Richard

Article here: http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/article.php?aid=30

The cover design has been finalised. If you haven't yet purchased one be sure to get in and do so - two weeks left to preorder for only $25.00. http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/calendar.php

This article is something I wrote about six months ago. Like so many of the articles I've written for Roller-Coaster.com.au, it never got published for one reason or another. It puts our Warner Bros. Movie World up against three other movie parks around the world: Universal Studios Hollywood & Orlando and Disney-MGM Studios. Read the article here: http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/article.php?aid=15 See the accompanying photo gallery: http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/gallery.php?gid=120 Enjoy.

There are now a total of 580 photographs on Total Thrills, with 62 photographs from Busch Gardens Tampa being added recently.

There's a link at the top of the forums to a database, as well as a search box. If you typed Sceniscender into that box you'd come up with this page, which tells you just about everything you could want to know about the ride.

They did.

Blue Flash: http://www.negative-g.com/BlueFlash/Februa...h-2002-2-1.html

Quite honestly, I'd much rather see Dreamworld fix up what they've currently got before moving on to future rides. You're a fool if you think the contrary is at all smart. Yeah, it's good when parks get new rides, but I for one don't loose sleep if they go a few years without. If the thinking at Dreamworld is along the lines of adding bigger new rides over fixing then what they've got, then I really don't want to see the park come ten years from now (see SFMM for a look at what happens when you go down that path). I think the least paying guests should expect is efficient operations and the shortest possible . Whether it would cost $50 or $50 million to fix up Giant Drop, it is Dreamworld's responsibility to fix it. We're not even talking about things that are so economically or structurally unfeasable like adding additional seating, we're just talking about maximising what they've currently got. If the motors they got can't handle the load, why didn't they get replacements that could from the manufacturer, while the ride was still in its "grace period"? Why is it that Giant Drop will run only a single side all day, racking up queues in excess of an hour but then open the second side an hour or so from closing time? So that everyone can clock off at 5:15pm? That's problem number one. That's not even beginning to think about motor replacements, computer adjustments or absurd add-ons to improve efficiency.

Read my pseudo-review of the park from earlier this year: http://www.parkz.com.au/forums/sh...hread.php?t=483 All in all it's a good park. To me it has nothing on its closest Disney equivalent, Animal Kingdom (the more thrill obsessed will definitely say the exact oposite), but it's definitely a quality park.

Don't go saying or assuming things for the sake of it. The only ride with this problem introduced under Tony Braxton-Smith's ("the guy before Stephen Gregg") time at Dreamworld was Cyclone. There were absolutely no problems with Nick Central, and Giant Drop and Tower of Terror are well before his time. Also note that the CEO would have little to do with the actual design of the queue. The position of CEO is a managerial position. Queue design would be a collaboration between the operations and engineering departments and perhaps the ride manufacturer if needed. The inherent problems with Cyclone is that clearly not enough enough money was invested in the proper design of a queue and station. The problems that exist with Giant Drop lie firstly in not operating the ride to the fullest of its current design (i.e. not running both sides even with hour-plus queues), and then with the inefficient ride programme.

Take a look at my Knott's Berry Farm galleries from last year at Total Thrills to get an idea of Xcelerator's layout: January 2003 December 2003 (better)

And they say Intamin don't learn from their mistakes?

Heat would be not be a factor on Giant Drop. Other rides (as well as non-ride applications) have been using indentical magnetic systems for years with far quicker cycle times. I seem to recall someone here saying that Intamin installed Giant Drop with motors far less capable than what was really needed for the ride. I think it's ridiculous to assume that the ride is operating at its maximum capable capacity, just because this is how it was eight seven years ago. I also think that it's ridiculous to have the "oh well, what's done is done" frame of mind. Here's an interesting tidbit for you. Dreamworld attendance is about 9% higher than it was when Giant Drop was introduced, yet the park's ride capacity has actually gone down. Cyclone + The Claw + Runaway Reptar barely match the lost capacity with Thunderbolt + Creature Cruise. That's not even taking into account the fact that many rides run a fraction of what they once did (Thunder River Rapids, Eureka Mountain and Log Ride all operate with less vehicles than they used to).

First problem is Tower of Terror doesn't use induction. You never mentioned the sensors. You were going on about upgrading computer systems. What you've mentioned has nothing to do with the central systems that control the ride, it's to do with the individual sensors. If that's the real reason then good and fine. Don't go gloating about being right, especially seeing as you weren't. It still doesn't take into account that fact that the ride's been going to the same height for years now.

Once again, the computer speed doesn't affect motor speed, power output or anything like that. For one thing, the computer you saw would have been the console and would only be used to view and alter the settings on the ride, not control it. So what if computers today are faster than they were when Giant Drop was first commissioned? Put it this way - you don't improve the performance of a car by putting in bigger and better electronics. You do it by tweaking/replacing the actual mechanical components, be it the gearbox or engine etc. Same with Giant Drop - you're not going to do a thing to the ride by updating the computer system controlling it. These computers track where the gondolas are on the ride, control the motors and release mechanisms and other things like monitor wind speed, motor temperature etc. It's not exactly demanging stuff. Upgrading a computer won't suddenly make a motor go faster or anything.

Knott's Berry Farm is roughly the same size as Dreamworld in terms of numbers of attractions. Clint said the day he went was empty, so it'd be at least comparable to Dreamworld on a typical low-attendance off-season day. We'll say their six operators on Xcelerator during the off-season makes up USD$40 an hour. Dreamworld's two during the peak season makes around USD$20 an hour. It doesn't hurt to add that Dreamworld's profits (in relation to attendance) exceed those of Knott's Berry Farm, while per-capita spending in the two parks is almost identical. Translation: Knott's Berry Farm operates on a smaller profit margin than Dreamworld. Cedar Fair have been in the theme park business probably longer than all of Dreamworld and Macquarie's top staff combined, so I'd be willing to bet they have a better grasp of what works for a theme park in terms of profiting, staffing and efficiency. Back onto the topic now... The wait at the top is consistently around 60 seconds. During this time where the gondola appears stopped, it is actually still moving very slowly. It's not until the last few seconds of the wait that the car is actually stopped and in place for the drop. Regardless of who programmed it that way (be it Intamin, Dreamworld or whoever), it's an inefficient design.

I for one could (and do) go without them. What's so special about seeing a few coasters on TV anyway? You've all seen the photos and videos of the rides on the Internet. The only thing new is the annoying presenter. I go to a theme park to get my theme park fix, don't know about you guys.

Sea World has penguins. They're all of a 20m walk from where Reef Discovery is.

You don't get rid of a ride unless there's a reason to. Eureka Mountain is just a little ride In regards to cars on the ride, the listing you're reading in the database is a description of each "train" on the ride, i.e. each train has a single car. It does run multiple cars most of the time.

I'd encourage you to consult with the Community Guidelines in regards to the protocol associated with advertising other sites on Roller-Coaster.com.au.

Calendar pre-orders are now being taken, through until the end of November. Calendars will be shipped in early December. The pre-order price is AUD$25.00, including shipping. Please proceed to the Calendar page for more information on the calendars, including how to order and some previews of some pages of the calendar. After the end of November (November 30), calendars will be repriced to around AUD$30.00 (incl. shipping) to cover the costs of ordering additional calendars, so get in before the end of the month! Order them for family and friends. Get one for home and one for work. Remember that this site is funded entirely out of my own pocket. You're guaranteeing the future growth of Australia's most popular theme park site by purchasing a calendar.

Next year's new coasters continually amaze me. Busch Gardens seem to really have a winner with this one, and given the park's current B&M lineup (plus also the Williamsburg park's fine looking coasters), I think this will certainly be a truly solid attraction.

Having just played the full version, I rate it better than the demo, but still not really a game worth buying in my opinion. When I need my RCT fix once every six to nine months, I'll go back to RCT2, thanks. I still haven't come even close to trying everything out in the 20 minutes I've played for so far (I'll give the sandbox mode a shot when I next find myself with some spare time), so maybe my opinion will change as I get more used to the needlessly complicated user interface. At the end of the day, you're looking at a game that was developed for one and only one purpose - to get another lump of cash out of dedicated RCT fans. This isn't the sort of game that will be marketed heavily. It was a cheap and quick attempt to milk the RCT franchise for all it's worth. This becomes painfully obvious when you're restricted to all the same incredibly basic track angles and guages etc. as in the previous two titles.

Feel free to talk about Giant Drop in a new thread. This isn't the place.

Well, at least someone likes Dreamworld's chips. I didn't think that were possible, but I guess I was wrong. I think if you start asking advice on food and actually plan where and what you're going to eat, it's crossed beyond travel advice and into obsessive. Let alone the people who actually give the advice... You probably couldn't pick a better ride for reriding than The Claw. Between walking in the entrance, queueing, loading, unloading and exiting I doubt you'd walk a total of 50m.