Theme Park Girl

I see it there now, thanks for that. Bizarre, wasn't there half an hour ago Emotional attachment. These are the rides that many of us grew up with, some of them were around when the parks first opened. Its always sad to see something you used to enjoy as a kid get knocked down to make way for the 'future'. I dare say it would probably be less of an issue if they had somewhat immediate plans for their replacement attractions, give fans something new to look forward to in the wake of the old ones closing. It seems a bit strange that (other than for health/safety reasons, of course) they wouldn't at least keep them running in the meanwhile, for everyone to get some final enjoyment out of. I can only assume that saving on running costs is more important for the parks, given their financial stresses at the moment

You don't look like a theme park to me

:o :o Call me naive, but I didn't see that one coming!!! Wow, how totally sad to see Batman Adventure go... just like Spencer, I also have fond memories of that ride - going on there everyday with my best friend during the 1995 school holidays, back when we had our MW year passes. I'm very thankful that I got to go on it last month then, and experience it one last time! I have to agree with this. I never quite warmed up to the sequel either, BA1 was great and I thought the whole "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" came into account for me - but they did anyway. One thing I did like about BA1 was the different travelling methods used (car/boat/plane) as opposed to just flying around everywhere, as per BA2. All the flying just made me feel sick a lot quicker... lol. The storyline seemed nowhere near as good either. One thing I was sad to see too, was all the original props/rooms from BA1 go to waste when it changed to BA2. Wayne Manor library's great little ride op intro (with the book opening the passageway etc) was dropped in favour of a 2 minute video on the unused wall. The 2nd room where Oliver used to prep you for the ride and interact with the ride op etc, now has absolutely no purpose at all - other than to form rider queues. In the end, all these rooms just seemed to become an inconvenience. So with all this in mind, I can see why the need for a change has come around. Are we sure that it IS being completely replaced, though? Its not possible that they will keep it a motion simulator with a new, updated theme and some much needed renos? Where is this announcement about it closing? I've just loaded up the MW maintenance page and it has: Did they remove it? Or is it somewhere else?

Found this little gem at home today, within a collection of random coins! Shame there is no date on it, would liked to have known what SW era it was from - obviously a very early one, probably from when I was a child. Funny thing is, I don't remember what the purpose of these tokens were? What Seaworld child rides and services used to require tokens for their use? I always thought that all the rides were free, since you paid so much at the entry booth

Lol, funny you should mention that, GoGoBoy. My other half was the first to go on Super Escape before I did, and he came out raving about how it had awesome themeing. I remember walking in to line up for the ride, inside that waiting area, and thinking "what themeing?" and "is this it?" lol. There I was assuming that maybe there was more to come beyond that point, more pre-show or something... until the actual coaster showed up and we were loaded onto it. At that stage I was under the impression that hubby had been pulling my leg! So I was VERY surprised when I later discovered that this themeing he was raving about was actually along the coaster track itself lol. Didn't expect that at all And totally agreed with him once I did see it first hand!

Why can't it be a balance of both? I thought the Superman Escape was a good example of this... a thrill ride, but with some pretty awesome pre-launch themeing as well - city flooding, cars piled up etc. I think both are important to a good attraction The thing you have to keep in mind as well is that the parks on the Gold Coast are known and promoted as "theme parks", therefore they are expected to provide and maintain some kind of decent themeing in order to live up to that expectation by the public. So they can't really go all six flags on us and provide thrill rides with little or no themeing to them, anyway.... On another somewhat related note, what irks me off is when parks such as Movieworld spend so much money and effort into themeing large areas of their park, and then they don't even utilise it to its full extent. There's a perfectly good western area at MW which is going to complete waste since they canned the western/maverick show. It doesn't seem worth having to walk through all of it just to get to WWF. Then, strangely enough, they place an arcade in that area, which is hardly relative to the themeing around it Then there's the Chinatown area which used to be a big lead-up to the Lethal Weapon... until they stopped using the main entrance and souvenir shop for the ride, in favour of a side alley fire exit Now Chinatown is nothing but a very expensive themed exit from the ride back to the main street. All the trouble they went to with these areas, only to desert it all later down the track

Wasn't Movieworld considering getting this a few years back? I remember hearing the rumours - originally as a replacement for the Gremlins ride. Could be a suitable replacement for LTRR now

Done Hope my answers still count, even if I live well out of town and don't get to visit the theme parks as often as I'd like to!

Totally agree. Seaworld is the same at the moment, since they closed both the Bermuda Triangle + the Pirate Ship. I for one love these indoor rides, many of us grew up with them and developed fond memories - the ones that tell a good story are the the sort of rides you never forget! I am really hoping they replace them with new themes and don't take them out altogether. I heard rumours of BT being replaced with an Atlantis theme? Anybody else heard this or more about it? Found this on you tube last night lol... lots of fond memories http://youtu.be/mDSX0P3A9z4 Sadly most of the captured videos of it online are too dark. Shame they didn't let anyone film it with the lights on (like the one of Scooby Doo by TPR?) before they closed it permanently... would have been good memorabilia!

Lol Brad, I remember feeling the same way when the LW first opened and they had that stupid pre-show video that you had to sit through over and over in order to get to the ride. My best friend and I had yearpasses at the time and man, by the end of the school holidays, we knew it all word for word!!! Especially being the only thrill ride there at the time (1995?) its all we wanted to go on I wonder how long they will have JTTCOTE playing for?

After seeing 'Journey To The Center Of The Earth 4D' for the first time last month, I have to say I am not a fan. It seemed that instead of going to the trouble of making an exclusive movie, such as Planet SOS, or even that original one they had at the Roxy Theatre when MW opened (with the kids go in the a special machine and become part of classic movies - remember all the Ali Baba parrots at the end?) it seems they got lazy (or cheap on their budget?) and just crammed a heap of clips from an existing flick together - and not an all that good a movie, at that. Came across as a less blatant attempt at spam to me, lol. And the 4D effects (chairs moving, wind blowing etc) didn't seem all that effective either, they were too artificial to really give you the impression that you were actually experiencing the events on the screen first hand. Planet SOS did a much better job at this, from what I remember of it years ago. I'm disappointed that I never got to see Shrek during the time it was there, before JTTCOTE replaced it

This online story mentions chainsaw (buzzsaw? ;p) sound effects just before it starts vertically ascending.

I'd like to see some video of it in action from an outside POV ie. with riders on board, not just a test run! Hopefully something will be uploaded soon. Looks pretty damn cool from the footage sofar, though

I agree with your two cents! With its exclusive payTV station and only the odd program from it being shown on free to air, I can only assume Nickelodeon caters mainly to pay TV viewers, whereas Sesame Street has always been a free to air program, has a bigger fanbase (not just with kids but with adults such as myself who grew up with it) and is definitely a lot wider recognised in general. The first time I sat down with my kids to watch the show, I got so excited over seeing Big Bird and all the other characters in "real life" up there on the stage. Brought back so many childhood memories and feelings for me On the other hand, during the time I worked at the park, I didn't even recognise half the characters they had in Cartoon Beach I think it would be the same for Nick characters, and this is speaking as a parent of 2 small kids lol. I think Sea World would be making a massive mistake if they ever replaced Sesame Street beach, so I hope VRTP are telling the truth when they say its not going to happen

When I went to Movieworld last week they seemed pretty busy at the front there, lots of bulldozers and what not clearing the area. I'm looking forward to seeing what they have in store (especially if its an El Loco coaster!) though will be disappointed if its not released by the time our current VIP passes expire lol. We're planning another stay on the GC early next year and hope to be riding something new there, especially since we missed out on Looney Tunes River Ride (RIP) and Wild West Falls (Closed for maintenance) this time round ;p One thing that has always puzzled me though, why they have the Bat Cafe/Gotham City Hall in the middle of the park, AWAY from the proper Batman themed area and Wayne Manor? And its not like they ever had any other Batman themed rides or attractions around that area... it didn't look right next to the old' Gremlins ride entrance either, at least Scooby's haunted house entrance blends it in a little better these days

Still there, at least as of Fri 26th Aug when we visited Seaworld. Not much has been done with it. Very sad to see the ol' Bermuda closed, though it doesn't surprise me considering how often the damn thing used to break down.

No QLD vip passes anymore, though That's what I was hoping for....

I don't have any, I'm afraid Just fond memories!!! My best friend and I took ones of each other in the Wayne Manor library one time, but I have no idea where they are now... haven't seen them in years.... I remember that it was supposed to tie-in with the movie footage they played to you before the ride. The footage was of the car chase at the beginning of LW2 (with car jumps, rolls etc) and we were told that ride was meant to simulate that car chase experience... somehow! Its been so many years since I went to Movieworld, the last visit was when the Scooby Coaster was the latest ride built? 2003, 2004 maybe? I haven't been there since they added the roof to the main street. I've seen photos of it, though... not sure if I'm a fan, from what I have seen. Makes the main street look VERY different Plan to visit MW later this year when we make our trip down to the GC, so I guess I'll find out then if it changes my old 'feel' for the place!

Oh really? Thank you for that! I have looked here previously for info about it, but couldn't find anything. Nice to know it has been brought up in conversation since my last search a while back And nice to know I'm definitely not the only one who remembers it

For those who grew up in the 80's, does anyone remember there used to be a water park on the way to Brisbane, on the same side as Dreamworld? They had a statue of a little crocodile sitting on a piece of water slide as their "mascot", used to be up on a pole and be seen from the highway. And their water slides coming down the side of a hill - all of this could be seen from the front of the park. There was also paddling pools and full sized pools. Does anyone remember this place? Can't seem to find ANY references to it online, but I do remember it well - have memories of playing in the kiddy pool there when I was little. My husband also has vague memories, so I know I'm not crazy and it did actually exist lol.....

TOTALLY agree with you. I loved the original BA:TR! I went on the new animated one and all it did was make me feel really sick - seems they went a little overboard on the motion side of things. Wish they hadn't changed it. I may be showing my age here, but I remember a LOT from the 80's-90's! Seaworld: I remember the adventure playground and giant ball pit inside the castle, which is now a 3D theatre. I remember the Pirates of Paradise ski show. The false killer whale that used to perform with the dolphins in what is now the "Fish Detectives" sea lion area - but it was called "friends of the sea" or something along those lines at the time. The kids adventure island, which was literally an island you had to get a ferry out to, and back from! The Thrillseeker mini-coaster. The speed slides in the water park. The aquarium theatre where you'd sit in a cinema and the curtains opened to reveal a giant tank with sting rays, sharks, giant fish etc. and divers used to go in and feed them. Also remember all the controversy with the sharks for Shark Bay being kept in the water park swimming pools until construction finished - was working there at the time that happened! MovieWorld: Everything from when it opened... Young Einstein gravity house, Great Gremlin Adventure, original Batman Adventure. The Police Academy stunt show, the Maverick show. Those funny little carrot shaped houses they had in the kiddy area, which had touch screens in them. The "Western" themed area before they added Wild Wild West. The original parade! The studio tour - including when they had the Riddler's Lair from Batman Forever. The whole main street BEFORE they put that giant cover over it. The Lethal Weapon pre-show, which showed a 2-3 minute clip from the 2nd movie. My best friend and I had year passes at the time and saw it so many times, we knew it word for word lol. Wet N Wild: Cades County!!!! Wave pool, the Double Screamer, the Twister, the Speed Slide, the original water slide mountain. The pirate show in the kiddy pool area where you would go bounty hunting for treasure! MATILDA when she actually used to work - regularly turning her head and winking!!! Dreamworld: The music jamboree show, the Thunderbolt (RIP), the Kodac skychairs when they used to work. Grundy's in Surfers Paradise: when they had the water slides and then the 'Krypton' spinning ride after they took them out. The MASSIVE bumper car area! The ghost train, the Go Gator rollercoaster. The 'wishing well' - a massive wall of water that used to come down from the ceiling in the middle of the Paradise Center, and people threw their money in the pool at the bottom. Oh, and don't forget Koala Town and Magic Mountain, I loved both of those

Flea, I hope that's the case! I know they have had them running for a few years now (can't remember when they started, but it seems like it was ages ago) but you just never know.... seems like too good a deal to go on forever Certainly beats the $100 'deal' ($50 park entry + $50 pass) I got for my Movieworld exclusive year pass sometime back in the 90's

Hey guys, Just wondering if anyone has heard or been told anything official regarding the current $69.99 QLD VIP passes for Warner Village Parks being continued into the next financial year (2011-2012)? My family and I are coming down to the Gold Coast in August this year, and hoping that these passes will be ongoing so we can benefit from them during our visit - a LOT cheaper than buying separate tickets for each park!! Thanks in advance

Not that uncommon. The Lethal Weapon has two 360 degree twists snd the Cyclone has a sindwinder one. So thats 3/4 ride parks on the Gold Coast alone that have rollercoasters with extreme twists Its just a squiggly thin & average red neon light added to the roof of the volcano above the exit drop. That's it. Can't even compare the two, really.

I think you might be right there, I did notice that some of the other visitors in the water park had different coloured wristbands from ours Hopefully they do revisit the idea personally, I don't understand why the resort needs to steal SW's huge water park when they only recently spent 1m on one of its own? That park has been part of Seaworld for as long as I can remember, and comes as a great relief on a hot and humid day like the one we had on our visit. The "splashdown" from the Flume and the BT just don't cut it, especially during busy periods when there is a long lineup. Furthermore, with a park like Seaworld which has little room for expansion, I would think they would want to offer visitors everything they can, not take away major areas and further limiting options to their guests iykwim. Don't get me wrong, I think $5 per adult and kids for free is reasonable if they insist on charging for water park entry, but I just have a feeling its not going to stay that price for long. They'll probably hike it up a dollar or two at a time over the next few years as everything else becomes more expensive.