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Problem with people comparing WWW with WnW is: WnW is a standalone park and WWW is a world within DW. You can’t get a one-day pass for WWW anymore. That’s the theory anyway but for Village it’s not how it works. WnW & SW have become a free bonus park when you purchase a 3-park season park. Skeets financial expert radar (which is nil) tells him this giving away 3 theme parks for the price of one is hurting the business. An enthusiast or even a non- enthusiast would benefit if all 3 parks were run separately. 15 Years ago, the Gold Coast had 4 different parks, now the Gold Coast has 2, Village and DW. Village have taken the wrong path in running multiple parks because MW has gone forwards and SW & WnW have gone backwards. The problem is 110% due to the fact the Village treat the parks as one identity now. Back in the “olden days” every time one park received a new addition the other park would react with a new addition of their own but Village thinking these days is we just installed Rivals at MW so that’s our one big ticket item and SW can get a half-ass Jelly exhibit. I’m in full support of Village owning all 3 parks because the sharing of resources can be a good thing in reducing cost, but the sharing of attraction shows & events only hurts everybody. Village have literally turned 3 successful parks into 1 park. Unto DW recently had to give away the gate to get people in the park DW and Village pricing was the same which doesn’t make sense. SW was always a competitor with DW and now it’s a bonus park for MW. Skeets season passes grouping to compete with DW offerings. DW & WWW & Q1 MW & WnW & PC SW & WnW & PC But never MW & SW & WnW & PC. No need to give SW away because MW hold its own and 10 years ago so did SW.

This photo might be better @Nimble. It was taken from one of Luna Park's Facebook posts last year.

Just a quick update on Luna Park Melbourne- They will be getting 2 new permanent kids rides in the form of a spinning coaster and a kids Ferris Wheel. The make and model of the coaster has not been confirmed but it has been stated as being geared towards younger guests so i would assume that it could possibly be a SBS Visa model such as the Crazy Coaster at Adventure park in Geelong These rides will be installed over the coming months and i expect them to be in the ride lineup for the January school holidays. There is no mention that these new rides would be replacing anything currently in the park, although given the size of LPM and the fact that it has limited room, I would not be surprised if these rides DID replace existing attractions. The Zamperla powered coaster Silly Serpent that is currently in the park is of a fair age now and it would not be unreasonable to see this new kids coaster replace the Silly Serpent. The park has stated that the space on the old Metropolis site will be retained for seasonal and temporary attractions. They have replaced their trackless train with a new model that boasts increased carriages.over the previous version. A new coaster for the old Metropolis site is very much on the top of their wish list but it is not on the horizon for the next couple of years. The reason for this is the expense and upkeep of their heritage attractions such as Scenic Railway, Carousel and Ghost Train. To keep these attractions running and in good condition requires a large budget and this eats into new attraction investment. ( Plus Lyndsey Fox is being stingy..) The 105 year old PTC Carousel has just completed a very delicate and expensive 12 month refit and is now open again to the public. They will still continue to use the Metropolis site for seasonal and holiday attractions such as the Pirates revenge flume and Crazy Spinning Coaster that they have utilised over the past couple of years. This mirrors their sister park , Luna Park Sydney and their schedule of rotating seasonal/holiday attractions. They have in that space for October the Famous Spiegeltent live attraction which will be in the park for a 3 week stay. I am in Melbourne in January for a couple of weeks and will be visiting Luna park Melbourne, FunFields and Adventure Park with the family, the latter 2 for the first time. I will certainly upload some trip reports and pictures from these parks as they get little attention on these boards compared to their giant Gold Coast cousins. Cheers.

Work was happening on the BuzzSaw this morning, with men on a cherry picker working on the upper part of the lift hill

You are quite correct in that. One of the towers was in bad shape and was in danger of collapsing. They removed them for the '81 opening and this face lasted until 1989, when the park closed for "renovations" The spires ( inspired by the Chrysler Building in New York) were not reinstated until the current face was installed in the 95 reopening.

Yes, thanks! I hear that one of them collapsed, and they removed the other for symmetry.

Latest Airport/Westfield update..

'We'll make it like an airport' is a great idea till you remember that airports are shiiiiiit. Airports are generic unenjoyable places to visit. It's a bit like saying 'this is a collection of shops, so we'll theme it to be like Westfield'.

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I gotta say I'm pretty disappointed with these updates. I understand why they can't upgrade significantly given the expensive upkeep for their older rides but what they're doing now doesn't really change the fact that LPM is piss weak in it's current state. At least LPS is trying harder, despite some hurdles.

Cheers @Brad2912 for the shots, in the interest of discussion i've just done a dodgy-ass photoshop - here's a few take-aways: The artist rendering is super deceptive to look as aesthetically pleasing as possible (forced perspective etc.) so take it all with a grain of salt A section of queue line is outside There's a massive mezzanine foyer inside? It seems based off my colour-coded blocks that the wavy tarp roof will continue past Green Bean? Because of the forced perspective it's too hard to tell if the shops on the left will replace 1:1 the shops there before, will continue past the Gold Rush sign (look at the where the existing building cladding ends) or will jot out more. I just want to add, this building is not theming, lol. My take is it'll be a nice enough looking facade but I reckon it might be jarring in Main Street wedged up against the other facades. By comparison, DisneySea's new Soarin' attraction is being built in the Mediterranean Harbour and as such is getting a full old stone-building design to fit in.

Really I think it’s about saving face. By having the partnership and really pushing it helps to prevent any cries of “Sea World are exploiting Jelly Fish in disco tubes”. And if it achieves that then great. Anything to shut up the idiots. And I don’t mind having an educational part upstairs. I kind of feel Clark was right in that PCL interview in bringing all the BOH good the park does to the front. That’s only going to help curb the Sea World is evil talk.

My favourite take off from this interview is that it really seems like Clark is saying without saying that he thinks the park got it wrong in making it all about rides and DC. It might be all talk, time will tell, but at least the talk is about getting the sorts of things I think we all want to see into the park. My second favourite thing was the two staff in the background the whole time clearly disinterested and I'm pretty sure one even scratched his balls at one point 😂😂

Merlin would not be a bad outcome. They know what they are doing, have a strong reputation and bucket loads of cash to splash. The downside from what I know of my old company from colleagues either still working there or those that have recently left is that Merlin is not the company it once was. It is a huge global business that has seen rapid growth and that usually means a dilution of quality.... somewhere, and Oz is a long way from Poole, Dorset. Dreamworld is a fantastic name for a theme park but sadly the dream has turned into a really horrible nightmare, not only because of the incident itself but the handling of it and the subsequent inquest and it would take a miracle to rescue the brand, regardless of a change in ownership (slightly helpful possibly). A name change would not make a lot of difference and people would see straight through it. To make this work someone needs to make Dreamworld appealing again in such a way that helps move everyone on from the tragedy and that would take a world first and brilliantly executed $50m+ attraction launch as phase 1. That would be a gamble for an already bruised Ardent. I was not around during the period but it seems it took Luna Park Sydney decades to recover from the Ghost Train fire tragedy but it did...finally. The question is does anyone have the metal to take it on and see it through for the long term? I do hope so. Australia needs to buck its game up in the Theme Park sector for the greater benefit of the tourism community and economy. I find it frustrating that a country with such a great climate and reasonably strong tourism prospects (See Asia in particular who LOVE theme parks) does not have really great anchor tourism products other than the Opera House and amazing beaches/landscapes (and PLEASE, no one claim Flinders Street Railway station or anything in Melbourne has really strong tourism appeal to compete on a global scale? Maybe for sports tourists/nuts) The landscape in Australia is ripe right now for someone to be bold and build a fabulous theme park that would assist the resurrection of the entire industry. All ships benefit from a rising tide. Is that tide coming from the direction of the South China sea I wonder?