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LOL...Yes, I had some when I was there recently & it was beyond gross

It might also be the mix of retail and theme park that makes it work. How much land they have and proximity to the population would also be factors.

I'm with you on all coaster aspects - total agreeance - except for Mine Train. It has quite a few nice pops, and the location is what really makes that ride. HKDL is what you wanna look forward to - I enjoyed everything thoroughly, however i feel fantasyland needs more to keep one busy. Iron Man will be a good addition, but in order - Space Mountain, Mystic Manor, and then Grizzly would have to be my personal favourites.

^that may be true, but given the heritage listings for the site, nothing would happen to the site if it were to shut down. i'm not sure if the developer that operates the park has actually 'paid' for the land or whether it's some sort of trust... but LPS shouldn't be the yardstick for other parks. I don't believe Wonderland 'never' made a profit - but i agree margins would have been slim. the lack of investment by sunway was ultimately what led to it's demise. As for the cynicism - Ammar's dream is big, and he's driving everything to try and make it happen. he needs more experts in the field, as the current imagery is lacking - but with enough money and the right people he can make it happen. It was originally viewed as a publicity stunt by a guy running for parliament - however the dream and the concept of the park has been around a lot longer than that, and it didn't die quietly when the elections were over... so that is something...

At the end of the day "hate on Seaworld" is the current 'in' thing to do and if it's one thing the on mass US public love is a good bandwagon to jump on. Soon enough they will get 'shocked and horrified' at something else that has been right in front of them for years and move on and forget about hating Seaworld and start going to see the "cool whale show" again.

If Village Roadshow wanted to distance themselves from the USA SeaWorld parks and the negative publicity associated, the first thing they should probably do is not enter in a partnership with SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment to develop theme parks in China, SE Asia, India and Russia. It kind of undermines the whole "But we're not them!" argument when you're quietly in a partnership with them to develop marine animal oriented properties in parts of the world where environmental regulations are minimal and the specifics of how they'll source marine creatures are unclear at best. As for changing names, the whole saga -- 40-odd years in the making -- is a really good branding lesson. It probably made perfect sense at the time to borrow the well-known SeaWorld name while it was unclaimed in Australia. That same goodwill that they capitalised on is one in the same as the negative publicity they're now distancing themselves from. Questionable international deals aside, all Sea World needs to do is keep doing what they're doing. The're an important pro-environment and pro-animal voice in Australia, and with time the Blackfish furor will ease.

Gold Coast Theme Parks FB page posted these photos today. Seems like most of the rides theming and signage is done. And most, if not all vegetation and pathways are done. I would guess that it will be open within the next week.

Random idea so probably utterly rubbish, but how about a scare maze which starts out pretty rudimentary? The group of people goes through as normal, except... THERE'S NO EXIT! Instead, as they come to the end of a pretty standard scare maze and find what looks like the exit, they're suddenly chased back the way they came as the maze becomes more intense? Perhaps a second group of people could go into the maze at the same time, so they catch them running the other way? Another quick idea - one idea that I saw on the old ValleyMania forum (which actually happened at Lightwater Valley) is to use the train that many parks have, and have assorted zombies and so on try to chase and catch the train.

Well thats mnew news!

Looks like we've found our new "BREAKING NEWS" poster....