Richard

Wicked Twister at Cedar Point was slowed down and given a new ride program. The reasons given by Monty Jasper (Cedar Point's VP of maintenance and construction) was along the lines of to prolong the life of the ride's electric and electronic components. I see it to be perfectly reasonable that Dreamworld may have knocked a few km/hr off TOT's launch speed in the name of reasonable and economic maintenance.

Daniel - that's pretty spot-on. The wheels are all the same and were more than likely used on the ride. Their collection of spare wheels didn't consist of too many unused wheels. kennykoala, a bit too far-fetched for my liking. If there was any intentions of keeping the loops, then they'd still be there. A mix-up might sound good for your Dippin' Dots buddies, but it's a bit of a flimsy excuse. Needless to say, I for one like the fact that they're gone.

As the first post said, April 16 is the date, 7pm til 10pm is the time.

Well, it was made official in the Autumn 2004 edition of Take 3 (amazingly the second one dedicated to the coming-soon attraction Shark Bay - could they perhaps take it for 3?). Nothing I can add really - til August 31 you'll be able to get unlimited entrance to the three parks with your 3 Park Super Pass for 14 days from the first use. It really should be made the standard deal I think. As it is, in comparison with similar theme park destinations like Orlando (which is actually VERY similar, though much much bigger), the normal deal (pay for three and get one free) it is a bit on the expensive side. A five park FlexTicket in Orlando gives unlimited access for 14 days to SeaWorld, Busch Gardens Tampa, Wet 'n Wild, Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios and sets you back just under $200. There truly is enough entertainment there for two days at all those parks but Wet 'n Wild

Since the March 22 update, the loops have disappeared, so the entire ride is now down. I think this calls for some sort of celebration.

Try Ozcoaster's latest update from March 22, which shows that it's all down. As for the trains, they're certainly not going to be used again. Whether they are incorporated into any sort of memorial for the ride as has been suggested here is anyone's guess at this stage.

I read recently on Screamscape that Huss released a statement in which they stated that the ride was not a Huss model, but an Asian-made "ripoff" (goes nicely with all those fake watches, clothes and dodgy DVDs and whatnot that are so common over there). I would say this explains 90% of what happened, but still doesn't give their rescue method too much credibility.

The rides really come from Hollywood? I didn't think Warner Bros. even had a theme park division anymore, with the sale of Six Flags in the 90's. Doesn't it seem a tad counterproductive to have rides come through Warner Bros, not WVTP who is a management company set up exclusively to operate the theme parks. I can see it being reasonable to work closely with Warner Bros. in Hollywood so as to be faithful to their various franchises, but it just seems strange to have a team over there who design attractions for a tiny speck-of-a-park across the Pacific.

14 day Park Hoppers for Disneyland?!? A bit much don't you think - I thought it only went up to like 5 days or so at Disneyland? I love the place, but there's seriously only two or three days at the most entertainment at both parks. How'd you fill 14 days there?

Just for being himself, but let's not let the topic go that way at all. As for carnival rides, I personally think that there's not much out there that is really quality. Certainly not in this country. I love some of the sweet traveling coasters in the German circuit, but they are in a completely different league from our Crazy Mouse or Galaxy or whatever.

You'll notice that the forums have been significantly changed in terms of graphics. It's just a little more pleasant to look at, and the new smilies are great. Next change to the forums will be integration with Roller-Coaster.com.au.

It's hard to find because it's all taken up by urban sprawl. It's expensive because it's hard to find. It's true that you can build parks way out where land is cheaper, but then the majority of the 4 million you'd class as "local residents" are getting to be hours and hours away, which really does make them a difficult market to . Not many people will drive three hours each way to visit a theme park for a day (of course that's not saying no one will, but it's a bit hard to market to). If you're looking at cheap land in the middle of nowhere, it's not as if it'll make an attractive weekend holiday for those too far to come in a day. I'd suggest that anything more than 90 minutes from Sydney CBD (or any City for that matter) is too far for the bulk of Sydney residents, and you're not exactly going to get many tourists taking the trip out if its so far.

The forums will change from Total Thrills to Roller-Coaster.com.au, and be more integrated into the new site. I'm still working out a few things with that before the move can be made. http://www.totalthrills.com/last10.php The "Latest Forum Activity" box on the front page will soon have what's in the link above, obviously it'll be made consistent with the design etc., but that's the code I'm working with to do that.

There's not much to say on this topic at this point in time. I know Tony, but I'm not sure what that has to do with anything.

Just a reminder to everyone that you're expected to keep the language clean at all times in the forums. This is actually the first point of the Terms of Service, and I'm getting a bit sick of it all. Don't use obscenities. Most will be censored by the system automatically anyway, but I'm sure you'd rather select your words more carefully than get **'s in your posts. It is just as bad to avoid the censor by putting your own asterisks in place of single letters and it is looked at in exactly the same light. Consider this the only warning you'll ever get. There will be repercussions after this.

For those who didn't see the news, it was a carnival-style freefall ride, I believe a Huss Shot'n Shot. It was at Riverside Parkland - right country with Lotte World, but not the right park. I presume it was some sort of power failure or ride error that meant that the ride got stuck up there. They would have tried a manual release and probably a dozen other things before getting the rescue people involved. When that proved unsuccessful, they brought in what I believe was some sort of crane or cherrypicker to take rescuers up and bring those stranded down. Great plan, but I think they forgot a few things. If you're going to send people up there, make sure that there is no chance of the ride moving - make it mechanically impossible to do so, and surely the ride is designed with such things in place to make rescues like this safer. I can't see a ride like this being built without some sort of hard-coded system that shuts the ride down exactly where it is and prevents it from budging. Many rides use a hydraulic system that when activated will just completely jam the thing up completely using cams or something similar. If by some chance this isn't possible, and you're going to get rescuers involved, then make it safe by rigging it so that it's not going to budge. Anyone that's done a first aid course (or just has common sense) knows that first priority is keeping the rescuer/helper safe. You don't swim into shark-infested waters to save someone in a shark attack. You don't touch someone who's been electrocuted and is sprawled out on live wires. I'd have thought you don't climb onto a gondola 27m above the ground that's likely to fall at any moment. Better to be safe than sorry. In this case they're definitely sorry.

Slick - what's wrong with it being on CoasterBuzz earlier. Does that somehow detract from the topic? I frequent CoasterBuzz, it's one of my favourite coaster sites, and even posted in some of the topics and news items there regarding this model, but I really fail to see what CoasterBuzz's coverage has to do with this thread. willsy - Chris Brewer, the guy behind www.coasterworks.com builds custom designs which take months and months of work. Look at the prices he sells his models for - $4,000 and up. What CoasterDynamix have is a set which anyone can buy and set up in a seemingly limitless number of ways. It's like the K'Nex working coasters, only far more realistic. Compared to the $4,000 for one of Brewer's custom and detailed designs, this thing will set you back around $650 Australian.

Cool stuff. Provided it doesn't get too packed, I think it'd be a great event. I'm guessing they won't actually close the park and kick everyone out (you never know though). Whether they'll let outsiders in between 5pm (6 for holidays?) and 7pm I don't know.

Depends really on what you want to do. My trip cost around $200 a day for two of us. That includes most expenses - accommodation, food, transportation and entertainment. A family will probably have different needs from two guys with backpacks and no qualms about walking a good few kilometres through less-than-desirable areas at odd hours. Then again, a family will only really do Anaheim or Orlando which are pretty well geared out for tourists. For a big trip (over a month), you'd be looking at about $5,000 each if you go with a mate.

Nothing I've read or been told mentions the closing time. I'd expect that they close at 10pm. So long as there's enough time to ride all four, I'd be happy.

Let's please try not to turn every thread into these arguments. Language could do with a tidy-up too, Daniel.

See this article on what I'm guessing may become a more common occurance at Dreamworld, with the emphasis being put on less capital-intensive ways to attract guests to the park. Anyone happen to know the significance of April 16? It's Easter break and all, but other than that my best guess was Full Moon, but that doesn't work, unless they accidently looked at the 2003 charts.

Beyond hope. Let's try to keep things on topic, and not resort to petty arguments. Let's also try to get some meaning into our posts. I'm not asking for a perfect post, just something that has a purpose and at least tries to begin an engaging discussion.

I'm not sure that there's enough activity in the Luna Parks forum to justify splitting it into two. Look at it this way, it's not at all difficult to find older topics in there, and it's certainly not cluttered.

Be sure to let us know how your travels went in the International Forum.