Adlabs Imagica

Today was the biggest reason for an enthusiast to visit India as we headed out of Mumbai towards the small town of Khopoli, home to Adlabs Imagica.

The drive was really easy with a slight delay caused by a traffic accident and the traffic levels quickly reducing as we drove the Mumbai Pune expressway that gets you 90% of the way to the park.

Turning off the main road it was a short drive down a well sign-posted dirt track to the park properly. My driver and the hotel staff were quite aghast at the price of an entrance ticket at 2,000 rupees. In a country where the average monthly wage is just under 6,000 it was clearly a park that would appeal to a richer democratic.

The park opened in 2013 and is the first really big Western style park to open in the country and was put on the map when they announced the addition of a large B&M rollercoaster which they strategically put at the entrance of the park.

Given the crowd size I decided to buy the ticket and a Fast Pass for an extra 10,000 Rupees. At around £30 in total it was more expensive than all the other parks but still affordable to someone who frequents Tussauds and Six Flags parks. The Fast Pass allows a single queue jump per attraction with the wristband marked to say it had been used.

and like Western parks, Adlabs knows how to do the merchandising, if that's your thing.

The Nitro coaster is immediately next to the entrance gate probably taking the record for shortest journey between the two. Usually the coasters are at the back of the park so this is a nice change to see.

The park's first drop is a little unusual in that it turns halfway down. Usually the B&M coasters have a straight drop from the lift hill or they turn then drop, not the two together like this.

The downside was that the ride had the biggest queue, but with the FastPass I was able to walk past it all. The queue was a good hour I think, so I felt I'd already got my money's worth from the upgrade. It did mean that if I wanted to re-ride it I'd have to queue up, but I figured the queue lines would be better later on.

I was even luckier to get a front-row seat on the first go however I was not allowed to wear my glasses, despite having them secured with a strap. Park rules are park rules though and I didn't fancy causing a scene, as some of the locals seem to think they had the right to do. 

Operations were really good, and the crew did an excellent job ensuring the trains were sent out of the station as quickly as possible.

The ride was alright, certainly one of the most exciting rides in the country and great if you're riding a big coaster for the first time but for someone who's hobby has spoiled him I wasn't overwhelmed. The track has a good layout but could do with some gardening to improve the second half of the ride which looks to have been stuck in barren ground...at least it's not concrete.

It looks like a construction site.

The second coaster is in the Western themed part of the park and is a copy of a ride at Ocean Park in Hong Kong but without the amazing view that that ride has.

But the ride is still really enjoyable and for some reason I was able to jump the queue here and my wristband didn't get marked so I guess for some of the rides they don't enforce the one-ride rule. Nice!

A couple of rides for the kiddies. The park is a family park although only the richer families would have the cash to bring the entire family here. 

The giant swinging spinning thing is the Scream Machine ride that was listed as being down. It looks like the maintenance chaps got it up and running.

A rather picturesque pano of the centre of the park. Unlike Disney the castle is actually at the back. The lake forms the centre piece.

I love the trompe l'oeil effect that they've done with the steps here. 

There's a basic ship structure at the side of the lake. This features heavily in one of the rides I'd do later.

There were lots of nice little touches around the park, not to the same extent as in Islands of Adventure or Europa Park but any park that goes to the trouble of putting themed touches outside the normal line-of-sight gets my vote. 

Prince of the Dark Waters is a 360-degree projected movie featuring a mermaid who inadvertently gives away a sacred pearl to a dark mermaid who runs rogue with it. A unique show that I've never seen before and an attraction I clearly didn't enjoy properly as I had a prime location against a hand rail that I leant against for the duration and at one point I looked around to find everyone else lying down trying to watch the 360 film all at once on their backs.  

I for India is the park's take on Soaring Over California at Disney and Fly Over Canada in Vancouver and is a large-scale flight simulator flying over a series of Indian landmarks. Despite the choppy nature of the cuts where you could literally blink and miss some of the locations, the ride was outstanding and this ride gave me at least half a dozen other reasons to visit India again. The country is so beautiful and this video really needs to be used by the Indian Tourist Board. I'm sure it'd attract so many people to visit - especially Ladakh which is my next must-do when I return.

Deep Space was coaster number 3 and I didn't know too much about this other than it was indoors. Perhaps it was because I had no expectations that I found this to be an absolutely amazing ride with an unexpected launch and a series of crazy inversions that took me back to the first time I rode The Outer Limits at King's Dominion which is probably the nearest comparison that I can think of. 

Despite there being a huge B&M coaster just outside, this was by far my favourite coaster in the park, and probably of the entire trip. Well done Premier for making a great ride!

Rajasaurus is the park's attempt at a Jurassic Park style experience. I've no idea how close it was as it wasn't running unfortunately.

Not Popcorn, hop corn! I like the cute Japanese "add a face to anything to make it cute" popcorn piece.

Mr India was a well known 80's Indian film about a man, down on his luck who runs an orphanage that is threatened with closure who comes by a magic watch that allows him to go invisible. He uses that to overcome a Bond-style bad guy who is threatening to take over the world.

The park has a simulator ride themed around the story and the queue line is full of props from the film. You can tell it's an 80's film from the Atari joysticks.

The ride itself was a little violent but a really fun ride with a flying car chasing the bad guy around a 3D render of the park including a final showdown on the wooden ship I saw earlier. The only issue with putting the real world into a virtual one is that it quickly becomes out of date as the park expands, something that killed the excellent Las Vegas Star Trek Experience. 

I think that Wrath of the Gods was a special effects show with water and fire effects, which wasn't open until later in the day and which I ended up missing.

Salimgarh is the name of a fort outside Delhi which is rumoured to be haunted by the ghosts of dead Britons. At the park "Curse of Salimgarh" is a dead cool ride that this Briton loved. It's a high quality dark ride through great sets with some scares coming from live actors and a finale that would have totally got me if it wasn't for a single light giving the effect away. 

The castle having reached it, is just a food court, but probably one of the most well-themed ones.

A view from the castle looking back over the lake towards the entrance.Ali

Alibaba Aur Chalis Chorr was another well themed ride, this one a shooting attraction where the guns shot where you wanted them to (something that often lets these rides down) and featured an abundance of effect triggering targets. It was amusing that the ride operator had to show each of the locals how to hold and fire their guns. I guess Indian's exposure to firearms is really really low. So it was perhaps no surprise that this trigger happy Brit easily got the highest score of our car :)

There is another coaster in the park, which was themed around Robin Hood, but the ride suffered a derailment in it's first few months of opening and doesn't appear to have re-opened since. Signs being taken down and no indication of the ride on any maps are signs that the park don't have any plans to re-open it any time soon. A shame :(

A reason to come back in the future perhaps? The Adlabs chain has added a huge water park that overlooks the theme park. Called Aquamagica this looks like a great addition to the Khopoli area.

and that was Adlabs Imagica, a world class park that is definitely worth taking the time to visit even if you're visiting Mumbai as a non-enthusiast. A great selection of rides and unique films make this a great day out.

The park is a couple of hours drive from Mumbai along the Mumbai-Express Highway. Huge signs will direct you off the express way shortly after a toll station and then smaller signs will take you to the park.

next