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Everyone crapping on about how the ride has been delayed by what is currently little more than a month... and i'm starting to realise just how pathetic and whiny enthusiasts can be. It's being portrayed like this never happens, and the delays are solely because Dreamworld is a park in the toilet. Newsflash - successful parks have delays too - Superman, The Escape (SFMM) was scheduled to open June 1, 1996, but didn't open until almost 10 months later on March 15, 1997. Dollywood's lightning rod was supposed to open March 15th, 2016, but didn't open (officially) until June 13, 2016 (it had some technical rehearsals prior to the official opening, but was frequently up and down), and then, one week after the official opening - on June 20, 2016 - the park announced it would be closed while a recalled part was ordered and replaced. On 29 June, 2016 - it again reopened to technical rehearsals before finally being announced as 'open' on September 5, 2016. For a ride everyone pegged as a boxing day open, we're only just now getting to be a month overdue. I think it'd make a great article on the delay, what could be causing it, and a history of other big ride delays (like the ones above) to show that this isn't all that uncommon... whaddya think @Richard... or @Slick?

Continuing with my Trip reports from Melbourne/Victoria here is our day at Adventure Park Geelong. The day we visited was quite a mild day with a top temp of around 26 degrees but there was a decent wind which made it seem cooler. Adventure Park is a bit of a trek to get to from Melbourne- from our apartment in St Kilda it was a 1 hour 16 minute journey. Easy to get to by car but much more difficult if you have to rely on public transport. The tickets are based on height not age so my family attracted the top price with the total tickets coming to $178. Ouch. Interestingly, the carpark is all grassed area with easy to navigate designated areas to park quite visible. We bought our tickets and headed in. What struck us was the amount of covered areas for your bags etc- there were literally dozens of tables and chairs under large marquees where you could base yourself. There was also a huge building that had at least 40 tables and chairs in a large open area which was adjacent to toilets/ change rooms and also lockers and the main food outlet area. After settling on a space, we then booked a locker for our valuables. This cost $12 for all day but the system was quite practical. Where you paid, it assigned you a locker ( with handy card payment option) and then it asked how many wrist bands you required. We decided on 2 and then all you did was place the wrist band on your arm, select your locker and then the wrist band is assigned to that particular locker. No worry about remembering pin numbers or locker numbers. Very easy. Forgive me if other forum members are familiar with this type of system, but I had never seen it before. Extremely user friendly. The first thing that strikes you about the park is the Ferris Wheel which dominates the skyline near the front. We rode this straight away as there was little to no queue ( and remained so throughout the day). It provided great views of the entire park and the surrounding area. As you can see the main slide area is bounded by the lazy river which circumnavigates the entire area and passes underneath the racer slides. We decided to do all the dry rides first up so the next stop was the Wave Swinger. This was a nicely presented smaller unit ( I am unsure of the manufactuer of this one- @HussRainbow87 perhaps you can help out here?) with only 2 rows of riders. It featured murals of iconic world destinations as well as familiar Melbourne locations. What I was surprised about this unit was that it had a weight limit of 104kg. To me, this was not overly heavy and I have never seen this specific a weight limit applied to a Wave Swinger before- can anyone answer if this is normal? I am assuming its the manufacturer's specifications and its size would be a factor but none of the other park Wave Swingers I have checked have a weight limit ( Aussie World's certainly does not). Curious. Anyway the kids loved this ride and got in 3 rides in quick succession. We then moved on to where the remainder of the dry rides were located and rode the Crazy Coaster, another unit from SBF Visa. This unit differed from the LPM unit insofar that was a smaller figure 8 circuit whereas this included another helix. This remained popular all day , given its family nature, and once again , I was surprised at how good these rides are. This is a perfect installation for a small park such as Adventure Park. The kids then tried the Little Buggy Speedway, which was well themed for what it was. I found it a little confusing that a park of this size has this for the kids yet there is no option for a full sized Dodgem set. Surely this would not be a huge capital cost but I guess there is the factor of riding this if you are wet or damp. This may play some part in their decision ( and Funfields) to not include Dodgems in their ride lineup. I guess they could look at including a Go Kart set up ( like Funfields) as a future attraction. The park also has some old school retro attractions such as paddle boats on the lake. The kids loved these! Speaking of old school attractions, anyone for archery? The big new inclusion for this season was the standard run of the mill Tornado. These are becoming fairly anachronistic in Australia as most water parks seem to have an example. This one has been installed with expansion on the left for another slide in mind for sure, but obviously the budget this time around did not include the conveyer for the cloverleaf rafts, I have to tell you, lugging one of these up by hand, is no mean feat and it was this fact alone that certainly kept ridership to a minimum throughout the day. I am sure this will be rectified in the future when Adventure Park installs an expansion slide into the ready made area. The Aqua Racers are your standard mat racing slides- I always seem to get a mountain of airtime on this variety! Bonito's Bay is your standard kids play area - it was well presented with cabana's available for hire on the periphery. It was a nice setup. The Lazy river also hid access to premium cabanas on the other side, These were in an elevated position overlooking part of the Lazy river and included full fridges and TV's in each one. Very nice indeed! The park also included on a separate island in the lake 2 x 18 hole mini golf courses. These were excellent and were also quite popular and were a great way to soak up a couple of hours as a family. The last 2 major slides ,Wild West Canyon and Gold Rush Rapids , are enclosed raft slides. These ones are obviously original slides hearkening back to the earliest days of the park. Certainly do not see Wooden Towers much anymore!!! They both provided a good ride experience, operations were excellent and as a result, there was minimal lines. Adventure Park is a park that is quite beautiful - it has well landscaped grounds and a picturesque lake in the middle. It has huge areas and huge potential for expansion- they are certainly not lacking in land options. The food options were excellent and quite varied throughout the park- this was a bit surprising to see. The option to bring in esky's and your own picnic lunch is a welcome choice , especially for larger groups or families. Its a park that is very old school in some of its attractions (paddle boats, Archery and Mini Golf) but this does nothing to undermine the charm that it has acquired. This park is on the cusp of becoming a larger player in the amusement market in Australia and they are really only another major slide and dry attraction from really putting themselves on the map. They dont quite match up to FunFields offering ( more on this later) at this particular time, however, I can see them really challenging this status quo in the years to come. The somewhat strange ( to me ) combination of water park and traditional amusements is of course driven by Victoria's weather and its high seasonality for water rides. It does work but it means that they are going to have to continue adding dry and water attractions back to back to maintain some sense of equilibrium. The park was also open to 6pm during holidays in the summer to take advantage of the later day light that Victoria enjoys. This was excellent and something that Wet 'n' Wild Sydney and Jamberoo should take note of. All in all, we had an excellent time at Adventure Park and for families , it really is a great day trip. I would definitely recommend a visit!

I had the opportunity to go down to Melbourne in the past couple of weeks for work and I thought I would combine work with leisure and bring the family with me for a extended break. We had a jam packed time and fit in quite a lot in our stay. I decided to tick off a couple of the Victorian parks that I have never visited and I will present them here as a trip report with my musings on each for all here to enjoy. The parks and places that we visited included: Luna Park Melbourne Action Park , Geelong Funfields, Whittlesea We also visited attractions such as: Werribee Open Plain Zoo Sovereign Hill Melbourne Zoo The Melbourne Aquarium Amaze and Things, Phillip Island The Penguin Parade, Phillip Island ArtVo 3D Art Gallery and Southern Star Observation Wheel I will restrict my trip reports to the aforementioned 3 parks, but I might do an overview of the other places as there are some excellent experiences to be had. So onward to Luna Park Melbourne! Melbourne's Mr Moon is decidedly creepier than its Sydney counterpart. We did the park on a Saturday as the park is open until 11pm at this time ( like LPS,we wanted to experience LPM in the night. It was quite warm when we arrived at around 2pm and the crowds were quite large. It was around $149 for a family ticket of 4 however, thanks to a helpful work colleague, we had an entertainment voucher which gave us 25% off and this brought the total down just on $100. Good start so far!! It is worth noting that that the park now charges $5 for just entering the park, regardless of riding or not. They justify this by saying that it is helping to maintain their heritage attractions of the Scenic Railway, Carousel and Ghost train. If you buy a ride ticket or pass this is included in that price , of course. I don't doubt that these attractions are seriously labour and financially resource draining so to me, it seems like a reasonable request , for mine. The first ride we tried was the Spider. This is a Eyerly Aircraft Company example and these are becoming rarer and rarer these days. This type of ride debuted in 1967 and this unit is a typical example of its ilk. The operations on this ride were very slow as the ride was attended to by only one ride op. It was also hampered by the cycle before our ride where a rider was sick and it had to be cleaned up. Overall the ride experience was smooth and was quite an enjoyable experience. My son and I spun considerably in our car. The ride has been maintained well and it looked in good condition. Not sure if this is the same unit as once resided at Wonderland in its early days. I am sure one of you esteemed knowledgeable forum members can tell me! Interestingly , the Eyerly Aircraft Company went out of business in 1985 and the rights to their rides went to Oregon rides Inc. They are one of the more interesting ride manufacturers out there IMHO. We next rode the Twin Dragon, a Meisho Swinging ship. As far as I am aware, this is the only type of this ride in Australia by this manufacturer , and they are extremely rare elsewhere. The ride experience was ok, however they certainly do not match a HUSS unit in any way. More on that later though. We then rode the park's Enterprise, a unit which has obviously seen much use. It is a genuine HUSS unit(@HussRainbow87 will be happy about that! ) but its a unit that is in need of some love and attention. Still, the ride was smooth and as always, gives great forces. My son and daughter had never ridden this type of ride and they thoroughly enjoyed the experience. This is LPM's new cafe and function centre. It looks excellent and is 3 levels- the first level a retail cafe and eatery , the 2nd level a function area and there is also a third rooftop level for functions as well.The food looked good and we decided to wait until later in the evening to have dinner to try out its wares. Alas this was not meant to be, as LPM made the inexplicable decision to shut this ( and almost all other food outlets) except for The Diner car at 7pm. This is in direct contrast to LPS where all food outlets are open until close. The park could have made some serious dollars if their food options had remained open. Subsequently , we left the park to nearby Acland street for a quick meal to return to ride. An amazingly short sighted decision on managments part IMHO. The kids wanted then to ride the Powersurge and this is a fairly recent arrival at LPM. It was well presented and was quite popular with good sized lines throughout the day!! My daughter had to be talked into going on this with my son, but when she did, she loved it!! They ended up riding this 4 times throughout the day! We then lined up for the Hellerious Clowns walkthrough attraction. This is a experience that has stayed since Halloween, and although not as well presented as LPS's Mystery Manor, it was quite an enjoyable scare attraction. The scare actors werent quite as good as their Sydney counterparts and it required you to wear 3 D glasses but it was certainly longer than Mystery Manor. This attraction was only open during the day and shut at 5pm. The kids rode the Coney Shot Drop and the Pharaoh's Curse in quick succession. Both pretty standard park rides and fairly forgettable. The restraints on the Pharaoh's Curse were quite restrictive on the legs, making for an uncomfortable ride. The Ghost train is well presented but with very slow operations. Its a ride that of course has quite a history, as it is one of the few remaining Pretzel dark rides left anywhere in the world, having opened in 1935. Its old school fun inside and can get quite dark in sections but i think it desperately needs a refurb inside, with some of the scares looking quite tired. Also, the ride would benefit enormously from having live scare actors roaming the track but unfortunately , this is not allowed anymore. However, there is plenty of technology that could be utilised to enhance this ride and the overall experience. Of course the Great Scenic Railway was what we really wanted to see and ride and it was great to see it finally in action. This ride had 30 minute waits for the entirety of the day and was extremely popular with all ages. The only had one train in operation at any one time and the ride was down for about 40 minutes due to weather conditions. It was quite windy at this time and the train ( Red Train) valleyed after the first initial drop. It was quite amusing seeing 4 LPM employees scale the ride and walk to where the loaded train sat waiting. They then pushed the train to complete the circuit. To fix this issue, the park changed trains, (red to blue) and they completed several circuits with the maintenance crew oiling several sections of the track as they went. The ride then continued without any further stoppages. I am told this does happen quite regularly when the wind is blowing at the right angle. Fun times!! The blue train awaiting riders and also displaying the awesome mural on the back wall. The Scenic Railway station is a beautiful work of art in itself and is a pleasure to see and view. We then decided to ride the park's smaller family coasters, the Silly Serpent a Zamperla powered coaster, and the Speedy Beetle, an SBF Visa spinning coaster. This was the first time that I had ridden one of these types of rides and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. They are an excellent family addition to any small park and they pack a good punch in a very small footprint. This unit is the smallest option that SBF Visa offer but they do come in varying sizes. More on that later. Given that it does not get dark in Melbourne during summer until about 9:15pm, we opted to ride the Skyrider ferris wheel right on dusk. The view was magnificent looking out on Port Phillip Bay , riding as we watched the sun disappear from view, dipping below the horizon at last. It was a bit chilly due to the wind but an awesome experience and I would say a must do!! This Ferris Wheel has been in the park since the 70's and its quite a feeling to ride an open seating styled ride like this rather than the more common cabin style. This ride , like all Ferris Wheels , had to be carefully balanced in its riders. The other historical ride at the park is the magnificent 1913 vintage PTC carousel. This has just been restored after some serious downtime and money to get it back into operating status. Little known fact is that this is the only PTC carousel ever imported outside North America and is one of only 35 remaining. It was originally installed at Sydney's White City amusement park before fire destroyed this park ( perhaps a topic for another day?). LPM management bought it and transported it to Melbourne where it resides as the centrepiece of the park. Disappointingly, the 1909 vintage Pipe Organ was not running on the day. Of course this place takes on a new level when night drops and the lights are turned on. The park becomes a incandescent wonderland and the atmosphere is absolutely wonderful at this time. This it shares with its sister park in Sydney. There is nothing like going on rides on a balmy summer Saturday night. Brilliant! Interestingly , the Scenic Railway's trains are adorned with Blue LED's for night time action. The effect was brilliant and they looked amazing as the ride traversed its circuit into the night. The face does look much more inviting at night...... Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this trip report of a park not often reported on Parkz. LPM is a great place to visit for an afternoon, if only for the historical value of the Scenic Railway, the Carousel and the Ghost Train. Is is as good as LPS? Hmmm, thats a difficult one to answer. Both parks have their pro's and cons. LPM is quite a bit smaller than LPS but the Scenic Railway and its St Kilda setting is timeless. LPS does have the magnificent Harbour and bridge backdrop though to counter this. I guess we will have to wait and see what improvements are now brought to fruition for LPS. LPM does need some serious reinvestment to give it a lift- there are many things in the works and they are planned but of course financial backing is the key. We are incredibly lucky to have both LPS and LPM in Australia for us both to enjoy and they are significant in the amusement landscape and history of Australia.They cannot compete with the Gold Coast parks(nor are they meant to) but they deserve their place in our park lineup. My advice is get out there and enjoy them both

You mean like this one that @Richard already wrote? It compares other delays and breaks down the context behind why the delay is so critical for Dreamworld pretty well, imo.

Superman and Lightning Rod both had prototype elements, compared to the off-the-shelf Flying Theatre being installed at Dreamworld. It's not all that far-fetched to suggest that the Dreamworld/Ardent factor is again at play here. Look at Trolls Village (a shop and some painted flats) - opened six months after they'd announced and it was still mediocre!

I think you'll find the reason people are talking about it so much is because Dreamworld is regarded as a park on its knees that needs a lot of things to go right for it if it's going to turn things around. In most parks a new ride is continuity in the park and therefore the date slipping isn't a big deal. In this case you've got a park that is low on working rides and in need of an attendance boost, and that's why this is a big deal.

@Levithian - unfortunately a partially closed door, with a curtain pulled across, is a fairly universal sign for "this isn't an entrance for the public - our staff \ workers are using this door, so we keep it open, but you aren't supposed to come in here, which is why the curtain is pulled across. I used to work retail, and it was common to drop roller shutters across the doorway, to about head height, to allow existing customers to exit, whilst serving as a barrier to new customers entering. Whilst the curtain and roller door don't prevent anyone, its a fairly clear signal of 'don't come in here', and in all seriousness - a simple A-frame (which we know VRTP love) that says 'this way to the Aquaman Exhibition' with an arrow, or even "Aquaman Exhibition - OPEN".... it really is something very simple that would help prevent confusion in a place where guests check their brains at the door. Just because you can figure it out - doesn't mean the lowest common denominator can...

That would make the timeline perfect then. Wonderland History reports the Funnel Web leaving Wonderland in 1989 where it sat out back in maintenance for a little while and its eventual fate is unknown. On Wiki, it says the Spider was built in 1983. It COULD be the same unit..... That's very interesting. I am sure that is a by product of that. Do you have a source for this? Yeah the Dodgem's height is a bit puzzling. LPS has 85-95cm can ride with an adult for its Dodgem set. The other restrictions I get, looking at the rides. They seem pretty standard across the board with most other parks. As for Scenic Railway, I guess its a function of the ride itself. Its not a very forceful ride and any child 100-110cm can ride with an adult. Riding such a big coaster is such an awesome thing to do for someone at that age so its great they can experience it with the whole family. The Pipe Organ is a historical feature of the carousel and is fairly integral to the overall experience. I have been to LPM on 5 occasions and have heard it play on 2. I was lamenting its silence on this visit- it really adds to the overall atmosphere of the ride. Yeah agree 100% here on the condition of the Holodeck. It was in pretty poor shape for exactly the reasons as Webslave outlined. Like a few other attractions, it needs some love and attention! What a pity LPM didnt pick up Rail Chase at the same time- going for less than $140,000 it would have been an absolute bargain and a great addition to the park! Also consider if the sale of the Titan had been actually completed from Expo Park in 1989 and this had arrived at the park. I know Boomerangs are old hat now but it would have been a great addition in LPM with its relatively small footprint. It certainly would have made the loss of the Big Dipper a bit easier to swallow. Yep operations overall were not great. Scenic Railway was good, Powersurge and Speedy Beetle was decent and the rest was a bit of a lottery to be honest. However, I thought that the park did a good job of rotating the operators- I saw first hand operators handling the majority of the rides withing their shift- with the exception of the Scenic Railway. This appears to be a more specialised field and was limited to 5 operators for the 8 hours I was there ( including brakemen) I think you are spot on here Huss. There is several spots in the park that seemed "odd placement" for mine and the current layout of rides could definitely be tweaked to be better suited for space management. I think that the SBF Coaster placement is not meant to be a permanent position. Honestly and realistically, if i was in charge of LPM, with the exceptions of the Carousel, The Ghost Train, the Spider and of course the Scenic Railway, I would gut the park and completely overhaul the ride lineup and alignment and placing. The place has great potential to be a fantastic mix of the best of the historic and the best of the new!! Thanks guys- its important that we support the smaller parks in Australia- its not just all about the Gold Coast , even though they are the main focal point of the Australian industry. I will complete the other reports in the next couple of days and I look forward to posting them

Current scheduled maintenance periods

They could theme an alleyway to Little China Town.

Even if the name was changed to something along the lines of 'Adventure world - Mi4 and general discussion' the clarification would be there. It's unrealistic that this will become a mega thread as mi3 and general park talk is nothing like combining a Gold Coast park update thread with a construction thread.

The idea would be awesome at night, but even if they didn’t want to do it for whatever reason. Even just stuff like that during the day. Turn the Ricks courtyard, of one of the grassed areas on Main Street, into a Chinese market, full of food stalls, and have entertainment up and down the street throughout the day. Just to mix things up a little. Clark said they always want to have something going on at MW, and yes a few decorations is something, but it could be so much more

Awwww.... are you jealous?

Visited the park yesterday for the first time in about 2 years. First and most obvious change was the new signage and staff uniforms, matching the new logo. Very impressive! The significant attraction I hadn't used before was the scare maze. Much like others I've seen at Fright Nights, and Zombie Evilution at Dreamworld. The major difference being that the actors are laughing almost constantly, so it's a funny twist. Evil, but in a funny way! I like it! Professor Magoriums Wonder Emporium (if that's the name) was still my favourite attraction, the only difference being the staff member who greeted us at the entry was a bit of a Vicki Pollard (Little Britain), and whilst delivering the safety message, and ensuring we waited until previous guests had progressed far enough, did so in a very funny way! It's staff like this who really make the difference at theme parks between guests having an "ok" time, and a fabulous one! Overall park was fairly quiet considering it's Australia Day long weekend, possibly not helped by the 2 hour drive from the Gold Coast due to major roadworks. I suppose short term pain for long term gain. Saw one, or possibly 2 new rides under construction. No sign of a spinning mouse, and couldn't see any evidence of where the old Wild Mouse was. Tried to work it out, without success!

Unlikely. The winter school holidays fall right in the middle. Although not peak holiday season, holidays are holidays and Arkham is a drawcard, even after all these years.

Seeing as people consider Adventure World an action park, or at least by definition of park members, and the fact that this thread was started before the construction of the water fortress, is the title not fitting? Its literally about a water park that was at the time coming to Perth and is now here.

Maybe re-zone the park like this crude little number?

Maybe gL is getting a much needed re-painting? Arkham is quite a lengthy downtime. The usual train re-build will have to be undertaken no doubt, but surely there are only so many times they can keep doing that before new train(s) maybe required all together?

Agreed. I wish they would do evening celebrations (another nighttime event). Take the concept of Carnivale, but Chinese twist. Food stalls, street dancers, etc. Would be an awesome atmosphere, and rather than the fairy lights, just a tonne of the lanterns

I understand the weather issues, but I just don't understand this as a move. Like - could we do Christmas in March when it isn't so hot? Could we do Easter in November, since the park season ends a week after Easter this year - so we can get full use out of our rabbit costumes? #wait - maybe thats the reason for it - do it in the off season, pick up all your supplies from the clearance racks? #justdoesn'tmakesensetome

I'm just gonna put all my replies, posts, comments, observations, witty GIFs and Wonderland references in this thread. It's Richard's job to fix it how he wants, right? Time to quit your day job @Slick - you're gonna have some work to do!

That's honestly a bit of a shame to hear the Holodeck isn't running well. Bear in mind this simulator was developed in 1993 and LPM's model is a 22 year old one originally built for Sega World. Considering Sega has long cut off support for this type of ride I'd probably be seeing them replacing the ride. They could use the opportunity to get a cool VR attraction but I just don't see LPM investing the money into it.

And what exactly is it that I do? Please, englighten me. No there isnt? There was people talking about MI4 but none of the recent posts have been even slightly related to MI4 Yes, the Construction threads do garner a lot of attention, but that’s because there’s something to talk about, as opposed to people (you) who decided to use this thread to post a plethora of photos every time you visit the park without a single mention of MI4 or anything NEW coming to the park And with those other threads, if they get jammed up with irrelevant crap, like this one is, a mod will eventually arrive and split it. They can’t be here 24/7 to make all the topics neat, so then it’s the job of the contributors to try and keep their posts in their relevant discussion topics.

Y’know, you’re gonna start pissing off a lot of people if you start having an attitude of “well you’re not a moderator so it doesn’t matter what you say” No, im not moderating, @Richard won’t give me that much power. But I’m sure he would agree with me on my comment about the relevance of your posts in this thread turning it into an Adevnture World Mega Topic instead of its intended purpose which was to talk about MI4.... I’m sure Rich or another mod will happily let us know if the above is incorrect but that was my understanding of the forum guidelines around mega topics and derailing threads.

Shame they didnt splurge and get a Zierer.... will still look good in the area if it goes up there

Okay, can we get a specific thread for Adventure World updates? This topic hasn't been about MI4 in a long time. It's just turned into a photo dump for every time someone goes there.

The sx360 is completed just not open yet

Wtf does that have to do with the coronal inquiry?

Who is dictating? I was just agreeing with you... (also, it's pretty clear by the fact I missed the latest 'fun with Dylan' that i'm not here 24/7). Side note - can someone tell me when all the kids go back to school? (#cantwait) You're right! @Richard did cover this in his post on Parkz Policies. I've underlined it, but i've copied the whole post in case you're incapable of visiting that thread to read it for yourself. Dylan has done you a big favour - by comparison, you're a saint. Don't bring the spotlight back onto you by whining about something that's actually stated by the site owner clearly in the forum policies. That's a surefire way to piss people off.

Jet Stunt Extreme Show II confirmed. Less jet, less stunt, less extreme, same show.

If you're moderating, you could do it for us. 😉