Richard

OK, you're not understanding this whole communicating in the English language thing. Split long bodies of text, as above into paragraphs. Use capital letters to begin sentences and for proper nouns, such as "Dreamworld" or "Queensland". Throw in a few apostrophes and we'll almost be there. Now, your question was "Would you prefer Dreamworld having no roller coaster until the distant future or have a new roller coaster to replace the Thunderbolt by christmas this year?" My answer is yes, I would prefer Dreamworld had no roller coaster until the distant future rather than Demon. Demon isn't a great ride. Not because it is from Expo, not because it was at Wonderland, but because it's not a great ride! There's not much more to it than that. The ride provides no decent forces, it has no airtime, it's a relatively rough ride and the inversions are boring and badly designed. This is nothing like Big Dipper. Big Dipper was a ride that hadn't really operated in about five years, from a park very few people had visited those many years ago. Meanwhile Demon comes from a popular Sydney theme park that you'd be hard pressed finding a NSW resident who hasn't ridden it and is totally bored with it to death. Think that won't make a difference? Over 40% of Dreamworld's attendance is interstate, and easily 50% or more of that is from NSW. Think a ride that they used to be able to ride an hour from home will be an incentive to pack the bags for a week, book into an overpriced Gold Coast apartment and go to Dreamworld? Think again. You also called it "top 3". I say if it were on the Gold Coast, it would easily be the worst coaster there. Sorry, but there's no way that it's better than Corkscrew, Lethal Weapon, Road Runner, Scooby-Doo, Runaway Reptar, Eureka Mountain, Tower of Terror or Cyclone.

See the latest update here. Footers are poured. Typically it is about 3+ weeks from pouring footers until a load can be applied to them (i.e. a ride support structure) because deep concrete like this takes longer to cure because of the lack of air way down there. It's a very narrow site and the footers are very closely spaced. Throw out any theories of "giant" ride coming to Dreamworld right out the window now.

Japanese, Korean... Klingon. Evidently they're all the same these days. Having said that though, that shaking really takes things to the edge. And I thought that the swing was as far as they'd ever go.

Scenic World? That'd just be just totally out of place, not to mention the fact that they have absolutely no suitable land available.

Regarding the link to that article about the Sony ad. I think some of the arguments put forward are totally off base. First off. How does that article prove or disprove anything? It's advertising a camera, and uses the notion of extreme activities to do so. I think any link to that ad and people taking cameras on rides is a complete moot point, with no substance or supporting evidence. Case Example: You've all seen the Pepsi Max ad filmed in Sydney where a group, decked out like whitewater rafters with helmets, PFDs and paddles hop into a multiskip and ride it down a series of hills until flying into the harbour at the end? There's no way any person of sane mind would repeat such an activity, but they way well purchase Pepsi Max. What it quietly skips over is that not only does this park allow, to the best of my knowledge, cameras etc. on the ride, but that this photo was edited to appear as it does. Nonetheless, we're also supposed to expect that this photo will make people sneak cameras onto rides. Where does that come from? That argument is pulled out of nowhere! Now, then it turns really good. This photograph, an edited stock photograph (i.e. they basically bought the photo out of a catalogue) is then likened with the incident that occured at Holiday World which was proven to be a result of a park guest puposely removing some of their restraining mechanisms so as to essentially stand up for the ride. For what it's worth, at the event where this incident occured, Holiday World allows guests to take cameras onto the rides (it is/was the only time of the season where cameras could be taken onto the coasters). The 8/18 incident on Goliath is part of the Unconfirmed list. It is not an official list, and I'd consider it just as reliable as the sources which claim Dreamworld is getting Demon. And talk about a sensationalised report. Dad was the hero, using his magical powers to keep her from blacking out (I ask how exactly you go about preventing someone from passing out when such a thing would be inevitable, as in the situation of being hit in the head by a flying object - which would not have been travelling anywhere near the reported speed of 75mph thanks to the laws of physics) and the operators were seemingly stupid for calling security (which I'd wager is standard procedure at SFMM for such incidents). You know, SFMM have a no loose objects on rides policy. No worries here. I won't take my camera or bag etc. onto the ride unfastened, and I didn't when I was there. The owner of this alleged camera broke the rules and should have been appropriately persecuted for their alleged actions. Still haven't got any convincing evidence you know...

While I do genuinely appreciate Screamscape, and read it frequently, it's not a bona fide news source. It's a rumour site, and I owuldn't be too surprised if it turns out to have been sent in by a member here. Former Dreamworld CEO Tony Braxton-Smith confirmed directly to me that Dreamworld was NOT looking at purchasing Demon from Wonderland. Long story short, it's not happening and I disagree with you in that we should actually hope that it does move to Dreamworld. Dreamworld wouldn't benefit at all from a ride like Demon, whereas I can see many other smaller parks around Australia benefiting from it much more.

You know how it is. Once you feed it, it'll never stop coming back...

Let's keep the language clean. Take note of the Community Guidelines if you're not sure. As I know, Wonderland's management have known about this site since Total Thrills was first launched, in about January or February of 2003. They also did (or do) read these message boards. They're also far from the only theme park in Australia to do so. You'd be surprised actually. There's even some "celebrity" members among us.

I'm not totally sure what that has to do with the topic at hand. You're more than welcome to post it as a new thread, but don't clog up other threads with completely off-topic posts.

Just letting you all know that the main site has been slightly modified to make content a little easier to access. Now you can access all galleries and videos corresponding to a particular ride from that park's page. For instance, you can now access all the photos of the construction progress of Dreamworld's new ride from that ride's page. You no longer have to find them either via the main page, the Gallery page or the Park (Dreamworld) page. Same thing with videos. This doesn't mean much yet as not many videos have been added yet, but as more do come along, you'll be able to find them pretty easily. There have also been some slight cosmetic fixes here and there. Nothing you'll notice really, but they do make a difference.

I don't know how familiar you are with LA, so sorry in advance for just taking the safe option and assuming you know very little. The SoCal CityPass isn't a bad deal if you can squeeze a day at San Diego in. Its possible to easily do SeaWorld and San Diego Zoo in a day, probably slipping in a ride on the Belmont Park Giant Dipper which is just down the road from SeaWorld. I know it's not on your itinerary, but if you're into animals then consider it. San Diego's an easy city to get to - I-5 straight down from wherever you are, only about 60 minutes if I remember correctly, and I think even the LA Metro system extends all the way down with regular trains, and the city has some of the best public transport for getting around if you're not driving. They say that supermarkets surrounding Knott's often have discount coupons, but you'd have to check with Westcoaster.net's forums to find out which specific shops to go to etc. to get them. They'll also be good for directing you to discounts for the other parks. Probably the cheapest hotel you'll find in all of Hollywood is the Motel 6 which is in Whitley Ave. - about 20m from Hollywood Boulevard and then a further four blocks or so west to the Vine St Metro station which will take you to Universal Studios for something like $0.75. It's an absolutely basic motel, but if you're like me and can live with just a bed and a huge lock on the door then it's fine, especially for the $40 or so per night you'll pay.

OzAttractions was http://www.ozattractions.com.au/, but last I heard it was being retooled to cover tourist attractions rather than theme parks, so I'm not sure you'll see those videos again, though you'll have to ask someone else about that. There's a video system here at Roller-Coaster.com.au, but as you'll see, it's not yet exactly fully functioning. I will be adding videos when I get the time. Liam's sent me a few which I'm yet to get up, and there's some of my own that I should get online. Please keep the Dreamworld ride discussion to the appropriate forums and topics.

It's a full page article, so I'm not going to retype the entire article - if you have access to Newstext, you can read it online here, else I can't be of much use. However, there is a section of bullet points, which was really the most interesting part of the article: Luna Park first opened in 1935. It can be safely assumed most of its neighbours mvoed in after this date. The most prominent of the noise critics, architect and park neighbour Harry Seidler, was once involved with the Friends of Luna Park. In a 1938 publicity stunt, 10,000 keys were scattered throughout the streets of Sydney giving punters the chance to win a 5p note at Luna Park. The Luna Park Face has morphed through the decades, looking like a seedy stoner through the 1930s and '40s, eventually turning into today's manic, pop-eyed wonder. The Taj Mahal is one of the biggest and most complex mechanical instruments in the world. Built in 1920 and recently restored, it contains more than 1200 pipes, drums, castanets and woodblocks. The park even has a conspiracy theory attached to it. Some local residents claim Luna Parka management is hoping noise complaints will force the closure of the rides, allowing them to focus on more profitable functions, events and restaurants. Managing director Peter Hearne describes this hypothesis as bizarre.

I can tell you that Dreamworld does a lot more of their graphic design etc. in-house than you'd think, and employ no less than one graphic artist. I think Dreamworld, once they've reached their own conclusion, would then pitch it to Macquarie to get the budget. There are definitely round-table discussions etc., but they'd be pretty much limited to Dreamworld's own staff. I'd also put forward that Niel Balnaves is more of a savvy business man rather than the next Walt Disney. I don't doubt for one second that he is quite involved with Dreamworld due to his background, but again I think his role is more strategic (such as securing Big Brother, which was done before Dreamworld actually had the position of CEO, which when Tony came in replaced the slightly smaller position of general manager) rather than creative or design. To add to that, his position as chairman doesn't make him a part of the management team (those that essentially run the show), but a member of the Board of Directors. He's the chairman of about three or so other companies, so I can't see him as having that much time to join in on brainstorm sessions at Dreamworld. While on Cyclone, given that the premise for the ride is that the cyclone has been caused by a bizarre large turbine, the whole coastal thing with cyclones is thrown out the window as a suitable explanation for the ride's location. My point with the example is I guess that rides don't necessarily have to be explicitly themed to the general area's theme to fit in. Cyclone really does fit in reasonably nicely, even if most of the ride is tucked away, back behind maintenance buildings.

To be fair, Dreamworld for as long as I can remember has had efficiency problems. I always gathered that through his time there, Tony Braxton-Smith was well aware of the situation. Compare Tower of Terror today to what it was with the elevators a few years ago, I think it's far more efficient as it is and the queue certainly feels like it moves faster if nothing else. Giant Drop has also been recently improved. Nick Central was also designed to make things operate as smoothly as possible. I don't see Reptar as being any more or less efficient than most coasters I've ridden. He was also interested in adding a second train to Cyclone (which I'll grant has a terrible station and overall efficiency problems designed into it, presumably as a result of its shoestring budget - remember that Cyclone was almost a spur of the moment addition to Dreamworld). Let's put it this way. Tony Braxton-Smith fixed everything but capacity and efficiency. That leaves Stephen Gregg with one thing to fix. We can't go wrong now. willsy - we're talking about Dreamworld now, so I figure it can stay.

I'm sure the Chairman of the Trust has better things to do than to think up names for rides. Balnaves was really only involved with Wonderland on a strategic level. I seriously doubt he had much, if anything to do with creative work for the place. It's evident that he knows what makes a theme park tick, but I wouldn't say that makes him a creative expert, certainly no more than Dreamworld's own creative team, which would comprise of graphic artists, designers etc. who on the whole might have a better idea of what works. I'd go out on a limb and suggest that probably Dreamworld's in-house efforts are better than anything that can be done at the Trust's level, which deals exclusively with the financials of their operations rather than the research, marketing or creative efforts. Dreamworld's proven that if they don't try to do an all-out themed job on rides (see Nick Central) then they are capable of delivering some very quality looking attractions. Regarding your second point - my argument to the contrary would be Cyclone. Absolutely nothing to do with the Ocean Parade theme they've got going. Similarly, Dreamworld's never been shy about chopping and changing the boundaries for their themed areas - see the way they chopped and changed the area surrounding what was formerly Avalanche prior to it becoming Nick Central.

If anyone's interested, there's an article in this weekend's Weekend Australian by James Jeffrey in the Travel section, essentially giving yet another review of the park, though is less shallow than most we've seen. Not a bad one. It mentions a few interesting points regarding the local residents, including one I found most interesting - prominent architect Harry Seidler and the one who's considered central to the noise argument was actually involved with Friends of Luna Park in the past.

I always thought Wipeout was a complete waste of time and money anyway with Stingray right there doing all the spinning twisting and turning you could ever need. While I'm at it, why'd they bother with Tower of Terror AND Giant Drop? They both move fast on a big pole. Don't even get me started on the Vintage Cars and Thunderbolt. I mean they both ran on wheels and rails, both accelerated and had two-across seating. Thankfully they got rid of Thunderbolt. See what I'm saying?

I decided this wasn't quite newsworthy for the main site, but it's interesting nonetheless. Tony Braxton-Smith, Dreamworld's CEO from August 2000 til April 2004 was recently announced as the replacement executive officer for Adelaide-based transport company Great Southern Railway. They operate the Adelaide-Darwin trainline among others. The company's owned by Serco Asia Pacific, whom Tony will be a director for. His responsibilities will include operating their Australian operations, such as their trains and numerous city bus contracts, and their transport call centre contracts (TransInfo in Brisbane among others)

Clearly you haven't seen a Warner Village season pass. They're laminated cards with a Polaroid photo. Movie World at least prints your name and expiry date on it, with a barcode sticker on the back, but at Sea World you write your own name and expiry date on it.

I noticed this a while ago. Nothing big though, they simply replaced their index file (index.html or whatever) which meant that anyone who types in www.----URL removed for non-compliance with Community Guidelines---- will get the "Now Closed" and can't access the previous site. They haven't yet removed the remaining files, so if you know a direct link to one of the pages on their old site (as above), you can effectively get into the old site.

The perspex shields aren't for mishaps. They're to reduce noise, presubably because of the close proximity of surrounding residents. Maliboomer at Disney's California Adventure has the to, and I'd expect that it'd be unlikely that any ride at Dreamworld would ever get them.

Well obviously, this is typically the low period, and of course they're not going to have rides down for holiday periods wherever possible. Daily inspections and that sort of stuff is a given, as it is at most theme parks. And as Slick also mentioned, emergency maitenance can also be expected from time to time and by definition doesn't occur at any specific time of the year. Good to hear construction's progressing. Tomorrow for me is "do nothing Friday" (not quite, but I'm not heading down to Dreamworld ), so next update for Roller-Coaster.com.au will be a week from now. Now, let's try and keep this to the topic at hand - feel free to create a new thread if there's a different topic you want to discuss.

Canon and Nikon are definitely the best. Anything current from them, regardless of the model will be an excellent camera. These brands price from about $400 up, I'd personally just buy whatever the cheapest in your price range is. Optical zoom is definitely something you should consider. They always advertise digital zoom, but as a general rule you'll never even turn digital zoom on because you loose quality (it's the same basic process as blowing an image up on your computer, so if you wanted to do that you can do it on a PC anyway). Look at Canon and Nikon. You're travelling, so like me you'll probably prefer a smaller camera that can slip in and out of a pocket easily. The Canon IXUS range are really unrivaled in that department, and range in price from about $500 up to $1,000. If you're after a cheaper alternative, give Kodak a look. I've had two Kodak digital cameras which I found paled in comparison to anything Canon cameras have done for me. They're still give reasonably solid results - certainly nothing that I'd consider below decent. Most of the Total Thrills galleries were done with Kodak cameras. Shame about the S:ROSs, but you'll of course still have an absolute ripper of a time. You're making me jealous, and it's not even been four months since I was over there.

It wouldn't really make sense to do said retheming after the second film is released and really long since gone. How could the park possibly benefit at all from it being done after the film? They'll do absolutely fine just tacking ads for the ride on the back of every trailer for the movies. The ride itself is perfect and needs absolutely no retheming or anything. I would see it as doing more harm than good, as was the case with Movie World's past attempts to retheme or extend theming or moderise attractions (see Wild West Stunt Show to Maverick, Batman to Batman 2, Studio Commissary Restaurant compared with after they "modified" its structure for the street parade).