Theme Park Girl

@jcgoldcoast after the fire incident in 2003 they don't want to take any chances, especially when one of the rumours for the cause of it was a faulty smoke machine. Alas I don't know if it was ever publicly confirmed what the cause was. But yeah, unfortunately due to that it means they are keeping the visual effects inside the mountaim down to a minimal.

I'm a little skeptical over whether it's still opening tomorrow, it's very odd to make that there hasn't been any advertising whatsoever on their FB page or website about it? With every other new outlet they've advertised it a week or so prior at least. I also asked them via social media two days ago, they said they'd ask the right dept and get back to me. Two days and still no response

So similar to last year, WWF at MW has been scheduled for a lengthy 2 months of annual maintenance as well: Although I do recall last year the date was pushed back by another month in the end due to delays with getting the major refurb work done. I wonder if this means they will be fixing a lot of the smaller, non-working theming elements as well as maintenance on the ride itself? We can only hope 😁

Could it be closed as a cost cutting measure throughout the water parks ' quietest time of the year? Assuming here that rollercoasters use a heck of a lot more power than slide and pool pumps. That said, if it is the case, I don't understand either why it doesn't state that (ie. 'seasonal attraction') either in a similar manner to what Calypso Beach does.

I didn't mind Gremlins, and I hold fond memories of it. It wasn't the most thrilling ride by far, but it was worth it for the awesome theming and experience. I guess the closest comparison I can make of it l to today's rides is Justice League without the game (laser gun & 3D) component and more active animatronics as a whole. I also enjoyed the aspect of it being tied in with 'real life' as well, with the attraction presenters acting out that it was a real invasion. That said, I don't know if it would work today. It was impressive in its time, but would need a lot of work and a major upgrade of modern technology to wow today's generation I think. In my opinion, Scooby isn't worth that sacrifice. But if they ever decided (extremely unlikely, I know) to bring it back as a new & updated attraction as opposed to a replacement one, I'd totally be up for it 👍

Randomly stumbled across this article today and thought it was worth a share. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/village-roadshow-to-offload-stake-in-singapore-screens/news-story/d45aa2a938bc78c295de2b03c2c81f6b (here's the full article since the Australian is notorious for doing that annoying paywall thing) "Village Roadshow to offload stake in Singapore screens Village Roadshow has begun talks to sell its Singapore cinema business in a bid to reduce debt after a tough first-half. Theme park operator and movie distributor Village Roadshow Limited has begun talks to offload its 50 per cent stake in its Singapore cinema business. The company this morning confirmed to the ASX that it is negotiating with film and TV content producer mm2 Asia to take over its stake in Dartina Development, a company incorporated in Hong Kong which holds the Golden Village Cinema business in Singapore. Golden Village runs 11 multiplexes housing 91 screens in Singapore. But the business has struggled in a soft Singaporean economy over the last year and brought in earnings of just $4.7 million for the six months to December 31. The discussions for the potential sale are at a preliminary stage and are ongoing. mm2 Asia said there was no assurance that the proposed purchase would materialise. The Melbourne-based Village Roadshow Limited has been reviewing its assets for possible sale in a bid to reduce its soaring debt levels after a tough first half result forced the company to suspend its dividend. Last month the company offloaded its majority stake in Village Roadshow Entertainment Group (VREG) — the film financier and distribution company of Hollywood hits such as Mad Max and The Avengers — to Vine Alternative Investments and private equity firm Falcon Investment Advisors. That restructure resulted in Village Roadshow Limited reducing its 47 per cent stake in VREG to 20 per cent by handing control of the entity to the New York-based Vine Alternative Investments Group and Falcon. As part of the sale of VREG to its new American owners, Village Roadshow Limited was granted an option for a further 2.5 per cent equity stake in the entity. It was also granted $US10m of subordinated notes repayable by November 2022 with a non-cash return of 15.5 per cent per annum. The deal comes at a time when Village Roadshow — which distributes movies in Australia and operates theatres and theme parks — has struggled with poor financial results. In the six months to December 31, the company reported a loss of $6.7 million after a disappointing first half performance by its Gold Coast theme parks which contributed to a net debt that now stands at 3.27 times company earnings. That poor result forced the company to suspend its dividend as it said it would consider selling assets to cut debt. In April Village Roadshow warned that theme park visitor numbers for the first nine months of the financial year were down 9.4 per cent following last October’s fatal accident at rival park Dreamworld and Tropical Cyclone Debbie." Not the best news for VR as a whole, hopefully all the upcoming new attractions will at least help to turn things around profit wise in the theme park department at least....

Lol Tim, I meant it was the one option out of the two he mentioned 😛

Germany's version is called Movie Park now. So that only really leaves one option 😉

I'm so excited over these new plans. My interpretation of them focusing on memorable experiences as opposed to 'momentary exhilaration' (aka thrill rides) is that they have ultimately decided to veer away from building up their thrill ride repertoire - which they have been doing for the past decade or so - and focusing on the other aspects of the park which made it famous to begin with. As most are aware, the park was less thrill ride orientated back in the 80's and early/mid 90's, vouching for an overall family experience with tamer rides, lush greenery and a vintage feel to it. The addition of the Tower of Terror marked the change of path toward adding more and more excitement and thrill rides instead - more of a 'Six Flags' vision, as someone recently put it. I believe (and also secretly hope) that in light of what happened last year and now having to earn back the confidence and love of the public again, the park has decided to fall back on its roots and go with some aspects of nostalgia revival by restoring & improving some of the experiences Dreamworld originally used to offer... bringing back old favourites (Log Ride, Vintage Cars, Mine Ride), Aussie wildlife discovery and interaction, Indigenous education and what I believe will be attractions and/or rides focused more on catering more for families as a whole, instead of adrenaline junkies. Honestly I think Dreamworld are making a fantastic choice with what direction they are taking here. Sure, it may come as a big disappointment to those who were expecting them to add more thrill rides, a B&M coaster etc... but this really is what the park needs to do right now to fully win back the love of the public. To go back to its roots and reconnect with guests via the fond memories and experiences of the park they grew up with. Bring it on, I say 👍👍👍

Soooo...... Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster is currently scheduled for 2 lots of annual maintenance, according to the official website: The first one is not really unusual, as most here would know the ride always go down at this time of year (Aug/September) to get its annual tune up. What's interesting however is the second one... the ride will essentially be closed for nearly 2 months, and reopening on Boxing Day 😮 I'd put money on this being the time period on when they are planning the full refurb of the ride! Especially when Boxing Day is a popular time for theme parks to launch/open new attractions... or in this case (and also Hot Wheels) fully refurbished ones 😁 What's everyone hoping to see done to the ride with the upcoming refurb, since it's practically a blank canvas again right now in its stripped state? And do we think it will stay the same Scooby Doo theme, or change to something completely different?

Just in case anyone missed it....

Don't forget this ^ one as well @Glubbo...taken at 1.18pm yesterday arvo. Not sure if it was taken before or after yours, or if numbers have changed on them.

Whoa. Talk about opening a can of worms 😮 As one of the two people who essentially initiated this whole debate, I just felt the need to pipe up and attempt the defuse the situation a bit. Despite what has been said and done over the past 24 hours, I want to say that Parkz is a bloody awesome forum. Yes, sometimes things are said in the heat of the moment, and sometimes things are a lot more than that. Heck, I've needed to take time out in the past occasionally to have a 'breather' when things have annoyed or frustrated me on here too much, but I've always come back. Essentially @Richardand the Parkz team here are doing a fantastic job overall of running this place, and when stuff like this blows up its easy to forget that they are voluntarily taking time out of their own days to run this site free of charge for us all to benefit from. Its a bloody fine line to walk between over and under moderating a forum... you want to allow people free speech, but you also don't want to allow it to turn into a mud slinging match, either. I once ran on online discussion forum for parents myself for many years (you can imagine what that was like as well, given a large percentage of that member case was pregnant, hormonal women - all with an opinion or two to share 😮) so yes, I know what it's like to be on their end as well as ours. Yes, there are members here that don't get along, heaven knows most of those grudges have since become public knowledge. Being someone who has participated on here for over 10 years, and since admittedly built up a bit of an online persona on social media, I've also managed to make a swell job out of building an audience of people who like and dislike me - and as demonstrated yesterday, some of the latter clearly don't like making a secret of it. Personally I choose not to correspond in any way with members I find less favourable or have had off-board issues with, and that generally keeps me out of trouble... at least when they choose to do the same, anyway. I wholeheartedly agree with what Richard has stated earlier at drawing the line at personal attacks. There's simply no need to swear at people, call them names or ridicule them for having a difference in opinion. If you find yourself having to edit your own post later to remove content that you've since realised is inappropriate for the forum, or your posts are regularly being deleted in response to complaints by fellow users, then you're definitely doing it wrong. I privately contacted Richard directly not long ago regarding this exact issue, and I really think it all comes down to showing respect toward one another. If we can stay respectful, then there really shouldn't be any real issues. Anyways, I really love this forum and I hate to see everyone bickering like this. Leading to this outcome certainly wasn't my intention with any of my posts yesterday and hopefully everyone can try and move on from it. It's been good to air some bottled up issues out into the open and obviously admin have taken them on board, so lets leave it at that and go back to being a normal, disfunctional theme park enthusiast family again, eh? ☺️👍 (and yes, sorry but I don't care what people think of my smilies. I'm continuing to use them the way I want to 😁) PS. As a side note, I don't want to dive into any of the issues of yesterday as I do really want to move on from it, but I do want to address to all those who have spoken up in my behalf or defence: thank you. I was feeling really down yesterday, so the reminder that my content contributions to Parkz are appreciated really means a lot to me. Rest assured, I'm not going anywhere. Cheers 👍

Here's a panorama I took yesterday, it should give everyone an idea of the amount of coaster development space still left between where they are currently up to (just to the right of the Stengel Dive) and the corner opposite Green Lantern where the lift hill is expected to be going. If you take that other image into account that @Inverted posted of the two green lantern coasters stacked up, you can also get an idea of how tall the lift hill is expected to be (yes, higher than the Stengel Dive hill, and taller than the Batwing!) when this thing is finished 😮 Needless to say that whilst fast progress is currently being made, there is a lot of track building still to come over the next 4 months 😁👍

I find these supports to be of great interest... further evidence of a loop going in? What are ones of this size/thickness usually used for?

So, it turns out the endless debate over this pink/purple/magenta/fuschia etc. colour isn't just limited to rollercoasters. Shared this pic on my blog today for a bit of a laugh, saying I should have hit up the driver for the name of his car colour to help settle the argument some more: Anyway, someone posted in response that she owns a car the same colour, and it's called "Mulberry". I decided to google that car colour to see if there was anything official for it, and whats the first thing I come across? http://mirageforum.com/forum/showthread.php/1386-Quick-question-colour-names-(plasma-purple-or-pink-or-mulberry-) Yep, another forum where people also can't decide exactly what colour it's supposed to be 😂😂😂 Anyway, for those who can't be bothered clicking the link above, their conclusion was the following: to Americans, that car colour is commonly referred to as "Plasma Purple" and explained as "an interesting colour that changes appearance in different lighting". So there ya go. I really think the jury is out on this one, given it seems to be a chameleon colour of some sort which appears differently to the eye based on its environment.

@joz by all means, I'm happy to apologise and admit when I'm wrong. I've done it on here before (for a recent example, see the topic about the hole in Eureka Mountain) and I'll continue to do it in future. I also would have probably done so this time round too, had I realised I had worded my post in a way that implies I was avoiding doing anything of the sort. But that post was clearly more than just pointing out a mistake on my part. Why not simply state "I think you should admit to Richard that you were wrong and apologise" in a respectful manner and leave it at that? Why leave remarks implying that a off-forum personal grudge against me is a contributing factor as well? Why go on to lecture over alleged personal faults, and then be as petty as to mock me over what smilies I choose to use regularly in my posts? Exactly how does any of this relate to anything? Honestly, I'm questioning how can any of the above could NOT be clearly seen as a personal attack? I'm sorry but I am not going to take shit anymore, and I will defend myself when I feel the need to. @Richard of course I am sorry if I upset or offended you in any way with my post or response to it. Most people here would be well aware by now that I sometime word things backwards or in a funny way. But I never do it intentionally. That's just me. Anyway, I'm off to 'adult' at work. These posts will probably be well and truly gone by the time I log back in, so I might as well leave it there. I'm over it.

Where is this Dreamworld ride safety video you speak of? I haven't seen it 😮 Just checked their FB page and can't seem to find anything there. Can anyone please point me in the right direction? 😁👍

Haha, was thinking the same thing. I LOLed out loud at that post. Man, I miss the days before my mind got corrupted by adulthood and growing up 😛

Ah, that was what I was mainly referring to... the major track features and their general positioning of them thus far. I totally understand some of them aren't going to be exactly to length/scale. I can only assume one would probably need to see a copy of the rides' schematic to work all that stuff out... or be pretty damn good at mathematics haha (maybe just talking from personal experience here, I'd never be able to work any of that out to begin with 😮) Regardless I think its safe to say that he's first in line with his predication atm for that Parkz shirt, yeah? 😁

New piece just slotted in on the outside Lots of supports still to go up!

Couldn't resist, had to come down for a first hand look 😁

OK, seeing this pic has gotten me so damn excited!!! That is definitely enough confirmation for me that we are looking at the entrance/exit of what will be a lovely looking giant loop, esp going by @docoaster's animation which has been practically spot on since day of construction. This was the one feature of the Flash Hyper that I had been hoping and praying to see as part of ours! Bring it onnnnn 😁😁😁

Out of the above I think IT is the best and most likely possibility, given its long term popularity and the fact it's basically a household name movie. I'd also love to see a Poltergeist themed maze, I've not seen the remake but I grew up on the original movie and it was a bloody classic 😁 I'd also love to see an Alien based maze, however I agree with @Zanstabar that it may be very hard to pull off due to the amount of CGI and complex puppetry used in the movies. The full body costumes would have to be made pretty convincing to work effectively 🤔 @Reanimated35 just another possibility to add to your list, there's currently a thriller/horror movie being advertised for the big screen called "GET OUT". Haven't seen it, but it might also be a worthy maze candidate for this year? 👍