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For those curious - there's a rebuttal piece going up today that debunks a lot of the activist's misconceptions.

Went to the first AW Nights for 2019 on Saturday night. @Tim Dasco and I spent a bit of time chatting to Ross, the general manager. We learnt a few things that can be repeated: Fright Nights should be held in February. The animal area will be reopening soon. The park was busier early, but as the temperature dropped so did the crowd. Abyss was about a ten minute wait and the Grand Prix about 15 minutes. There was a DJ in one part of the park and a rumba band near the gate.

Seriously now - are you still butt hurt about my discussion regarding the status of AW as (not) a theme park? My friend, we're going to have to disagree. Calling someone a bully every time you don't like what they're saying is not a way to get on in life - and certainly with your advanced years, i'd have thought you would have learned that by now. Consider Tim - who I figure is probably about half your age - and I can have quite robust discussions about AW, and still get along just fine - hence why my comment was in a line of conversation originating from his comments relating to AW and FF. Nothing was ever said to you - and yet here you are, white knighting again. I don't currently have 'crew' status - not because I don't wish to contribute, but simply because every year it expires because I don't get reminders to renew it, and then I never get around to paying it again. I don't expect different treatment from Parkz just because I've contributed something financial to the running of the site. The benefits of crew membership are clearly outlined on the site - and neither I nor anyone else should expect any different. Regardless, I support Parkz, and its predecessors, for the work that they do, have done, and continue to do, and have done so for many years - and respect that in this privately operated site - their word is final. There was robust discussions on these forums in the few weeks I was enjoying the holiday break, and clearly, I missed out on some fun to be had, as the discussions were removed, hidden, or censored. Clearly, these crossed a line so that the moderators felt action was required. I've been the subject of such censorship in the past, indeed when I crossed a line, and was immediately contacted by private message by the moderator \ Richard to explain the reasons why, to help me recognise where the line is, and for that, I appreciated it. I note this as this is the same action that Richard stated in response to the recent discussions that occurred. On the other hand, I note that my comment above, which has apparently been taken the way it was intended by everyone but you, remains. This is a fairly good indication that no line has been crossed, and the butt hurt you are exhibiting is completely off-base and uncalled for. If I have ever personally offended you directly by my words or actions, I apologise - but if you're going to continue to be offended any time I don't hold up your state or your local park to the highest standards - you really need to evaluate whats important in your life. State versus State rivalry is big in this country (or - at least on the east coast). WA are our poor western cousins frequently referred to as 3 hours (and 10 years) behind (and yes - even Tim has referred to WA in this manner). Frankly, if you're lacking the competitive nature that drives one to pour shit on another state for their shortcomings, and to give as good as you get without calling for the PC Police to arrest someone for bullying and harassing you on the internet, that's... That's just unAustralian.

Had a interesting trip today. I can in no way fault Goliath. Walking up to it, the Gyro swing did not appear to be all that big (my first visit since it opened). However, being the first rider in the line and getting on the first cycle, I was completely amazed by how high this thing makes you go, how much airtime you can get and how fast you feel swinging back down. You'd almost get an inverting sensation if you were in the right spot. At peak the line got about 45 minutes minutes long, or roughly 5 or 6 cycles before you could ride. Noticed little themed doors in these trees on the walkway from dragons kingdom to the outback animal area. These were such an awesome inclusion that shows the great attention to detail AW has strived to maintain. As stated by Iwerks, the animal area is closed. Animal enclosures were obviously empty, with construction vehicles dotted around. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't notice any significant changes to the enclosures or enclosure walkways. If it weren't for @iwerks previous post, I wouldn't have thought the animal area wouldn't actually reopen, as imo, the work, upkeep and constant need to update the area simply isn't worth it as it's relatively unknown and unvisited by the GP, or as per my observations. The removal of the Rampage and or Inferno really wouldn't come as a great surprise to me. Inferno because of the lack of ridership (the maximum ride wait was about 1 ride cycle, or 5 minutes) and the constant trouble they have finding the Huss maintenance parts. Inferno has a new ride cycle too: shot and drop, shot and drop, shot and drop, slow lift controlled drop. Rampage was so empty they had to literally run 3-5 people cycles at 1pm in the afternoon. I don't think that's very worthwhile tbh The abyss has become so much of a head banger that one ride in front and back was enough for me. I rode car 1 and car 3, both of which were horribly rough and gave my mate and I a headache. It was almost like Deja Vu of when I rode HWSW. I don't think a 5 year old ride should be that rough! Are all Gerstlauer coasters like that? Kraken was awesome, but as per usual, being the deservedly most popular ride in the park, the line was about 45-60 minutes long all day. All other water rides were also busy, with a 31 degree day pretty nice to get soaked in. The old site of the castle has had zero work done on it, as far as as I could see, other then the castle demolition. There is a locked gate where the entrance to the castle was, and the bridge that would take you over the 'moat' and to the castle is used as what I assume a storage area for the construction/temporary fencing (there were several construction fences stacked on said bridge, with a white and green plastic cover). Under the bridge lay a bobcat (CONSTRUCTION MACHINE) in the dried up semi circular tube that that circles the castle and was the moat. From my observations, if it were to be cleaned up, it could perfectly and ironically fit a lazy river. That's if they were to remove the build up of crap such as branches and leaves everywhere. AW have almost tried to hide the island by letting brush overgrow, convincing the GP that there is nothing there. P.S. sorry that there are no pictures. For some unknown reason I couldn't upload them from my camera to my Mac 😕

This was brought up in another thread but to directly correlate it with a new thread we can discuss it here. If a mod could transfer the chats from the previous thread here, it would be much appreciated. I think if they did extend park hours until let’s say 8, it would have to be a summer thing. December 15 - January 15 would seem reasonable. I think if they did it all season, it would take away from what makes white christmas, fight nights and carnivalle special. Not saying that’s the only thing that makes it special, but visiting the parks at night is defiently an experience people find more unique than visiting during the day, hence the popularity of night events. Proof lies at Dreamworld, despite the dead crowds, a park after dark event I was planning to go to SOLD OUT. This alone shows the popularity of night events which is only so predominant because the parks are rarely open at night. (Also consider noise restrictions.)

@Richard - I'm just curious - considering the generic nature of the thread title, and with Dreamworld's recent track record... does this meet the definition of megathread?

Yeah, I suspect the mods will cut this part of the thread. My point is: why should we contribute to Parkz if AlexB is going to be antagonistic every time (even in the Adventure World threads - despite the fact that even he admits he’s never been there)? Why should I be a paid up member of Parkz if I get treated like a joke? I thought we were about intelligent discussion.

The problem with having a ‘sense of humour’ is that you can come across as a bullying dick. Maybe why people don’t post about parks outside the Gold Coast is that you come on and belittle them (even if you’re just trying to be funny).

Just say your a west coast eagles fan.

Parks opening 30mins prior to rides opening isn’t a new thing, it’s pretty commonplace really. It gives people time to meander over to the area or rides they want to explore first, do a bit of shopping in the retail outlets or grab a coffee. I remember Gold Rush at Wonderland didn’t open until an hour after the park opened from memory. Everyone used to be waiting next to the parachute drop (name escapes me at the moment) in the tunnel for the rope drop

Yeah, @Tim Dasco and I had a great time at AW Nights on Saturday(it’s on every Saturday night in January). The operating hours for AW in January are from 10am to 7pm Sun-Fri, but 10-6pm on Saturdays. AW Nights is held between 6.30pm and 11pm. Yeah, it’d be nice if our parks stepped up and offered more extra hours events. Nothing better than spending 12 hours in one day in a Disney park.

Thanks. Missed that to be honest!

Yup - Australia for Animals, Australia for Dolphins and Sea Shepherd are mentioned by Trevor around three minutes in.

You could have asked another group(like the one mentioned in the video), just not JFC. Great video, regardless. It does certainly address the propaganda put out by that group. I thought it was interesting how they said the JFC protest disturbed the dolphins.

Cheers for the kind words mate! :)

Wow, this is an amazing video. Keeps me intrested the whole time and great editing. This is honestly at a quality where it could be picked up by a television channel and no one would ask a question about the quality of it.

Anyone who found the above video about the Sydney monorail interesting might also like to watch this one, by British Pathe from 1965. It's about the development of the first UK monorail system at Butlin's, which was also touted at the time as the future of public transport! I find it of great interest that whilst monorails were obviously not taken up widely for mass transit purposes, there are signs now that they were ahead of their time and, in a way, might yet be used for just that, only in the form of MagLev, which is currently being considered by the Queensland government, and is very similar to a much faster version of the monorail!

@Richard - I'm just curious - considering this thread is capable of spanning an entire year, and with Dreamworld's recent track record, is likely to be updated several times a week... does this meet the definition of megathread?

If you're contributing money to Parkz and expecting all of the readers of the forum to treat you differently because of that, then you've come to the wrong place my friend. Those aren't the perks you pay for.

People need to stop the whole bullying call out BS. Making a joke, about a location of all things, isn’t bullying. Bullying is serious, and I’ve seen no evidence of it here, ever. The whole “no one thinks outside of the GC when talking about Aussie parks” comment was clear to even blind Freddy to be a tongue in cheek, sarcastic comment.

Iwerks, no one talks about the other parks because no one really seems to care and they aren’t big league enough when compared to the parks on the Gold Coast. Despite this I still haven’t seen any evidence of Alexb belittling and bullying people who talk about non QLD parks. I also don’t see what this has anything to do with Village Theme Parks..

I went to SW many times, and never paid for anything (free radio station tix). It was a great place, but lacked on several fronts - it was small, so couldn't accommodate large amounts of people - which in turn made pricing high, to offset that, which in turn kept people away. Due to many of the attractions having both mechanical and VR elements, there were lengthy processes to group, load, set up, and start, for what then amounted to a fairly short experience. Rail Chase was certainly an awesome little experience, but all-in-all it wasn't that great when compared elsewhere. It certainly wasn't the first indoor coaster in Australia (not sure if there are others out there, but Expo 88's SuperNova was definitely prior), but probably was the only one operating at the time. The tank battle thing was also a bit ridiculous - such a large floor space, difficult to operate 'tanks' and a distinct lack of ammo. Honestly, in a similar space, Intencity Parramatta had a much more superior offering, and as everything was 'user pays', pricing was much more reasonable, and capacity \ wait times were much more tolerable.

Belantis is located about 10km south of Leipzig in Germany. https://www.parkz.com.au/parks/DE/Leipzig/Belantis If the gallery is being buggy, cycle though the photos from this point to see all 180: https://www.parkz.com.au/photo/18063-Belantis/gallery/sort/newest/location/park-225/offset/0 I had a few spare days left on my rail pass, and it’s only 1h 15m to get from Berlin (Where I was at that point) to Leipzig, and then from there you take a local S-Bahn train to Markkleeberg and a bus to the park. I got caught out because the return buses don’t run as often outside of school holidays, so I would have been stuck till 4pm. Instead I got STUNG for a taxi back. Belantis is a spread out park (About the size of the dry part of Dreamworld) built around an old coal mine. The pit is now a lake, and there are different themed lands, eg Medieval, Egypt, Ancient Greece, Mayan, Native American etc. The park feels like a mixed bag, some pockets have quite good looking theming and feel like immersive zones. Other parts it looks quite weathered and cheaply done, a lot of the park is just grave/bitumen paths and long grass and untidy landscaping.And maintenance doesnt seem the greatest, with crumbling theming in parts. If you go on Google maps you can sort of see how spread out and sparse the park is. https://www.google.com/maps/place/BELANTIS+-+Das+AbenteuerReich/@51.2536898,12.3132948,467m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x47a658c795f65d89:0xe080217d017f2766!8m2!3d51.2536898!4d12.3154835 I reckon the park would have felt better if they had just brought it all closer together. It’s the same issue WnW Sydney has basically. As for the rides, they are alright and some were interesting and unique, but I don’t think anything really grabbed me other than Gotterflug, which was a riot. The entrance area I thought looked good. Quite liked how the building was overlaid with the sundial design. First ride was Hurcan, a large Eurofighter. I heard this one was quite rough, and it shook a bit, but nothing unbearable. I don’t think you’d want to ride more than 3 times though. Starts off with a vertical lift and drop, zero g, then an oddly shaped cobra roll the train appears to wobble through. Then after a couple more turns it finishes off with some interlocking corkscrews. Nice layout actually. Too big for this coaster or top spin though. Aint it the cutest? After that passed through the Pirate themed area and tried Capt’n Blacks Piratentaufe, which is one of those family sized drop towers except it can sway from side to side. Cool little gimmick actually. The pirate area looked quite good, but it’s basically an island of theming, and once you leave its back out into windswept barren park area. It happened to be on the way but Posiedons Flotte was next, the park was dead so I was the sole person flicking around on this thing. They are their most fun when you hold the boat inwards and then suddenly turn outwards, which creates strong lateral forces. Think of it like a water borne version of flying scooters. Pressing on was Fahrt De Oddeseyus, which is a tow boat ride around the lake, passing some crap ancient Greek theming on the way, and at one point passing through a concrete culvert tunnel. Good way to waste 10 mins. I couldn’t hold off on the Egyptian bit any longer, and joined a 10 minute queue for Fluch des Pharaos, a large flume ride built by Hafema (The company that brought us Jurassic Park in Singapore and River Quest at Phantasialand. It’s sort of halfway between being a rapids ride and a flume, with boats that are inflatable dinghies holding 8, with the metal lap bars strapped/sewn onto the rubber body of the boat. The pyramid looks impressive from the outside, but a bit of missed potential. The indoor section of the ride is very brief, and really just long enough to get you to the elevator lift. Theming is essentially flat walls with a couple of statues and a mannequin of a temple explorer. The boat rolls sideways into a vertical lift, where there is a UV painted image of a big Pharaoh head, before you are lifted up, and slide sideways out again at the top, and down the main drop. The main drop is about as big as WWF, but not really wet at all. From there the ride is done at a speedy pace, leading through a few more twists and turns, and into the whirlpool element, which looks more interesting than it is, but the curved drop in the middle is kinda waterslide-ish. A couple more turns, passing a waterfall on the way, and the ride is over. It’s better than a regular flume ride, but the theming was too featureless. Right next door was Cobra Des Amun Ra, a Gerstlauer family coaster, and quite good, with a punchy layout full of elevation changes. It doesn’t just lumber around like the likes of Roadrunner/Madagascar. The station and queue building was nicely done for a coaster of this size too. Just as I got off, the park mascot made an appearance in the STATION, and then hopped on for an actual ride. You’d never see that here in Aus. Doubling back on myself, I took a ride on Gotterflug, which is a Gerstlauer Sky Roller. This is a similar concept to tailspin, but instead of it being seats on a tilted arm, it’s more like a star flyer in that it is a circular ride that rises up. The thing is super easy to get spinning, so you can get triple digit rotation counts if you like. I held back, but still spun more than any ride I’ve done on a Sky Roller. Crazy stuff. The back of the park is one big dead end, which is silly. There’s what, about 200m of path missing between Huracan and the Native American zone that would complete a logical loop around the lake, but its absence results in an 800m backtrack to reach the end of the park as a result. The park has a heap of random little non rides, like this nature walk, wonky bikes, kiddy cars etc. Filler I guess. This medieval town square is another example of a pocket of good theming, but all the shops were shut. So the next bit was the Medieval section, which has a Gertslauer bobsled coaster called Drachenriit, more or less a wild mouse on steroids with a spread out layout, and a much more interesting design overall. Starts off with a curved drop, then a few conventional switch back turns, then the remaining majority of the ride is quick helices and punchy bunny hills. Great fun. This whole area looked quite nice actually. The main castle building holds a Vekoma mad house ride, which I was sad to miss since it was closed for maintenance, but at the same time I’d done plenty of others on this trip anyway, so it wasn’t a full on loss. There was also a hedge maze. The bit at the back of the park was a sort of Native American village. I skipped over the canoes and the Frisbee ride. At that point I had done everything I wanted to, so I swung back via Huracan and tried a ride in the back seat instead, and then made my way to the exit. Time spent around 3 or so hours. It was at this point I discovered I had misread the bus timetable (carefully typing the footnote on the timetable into translate led me to discover that certain buses don’t run outside holidays), so I headed back to the entrance, where guest services called a taxi. I ate a pretzel in the meantime, before departing. Overall, the park is just average. I went mostly because it wasn’t too far out of the way from my location, and it meant more or less completing the set of major parks in Germany. Doesn’t stack up to the majors like Phantasialand or Europa of course, but I felt the 2nd tier parks like Holiday Park or Tripsdrill were better as well.

In that case we should make sure there's always a Brown snake on the Rivals platform

Despite only writing Wacky inflatable waving men, my head still reads "AL HARRINGTONS WACKY WAVING INFLATABLE ARM FLAILING TUBE MAN".

I was being sarcastic because they refused to comment.

Yeah, and I know it’s a paltry amount, but it’s still a product and if it pisses you off, why renew? Do you return to your favourite theme park if drunken teenagers assault you in the car park? Probably not, you’d just go somewhere else... Thanks. Will give it a try. In the meantime, one thing I noticed at the Qld parks is that they’d open the gates early, but not let people on the rides until half an hour later.

Seriously? Really? Nice use of the smug emoji!