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Well, it's certainly taken a while, but I'm at Dreamworld right now and at long last SkyVoyager is actually, finally open! I'm in the queue, which only has about 20 people at the moment. Hopefully it'll be worth the wait.

Blue = Admin Green = kitchen / staff space Red = Admin Brown = large storage Purple = show / parade / entertainment maintenance area Pink = dry food storage Orange = Ride maintenance (strip down/rebuild)

I got 52 seconds in, how'd everyone else go?

Wicker Man - Alton Towers.

Just announced, sky voyager is being retired.

At least the opening date is an easy one to remember to celebrate the anniversary each year!

Whilst I’m not interested in the semantics of dictionary definitions - it’s an extremely poorly planned and thought out idea. to tell people you’ll be broadcasting live from somewhere you have yet to receive permission to do so from is straight up dumb. To then get annoyed when your request is denied because a) you didn’t have prior permission and b) it contravenes the rules of the park, is just doubling down on dumb. to then record and post a video whinging about your poor planning and lack of forethough and somehow making that the parks fault, isn’t tripling down on dumb, it’s just flat out stupid. Lets leave “tantrum” aside, as I prefer “hissy fit”. "Hissy fit" used to describe an adult tantrum but now has become an equal opportunity description, young or old, male or female. What they all have in common is no matter how severe the (alleged) offense, there is always some wounded pride involved, and usually an audience of bystanders along with the culprit who allegedly triggered the hissy.

Yeah, and I quote; I reckon I saw maybe ten stunts in all that time, but a shitload of yakkity-yakyak and what the blue fuck was with the dance? tl;dr list of wtf; Creepy cover version of instrumental of Highway to Hell. Unclear who the audience are supposed to identify with. What is with the bike ramp and BMX stunts? You should never let the cast hot-dog to the crowd for longer than the stunt lasted. Cotton Eye Joe? A song that was divisive even back in 1995 - in a new show more than two decades later? I can't even... What's the point of the River Rats characters if they are going to dance with the Kurt Angles at the end of it? Ratio of talk to stunts is waaaay out of whack. What, we couldn't have spent any time on themeing up the boats except for the truck (whose wheels clearly do not spin, but other than that is decent)? The cadence of the show is all wrong. Everything seems to be about having the stuntperson stand there in front of the crowd, say something asinine in the name of 'story', and then send the stuntperson off to circumnavigate the lake before they do their next trip, leading to dead air while we wait. What/where was the 'big finish' stunt? If you want to try and salvage something from this here's some tips; The stuntpeople don't need to return to the main stage after every trick. Keep them in the water for the most part to allow them to be ready sooner. There needs to be a clear progression in the scale of the stunts. On a lake of that size you need to be prepared to run stunts that involve two or more stuntpeople on the same stunt (two separate stunts adjacent to each other is not the same thing). Ditch the crappy A vs B narrative once and for all. The audience is not interested; you give them no reason to identify with your characters, not your cause. If you must keep it then instead of having them compete 'just cause' or 'for the lake' have them compete to give the best show to the fans. None of the bullshit fake rivalry - make it real; real stunt-people working on stunts to play to the crowd. At the end have both groups combine for some large scale stuff to end people off happy. Do not do the dance. Ever again. Like, ever. I mean it. Don't. Do something with the set on the island. I don't care what. Jump a boat through it, swing somebody off it onto a boat. I don't know, just something. It dominates the view and adds nothing. Lose the BMX stuff. It is out of place and adds nothing to the show. We know Showtime does BMX stunts, but this is not the place for it. Lose the hotrod. It takes a long time to get out there and does nothing for the show. This isn't a motorsport show, no matter how much you'd like it to be. You need to find some more height in some of the stunts because this all felt a bit small-scale. Never allow more than 45 seconds to elapse between stunts.

Only if you have a sooky outburst............

Where did you source the information from that it will be a wooden rollercoaster? hahahah just remembered, April Fools, you got me😎

Source?

Oooooooooo a Giant Sea Worm😊 - early rendering, no doubt first of April edition.

It's easier to run a theme park when the owners are willing to spend money. I can only imagine the fights Craig Davidson encountered trying to get any money out of Ardent.

'days before' ? I once did a still photo shoot for Jamberoo. We contacted the park, and were given a marketing contact. we contacted them. they took a couple weeks to get back to us. then we spoke, discussed our plans, and agreed what we could do. then we gave them a date we'd like to come. then they said that didn't work for them as they couldn't arrange for Dax to meet us that weekend, so we changed our date. We then presented at the ticket counter, explaining who we were, and waited at the front gate for their representative to meet us, sign us in, and issue us with a visitor pass that would identify us to their staff. This whole process took about 3 months. I'm currently in the process of planning a trip O/S - which isn't for another year. If I were intending on visiting parks over there for "commercial" purposes, i'd be contacting them now. I can see why others would call it a tantrum, and now i've read the entire thread I see we've settled on 'hissy fit'. My personal thoughts were "having a big sook". ...first you need to fill out an application form and pay the required fee. You'll be notified in 4-6 weeks whether your application has been successful. This. Probably a perfect marketing slogan for PCL.

Got down to the park today to check out Luna Park's lates ride - the Volarè (and can confirm it is pronounced VOL-ARE-AY). So, first impressions. Walking into the park, it absolutely DOMINATES the midway, and although the chairs don't entirely swing out past the edge, it's certainly incredible being up so high.The backdrop (as others have mentioned) has been updated and features some new buildings, as well as clouds at the bottom. IMO, the backdrop fits in quite nicely, which was definitely surprising but nice to see. As for the ride itself, I had two rides on it throughout the day and this thing absolutely halls ass! One of the more forceful wave swingers I've ever done, and much more so than the Zierer models. The drives are super loud, which certainly adds to the atmosphere of the ride, along with the screaming of riders. Operations were a bit slow, but considering the 64 capacity, it only took around 15 minutes to get on with a relatively full queue, which was nice. As for the appearance of the ride itself, I think that although Zierer would have done a better job, the overall appearance of the ride is pretty spot on, and certainly fits in with the aesthetic of Luna Park.The characters murals surrounding the top of the ride are a really nice touch, and the lighting also reflects a typical old-fashioned funfair/carnival vibe. I have a on-ride video I filmed (with park permission of course) that I will post as soon as my computer figures out how to handle 4K clips, until then, enjoy the pictures.

@T-bone Maybe you can become the new DW train driver

Can’t remember which shed, but one of those is crates staked on cates of Xmas, haloween decorations and spare parts

Genuinely though, it is only 2 performances in and I would expect things to change. I actually don't really want to watch the opening show online and be too critical. I will go watch this one and see what it's like. I think I know what it'll be like, I think it'll be the sort of show that even 12 year old me would've found too cheesy. It seems like a 40 something year old man's take on what kids like, only to find that kids likes have changed in the last 30 years. That's the attitude I'll be going in with, but I really do want to like it too. Getting rid of the Ski Show was the dumbest thing the new management team did when they came in. A real fuck you to the park's history and tradition. Also from a showmanship point of view it was stupid, putting a high dive show on such a massive lake was never going to be impressive. So I'm really happy that finally something a bit bigger is going on the lake. It's just a shame that instead of Waterski Wipeout which was cheesy, but fun, we get basically the same thing but seemingly played straight and edgy. Hopefully I'm wrong, those who have seen the video will know if I'm wrong, and by all means let me know. I'll find out for sure in a week or two.

True, and some European fairs are the perfect example of well maintained attractions. There are many around the 30 year mark that look and run better than even some park rides!

I'm still yet to experience a Shot 'N' Drop, and its a shame that they didn't keep the original artwork on it, but I hear theyre a fun tower, im not a fan of drop towers, couldn't bring myself to ride the Funtime 80m Hangover Tower, but i'm all for a Shot N Drop. The S&S Shots are a good time!

April fools! 🤷‍♂️😂

Any other park and I would believed you. I would've gone the Dreamworld Express replacement angle.

Well this is beyond a joke! Just when I think I'm going to be allowed in they tell us SkyVoyager is closed due to "technical issues", and may or may not open later today. That's spoilt my day.

Yep, Adventure World would be a good fit for a bowl slide. A Boomerango or Tantrum-style slide would be a good choice also but I can see the bowl going in first. On the topic of Bountys, it was an old ride when it closed. When they shuttered Bountys, the ride wasn't in great condition. It is good to know unlike any other theme park in Australia, Adventure World actually kept part of the ride as a theming element within the park. I'd like to see more of our parks doing that. For example when Corkscrew was removed, Sea World could have kept one of the corkscrews (or both) and placed it at the gate similar to Alton Towers. Or Dreamworld integrating Wipeout's wave structure and/or the old surfboards into their new seating area.

^it worked for HairRaiser at Luna Park?

For those who are in "The Dead Skeeta Society" you can expect a full update when I get back in the office. For the rest of you.

Why heavily promote something you haven't completed and don't have approval for?

You mean, immortalising it in the park's history, rather than putting an oxy torch through the middle of it and wiping it out of the park altogether? Was there really a need for you to quote every picture all over again? Positive news @iwerks - good to see the park hasn't completely lost its momentum when Mark departed.

We just need this here, and ill be happy, although the almost 9-minute ride did almost make me pass away haha

Great pics mate- nice job!!! Yep the Volare is certainly looking to be a big hit for the park- the public are really loving it!! Great to see that the theming around the ride has been restored ( love that giant electrical plug -thanks for the pics on that @19Michael96!!) Looking forward to getting a ride on it as soon as I can. Yeah a little bit of love for them would be nice but I think like the Moon Ranger, their days at LPS are numbered. You can bet that in order to continue the $20 million ride reinvestment, these older rides are going to have to make way for the newer attractions as they come online. It would be nice to see them stay in Australia though- perhaps one of the Victorian theme parks like Funfields or Adventure Park or even Aussie World could be a potential home for these rare rides.

1. Visit a theme park to film without permission. 2. Act shocked when you're caught and told you're not allowed equipment like cameras and microphones. 3. Upload a video having a tantrum because you weren't given special treatment.

The official staff launch party for Sky Voyager was last night. Meaning skyvoyager is ready to ride. Predicted opening is APR 6,7, or 8.

I woodn't have a clue what they're doing. I hope they do remove vikings soon though. repurpose the stationhouse into something useful and remove the rest of the track, or just level the entire area (with obvious care taken not to impact storm or Jet Rescue. Personally I think it'd be a nice tribute if they kept the stationhouse and somehow transformed it into something reminiscent of Vikings (the ride or the people, it doesn't matter). A bit of external theming - maybe a coffee house, merch store...?