ESCAPE water park in Penang, Malaysia featuring the world’s longest slide.

New kids on the block

A few countries that were nowhere near ready for sizeable parks ten years ago are now leading the region’s development.

Driven by growing tourism and the efforts of both Sun Group and Vingroup to establish new destinations, Vietnam is at the forefront of a new model of large world-class integrated resorts built around a cable car – Why a cable car? Still a mystery to me! – These include Bana Hills near Danang, Aquatopia and Vinpearl Land in Phu Quoc and Sun World in Halong.

The Philippines surprised more than one with the opening of a few quality LBE venues such as KidZania in Manila, JPark Island Resort in Cebu, Aqua Planet in Clark, Anjo World in Visayas. And this is probably only the beginning as the country sees healthy tourism growth from North Asia (China, Korea, Japan) and an insatiable appetite for entertainment from a domestic population driven by strong family values.

In Indonesia, CT Corp opened 3 large world-class indoor theme parks in Bandung, Jakarta and Bali as well as a series of FEC’s in its malls under the Trans Studio brand.

Museum boom

Asia is now on the museum map with great new additions by big name architects. Singapore opened the National Gallery designed by studioMilou, Seoul the MMCA, Hong Kong renovated its Museum of Art and will soon open M+ designed by Herzog & de Meuron, Manila added the great Mind Museum and Jakarta now has a cool museum favored by millenials, MACAN.

But the biggest boom has been in China, where Beijing’s goal was to build one museum for every 250,000 people by 2020, resulting in an average of one museum opening every day. Today, a vast majority of these museums is empty because of a lack of curating skills, programming and funding. The big challenge for the next decade will be to build the management expertise, quality content and the audience for these museums.

More winners

Here we list some of the brands and concepts, which have been going strong in Asia in the last 10 years and which will most likely keep going in the future because of solid foundations: strong visitor appeal, good operators, healthy business models.

• Active entertainment: Super Park (Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur), Houbii (Jakarta), Beast Park (Kuala Lumpur), NERF ActionXperience (Singapore), Ryze (Hong Kong), Bounce (Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam x 2, Thailand x 3)
• Aquarium: S.E.A. Singapore, Jakarta Aquarium, Aquaria Phuket, Hanwha Aqua Planet Jeju, Lotte World Aquarium, SEA LIFE Shenyang, Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park, Ocean Kingdom Hengqin Island
• KidZania: Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Manila, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangkok

 

What’s in store for the next 10 years?

This is everyone’s guess, but here is mine.

• New casino licenses will make way to a new generation of integrated resorts featuring sizeable visitor attractions in Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and possibly Singapore. In Macau, Studio City is already working on the island’s first water park.
• The next 10 years will see our industry explore new frontiers in countries such as Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
• The Disney vs. Universal war will arrive in China with the opening of Universal Beijing Resort. Could this mean a second park for Shanghai Disneyland?
• India remains a question mark. Will Adlabs Imagica manage to lead the industry to higher levels? Are we looking at another China scenario with oversupply and low quality? Or do we have to wait for another 10 years for anything significant to happen?

IN PICTURES: Shanghai Disneyland

Remember the yellow duck in Hong Kong harbour? This is Donald Duck version!

Grand father and grand daughter chiling. There is so much green space around.

Anyone for a river cruise? Waiting for passengers.

Great outdoor space before entering the park.

Shanghai Disneyland’s mascots: Shellie May and Stella Lou

Just a bit of cosplay. This is not Tokyo!

Main square in the morning with meet & greet everywhere. Great buzz.

Baby dolls

He is trying!

Disney goes local.

The land of happiness.

Grand ma, little girl and baby doll.

I want this selfie too.

Where am I? Theming perfection.

One of the many beautiful rest areas.

Waiting for the parade.

Toy boy.

You are such a beauty.

Good night!

REVIEW: Escape Theme Park, Penang

With adventure sports and active entertainment being strong – and probably lasting – trends in our industry as people are increasingly looking for more adventure and skills development in their leisure time, I have grown an interest for themed attractions that attempt to address these trends.

International companies are looking into their own models of “adventure” theme park – Merlin Entertainment with The Bear Grylls Adventure and Cirque du Soleil with their Cirque du Soleil Park and Creactive indoor concept – but one operator in Malaysia might have nailed it. Escape Theme Park in Penang has been in the making since 2012 and, with the recent announcement of the longest water slide in the world coming end of this year, might have established itself as the leading “adventure” theme park in the region.

Curious about the announcement I decided to go and see for myself. I drove up from Kuala Lumpur, stayed overnight in charming George Town and headed to the park on a Wednesday morning in July.

The booking experience is interesting. Basically the best price will always be on the park’s website as the earlier you book the cheaper it is, which is not possible to replicate on a third-party website. Then they “force” you to add minimum RM20 (US$5) to your e-wallet to spend in the park (refundable at the park if not used). Then you receive a password and that’s basically your e-ticket and e-wallet for the day, no QR, no wristband! I have to say I found this simple and rather low-tech approach quite refreshing and liberating. Maybe not so safe for a bigger and busier park but OK I guess for the population they are targeting.

And this leads me to talk about pricing. Escape is not cheap! For a Malaysian theme park it is on the high side. I paid RM125 (US$30+) for my ticket one day in advance; it’s RM147 (US$35+) at the door. They don’t have discount price for one zone only. Definitely not something the average Malaysian can afford. As a result the guests when I visited where mostly wealthy locals, some tourists (Indians, Arabs, Australians) and a few expats. This is a strategy I respect: quality over quantity, and probably one that is necessary for an “adventure” theme park given the safety constraints and type of experience delivered.

I will start with the general impression. From the many billboards on the North-South highway driving from Kuala Lumpur to the directional signage from George Town and the arrival (parking, ticketing), everything is designed to make you feel you are entering a world-class theme park. Once in the park I was immediately struck by the cleanliness and the very effective theming style: heritage with an eco twist. Everything looks well thought and well maintained.

The park is divided in two zones: Adventureplay and Waterplay. The ticketing and entrance are on the Waterplay side and a bridge across the main road takes you to the Adventureplay, which was the first section to open back in 2012. The park does a reasonable job at managing a mix of dry and wet. Parks mixing wet and dry are the new trend (cf. Cirque du Soleil Park project in Mexico) but for having been involved in the design of one of them, it is not easy to manage the flow of visitors between wet and dry. Here, it seemed natural to start with Adventureplay, where you need appropriate attire and shoes and where you sweat a lot, and then cool off at Waterplay in the later part of the day once you have changed and left your bags in the large designated area. I am not sure if it would have been easy to go back and forth between the two zones and I am not sure how this will be done once the longest water slide in the world opens as its start is at the top of Adventureplay and its finish in Waterplay.

Adventureplay is anchored by a massive ropes course area with different levels and many different routes; perfect for families with older kids and groups of friends who can choose different options and compare when they meet again after the experience, which can last from 15min for the easy one to over 1h for level 3. Besides the ropes course, Adventureplay offers lots of small capacity and high intensity attractions: ziplines, trampolines, drop tower, coco climb, wall climbing, airbag, jungle swing, trapeze, kite flyer, sling shot, tubby racer, etc.

This section is mature with great trees and small buildings in old Penang style covered with green roofs, which disappear in the landscape from above on the ropes course. The staff knows what they’re doing; they are helpful and efficient. I didn’t have to wait anywhere. The music was good, mostly from the 80’s and 90’s (REM, Bryan Adams, etc), my generation… and probably that of the owner!

Overall the team did a good job at turning what could have been another ropes course (or treetop course) into a true “adventure” theme park and that is probably due to a few simple things:

• a strong environment: theming, landscaping, music
• a good layout and signage designed to make you go from one attraction to the other in an attempt to “complete” the park, with some hidden surprises for those who can find them
• a variety of attractions that makes you feel there’s something for everyone even if in reality you only experience a few of them

Now, that feeling of being in a true “adventure” theme park gets even stronger when stepping into Waterplay, which is like discovering a whole new zone in a theme park.

Here the anchor is probably the high dive and Banana Flip pool surrounded by seats for people to watch riders or performers (there’s a professional high dive show twice a day). This is in line with Cirque du Soleil Park’s intention to provide as much for people to do than to watch. I tried the Banana Flip three times; it is a mix of drop and water jump. Very cool, and people watched!

Other attractions include a family twister, mat racer, kids water play area, mega drop, lazy river, small wave pool and inflatable course. None of them is amazing; the lazy river is quite plain with no speed and the slides are all from second or third tier manufacturers. But overall it works well and provides for a pleasant cooling session after Adventureplay.

The F&B area in the centre of Waterplay is nicely done, the menu offers a good variety at reasonable price (RM20 or US$5 per person on average).

Waterplay was a lot quieter than Adventureplay, which was good for me (no queue) but which felt a bit odd. I believe it was still a bit early (people come to Waterplay in the afternoon) and maybe the visitors to Escape are more into the kind of attractions found at Adventureplay. The park’s pricing strategy (no discount price for one zone only) is such that the traditional waterpark market (local families, etc) can’t afford.

Time for the verdict. Well, I would give it 8/10. As mentioned above I believe this is one of the best attempts at an “adventure” theme park and probably the best in the region.

I say this because “adventure” is clearly at the heart of everything in the park and therefore even an attraction you could find in another park will get a different twist here, nourishing the overall experience. Adventure doesn’t mean scary things but it means pushing you to do something you wouldn’t normally do and putting you in control of your experience for an even more rewarding and memorable time.

I say this because I could have easily stayed the entire day trying different ropes courses, resting by the wave pool, perfecting my (dubious) high diving skills, etc. And that’s what theme parks do; they make you feel you have more than enough to keep you busy the whole day.

I say this because I felt I was in a happy bubble for the day; music was good, staff were friendly, things looked good, safe and clean. And that’s also why we go to theme parks.

REVIEW: Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park

Exactly three years after the opening of Shanghai Disneyland, I am back in Shanghai to visit the city’s latest mega theme park: Haichang Ocean Park, which opened in November 2018.

Located on the east side of the city – near the sea – and 20min walk (or 10min in a shuttle bus) from the Lingang Avenue subway station (line 16, 1h from the city centre). The walk is actually quite nice, through a landscaped park, which was full of pink flowers on that day of spring. But I don’t think many people walk to the park! I took the shuttle on the way back, too tired from a day at the park.

Seeing how many people were going to the park in the subway, I knew this clear and beautiful Sunday would be a busy day at the park, still benefiting from a big novelty factor. At 9am the park entrance was buzzing with people – mostly groups – getting ready for their “ocean park” experience.

The entrance area is quite standard with ticketing on the side and entrance gates in the middle in two tiers (bag search first then ticket control). I was almost alone at the ticketing counter and only one of the many counters was open. Clearly things have changed a lot in the time between design of the park and opening; Chinese consumers have shifted to mobile in a big way. This is a good thing to know for designers working on parks in China.

Now let me tell you about the layout. The park is divided in two zones separated by a river and linked by two bridges as well as a small cable car. This is one of the few similarities with Hong Kong Ocean Park.

Two signature rides weave through the two zones. Steel Dolphin is a long Intamin coaster flying across one of the bridges and dropping low just in front of the entrance gate, giving a nice high to visitors as they enter the park: visibly very popular among young adults, big queue. Lava Drifting is an extra long river rapid featuring conveyor belts and waterpark-style slides, which I had never seen before. Lots of point-of-views providing a fun and cooling water element to look at from various areas in the park.

Each zone is home to several themed areas (polar, volcano, sandcastle, snow kingdom, etc), each housing a cluster of attractions anchored by marine life.

For example the polar cluster features the arctic hall with polar bears and beluga whales as well as the Polar Adventure 4D theatre, which tells the story of a penguin and his friends traveling from the South Pole to Shanghai Haichang Park. The movie using proven visual tricks such as the big snow slide or the roller coaster ride is overall average and skewed towards young kids.

I thought I would try one of the other multimedia attractions to get a feel for the quality and execution level. I opted for Journey Under the Sea, a 4D motion dark ride with suspension and rotation. The queue was not very long but extremely slow (I realized later they had only 1 of 5 vehicles in operation). Although the animation quality was good, the theming and animatronics were very average. The only novelty factor is the underwater tunnel, which makes sense for an ocean park but unfortunately with poor transition to the rest of the experience. It felt like an afterthought.

Haichang is probably better at building large walk-through marine life exhibitions. Although far from Disney quality of theming, these exhibitions are well laid-out and seem to meet the needs of a (largely group) Chinese audience with large circulation, lots of small tanks and interactive touch-screens popular with kids. Some of the features such as the underwater tunnel, the gigantic whale shark tank (inspired by S.E.A. in Sentosa) were very popular.

It is clear Haichang wants to target a very wide audience of kids, youth, parents, grand parents and groups. The park is designed as a giant walk-through with some dedicated areas for specific age groups: the two abovementioned signature rides for youth and a kids’ rides area on the other side of the bridge.

Shows are designed to structure an average day at the park and provide value for visitors, taking easily up to 3h of the day. From mini shows and parades (dancers, mascots, jet skis, etc) to scheduled shows in the exhibition areas (feeding sessions, amazing beluga whale underwater show) and signature shows in their massive dedicated theatres: the killer whale show and the dolphin show.

The (controversial) killer whale show, produced by an international team, is about a young boy dreaming his killer whale plush becomes real. The show called « together » features good tricks, including the popular people splashing with the whale’s tale. For the dolphin show, Haichang made the choice of an indoor theatre allowing for higher production value including the popular rain curtain with light projections. Besides, the tricks are fairly standard and the clowns act before the show pretty average too.

Overall it seems to be all about making it big and loud to impress (bold outdoor theming, big shows) but with a lack of immersion (poor indoor theming, poor multimedia rides), which makes all the difference with the amazing Shanghai Disneyland.

Still, I should highlight some interesting novelties such as the extra long river rapid combining waterpark slides and flume ride, and the underwater tunnel inside the 4D motion dark ride.

The park embraces new technologies with face recognition gates and touch-screen food ordering displays like at McDonald’s. But interestingly visitors still prefer to use paper maps!

Lastly, this review of a Chinese theme park would not be complete without mentioning some minor copyright infringements. On your next visit, I invite you to look for look-alike of the following IP’s:

• Little Mermaid
• Olaf
• Penguins of Madagascar
• Star Wars

PICTURES: [Closed] New Kuta Green Park, Bali

New Kuta Green Park is located in the Pecatu Indah enclave south of Bali. This 5ha waterpark was built alongside very large hotels in an attempt to create a major integrated resort. The waterpark was popular with domestic tourists for a while but is now closed. I enjoyed walking around and taking a few shots of the beautiful overgrown nature slowly taking over. I hope you enjoy!

Construction Update: Movie Animation Park Studios, Malaysia

Having heard that this theme park under construction in Ipoh, Malaysia is not opening in December as planned but probably in April 2017, I thought I would stop by on my way to Penang over the end-of-the-year break to report on the status of construction and share a few pictures.

The entrance building and car park were finished early 2016 and it seems most of the rides have been delivered by now. The theming in Animation Square is almost done and you can actually see it from the highway itself. I wonder if that will be covered later as I don’t think visitors of the park want to see the highway from the square! It looks like the structure for the stunt show is also done. The main areas requiring more work are probably the Dreamworks Zone and the Blast Off Zone.

View from the main entrance building of the bridge, Animation Square and Megamind Megadrop at the back

View from the main entrance of Fantasy Forest at the front and Stunt Legends structure at the back

Panoramic view from the entrance building

View of the starship restaurant being built in the Blast Off Zone

Quote

“The museum is the only place in the world where people are able to watch each other, to be voyeurs” – Chris Dercon, former Tate Modern director