Adlabs Imagica

After a long time (i.e. almost 5 years since Sayaji Raje Park), I went to enjoy my time at one of the theme parks of Adlabs Imagica along with my neighbours (although I did visit theme park outside of India in 2013). It was very hot during the last week of March and due to holidays; there was a lot of crowd but surprisingly the visit turned out to be very pleasant and enjoyable.

As part of preparation to visit the park, I had done following on the previous day:

• Booked tickets on http://book.adlabsimagica.com/. PayTM gives some cashback if you want to buy on its website. You also have an option to buy Passport which allows 4 entries in a year to either Imagica Theme Park or Water Park on any days. There is a discount on Tuesdays for theme park and Wednesdays for water park.
• Downloaded Imagica App https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adlabs.themepark. The app provides information about ride timings (yes, surprisingly not all rides are open all the time), park timings, ride eligibility in terms of height, ride waiting time in real time. The Imagica map was somehow not opening in my app.
• Read several websites such as Quora, Tripadvisor to plan the trip according to the information available. Even though tickets are bought on website, the physical tickets need to be collected on one of their counters.

Timings: We started from my home at 8:30 AM (although we had planned to leave at 8 AM sharp). Four families had taken two cars and we first reached Shree Datta Snacks at around 9:45 AM. There we took some breakfast which included:

• Vada Paav
• Poha
• Upma
• Methi Vadi
• Sabudana Khichdi
• Tea

We started for Imagica at around 10:10 AM and reached there at 10:25 AM. At the entry of the park, there are 15 window counters that gives physical tickets in lieu of online bookings. If you have bought a Passport, you need to get yourself photographed and you will get a card which you have to preserve for next trips. Only the first counter among counters issuing express tickets issues cards in lieu of passport online booking since they need to take your photograph.

The park opens at 10:30 AM but the rides start at 11 AM. We had decided to go for rides for kids first so we started with following:

• Splash Ahoy: In this ride, a family controls a set of 4 water cannons in a boat and 4 or 5 boats move around a water reservoir and people throw water at each other from these cannons.

• Happy Wheels: In this ride, the kids below 52' are allowed to ride cars and during the ride they learn about traffic rules.

When we were having the ride, Anil Kapoor sprang up from somewhere and we did have some snaps in with him as below.

• Dare 2 Drop: This was a ride for adults and it really provides a thrilling experience. The ride takes you to a height quite speedily and then throws you down with an experience of weightlessness in gravity with free fall.

• Humpty's Fall: This ride provides the same experience as Dare 2 Drop but for kids. 

• Tubby Takes Off: This is one of the best rides of the park for the kids. Two persons occupy one elephant which turns round and you can press a switch to take your cart up and down. It is situated at a bit of height so provides a complete view of the park.

While going for next ride, we passed by Gold Rush Express, which is described as a family roller coaster but it was close since almost a month.

• Loch Ness Explorers: This ride is also solely for kids and a boat passes through waters and jumps and dumps to give some thrill to the kids.

• Bump It Boats: There was a long queue in this ride since there are only 5 boats and each boat can provide ride to only one person. It almost was 1:15 PM when we completed this ride although we stood in the queue at 12:30 PM.

While going for next ride, we passed by Save the Pirate and Wagon O Wheel but the former was off while the later was only for small kids.

• Alibaba and Chalis Chor: Some of our group members had gone to stand in long queue of this ride so after completing Bump It Boats, we directly jumped the queue for this ride. In this ride, you sit in a cart and pass through a treasure of Alibaba and you are given a gun to shoot some green targets. If you succeed, it accumulates your points and report at the end of the ride. Many of our riders scored as much as 13K including me.

This was almost half way for us so we decided to take a halt and go for lunch at around 2 PM. We went to Roberto's Food Court for lunch and all of us ordered different items such as:

1. North Indian Thali - This had two veg (Paneer Butter Masala / Aloo Mutter), Dal, Biryani, Roti.
2. Oriental Thali - This had two soups, Manchurian with gravy, one of rice or noodles.
3. Gujarati Thali

We ordered one each of #1 and #2 and it more than served three of us. We also got a free ice-cream with Thali and also ordered one shake (Choco, Mango, etc...) with one meal which got some discount. For people holding Passport, there is a scheme where you get 20% discount on food items in MRP. For this, you have to purchase INR 500 coupons by paying INR 400 at select outlets and then the coupons can be used at food outlet to purchase food. We utilised three passports to pay INR 1200 to get INR 1500 coupons which we utilised to get 4 thalis which were INR 330 each. The total bill including shakes was more than 1500 so we paid rest from cash/card.

After lunch, we went passed Detective Bow Wow but it was not open so we skipped it.

• Deep Space: This ride has a roller coster in dark, i.e. they claim it to take you to moon with a shot to space and back. Small children might feel a little bit uneasy in this ride but it provides good thrill to teenagers as well as adults. This had very long queue and it took almost an hour for us to get in the ride since there were people with Express passes also that were entering in large numbers. Some of our group members waited in this ride while others went ahead and enjoyed I for India in the meantime our turn came. We were waiting here from 3:30 and completed the ride at 5:15 PM.

The ride Motion Box Theater is next to Deep Space but we skipped it.

• I for India: When some group members waited at Deep Space to get our turn, I and some others went for the other ride I for India. In this ride you sit on a platform and you see a projection on screen which is a video captured in a helicopter travelling above many prominent places in India such as Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar, Kerala, Leh, Kashmir, Rajasthan, and many other places in India. This ride is similar to Soarin in Disneyland but instead of US, it shows glimpses of great India. The ride sometimes does provide thrill as you feel sometimes as if you are travelling in a helicopter above the monuments. The video in this ride is around 15 minutes long and 99 people enters the ride at the same time so this will take around 30 minutes of yours.

• Rajasaurus River Adventure: After completing the Deep Space, we went in this ride at around 5:15 PM. Some of our group members were waiting in queue for this ride so we didn't have to wait long in this otherwise there is long queue and even the starting time of this ride is around 3:30 PM. This takes you in a boat through a jungle of dinosaurs and finally dumps you from a big height as if you jump from a waterfall. The ride involves some thrill so children be prepared.

• Mr India: This is a 4D ride and provides a lot of thrill. You sit on a car seat and then a video is played in front of you along with movement in your car seat in such a manner that it feels you are part of the video and your heart does pound a bit.

During the time we were doing Mr India, the Parade happened between the time of 5:30 PM and 6 PM but we missed it.

• Wrath of God: We went in this ride just since it was next to Mr India and it took almost 15 mins of our time which was wasted. The ride provides some details about three Gods, God of wind, God of Water and God of Fire but apart from this, there is nothing more to see.
• Mambo Chai Chama: This is a typical tora-tora ride and has nothing new but still we went for it just to complete our count.

• Screaming Machine: As it was already 6:15 PM, my wife and I decided to give a final boost to our adrenaline. We went for the ride that is considered to be among the biggest novelties of Imagica theme park in India. The ride is really a heart-pounding. It is like you are riding a 150 ft swing and that too rotating on its axis. The ride is longest among all thrilling rides and lasts for around 4 minutes. I have not been to Universal Studios but whatever rides I have experienced so far, this one was among the most thrilling rides. For the first two minutes of the ride I was enjoying but then after it became like a panic for me as the thrill literally turned into fear. If you are facing the land and the ride throws you down from 150 feet to ground and then takes you to the other side, it becomes difficult to keep yourself cool. The guy sitting next to me was experiencing the same for sixth time with third visit to park in last one month on his Passport ticket and it was his third time for that day itself while for me even the first one was difficult.
• Nitro: When we entered this ride, it was around 7 PM and only the last round was pending so we were lucky to sit in this one. This is the most thrilling roller coaster of the park and it does leave up to its promise. 
• The Magic Carousel: I finally took my daughter for the Magic Carousel as the lights turns on after 7 PM and finally grabbed a shot of my life as below.

We did finally came out and took the last shot at the entrance where Imagica letters have been created.

From the list, you can see that there are around 25 rides and we were able to cover around 19 of them in a day. Even with very hot day, we enjoyed a lot and the park did provide good facilities such as cold drinking water, food, wash-rooms and even special room for nursing mothers at every few distance. Finally we left the park at around 7:30 PM. During the whole day I just forgot about rest of my life including my work or other tensions. The only thing in my mind was to enjoy the day with all the rides. I would recommend you all to do the same with your family and visit the park.

Although the fees are quite high in the park compared to other alternatives, some of the rides such as Screaming Machine and Nitro does give the park status of a world-class amusement park. Many parks outside of India charges USD 100 per day and if you take purchasing power parity, multiplying it by 20-30 gives you INR 2000-3000 but for Imagica, the fees are lower at INR 1500 and even cheaper for school/college students at INR 1000 so the family of three can enjoy for a day with INR 4000 in tickets and INR 1000 for food, travel and other expenses. So I would consider it a fairly priced park. Please go ahead and enjoy at least once.

Update: As part of finishing my four yearly visits as part of Imagica Passport, I went to Imagica Theme Park again on 18 March. This time I had decided to visit the rides that we missed out last time such as:

• Save The Pirate: In this ride, you sit in a boat and the boat moves up and down. This is similar to Dare 2 Drop but a mild version for kids and family entertainment.
• Detective Bow Wow: This is an interactive show where a detective tries to find thief of one of the museum items from the audience itself.
• Motion Box Theatre: This ride is similar to some extent, Mr India, where you sit and experience a 2D movie played in front of you and then your seat moves around giving you a 4D experience.

We repeated Nitro, Screaming Machine, I for India, Dare 2 Drop, Tubby Takes Off and Alibaba and Chalis Chor.

All in all, it was a great experience visiting the park again.