Megazip at Sentosa!

Note: UPDATED blog post as of 2011 here.

Blog post trailer video:

This is gonna be very wordy by the way.

On the 8th August 2009, Lysistarielle and I went to the Megazip at Sentosa because we went insane to know that it was open via online booking. Mind you, this is before the official opening so this review will probably be different from the experience of people who went after it. It’s probably just going to be different with the signs anyway.

Okay, since we went even before the official opening, the whole Megazip thing being open is a secret. Well, not really a secret but if you ask the information counter about it, they’ll say that it’s closed. All you got to do is tell them that you’ve booked a slot and then they’ll tell you instructions on how to get there.

Of course you actually have to book a slot. It’s not for walk-ins unless you’re lucky because this sort of adventures have time slots and only a specific number of people can come in at specific times for safety.

Anyway, we dropped off at Imbiah and got instructions to… walk down the road, see the lion on the left and continue down?! Spotting the lion was hard and we weren’t sure if we followed the directions properly.

 

Such are the perils of getting lost before an attraction opens officially with signs and stuff. We figured since the Megazip had some zipline thing, well we should be going uphill right? (By the way we PASSED the Imbiah Trails to continue up the road.)

 

And we passed by a large and nice flower?! My English composition teacher would probably give me red marks if I ever wrote that in a story or something.

 

WE FOUND THE PLACE. OH MEIN GOOOOTT. It was a somewhat tiring walk uphill because we weren’t sure if it was the correct place until a car with the “Megazip” sticker on its back zoomed past us and up to the top of the hill. We did a little hurrah dance thing once we reached.

Okay, I lied.

We camwhored a bit and took in the place instead and wandered further into the place. Our slot was 4pm and we were really early because we factored in time to get lost. At this point, all the pictures that are above normal land height is by Lysistarielle and the ones on the ground is by me.

 

Finally! Anyway, I was surprised that there were loads of people there especially when this wasn’t opened officially yet. This is going to be difficult for us both to review without comparing to the Forest Adventure at Bedok Reservoir since the Megazip park is the same “theme” with it but I’ll focus more on MZ for this post.

Here we have Lysistarielle modeling the safety harness there. We were quite surprised because our previous adventure had us wearing climbing harnesses and helmets. Over here, we see that the helmets are unnecessary due to the construction of the obstacles.

The harness here is VERY good that it secures you comfortably compared to normal climbing harnesses. Kinda like a parachute harness or something.

The “downside” of it is, well okay… Lys here is like Faith from Mirror’s Edge while I’m like Lara Croft from uh, Lara Croft. DO YOU GET WHAT I MEAN? If you don’t get what I mean, I suggest you look at the harness above and imagine Lara Croft in it. And by that I mean squishy times. Well, it was still comfortable though, just a different feeling compared to using typical climbing harnesses.

Anyway for those going on rope climbing adventures, we suggest that you:

1) Wear gloves. Simple army gloves or sports ones will do to prevent rope burn.

2) Wear a cap, it’s hot out here. Duh, it’s Singapore.

3) Wear long sleeves if you think you’re the not so agile sort.

4) Secure your cameras properly. You don’t want to drop them.

The website said that there were going to be special lanyards for our cameras but since… Le sigh, we went when it’s NOT OPENED yet, the lanyards weren’t available yet. No matter! Our cameras were secured properly by their own straps attached to the harness and obviously they didn’t fall on anyone since I could post the pictures here.

By the way, on the sleeves part, I was wearing long sleeves and Lys was wearing short sleeves. She said it was okay but at times you might rub your arm against the rope so it’ll depend on you if you think you have such tender fragile skin or something since hers got a bit red but nothing too major.

 

Alright! You guys need to know this first. We’re really Faith and Lara Croft so just for you (and our money’s worth) we went through ALL the levels of this place.

 

The obstacles go from level 1 to 3. It’s set in somewhat of a squarish octagon shape thing. You don’t have to go through all the levels. It is tiring and for children, it is highly advisable they try level 1 and if they’re the fit sort, level 2. Level 3 might be a bit too much for them in a way that they might get tired by the time they reach to that level.

 

Remember about the harness? Here’s the fun thing. It is SERIOUSLY secure so even if you’re crossing scary things like these, you’re totally okay. At the Megazip they have this really cool system where you don’t clip on and off. Those who go rock climbing or rope obstacles at other places will get what I mean but for those who don’t when you’re wearing the harness, you’re attached to this pulley system with the rope.

AND THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS ATTACHED TO THE WHOLE COURSE.

Which means you’re moving and there’s a track above you and you can fall or whatever and you’re attached to it FOREVER (until you leave the course area and get into the tower).

 

We didn’t get to try the parachute jump since it was under maintenance or something. It was a busy day nonetheless. Oh yes, bring water. Loads of water. After level 1 and 2, Lys and I were pretty tired and thirsty and took a break before we got to level 3.

What’s amusing is that you could watch all the other people climb and in the middle, there’s this place where you can sit. The mothers kept directing their children to “Do this! Put your foot there and pull yourself up!!” etc when they didn’t climb themselves.

So, so freaking amusing because most of the mothers there did that when they didn’t do it themselves so they don’t know how difficult it could be!

 

It is not as easy as it looks. Just remember even if you fall, you’re ATTACHED. The crew member checks on your harness, ropes and carabiners properly before you get out onto the obstacle course. There’s one bit that feels the most difficult for the both of us. If you saw in the previous picture, it’s the wooden steps with ropes attached.

This is the most difficult one to us in the whole course for each level. We managed to get through it but a this point we would like to tell you to have some good arm strength if you fall of it, you’ll have to pull yourself up the rope to get a good handle of it once more. Just try level 1 and you’ll see. It was only insane to us when we did it in level 3 so… Yeah.

 

My favourite part? In each of the 3 levels there’s one part where you run off a plank and reach other side. It’s no biggie for level 1, level 2’s gap was a bit wider BUT OH MAN LEVEL 3 IS GORGEOUS.

The plank on the other side was built in a way that it wasn’t facing directly towards you any more, it was slightly to the left instead with the gap being MUCH wider and at that height, the wind blows at you and everything is wobbly. AND IT IS SO FREAKING THRILLING TO JUMP TO IT.

 

You’re still attached to the rope but you will freak out since you’re this high up. We imagined it to be like how we’d jump on planks on a ship of the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Well, if pirate ships were ever in the air.

Oh by the way, we managed to witness a “rescue” operation if you should ever get stuck on the obstacles (it was that dratted wooden steps with rope thing).

A girl was pretty tired by that time on the second level of that part and the crew member came along to rescue her by clipping himself to the upper track and then pulled her up to the next part of the obstacle where it was less difficult. He made sure she was okay to continue before letting her go on her way so she could succeed on her own for the rest of it.

It was pretty interesting and reassuring to finally see how rescues are performed! So yeah, families, your children won’t get stuck there forever if they can’t make it. As for me, I was like “HECK THAT, I won’t want to get rescued, I CAN DO THIS!!!” for that section on level 3 and pulled myself up after some struggling. The gloves were very useful for that.

Once we did all three levels, yesss we waited for our turn to get onto the Megazip. The crew have to carry these 12kg pulley system things all the way up to it so yes, I think the price for it is reasonable for the work they have to do just for us to have a thrilling time! We have… a secret video of us screaming but I won’t post it here.

 

If you have a friend, ASK FOR THE SIDEWAYS WALK. DO IIIIIT. It’s fun because you’re attached with your friend and you have to hug them sideways or just grab a hold of them and then… YOU JUMP. And you both scream all the way into the sea.

BWUAHAHAH.

Okay, you don’t land in the sea, you land on the island across after zipping over trees, half naked volleyball dudes and bikini girls on the beach. They’ve special landings where you fall gently onto a net and voila! THE END OF THE RIDE.

By the way, this has the potential of the MOST ROMANTIC RIDE EVAH. If you wanna propose or something, make sure you do secure your ring somewhere because yes, there IS time for conversation/screaming on the zip downwards and then you can put the ring on the girl when you land.

 

Maybe since this WAS a secretly not opened yet attraction, there weren’t exact directions to where you should pay. However, it was just at the end of the pathway that you can see the Megazip tram and pay there. Hopefully it would have directions or staff around there because it would be bad if people sneaked off without paying.

 

The current price for two people? We used the combo package where it was $59 each. We totally recommend this for those with families or those who you know aren’t “hardcore” yet due to the security feature (and choice of levels) including helpful and friendly staff.

For those hardcore rope climbing obstacle people, this isn’t as scary as Outward Bound School or Forest Adventure because it is targeted to be more friendly to most ages and all since it’s at Sentosa!

However for both hardcore adventure people and normal Sentosa visitors, the main Megazip IS something to ride since it’s fun going down at that height and for that long to the other side! We didn’t get to do the parachute jump but from what we saw in videos, THAT one would be very cool to do too!

SO IF YOU’RE INTERESTED, BOOK A SLOT HERE! If us girls can do all three levels and the zipline, you can do it too!!

UPDATED blog post as of 2011 here.