downunder

Good to see the Lantern is back on. The transition from lawn ornament back to El Loco is complete. Just in time for the crazy season.

My only grounds for an actual complaint (which is the only I mentioned to guest services), was the snafu at the gate. Not being able to scan a ticket at a gate is pretty basic, and having a half hour wasted when you only have 2.5 hours max at the park is frustrating. Like I've acknowledged, the lady as guest services was cool and I sensed she was frustrated about all the crap going on in the park too. It's the first time I've ever bothered complaining about a theme park. Most other stuff constituted the guest experience, which was poor, and not something I'd make a complaint about. I just simply won't go back - and I know I'm not alone there, and I'll also warn my friends off the place. And the weather, however frustrating, was bad luck.

To put it in perspective, I wouldn't normally even consider going to Florida at all, but a good mate moved down there from Minnesota so I was mainly there to catch up. The primary objectives while there were Halloween Horror Nights (incl. lights-on tours) and Busch/Howl O Scream, anything else was kind of a bonus. We did consider an extra Disney day, but in hindsight it was good to have a easier day. Like I said, I mainly wanted to satisfy my curiosity about Disney and do a bit of a taste test and check out mostly attractions I haven't been on before (in hindsight, Dinosaur sounds like a crazy ride - the other credit at AK was closed BTW). Some of the new to me stuff blew me away like Mission Space and Test Track, and others not new continued to impress me like Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder. I'm more into thrill rides, though I can appreciate theming. Though themed rides to me are like movies and I only want to do them once or twice for the most part. Whereas thrill rides, the good ones, I can do over and over (I can liken it to something I won't mention here). There's no right answer here, everyone has different preferences. I don't jump up and down (or even notice) if someone has different likes to me, to each his own - enjoy. With Tower of Terror, I've been on it plenty of times before, it was new when I was there last LOL. It's good, but I could live without doing it again. Again it comes down to preference, I wouldn't be saying that about Bizarro at SFNE. We covered what we wanted to Disney and much more, I was pleasantly surprised at what we achieved. Zantasbar I thought Disney in one day was insane too LOL, but we had a clear plan (albeit with some rookie errors) and went for it. I have no regrets.

I am kind of being facetious, taking the piss more than a bit (too many P J O'Rourke and Hunter S Thompson books), but I know many people who live on the internet don't get that. I'll cease reporting, it was fun to reminisce. I actually had a ball; at most of the parks and catching up with friends on both coasts, and I will repeat next year - though I'll give Orlando a miss.

Tuesday 20th October - Sea World and Fun Spot Kissimmee The day before was about satisfying my curiosity about Disney, and this day was more of a pit stop after a frenetic series of all day-all night park days. Up early as usual, but at least I'd get to bed before midnight. We got to Sea World before opening and headed straight for Manta, first ride of the day. It's a solid flyer (not a huge fan of this ride type) - nothing too out of the ordinary, intensity in the pretzel loop and floating around otherwise. It has an excellent themed environment around it, which the coaster interacts with nicely - I'd put it just behind Tatsu which is the best flyer I've been on. We headed for Kraken, which my mate is a big fan of, but it wasn't open yet. We did a lap on Journey to Atlantis, which is the best of the rides with this name. Some really good themed environments and enough coaster action to allow the fatty patch jacket brigade to consider it a credit. Got fairly well drenched at the end, was hoping not to LOL, but I got the wrong seat. Kraken was still not open, so we tried this (new to me) arctic environment next to Kraken. Seriously freezing inside, great for a hot day. It had a funny ride with penguin shaped cars that went along a floor rather than track. After the ride there was a stack of exhibits including penguins. Fairly impressive. The onto Kraken, the B & M floorless. It's a pretty good coaster without being spectacular. Rode it about 8 times with minimal wait, mainly front and back. The new B & M hyper building site is next door, and it was a fascinating pile of dirt at the time. We went through a few more exhibits like the sharks, rode the small coaster Shamu Express (new to me). Went on the polar simulator ride, and checked out the Shamu show. Given the tragedy that has happened in recent times the show was somewhat muted, in any case it's not really my thing anyway. We left after half a day at Sea World, it was nice to have a cruisey day, because tomorrow was a big one. Orlando is the best of the Sea World parks (including our non-affiliated one). It has a lot more attractions than the Gold Coast - but the Gold Coast has a far better Shark exhibit and several other attractions that would match anything at Orlando. Yes VRTP can be world class when they want to be. Had lunch in Kissimmeee and then headed to the Fun Spot and rode the Spinning Mouse and the small coaster, and wandered around Old Town. After this went back to the accommodation and crashed, because after I got up early the next morning I was going to get about 2 hours sleep in the next 36 hours. Next up: Universal Orlando, lights-on tours of 7 Horror Nights Mazes and Halloween Horror Nights.

^That was a cool little thing they do in the lower lot. We did the early entry for Halloween Horror Nights and caught a bit of the last outing for Mr Raptor for the day. It's so simple, but really works.

I'm indifferent about the place now, I just want to move on and forget LOL. I hope they improve the place, I want Village Roadshow to succeed and build more "world's best attractions". I think they could learn from the responses from the guy at Adventure World in the kraken thread.

The Gold Coast Titans were at the park too, not sure if they were promoting the NRL or just dealing cocaine. Taylor who?

^As opposed to someone who spits the dummy when someone has an opinion that differs from their own. One, the comment about the car park was pointing out how cynical the place was - they lay a bitumen car park and then chuck gravel on it unnecessarily to make it painful to walk on. An observation rather than a complaint, we were close to the entrance, so it wasn't too far to walk. If I went again (I won't), I'd bring thongs and pay for a locker. As I observed, guest services were really cool. I have no intention of going back to the park so why would I bother getting free tickets. I had no complaint about the lightning, it happened, the closures just happened at unfortunate times. I do not share others complaints about the hours, it made operational sense to me. I can only base my observations on my own experience of staff and what happened on the day. Great you enjoy the place, that's fine with me. I hear there's a bunch of people complaining on facebook too, you might want to complain about them complaining. I very rarely complain about anything, but my experience of W n W was especially poor, no big deal in the greater scheme of things - I have plenty of other things I'd rather be doing. Peace out, keyboard warrior.

^Yeah we did it, OK looper, usual Schwarzy smoothness. A bit hidden now, walked right by it on out first park lap, caught it on the second. Monday 19th October - 4 Disneys in One Day, or Downunder Does Disney Animal Kingdom We had a day loose in our schedule, so we decided to do Disney Orlando. I hadn't been in 20 years, so why not? We decided to do all 4 parks in one day, which sounds crazy, but there wasn't a lot we wanted to do at Animal Kingdom or the Studios, and we were prepared to skip Epcot if we weren't doing well for time. I appreciate Disney, but I'm not a huge fan, I'd rather be riding Expedition GeForce than Everest; El Toro than an E-ticket. But I thought I'd see what the little rodent had to offer. We started the day at Animal Kingdom, we only wanted to do the coasters and go. We got there before opening and were escorted by a cast member towards Expedition Everest. The other coaster was closed so our expedition was simple. I was chatting to the cast member and explained to them that we were going to do all 4 parks in one day. Impressed, or perhaps taking pity at our folly. He pulled us aside when we got to Everest, and gave us extra fast passes for Animal Kingdom (all our fast passes were pre-booked online for Magic Kingdom). As Everest was only thing we were doing at AK, we clocked up two laps with the fast passes. I thought Everest was an average ride, the mountain was really cool, but it really didn't do a lot, and we all know about that dysfunctional yeti. I thought Disney could have done better with $100 million. Park opened at 9am and we were out the exit at 9.15am, and worked our way back to the car to head to the studio. My mate is a Florida local, so he got a season pass with parking so we didn't have to pay for parking. Disney Studios We arrived at the Studios and made a bee-line for the single rider queue for Rock n Roller Coaster. About twenty minutes wait, it's a solid launched Vekoma indoor Spaghetti bowl themed around Aerosmith, definitely a righteous rock band. Surprisingly intense for Disney. But I'm all for the mouse growing a pair. Didn't think the line was worth it for Tower of Terror, been on it before so not fussed. We went to the Great Movie ride which I really liked last time I was there. About 20 minute wait. I must say the animatronics were fantastic, as it took us on a ride through great movies over the years - everything from Singing In The Rain to Alien. The on-board interchangeable cast member(s) were lively as they got out and interacted with various scenes and swapped with a new host. Definitely a fantastic ride. OK we were done with the studios and making good time, so we decided to hit Epcot. Epcot The great right-wing satirist PJ O'Rourke in his book Holidays in Hell described Epcot "a land of make-believe that's worse than real life". He was totally right at the time, though fortunately there has been some improvement since then. First up, we hit Test Track, using the single rider line, we were on in 15 minutes. Go to love 3 across seating on an attraction. Test Track was excellent, and intense. The indoor section is a little cheesy, but fun and the outdoor part was balls to the wall speed. Someone had to do something about making Epcot less boring and they achieved that in spades with this ride. I wasn't that interested in Mission Space, I thought it would be just a glorified centrifuge. I was wrong. It was about a 20 minute wait for the intense side. We were immediately immersed in the majesty of Gary Sinise (an old in-joke). Oh boy was that space shuttle launch intense, and the mission finished before any motion sickness kicked in. I was pleasantly surprised at how good this ride was. We decided to wander around the lake, did a lap, checked out the food carts of the food and wine festival, but decided a restaurant would be better - so we did Italy, had a massive pizza. Wandered a bit more and drove over to the magic kingdom. Magic Kingdom Time to take on the little rat in his lair. Main street was a sea of mobility scooters, people who weren't so much knocking on heaven's door, as running into it on their scooter, then reversing and doing it again. Any gaps left by the scooters, were taken up by strollers full of semi-retarded hellspawn who could not have possibly been comprehending their surrounds. We were in the badlands now. We did Barnstormer to get what is known in the coaster world as a credit, not a bad little coaster to be fair. Our fast passes were for later. So we saw what we could do that had an OK wait, but my friend wanted to leave. My mate is a top dude, but he likes s***ty seventies and 80's bands and he needed to go back to Epcot and see...Air Supply. Another Florida mate was messaging us that when he drum-teched for them, and that he found the noise of the lead singer and guitarist making out quite off-putting - which fuelled a great deal of political incorrectness. So lame music and unfortunate white-man Afros were about to prevail - I personally would rather have my balls stung by scorpions than listen to Air Supply so I left him to it. I didn't care because that meant I could do more laps of Test Track. I must say the monorail between MK and Epcot was a good way to get between those parks. So a few more laps of Test Track, the big ball and we were back to MK. Plenty of time before our late night fast passes (rookie error booking online, no early times). We hit Haunted Mansion, then Big Thunder Railroad. Over to Tomorrowland (now wasn't that a huge hit at the movies, they'll have to jack up theme park prices again to cover the massive loss) for Space Mountain. Our fast pass was for a little later, so we did Stitch and Laughing Floor, which were seriously lame attractions, mere filler. Rookie error on Space Mountain, a fifteen minute line (which we couldn't see outside) so we should have used our fast passes later. Once we got off the ride, the parade had just finished and all the foamers were running for Space Mountain like greyhounds after a rabbit. Line was instantly long again. Space Mountain was awesome as usual, we all know what that entails, so I won't go into details. Our last fast pass was for Seven Dwarves Mine Train, which I'd heard horror stories about how long the line gets. Well the line was long, but the ride is short. What a cheap attraction, seriously lame. Did Disney spend all their money paying James Cameron for the Avatar IP use? Just an average mine train with a few effects here and there. On that note, we left, having done much more than we expected. As final f*** you from Mickey it took us an hour to get to the car, the monorail is a hell of a bottle neck. We walked 15 miles that day.

Sunday 18th October - Busch Gardens and Howl O Scream Headed off early morning to drive to Tampa. Got there before the rope drop and once the rope went down we made a bee line for Cheetah Hunt. I've got to say Cheetah Hunt is not super intense, but a lot of fun - it's a real adventure of a ride as it covers a good part of the park and varying terrain. It was a shame the line was too long at night during the haunt to ride it again. Rode Cheetah Hunt another couple of times, and then started a circuit around the park. We hit Falcon's Fury first up, the new drop tower. The drop isn't as intense due to your prone body position going down, but it's a fun ride, we did it about five times during the day. The crowds were fairly light until the Halloween event. Rode the adjacent Wild Mouse and then headed for Kumba. Now Kumba, a sit down looper, is what people call old-school B & M, it has some serious g-forces and a great layout. No line to speak so we did a few laps in various rows, back was best if I recall correctly. Then we wrapped around and hit Sheikra, a serious people eater in terms of capacity. As far a dive machines go, the two 90 degrees drops are fun, but they aren't really exciting outside of that. We did multiple laps in various rows and positions. Next stop, more old school B & M - Montu. This is one hell of an intense invert, I've only got this behind Nemesis at Alton. Never lets up the entire ride and the blood really goes to your feet in a big way. After a few laps we did the train around the park and checked the wild life like the rhinos, and throughout the day we went to various animal exhibits in between coasters. They even have an Aussie enclosure with everything from Kookas to Kangas. Did the early buffet for Howl O Scream, which included ERT on the mazes and 1 hour of fast pass on top of that - good value. You also get an early session of their show Fiends, which is a good show, but they had me at the sexy nurse assistants. Got through the mazes fairly quickly except Zombie Containment Unit. Honestly, none of the mazes stood out, a lot of sameness about the sets and lighting - except for Zombie Containment and the 3D Clown Maze. Zombie Containment Unit was a zombie shooter, we had to wait about 50 minutes for it. At least they had an onsite DJ to keep things pumping. The line just went on and on, outside the building and then inside the building. The maze itself was very average, just shooting at random zombies jumping out, mostly they were behind cyclone fence props - fun, but very short. The scare zones were a bit sparse, Busch is a huge park so it's hard to get really immersive coverage. This was the first of our marathon days, we clocked up 12 miles walking for the day. Next, 4 Disneys in One day...

Saturday 17th October 2015 - Pre-game and Fun Spot Orlando Out til 3am on Friday night / Saturday, so it was time to pack. In such a hurry for the train to the airport in the morning managed to drop my Opal card in between tapping in and jumping on the train. Had to tailgate at International station (though I had hit the station access fee cap that week as well as 8 regular trips, so the journey was actually free). Blocked my Opal card online to save my balance, so sucked in bogan at Glenfield who tried using my card the next morning. Didn't score an upgrade from Premium Economy, but Virgin Gold status gets me a gig at the lounge, had a shower, and scored some food. Pretty tired by the time I got to the plane, one movie and then it was sleepy time. Repeat at LAX at the Delta lounge (they recognise your status benefits on Virgin) and then onto Orlando. Got picked up at the airport by my mate who'd recently moved to Florida, and it was straight to Fun Spot Orlando for some coasters. Fun Spot is not far from Universal Orlando and is a very small park, but plenty fun - including an alligators pit. But we were there for credits, not to go all gator boys on the reptiles. Rode the junior GCI woodie first. It was a bit of a departure from a typical GCI, just a straight out and back with airtime hills and short trains. Delivered some good airtime and was a pleasant surprise. Next to the Vekoma Junior invert, which was good for what it was and then we rode the kiddie coaster. Then we were out of there, and hit a Texas steakhouse bar near our accommodation in Kissimmee. Overall, not a bad little park with a good selection of rides and attractions. Next stop, Busch Gardens Tampa and Howl O Scream....

After a great time at Movie World's Halloween the weekend before. It was time to cross the Pacific to theme park Nirvana, and get my haunt on. In summary, what did I do? Sat October 17 : Travel Sydney to Los Angeles then onto Orlando / Fun Spot Orlando Sun Oct 18 : Busch Gardens Tampa and Howl O Scream Mon Oct 19 : Animal Kingdom / Disney Studios / Epcot / Magic Kingdom Tue Oct 20 : Sea World / Fun Spot Kissimmee / sleep Wed Oct 21 : Universal Orlando / Lights-on Maze Tours / Halloween Horror Nights Thu Oct 22 : Knott's Scary Farm Fri Oct 23 : Magic Mountain / Zombie Joe's Urban Death Tour (North Hollywood) Sat Oct 24 : Queen Mary Dark Harbor Sun Oct 25 : Knott's Scary Farm Mon Oct 26 : no parks / Australian Consulate Tue Oct 27 : Knott's Berry Farm Wed Oct 28 : Knott's Scary Farm Thu Oct 29 : Knott's Scary Farm Fri Oct 30 : Halloween Horror Nights - Hollywood Fri Oct 31 : watch rugby world cup final / Universal Citywalk / go home I was also going to Las Vegas and Frightdome and other haunts, but had to cancel and stay in LA because my Passport got severely damaged in Florida and I had to go to the Australian consulate in LA to get an emergency passport. Trust me folks, trying to get through the TSA at screening with just an Aussie issued driver's licence is not fun. To be continued...

^Virgin is under a $1k Sydney - LA return at the moment, it's only a matter of whether I could get time off work.

I wonder what the crowds were like in Year 2, given the large amount of customer antipathy generated in Year 1 (and ongoing it seems)? I'd never go back there (even the offer of free tickets wouldn't do it), and everyone I know who's been feels the same, and they're warning off their friends not to go as well who haven't been.

^^I'm the same, I'm not going to take a day off work to go on a quiet day during the week (I'm always saving my leave for overseas trips or playing sport). The main reason I went was because my mate had a car provided by his company while he was over and was based at Parramatta, so he could pick me up from Blacktown Station (it took us at least a half an hour to go the 6kms from the Station to Wet and Wild). That was the only practical way to do it, because if I went home and drove there myself, it would take a significant amount of time in peak hour.

^Yes, it's being re-tracked by GCI and getting new trains and some re-profiling (and they're taking out the mid-course brake). I got some good photos of the work when I was over there in October. Glad you had a great time. I feel fortunate I only had to wait 15 mins for front row on X2, I still really like it - I wish I could have taken a POV including the audio of my mate on the ride, it was hilarious. I've got a Six Flags season pass now, and I intend to get my maximum value out of it next year.

^I thought the hours were logically aligned to the twilight discount on the day I went. There wasn't a lot of people there when I went and I doubt there would have been numbers to justify opening all day. What puzzles me is surely head office at VRTP would be giving this place some scrutiny and accountability. They seem separated from the rest of the group, like they are not really integrated into the themeparks.com.au website. Is the underlying corporate structure for W n W Sydney different to the other parks (like a joint venture)?

^^On a positive note, we drove out of there without paying for parking. A bit like Six Flags at their worst the employees, for the most part, seemed smug and uninterested. The girl in guest services was genuine though. Scanners at the front broken, slides breaking down, slow loading times, lack of shade. The three slide complexes being so far apart means a barefoot concrete marathon, which would be murder when it's really hot - I was unclear about whether you could hold onto thongs when you go on a slide (i.e. wear thongs when walking between the slide complexes). The general vibe of the place is dull. The slides were fun, though I don't have much of a comparison point. Probably the best ones I've been on are the water coaster at Kentucky Kingdom, the Proslide Tornadoes are great (love the drop), Six Flags Great America had some great slides. ^I'm probably not a good reference point for an average park goer, I'm quite jaded now - I've been to at least 140 parks around the world (134 with coasters). So it takes a lot more to convince me to go to a park (in W n W's case it was just because a friend wanted to go) - I mean I've been to Dreamworld once in the last 12 years. I think I should do a report about October 2015, I went to many good parks that month. I even had a good day at Magic Mountain.

I wouldn't say it's too far, though it's not a fun drive, it depends on why you have to drive. Driving that far for W n W is generally not worth it, but if they had something like Movie World out there, different story. I mean I had to drive further for training every Sunday morning last summer.

Dude, I didn't say the car park was intentionally hot, that actually would be mental. My negative impression was based on far more than the front gate experience. Like I said before the lightning stoppages were understood, and I wouldn't consider any grounds for complaint, but after all the stuff I could complain about or dislike, mother nature had an extra kick in the nuts lined up. As evidenced by the chorus of complaints from other customers, there's a lot wrong with this place.

^I imagine it's to align to the evening discount period, which kicks in at 3.30pm. Possibly they didn't think there'd be sufficient crowds during the day to justify opening for the full day.

They seem to building up a lot of antipathy on a number of fronts. I'd like them to succeed, if purely from my point of view to build a case for a full scale amusement park. Something is going to give if they keep pissing people off on the scale that they are.

I left them in the car, in hindsight, I should have bought thongs (I didn't bring them at all) and left them at the beach - rookie error. My mate left stuff at the beach.

I'm coming over to Perth and doing Adventureworld for the first time in January, looking forward to it. Kraken sounds great and I'm keen to check out Abyss.