Sea World's new water coaster

[david]

I was recently reading up on the new spit developments the QLD gov wants to start, in one of the files they showed how the works would take over the Sea World overflow parking lot. What caught my attention however was that the plans also showed a water coaster to be built on the western edge of the parking lot. Below ive attached a copy of the page in question. The track layout indicates a standard mack water-coaster, with the monorail to pass over the splashdown pool. There is no timeline shown so i am not sure when they will start construction, thats to say if they still plan to go along with it, the date down the bottom but suggests that village roadshow was still contemplating the idea very recently. I think this sounds very promising, having said that i wish vrtp opted to install the larger version of the ride seen on the mack website http://www.mack-rides.com/lang-en/c128/default.html thats if they still continue to go ahead with it.

Edited January 30, 2008 by david

[Guest jake-train]

get the hell out of here! that is going to be the best thing there you see i hate seaworld but if thay do build this it is going to be of the hook mate. Man how do u guys find this stuff out. tell me some other stuff that thay are building on the gold coast thaxs for that mate i'll have to look in to it more.

[Gazza]

Thanks mate, good effort. The funny thing is that neither of the given layouts on the Mack website have actually been built, so we would be getting a unique one. Im guessing the ride will start off next to the car park and head up the lift, do a dipping u turn, slow slightly through a set of block brakes, then curve down to the ground where it will reach its fastest point, keep curving up to a second set of block brakes, then from there it will go down a drop, head over a bunny hop and will splash down. By the look of it the bunny hop will have waterfalls either side like this: http://www.rcdb.com/m/ig3106.htm?picture=8 http://www.rcdb.com/m/ig1891.htm?picture=29 Now, my thoughts on this. It will be a fun ride, but it will be a quick thrill, don't expect miracles or anything, I can see this being purely something that gets you soaked rather than a proper coaster or a fully themed experience like WWF or Bermuda. That said, I personally think it would be cool if they tinkered with the layout a bit so there would be a pre lift flume section, perhaps replace the lift hill with a vertical lift. Im actually wondering whether that would be the final design anyway..they could have just pulled the layout example off the Mack website just so the application would have an example in there, rather than going to the expense of getting a full design off Mack for an application that might not even go through. It says it would be part of a "Stage 1", so lets hope this happens sooner rather than later. Its the right ride for SW at the right time.

[WalleyWorld]

OMG!!! This is amazing . Gazza does a concept of a water coaster on NoLimits and seaworld decides to plan a, lets see, a WATER COASTER!! It looks like WVTP look at this website a lot, more than I thought. Although the ride looks very short, it will probably be loads of fun. But i do agree with Gazza as it will be a quick thrill, and probably nothing like a fully themed water ride. It would be good if they did an Atlantis theme, this seems to be the best fit for all the water coasters. But then again Gazza's concept art for a full-fledged themed adventure would be awsome as well: Atlantean Adventure. Actually now that you think about it, a watercoaster with a storyline would be soooo much better then a lift, turn-around and drop (e.g. Atlantica Supersplash. I'm sure a lot of people here, including me, think that this is a fantastic next "big ride" for Seaworld. I know SW isn't a very ride oriented park, but I think adding this ride will make the park more appealing for teens and other thrill seekers coming to the Gold Coast for the themeparks. I know I'll be visiting if a Mack watercoaster is built . I was also thinking, how do we know this is definately going to be built?? Everyone could get their hopes up and in the end we will get the news that this was one of the many plans for the park for their next attraction/ride. And instead WVTP's went for another animal exhibit . CoAsTeR TeeN

Edited January 30, 2008 by CoAsTeR TeeN

[Gazza]

^Haha, don't be that hasty, this has, from what a few people have indicated, been on the table for a while. I remember reading a comment made by John Menzies at one point that they wanted a water coaster, but needed more space, I guess this is what they were aiming for. I was expecting more of a response in this topic given this ride has been on peoples wish lists for a little while. David, can you give us a link to the stuff on the spit development.

Edited January 30, 2008 by Gazza

[BNErider]

Here you go guys. Page 51. http://www.infrastructure.qld.gov.au/libra...opment_Area.pdf PS. Great find!

Edited January 30, 2008 by ash.1111

[mattcrombie]

This sounds really exciting. More should surface soon.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

From Page 16

3.6 Stakeholder Facilities 3.6.1 Sea World Sea World is a major tourist attraction on The Spit and the State understands the importance of Sea World as a tourist destination. Sea World currently holds a long term lease over Lot 1 on CP846066 (29.02 hectares). This is Sea World’s primary parcel of land and includes the marine theme park and Sea World Resort Hotel. The southern part of the lot includes car parking for approximately 1000 cars. In addition, Sea World has been granted a Permit to Occupy over Lot 1 on WD6522 (2.4 hectares) for car parking purposes, which can be cancelled at short notice. This permit includes: • a bitumen area of 6000 m2, which can provide for approximately 180 cars; and • a surrounding grassed area, which can provide for approximately 570 cars. Hence, Sea World currently has tenured access to approximately 1750 car parking spaces. In the Christmas/ New Year period, Sea World also uses part of Lot 9 on USL 33533, which can provide car parking for a further 600 cars. Sea World has expansion plans and has requested: • tenured long term exclusive access to a total of 2000 permanent car parking spaces (i.e. an additional 1000 car parking spaces over and above the existing 1000 car parking spaces); • access to a further 600 car parking spaces during the peak two week Christmas/ New Year period; and • an additional 5000m2 for a new attraction (part of which is contained within Lot 1 on CP846066 and part in Lot 9 on USL 33533). Sea World’s has developed an indicative plan for its proposed expansion, which is provided in Attachment 3. (IMAGE POSTED ABOVE) The State has made a commitment to Sea World: • to ensure that Sea World’s existing 1750 car parking capacity will not be reduced (except with the agreement of Sea World); and • up to an additional 5000m2 will be made available for a new attraction. Hence, Developers of the Northern Development Area will need to ensure that Sea World retains exclusive car parking for a minimum of 1750 car parking spaces with these car parking spaces to be of similar standard or better than the existing car parking spaces. In addition, the State would be supportive of innovative proposals, which assist Sea World to realize its expansion plans. In due course, the Preferred Proponent will need to negotiate with Sea World to ensure the objectives of Sea World and the State are satisfied within the Northern Development Area. In this regard, the State’s requirement for a full commercial return for the Northern Development Area (refer section 5.2.1) should not be compromised. Note, Bidders are requested not to contact Sea World directly. If there are any questions regarding the above matters, Bidders are requested to contact the Project Director.

Some interesting points there... QLD Government is behind seaworld, and while they haven't guaranteed the 5000 square (they say UP TO 5000 square), it looks as though Sea World have gone far enough with this plan to ensure the government allows for it in their own plans. It is also good because it answers some further questions we've all been asking for a while in terms of "where can Sea World expand?" lastly, the further development of the spit, while restrictive in terms of what Sea World could do in the future, It sure will bring more attractions towards the park, while still protecting Sea World's interests.

[ShadowXL]

This looks really promising, tho it would be disappointing if its a take you up drop you down sort of ride. But a new addition is a new addition i guess.

[Churros]

^From what I've gathered that style of ride is a little more than that. Expect to get wet though. My only question would be how would building this go with the water issues that have been apparent on the coast until only recently? Namely with things such as those waterfall type things that Gazza pointed out.

[ShadowXL]

I don't know how much I am allowed to say so i wont say much because I would like to keep my job at wvtp, but this is not the next ride to go into seaworld and it is not the place where the next ride will go.

[cerberus584]

I see that ShadowXL was at the Ball last night... I also work for WVTP and also don't want to say to much... I would hate to get in trouble but no this is not SW's next attraction.

[Gazza]

Are you guys referring to the Hippo exhibit? Or will there be another ride built after the Hippo exhibit but before the water coaster?

[mattcrombie]

I Think the Hippos will be coming this year. The new penguin closure is still not finished, they wanted a Christmas opening. Im gonna source some info.

[ShadowXL]

no Gazza, its a ride. I think it will come before the hippos, but thats just me speculating, but they way in which it was told gave the feeling it would be this year.

[cerberus584]

John Menzies definitely said it was part of the $22 million that Village Roadshow was spending on WVTP this year...I'd be expecting an announcement fairly soon.

[Ian]

yeah the ball was a real blast this year for me, but the new ride sounds great and will be a really good fit for sea world.

[Gazza]

So its definitely going to open by the end of this year?

[ShadowXL]

They didn't give a date but it was mentioned as the continuing expansion in 2008.

[zane]

The answer to this question might reveal too much, but is the new ride "Major"?

[Gazza]

They'd better get moving then if its a 2008 attraction...Maybe it will be worth getting a MyFun Mega Pass for SW too when I get up to Brisbane just so I can see how this all pans out. I must also say that $22 Million sounds like a decent amount. Realistically WnW would only take at most $2 Mil given the average price of water slides (The Rip at WWW was on;y $1.4 Mil) At AOS I cant imagine there being any major captial works, so its probably $20 Mil between SW and MW really, no huge rides most likey (unless they spent all their money mostly at one park), but probably something quite decent in each park.

Edited February 13, 2008 by Gazza

[ShadowXL]

Im not sure but that 22 million might have included the price for the sea world resort upgrade as well.

[joz]

Bringing this one a long way back from the dead: So there's been an update to the Spit development saga. Basically, early this year, the state government asked for expressions of interest in the "Northern Development Area" (see link below) but allowed only a 13 day window for submissions. The paper is speculating that the short window for submissions suggests that the State Government already has a preferred development in mind, and significantly, Sea World also confirmed today that they are in talks to expand the park. It's not as open and shut as that though, as there were other submissions made, and the government was expected to announce a shortlist earlier this month, but now says it will announce it's decision mid-way through the year after it had evaluated all the options. The area of land in question: http://www.dlgp.qld.gov.au/resources/project/gsdc/lot-plan-eoi.pdf So all in all quite an interesting little development. One thing worth pointing out is that the original plans called for the demolition of what is now Penguin Encounter, so you'd suspect that whatever they're proposing this time has changed since the first post in this thread. This is also the first time that concrete evidence has emerged publicly that the southern expansion of the park is still alive since the new management took over.

[Original]

Correct me if I'm wrong but is that area behind the SW car park not owned by indigenous groups?

[joz]

As far as I'm aware there was a native title claim on the area South of the car-park, and there are still proposals for some sort of Aboriginal cultural center on the site, but this is outside the area highlighted in the link above (I think it's in the white lines, but don't quote me on that). It's been in the pipeline for 15 years now, and there still hasn't been any solid forward movement, so personally, I think it's time the idea for an aboriginal cultural center on the spit was permitted to die peacefully. At the risk of sounding racist, I also find it rather extraordinary that an area which has only been land for the last 100 years can be subject to native title.