DaptoFunlandGuy

its a bit late i suppose, but there are a number of different memberships that will get you a discount... certain unions, including the shops, distributive and allied workers union (SDA) theres the presidential card www.presidentialcard.com.au theres the ambassador card www.ambassadorcard.com.au heaps of different ones. i have all three... also take a stroll through surfers... heaps of org's are trying to offer discounts and claim to be the cheapest... as i said its probably too late now, but do your shopping around and you can sometimes get lucky..

im reading the specs on the robocoaster website... it lists each unit as holding 2 persons. looking at the cartoon images on the site, it would seem that each unit takes up a circle of about 10 metres in diameter at least. now lets say its a one minute ride, add at least 15 seconds on each side, for load and unload. so each cycle from the time the guest loads to the time they unload, is 90 seconds. 2 guests per unit, 90 seconds per ride, thats 40 cycles per hour, or 80 guests per hour. they show banks of these units lined up, so the theory would be to have multiple units all working together. to achieve 1000 pax per hour, that would require more than 12 units. not including queue line or pathways, loading areas, control booths, power supplies, safety zones and theming, thats more than 120 square metres just for the ride portion of the attraction... so lets say double that to allow for all the ancilliary parts of the attraction. now because these rides have a high exhilirating, as i read above, 2 G's or more... this will not be a ride for everyone. so you're able to churn through 1000 pax per hour at an expense of 240 square metres worth of land, and you're going to be able to please the 20 percent of your GP that can handle 2 G's. so lets say the park has 10,000 people in it. its not a high number but its not low either. 20% of your GP will ride it, thats 2000... so it means that in a 7 hour day, that 20% could ride it 4 times if they got in in the first hour, and 3 times if they got in in the second. On top of this, and i mean no offence to anyone, but the maximum double occupancy SWL is 200Kgs. now i weigh 105Kgs, im 6 foot flat, and i know a lot of other enthusiasts who would want to ride this sort of thing would be similar dimensions. so suddenly our 2000 pax who WILL ride it is decreased some more simply because of the SWL. the fact that the ride is built from aluminium, and uses brushless electric motors means it doesnt have the guts that some other rides do. its a car building robot thats been retrofitted into a ride to gain a bigger market for the same device. its like using an electric fan motor to power a V8 Supercar. i've just glanced at the site again and lists its width as being 11.2metres.. i assume they are allowing for the safety and load operator area, so the 10 metre diameter is pretty much spot on. now the fact that it runs on a basic PC design using windows, with internet access, soundcard, etc.... this is sounding like your generic home computer thats been retrofitted to do the job. how often do you get a blue screen of death? or a "we're sorry but this program has encountered an error and has to close" message? imagine that happening while you're spinning at 4.9metres per second...? i can see this idea being taken up by a manufacturer who knows what they're doing, building it with the necessary parts to make it robust, with a custom built console designed for the job, rather than a windows computer that is obsolete before they finish designing the software for the hardware... a manufacturer who builds RIDES, not car manufacturing equipment... thats what this concept needs to launch it into the thrill ride market....

Does anyone remember an indoor amusement centre in ulladulla? i think it was called funland or something... had like... a cha cha and a few other rides, as well as a lot of coin-op arcade stuff... does anyone know its name? have pictures or info about what they had have or anything and whether they're still operating... etc etc etc?

well i have read this all twice, and still can't remember half of what was said or asked... ill try to remember as much as I can. Richard... yes i went to Queensland with the expectation of having DW number 1. with the looming opening of the claw during my stay, i structured my whole trip around it, and would have gone on the 18th had it not been my mother's wedding. that said i dont think my opinion of dreamworld is skewed because of that expectation. I do not believe that a bandaid fix can be achieved where capacity is involved. i think it is a number of factors, which as stated separately in different posts, consists of a combination of - More staffing, and EFFICIENT staffing better queue design - cyclone is a perfect example because the distance between the front of the queue and the station gates are so far away. ToT to a lesser extent is the same, and this includes the elevators which were taken out of service because the problem was seen early in its operation. another solution is mentioned above - Warner village manage to draw a large amount of their crowds at SW and WBMW to shows during the day. effectively dividing their park attendance into about 2 or three pieces. at sea world, the suggested itineraries on the map are followed by a lot of people. this means that the morning - half the people on the rides, the other half at the shows, and then vice versa. movie world has three police academy shows, 2 looney tunes shows, about 10 or more movie magic shows and 2 street shows.... how much of the park attendance go to these? this reduces stress on queue lines.... my point here is DW needs more SHOWS to balance out the RIDES... and i mean real, CHOREOGRAPHED shows... not just a talk about tigers etc. and finally recognition from management that there IS a capacity problem, so that they can offer cooperation between management, guests and cast to resolve and rectify the problems as fast and as easily as possible. I can assure you guys that the ride queue times are accurate. I have diary entries of by-the-minute movements of every park we went to on my XDA. i think if a six flags park opened in australia, and was built from the ground up, rather than taking over an existing or defunct park (wonderland for example), i would definitely not complain about it. why? because Six Flags have a great record of park management, at least, in comparison to australian parks... REMEMBER - i detailed everything including the long wait at the ticket gates. we didnt line up from 9am and be the first people into the park so that we could be at the front of the queue for the first ride and to run from that ride to the next as soon as possible before the gates can fully spew forth the masses. im sure its quite possible to get 4 rides in the first hour if everything falls to a specific plan... and if you're trying to do it. but remember that 10am to 11am is only 1 hour in a park that operates for 7 hours. I dont accept a challenge to do 4 rides in the first hour... i put forth a challenge to ride 4 rides in the hour between 12 and 1... and i set the day as being the same as we went... and that is FOUR DAYS AFTER the opening of their newest THRILL RIDE or COASTER. finally... Amanda is not a thrill junkie like we are. she made her opinions public at my request, to satisfy something wonderbus said. please do not direct your criticisms and attacks at her if you dont like what she says... she made a statement based on an opinion of an AVERAGE GUEST in the park... and her feelings are predominantly those of the majority of people who attend those parks. if you don't like what she had to say... direct your complaints to the park management... because they are issues that the GENERAL PUBLIC have with the parks... not junkies like you and i.

well... the disappearing UFO, a nice trick you can see demonstrated at Ripleys in surfers - it still happens, but the problem is a lot of the strobes on the UFO keep firing when they're not supposed to. its a problem with stroboscopes when they get old. now the mirror effect relies on the UFO remaining dark, but if the strobes keep firing, the UFO doesn't disappear. as far as everything collapsing, if it weren't for the safety rails that hold the pillars in place being completely visible, or the fact that they drop and then stop, apparently suspended in mid-air which is totally unrealistic... apart from that, while the theming was good when it was built, years of use have seen it get dusty and old, with theatre spotlights clearly visible, and that same alien has been standing next to the rocket, pulling the same pc board and wiring apart from the rocket for ten years.... swinging backward and forward.... dont you think these cables are looking a bit rough by now? now expand that look across the entire ride... the captured people inside the glass cases... suspended in time, but apparently not the dust thats in the cases... it just keeps on growing... the lack of "cover up" over the maintenance switchtrack... it all combines to a spectacularly themed ride which just hasn't been kept up like it should have. one thing that australian parks as a whole haven't learnt from their american big brothers is that when you build a ride that is based around a theme, whether it is pre-show, or the ride itself, the ride needs UPKEEP. even the haunted mansion in disney land is tended to regularly, as is small world, and splash mountain. they rip half the ride apart to refurbish and refit the theming... and thats just what it means REFURBISH, not just MAINTENANCE... this poor example of ride theming upkeep is just one of the many ive seen in australia... such as these following examples... Space Probe Pre Show - and this includes the doors that used to open above the cars as you lifted up. management decided against them to increase capacity and reduce ride time. Bermuda Triangle as discussed above Thunder River Rapids Ride - the whole underground theming is very corny and old... needs a facelift Rocky Hollow Log Ride - what little attempt at theming the underground section seems to have become a depository for plastic bottles and rubbish Giant Drop - its pre show theming has been ripped apart by vandals Tower of Terror - the "cavern" queue line area has seen too many people go under the barrier, tread on the walls and floor and have it collapse into a gaping, polystyrene hole. Australian Parks AS A WHOLE need to be taught a few things about theming... the disney way.

there you are Bussy.... Dreamworld and Seaworld now have a TR posted from one of my fellow travellers - her nick is MANDAJK13... feel free to read and compare.

ok where do i start... Joz - we went to Sea World the day after our trip to DreamWorld. in comparison, Sea World's staffing levels were superior. Sea World handled it a lot better than Dreamworld did. Now - above i read the following points - Dreamworld is the profitable park, the one making money. Dreamworld is the one suffering understaffing, and its not the cast's fault that the capacity was too low. If Dreamworld is the profitable one, why is it money-grubbing the profits rather than spending some more money on staff to operate at higher capacity? Queue Guarders? i hardly think that job is worth having in australia. the problem exists with the queue design. too wide, and too far away from any operators in a position to do something about potential violators. onto the next point - captain sturt i didnt count as a ride as i've never seen the damn thing move from the dock. wild thornberrys is a playhouse style attraction isnt it? big nets with heaps of balls inside it? i didnt count it because its not a mechanical attraction. if i've got the names wrong, sorry, but whichever one the big net and ball thing is, i didnt count.

good point bussy... im going to ask one of the guys who went with me to take up your challenge... i should also note that the ratings that i gave in my TR's were a collective score from the 4 in my group. one (me) who is a total enthusiast, two - is still an adrenalin junkie, but has only been to one theme park previous to our trip - and that was wonderland. three - preferring more sedate rides, this person will get on a big coaster, but doesnt really care, and four - suffering from motion sickness, not enjoying the big thrillers at all. all 4 of us had discussions on the scoring before i wrote it down. I will be asking number three to do these reports for us... we shall see.

Well.. sorry kenny but you have got me started now... i just re-read your post and thought i'd provide some evidence for your comparison: now - in doing this i have not counted any shows, animal attractions or water park attractions... just mechanical RIDES Sea World: 1. CorkScrew 2. Pirate Ship 3. Vikings Revenge Log Flum 4. Bermuda Triangle 5. Sea World Monorail 6. Sea World SkyHigh SkyWay 7. Sea World Train 8. Carousel 9. Airborne Barrel Brigade 10. Air See Rescue 11. Toon Point Lighthouse 12. Woodys Beachtrucks Movie World: 13. Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster 14. Batman 2 15. Lethal Weapon 16. Wild West Falls 17. Road Runner Roller Coaster 18. Looney Tunes River Ride 19. Yosemite Sam Railroad 20. Tweety and Sylvester Carousel 21. Taz's Hollywood Cars 22. Marvin the Martian's Rocket Ride Dreamworld: 1. Cyclone 2. Giant Drop 3. Tower of Terror 4. Wipeout 5. Eureka Mountain Mine Ride 5. The Claw 6. Vortex 7. Reptar 8. Bumper Beach 9. Spooty Spin 10. Rocky Hollow Log Ride 11. Thunder River Rapids 12. Stingray 13. Reef Diver 14. Nick-O-Round 15. Swinger Zinger 16. Blues Skidoo 17. Dora Seaplanes 18. Avis Vintage Cars 19. Kodak Skylink Chairlift 20. Dreamworld Railway So Kenny- now that your theory has been disproven by the fact that Movie World and Seaworld Combined have TWO MORE rides than Dreamworld... please be shut up.

Don't go to Dreamworld during school holidays... now - here are a few comparitive statements: dont go to the beach in the summer time dont go to thredbo in the winter time dont go to sydney during new years eve dont go to athens in august 2004 I have seen Dreamworld in both a peak and off peak time. now... i was impressed with the park during my off peak visit, but its capacity on ToT, GD and Cyclone were STILL CRAP. Yes, the TR might be a bit different in the off peak, im sure it would be... but PEAK SEASON is what a theme park is all about and thats when they make their money... i think being judged based on how a park handles its PEAK performance, shows a lot more about a parks capabilities than being judged on how it copes when the park is dead... and Kenny Koala... dont get me started - DEAL WITH IT?? If a theme park said to its potential guests "we know our queues are long. we know our staff aren't up to theme park standards, we know we have huge problems with unruly behaviour in our park, but we have world record holding rides, so deal with it. you may not be able to ride all of our record holding rides, because our capacity and staffing levels are reduced to save us money, and the ones you do queue up for, bear in mind that half the park will jump the queue ahead of you, but we dont care, we have the best rides in queensland... so deal with it. I would much prefer queue for scooby doo for an hour, or wait 25 minutes for Wild West, queue up halfway down the ramp for corkscrew, or stand for an hour on the side of a hill waiting for a 30 second waterslide than to put up with an attitude such as DEAL WITH IT from a supposedly world class theme park that holds more records than the other three combined. no thanks... Dreamworld says: "Deal With It" Alex says: "Shove it"

An interesting article richard. i'd like ot know more about the robocoaster... anyone got a site that has more info? Its interesting to see Dreamworld rule it out flatly, but it sounds like its not the sort of thing for any australian park in the way it is described to operate...

Ok so heres the final wrap up... Warner Bros Movie World - impeccable service, highest quality of rides, if not a little disappointing with the patch up job on WWF. SDSC is still probably my favourite ride in QLD for thrills and theming (combination of both). with the exception of the matrix exhibit, WBMW on a whole ranks our number 1. Sea World - its always nice no matter how old or young you are to check out some really cool animals.the shows, while starting to stale a bit, are still imaginative and allow the trainers to show off the animal's natural abilities. I didnt include it in the TR, but when we snorkelled with the sharks in shark bay it was amazing, and this only enhanced our feelings of sea world as a whole. I think the only problem with SW is their lack of space, and the bottle neck once you head down towards shark bay and dolphin cove... one pathway from quest for the golden seal to dolphin cove is a bit hard to navigate when the park is operating in peak seasons. staff at sea world were superb, no complaints whatsoever. Wet N Wild - capacity and staff attitudes are my only problems with WNW. its a good concept park that is just a little too big for its britches IMHO. not much else to say... they have some great stuff there but its just not possible to do it all in one day. DreamWorld - a disappointment to say the least, queue jumpers, cast with bad attitudes, poor capacity, poor queue design, poor attempt at raising more money with sideshows... poor choices when it comes to food...poor poor poor. 2 separate rides broke down at least during our visit at DW, one of them broke down twice... the other was their BRAND NEW ATTRACTION LESS THAN A WEEK INTO SERVICE! and while its completely understandable, Nick Central was designated smoke free. i know this only affects us smokers, but i had just lit one after getting off the claw, and had seen no signage to the contrary. now here in sydney, they try to say all train stations are non-smoking, but if you can look straight up and you can't see roof, the smoke free environment act can't touch you... so heres nick central, a completely roofless world... and its non smoking... and i was so looking forward to riding reptar too. all in all we didnt go on half the rides at dreamworld as a result of queue times, capacity, ride cycle times, operator levels and attitudes... it just wasn't worth getting up at 8 in the morning for... THE END (on ride videos within a week, photos in a month or so)

in regards to the scoring, i was ranking them together. compared to Movie World, Dreamworld was a 4.... it was a combination of everything. they all started as a 10. good stuff did nothing to the score, but bad stuff brought it down... simple...

ok so after a couple of days off we decided to head out for dreamworld on tuesday the 21st. We got there about 10am, and joined the queue for tickets. DW appeared to have ticket booths in the front building, however they were using these tacky porta-structures laid out next to the carpark. with a queue that was at least 300 metres long, we weren't going anywhere for a while. ( we bought at the gate because we had membership discounts that we could only get at the gate) so about 10:45 we made it inside, grabbed a bite to eat at the bakery and decided to jump on the train for a bit of the tour. on our way down to rivertown station, we checked out the Claw and it was definitely impressive. (DW's maps are already updated with the claw, i have a map but at the moment no scanner). While we were waiting at the station I was telling my group a bit about ToT. it was running about once every minute, and then all of a sudden it stopped. As we waited, a number of cast who appeared to be supervisors headed off with a rather quick walk towards ToT. 15 minutes later ToT sent out a riderless test run and was back in action almost immediately. the train arrived and we headed off. We got off at Rocky Hollow, and jumped onto the log ride. the queue was reasonable, even with one operator and 10 minutes later we were enjoying a fairly mediocre flume ride. we headed back towards ocean parade, and stopped off at the river rapids. we had probably a 25 minute queue line, before experiencing an enjoyable rapids ride, at least with a little more theming than snowy river at wonderland. the theming was a little old, but the ride was enjoyable none the less. the photo was a little disappointing as they have stopped doing the "image overlay" of the palm trees and stuff, so it just looks like a photo taken at the station. no biggie. We bypassed the mine train, as the queue was huge, all the way out into the pathway. We headed over to ocean parade, and i was very surprised to see that DW has installed some "side shows" since I was last there. they looked like a very tacky way to try and make more money. The claw's queue line was empty, with a few people queued up outside the gates in the overflow section. all three ride ops were out the front, and 3 techs were up on the top working on something.... yep... the claw had broken down. we grabbed a bite to eat, and jumped into the Cyclone queue. we were in for a long wait. I estimated about 45 minutes for us to get to the top of the queue, but as we waited, people ran up the other pathway past us. the first group of three, i didn't say anything, the second group of 4, we and the people around us grumbled a bit between ourselves. when the last group of 5 walked on past us, i decided it was time to say something... so i did... i said to them "how about next time you try queueing up like everyone else?" to which they replied "we're not going on the ride"... so ok, that was fine, until they walked into the ride entrance and we saw them get off the train as we were about to get on. i wasn't very happy... 1 hour 10 minutes for one ride... So we made it onto the Cyclone, caught our video from the back car only and decided it wasn't worth another lineup. disappointing to note that the theming for cyclone has deteriorated severely... the "cyclone tunnel" doesn't do much at all... the turbine doesnt spin, theres no wind coming out the top, and with the amount of garbage, paper planes made of park maps, food scraps etc chucked all over the place, it just didnt really look any good. The ride itself was enjoyable, but because everytime im at dreamworld, Cyclones queue is wayyyyy too big, i only ever ride it once at a time. Chalk up on big red X on dreamworld's check sheet. SO we head for vortex, decided against it, and jump on a no-queue reef diver. then one of the guys wanted to ride wipeout. the queue looked big but with wipeout's capacity, it was bound to move pretty quickly.wipeout's queue was reasonable, the behaviour of the staff was not, lacking the pizazz and the "disneyesque" one expects from themepark cast, i'd describe them more like "country fair ride ops" than anything else. It was time... the claw was operating again and it was time to ride. we hopped into the queue and by this time it was about 3:30. 5 minutes into the queue line, a girl in front of us started screaming out to a friend down by wipeout. this was right in my ear and I told her to shut up. i was about to be mega-annoyed, as it turned out the friend she was screaming at was invited to join the ride... along with her 7 friends.... well i had had enough... and i made it known... loudly... that i wasn't impressed. there was now 11 in their group and they were all carrying on like 6 year olds at a mc donalds birthday party. she asked me what my problem was, i told her i'd been putting up with idiots and queuejumpers like her all day. her response? if you dont like it don't come to a theme park... yeah ok... so a few of them decided they had forgotten something, and headed back out of the queue... well i wasn't letting them back in and stood firmly across the queue line. i didn't pay $50 to get into a park to put up with teeny-bopper brats who've been brought up like absolute turds. Ok so its ten minutes later and we're on the claw. excitement and adrenalin was all i could feel. i cannot begin to describe the ride so needless to say, it has been worth the wait, and was an unbelieveable experience. RIDE IT NOW We got off and worked out what we still wanted to do... the other guys wanted to go to the big brother house, we decided we still had an hour and ten minutes to do rides... so we headed for ToT. the queue was moving reasonably fast until we got up to the corner just before the stairs and the lifts.... and there we stopped. it was 4:10pm. 5 minutes later an operator made an announcement that they were experiencing an "operational failure" that should be rectified shortly. hmm... now to me - operational failure = broken ride... not a good start. So an operator came walking down the queue line to see how long exactly it was. On his way back I asked him whether they would endeavour to clear their queue lines and continue to operate, even after 5... he assured me that if we were in the queue before 5, we would be admitted... so now the race was on... to get through ToT and over to GD queue line before 5... and at 4:40 we got a break..... ToT was back up and running again and we were on almost straight away. at 157kPh it was worth it. we went down the lifts and at 4:50 we bolted across to GD.... made it just in time to get a ride on the western side. a reasonably short queueline on GD made sure we were only 5 minutes late for the bus ride back to surfers. i did notice however that the western tower does indeed rise slower at the top, and doesnt go as high as the eastern tower. the consensus on the bus ride home (yet another ride - we got a flat tyre) was unanimous in regards to which one we liked best and how we ranked them. Dreamworld definitely came in last. So how did Dreamworld fare? Quality of Rides, Shows and Attractions: 7/10 Quantity of Rides, Shows and Attractions: 7/10 Cast Service: 4/10 Capacity and Staffing Levels: 0/10 Overall: 4/10 Comments: I got nothing more to say about dreamworld.... a complete disappointment in my books. it won't be on my "must do" list of queensland until they seriously improve their service, capacity, and overall just their level of professionalism. i apologise if you work there, but please realise that I am commenting on the park as a whole experience and not your individual effort. i felt the same at wonderland, because i made such an effort to get into it and a lot of others did not... Cheers, Alex.

Ok so we were a bit stuffed after two days straight at parks, we took thursday off and decided after consulting the weather report to do Wet n Wild on friday. We packed off again at 9.20 to arrive at about 9.45. WnW's gate system is a little inadequate for the amount of guests they had on friday, and one can imagine during summer how much busier it would get. something could be done to improve this... So we headed off for the wave pool to grab some deckchairs and pick up our free tubes, courtesy of the 3 Park Superpass. then we realised that $6000 worth of camera equipment wasn't suited for the astroturf poolside, so we grabbed a locker. THIS is probably the best idea i've seen in a while.... $7 for a waterproof wristband that opens your locker.... no more lost keys! woo hoo! Ok so WNW is a waterpark... and its a hot day, so no-one's going to complain about a few queues right? yeah well i still would have liked to... Queue length on pretty much everything was just way too long. Calypso Beach and the Wavepool were pretty much the only things we could just get straight into. sorry but standing on a large tower in bathers freezing in the wind for a 20 second waterslide is just not my thing... we ended up on twister, riptide, and we rode mountain river and mountain falls once each... we caught a final ride on terror canyon II, just as they had shut down terror canyon 1 for some reason...and that about sums up wet n wild... good for a sun tan and that was about it... So how did Wet N Wild fare? Quality of Rides, Shows and Attractions: 8/10 Quantity of Rides, Shows and Attractions: 8/10 Cast Service: 6.5/10 Capacity and Staffing Levels: 4/10 Overall: 6.5/10 Comments: the park in itself is great. if you were the only person in the park and had free reign of all its attractions, i think it would be great... but it is not capable of handling a large crowd and allowing everyone to ride everything... i suppose for safety reasons, you can't really increase capacity or speed of operations on the slides, but it would have been nice if the queue lines were shorter. some staff did not meet the standards we had come to expect after SW and WBMW. not badly, just general blase' feelings we got from some of them, like they didnt really care and were only there for the paycheck... all in all we still enjoyed WnW, but it couldn't rate up there with SW and WBMW, and that is still taking into consideration that they are different parks. i enjoy water parks and water slides... but this just didnt do it for me, for capacity mainly... DreamWorld will follow tomorrow... and boy is it gunna be a long one... Cheers, Alex.

well i have to say, more than 90% of the staff i addressed by their name were happy and pleased. some even spoke about it, happy that somebody actually used their name and how nice it was to hear. Ian i can't say i saw you. the only photographer i saw was Des. i had to teach him how to use a disposable waterproof camera to take our photo at shark bay, and his finger came out across the lens...

ok so day three in QLD - September 15, we headed out to Movie World. We had picked up a smart pass, booked our coach and made our way to movie world by about 9:45. Got through the gates, organised ourselves and decided on heading into the Movie Magic show for the first show of the morning. I've seen the show many times but for the other three of our group, it was their first. My GF got picked to play the "Suicide Girl" climbing off the top of the WB building. The Foley stage got goofed up badly by the guys they picked, and soon after we were out and looking for more... it was time to head for Lethal Weapon. We cruised through china town and headed for the observation area. two of the guys decided it was a bit too much for them, and me and my GF headed into the queue. the queueing time was about 10 minutes, with 1 op in the front booth, one in the back, and one up front on the other side, 2 or 3 cycles before we got on the front row. only the red train was in use, the blue train was parked in the shed. Yet another amazing on-ride video from lethal, which i'll post shortly, while more handycam stuff from the ground, Lethal Weapon continues to live up to my expectations of a top thrill coaster. I try to single out one cast member when i visit a park to make special mention, and this time Lethal Weapon's operator - Seth - takes the grand prize. Seth sang, danced around, took out his microphone and ran up and down the opposite side of the queue line talking funny and making jokes. A man of a thousand voices, seth did some great impressions of many of the simpsons characters and many more. he made the wait time seem like seconds, and was very much into being part of the show. Seth gets top marks on service and going that extra mile. We headed off to Wild West Falls after lethal weapon which also had a very reasonable queue line. 10 Minutes later we were all loaded on and off on our adventure...lol. Once again another wonderful ride, some great theming and overall an experience that was reasonable enough for everyone to enjoy. Disappointing to see the lack of theming in the final lift hill. no sparks or anything like that, the top of the hill at the turntable has been themed to look like a cross roads in a mine tunnel. its just sheets of corrugated iron with a mirror that you face as you come up the hill. poor lighting and strobe effects are meant to give you the idea that it blows up after you've turned towards the drop. a very disappointing effort at retheming the ride. Next we took on Scooby Doo. The queue in here was about three rows back into the "ante room", with a posted approximate wait time of about 10 minutes. Sure enough, 12 minutes later we boarded the coaster, with our motion-sick companion JOINING US! *OMG*. Some of the theming in the first part of the ride is getting a little dusty and old, but with the theming it almost fits, and didnt detract from the ride experience. all of our group enjoyed scooby, and we rode a couple of times on scooby during the rest of the day. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. we caught the Police Academy stunt show, the looney tunes river ride, part of the matrix stunt show and part of the batman stunt show, before riding on the batman adventure towards the end of the day. We also caught a second ride on Lethal, where a second video was taken from the rear of the train. Two disappointments were had at WBMW... the first was the Matrix Exhibit... yes its a walkthrough and yes it has a lot of work put into it, but the combination of lack of excitement from the staff, and... really... the boring nature of it all was a disappointment. Matrix gets two thumbs down... and this from a person who does like the matrix. the second was the crap we saw at all the parks.... FRUTINA. at WBMW, we queued for 15 minutes to get a cold drink, only to find that they all tasted like crap. the scariest thing of all was that all the parks had this glop for sale, and i fail to see how they could get repeat sales from it given its taste... YUK So how did Movie World fare? Quality of Rides, Shows and Attractions: 9/10 Quantity of Rides, Shows and Attractions: 8/10 Cast Service: 10/10 Capacity and Staffing Levels: 10/10 Overall: 9/10 Comments: we could not really fault movie world with anything although a few minor things cost them points. Its so hard to give so much detail in a park like this because theres so much to talk about. We had an encounter with Austin Powers while we were eating, and while its not the best costume, he did a great job of staying in character. Top marks for movie world.... our number 1 ranked park from our visit. More to come later on... stay tuned for WnW next... Cheers, Alex.

no rabid i can't say that i did... then again i have no idea what you look like, so... maybe i did?

So begins the first of my reports on our Gold Coast Experience: We were staying just of Tedder ave, so we caught a cab to Sea World on our first full day in QLD (14th). We arrived at the gates at about 10:15 and we found the front gates to be moving quite reasonably, and before long we were on our way with our newly acquired 3 park superpass (such a great idea). We strolled along the pathway (such a choke point) up past the seal show and made our way towards our first stop - Corkscrew. As mentioned previously, one of our guests suffers severe motion sickness, and for a laugh on our way up to corkscrew, we jumped on the carousel in Cartoon Beach. After cleaning our hands from the dirt and grime on the poles, we continued our way to corkscrew, stopping at the soon to be replaced seal exhibit. We then headed over to corkscrew, and decided to hop the pirate ship first, to allow our not-so-brave rider a chance to "build up" to corkscrew. No queue line, we jumped on and it wasn't long before our companion was turning green... so ends his ride experiences for today. Next onto corkscrew. a minimal queueline saw 3 of us board corkscrew only two cycles after joining the queue. Corkscrew was running 2 operators, so the wait wasn't long, while our fourth volunteered to videotape the ride from the ground. Today was my first chance to test out my new lens extension for my portable recorder. this was the first of the two videos I have on corkscrew, and is taken from the rear car. Next we headed off to Bermuda, where a reasonably lengthy queue line was moved through rapidly by a team of about 5 or 6 operators, and we were in pre-show within 10 minutes of joining the queue. We have more handycam video of Bermuda, with night-vision for the spots you can't see. (handycam shots may take a while to get online - i dont have a capture card). The theming seems to be getting a little dilapidated inside bermuda, and one does get bored of the same audio recording. perhaps a little redubbing or a slightly different variation of the story could lighten it up some? Straight after, we headed for viking's revenge, where a slightly longer queue line saw us on within 20 minutes thanks to 4 wonderfully nice ops. Sea World's cast cannot be faulted and an entirely enjoyable day was had by all. After Viking's, we grabbed some lunch, and then followed the "suggested itinerary", catching the seals, the dolphins, strolling by shark bay, polar bear shores, catching a cruise on the monorail, back on the skyway, and catching the final ski stunt show of the day. another old favourite, which is starting to become a little tired, and could use a little change in story line to freshen it up a little. So how did Sea World fare? Quality of Rides, Shows and Attractions: 7/10 Quantity of Rides, Shows and Attractions: 8/10 Cast Service: 9/10 Capacity and Staffing Levels: 10/10 Overall: 8.5/10 Comments: Cast throughout the park were wonderful in all our dealings, quite friendly. we made efforts to address them all by their first names where we could and they were very surprised and happy when we did so. next time you're in a place they wear name badges... try it... you'll be amazed. Capacity was perfect for our visit, with the right balance of staff everywhere we looked. sea world's only downfalling is that the theming they have done in the past (read: bermuda mostly) have not been kept up to standard and this cost them some... Its now 2am, ive spent 9.5 hours travelling since i left my hotel, and im off to bed. this is my first TR so i hope you found it interesting (make a comment, ill read it before i post the rest) look out for TR's on Movie World, Wet N Wild and DreamWorld tomorrow afternoon evening. Cheers, Alex.

Wait a minute... say that again... "Alex is right" lol its not often i hear that. im sure SW will look at another mechanical attraction in the near future... give it one or two years... we shall see. It will definitely have me back there again.

i agree with both sides of the argument (impossible?) The new seal enclosure will enrich the current experience already felt at Sea World. i also agree that the park could do with a new non-animal attraction. Look at what dreamworld is doing - it has tigers and the AWE to try and balance out its GA demographic. it is also trying to compete with Warner Village by offering an animal experience as well. Warner don't need to dump new rides into SW because that is why they have three parks. But anyway... yes, seaworld could benefit from a new ride. as discussed in another thread, where would it go? there is very little room left in the parks grounds to fit another ride, unless it were to weave in and out over the pathways etc. yes it works in other parks, but that isnt what seaworld is about. the only thing that really wanders over the pathways is the monorail, which is more for the views from the monorail than a lack of space thing. (i considered the skyway but it doesnt really go over the pathways much). Let them build a new seal enclosure. after swimming with the sharks today, I am very impressed with what SW is doing with their animal exhibits, and this is for the benefit of the keepers and the animals as well as the GP. a new thrill ride would draw crowds, but the crowds that it would draw would depend on the adrenalin rating of the ride, and the wishes of most of the people here would be a top thriller, which targets a very small market. one of the people i travelled up here with suffers severe motion sickness, and couldn't even handle the seaworld pirate ship. he still paid more than $200 in admission to visit all 4 parks during our stay. he enjoyed the animal shows at SW, the movie magic and stunt shows at WBMW, he enjoyed the wave pool and calypso beach at WnW, and the big brother house at dreamworld... thats it. no more.. not everyone is an adrenalin junkie. a top thriller is a great boast for the park that owns it, but its a very narrow market when you consider the demographic that the 4 parks are attempting to target... and that is 4 year olds to 94 year olds... and older if they're game... See y'all when i land in Sydney... Alex.

Ok - well now that we have recovered from Dreamworld, and we have also done a Shark Snorkel today (recommended - it was great) I have completed my notes on our trip. I will be typing up a full report on each park when i return to sydney (friday morning approx) however to summarise: Ranking: 1. Movie World - service was great, queues reasonable, and overall an entirely enjoyable experience - our group gave it a 8.5 out of 10 2. Sea World - as above, a fraction less in the service department, overall a wonderful experience... on BOTH days, an 8 out of 10 3. Wet n Wild - queues lengths were a bit long, but as it was the first day of school holidays it was to be expected. its been 10 years since my last visit so WnW has improved enormously, WnW scored a 6.9 out of 10 from our "panel" 4. DreamWorld in last place scored a dismal 5 out of 10. Backing up Richard's comments on capacity, we found the majority of Dreamworld's rides had too long a queue, and staff were hardly as friendly or helpful as those at Warner Village. Dreamworld would have scored a 4, however the addition of the Claw picked it up some. After my last visit, DW had high standards in my opinion, only to be let down with the addition of a large crowd (my last visit was on a weekday, with forecast for bad weather). Not only is their capacity shocking, but our group experienced more than TWELVE separate instances of QUEUE JUMPING, with one COUPLE eventually smuggling in over 10 people into the queue of Cyclone. The Claw is well worth the visit if you haven't been in a while, but it was disappointing given my previous experiences at the park. Look out for a full report on friday. Cheers! Alex.

Well after a completed week here at the Sunny Gold Coast we finally had our first sunshower, and other than that no rain in sight. We have so far covered the Warner Village Parks and DreamWorld is set for tomorrow... Thanks for all the updates on the Claw Richard, its been exciting to keep in touch and see the progress and tomorrow I will be there to see for myself. TR's will be posted on all the parks on our return to Sydney, and overall so far every park has more than an 8 out of 10. I have a few photos here and there but nothing too spectacular, however - I will be posting On-Ride Videos of a number of the big coasters when i return. A new innovation since I did Demon and Bush Beast, I have to offer a thanks to the guys at XDA www.myxda.com who were able to provide a lens extension, for safety, enabling me to carry my portable video recorder on a secured fastener around my waist, and film the ride using an optical cable attached to my wrist. no music, and plenty of loud noise on these videos, but still amazing to watch. The List So Far - Corkscrew Lethal Weapon Still to come - Tower of Terror Giant Drop Cyclone In Doubt - The Claw. Can't wait to get back to my broadband connection as dialup sucks! See you all when i get back, Alex.

So very sad to see what has become of beastie. the rust on the lift hill almost brought a tear to my eye. The train looks so rundown too. some of my first memories of Wonderland are on that ride. Out of curiosity, I recall when i was young that the lift hill track was sunk below the walkway on either side... kind of like how it is at the station but lower... when i was about 5 or so, i recall being able to reach over the side of the train and touch the wood... does anyone remember that? any other pics floating around we haven't seen yet Bus?