Richard

I didn't want to post the link directly to the photos because I was trying to secure high resolution versions of their construction photos but that proved too difficult. In regards to the spaciousness, remember that it's a park which is designed to have several thousand guests every day. For every person that's queuing or on a slide, there will be another person who wants to lounge in the sun or shade on a deck chair. Think of how much of Wet'n'Wild is dedicated to just open spaces for these purposes, and also how well-utilised they are by guests, and you'll see what it is so spacious. All buildings are finished, so in terms of infrastructure, what you see is what you get. The two toilet blocks are the two matching white buildings. I'm most surprised that there's not one directly as you walk in the door as with every other water park I've been to. I suppose the thinking is that if they have two at equal distances from the entrance at far ends of the park, it'll distribute guests evenly throughout.

Macquarie Leisure released select bits of information as part of a shareholder financial report. That was the only remotely new thing that we haven't either heard or seen for ourselves. Tornado was mentioned (referred to only as Tornado, so it may be sticking), as was the Nickelodeon area, but the report was really all about that they are on budget and on schedule, which is certainly a good thing. They are however already touting it as a world-first, to answer earlier questions about whether they will be using this to their advantage, so they're certainly aware of its current uniqueness. Why ProSlide decided to market a ride with six lanes as an octopus in the first place is pretty puzzling.

That's their approach to network television and it obviously works for them. They build a lineup around high viewer-involvement concepts that will alienate the majority of viewers but bring in those who are into it, and naturally the other networks can't chase after this psychographic segment without affecting their strengths in other areas. It works doubly well for them because the traits that brings them to this style of viewer involvement is an addictive personality, youth and burning pockets. It's a goldmine for advertisers and producers alike thanks to the voting systems for the shows. Back to Dreamworld, it's not all negative. With work set to commence on CityWalk in the eventual near future, it might be safe to say that, unless they move it closer to the park, it will act as an outpost and mean that Dreamworld will still hold claim to all that unused land, for plenty of future expansion.

Article: Big Brother settles in for three more years Tuesday 22 August 2006 - Dreamworld Macquarie Leisure Trust, the owners of the Dreamworld theme park announced today that their contract with Big Brother has been extended for another three years. Read On... Big Brother Fans can rejoice while those not-so-enthusiastic (to put it one way) get to continue avoiding it like the plague for the next three years!

To update you on things just slightly, even though we all knew it, they announced today that the park will indeed be home to the world's first 8-lane Octo-racer slide. Opening date is now confirmed to December 26. All construction is on track according to the latest reports. I'll try to organise an update for some stage this week.

For those without Google Earth, or if you're just lazy here's a link to Wonderland Sydney's satellite image at Google Maps. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&...mp;t=k&om=1 It's definitely a much better quality image than what the area was a year or two ago.

That's one of the more interesting ideas I've heard in a while. Keep the Chinatown theming and use the area to add what Movie World so sorely needs (right now at least) - flat rides. There aren't too many rides on the market that wouldn't be able to fit in there. I can see a Top Spin - make that a Giant Top Spin - fitting a Kung Fu movie theme pretty nicely. The area has certainly served its purpose for Lethal Weapon. The ride would be no less effective if they moved the entrance to the other side and would also add some much needed atmosphere to the Superman plaza.

The fact that it was made by Meisho very much related to the ride's roughness, but its age certainly did not. It was rough from day one. It's been suggested in the past that Meisho even purposely designed the ride to feel like a wooden coaster. I have to say at the end of the day that I prefer wooden coasters. Nothing beats that out-of-control feeling that every well designed wooden coaster has. There's also a special quality to true classics such as the Belmont Park Giant Dipper or Coney Island's Cyclone to be riding something that thrilled riders some 80 years ago.

If a park plans to institute and enforce a strict no-items policy, then it's their prerogative to actively search and instruct riders to remove all loose items. The burden is not, nor should it be, placed on the individual to remember. The policy is not in place to make people worry about insignifiant items, it's because a no-exceptions policy is a lot easier to manage and has no grey areas. It's to stop people taking things of size onto the ride such as bags etc. Coins are actually effectively harmless at these kinds of heights - a nasty sting and some bruising if you bruise easily is the most you could hope for if hit by most of our coins.

Article link: http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/article.php?aid=107 This article's been up for a few days on the site but hasn't yet been brought up in the forums. There are a few things which are quite interesting to me about this story. Village Theme Parks (the new name of WVTP following the recent buyout) have recruited a complete outsider to the tourism industry - let alone the theme park industry - to steer these projects. I'm not 100% convinced someone whose experience lies in putting on spectacular once-off events (which more often than not have been financial losses by their very nature) can necessarily be capable of creating and operating theme parks designed for long-term success and viability. Furthermore, I don't believe that international expansion on the scope that we are talking is well suited to either the European or the Asian markets. Greece seems to me to have been selected out of convenience. I'm really not sure that choosing a location for a theme park seemingly because the newly appointed boss as experience and contacts in that country is the wisest thing to do. Both markets are within a few hours flight of Disney theme parks, which has been a huge benefit to them in Australia. The budgets that have been mentioned in the past (well under AUD$200 million) will not cut it against multi-billion dollar Disney parks. Within each market, flights to other countries are the equivalent of domestic flights in Australia. It just seems to be a bit ill-conceived and not taking the nature of each market fully into account. What I find ironic is that if Disney did build a park in Australia, you can bet it wouldn't be without our Gold Coast parks (regardless of where it were built) crying foul. Meanwhile they seem happy to jump into markets currently held strongly by Disney (we're talking destination parks, not regional). Village Theme Parks is a relative newcomer to the global theme park industry. They're still very much tweaking their models with our theme parks - they've far from got it perfect at home (certainly not to the extent of other global players), so I'm not sure why there's such a hurry to take the (underdone) concepts overseas. I'd be much happier to see our parks reach their full potential, than water down the development and strategic planning of our parks by trying to tweak three separate parks in three very different parks.

It sounds to me like a response to comments from guests that there isn't enough to do within Wiggles World. It certainly won't be costing the park much, nor will we see any kind of significant advertising for it. It certainly won't be of the size of Disneyland's, nor will it have the interactive element (user-controlled spin of the teacups). Don't forget it's an attraction aimed at toddlers, and being built in a fairly tight area of the park (the Mad Tea Party would fill the entire area with ease).

I'd imagine it'll be a fraction cheaper than Wet'n'Wild initially to make it a bit more appealing, because they lack the brand awareness that will give WnW the edge until Whitewater World has established itself as a valid alternative. I'd certainly question the strategy they're taking if they choose to equal Wet'n'Wild's ticket price.

The ride's date has been pushed back to early November as a result of unavoidable fabrication delays.

I'm sure the incredibly heavy we experienced on Saturday night will have put a halt on things at least temporarily. Weather delays will have been included in the construction schedule, so I wouldn't be too worried unless we get some serious uncharacteristic weather (of course it wouldn't be the Gold Coast without bizarre weather). I went for a 18km hike up in Lamington National Park on Saturday and spent the night camping at O'Reillys. Just our luck that it was the location of the state's highest rainfall for the weekend with 55mm. It was a very wet night.

Gallery can be seen here: http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/gallery.php?gid=154

Regarding the hardwood poles at the entrance, they wouldn't paint them if they're leaving them exposed. The timber is treated so it's designed to be used that way. There are four slabs at the entrance which will house the ticket booths and these poles lead right up to them. In all likeliness they'll be for shade for this area. If you look at the layout of the park in person, the placement of the tube slides at the back is not nearly as bad as you may initially think. The three towers are found at three points pretty much equal distance from each at three edges of the site. The wavepool is right between Towers 2 and 3, and will take up a very large amount of the land. Don't forget we'll also see some toddler and children attractions, landscaping, retail and food and beverage facilities, toilets/changerooms and staff areas that will fill in what looks like a very scarce water park at this stage.

If it's not on the DVD as one of the special features then you'll have a hard time finding it. It was a short documentary that was made for TV promotion for the original film in the USA originally. They only tend to air these specials here for the really big blockbuster films. It consists of very brief interviews with Raja Gosnell (director) and the five key stars, each not more than about a minute, with accompanying excerpts from the film.

On the support next to Tower 2, if you look at the brackets on the lower arms you'll notice that they are considerably smaller than those up above. Obviously the turn will be tighter than that above, as seen by the shorter length of the arms, but it will also be a smaller slide because they're significantly smaller brackets. The captions should be fine now. They were a bit funny early on but I believe it's since been sorted out. If there are noticeably out of place captions let me know.

Gallery: http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/gallery.php?gid=150 We are experimenting with a higher resolution photo. In the two years that have passed since this site launched, broadband has become the standard in Australia, and screen resolutions are always going up. The images are automatically resized to fit in your browser when you click the thumbnails. In the top left corner you can click to see the full sized version. I'd recommend turning off any browser resizing functions. This gallery is also in 3:2 film ratio rather than the standard 4:3 digital ratio, so the images are wider. Let me know your thoughts on the new image size.

Back on topic, you'll find work around Cyclone will not be going on while the ride is operating, and areas surrounding its track will be cleared of any potential hazards before the ride will commence operation. They'll be using standard industry lockout systems while working around the site to prevent any sort of incident from occuring. I would expect there to be some downtime as a result of the water park, but I'm sure it has been minimised as much as possible. Remember there are a good 4+ work hours in the morning before the park opens, in which time a lot can get done.

Link: http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/yourcontributions.php In an effort to make the Database contribution system more user-friendly and to encourage submissions I've made some hefty changes to the system in place. The system now allows users to track their submissions via the Your Contributions link in the main menu. From here you can see whether your database submission has been approved, if it's pending, or if it has not been approved and reasons specified by a staff member. There are also oppotunities when you submit entries to include additional information for our staff. This can include sources or any other notes that may be helpful to our staff. Conversely our staff can respond. Still in the works is a system to allow you to re-edit a contribution at the request of staff. You can also see a history of your past submissions. This system will give a resume of sorts for potential new staff members. From now on your activity in this section of the site will be a key way to become a staff member. The system now requires that you are logged into your forum account when submitting. This is a minor setback that shouldn't phase any genuine submitter. As with any system like this, there is a time delay between when you submit and when it appears on the site. Our staff try to get all entries up within a few days. To speed up the process we ask that your entry is correct. We prefer incomplete information rather than incorrect. Make sure figures are correct and you've used proper spelling and punctuation. Always check the status of your existing submissions before resubmitting. If it hasn't appeared on the site there's a reason for this. How to add new content: Use the Contribute Parks/Rides link in the main menu. You can also add content directly using the links on the Your Contributions page. How to revise content: Use the Park/Ride Database link in the main menu. From here you can search for any park, coaster or ride, and view complete lists of all database entries. As always your comments and further suggestions are welcomed to help improve the site.

http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/article.php?aid=63 When the development was first announced it make specific mention of a grocery and department stores. I can't imagine any shopping centre going ahead or expecting to be profitable without either, so I wouldn't be too worried in tis regard.

Interesting read. Don't let the Pacific Ocean stop you from finding all the good articles . To me it seems more like the council is creating bad press around Macquarie to pressure them to do things "their way". I don't doubt that Macquarie would be developing it with their interests in mind (i.e. the location adjacent to Dreamworld), but that's what a free market is all about. I don't believe the local council are in any way contributing financially to the project. The Coomera railway station was designed with the eventual construction of a shopping centre there in mind. Its construction was much of the reason Macquarie Leisure purchased a second parcel of land that was separate to Dreamworld when they bought the park, and I'm sure during the purchase negotiation process they consulted heavily with the local council regarding the master plan for the region. I think it's a bit foolish this late in the project for the council to be crying foul. It's been years in planning.

It's certainly far from the worst on the list. I think it was pretty likely they'd go with a "World" just so it fit in with the other Gold Coast parks - it's definitely a brandname in that sense which they need to cash in on. It's a far better name than "Wet'n'Wild Water World" (they never should have added Water World on the end), it's just a shame it came after WnW so it has to be the one labeled as a copy.

Article Link: http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/article.php?aid=103 Roller-Coaster.com.au is the only source to have revealed the name of the new park.