Leaderboard

And today's news headlines... TERRIFIED passengers TRAPPED on roller coaster as it DOES NOTHING on a flat bit of track!!! "We sat there for a bit" - says victim (coverage on pages 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11)

After hearing about the excellent news that Luna Park is planning to spend $20 million in capex on new rides and upgrades to the park, I finally decided to get down there to see how the place is going. I hadn't visited the park in years and since my last trip the Hair Raiser has been added and Tango Train replaced with the new version. I could create a new trip report but I really feel like this is all related to the improvements that have been announced, so I'll keep it here. I also only went on two attractions - Hair Raiser and Mystery Manor. The rest of the time I was just walking around observing. My initial reaction is that the current management now sincerely cares about the amusement park part of the business. It is evident from the moment you walk in with classic carnival music playing and lots of homages to the old 1930's Luna Park characters around the place. This is a big improvement from when the park first re-opened in its current incarnation in 2004. The new Tango Train looks a treat. It is such a big upgrade to the old one, certainly in terms of aesthetics. The old-style amusement park detail is great; it has now become part of Luna Park Sydney and branded as such, rather than just a generic travelling ride plonked at the park. It actually looks PERMANENT. The colours and artwork are terrific, and the lighting show at night is a spectacle. It has a new queuing system that starts from the original queue entry but now wraps around behind the ride and to the other side. There is a new holding bay for getting the next riders scanned and measured up before they ride, cleverly designed to increase capacity. It also has automatic gates linked to each ride cycle! One of the things that really impressed me was that all of the walls of the backstage ancillary buildings that are now exposed as a result of the new queue path have been dressed up and painted to match the theme. It adds to the atmosphere. No detail has been spared. The starry ceiling covering the ride itself is particularly impressive and the tunnel section is now covered with stars that actually light up at night, instead of a blank canvas wall. One of my disappointments as a kid going on these Musik Express-style rides was that the tunnel section never had anything interesting in it. Well, now it does. The Hair Raiser is, in my opinion, the perfect new-ish addition to the park. It fits well in the small space next to the ice cream shop and adds an entirely new experience to the park that sets it apart from the other flat rides. It just makes so much sense. Also, what better way to make the most of LPS's incredible location on Sydney Harbour? I was slightly worried the ride itself would be a bit rough as that is what I had heard from some other reports. I also thought it wouldn't live up to the more major Intamin-style rides as obviously it is from a second tier manufacturer. Happy to report I was wrong and that the ride experience was excellent. I had the best seat looking out to the harbour and not only was the view great, it also made the journey up to the top more terrifying. I felt so exposed. The drop was intense but I didn't find it rough at all. A really great ride that exceeded my expectations. I had seen lots of great reviews of Mystery Manor but couldn't imagine how such a small and temporary-ish attraction could possibly work. In fact it did work and I was scared s***less. From the moment I walked in to the foyer area I felt very uneasy. The butler character on the day was top notch and really helped to set the scene. I won't give too much away but the theming, atmosphere and effects well surpassed my expectations. They managed to fit multiple scenes (or 'rooms' in the house) into just three shipping containers. I wanted to take in all of the theming detail as I walked through but I was constantly watching out for the next scare. There were also some visual effects used that surprised me in how advanced they were, and really helped to create a great atmosphere. Every person that came out of the attraction had a reaction. This is no lame ghost train at the Easter Show. I hope they keep it in place for even longer or do something similar, it really does add something to LPS. There are plenty of other smaller improvements around the park. Things like the refurbishment of the Big Dipper facade and the addition of a proper viewing area for Coney Island for those that don't want to participate. I am very pleased to read from the link posted by Jobe earlier in this thread that the areas of the park that look like they need a bit of work -- the crumbling lighthouse and the very basic facade around the base of the mouse (great painting but very 2D) -- are all about to get some significant work carried out to them. These upgrades look like they will be right on the money. And finally, in relation to the $20 million capex announced, after everything I have seen I am now extremely confident that the cash will be directed to the right areas. No doubt Maloney's Corner deserves to be a big recipient of that money. It has always just been a car park for rides. They have made some recent improvements to fences, umbrellas and ride operator shelters to make the area more appealing. But there is so much more that needs to be done. I have great faith in the current management who clearly know what they are doing and are committed to the amusement park. This makes such a change from earlier concerns that the bosses were only interested in the functions side of the business, with the fun park forced on them. They should definitely be applauded for this upcoming big investment and I'm sure it will pay off. I have a feeling it is going to be the type of park that I might actually want to visit reasonably often, and the sort of place I'd be happy to take an international visitor.

@MickeyD thank you! You're welcome ☺️ I try to be thorough with my coverage. I personally believe that the little things count just as much in the bigger picture! ??

Ah... good old drive trips. The last time I had one of them was back when it was the original ToT. Basically computer loses track of where the car is in the launch sequence, computer shuts the launch sequence down and you just chill there. Last time it happened to me we launched, got maybe to the end of the old launch tunnel before slowing down and just causing down the launch track at a nice leisurely place. An e-brake is the opposite. The system loses track of the car during the braking sequence (or another fault is detected) so it shuts down the automatic braking system and you end up in the "Bog Zone" as it has been commonly known as in the past. The brakes are fail safe and very similar to the Giant Drop's system. It makes for a bit more of an abrupt stop... and the reactions of some people when you go whizzing past the station nearly full speed is quite entertaining

J Audio Chinese garbage made for a local company for cheap installs

We'll talk about the awesome attraction coming to SW in 2027...

I have never experienced this but I have seen it happen!! I wish my mum saw that, she would have thought that was all it did and would have gone on it!!!!

Sorry for the bad topic title but I wasn't sure what to call it and just wanted to share as I thought what happened was pretty cool. Again, my apologies if there is already a thread for this or if it belongs elsewhere. I rode the Tower of Terror 2 today at Dreamworld and the launch started all very normal but towards the end of the tunnel the car started to slow down considerably and we barely got vertical on the tower. We rolled back down but only got about halfway back through the tunnel. Then the car rolled back outside and we ended up coming to a stop right at the entrance of the tunnel. We sat there for a bit and maintenance came and they had to winch us back to the station. I would guesstimate that the whole experience was only about 10 minutes. I thought it was very cool. Have any of you fellow riders experienced something similar?

The first enterprise was also manufactured by SDC if you look at the paint work on the cars of both the avalanche (pre nickelodeon) and first enterprise they are almost identical in design the first one had a better ride experience in my opinion the meshio one that replaced it Was much slower SDC model the first Dreamworld Enterprise and the meshio model the replacement which became the reef diver

LOL, you should see how much backroom talk is going on now @thunder001 on which day it will be delivered. Not saying you don't know it's just a bit comical on how many dates I have been told by different people. I've even been told by some people they have photos of it at the docks right now. When you push for a photo they never deliver. I don’t know why they tell me in the first place if they aren’t going to give me some honey. I think it’s going to be a little sad when it’s completed because we won’t know what to talk about.

@Theme Park Girl I know what you mean about missing out on interesting/exciting things at the park. I can't believe how incredibly lucky I was to have this experience today. For those of you interested, this was the ride photo -

What day, exactly? Every day I've been over the past fortnight (which has been a few times) hasn't had queue times that long. If anything it's been practically walk on, since it's off-peak atm. In fact last week we had to wait about 10 minutes for the minimum amount of people for ToTII to accumulate, just so we could ride it. So I'd love to know exactly what day you speak of when every man and his dog apparently attended the park?

Congratulations, you just experienced a rollback! (or as much as you can call it one on ToT)

Computer lost track of the car is my understanding of the cause behind what happened. Not been involved in one myself.

You dont notice a huge black speaker that bulges out of the cave? I THINK NOT!!!

If I remember right, the old queue setup had it that it was 90 minutes from the entrance to the skull, but since they terminate the queue at the top of the final stairs now, it would spill out partway down the outside portion of the queue. A two-hour queue would definitely go past the entrance to the ride - @Rollercoaster_Lover I'm really getting sick of these troll posts that you're making, even if it was a long queue, 2 hours is absurd and an unneeded exaggeration.

The Avalanche was one of my favorite rides at Dreamworld as a kid was beautifully themed in the 80s/90s with the log cabin entrance and waterfall coming down the mountain the Bavarian village around it and the yhetti above your head with glowing red eyes inside when the lights went out in the mountain it went pitch black so it was a unique experience than other Matterhorn rides and it was quite a fast ride in its early life before its reskin for nickelodeon kids area

I Went On lego store opening day

Oh Sorry then it was 90mins but it felt like 2hrs