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And in no way do I see Leviathan as a family or family thrill coaster, no matter what the park says. It may have a lower height requirement, but it’s the most thrilling attraction in the park. In terms of thrill level, I suspect it will be most comparable too TNT at Gumbuya World/Flight of the Wicked Witch at Movie World. But honestly, I think Jungle Rush will stand on its own in terms of what it has to offer.

I think people might need to lower their expectations if they believe if they believe Jungle Rush will be as intense as Leviathan from what we have seen. The height of the first hill looks similar to a Vekoma Family Boomerang which has a top speed of 58kph. In comparison Leviathan has a top speed of 80kph. I think this JR will sit somewhere between 60kph & 70kph. DW’s press release said - “experience to everyone from younger generations to grandma and grandad”.

‘Family-Thrill’ is just an ever-increasing subset of coasters, meaning a ride that’s accessible to wider audiences (generally via a shorter ride height (in both meanings of the word), no major positives/ejector airtime, and by focusing on more ‘graceful’ shaping), whilst still containing some elements that pop (generally opting for graceful negatives > positives, so most leaning towards floater airtime, with boomerangs using spikes & some options including an inversion or 2), which parks are wanting to do more and more, both because they’re a safer investment than balls-to-the-wall thrill (as well as generally being cheaper before theming), and most parks have historically had a drought of rides in the genre, seemingly jumping straight from kiddie coasters to completely thrill-focused ones. Vekoma’s been filling this subset with their models/rides for much longer than Gravity Group (think their Family Boomerangs, Mine Trains, recent SFC’s, & all their Disney coasters), and almost every major manufacturer has at least begun to dabble in ‘em, either with models solely for the category (Recent examples being the RMC Wild Moose, B&M Surf Coaster, Intamin Multi Dimension Coaster, & many other manufacturers’ Vekoma-like models), or by adapting their existing models’ layouts/features to suit a tamer experience (Mack Launch Coaster - Manta, B&M Wing Coaster - Mandrill Mayhem/Maximus, Intamin Blitz - Cheetah Hunt, etc.).

What we held wasn't a fast pass as such, just essentially a free entry pass, so no timed entry to the land was required, and we didn't need specific timeslots to experience the ride, so we could ride whenever, and repeatedly. I've seen some videos of people explaining how to do it for free, and you can, but we were happy to not have to stress about it, and consider our pass to be well worth it. Most ride queues in FS hovered around 5-15 minutes most of the day because the return timeslots were staggered for those who obtained or purchased an entry, so you do get to experience the queues (and many people stopped to take photos of the queues) but you aren't stuck in a queue room for 20-30 minutes at a go, and can practically walk on in most cases if that's what you want to do. The exception to this is the Tinkerbell buggies which did not have a split standby \ priority queue. Anyone could ride this at any time simply by lining up, so it frequently held at around 30 minutes, which was most of the queue races and occasionally spilled out onto the street. We found if it was too long, we'd go and ride either Frozen or Peter Pan (the two nearest) and when you came back the line had shrunk again. The Tinkerbell queue is mostly outdoor and very highly detailed with the 'you're shrunk to the size of a fairy, this queue pole is actually a sewing needle and this giant bench is a hair comb' kind of theming, so it was engaging the entire time. (Much of the frozen, pan and tangled queues were fairly plain, "themed" walls with a few props laid about, but not really something that you'd continue to find more and more details the longer you stood there. photo ops abounded, but not really 'engaging' queues. (ETA: I should add that the rest of the resort's attractions, where 40th passes or DPA applied, in most cases you were merged back into the GA line a small distance from the front, and most queues paralleled each other. I believe Beauty and the Beast standby queue has quite a bit of well themed queue inside the castle, but there was no way we were losing 2+ hours in standby to see it, so our package bookings and DPA were sufficient.)

Our package included unlimited entry and rides in fantasy springs. I'm currently listening to the music album of the rides. I've got mixed opinions about TDR as a whole, but insofar as fantasy springs goes: Arendelle - Hong Kong did it better. The frozen ride itself however was far better than Hong Kong. Neverland - looked great and the ride was top notch. Tinkerbell outdoor ride - a nice touch to give the fairies a place in the park, ride is jerkier than Disneyland's Alice ride, ouch! Tangled - beautiful ride, would have liked them to put as much effort into it as Frozen but we all know which franchise prints money. Restaurants are all counter service \ mobile order. No sit-down, table service options is a miss IMO. Retail space was lacking - they heavily relied on the gift shop in the ground floor of the hotel. The rockwork and water fountains were cool, but it's clear they've built it for the locals to have photo ops and it was near impossible to see these without hordes of girls and their photographers clamouring for 'space' to have the perfect shot. The current entry system required wristbands once entry had been validated, though they handed these out at the entry and at every attraction entrance, which slowed down the queues considerably. Additionally the wristbands were a cloth ribbon with a one way fastener that could be tightened, but not loosened. As the day progressed, these would work their way tighter, until it became uncomfortable. All FS cast carried scissors, so this was an obvious problem. As a benefit of our package, we hit everything in FS before most of the entry request timeslots started, so were able to lap the attractions a few times very quickly. As the day went on, it became increasingly crowded, and we elected to go spend the rest of our time in other ports, which were comparably empty and made the rest of the park a lot quieter, so we managed to tick off most of what we wanted to do in one day.

Yes, have several workers pull consistent all-nighters so they can bring cranes into the ride envelope, paint a couple track pieces if they’re lucky, then remove ‘em all by the time testing begins in the morning, at which point none of the paint will have dried & the only thing that’s pink’ll be the train. That sounds both ethical, logical, and financially viable.

The lighting package on Cosmo Clock 21 Ferris Wheel is great.

By the look of the track, the coaster will have a few snappy elements.

It's a Jeep, not a train, so timber sleepers would look off.

To all those who are interested... Further to my day to day work as a landscape architect, I re-create places, landscapes and architecture, which no longer exist. These include places I have visited, and those I see a strong public attachment to, which have been demolished or altered. I am currently putting together a model of the demolished Tomorrow's Harvest (formerly adjacent the Big Pineapple, Qld), to be viewed as a 3D walkthrough and VR experience. Before I delve into some of the progress I firstly would like to extend thanks to all who have uploaded images and footage of the Big Pineapple and Tomorrow's Harvest to date. It is incredibly useful, as reference material has been hard to come by. This parkz thread has been useful, but the youtube video within the post has been made private - I would love to see it and any other footage of tomorrow's harvest that may be floating around the web (some drone footage has been handy). I have already come across the Burnt Feather Blog and a few of the photos on Flickr. The book 'Our Sweetest Icon' has also been useful. As with previous projects, I have been using autocad, sketchup, and enscape to produce the model. I created the underlying frame structure some time ago, but left the whole project on hold for three years. I refer to historic aerial maps via nearmaps to gauge the dimensions, in addition to the photographs. Tomorrow's Harvest was a low-key flume ride that focused on agriculture through the ages. The interior was lined with crops and sub tropical flora, and the sporadic appearance of animatronic robots were amongst the other memorable features (foreshadowing AI perhaps). There elements will be added, plus the cave and other internal structures. Feel free to reach out with any comments, links, photos and footage you may have! It is great to read the heritage listed Big Pineapple has been given a facelift!

Here's a great souvenir video from 1996, featuring the currently only known footage of Tomorrow's Harvest.