Jamberoo Fan

No, this isn't about a new documentary on the history or unique facts of travelling carnival rides. This is another story from our new (negatively-biased) amusement ride correspondent, 7 News: The Facebook embed replaces the same video that is in that location in the article. The only difference, apart from being a Facebook embed, is that it is missing the story's introduction from 7 News Sydney's Friday & Saturday presenter, Michael Usher, who says while sitting in front of a TV screen which says 'DANGEROUS RIDES' while showing an image of an operating chair swing & the loop of a red rollercoaster:

JR because it maintains it's speed more consistently throughout the ride. Other than the restraints & slightly lower launch acceleration, this is mainly where MDMC loses quality as throughout the ride it is doing more decelerating than accelerating (or just even maintaining the 72km/h final launch speed). The deceleration also affects the theme of being in a MotoGP race - Have you ever seen a MotoGP race where the start lights turn green, the grid accelerates away to go through the 1st corner only to let go of the throttle & let gravity take it's course for the rest of the race? Doubt they would even finish 1 lap if that actually happened. @Santa07, if they did re-theme MDMC, it should be to a theme where the themed vehicle accelerates and then lets gravity do the rest. I can think of some sort of 'space launch' theme where the launch is to go out into space and then the zero gravity of space does the rest so you can 'take a tour of the Universe' before arriving back at the station to finish your journey through space. That idea would more suit a VR experience though.

The capacity of each is about 200 (north-west of main outdoor tank) & 300 (east of main outdoor tank). Remember, there are plans for a 'lakeside precinct' as well as an 'entertainment precinct', which could be built in the vicinity - whether both of them are the same thing is still to be found out but I think that's likely. No, I didn't as I didn't think it would make much difference - the parking spaces would still be roughly the same size.

I did a rough calculation and think the car park opposite the AOS can fit about 100 more cars (factoring in any future landscaping if it was used for TopGolf) than the one next to the main outdoor tank (200 approx. capacity for that car park), which already has landscaping.

Ah, yeah, true - I was only thinking of the non-automated cars at the time, which is likely the most used car type still. In any case, most cars are not designed to stop if something is wrong.

Cars are not designed to stop if something is wrong. In certain circumstances, they are designed to protect you by various means if something is wrong but not stop. If they did stop when something is wrong, it could cause a rear-end collision involving several cars on a motorway and if it did not cause such a collision, the road toll would probably be a lot lower than what it usually is.

He did mention that briefly in an answer to one of the media's questions: Also @elemist, similar to @AlexB's case, I believe he did have a PR/media staff member with him. You can hear in the background someone announce "Last questions, guys" at 01:43 in 7 News Gold Coast's live stream of his media statement/questions session. Probably Because You Were Just Stuck Inside The Building Not a high Up And They Could Easily Be Able To Evacuate You The people on Arkham were stuck on a chain lift. As you can see @Prequel, @Rollercoaster_Lover❤️ was referring to Superman Escape not Arkham Asylum. Shares didn't really take a 'hit' despite the intense media coverage - the share price did go down but it was by an insignificant 3%. That decrease could have been caused by anything including the normal day-to-day stock trading. There's a good chance the decrease is a coincidence. And like Nine Morning News said, they 'recovered'...nearly - there was an increase today by 2%.

If you thought today's media hype was bad enough...from the Daily Mail: Looking at MW's Twitter feed, the tweet has been removed.

This might be difficult to watch (in regard to the media's questions) but here is MW General Manager, Greg Yong's short media statement/question session covered naturally by 7 News: Looking at social media, I believe another ride at MW had an e-stop today but in case the media are reading this forum, I won't say which ride. It will remain a mystery. I haven't experienced VR but that's what I'd expect to happen if the ride stopped suddenly. I think it would operate like it would while waiting in the station for the rollercoaster to start. To the media, fear gets viewers, clicks, listeners & sells newspapers.

I've seen a lot of sensationalist media stories over time but that takes the cake. Road Runner Rollercoaster stopping might have upset some of the children unlucky enough to be on that particular cycle of the ride but it is only a family rollercoaster that was working as it was designed to. 7 News is starting to get a reputation with over-sensationalist stories & I've lost faith in their journalism as a result of this story. At this rate, 7 News will report on when a carousel refuses to spin or when a bumper car uncontrollably spins in circles. If anyone wants to complain about the story, I think you can by using this feedback form. 7 News has to be very careful that they don't cripple the theme park industry on the Gold Coast any further given these types of stories are only being shown on the local news and not the news of interstate locations as the local Gold Coast community is, to my understanding, the main market of the Gold Coast theme parks - not interstate/international visitors - but I'm sure most of the Gold Coast residents know that a stoppage like this is normal & will continue to visit the theme parks.

@AlexB, it was an approximation like I said & was based on Wet 'n' Wild's exact wording. Other than the 're-fuelling/setting' reason, it doesn't need to take into account things that are not in the control of Wet 'n' Wild such as un-coordinated/late arriving groups. If you paid $55 to participate & decide to not turn up on time or be focused, their fault. If it is realistically 30 minutes like you say, that would be $6.45 per lap (7 laps in total) - not as good value as a full hour but still way better valued than the in-park prices.

It doesn't say on the website how many laps you do in 1 hour (hence why I calculated an approximate) but this is the quote in the terms & conditions on the upcharge attraction's webpage that I based the session lengths on:

Totally agree with you @Theme Park Girl - I don't think I already knew that DW had removed theming around Buzzsaw & the general Town Of Gold Rush area so yeah, they are probably just removing sensitive theming rather than just preparing a total re-theme. I believe the back story to Buzzsaw took a while (rather than very quickly) to disappear from their website & that was what made me think they are possibly preparing a re-theme as I went to the Buzzsaw back story webpage a few times post-Thunder River Rapids incident. Since early last year up to now, all those rides are in the Town Of Gold Rush area according to the park map. By the way, I have always wanted to know why Rocky Hollow is called Rocky Hollow. Does anyone know why? I think the current closure of Vintage Cars is unrelated as if it is going to be relocated, you need to demolish Thunder River Rapids first and that as well as any future plans are not on DW's mind until all the safety audits are complete plus the actual removal of Thunder River Rapids is going to take a long time. Better to get as many rides operating as possible until Thunder River Rapids is fully removed before beginning any relocations. It already opened for a day or so before closing again so I don't think that's the case if they already opened it once.

I should point out to everyone that despite the area being called Town Of Gold Rush since Buzzsaw's opening in 2011, the theme is not about the Australian gold rush. From 1986 until 2011 when it was called Goldrush Country, it was but since then, no (though DW's park map calls the area Goldrush Country still). According to Buzzsaw's back story (which I just noticed has been removed from DW's website in the past month or so - so maybe they are thinking of a re-theme?): So if anything, it is currently themed to a timber town. The sign that you can still read in Town Of Gold Rush (which says the same thing in a very similar manner) also says the mine is for sale (a reference to the Eureka Mountain Mine Ride). Click here for a clearer image of that sign. I'd like to see Buzzsaw, The Giant Drop & Rocky Hollow Log Ride opened to the Town Of Gold Rush theme. Similar to my Motorsports Experience idea (in that all the rides of a theme are brought together instead of being separate), once Thunder River Rapids is removed, DW should relocate the Vintage Cars to the former site of Thunder River Rapids to fill in the space in the meantime. Add some very scenic landscaping around the Vintage Cars track & it could fit in very nicely instead of being placed at the back of the park when MDMC got built. I'm not sure how much a relocation of the Vintage Cars would cost but it sounds like the easiest/most financially feasible option & might make DW's family market more aware again of the family ride that is the Vintage Cars. A more prominent family ride is what DW needs right now & the Vintage Cars would be a suitable interim family ride due to it being in a more prominent location in the park. I do agree though that a new drawcard would need to be added to the area eventually (Vintage Cars won't be a new drawcard as it is one of the oldest rides in the park). At least the Vintage Cars would fill an obvious gap in the park map.

So if the average speed of a buggy on this 1.2km track is 18km/h (half of 35km/h rounded up), you would be looking at doing 15 laps in 1 hour or 1 lap in 4 minutes. I know the obstacles might make that average speed even slower but if an 18km/h average speed was the case, I don't think the current in-park prices are good value for money: The online booking prices seem much more value for money if that average speed was the case - about $45 for a 1 hour session (15 laps/$3 per lap) or about $64 for a 2 hour session (30 laps/about $2.15 per lap). @themagician, given you've experienced Wet 'n' Wild Buggy, is 1 lap in 4 minutes about right or is it longer due to a slower average speed?

23rd June 2008 - just the 1st (default) satellite image that appeared on Google Earth, which also probably is the best satellite image of MW to view on the software.

To follow on from @mba2012's post, here is the ASX release that Ardent Leisure made today: The trading update also included updates for Main Event Entertainment as well as Ardent Leisure's health clubs but I haven't quoted those parts. To read the full ASX release, click here. Also, in regards to whether this topic should finish or not, I prefer if this topic continues until the remaining closed rides re-open at least once (except Rocky Hollow Log Ride if it is announced to be refurbished, re-built or replaced with something else & clearly Thunder River Rapids) - that way this topic is about the whole time period DW took to fully re-open in.

I agree with what you are saying in your whole post @joz but for your information, you can still view all the penguins without actually riding the boat ride portion of the exhibit.

@MickeyD, I read your post correctly the 1st time.

Here's a quick layout diagram of SDSC & it's entrance(s)/exit for you @UpperCoomera. It should be roughly accurate:

I just noticed Sea Life Sydney Aquarium opened their new Penguin Expedition attraction on 9th November last year. Simply, it is a penguin exhibit featuring a 2-minute boat ride through the exhibit. Nevertheless, it is themed to a scientific expedition to & around Macquarie Island. The ride features temperatures of a 'comfortable' 6 degrees Celsius. Each boat can fit 8 people. According to Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, it is 'the world's first ride-through penguin experience'. Here is their concept video that was released in May last year: While this is a topic about Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, may I ask should Sea World take inspiration from this attraction?

It was a mistake - I completely misread it.

Australia Day is still 3 weeks away?

True - In LPS's case, the State Government shut it down immediately and called for tenders to operate the park a month later. It took a year & 3 months before they found a suitable operator who re-built the park (except for the Face, Coney Island & Crystal Palace) to re-open 2 years & 10 months after the fire. While DW was shut down immediately, they still have the same operators & re-opened 45 days after the incident.

Like I said in another topic @Life, DW can build on everything in yellow - not everything surrounded by the fluro green line. They can also built on the dark green sections but it has to not affect the surrounding environment too much due to it being the home of Oakey Creek. Like @Richard implies above, if that ended up being the case, I think that would probably mean Ardent Leisure would not sell Dreamworld (or Main Event for that matter) in the long-term. Jamberoo recently introduced Photo Card - which simply is a small memory card purchased for $10 that you put into your phone/laptop & can instantly upload your ride-on photos to social media. If DW doesn't already do this, maybe they should? Have them take as many photos as they can off and on-ride & use Photo Card to get guests to upload them to social media. They get revenue plus free global publicity showing people enjoying DW's rides and attractions & when they start adding new rides/attractions, a little advertisement for the new ride/attraction with the DW logo in the corner of the photo. Does anyone else think it would be odd if DW did end up demolishing a water park (Blue Lagoon) to build a new rollercoaster while also demolishing a rollercoaster (Thunderbolt) for a water park (Whitewater World)? They could have saved time & just replaced both in their respective locations I've always imagined a new train station being located there as a unique entrance/exit to the park with the track before/after the station themed as a sort of 'wormhole' between DW & reality. This scene from Thomas & The Magic Railroad, which was a source of inspiration for this idea, bests show what I imagined (from 00:47 to 02:26 - the little reference to the 'missing coal truck' at 01:27 would be cool if DW did something similar with an old Eureka Mountain Mine Ride carriage) - just different environments at either end of the tunnel, no buffer stops & the 'missing coal truck' stays 'missing':