Leaderboard

Can an admin PLEASE do something about whitewaterwanker aka @Www worker 3.0 Absolutely sick of logging in to 5 notifcations of he/she putting bloody fountains on everything I post. Pm’d and politely asked they stop, which has been met with it happening more. I’d put them on ignore but I think that just blocks me from seeming them not vice versa so it won’t stop. I’ve had patience but after 2 weeks of it I’m done...

I visited Toverland last year, and you can see all the photos of it here. I was staying in Essen, Germany, which is only about 60km as the crow flies, but the journey took like 3 hours due to having to change trains at Viersen, and then again at Venlo, before finally getting a local bus to the park from Horst Severnum. To add insult to injury, my first train was late to Viersen, causing a missed connection by a matter of minutes, and a 50 min wait for the next train. I didn’t reach the park till after opening. I cant really recall what order I did stuff, so I’ll just give some impressions and the stuff I did. The park is basically just a couple of green sheds, with some nicely themed outdoor rides and some other bits that are tidy, but otherwhise generic feeling. Both the sheds felt a bit dark inside, and the theming never feels truly immersive because there’s no escaping being in a giant shed….Some of the set pieces look great, but they feel “Stuck In”. (Eg look back at how the main entrance looked) The themed areas get better in the outside bit, except for the original play areas and Booster Bike. One thing I liked about the park (And in Europe in general) is the large number of play areas and playgrounds scatted through the park. As a kid, this would be awesome, I remember when I was little I preferred playgrounds to mini kids rides! As for the rides: Boomerang Perhaps the only Vekoma named Boomerang that isn’t a Boomerang. This one is a kiddy coaster, but actually has a pretty cool layout that is more than just the gradual helices you see on roadrunner. Only one train available though (Which was the theme for the day!) Booster Bike Not Bad actually, but perhaps a bit forceless, though this is a family ride. The cable launch did have a bit of kick to it though. Much more comfortable than the Intamin or Zamperla bikes. I did feel the layout could have done a bit more, it was really just a couple of sweeping turns in an extended figure 8, some hills, and then done. Dweverlwind This was a good one, a mack spinning coaster with a really intricately themed station with spinning flower type things on the roof that I guess reflect the spinning nature of the ride. Everything would come to life whenever the train departed or arrived. The ride itself is well structured, with a big first drop and high banked horseshoe, and then after that its all fairly low to the ground helices and s bends, keeping the pace right up. Backstroke This was an indoor outdoor flume ride by mack, made from modular galvanised steel trough sections, so it carried a similar feel to the some of the transportable mack flumes. It was pretty middle of the road to be honest, with a few turns inside and a backwards drop, then a bigger lift hill to the outside of the building, with a full sized drop. I had arribatta pasta for lunch at a nearby eatery….F&B aint this parks strong point, I’ll leave it there. Aqua Snake So a lot of parks in Europe have these dry water slides you ride in your street clothes, to date, most parks have just had the straight drop / wavy drop ones, but this one was a proper enclosed water slide with a helix, so I just did it for the sake of it really. If you’ve ridden Broken Headz at WWW, you know what to expect. Djengu River This one is a Hafema river rapids, but it was fairly conventional, with none of their fancy elements like whirlpool drops or vertical lifts and the like. The theming was immense, one of the prettiest rapids rides out there, despite a challenging design where it was built above ground. Just compare this: To the abomination at Legoland Windsor built in similar circumstances. Maximillius Blitz Bahn A Bobkart ride. For those unfamiliar, its like one of those toboggans you control the speed of with levers, like at Jamberoo/Funfields/Big Banana etc. Except its not on a hillside, and the carts are electric. I felt this design lacks a certain something, like you know Weigand invented the ride for clients who don’t have a sloping site, but on the other hand its not quite the same without the feeling of gaining speed till you are scared you are going to flip the thing over The ride is a bit low capacity, so has a really well themed queue themed to an inventors workshop, with lots of moving bits and bobs, including a kinetic ball machine sculpture in one of the rooms. Fenix Spited by this one, it was still under construction. This is the second time I’ve missed a wing rider by months, the first such instance being when I was at Holiday World when Thunderbird was under construction. They were also building a boat ride and dark ride simultaneously. I thought it strange they would put the dark ride in the outdoor section of the park instead of connecting it to the indoor area with the other all weather attractions. Katara – Fountain of Magic I mentioned the play areas scattered throughout the park, but things like this fountain show demonstrate the way this park just has a whole bunch of “nice” things that aren’t necessarily drawcards, but work to make the park a good overall package. It was an enjoyable diversion for a few minutes and compact enough to take in all at once. Parden Van Ithaka Wooo, time to tick off a new ride type. You just sit on a horse that runs along a monorail track , which bobs a bit. Good for the kids, but you saw a few bigger ones having a ride for a laugh. Toverhuis This was my first go at a magiquest, which is basically magic wands that are glorified remote controls. You wander through a small house with effects that can be activated by pointing your wand. It’s a bit like what DC Villains and its interactive stuff is like , but on a smaller scale. Villa Fiasko One of the best things in the park, a traditional style funhouse, including a revolving tunnel you can plant your hands firmly inside and do a cartwheel type manouver. Theres all your usual spinning platforms, shaking walkway, and inflatable rollers things you squeeze through, rubbing your face where everyone else presumably has. A slide for the kids joins the top and bottom floor. Troy The highlight of the park was this sprawling GCI Twister coaster, at this point I can probably recycle my reviews of them. They are a bit samey (Including that station flythrough element), but generally quite solid rides, with fast pacing and a confusing layout. Sadly only 1 train on, which meant an unnecessary wait and only a couple of rides managed. The ride sat in a nice ancient Greek themed zone. So that’s Toverland. A few more of the park: I’ll be interested to see how the park grows, they seem to select good attractions and integrate them well. I’d gladly revisit the Netherlands, and here, in the future.

Hi all. Went down to LPS today. Took some photos of Volare. It seems it has been under test or they are preparing for testing during the week while the park is closed. Also interesting to note ( it is in the pictures ) that a ride camera is facing towards Volare. It does visually fit into the area rather well. It seems like it will be another single operator ride as the gates will be controlled by actuators much like the Tango train 2.0. So i'd say it will be open hopefully within the next two or three weeks.

What I don't get - i got 5 reacts on Saturday - 4 fountains, and one thumbs up? like wtf? at least be consistent!

Steamed hams.

On one hand, good on them for waiting until it's properly ready before opening. But fairly terrible on the marketing/expectation setting front, not only is their ride not open (seemingly not any time soon either), an already cash-strapped park has wasted a pile of money on promotional spend as well. Once again, Ardent clearly have no idea how to run a theme park...

The rectangular banner underneath the main billboard used to say “coming/arriving this summer”. It’s now been replaced with an ad for annual passes and afterpay

What they should do is have a paid section to the Coaster with awesome theming and better coaster elements and a free section with alright theming and average coaster elements.

Yeah there is a new section dedicated to Scrappy’s throbbing biceps.. it’s an upcharge for $25.

Honestly, Merlin buying DW would be many an enthusiast's dream come true, and it does make a lick of sense as they are making investment into Australia. But I don't see it happening. Merlin already has their hands full with opening Legoland Discovery Centres in this country and building new Legoland parks every other year. Dreamworld would be far too big of an investment to take on for a company so new to Australia even though they have bought parks in the past with their acquisition of Gardaland and Cypress Gardens in the past. Alternatively, and this might be a far-fetched theory to some, but this is the most likely way Merlin will invest into DW - Merlin could buy the park as it is like Cypress Gardens and DW will become the next Legoland. Still not a great park but its better than housing , and the Gold Coast definitely has the tourism base to build a Legoland if Legolands are being built in Korea and have been completed in Malaysia. Who knows, Merlin may want to take the next step with bringing the Lego brand into Australia and build a theme park. DW is the prime position for a Legoland. Even if it is a strictly family only park due to its IP and attractions, if that is what keeps Dreamworld alive, I'm all for this transformation. At the end of the day, Dreamworld being protected by legislation a la LPS will be the only way to ensure Ardent won't be the park's final owner. The park is iconic to millions in spite of its weak reputation in the community following the TRRR disaster. If the park did actually end up closing it would be a national tragedy, on the scale of when Toys R Us collapsed around the world in 2018. Every single member of this board would be sad to see DW close whether or not you saw it coming. Not to mention from an analytical point of view, it would damage our industry massively - VRTP would essentially have a monopoly over theme parks in Australia as they have no competition in the region and very little investment would be made in their parks in the future compared to today. The competition between DW and VRTP has brought us rides like DC Rivals, Superman Escape and Tower of Terror, among others. Big rides were built to draw the crowds away from the competitor and towards the park building it. We wouldn't be getting rides on the scale of those if VRTP didn't have any competition. Whether you like the park or you don't, it needs to be recognised that Dreamworld needs to remain in operation to ensure our parks' profile on the world stage continues to expand.

How does that stop fountains on every post?

It's not good on them for not opening it. DW are not allowed to open it.

I guess the problem here is that the billboard doesn't say "coming/opening soon" or "now open", so people who see the advertisement would most likely assume that they're advertising an open attraction.

8 hours is a big stretch. You certainly wouldn’t make it in that time if there was any significant adjacent road works where you’re forced to do 80 when there’s is literally nothing happening on the road you are driving on. 11ish hours if you factor in some stretching/meal breaks is probably pretty accurate

This might be the wrong attitude to take but for some reason I've always found the old and faded stars made it seem like more history had happened and like you're more connected to the person. Reality is of course that the person's named probably didn't even know they were getting a star, but the older faded stars always made it seem more legit to me.

Well at least it’s no longer “coming this summer”

You know what? You're right; the Wonderland wave swinger - Dragon's Flight - was a separate unit to the Magic Mountain one. Turns out I made a mistake. I knew a ride from MM had gone to Wonderland, but it was actually the Parachute Drop Tower that was sent there in 1991, where it was renamed the "Skyhawk". Sorry for the flub... Anyway, time for a weekly Volare update: the weather was MUCH more pleasant this week. A large crowd had gathered at the Big Top to attend the Rita Ora concert, so it was pretty busy. The ride itself is practically finished. Not too sure if the city backdrop fits the ride though...

Massively missed opportunity. Would absolutely help the "Movie" theming of the park versus the "DC Comics" path they've been going down.

Yeah aware of that... but you kind of stumble upon that. It’s not exacty well presented, and I’m not sure how “up to date” it is. Does it have Johnny Depp, Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins & Jason Momoa”? I’m not sure but something tells me no...

That’s a cool addition! Wish they had a permanent walk or wall of such things from all actors/actresses that film at the studio

I think it will naturally be effected by the bypass. Maybe not so much as some of the smaller towns that have almost died as a result of bypasses, but it will be effected. I avoid any where that involves getting off the highway unless it’s for an overnight stay. Coffs is too close to stop at on the southern trek to Sydney, and I feel it’s almost too far to bother stopping if heading in the other direction, but hey, that’s just me and I do the entire trip in one go 90% of the time

Haven’t seen that iteration up here on the GC at all...

Yeah I dont think that it will be overly affected to be honest. Coffs Harbour is a destination in itself and situated perfectly halfway to the Gold Coast. Its the perfect place to stay for travellers from Sydney or Newcastle. I think that you plan to stay in Coffs no matter what and a bypass isnt going to affect this decision overly much. If you are just passing through and doing the 8 hour run in one go, the bypass will be most welcome.

A Dan Murphy's would work better with a cricket field.

Poison Ivy has returned And look what else is back

Dreamworld's results also benefited from better weather. Just sayin.

Cost would be too high to keep it as a theme park as so they have too many old rides that are past there best and would have to be removed. They would get value selling it for land and development. It sad I used to live in Sydney and had to go thru losing wonderland Sydney, now I’m up here I don’t want to lose it but honestly it look like time is running out to save dreamworld