World Wide Coasters

World Wide Coasters Amusement parks and roller coasters

I rode a huge bucket list coaster of mine today. “Cobra” is a Pax Shuttle Loop coaster at Cobra Entertainment City in D...
20/06/2025

I rode a huge bucket list coaster of mine today. “Cobra” is a Pax Shuttle Loop coaster at Cobra Entertainment City in Dammam, Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 🐍

Durrat Al Sahel Entertainment Park is an outdoor family amusement park situated in the north east corner of Riyadh. The ...
27/11/2024

Durrat Al Sahel Entertainment Park is an outdoor family amusement park situated in the north east corner of Riyadh. The park is fairly close to King Khalid International airport.

The park is open Thursday through to Saturday during the working week. In school holidays the opening schedule will be different.
Being outdoors the park opens its gate from 4pm and stays open until late.

I was chatting online with a fellow enthusiast who lives and works in Saudi. We decided to meet at this park.

We arrived at opening and paid 20 SAR ($5.33 / £4.20) to enter the park. On entering we saw a few families wondering around. The park was just beginning to wake up with only couple of rides open.

The coaster which was our main reason to visit was still not open so we walked around the park checking what’s on offer. We also took this opportunity to take photos while it’s still daylight.

The park is home to a dozen or so rides and attractions. prices start from 6 SAR ($1.60 / £1.26) per person. Most of the rides are standard attractions that you would find in most parks around the world.

We assumed the powered Dragon coaster called “coaster” was from Zamperla but we were both wrong. The manufacturers plate in the operators box indicated that the coaster was from China.

The ride itself wasn’t great. It was just a tick box exercise. Once we were done with the coaster we said our goodbyes and went our ways.

Al Khaimah Park in downtown Riyadh was a women’s amusement park that was run by women and only women were allowed to ent...
26/11/2024

Al Khaimah Park in downtown Riyadh was a women’s amusement park that was run by women and only women were allowed to enter. The only males that were allowed inside were very young boys.

During research I hardly found any information on this park. I asked information about the park on coaster club Facebook group and only one person replied. They said that they had visited the park early this year numerous times but the place was closed every time.

With no information in hand I decided that the best plan would be to investigate myself in person.

It was my last day of visiting parks in Riyadh as I was flying back home the following day. I decided to start with this park first.

Al Khaimah Park is built in a residential area. The area was definitely for the upper class as most of the properties here are huge mansions.

Looking through the front gate I noticed the park was completely abandoned. All the rides were taken out. Buildings were gutted. Walls had fallen down. It was a sad sight.

The gate was open with no locks. There were no signs indicating that it was a restricted area. I walked in to explore the place. Upon exiting I saw two locals chatting.

I asked them about the park. They said the place has been closed for years now. They mentioned the place was bought by property firm who plan to build luxury apartments or houses.

It is sad to see a park closed down even though I would never have been allowed to enter.

Al Khaimah Park is a clear case of the land becoming way more valuable than what it was being used as.

After all, what chance does a family park have against the corporate might…..Not much I'm afraid!

Fanta park is a Family Entertainment Centre located within Royal Mall in Central Riyadh. The mall specialises in Ladies ...
22/11/2024

Fanta park is a Family Entertainment Centre located within Royal Mall in Central Riyadh. The mall specialises in Ladies wear with all the shops full of elegant designed dresses for those special occasions.

When I first heard of Fanta Park, I assumed it would be a park heavily sponsored by the Fanta drink brand with giant oranges popping up from everywhere.

Seeing it in the flesh for the first time I was slightly disappointed as there was no oranges in sight.

Initial thoughts on entering are that the place looked a bit empty. Then I realised that unlike other FEC’s that I’ve visited, the Fanta Park team haven’t tried to fill up every nook and cranny with arcade machines or coin operated games. There was enough space between rides making the establishment look spacious.

The coaster manufacturer is unknown. The track looks like it’s from SBF Visa whereas the Train looks like it could be from Zamperla. If anyone knows the manufacturer do get in touch?

Most of the rides in the FEC are for children so we just wanted to ride the coaster. The cashier wanted to sell us a 100 SAR card which was way too much. After some negotiation he agreed on 50 SAR minimum top up card.

It was still more than what we required but rather than call for the manager to see if we could negotiate further we just paid up. It was getting late and our energy levels were down. I didn’t want to waste anymore time.

We rode the coaster which was decent enough and the rest of the money was used up playing Air Hockey that got fairly competitive between our group.

The easiest way to get over the disappointment of a closed coaster is to ride the next one. For us this turned out to be...
21/11/2024

The easiest way to get over the disappointment of a closed coaster is to ride the next one. For us this turned out to be the Spinning Coaster at Saffori Land. Our second Saffori Land of the trip was located within Al Olthaim Market.

This is a local Hypermarket with the FEC being the star attraction on the first floor.

This branch was smaller in size compared to its other branch that we visited earlier in the week. The ride count was also less here.

The coaster was also different. Although it was a spinner but it was not from EOS Rides like it other branch but it was a spinner from SBF Visa.

The coaster opened in 2017 and is named “Spinning Coaster” I wonder how long it took the imaginative team at Saffori Land to come up with this name?

There’s not a lot to say about the coaster or the FEC apart from colour scheme supported by the coaster looked familiar. From the top of my head it could be one I had seen previously in Turkey or USA. If any of you know a similar colour scheme on another SBF Visa spinner then do mention it in the comment section.

Next up on our agenda was the third and final branch of RM Roma Land which is situated slightly south. Although in crow ...
20/11/2024

Next up on our agenda was the third and final branch of RM Roma Land which is situated slightly south. Although in crow flies the distance between both RM Roma Land branches is 3.7 miles it can still take a fair amount of time as there is no direct route between the two parks.

One has to use local roads to head south to the main Western Ring Road number 65 where you travel East before you head back on yourself west on 505 Dirab Road until one reaches City Mall.

On entering the FEC one notices many similarities between the two southern branches. The rides are 80 percent the same. The coaster is part of the 20% that’s different

The coaster here is a Zamperla powered Dragon with a modern train upgrade. Unfortunately for us the coaster was down. Speaking with the staff we found out that it had been down for a few days now.

So our first loss of the trip turned out to be a powered coaster so no big loss there. Rather than hang around in a park that we will go back to in the future, we decided to move onto our next location.

While leaving we did notice that the FEC had two carousels fairly close to each other. One was themed to jungle animals whereas the other was with traditional horses. It felt strange having two identical rides but who knows, maybe they had a demand for this sort of ride.

We decided to have a leisurely start to our Friday morning in Riyadh. The day started with a sumptuous breakfast, follow...
19/11/2024

We decided to have a leisurely start to our Friday morning in Riyadh. The day started with a sumptuous breakfast, followed by some shopping in the local souk and then some sightseeing that included the famous Chop Chop square.

It was after the Friday prayers that we started our coaster quest by visiting our second RM Roma Land park of the trip. This branch of RM Roma Land is located in the South West of the city. The FEC is housed within Albadeah Mall.

The single coaster here is towards the left of the entrance. The coaster is a rare breed from Italian manufacturer I.E.Park. The coaster named “Roller Coaster” has a layout I don’t recall seeing before. It has a slow lifthill followed by a downhill section. The ride nearly comes to a standstill at halfway point before one final push takes it back to the station.

The rest of the rides are the standard affair. The Disk O ride is strangely placed at the entrance and hides a lot of the other attractions. Strange move from the establishment as bigger rides are better suited against the wall.

BVLD World is situated in north west corner of Riyadh and can be considered as Riyadh’s attempt at copying Dubai’s succe...
18/11/2024

BVLD World is situated in north west corner of Riyadh and can be considered as Riyadh’s attempt at copying Dubai’s successful Global Village event.

BVLD World is a showcase of various country pavilions from around the world. They also have a zone dedicated to war inflicted countries.

All Pavilions are well themed and showcase each country they are representing. Guests can sample food, clothes and other goods from each country. Standout pavilion for me is Egypt which is head and shoulders above the rest. The theming is outstanding and it surprises me how grand they have gone.

Those that are interested in rides, can be find them around the entrance plaza, USA Pavilion and in the War zone.

Majority of the rides, including the Premier Rides Sky Rocket coaster model called “Sky Loop” are located at the entrance plaza. Sky Loop has a dual loading platform. I couldn’t work it out but it looked like one side was for families and fast pass holders while the other side was for single or males groups. I could be wrong!

The second coaster is located in the American Pavilion. The coaster is a Vekoma Junior coaster called “ Taxi Mania”.

BVLD opens at 4pm everyday for the season. Entrance tickets have to be pre booked online using webook.com app and cost 30 SAR. No tickets are available at the gate. We hadn’t booked beforehand so had to download the app and book on location. The basic admission tickets were sold out so we had to buy a cheaper attraction ticket that included admission. They cost slightly more but guaranteed us admission on the spot rather than come back another day. You have been warned. Book online before you arrive for easy access.

Ride tickets can be bought for single attraction or there are bundle options available which can be shared among a group.

If you are arriving after opening then be prepared to walk a fair distance to the entrance as the car parks closer to the entrance would fill up first. There is a tram style vehicle for those that pay for the privilege to be driven to the entrance. We just walked the ten minutes.

Being a Thursday evening in its first week, the event was busy. Some of the bigger attractions were not operating yet including a large water flume ride. But regardless of all the issues we faced we still manage to have a nice time. It was fun sampling good food, shopping for souvenirs and riding some rides. All in all it was a good evening out.

Our final park of day turned out to be “Al Watan Park”. There were two reasons for keeping this park until the end. Firs...
13/11/2024

Our final park of day turned out to be “Al Watan Park”. There were two reasons for keeping this park until the end. First it only opened in the evening and second it was the closest park to our hotel.

After visiting so many indoor Shopping Mall FEC’s, it was a relief and a blessing to finally visit a park that was completely outdoors. The park has a laid back atmosphere where parents can chill and children can run around freely.

Al Watan Park was also the cheapest park of the trip by far. The cheap entrance fee for our group came with loads of ride tickets that we used on rides and snacks.

The centre piece of the park is a large water tank. Circling the tank is ample seatings along with food and shopping outlets.

The back end of the park has a man made water way with a boat ride. Surrounding the water are a verity’s of rides, attractions and playground facilities.

Among the rides is a mid size coaster those car is themed to a camel. Although looking mild, the back seat has a strong pull and with that comes some shaking of the track. A little scary in the beginning but after a few goes we got used to it.

We enjoyed our time here. Once we had ticked of everything on our list, we went out for a proper meal before heading back to the hotel for some rest.

From Sparky’s we went to have afternoon tea at the Cheesecake Factory (don’t ask me, it wasn’t my decision). Following o...
12/11/2024

From Sparky’s we went to have afternoon tea at the Cheesecake Factory (don’t ask me, it wasn’t my decision).

Following our tea break, it was back on the road to Saffori Land. I put the parks name in the navigation and after half an hour we were wondering around the FEC looking out for the coaster. After a few minutes of walking around the whole place, we couldn’t find the coaster. First thought was that the coaster had been moved.

The very next moment something inside me clicked. I knew something is not right. I took out my phone out and checked coaster-count and that’s when it hit me.

We were in the wrong FEC. The park and the mall name are similar. Instead of going to Al Othaim Mall we were in Othaim Mall.

Our correct target was about 10 minutes further east. Anyway we got back in the vehicle and I made sure that this time I typed the correct location in the navigation.

In due course we arrive at the correct mall and the correct Saffori Land.

The spinning coaster from EOS Rides named “Crazy Twister” opened around 2018. was fun ride with minimum spinning. The FEC also has a decent collection of spin rides. We tried a few and they were enjoyable.

Lesson learned today. FEC’s and the mall names can be very similar. Double check details before heading to the parks. It’s fair to say that we never made this mistake again 😉

Day three started with our fourth and final Sparky’s of the trip. The FEC is situated in the South West corner of Riyadh...
11/11/2024

Day three started with our fourth and final Sparky’s of the trip. The FEC is situated in the South West corner of Riyadh and located within Salam Mall.

The sole coaster is an I.E.Park family coaster called “Dragon Coaster”. The entrance of the park is through the coaster station supports. The small FEC fits within the coaster boundries.

The park was empty but to be fair to them, we were one of the parks first guests and it was only 10am.

There were two employees manning the facility. One cashier who took our money and the second, a roving ride operator who pressed all the right buttons for us to have our ride. We got two laps of the track The ride experience was decent.

Once we were done we wondered around, took some photos and said our goodbyes before moving on to the next location.

Next up was our third Sparky’s of the trip. This one was located in Al Nakheel Mall in central Riyadh. This Sparky’s bra...
05/11/2024

Next up was our third Sparky’s of the trip.
This one was located in Al Nakheel Mall in central Riyadh.

This Sparky’s branch was the smallest from the three I had visited hence the ride line up was also limited.

All three Sparky’s I had visited so far had different models of coasters. This branch has the dreaded SBF Spinning coaster.

The unique point about this coaster is that it has a different restainst system compared to a standard model. Most likely this is done due to keeping the local traditional wear in mind.

The belt goes over the shoulder to secure the riders, very similar to a car seat belt design. The different restraints didn’t make any difference in ride experience. It was plain boring as ever.

Address

London

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when World Wide Coasters posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category