downunder

Damn I forgot I wasn't on TPR, you guys would have had no idea what I was talking about.

There's no way any of those photos were inaccurately representing the dire situation in Sydney, flaming Godzilla, f***ed up the trains.

I'll be up that way in March next year, maybe they will at least still have the Wild Mouse credit there.

It's only Saturdays for the first 3 weeks and then Fridays and Saturdays for the last two weeks. Would Surfside put on later buses for the Halloween nights?

I don't know, even though I work not far from the harbour bridge but it wasn't looking good that morning.

^Ah, the Volare at Rye Slayland, the memories, or lack of them from the beating to the head. You know I've been on 3 Volares now in 3 different countries and 2 continents. We did a dragon wagon at Zumas in Knoxville Tn, that was so small the lift wasn't higher than my waist - I'd settle for that at Luna Park Sydney. My vote is with Movie World, in case it wasn't obvious before.

^I haven't been to Sea World since 2003 either but I will definitely be going there to check out Shark Bay and Jet Rescue. I'm doing two nights of Halloween at MW. I don't think DW will get a look in. Probably to put it in perspective I have been to a hell of a lot of park overseas so it makes me much harder to please. I just checked, I've been to 89 parks that have at least one coaster in them according to coaster counter.

Does anyone have any updates on Turbo Mountain as well, obviously it has been removed from thepark but has it been scrapped or will it be relocated (or possibly become a travelling coaster)?

I've actually got time to go to Dreamworld when I come up in October but I doubt I will bother, haven't been since to DW 2003. I think I'll wait until they add something exceptional, and I'm not holding my breath for that. I think Giant Drop is world class even if the operations on it are abysmal. Tower of Terror seems slow and uninteresting after riding a lot of the new generation launch coasters like Dragster, Kingda Ka. Xcelerator and so on. Cyclone is a very meh ride in my opinion. Mick Doohan's Motocoaster and the The Claw, neither of which I have been on, I do not consider good enough to justify a visit. Movie World - Superman Escape, Wild West Falls, and Scooby Doo I consider to be highly impressive world class attractions. I think their Looney Tunes River Caves is an impressive kid's ride and their kiddie coaster is not bad. Lethal Weapon is a good ride but with some flaws. I stress just my opinion as someone who visits the Gold Coast and has to decide what to do with the time I have while visiting.

Personally I prefer Movie World, I personally think it has far more quality than DW though DW has the quantity. Worth noting at Movie World is Superman, Scooby Doo, Wild West Falls, Batwing, Shrek, Batman simulator, and Lethal Weapon. While Dreamworld has Giant Drop, Tower of Terror, The Claw, Cyclone and Motocoaster. I'd just get on each of their websites check out what attractions they have to offer and work what you prefer.

An copy of Balder or Piraten would do me - they're actually realistic acquisitions too.

I want to go to Universal's and Knott's Halloween events big time but it was too hard to get time off work in Oct. I booked tickets for Movieworld for 30/10 and 31/10, so I'm looking forward to coming up and checking it out. I plan on going to Sea World for the first time since 2003 as well - should be fun.

Maybe if there is a lack of alcohol outlets, they can sell those beer dispensing hats. I was looking at the lineup for HHN at Universal and they have so many mazes and scare zones, hopefully this will be start of WBMW developing Halloween into something incredible like Universal. One of those Halloween things like at Universal would make an interesting set up for a new Friday the 13th - the real Jason stalking HHN at Universal, slaughtering drunk, immoral young people.

Sounds good, I'm very tempted to head up to the GC for this. I was tempted to head over to LA for Universal Halloween Horror nights but I can't get the time off work to do that.

Balder at Liseberg for me, I was sceptical but it blew me away. The haunted house at Liesberg was also amazing - we got chased out of there by meat cleaver wielding mad doctor ghost. Though I have to admit the scariest experience was the SCAD tower at Tivoli Friheden in Denmark - 50 metre free fall into a net.

They have announced the new coaster for Carowinds, more simply called Intimidator: http://intimidator.carowinds.com/ Pretty much the standard B & M hyper with a few variations, I prefer the Intamin hypers personally but the beemers are still fun. Having visited the park in July, it is a nice park but I thought they only had one coaster worth riding more than once (Afterburn), so it will be a good addition just like I305 will be at Kings Dominion.

I've actually seen Amish people at Cedar Point so maybe they wouldn't be that scared, I saw Amish people on the Greyhound from Cleveland to New York too. Those blackout dates are possibly a blessing in disguise, Movie World (or any other GC park) sounds like hell on earth for crowds during the school holidays.

All has been revealed: http://www.intimidator305.com/ It's 305 feet tall with a 300 foot 85 degree drop, 5 airtime hills after the drop, and some of angle changes like Maverick (which I liked personally). Biggest disappointment, no inversions but it has over the shoulder restraints - that seriously sucks but at least they won't be able staple you like El Toro. I think they could have had a few more airtime hills in the layout. I never thought I go back to KD after going last year, but now, hmmmm.

^ I was thinking/hoping the same thing.

^Wow, Scream must have deteriorated since I was there in 2007 - it wasn't that bad then, and it only opened in 2003 too. There seems to be the odd B & M that can be really punishing, Iron wolf at SF Great America in Chicago (which I believe was their first coaster) is absolutely horrible - definitely in the "please make it stop" category of coasters. The West Coast tour sounds like fun but I never could have fit it in even if I hadn't done other TPR tours this year, I'd love to go back in October and do the Halloween stuff but I don't think I will have time. Token back to topic line - I don't think that petition will have any influence on Dreamworld, it's all balance sheets and marketing stats.

An Intamin Megalite would be realistic to acquire and great addition to any park in Australia, imagine flying throught the trees out the back of Dreamworld with all that ejector airtime. T-bone, did Knott's give you any ERT? It's funny how things have flipped around, Knott's used to be really nice and SFMM used to excerable.

^I think one of the constraints with a TPR tour is that they can't go to all the parks at an optimal time during the trip. Some park days will have to fall on a weekends, also I think they have to balance out the dates of the tour with the longer park hours - travelling by myself I've chosen to go late in the season but then the parks close a lot earlier, so no night rides. Most of the time ERT and fast passes can compensate for going on a bad day, I don't know if you got ERT at Knott's but I know they don't have fast passes. The flip side is if you go on a deserted Knott's gets boring real fast, nobody wins, we'll all be in the same spinal ward after riding Ghostrider.

^The last time I went to Knott's it was a friday in late August 2007 and it was deserted, even with that experience I still wouldn't go back unless they added something special with the exception of Knott's Scary Farm which is supposed to be a very good Halloween event. I could imagine Knott's being terrible on a busy day, and they don't have q-bots to boot. Waiting in a slow moving, long line for a great coaster is bad enough let alone for the coasters at Knotts.

RCDB has got Turbo Mountain down as having operated to 2009. Anyone know more about this? Is it being scrapped or has it been sold to another park?

I've been lucky with Knotts, every visit I have had has been when the park is deserted and all the rides have been operating so I haven't been able to experience their terrible operations. Silver Bullet and Xcelerator are not bad, Ghostrider has gone from a very good woodie to horrible, Sidewinder was OK. Knott's could really do with a couple of top quality coasters (like the never get bored of riding quality) and maybe a decent dark ride. I personally don't think Dreamworld would be prepared or probably able to fork out for a flyer of Tatsu or Manta quality even without theming, I'm not sure if a Superman flyer would in their range either. They may also feel that the public may percieve an invert as being the same as something at movie world (we know better but most might not).