DaptoFunlandGuy

Ok so I finally had the time to get the fright nights - here are my thoughts: Overall park atmosphere - Now I think Movieworld has truly exceeded themselves this year. The amount of smokefog, lighting, and the sound effects played everywhere was truly their best effort yet. Those paying attention to the music will know what i mean when I say - the Billy Ray explosion was hilarious. I really don't think I can say any more about it - the theming around the park was just incredible. The in park scare actors (such as down the Arkham Alleyway) were really good. My only complaint there is that some of the scare actors could use a little more deodorant. Film Vault - Concept was good, although there weren't really any major scares to be had. The maze was distinctly lacking in scare actors. The smoke was incredibly thick in there (a vast improvement on last year where you could see across half of the sound stage), however it did become a little difficult to breathe. The petrol powered chainsaw didn't help that, with petrol fumes hanging within the fog. Although this maze was missing a lot of scare actors that could have lifted the maze to the next level, I think the anticipation of when the next scare would come was an effect in itself... and being blinded by strobes everywhere also aided that. Whoever was playing Jason was stupidly tall - which did manage to scare the girls in the front of our line. The Walking Dead was incredibly well themed. My partner wanted to know how they got the food in the 'dining hall' to look so real - thought it'd be an interesting occupation. There were a number of well timed scares to be had, and the overall 'guts hanging out everywhere' and 'inmates eating them' worked well. The shower scene was nicely done too. I think this was actually better than Saw was last year. Only real complaint I had here was the last 'dark tunnel' area before the final scare actor was a door that had exit on it - being pretty dark it was hard to see, but the door had an auto-closer on it. In keeping with the 'hands on shoulders' mentality, i tried to hold the door with my elbow, rather than let go and hold it with my hand, and managed to get bolts screws something that was sticking through the door scrape all the way along my arm. SAFETY FIRST movie world.....? Hillbilly Slasher - the doorways gave a nice opportunity for some scares as people went through - unlike the first two, these had dark little corners that the actors could hide in - rather than doors or windows. There was a nice older lady near the start of the house who did very well (and actually had a decent hillbilly accent unlike some of those in the 'forest' area). I know this is being fussy - but the 'hillbilly doctor' was wearing a brand spanking new 'energizer' head lamp, on an elastic band. When such efforts have been gone to to theme this maze so well, it just seems a shame that someone couldn't have taken a few minutes to make up some leather-band and bare light bulb contraption for him to wear that would fit in better with the overall theme. This one actually seemed to be over too quickly, whereas the other two were more a bit of a drag towards the end. Although we made it through JL, and the front two mazes relatively quick, we decided we didnt want to queue for Psycho. We caught death derby - I realise that many have said it wasn't as good as circus of the damned, but it appeared to me to be fully in house, and for that i'll give them credit. The storyline and the news crosses etc were good too. The only fault I could pick with this as a show was that the music was far too loud - bordering on uncomfortable - and whether or not it needed to be that loud during the fight scenes and such, it should have been lowered whilst anyone was speaking (host, news cross, video screen etc)... as towards the end, a lot of talking was happening, but we couldn't understand it over everything else. Not a badly put together show in house, and something to build on for next year. I thought the creatures of rock had a nice stage set up - nicely themed and the fire bursts added a nice touch too. We didn't stay for the Burlesque show. We did manage to get a couple of rides on JL whilst we were there, and saw the GL queue extending all the way out of the queue line. We didn't ride anything else - i don't see a point queueing for something for an hour that i can ride mid-week as a walkon. Overall i'm very impressed with what MW have done this year. I got the impression (both from reading and what i saw) that most if not all of Fright Nights were done without external input, with almost everything being done in house. Fright nights had a different feel this year, and theres always going to be something we can pick on, or find room for improvement in. At the end of the day, for the price they were charging, I think the whole crew involved has done spectacularly, and while there are many things for me to pick about, they're all relatively small, minor issues, that hopefully the park has already identified and will work to fix for next year. As a quick disclaimer - I know that there are some people on these boards who may have had some involvement in some aspects of fright nights that I may have cast in a negative light. Please understand that I don't mean to cast disparaging comments on your work, but rather my own views on how i felt it came across. Everything else aside i think they've done bloody good work, i'm extremely impressed, and I can't wait to see how they beat this next year.

Actually, Richard's statement isn't too far from correct. As it stands, orphan rocker will never open to the public. Trying to correct it's deficiencies now would cost more than simply engaging a coaster manufacturer with years of experience... Maybe not B&M... maybe something a little cheaper. Nobody needs stupendous elements when you've got that natural landscape to work with... take a look at the mine train at Ocean Park, Hong Kong... TPR recently had a facebook goggle-fest over that simple coaster, that doesn't really have much in the way of thrills.... except it's location on the sheer side of a rocky cliff... Anyway - point is - they may open a roller coaster there one day in the future, and it may even be called the orphan rocker, and it may follow the same path, and even use some existing infrastructure, supports etc - but in its current form state - that will never open.

I didn't have to go very far, so I won't bother quoting it - your comment 'but a slide is a slide' IS saying that those who disagree are wrong. You didn't say 'in my opinion' or 'to me...' you made an argument to say that there are various different types of coasters, but a slide is a slide???? I'm not going any further back. You're being argumentative simply because you find it impossible to say 'in my opinion'... you also find it impossible to say 'i appreciate your view, but i disagree'... Anyone who speaks against you must either be attacking you, or wrong...

Looks like a very nicely themed park. How long has it been operating? Everything looks brand new! To be honest, i thought some of the pictures were CGI until I viewed them enlarged - they just look fantastic... I can't say you've made me want to visit it - but it looks like a nice enough park to have nearby!

According to facebook he lives in ipswich. it's not like its THAT far away. And seriously? You paid $20 more than a single day ticket, to get into THREE parks... for a year? And you're complaining? FFS. Tosser.

And when it is actually built - i'm sure you will.

I mean seriously - re-read your arguments, and the responses made by others (including me). You believe that everyone just jumps on you because you have a different opinion... But you're not just sharing a different opinion - you're insisting that others are wrong, and that there is to be no enjoyment from a waterslide! How in the hell can you expect to receive no negative reactions from an ENTHUSIAST SITE, when you're essentially saying that the fastest growing leisure industry across the world - is crap?

as for his disappointment, aren't we still saying 'technical rehearsals' ??? You can't judge them while that signs up there - thats like a get-out-of-jail-free-card

You are not propelled by the magnets the whole time - each downhill in fact is a 'slide'. Aqualoop - tell me - at what point do you sit down? Every time i've ridden it, i've loaded standing up, ridden standing up, and finished laying down... (also for part of the initial drop, i don't slide on water, i fall through the air) The variety in coasters comes from different types, ie standing launch, sitting launch, laying down launch, open tube launch, cloverleaf tube launch... splashdown pool, splashdown channel.... All hotel employees are the same - rude and ignorant, with bad body odour. See the generalisation I made there based on my opinion of a group that i don't particularly like? Is it factually correct? You tell me.

And six months later, that poor management team 'comes up with' an idea on a more efficient way of doing things than the current policy, implement it without testing and parade it as 'their' great idea. The thing about McDonald's, though - they rarely have 'poor' management. Those at the helm (of franchise or company) know only too well the value of innovation.

Tell you what - take a trip down there and let us know... While you're at it - take some pictures and post them for everyone else to see...

It won't get past a directions hearing.

I mean - he seriously thought it would be ok to pull a feather out of the Emu for his little brother... and when it attacked him for trying, he's complaining? That would be like undoing your harness in the middle of a ride, falling out, getting the crap smashed out of you, and then telling dreamworld they should remove the ride because of his own stupidity... (although if you can undo your harness, something probably SHOULD be done about it). What does he expect dreamworld to say in response... "Yeah sure - it's totally ok to pluck feathers out of our birds... everyone does it! Last week - we had a busload of asian tourists - and they all took one! It's fine really - doesn't hurt the bird at all - and when they get bald, we just swap it out with another one we've got out the back... it only takes a week for the bird to regrow it's entire plumage!!! We have an endless supply! We're really sorry about your wrist by the way - here, have 5 tickets to next week's eviction show!"

It'd be nice to have some shade, but to be honest - the shadiest queue line in the park (Tornado) is absolutely freezing most of the time. needs a balance - maybe some shadesails, without TOTALLY covering the queue - so the shady area cools you down a bit, and then back into the sun to warm up. End of the day - who cares - it's another Aussie first, another great slide - to be honest - they don't need to considering WWW isn't competition, but they still did, replacing an old defunct slide that has sat SBNO for a few years - I'm loving the new direction taken by the VRTPs...instead of one park getting a new attraction every year, they've gone to new attractions for all parks.... hopefully their current business model allows them to continue it.

A post from the MW facebook account thanked someone for raising it with them, and advised they'll be taking steps to fix the branding. Pretty sure they confirmed the new one was just Justice League 3D - the ride.

I'm curious whether they bought them specifically for this purpose, or whether they had them on hand for other events... I can't really think of what other applications they would have for those little guys in the park - the beasts they have in the windows drains are far superior...

From a hire perspective though... say the 3 big weeks surrounding christmas... they get these things for football games, V8 Supercars, and large dance parties. I don't think it would be a prohibitive cost - even make the 'after hours' section an additional cost... upsell for cabanas etc. It'd be doable for a short term gig...

It very much looks like they're doing 'scanning' with an Antari mobile fogger...

*giggle* As an alternative - what about an LED wall? They're only about 8 inches thick, they matrix together pretty well as big as you like. They're not the clearest of image systems, but they'd be bright enough, no hassles for projection housings, and you keep all of your control systems behind the pool, out of the way. Not a bad idea - the only issue I see is obtaining relatively recent films to show in a DVD type format (but that wouldn't be too hard I presume?) One issue I can see is that unlike Village Roadshow - who themselves have access to a large array of popular movies - What kind of 'cheap' easy access would Ardent have? Lastly - Assuming that the rear of the pool isn't built to support the weight of the LED system - so a new structure would need to be built to house it? They could even hire it in just for the summer season - take a look at the LED walls they use on Australia's Got Talent... those things move on stage (sliding door style) so a static rig wouldn't be too hard??? Someone in the industry would have to fill me in on the cost differences between the LED and a projection system though...

Agreed 100%. The ride's name was out there well in advance of overt construction, rather than a guessing game. KFP as yet doesn't have a name, a concept... anything really... We know it's going to be themed to KFP - but thats all we know. This is supposed to be open by Christmas - we're in late september and still nothing is known.

Yes, all they need is a projector that can throw across a lit pool, a building to house it in, an upgraded sound system... hmmm... what else.... Maybe a projection screen?

Is it just me, or does it look like there are picnic tables in the whitewater mountain splashdown pool?

Easier to close the park at normal operating time, than open just the wave pool for movies - trying clearing that park without additional security. You can't just turn off the slides and send the staff home - Each 'area' still needs supervision to ensure people don't enter areas they aren't supposed to. In my opinion it's got to be all or nothing.

No - I don't think i'm forgetting anything... firstly - this is in summer - you can't accurately record an increase in numbers just because the movies are on - attendance goes up in summer because it's a waterpark! In recent times the movies have only been on frisat nights, which would be more popular with working families... Secondly - whilst you might entice people to the park specifically for the movie (say - late afternoon entry) how many of these are full-price-ticket paying guests, and not just passholders who are going specifically because it doesn't cost anything, they've had dinner before they got there, and it's just a cheap way to see a movie?

realistically - the money they would make would only be for food and beverage.... few people would be buying a ticket just for the night... and they still keep all the slides open and running... thats a lot of staff to pay, and only the food and beverage takings for people having dinner at the park (for those who don't duck out to mcdonalds) to pay for all of it - not to mention all the filtration systems, pumps, and power they're paying for...