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Ling
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  • These new landscaping methods are nuts. Is that waterfall just dumping on to the path below? lol

  • Love the architecture but holy hell the river is busy. I think this can work sometimes but here it's a bit distracting. I like the attempts to get some motion happening inside the building with doors, fans and gears, but I think just having peeps would have gone a long way to help there. The architecture also becomes really difficult to parse, especially in the ~top half of the back cutaway view.

  • Really unconventional layouts, which suits a full fantasy park for sure. The highlight here is really the diverse, intricate supportwork on bridges & coaster track. I love that each zone manages to feel pretty distinct despite no reliance on classic zone themes.

     

    The mushroom zone was really unique with these huge mottled mushrooms and the spores constantly falling from the bigger ones, my only complaint is the path through there is just kinda empty and it's not big enough to be a feature of its own, it's just kind of a thing happening off to the side of the golden tree fort.

     

    On the whole I don't have much else to say. It does a fantastic job of feeling magical throughout. The little wizard village at the entrance is great, super cozy, maybe a little brown, but makes me think of Hogsmeade.

  • This, I need more of this.

  • Holy crap. This thing is massive. I was sitting down to write a thorough review after spending what I felt was a not insignificant amount of time with the park... and discovered an entire other roller coaster I'd somehow previously missed.

     

    Unfortunately I can't give each detail the attention it really deserves, but in the broad strokes I think this strikes a perfect balance between feeling totally realistic and like actual park operations have been considered, but doesn't go over the top with crunch. Also the surroundings aren't half of the map - it's a huge park, and it's all park, and I LOVE that. You have a great mix of roller coasters at a good variety of thrill levels.

     

    Entrance - Might be my favorite section in terms of layout and just willingness to let the surroundings breathe. Big open spaces, I like the planters and color palette, the buildings are detailed and feel like the shops and restaurants you expect to see at the grand entrance of a huge park. If I had one gripe, and it's minor, I think another ride might have gone well here somewhere, rather than the big theater building. The spot where the Lounge Cafe sits is the obvious spot but I really like that building. Maybe a chairlift or other transport to the opposite section?

     

    South America - First thought, wow El Nino seems really intense. I actually really like the layout for Volare a lot even though it's a little slower than I think it maybe should be, and as already mentioned of course that facade for Templo Trueno is incredible. 

     

    Caribbean - These structures feel a bit too... big to me? Like everything is ~double scale or something. But the framing of Captain Splash's Revenge is so good I don't really care. It took me a few passes to realize that this is one big contiguous area with the smuggler's zone (Arrremsea makes sense now... still hate the pun though). The loop on Arrremsea is bold. The layout in general I find a little awkward. Treasure Mine gets all the good interactions and framing for the zone, and I think is the better integrated and more interesting of the two.

     

    Taiwan? - Love the architecture here. I think this is probably my favorite area, and it helps that Sherpa is a totally kick-ass layout. The mix of how dense it feels, the scale of the fake mountain, interspersed with some natural-feeling wider open sections. Some gardens but not overboard. I just really like this zone.

     

    Africa - Feels very different from the rest of the park! Very brown. Again I fear the big E-ticket ride is the one that gets shoved out of the park and doesn't get any of the cool interactive moments of its supporting brethren. Springbok may be the single strongest layout in the park in terms of sheer integration with the theme. The playground in the back seems a little out of place, but the bone prop and snake head for King Kondaa are great.

     

    Louisiana - French Quarter architecture is great. The steamboat is great too (though I find it funny the mock steamboat for the building is again like twice the scale). Voodoo is a great little layout, I wish it had more of a story to it though (I see the hints of it with that trackitecture spire too! just needed a little more clarity, maybe another structure or two?). I really like the big flowery planters here, and all the sunken foliage helps this area stand out.

     

    Final zone, boats land - Agree this is kind of an awkward space. This is a bit of the penalty from exploding out an additional zone from the core (entry+4 corners) classic model, you have this huge space in the middle that's almost big enough to be its own entire distinct themed area, but there's not really anything in it except huge bridges and some boats and shops. I don't know if you could have crammed a whole ride in here but it did stand out to me.

     

    All that said, on content alone I think this is an easy Spotlight contender. My biggest gripe is the timing a lot of the coasters, where a train always gets stopped at the top of a lift while it waits for the second train to clear the only block at the end of the ride. If you're really dead-set on not having MCBRs this is really hard to get around for sure, it's just a pet peeve of mine.

     

    Congrats on finishing the park Jappy.

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