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I would rather get a delay than something like sdsc next gen.

Well, after a period of absence I FINALLY managed to return to Luna Park and get some progress shots. The park is currently participating in the 2019 Lunar Festival so naturally there was a lot of oriental decor and celebration. Also the face's teeth has gingivitis for some reason... There isn't much to report on the expansion front, although I did notice two things: 1. The Shooting Gallery has now become a space for some of the park's vintage shooting arcade games such as "Target Zero", etc. The old shooting background is still visible, but I can only assume it'll be repainted to fit theming? 2. Not much to say about the Flying Carousel other than the fact I noticed some temporary fencing. And the inside of the Helter Skelter facade has been painted. Anyway, that's about it for now.

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!

The last fully fledged theme park of our Victorian trip is Funfields. Funfields is located at Whittlesea, which is a 57 minute drive from the Melbourne CBD itself. Very easy to get to by car, but as with Adventure World, getting there by public transport is problematic. The park bills itself as having 3 record holders in slides. I know this has been discussed on the forums before so I will only mention them briefly for each ride. We arrived on one of the hottest days of the year with a top temperature of 42 degrees. Not sure what we were in for crowds wise, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the soaring temperatures actually served to keep people away from the park. Like Adventure Park, Funfields is a park that divides itself between a water slide section, and a dry ride section. It has in recent years , been the destination for a couple of former rides from 2 of the Gold Coast theme parks. ( more on that later) Like Adventure Park, Funfields utilises a height meter to sort ticket prices. A single ticket for the highest height bracket (135cm+) was $48. There is no family option so the grand total for a family of 4 for us was $192. (once again..ouch) Given the heat, I had decided to bring in a small esky filled with water. This is allowed , however, upon entry, we were told that there are only certain places in the park where eskies are allowed and this was in the BBQ and picnic area. Eskies are not allowed anywhere near the water section of the park nor near the new area for the Volcano Beach. This was not an issue as there was plenty of seating and shaded areas in the section we were directed to. Finding a spot, we then set about getting a locker for our valuables. This was the same price as Adventure Park ($12 all day) but did not feature the eminently practical wrist band solution as found at Adventure Park. Oh well back to remembering locker numbers and pin numbers!! As well as the heat, there was a very strong hot wind that was blowing. At the entrance, the helpful gate assistant advised us that due to the winds, some attractions could close. With that excellent advice in mind , we decided to hit the dry rides first. The first one we tackled was the Burnout, In a previous life, this ride had spent a number of years at Dreamworld as the Stingray. It was very well presented here and in excellent condition- it had received a very good refurb in its move here to Funfields. The kids tackled the Samba Balloons next, a very nice looking unit from Zamperla. This and the Burnout formed a small family ride precinct that also included a small Ferris wheel, a carousel, a kids go kart track and a tea cups ride. Very well presented and very appealing to the younger family members. We then decided to tackle Blackbeard's Fury, a HUSS swinging ship. This unit was an original ride from Seaworld on the Gold Coast. Once again, FunFields have done a wonderful job of refurbing this ride and it looked and rode excellent. The difference between this and the Meisho unit at LPM was night and day. Blackbeard's Fury swung an impressive degree and it was an entirely smooth ride experience. Funfields have even attempted some theming elements in front of the ride. Not sure what Seaworld were thinking in getting rid of this ride- in its current excellent condition it could still easily operate at Seaworld today. A rather short sighted decision , in my opinion! As a curious side note, Funfields also offers this ride as a VR experience for the princely sum of $6. Apparently the VR content is themed to a Dragon ride somehow. We rode Blackbeard's Fury 4 times throughout the day and not once did we see any VR units being utilised. I found the concept of VR on a swing ship ride quite odd. We then headed to Voodoo , the parks 360 degree swing pendulum ride. This is an excellent attraction for any number of small parks- it gave great forces and yet had quite a small footprint. It also was a very smooth ride experience , although the seating was a little uncomfortable. We got 2 rides on this in quick succession which proved a shrewd move as about an hour later this was closed due to the high winds. It never reopened for the day. This ride is an exceptional addition to Funfields attraction lineup. The next order of the day was to ride the parks Alpine Toboggan run. This example featured the traditional cable lift hill to the top ( unlike Jamberoo's chairlift). It was not as long as Jamberoo's toboggan run ( they also have 2) but it was a good example of this type of ride. In my opinion, the track felt in better condition that Jamberoo's 2 runs and the toboggans themselves were also in far better material condition. This was a walk on and we got in 5 runs in very quick succession. Excellent fun. After the toboggans , we then headed to the Go karts. The layout had recently been shortened to accommodate the new Volcano Beach Wave Pool but I didnt feel that this affected the track overly at all. The karts themselves were all 2 person cars. You need to be 145 cm plus to drive alone and 100- 144cm can be passengers. There were 10 karts in operation this day and it was my sons first experience in driving them. They certainly were not overly fast but they did provide a decent speed once you stretched them out. Operations were a little slow on this and they would have been brutal if the park was majorly busy. Given that the heat was increasing, we decided to hit the water portion of the park. Funfields has the standard water play structures found in most water parks now. This example included something a little different insofar as that it does not have a swinging bucket overhead. Instead, it has a "shack" structure that periodically releases the water deluge. There is no warning as to when this will occur so it was a little random as to when the water was released. Also, unlike a lot of other play structures, this one was situated in a shallow pool, which was perfect for parents to sit in either under or near the water mushrooms found therein. This was a welcome advantage on such a hot day unlike other water structures that are placed on foam or sponge underlay. The kids then tried the bumper boast- an old school attraction to be sure. They are getting harder to find in Australia and they sure are ordinary when it comes to capacity but the kids loved them. 10 boats only does mean very slow operations though. We then moved on to the Typhoon- billed by the park as the as the World's longest Proslide cannonball. Have to say this was my favourite slide of the park and was so much fun!! It certainly had a good length of slide before hitting the bowl and it gained a good deal of momentum as you burst onto the lip of the curve. Great fun and very re-rideable. What is great about the operations on this slide is that Funfields offer single tube and dual tube rider options. This gives a lot of flexibility for any group of riders. The slides directly next to the Typhoon are the original body slides and obviously have a bit of age about them. They are nearly identical to ones found in Jamberoo and even share a similar name in Splash Down. However, at Funfields, they make you ride these with mats and this makes for a very disappointing slide experience. The mats seemed to slow down your momentum to the point where we all thought we would stop on the course at some point.These slides should remain as body slides to get the most out of them. Jamberoo's are far superior , in my thinking, The next 2 slides are enclosed tube slides called Blackout and Wipeout. They are pretty standard slides but fun nonetheless. As its name suggests, Blackout is completely dark through its course entirety. Like Typhoon, these slides operated with singe tube and double tube options. The next slide is the Kraken racer, the 2nd purportedly record holder. Its billed as the World's Longest Proslide Kraken Racer and when I saw it i was very underwhelmed. I have been on many different racers in water parks around the world and to me, this is really stretching a point. There are longer racers in Australia, by far ( albeit by other manufacturers- hell the racers at Adventure Park in the SAME state were far longer.) Its fairly representative of its type of slide but the less said about its alleged "World Record" the better. The third Record holder, the Gravity Wave, is a far more impressive slide. Billed as the World's Biggest, Longest and Tallest Proslide Wave and Victoria's tallest waterslide this is a slide to be proud of. This gave an impressive amount of ride time and the dive into the wave is great fun. Interestingly , you can only ride this in either 4 person or 2 person configuration- not 3. I asked about this and this is Proslides specification and not the park's , according to the ride attendant. Funny how you can ride Tornado's with 3 riders but not this slide. And as can be seen, Funfields are also touting a new slide to join Gravity Wave in the near future. The infrastructure is all there, they just need to erect the slide. I am betting that they have already purchased the next slide and we will see it installed early next year. This is a very cool thing which Funfields have done very well in implementing. Near the queue lines to all the major slides, they have installed these structures made of PVC piping for riders to store their thongs and hats. This was crucial and very beneficial , given that it was such a hot day and the heat emanating from the cement necessitated wearing footwear of some kind. This allowed all riders to neatly stack them in the pipes provided and to gather them to move on once the ride had finished. This played in very well with my love of all things practical. All water parks in Australia should see this and take note!! (Jamberoo hint hint) Volcano Beach is the new inclusion for this year and opened in December. As a Wave Pool its a little on the smaller side, ( its only reaches 1.8 metres at its deepest depth) but the surrounding area is nicely themed. The vegetation surrounding the area will look much better in 12 months and will give the area a much more organic look. This is the first wave pool in Victoria and it is also heated so that its use can be extended into the cooler months. It certainly did not need the heating element on the day we visited!!! Stage 2 will also see a new cafe and eatery be added to this area. All in all, a nice addition to the park. Funfields , for mine wins the battle of the water parks in Victoria. It feels far more complete and well rounded. It certainly is Jamberoo's Victorian cousin and those 2 parks share quite a lot in DNA and similarity. Given that this is also the closer of the 2 parks to Melbourne, it is the easiest to get to by car. If you are staying or planning a family trip to Melbourne, then a visit to this burgeoning park should be on your list of things to do. My next installment of our Melbourne trip will see non theme park related attractions added in together to give an overview of some of the other points of interest that you can experience whilst in the fair Victorian capital. These will include: 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 MCG Tour and National Sports Museum. Because I am a glutton for punishment and like us all, a bit of a theme park nut, I will be visiting Wet 'N'Wild Sydney this weekend and also our annual Jamberoo trip is the weekend after. I will post a trip report for each of them as well in the coming days. Thanks for letting me share our experiences and I hope you have enjoyed the trip reports as they come.

Surprised to see no discounts on Yabby Lake wine or Lisa Blue Bikinis. 🤨

I just realised this post moved onto the next page, and may now be taken woefully out of context!!!q

But.... they were dangling!... DANGLING I TELL YOU!

Hi guys,THIS WILL BE A HELL OF A LOT OF INSIDER INFO FOR EVERYTHING HAPPENING AT DREAMWORLD AND SKY VOYAGER ITSELF but I can't give away too much personal revealing information due to my job being on the line: but Sky Voyager is now fully operational and test runs have been happening for more than a week now behind the scenes. Staff have been invited to ride it nearly every day for the last week while ride operators are being trained up. (Additionally, insider information has suggested White Water World will be closing down for the entire winter period and not just revised trading hours. first time in its history other than the Rapids incident. The park simply isn't making enough money and the costs are higher than profits, which means lots of staff will be laid off but invited back for the summer. Which isn't gonna happen: The lifeguard staff are gonna say "See ya later" and WWW will be absolutely screwed). Also, insider word is that WWW will have its hours revised 11am-4pm in the coming weeks - while it is still summer! This is unprecedented news. Believe me if you want, but I'm speaking the truth of what I've heard. Also, certain themed areas inside Dreamworld (such as Dreamworks and Ocean Parade) will have revised hours of ride operations from 11am-4pm while Dreamworld itself will stay open 10am-5pm. As you can imagine, all staff are extremely irritated by this to say the least. Another piece of devastating news: the lazy river has been completely put on hold with no intention to bring it to life anytime soon (due to extreme cost blowouts and low attendance, it was originally going to feature an 8 million dollar crocodile enclosure as you floated past) - even though earthworks have significantly dug, there is no more lazy river in the works. Not at least for another 2 years is my opinion. The dug out earth was used to fill the old river rapids track area. Now back to Sky Voyager *SPOILERS ALERT*, after you line up in the front queue lines, 60 people will be taken inside at one time. There are 2 x seperate holding rooms that will hold 60 people per room, and the main ride room itself will host an additional 60 riders - the ride consists of 6 x 10-seat gondolas. Two levels with 3 x 10-seat gondolas per level. So 30 on top, 30 on the bottom. There will be a total of 180 guests inside the building at any one time with 60 people for each of the two holding rooms + ride room itself. Now the experience: after you enter from the outside doors, in the first holding room guests are sorted into two separate groups of 30 (one group on the left, the other on the right). Tthe left holding room will ride on the lower level, the right holding room will ride on the upper level of the gondolas. Both of the holding rooms are technically one big room, the first has a metal bar dividing the two groups (similar bars to the queue line bars). You then move into the second holding room which is where the real journey begins. there is a screen dividing the two groups, with 30 on each side of the screen. In this holding room, you stand for about 7 minutes watching a preview video that talks about indigenous culture and Australia in general with cool imagery - but not birds eye views of locations. The sound is a little echo-ey in this room due to the size. There isn't much space to stand though with 60 people in the entire room (30 on each side). You're then invited into the actual ride entrance area, left -side staying on ground level to cater for disabled, the right group walks up stairs. Once you have arrived at the actual ride entrance, you have to stand on a sticker-marker on the floor that will determine your seat position and this is where you are briefed. You then walk in, ride, and exit out the opposite side through the gift shop. The ride itself is pretty cool. It's very unique and unlike any other ride the gold coast parks have to offer. The ride goes for about 7 minutes. There are multiple scents, lots of mist experiences, lots of different ranges of movements depending on the scene shown on the screen. I would recommend sitting on the bottom level over the top, and ALWAYS try to sit in the middle gondola regardless of the level otherwise the screen is a little skewed if you're on the side gondolas. The reason for the bottom level is because the screen is curved at the bottom and on the sides, but not on top (which ruins the completely immersed aesthetic as you can see blackness at the top of the screen where it cuts off (hard to explain til you see it), so you dont feel 100% immersed, only 90%.The ride had a budget blowout of a total cost of $23 million dollars, making this the most expensive ride in Dreamworld's history. It is a cool ride, but i don't think it will draw crowds in like they're expecting simply due to the fact that it isn't a thrill ride (or a ride with a title of 'tallest' or 'fastest', like Tower of Terror was when it opened). I have rode multiple times now, even expecting what I had heard from other stuff, I wasn't expecting it to wow me - But it definitely did - although by the second time the wow-factor was somewhat diminished as there is only one video and no other versions in the works for the time being. This ride will amaze families, middle aged and elderly guests, but not thrill riders. I can imagine the Chinese absolutely lapping this up when they come to visit. Very, very suited to those who want a completely immersive pleasure ride (and not a tradtional thrill ride). This is undoubtedly one of Dreamworld's best assets due to its suitability to all audiences, but a definite crowd favourite with those previously mentioned groups. I predict an opening of about 14 February (Valentine's Day), but there is absolutely no hear-say on that even amongst staff - there has been no opening date set even within the park. But the merch shop at the end isn't finished yet, which is why I predict this date.

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

If you don't think Dreamworld is thriving, I'd suggest you can't have been lately. It's pumping. Much better atmosphere than any other theme park in Australia, that's for sure!