downunder

I had Superman Escape at #41 on my last Mitch Hawker poll, launched coasters I had ahead of it were: Dragster, Kingda Ka, Maverick, iSpeed, Blue Fire, Storm Runner, Xcelerator, Flight of Fear * 2, Lynet & Fluch von Novgorod. So it had some extremely hot competition. Making my top 50 puts SE in the top 10% of coasters I've been on, so that's pretty good. I estimate Buzzsaw would be doing well if it made my top 300, but I'll have to ride it and work that out - maybe next week.

I agree that it's a world class ride, and has many unique features - the best ride in Australia IMO. I understand midget Superman isn't the focus of the ride, and I'll just continue to find it a source of amusement. As long as the coaster is good, I couldn't care less if they had midget Superman dry humping the train from behind doggy style. I'm a hard marker for rides because I've had a chance to travel a bit, and I think your perception of a ride changes the more rides you've experienced and parks visited. For instance I thought Magic Mountain was the ants pants until I went to Cedar Point, but then Cedar Point lost a lot of it's lustre when I rode coasters like El Toro, Phoenix, Boulder Dash, Balder, and Super Ride of Steel (aka Bizarro). I also think there's a divergence of opinions on theming and no one's wrong, we all have our preferences. I prefer thrills over theming, but if a ride has theming and it adds to the ride then I'll enjoy it. Sometimes even simple theming can really work, for instance Top Thrill Dragster makes every ride seem like an event with the Christmas Lights, audio, mini grand stand, and speed read out on a sign.

So no grand opening today???? (hint: sarcasm). My bet would be boxing day. If it opens on or before Friday or Saturday next week I'll probably go, otherwise I'll check out all the new attractions at Dreamworld since my last visit in 2003.

I personally don't think the silly looking midget Superman is the point of the ride. The people on the ride can't see him while their riding so it doesn't impact the ride experience, all they need to hear is the Superman audio and launch to get the concept. Everytime I see the little tacker attached to the back of the train I cringe, it looks so much smaller than a regular sized human being. Overall I really like the theming of the coaster, and I think it makes Superman unique in the coaster world. Though I'd happily trade all the theming for more airtime hills or some maverick-style inversions.

I wouldn't mind if they lost the pygmy Superman off the back of the train, I've always thought that looked silly even if it is part of the theme - I.e. Superman pushing the train.

They paid $16 million for Lethal Weapon, what a rip-off, unless a fair chunk of that went into the surrounding buildings etc, and the exchange rate might not have been that good back then (compared to now) if the deal was done in US dollars.

What I meant to say is that two parks put in similiar coasters, even though I'm led to believe Jet Rescue is superior (I haven't been on either yet). I get the impression the GC parks don't think they need to add a single uber attraction ($15 million +) to meet growth targets. Bottom line is they are businesses.

I wasn't planning on going to Movie World just before Christmas, now I'm going to have to. Ian, if 1% of the world are Theme Park Fans that makes me very afraid: 70 million of them gravy lovers. It's a solid addition, at least we didn't get another buzzsaw (Jet Ski / Motocoaster).

Hopefully they won't neuter GL with trims. Damn, if it opens before Christmas that complicates my Gold Coast theme park visiting plan.

At HHN in Hollywood, they close the Terror Tram line at 9pm (2 hours after opening) now on nights other than Fri and Sat. Apparently the noise annoys the Hollywood hills residents. It's a shame Movie World can't open at night other than Fright Nights, I'm assuming this is a nimby issue. I've found from my travels a lot of coasters are seriously good at night. Rode Xcelerator at night last month, holy moly it was cranking, and then it broke down for the rest of the night.

It sounds like the event is getting better every year, even though capacity seems like a challenge. If I don't do the US haunts one October I may have to head up. Does the NIMBY factor limit operating hours? Even HHN in Hollywood has that problem.

The non-coaster enthusiast public are the ones who make up the majority of the market, from a commercial perspective their opinion is far more important than mine. I think Disney has shown how successful you can be if you can attract families, albeit they have always had the capital to build amazing attractions. I'm more impressed by Lantern than Buzzsaw personally, though I've got both parks down as "could do better" from my perspective. I'm going to the Gold Coast for the first time since 2007 just before Christmas, and I'm not that excited. I plan on going to Dreamworld and Seaworld, both of which I haven't been to since 2003. Movieworld I'll only go to if they soft open Green Lantern just before Christmas. I really feel for the amount of money thay spent on this attraction they could have got something much better. To be fair though I've been to parks all over the world so I'm seriously jaded, my last major coaster riding session was riding El Toro 20 or 30 times in a day (I've had a couple of odd rides since then, but nothing major).

Universal Studios Hollywood - Halloween Horror Nights: absolutely amazing event, the mazes were top notch this year, except for Wolfman which was very good, but paled in comparison. It's a very intense experience.

On-board audio is okay, wouldn't sell me though. Blue Fire is bizarre, it has a heart rate monitor like an exercise bike. BTW Blue Fire has excellent restraints. I'm hoping this will soft open just before Christmas, that would be very good by me.

1. El Toro 2. Balder 3. Phoenix 4. Boulder Dash 5. Bizarro (Six Flags New England) 6. New Texas Giant 7. Goliath (Walibi World Holland) 8. Nemesis 9. Montu 10. X2 Ones I haven't ridden that I think would be probable top ten: Intimidator 305, Expedition GeForce, Kawasemi, T-Express.

And drum roll please.... Cedar Point with Dinosaurs Alive - okay maybe not. There's more to come as well, in particular I'm watching with interest to see what Dollywood will be adding, the rumours are 212 foot wingrider but we'll have to wait and see. Sea World San Diego will get Manta which looks a similiar sort of coaster to Cheetah Hunt, and also Busch Willimasburg will get probably get something like that too. It will be very interesting to see if Knott's get their rumoured 340 foot hyper, they deserve something decent. Also I'm wondering if Everland in Korea will have their replacement for Eagle's Fortress ready in 2012. From what I've been told, it will be something f****ed up.

I love the look of this, it's a shame it's at Fuji-Queue. The regular 100' Eurofighters are a lot of fun, so a 140' plus launched Eurofighter should be insane.

I enjoyed that show. I'll try not to think of that tentacled beast in the hydrolic room when I'm rising KK in August. I love how they talked about the 160 km Superman at Magic Mountain, but had the Superman flyer from Great Adventure - if that went at 160km/h I'd be dead. I went to Gadv in 2005 after that had ironed out all the bugs, but alas it was closed for the day.

Maybe LW could at least fit out the trains with the new style SLC restraints which hug your chest and shoulders, I rode an SLC at Morey's Piers which had the new restraints and they totally eliminated ear bashing. For the record I thought T2 at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom was much worse than Lethal Weapon. I agree, Movie World sure could use something, another big-ticket attraction is needed much, crikey, the TPR mob liked Dreamworld better - now that's a bitch slap and a half. I've always marvelled at the quality of many of MW's attractions, but the quantity needs to pick up. Speaking as a potential customer, I haven't been in a long time because there isn't any new quality attractions to draw me back.

Mystery Mine is a really good themed ride, but only an OK coaster. It doesn't get going until the second half. SAW at Thorpe was much better, that was a fun ride. I've been on the 2 Zacspins in Scandinavia, and they're ok. They're a very different ride experience, but not really my cup of tea. I was surprised Magic Mountain got one. But in both cases, they are very eye catching coaster types that would be easy for Dreamworld to promote to the public. I'm not optomositic that the coaster will be anything special, but here's hoping.

They originally planned to go to Perth, they wanted to get every credit in Australia, but when the Schwarzkopf closed (Turbo Mountain?) it was difficult to justify going all that way for a Dragon Wagon. I've been on TPR tours every year since 2007 and will again this year, and they do get good deals. And their increasing profile with park smeans the ERT get better and better. I've ridden coasters like Balder, Superman Ride of Steel, and Boulder Dash 40+ times in a day. I give them credit, they made the Australia trip great, even though the parks on offer don't have the magnitude of attractions of larger markets.

It was a pretty small drop tower, space probe 7's illegitimate midget Italian lovechild. They had this weird revolving observation tower that went up on an arm, if you looked at it from some angles you can't see the arm and it looked like a flying saucer suspended in the air. Ah Gardaland, so many quirky things, Egyptian themed Terminator shooting rides, a Euro Pirates of the Caribbean knockoff... I'm surprised B & M isn't building any hypers for next year, though they're everywhere in US now, and they're a bit expensive for smaller parks. No inverts either. Hopefully the x-raptor concept takes off.

^I agree, I couldn't see them building a new park in the US or other large markets), let alone Australia. It would be nice if they did, I wonder if a top notch park could be a success in Sydney. Put in an Intamin pre-fab (like El Toro, Balder or T-Express) and a an Inatmin hyper like Geforce or Superman/Bizarro and I'd never leave Sydney to ride a coaster. So what I mean by a top notch park is one that doesn't have an Vekoma Boomerang as it's marquee coaster. The main reason I mention those two coaster types is that they seem to have enduring popularity, people would keep going back to ride them.

I went to Gardalnd in June, so I'm bummed I missed this one by a year, their other coasters are fairly mediocre (the mine train, Mammut was fun though). It's a really pretty park. Will this be the B & M that really pushes the envelope a lot (like Intamin does often), probably not, but here's hoping. I went on Kumba and Montu last month, they are seriously kick ass B & M's, they don't let up - like Nemesis.

That's interesting that it wasn't very crowded on Sunday night. October 31 falls on a Monday night next year, might be a very good night to go. Now that it is all over can anyone describe what happens/the scenes in the mazes especially SAW and Freddy? I'm very curious as to how they compare to the US versions.