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Some forum threads really are a load of sh**...

Visited the Big Banana over the Australia Day long weekend and the family had a ball. The waterpark, though small, was great for the kids and at sessions of an hour and and a half , never got really overcrowded. I had been up Coffs Harbour for work the previous month and noticed a huge stack of slide parts in the ice rink carpark. Thinking they were for a new water slide , I contacted the park and was delighted to receive the following info: " The slide parts you saw are part of our new attraction opening soon called 'The Racer' which is one of Australias largest and fastest indoor slides. It will be in that large white building on the hill next to the water slides. There are big things happening in our park in the near future with alot more fun attractions to come and exciting additions to the Water Park." Here is an article about the slide: http://m.coffscoastadvocate.com.au/news/an-82m-six-storey-rush/3105474/ You can just see the big white building to the right of my pics, which formally housed their old snow slope. This is great news that they are continuing to add new attractions on a yearly basis, which is their goal. The park was extremely popular all day and this includes not only the waterpark, but the tobaggan slide, the laser force and of course, the iconic Big Banana itself and the eatery/restaurant behind it. ( Gotta love those Chocolate Frozen Bananas on a stick!) The park certainly has a good amount of room to expand and if it adds another slide tower and a pool , will certainly be a enticing option to experience for visitors to the Coffs Coast or on their way to Queensland. Adding some more water attractions would make this the biggest water park between the Gold Coast and Sydney- a massive catchment area and ripe for expansion. Things are certainly looking positive for the park and I hope they keep their current success to build the park to being a serious player in the industry. Trivial Note: Opposite the water park on the hill there is a disused building that appears to have been an attraction at one time or another. I went up there for a drive to get a good view of the park overall and was astounded to find a Tesla Charging station here!!! Not sure how many there are in Australia, but this was certainly the last place I would have expected to see one.

How can the theme parks in Australia stop people having no confidence in them? This is what what was said after the GD safety stop. “We spent the day at dream world today and obviously started off with the iconic 'giant drop.' After spending 5-10minutes stuck up the top and my missus getting quiet nervous saying 'this isn't right we shouldn't be up here for this long,' we finally came down. We were offered no explanation at the bottom, even though we were greeted servicemen/engineers and security, and were ushered along and out the gate quickly. Throughout the day we also noticed that no other visitors were riding the giant drop and it remained empty. I am disappointed in the lack of communication from the staff in this anxious time and suggest that visitors are better informed and looked after in the event of another ride failure, especially the giant drop! “ Other people’s replies “I'm glad you are both okay. “ “I didn’t see anything on the news glad your ok “ “OMG, I hope you guys are okay! I heard about this and saw you were at Dreamworld, luckily no one got injured this time! “ “Absolutely disgusting it's not good enough,this time all were ok thankfully?Same as SeaWorld some of their rides weren't operating but still full price “ “There seems to be a spate of equipment hiccups, and failures, with some of these rides, lately. Glad you guys came out on the good side of the ledger. “ “Going to buy a lotto ticket I think! “ “Its disgusting after everything thats happened there you would have tjought they would have spoke etc to you “ “Not good think things are getting to old need replacing “ “Katie Stevens this man is not concerned the sensors worked- good thing they did or who knows what could of happened. What he is saying is that there was a severe lack of communication from Dreamworld around the incident. This was a big enough incident to alert engineers and security and it even made the news. There should have been communication for all patrons who were on the ride at the time “ “now I'm freakish out about our visit “ “They haven't learned “ “OMG!!! Not good. Are you guys ok? Huge spit needs to happen- not good enough!!! So long as you 2 are ok that's the main thing it Dreamworld Gold Coast need to get their act together!!!! “ “The fact we were able to ride the attraction while it obviously wasn't in 100% working condition is in itself concerning, just expected better from dreamworld “ I totally understand people feeling like this. The media have beaten DW up and now are beating every other park up. What I would like to know from the parks is why does it come across they are not fighting back. All the parks know that every stoppage is going to be pasted everywhere. I think all the parks need to come together on this and create some type of positive campaign about why rides stop. At the very least when something does happen they need to talk to the customers. Customers are anxious and it’s up to the parks to solve this.

In my retail experience, no matter what you do people will actively ignore as much as possible cause they're giant dicks. Ever had an argument with a customer saying there's no ticket when you're pointing to it? Or having 13 closed signs on your register and verbally saying that you are closed and yet the customer still expects you to serve them? I have photo proof of those 13 signs aswell. The public go out of their way to ignore you so they can complain or get special treatment.

Don't cross contaminate topics! This one is about toilets! ... you'll create a big shit storm...

I'll be honest, i'm a little miffed at those that are downplaying or otherwise dismissing this as not being 'good' enough. The park themselves have said 'world's best' so it has to be some kinda awesome. Our first hyper, a reliable long-term supplier to our parks is building it - I don't see any excuse to be doing anything except booking a ticket on the hype train non-stop to opening day. It's like saying the new car \ plane \ game console \ smartphone to be released in 9 months time will be a piece of shit. People like that just piss me off.

Just got here. Had about a 2 minute wait to get in. Store looks good, very crowded. Plenty of stock so if you're not a die hard Lego fan, give it a few weeks and go check it out. For the record, I didn't buy the Disney Castle. Decided it wasn't worth it.

They're building some fabulous rides of late. I'm doing a lot of work in Singapore at the moment and I'm going to extend one of my trips either at the back end of this year or the start of next in order to ride this. ...and yes, the fact that I'm going to do a trip to ride a new coaster doesn't automatically mean that it's good. But in this case, I have a lot of confidence.

Opinions can be wrong. Even if you're a dark family ride fan you should appreciate that this promises to be amazing, the same way that coaster fans would still be excited if there was an amazing dark ride going in. Honestly I'm shocked that people aren't a little bit more 'OMFG a hyper!!!' Even shit hypers are amazing, I've been on a Morgan hyper, and it'd easy be the second best coaster in the country behind Superman. Mack are building this one, and Mack are doing amazing things right now. I know I've been negative lately but if you're not excited for this ride then get a new hobby!

I almost spat out my drink. Yes, and Superman is just a launch, over a hill, around a corner, over another hill, around another corner, over another hill, around another corner and into the brake run. Hills and turns are what roller coasters do. Trust me, hypers and their 'numerous hills' are absolutely incredible and you seriously can't knock it until you ride one. Not every new ride has to be innovative or different, especially when you have such a tried and true formula in the hypercoaster. I can't believe we're even having this debate on a forum about theme parks, this is some GP level shit.

/snip ... Feel like there is some sort of echo... echo... echo...

^^^That archway using the outline of the Superman logo is really effective, especially at night when it's lit up. When you go through it on Superman at SFNE at night, it's awesome, the lights are quite blinding. It's quite possible this will be better than Flash at Lewa as MW really knows how to customise ride experiences, I guess it will be a matter of how much better. I'm a hard marker because I'll compare the MW "hyper" (lol) to stuff I've been on in all parts, but in any case a visit to MW will be infinitely richer for having this ride.

Correct↑ Are there tropical plants you can be using?

Just to give another idea of how busy it was for the opening of the store, people were queued for over 2hrs once the store had opened

The West Drop was stopped due to routine technical difficulties, however the East Drop was stopped half way up the tower due to maintenance men working on tower. As you can also see from the picture the West Drop has no overhead restraints as they are currently using a green screen in the station for Dreamworld's latest ad / commercial.

This news.com.au article is really making me laugh. First off, "Friday's incident drew unwanted headlines for the park"... says the reporter whilst writing an unwanted headline for the park. Secondly, they write an article which is LITERALLY no longer than about 200-300 words to say "a ride broke down at Dreamworld, but it's OK and the CEO says it's OK... THUNDER RIVER RAPIDS INCIDENT OH MY GOD." They couldn't make it LESS obvious that they are desperate for headlines.

Disney are easily the best at this IMO because it's such a polished routine. Almost immediately a spiel will occur to let you know all is good and to remain seated. Straight after work lights will come on. And quickly after this attendants will come to tend to you, either by sending you on your way (say space mountain) or taking you out of the attraction. I also thing what helps a lot that's it's the regular CMs doing all this. Makes it feel a lot more 'normal' than mechanics showing up. The other thing they do is extensive PA announcements throughout the attraction describing everything that is happening step by step, so everyone is aware what is happening and not sitting 'stuck in fear'. I mean is anyone surprised though? Disney are the best at everything they do.

It's good to see that people with hobbies different to ours are also a bit mental.

They can't put air conditioning on the monorail, it won't fit under the roof.

I'm very excited for this coaster, and every time I visit the site, the excitement grows more and more. I'm not expecting theming throughout the track, and maybe not even a Pre-show, but I am expecting an immersive and well thought out queue area. I won't be dissapointed if it isn't, because I'm sure this coaster will kick ass, but to take it to that next level it definitely needs some sort of theming, whether it's in the queue or in a pre-show before the lift hill. From what MW have done lately, I have plenty of faith in them

I heard they ripped out all of the theming inside the ride and its just an empty building now.

I get where everyone is coming from here. For those who are only judging by youtube, hypercoasters probably don't look that impressive. But when you ride them, that OMG feeling is better than on any other kind of attraction. There's some feeling that only a ride of that size can convey. And from a coaster enthusiasts opinion only a small percent of rides will ever please us. But parks don't invest to please coaster enthusiasts. They invest to draw crowds in and make money. And nothing does that better then a massive coaster. Sure a great dark ride with immersive storylines are awesome for themeparks but they don't give the same return. And from the other side, I admit, a park like Six Flags Magic Mountain full of thrill coasters only appeals to a small majority. But the last ride built at movie world was Doomsday, which is a farily good family ride. Before that was a dark ride (correct me if I'm wrong). So its about time for a thrill ride.

Did anybody else have to re-read this, scratch their head, get up and grab a beer and re-read it again? I gave you a positive rep @pushbutton for making me decide I needed another beer.

I wouldn't call it a disappointment. Having taken a ride on it today i had a couple of observations to make - but first in regards to the above video - i'm not against them using UV lighting and UV active paint to accent certain parts of the ghost train (or even the disco room I guess) - Disney use a lot of UV effects in their rides and I think it does well. Sure, the 'original' in the movie doesn't use that, and the ride was themed to be representative of the ride in the movie. I think the movie is still relevant, albeit getting on in years, and i'd love to see a 'similar' experience return, but with 'added' effects utilising UV. Now onto today's experience: Scooby was the first coaster I got my wife to go on (I lied - it worked), and it has always been one of our favourites. Today, scooby was rough. as. guts. jolting, bumping, hitting every brake hard. I'll attribute some of that to having 4 grown adults in the car, and I think 3 teenage girls in the one in front. Nice queue - only JUST spilling into the big 'cinema' room - however the modifications to the queue rails to accommodate fast track are terrible. I'd rather they loaded fast track through the exit (which probably isn't possible with the harness controls i suppose) but the split line up that narrow hallway has resulted in them defeating the purpose of the design of that room - the queue rails were designed down the centre of the hallway to keep bored fingers from damaging the walls. I don't know how long it's been with fast track like this (it doesn't matter really) but it has resulted in waiting guests queueing against the wall - and thats when boredom sets in and assholes take to scratching their names, drawings, rude words and anything else they can think of into the paint of the walls - completely ruining the look. The 'columns' too have suffered, as repeated leaning, bumps, rubbing as you walk past has taken all the paint off the front side of the columns and exposing bare fibreglass (or whatever). I sincerely hope when they take this ride down to reinstall the ride theming that they give some attention to the queue, and try something that is a bit more vandal proof. Ride experience was ok. I was quite happy to see the exposed sections of the ride - it was interesting to see the actual layout spread out in front of you. Shame they hid the exit section. I liked the sneak peak into the disco room as you approached the lift instead of the mirror. I understand why they needed to pull the themeing out, and I understand why the opened it as it is during peak - but since they were just coming out of Fright Nights at the time, i'm wondering whether they could have repurposed some halloween props - spider webs, skeletons, whatever - and just had a few things to look at that they could shine a light on. Sure it was a little extra effort, but 'a little extra effort' is their reputation - and it's sad to see them not live up to it. Its been a while since I rode, so i'm not sure how long that particular laser has been there (it changes so often! jk) but i like it - i'd only have liked it to be brighter, faster moving, and covering more area (or maybe just have 2?). Fantastic amount of smoke coverage in the room made for some excellent beams throughout which really helped - But I still would like to see those fast moving, bright green beams we had striking the mirror panels originally. All up, i'm not upset with it's current state, I know it's only temporary, and I relished the opportunity to see it 'differently'. I look forward to seeing them bring it back all refreshed, and hopefully with a little extra somethin' too.

In the news reports on TV and radio they keep saying the GD broke down just hours after reopening. NO, ITS BEEN OPEN FOR TWO DAYS NOW. They have also been saying that the HWSW and Shockwave also reopened today. NO, YOU ARE WRONG. Seriously, it's not that hard to get the facts right

Dreamworld itself reopened in December, just six weeks after the October 25 disaster in which four adults were killed while on board the Thunder River Rapids ride. It's this last sentence that REALLY pissed me off. The 'just 6 weeks' is a loaded statement implying the park opened too early. and why do they need to mention that people were killed, every damn time! Say 'the Dreamworld incident/accident' but we don't need to keep being told how many people & which ride every time. EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED!!

Given this ride we can assume is going to be the most ball tearing thrilling ride the country has ever seen I feel like any concerns over 'not being innovative' will go out the window once we ride

I just find the concept of judging rides from a YouTube video to be hilarious. Also sounds like you may have never ridden a hyper coaster before. Perhaps we should all wait for the ride to be actually finished and then ride it? Then form an opinion?

Fair enough, but isn't that exactly what Millennium Force does (without the loop of course)? I think sometimes going the way that has been successful many times before is the best way.

Arkham has reopened

John Relph posted a link to this excellent article (with great pictures!) on Facebook today: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/northern-beaches/manly-had-its-own-fun-pier-for-almost-60-years/news-story/c8657a350023e72d8494d8df3673b623

They'll probably need to mow first it's been a while since any change ?worlds best mower coaster

anyone think tim looks like a younger bill Murray?

This is the issue here. Everyone wants a hyper coaster, including me, but I also want to spend $30~million on park improvements. One of the things I've said before is that if I got my way with everything, the parks would be bankrupt by the end of the week. Obviously you can't have both, there is only so much money to spend. They've not been afraid to invest in the parks, and for the most part they spend it on pretty decent stuff. But you can't deny what's been going on inside the parks either, and that's what I'm getting at. From the outside it looks like shit went down at Dreamworld, and insurance went way up, and before anyone could do anything someone from finance has just said 'we're not paying to insure it, whatever it is get rid of it' despite that leaving both parks looking well below their best right when they need the parks to be looking good (both from a traditional peak season POV but also just for public perception). Or it could be that the themeing was actually dangerous and Viking's was run past the point where it was safe to run it. Neither of those possibilities cast VRTP in a good light. It's funny you should mention Pirate Ship; I've heard through the grapevine that the park did lament closing Pirate Ship, and looked into getting a replacement, but they then discovered it would be too tall and they couldn't get permission. Given they built Storm after that story was told I tend to think it was bogus or just one of those things where someone tells a story to justify a crappy decision. On a similar note Skyway was actually on the chopping block for a long time before it closed, like they knew they were getting rid of it a couple years before it went, and I remember someone buttered up the staff saying 'Once Storm opens Skyway with have to close because of how close it is'. That story came from an entertainment manager so who knows where they got that story from, but it's a weird story for someone to go ahead and make up. Of course Skyway and Storm went on to co-exist for a year or so before Skyway closed, so that story was also some made up to soften an unpopular decision. Heck I'm surprised no one has made the excuse that the reason Mammoth Plunge is still there is because if they took it down they wouldn't be able to build that tall there again (in the past the tower did stand without slides for a year or 2 so it's not that) I got side tracked but the point of these stories is to say I'm skeptical when I get given some story about why something has to close, when the reality is components just reached the end of their life and it wasn't deemed worth it to replace, and I think there's a bit of that going on now. 'Oh we started to re-do the themeing then we realized it wasn't going to be done but we opened it anyway so guests don't miss out'. 'Yeah we closed the Flume ride but there's a new attraction coming in 3 years and that's why we closed it'. 'WnWS has seen it's attendance drop because of events at Dreamworld rather than the reputation for poor customer service and the lack od new attractions'. You can see why I'm skeptical about it right? Like I say, I'm not knocking them for the investments they've made in the theme park division, clearly it's to be commended but I reserve the right to notice and bemoan the fact that despite all the money going in, the parks seem to be going backwards right now. That's not really something that's up for debate, the parks are going backwards right now. Finally, as for our parks v American parks, yeah it's not going to happen that we get something on that scale for a long time. Low population combined with higher operating costs makes for a bad time for parks like that out here. I think sometimes though it is easy to lose sight of how good some of the stuff here is. Like Superman is a crazy good ride. WWF is also all kinds of awesome, likewise Giant Drop is that class with the really big boys. If Giant Drop wasn't here you'd see people saying 'could you imagine if we had a ride like that here?' and they'd be shot down in flames for being unrealistic. Yet there it is, having it's awesomeness largely taken for granted. There is really good stuff here, that's probably why I care as much as I do.

Given that capex figure includes top golf and doesn't account for the fact that Village have more parks than Ardent, that figure is pretty meaningless and out of context. Anyway I should clarify what my point was; What I mean is they're spending so much money on a new things right now (new coaster, Top Golf etc.) that there's no money in the pot for other stuff as it comes up which it does all the time when you're in the theme park business (new Viking's boats, higher insurance premiums for Viking's/Scooby). My point wasn't that they don't invest in the theme park division, it's that at the moment they seem to be unable to spend the money needed to keep the parks running properly. If the insurance premiums have gone up why isn't there money to pay them? If the boats need replacement, why not buy more and get you through till you're ready to replace the ride properly? Why did Mammoth Plunge close last year and why is it still there? Are you really going to close a ride when you know there isn't the budget to replace it for 3 years and the park is already thread bare? Sea World is my favorite park, so yes it is going to influence my judgment of Village when they keep making the place worse. What of it? lol The irony is the resort looks great. When MW hotel I hope that they make a Hotels division and the people currently in charge of SWR run both, there's clearly some passion and drive there. There is clearly passion in the company for MW too, but it's like Dreamworld, it's making the most of scraps. WnW is also pretty stale right now but I feel like there's at least some drive to at least keep it where it is. That's not to say DW's shit doesn't stink either. Dreamworld's owners have been funneling money out of Dreamworld and into Main Event for a long time now. You won't often hear me say nice things about Ardent. I wouldn't be surprised if on the day of the Dreamworld incident no one at Ardent head office actually knew they owned the park until the media told them. But management at a park level have really made what they have available to them count recently, and unlike Village Dreamworld hasn't had stable management, so it's not entirely the fault of the current management that the park has a lot of run down areas which need sprucing up. But to the current regime's credit the park was looking great, and they were one big new ride away from something spectacular. I'm not as negative as today's posts from me would have you believe, but I think there are a lot of VRTP apologists on these boards right now, and I feel like someone has to be a counter point to all the 'Everything village do is amazing!' posts because while some of the stuff they do is genuinely great, some of it is at best pretty piss poor. (or should that be poor piss? #wherehavethebubblesgone?)

It's good that Superman got repainted. It's sad it got to the point where it was 'desperately needed' (seriously this isn't Dreamworld, management hasn't changed half a dozen times in the last few years). I'd venture that Super 8's replacement was pretty badly needed, that's a lot of money to spend for the hell of it, and I'm glad they saw the value in rebuilding the ride exactly as it was (though rankings above the lane rather than timed results work better for me and does it still record false starts? Oh well who cares it's still awesome they did that). I'm not sure I can rate replacing the mechanics at WWF as a good decision, it's an 'exactly what you'd expect' decision. Replacing old equipment is just part of running a theme park. The themeing upgrade was welcomed, though last I saw once the ride reopened they kinda left the stuff that was broken. Like the ride's open now, that's all we're doing. The plaza at Sea World is good, would probably be lower on my priority list than a new ride, and if you were serious about improving the park you'd have moved midway games. Also I'm reliably informed that the lights in the roof can be gelled for special events. They're not LEDs, it doesn't just take the press of a button, some dude has to get up there with a boom lift to change them. Super! Superman came to the parks which is good. How about characters from Storks? The Lego Movie? What about some extra villains rather than just joker and Harly Quinn? Everything else is about revenue, VR, well themed Doomsday, and new f&b outlets. Don't get me wrong of course, all of those are good things, and everyone's best mate is clearly a driving force behind a lot of it. But it's all based on 'what will we get a return on' not 'what will make the parks better' and I think unless they can change that culture they're going to continue to struggle.

I've said it to myself before and I will say it again. Village is in a holding pattern and they have been caught off-guard. I would have thought with all they bad reviews village got last Christmas period they would have rectified the problems. Which brings me to the holding pattern. SW doesn’t know which way to move because they are waiting on the casino. MW cabin approval was slow. MW is waiting on a slow-moving car park approval before they move on the hotel. MW big thing was Doomsday and it was fenced off. Carnival was rushed and underdone. Gosh, thinking about it the list could go on and on. It’s a wonder anybody turned up. I forgot the flat beer. Who the hell thinks it’s ok to sell flat beer.

It's actually been a bad year everywhere. Dreamworld you can't blame them for everything being closed (or it's entirely their fault depending on how you look at it), but all the Village parks were under done. WnW had a new attraction miss opening day, and Super 8 was closed for the busiest part of the holidays. Movie World had it's new ride closed as well as Scooby looking like crap, as well as no extra incentive to visit during holidays (decent extended hours or entertainment offerings). Sea World closed Viking's Revenge and left it sitting there, with along with the remains of the water park and lack of decent ride options the park is in a horrible state. I'm worried about how little money Village are putting into the parks at the moment. They're spending big dollars on other things and it's noticeable how little capital they have left for in the parks stuff. At Movie World I don't blame them for Intamin ride not working, but Scooby looking like shit is on them. The lack of any new entertainment option is on them. The lacklustre parade is on them. The lack of extended trading is on them. Yes there have been some good things, almost all of them also at Movie World; Rick's Courtyard looks great, there's new Vynal on intencity, they put a bit of effort into upgrading some facilities, so credit where it's due, but they just seem to be firing on one cylinder at the moment Dreamworld were the only park park who seemed like they were trying this year. Sadly for then it was a bit like trying to fight blindfolded with your legs tied together with a hand tied behind your back. Full marks for trying but with the bulk of the rides closed and a public image that needs to be built from scratch it was always going to be a big ask. I really hope that Village and Dreamworld can get it together for next year, when the parks are going well the Gold Coast is going well. This is my hometown and I love the theme parks. I'm harsh on the parks not because i don't like them, but because I really want them to succeed, and it sucks watching them stumble like they have been.

Out of interest for myself I scaled the 'Flash Coaster' at Lena Adventure China to MW to see if it is realistic to expect a similar coaster experience for us. Anyway I thought to share it with everyone. For scaling I used a 100m line as reference. I checked out a YouTube POV of Flash and it looks amazing. I'm excited because having made this comparison it is very possible we could get a coaster that is a minimum of 1,200m long with similar speeds, inversions, height etc. Obviously the layout will be different but I'm pumped!!!

Sweary rant, but you know what, who cares: Society has gone utterly mad. I was out today at a shopping center (Pacific Fair FWIW) and a kids ball had landed in a water feature, and was out of reach, the fountain must've been maybe a bit deeper than ankle deep, MAYBE knee deep and had a flat bottom. What's fucking mental about it is there was a group of about 3 or 4 staff trying to figure out how to get the ball back. Like it was some impossible challenge that simply couldn't be solved. I watched for a good 4 or 5 mins until the wind happened to pick up, which brought the ball back, if it hadn't I think they'd still be there trying to figure out what to do 5 hours later. We're so far up bullshit public liability creek as a society, a bunch of adults couldn't bring themselves to take off their shoes off and walk though a small amount of water to get the ball back. $500,000 for a garden bed fall? Fuck what's left of society love, have a million! If some staff saw you standing there, that's basically the same thing as if Bugs Bunny himself had personally clubbed you in the kneecaps. Lady, if you happen to read this; thanks for making it that staff and customers have to be involved in confrontations about where they can and can't stand because of your inability to function as a person. Thank you for adding to the culture of a lack of personal responsibility. Just so you know though, society is fucked, and it's YOUR fault, and anyone who is even a little bit like you.

"The greatest attraction the southern hemisphere has ever seen" is very much a matter of opinion. My opinion is that the greatest attraction the southern hemisphere had ever seen was Bermuda Triangle at Sea World. Now that's sadly gone, it's probably Wild West Falls at Movie World. I'm not very excited about a mere rollercoaster that will just go up and down. I also can't see what on earth it has to do with movies either. Still good to see another new ride being built though.