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No Six Flags Dubai...for now.

peep said:
Interesting and very unexpected news. I can't imagine it'll be enough to save the whole place but I'm intrigued to see how things will be incorporated into the existing parks.

I feel like I saw a tweet a few days ago saying Lego are building a hotel in Dubai - I assume as part of this resort - anyone else seen anything? Seems like a bizarre decision but maybe the IP will help bring people over?
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Sure I have, I came across some pictures here: https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1565941&page=15

https://twitter.com/x/status/1120276643497545728
 
When it says that the wooden coaster will have "the most air times ever", does it mean it will have more than Voyage or more than Steel Vengeance? Whatever it is, it sounds exciting! Also, if this coaster is GCI, could it potentially be the first inverting GCI with the new Infinity Flyers?
 
I think, @Matt N, they are referring to the most airtime moments. For example, the 12 moments of airtime statistic was included in Lightning Rod's marketing campaign as well as a number of other coasters' (Wicked Cyclone, Kentucky Flyer, Mystic Timbers, and Storm Chaser's are some I could name off the top of my head). Perhaps they are referencing that this coaster has a lot of moments where airtime is possible, but not all of them actually give airtime - some may be a bit of a stretch.
 
Kw6sTheater said:
I think, @Matt N, they are referring to the most airtime moments. For example, the 12 moments of airtime statistic was included in Lightning Rod's marketing campaign as well as a number of other coasters' (Wicked Cyclone, Kentucky Flyer, Mystic Timbers, and Storm Chaser's are some I could name off the top of my head). Perhaps they are referencing that this coaster has a lot of moments where airtime is possible, but not all of them actually give airtime - some may be a bit of a stretch.
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Ah right, thanks for the clarification @Kw6sTheater!

Also, is it known which attractions are going to which parks? I'd presume the woodie is going to Motiongate as Bollywood Park doesn't really seem to be about huge thrill rides, but I could be proven wrong!
 
A kind of pointless update but I believe this GCI is very similar if not identical to the one planned for the first Six Flags China. although I have not had this officially confirmed

This is interesting as I guess it shows Six Flags has some say on the design of the rides going to these franchised parks. The SFC and SFD parks being owned by entirely different companies and all.

There was a small snippet of the Chinese ride on the last plan... take from this what you can :)
GCI.JPG
 
Theres currently a lot of construction work going on at Bollywood. (the right hand park of these two)
As can be seen in these satellite images. The clearer google earth one first.
Motions2.JPG

And the one taken last week from the ESA's EOS program shows a lot of construction around the edges.
The plan to almost double the size of the park.
Motions1.JPG

Its harder to tell with Motiongate but possibly theres some more work going on behind the lionsgate section in the bottom left.
 
^ That's cool if they're expanding beyond capitol bullet train, it defo felt like that area needed expanding. Infact the whole park felt like it still needed a signature attraction and something to freshen it up since opening. I hope they choose something less "off the shelf" like most rides in the area.
 
I wonder when these mystery rides might materialise, if they are still coming? 2021? The GCI woodie in particular sounded very exciting, and I hope it comes!

I do think it's somewhat of a shame that the Dubai Parks & Resorts parks seemingly haven't been overly successful, as I remember Motiongate in particular having loads of hype surrounding it. I've even heard people go to Motiongate and say that they prefer it to Universal Studios Florida. But a lot of the momentum in the UAE seemed to suddenly vanish after about 2017/2018, and I'm not entirely sure why.

To tell you the truth, I had visions in my head of Dubai/Abu Dhabi becoming the new Florida. I imagined people flocking there in their millions to visit parks like Ferrari World and Motiongate, with these becoming some of the most visited parks in the world. And it makes me rather sad that the parks in Dubai don't seem to have taken off as everyone hoped they would. What was it that caused all the momentum and hype from the mid-2010s to vanish, I wonder?
 
Matt N said:
What was it that caused all the momentum and hype from the mid-2010s to vanish, I wonder?
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Much of Dubai's boom was built on hype that wasn't going to materialize anyway. The big hype period wasn't in the mid-2010s, it was in the early 2000s. "Everybody" wanted in on Dubai's property market, and skyscrapers were built with insane profits. Put figuratively, one could stand in line to buy an apartment, get the documents, then head to the back of the line to make a fortune selling it on to the people standing there. Then the global financial crisis hit Dubai, and most of the big projects were put on hold. Some of them still haven't continued construction, with the half-built ruins standing in the desert for over a decade. A lot of big developers folded up and many lost a lot of money.

The announcements in the mid-2010s were mostly an attempt to bring back the boom, but it didn't quite work. The belief in Dubai's economy just wasn't there, and it hadn't got as many tourists as projected either. @shawnoc summed up the core issues pretty well, but there have also been other factors. Much of the tourist spending in Dubai comes from neighbouring countries, and they aren't doing so hot right now. Russians were another big group investing in Dubai, but that economy is in the toilet after the war in Ukraine and ensuing sanctions. Egypt had its revolution and ensuing economic turmoil. Syria, you know the story. Pakistan is also going through a rough patch. There's also an aspect of aviation, of all things, to consider. The UAE government spent big money building DXB up as a major hub airport, right before new planes such as the A350 and 787 Dreamliner made the hub model for airports somewhat obsolete. Instead of flying from A to B, change planes, fly from B to C, airlines just set up a direct route from A to C instead. Suddenly Dubai became flyover territory instead of the place everybody stops on the way from Europe to Asia. So yeah, nobody is placing money in Dubai at the moment, at least not to the degree that everyone was expecting.

And I have a feeling the big crash hasn't come quite yet either. Many new residential skyscrapers are still built in Dubai, as if everybody is expecting the conditions of 2005 to come back and want to have as many apartments on the market as possible when that happens. Apartments, malls, and offices are still being built at a breakneck pace, but fewer and fewer of them are being sold. The construction industry makes up a good 20 % of Dubai's economy, with the property market being another 20. Right now, it's in a phase where it can't stop building, because then the construction industry would collapse and take the banks with them, but the developers who pay the construction industry aren't making money, so the situation isn't sustainable. The dominoes are set up to fall, and it could get pretty ugly. I wouldn't expect many good news out of Dubai's tourism industry for another few years, at least.
 
Pokemaniac said:
The UAE government spent big money building DXB up as a major hub airport, right before new planes such as the A350 and 787 Dreamliner made the hub model for airports somewhat obsolete. Instead of flying from A to B, change planes, fly from B to C, airlines just set up a direct route from A to C instead. Suddenly Dubai became flyover territory instead of the place everybody stops on the way from Europe to Asia. So yeah, nobody is placing money in Dubai at the moment, at least not to the degree that everyone was expecting.
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I disagree with this bit. Although I am maybe a bit biased having sunk 3500+ hours into designing the Midfield Terminal Complex in Abu Dhabi (AUH - the home of Etihad), and now 500+ hours into Changi T5 (SIN).

The concept that hub airports are going away because planes can fly further is a bit of a myth. Hubs aren't just (or even primarily) about catering for planes that don't have the mileage, it's always better to fill planes. So yes, A to B, B to C compared to A to C doesn't make sense if all the people at A want to go to C. That's rarely the case though. You can bring people from Ai/Aii/Aiii and fly them to Ci/Cii/Ciii all via B with all aircraft 'more full'. In this model, you need six flights, if everyone flies direct you'd need nine. However efficient you make those nine planes, they'll be unlikely to beat six.

Of course, yes, fewer take-offs and landings is best, and ultra-efficient aircraft are great, but the capacity factor outweighs both of these (currently - and I suspect for at least the next decade or two). Mexico, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Singapore, Beijing, Istanbul, Newark, etc wouldn't be investing in the billions if they thought hubs wouldn't be needed for the next 25 years.

The biggest thing of course, is that at a hub airport people are rarely leaving the airside areas to go get creds. ;)
 
I'll tell you this after visiting Motiongate I can tell you they are a million miles away from the Florida project.

I had a good time at Motiongate but here are some of things that I felt the park lacked / fell over

Lazy Theming - Some areas are themed really well but others look like they either ran out of money or couldn't be bothered. The huge mobile phone telephone mast behind Hotel Transelvania castle is a classic example of poor planning. This is a point where your guests would want to take photos as the castle looks great but there is a huge phone mast next to it:rolleyes:, the the rapids is themed to Cloudy with a chance of meatballs, the actual station trough to the lift hill isn't themed at all and looks terrible compared to the rest of the ride, this is where it looks like they ran out of money.

Sub Standard Dark Rides - For a place that has the world's biggest this, worlds tallest this, you'd expect them to put in a world class dark ride. Well Ghostbusters for example isn't one of those. The building and queue look excellent but the ride is very poor which was a huge disappointment.

Staff - These parks aren't busy but the staff still aren't fantastic. If they had a busy day they'd be in trouble as the staff just didn't seem efficient to me although they were very friendly.

On the plus side
The Dreamworks building was excellent. Well themed, great rides and well designed and was certainly a plus point for me for the park. I think the park should expand this part of the park again if possible. It makes me wonder if they had different designers in for each section is this section certainly stood out to the rest.
 
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