Richard

I'm iffy on the $11 mil figure too. I'm guessing it's out of the latest report which will explain it... You're reading WVTP's totals - taking out absolutely everything that they spent money on. That's the money that Village Roadshow and the shareholders see in dividends (or rather don't see thanks, to some dodgey runnings... but this isn't the place ). I'll say that the $16 mil profits you're talking about for Sea World are not including investments. The fact that it is for the single park alone proves that, as they don't fund their own capital expenditure. Because the money for investment comes out of Warner Village, to Village Roadshow. WVTP will show off all their fancy figures and projections to the Village Roadshow board who will give them the money they want, and that money will be taken out of the figures you read in the reports. While we're in this financial mode, it's also interesting to see that Dreamworld's just announced a 13% increase in income and a total 3.2% increase in attendance, while WVTP are saying that SARS and wars and whatnot are killing them. I hope Warner Village have finally learned that though the local market mightn't be as lucrative, it sure as hell is a safer bet.

Well, if the truth must be told, I've been watching a lot of Nickelodeon the past few weeks - three hours of SpongeBob every day (12 'til 3) isn't so bad, especially since TV1 took off my Seinfeld, Becker, Frasier and Just Shoot Me lunchtime TV offerings (Monday to Friday I'm proud to say I have no life). The "Sarvo Dreamin' " thing doesn't seem half bad - it's targeting every 9-12 year old who watches Nickelodeon in the Greater Brisbane area, which isn't half bad marketing. Dreamworld's turn will come at Christmas, and I'll put my money down now and say that what they're up to will be the best low budget attraction of 2003.

For me, it's probably a tie between Scooby-Doo and Sea World's Corkscrew. Scooby-Doo is a great ride, unparalleled theming and incredibly unique in every sense of the term, but the actual ride isn't the most comfortable - there's some pretty awful transitions (in the coaster section) which really don't do the neck or lap much good. Maybe if you weren't worrying about how your neck has been twisted, you could enjoy some of the drops a little more. As for Corkscrew, I ask you what more you could want in a ride. It's silky smooth, has fantastic airtime on the first drop (easily/sadly the best airtime we've got in Australia), three inversions, a superb headchopper and it actually fits into its surroundings. It's a better ride than Cyclone (if Dreamworld actually gave it some maintenance and kept it running as smooth as it was in its first six months, it might be above Corkscrew), and Lethal Weapon's far too rough and just doesn't do it for me (though I can't argue with that sweet airtime hill before the sidewinder). And there's absolutely nothing south of the border that interests me - aside from Toboggans, which in themselves are much more thrilling and fun than any coaster I've been on, but I don't think many people acknowledge them as coasters (maybe I'll have to change that ). Oh and yes, Scooby-Doo does still change everything.

To convert it from winter to summer mode, they simply place steel frames into each of the 12 spas, and the top of each is capped to close them off. You'll notice that the spas are actally set into the base of the ring, which is 1.2m below the surface. They fill the ring with water, and that's the attraction. It mightn't sound like it's very deep, but remember you're in rings - this is basically just a faster version of Calypso Beach (also 1.2m deep). You can see in the sides of the walls, the vents that are angled in all different ways to create the current and whirlpools.

That's precisely my point - they don't visit because of the lack of good, modern rides. If the investment were to be made by the park for say a new coaster, then believe me, the boost in attendance would be far more significant than any increase they'd get if they were to add "family" attractions. Again, to tie this in, Dreamworld gets noticeable, but not overly significant attendance increases when they install a new thrill ride. Believe me when I say Nick Central has really done wonders for the park in terms of attendance boosts.

Dreamworld 10 or 15 years ago wasn't the park it is today. Back then, you'd find, as with Wonderland today, a majority of the guests are families. I remember visiting with my family, and you'd just about be surrounded entirely by families. All it took at Dreamworld was a Wipeout or Tower of Terror to nearly completely flip the market shares. Until Nick Central came, an average day at Dreamworld would have easily more than 50% teens. You'll have seen that change with the introduction of Nick Central (not necessarily a drop in teen attendance, but rather an increase in family attendance). In fact, Nick Central's main purpose was to "balance Dreamworld's strength in the young adults market" - and it's worked tremendously (20% increase in childrens attendance). Flip that statement around, and replace "Nick" with "Marvel", and it works just the same for Wonderland. I think that some thrill rides would do tremendously to balance Wonderland's obviously family-oriented focus. It makes good sense to have a balanced market. Dreamworld coped much better than the other parks on the Gold Coast when the "terrorism" or SARS hit, simply because they actively target the local and regional markets a lot more than the Warner Village parks. As with any share or real estate portfolio, it really pays to diversify. For someone that doesn't really like Dreamworld, I'm sure sounding a lot like a fanboy these days.

Yep, that's the one. Aside from being the ride for a fact, Meisho only produced two coasters in 1982, one with four inversions and one - our Thunderbolt - with two. Has train number two been salvaged for parts for number one, or did Dreamworld bin it? Not really important, but it's something to think about.

Tell me how a theme park that gets roughly the same attendance as Dreamworld, and I'm sure has much the same average in-park spending per person is not making a profit, while Dreamworld's owners are making close to $15 mil per year. If there were any reason that they're not spending money on new rides, it's because Sunway are using income to pay off debt that they incurred buying the park, which is a fair thing. Interestingly (and somewhat off topic), assuming the park's value hasn't changed since they purchased it, it's worth roughly 25% more to Sunway now because of the way currency exchange works.

As Psycho said by law, Wonderland must do eveything "right". I'm not sure on the details, but I don't think there's any way that they can underwrite a prize they're offering. It's not like when someone wins the million on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Channel Nine can just back out of the deal. They'll be licensed/authorised to hold the competition, and I'm sure they'll have various officials present who ensure it's all done properly.

Some say that because the rides are dismantled regularly, they're safer than fixed rides, simply because there's apparently less of a chance that problems with parts will go unseen. I have to disagree with that idea though. They people who own them, from my perspective seem pretty shadey. The company that owns the Mad Mouse have had a string of incidents in the past few months/years, where the cause is 100% operator. How the three cars got past the block that is right before the bunny hill is totally beyond me. The only way that can happen is if the block brake system has been modified, making for an unsafe (and presumably illegal) ride. The fact that there were 12 people on the ride at the time, which means six cars, speaks enough for me - I've worked it out, and there's no way you can fit six cars safely onto the course of the Mad Mouse. I don't think these people should be allowed to operate another ride ever again as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, the Python Loop was a Pinfari Zyklon Z42L if I remember correctly (might have been the Z47L, but I doubt it :?). No idea where it ended up - presumably overseas. Even so, that's absolutely nothing compared to some of these Schwarzkopf monsters. The Luna Park Jetstar is now at Perth's Adventure World as Turbo Mountain. I think it also spent some time in Adelaide somewhere between Sydney and Perth, and the spiral lift was either removed in Adelaide, or before it opened in Perth. RCDB has some good pictures of it, both at Adventure World and Luna Park: http://www.rcdb.com/installationdetail1126.htm

Of course they'd have the million, but they're not counting on giving it away. That's where the odds come in. If, as Nightshifter says, they have 9000 bottles, then there's a 1:9000 chance that the million will be picked up. Wonderland is hardly taking much of a risk, considering also that the sole purpose of it is to get people into the park, which means probably at the end of the day, the park is ahead - regardless of how much they have to pay in prizes.

Well, let's not forget that strangely enough Space Probe debuted around the time that Big Dipper did. Certainly that time around, it could have been seen as a potential threat. Whether the lineup that the "new" Luna Park will have will be seen the same way as Big Dipper was by Wonderland is anyone's guess.

Of course the place won't look too good while they're in the middle of construction, that's something you've got to live with. If the front of the park doesn't look too good at the moment, give it a few months, and once they've finished what they're doing at the moment, I'm sure it'll look better than it did before. $10 mil may have been spent on Space Probe (nearly 10 years ago), but how should that stop them from getting new rides? Dreamworld spent $6 mil on Wipeout, $16 mil on Tower of Terror, another $12 mil on Giant Drop, $5.5 mil on Cyclone and $7 mil on Nick Central. That's $46.5 mil in roughly the same time frame we're talking about with Wonderland. I don't understand how they "blew" the $10 mil either. Space Probe was, and still is a hugely successful ride, and I'm sure the park sees it as one of their best investments to date. They mightn't be getting new rides for a while, but that's for other reasons (you even cited the major reason for no new attractions in your post), certainly not because they can't afford it.

RCDB confirms that - http://rcdb.com/installationdetail492.htm Quite amazing, considering the odd mouse or galaxy, if that, is the best our shows can do. It looks like a great ride, but most reports suggest that the restraints kill the ride. It's something I'd give a shot if I were at the park, but I don't think it'd headline a day at SFMW for me. Not to mention I love the African names - Kumba, Zonga, Zinga... they've just got that nice ring to them.

Don't quote me on this - I'm hardly a traveling ride enthusiast - but I believe that this is the Zipper which was involved. Add of course the incident they had on the chairlift the other day. Hasn't been a good show so far by the sounds of things. From what they showed on the news, it appeared that the car came to a halt on the first bunny hill (see Aussie World's Wild Mouse. The first car stopped near the peak, with two others slamming on the "up" side of the hill (caught by the anti-rollbacks they have on the bunny hills) and the forth hitting the back of the one in front and valleying. I wouldn't want to have been in the fourth car, and I hope everyone injured has a speedy recovery.

Just a few hours ago four cars collided on the Melbourne Royal Show's Mad Mouse, five children were taken to hospital (one in a critical but stable condition). Link: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s954543.htm Let's just hope that nothing happens to the ride, as it is a classic - one of very few remaining (I count five around the world - three of which are in Australia) wooden mice. Other links: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/26/...4083180956.html http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/09/...4083182328.html http://news.ninemsn.com.au/National/story_51985.asp

Very interesting news. They purchased the props from a film set auction recently (could be from a film made down the road?), and they're using them for future attractions. It's not anything from old attractions. No official word on the actual attraction yet, but take into account what I've already said about it. One thing about film props is, despite being incredibly realistic, they're not always (in fact rarely) solid, sturdy things. I trust Dreamworld will give it some sort of reinforcing, because bored people will quickly make a mess of it (see Scooby-Doo's queue area, which isn't nearly as good as it was on the first days in terms of quality of theming). I'm leaning towards walkthrough at this stage, but for no other reason than that if I were Dreamworld, and down the road they've opened a walkthrough targeting teens, I know what I'd be doing. The only sort of show that fits this sort of theme would be a stunt show, and I don't see Dreamworld's entertainment department putting together a stunt show. Shows also need some sort of seating/stadium area, a walkthrough will need a concrete slab and a tin shed (air conditioning too, please!).

Yeah, the second one's probably not going to happen. It was to be the northern parks (Cedar Point, Holiday World inclusive), around June or July, but right now, a nice NZ ski trip instead is sounding very nice. Still, I guess there's always next next year for another trip (and I want to do Europe too after that...).

It's an interesting concept. Clearly, just a gimick, but a pretty fun looking one at that. The Taiwan ride's known Gravity Max, at Discovery World. Originally, some of you might remember (we're talking about 2001 or so) the park was having some financial difficulties and having trouble getting construction completed and the park opening, but it seems to have all come together and I'm guessing it's all operating now without too many problems. A lot of people say they wouldn't trust the ride because of the precarious nature of the tilt, but I did do a lot of research into it's locking mechanisms a while back and it's got plenty of redundant safety systems in place. Beyond the actual hooking/release mechanism, you've got camming devices (as in elevators) and essentially a steel "block", all of which are mechanically pulled out of position through contacts that can only be made in the vertical position. In all honesty, you should be more worried that you're going to get stuck vertical rather than rolling off the end of the track (and I'm sure they've got an emergency system where if it is stuck vertical, they can easily right it again). Another thing, the trains look really sweet. They must be among the most open and exposed trains on the market. Giovanola were/are also working on a version of this ride, which really utilises the potential of the tilt. They had plans to make it so that there were multiple courses, which can be accessed by rotating/sliding of the tilted track, and riders would vote for the course they want to go on. Obviously, it sounds very interesting on paper, but I think it'd be a lot more than a pain and waste of money to execute in real life.

Dreamworld seems to be getting ready to really kick off construction on their latest attraction/s. They've got some construction going on over in the side storage/maintenance area beside Thunderbolt (behind Vortex) - the same area that Reptar's track was stored prior to vertical construction. They've got all sorts props that let's just say look very "tomby". I've not taken any photos of it yet- I'm hoping to get out to Dreamworld with a camera some time this week or next week (I'm very busy, so I am a bit doubtful ). I guess I'm confirming my previous news that Lara Croft is coming for this year's christmas. Let's not get too excited, it's not going to be a ride. I'm sure a quality attraction nonetheless (especially as a licensed attraction), but you'll have to wait just a little longer for the next thrill ride. 8)

Wonderland's yearly attendance figures hover above the 1 million mark. Compare that to Dreamworld, which is now up at around 1.1 million, and the average for each of the Warner Village parks is 1.06 million (combined total of 3.2). The fact that the park can perform as it does, is simply because of it's location. The fact that there are 6 million people within an hour or so of the park, compared to on the Gold Coast, where there might be 2 million. Only 45% of the guests are actually from Sydney, 27% international is the next highest and at the bottom is 6% interstate, showing that it is definitely a regional park like Six Flags parks, not a destination park (as with the Gold Coast parks) like Disneys. So really, only 7.5% of Sydney residents visit Wonderland each year. It's not necessarily that they're happy to visit a park with nothing new, it's just that a visit every few years or whatever can keep up the levels of attendance. Each Sydney resident averages 1 visit every 13 years - each has been an average of 1.35 times in their life. (Statistics are fun! ) International or interstate guests (and to a lesser extent, regional guests) aren't the ones who are attracted by new shiny things. Let's face it, unlike a family holiday to the Gold Coast, where 50% or more of the time is spent at the parks, an interstate guest is just filling in a day with Wonderland, they're not basing their trip around it. International guests simply do the park because the coach takes them there (a little generalised, I know). There's room for a theme park in Sydney, definitely. Just don't go with the gimick approach that Sega World used, or near a bunch of yuppies as with Luna Park. Interestingly enough, Dreamworld was originally planned for Sydney, but no suitable land was found down there, so they went to the Gold Coast instead. A theme park in Sydney would really have to be something to do anything useful at all. Unless you're willing to put up something that'd give even the Gold Coast parks a good fight, an investor is wasting their time.

Without any significant investment or even new rides in the park in nearly 10 years, they've sustained among the highest attendance of any theme park in Australia. It's largely due to geographical location more than anything else, but the fact is, the park has been profitable for a number of years with nothing significant. I don't think there is any problem with having the park run by a Malaysian company. I furthermore don't see how an Asian company is any different from an Australian or American company in that the sole goal of business is to make money. They don't invest large amounts of money in the park, but they're still running what is among the most profitable parks in Australia. I'm going to leave the wage section out - if there's really an issue with wages, then I'd think the union would try their best to do something about it. I'll agree that nominal sounds to be what they're doing right now - repainting and whatnot. While we'd all love to see new rides, and agree that it would be the sort of investment that would do the park well in the short run, I'll refer you to the above two paragraphs, which I think sums up why they're said to not be coming any time soon.

I'll go a step further, and be 99% sure that the Zodiac is from Kings Island. I really did do a lot of research on this a few years back, and sadly I can't remember many of the exact details, but I'd be sure that just about all of the rides that Wonderland opened with are those that were discontinued at USA Paramount parks (pre-Paramount days of course). It just seems to be the most ideal and logical solution. Here's what I've got, just digging up some really old stuff now. Wizards Fury came from Kings Island, which was removed in 1983, known as Bayern Kurve. There was also a "Flying Dutchman" removed from KI in 1983, which could just further complicate finding where "Galleon's Graveyard" came from. That's all I've got for now.

My issue never was with the fact that they're trying to save money. That's all fine and well - it's how the world works. It's really the fact that they staff a single person on a ride like Cyclone or Giant Drop, who takes a minute to open the door and let people in, another two minutes to check the restraints, then proceeds to fill out their log book, before dispatching. I fully understand why the log book needs to used (how else would they know that Thunderbolt has taken nine million passengers? ), but why they can't do this during the ride's course on any rides is a mystery to me. It's also unfair to say that Dreamworld is the only park that has efficiency problems. I've run into truly rotten days at other parks because of what I'd call disgracefully unorganized and incompetent staff, but the fact is, at other parks, it's generally a rare occurance. With Dreamworld, unfortunately, it tends to be the norm. And it's really unfortunate that through years of such operations, it doesn't feel terrible strange to wait 20 minutes to get onto Cyclone when you're at the front of the queue. I remember the summer that Giant Drop opened, when they were advertising six hour queues for the ride so people knew what they were getting themselves into, and that was spot on. If the ride were running at even 400pph (half the manufacturers theoretical maximum), that queue would have been 2400 people and let me tell you, it would have been more like 300-400 tops in the queue (the normal queue house was used - no spillage). Opening day of Cyclone, it was running at 288pph (five minute dispatches), with I believe three or four staff. I've been told before by the park that new rides take some time for staff to "learn the ropes". I fully understand that there is some degree of truth to this, but the past has shown us that these opening periods tend to actually be the most efficiently run, and go 12 months down the track, you'll see that the ride's got a capacity not nearly as high as the year before. This was proven with Cyclone certainly, and Giant Drop's hasn't been performing at all in a number of years.