DaptoFunlandGuy

Paul i think thats a well established fact by now... http://www.parkz.com.au/forums/sh...p=4098#post4098 http://www.parkz.com.au/forums/sh...12555#post12555 From what i have gathered bus was a long-term operator with experience on most if not all of the attractions at Wonderland...

I have to say... that shot of ToT "160Km/h of blur" or something like that... is just awesome. the shutter speed on that (and your timing) is incredible...

Ok as we near my departure i have a few dates... if anyone would like to arrange to meet up at any of the big 4 parks... email me or send me a PM I will be at the Big 4 on the dates below... Seaworld - September 14 and 22 - Shark Snorkel on the 22nd Movie World - September 15 and 20 Wet N Wild - September 16 only Dreamworld - September 21 only - and RIDE THE CLAW!!!

or... take the 2 station idea, and chuck in a turntable as well... so you go out and back, move to the side, the other car goes out and back, and while they're up there, the car turntable turns the car backwards, waits for the other car to return and then launch backwards....?

ouch. damn that changes a few plans for my trip.... i spose i can get the same sorta thing at WnW and DW so i suppose its ok... lol... no swimming at SW now... that was released a while ago its a wonder nobody has picked up on it until now?

i think SDSS was a number of factors. the nets were getting old and needed constant maintenance, it was loosing popularity because they weren't packing HB like they were in the late 80's and early 90's. and after over 15 years of sliding i think the slides would have been getting a bit worn... i think there were a couple of minor injuries, i dont think anything too major, but apart from bam-bam's ball bash and the paddleboats, an operator could intervene in case of emergency. with those three rides, it was not possible for an operator to just e-stop and offer assistance... so i suppose it was probably a liability concern.

Kenny.... $63 per person for 150 people is almost $10,000. if we're talking four rides - thats average of $2500 per ride which isnt cheap considering those rides dont require high theme output (like bermuda that would be pumping out fire all the time for example) and it includes finger foods... for 150 people, finger foods would probably cost about $600. so DW is definitely expensive in comparison to sea world. the most expensive thing there is the dolphin cove show, and if you consider how many people are needed to run that show behind the scenes and on stage, plus the rubber duck boat operation, plus you are putting the dolphins into a show that isnt part of their routine as well.... to keep their disruption low, and not overfeed them as well, it would take a few days to adjust the animals diets and routines so as not to disrupt them... (my opinion only)

Joz - think Wonderland... they obviously couldn't afford to pay to renew it, or WB wanted too much. thats why Wonderland ditched lost HB and entered into Marvel's array...

Wonderbuzz.... are you Brendan the Audio guy? used to work in retail and koala photo spot?

ahh good to see some of those flats in their original positions in old HB. Judy's Jetliners i think was similar to captain caveman's clippers (galleons). See how many we can remember from wonderland AND their original names... im not going to count the beach.. Bush Beast, Snowy River Rampage, Ampol's Antique Autos, SkyRider, Ned Kelly's Getaway, Funnel Web Spider, HMS Endeavour, Tasmanian Devil, Dragons Flight, Bounty's Revenge, Jousting Ring, Wizard's Fury, The Demon, Space Probe 7, The Zodiac, Captain Caveman's Clippers, Dick Dastardly's Flying Circus, Fred Flintstone's Splashdown, Boo-Boo's Balloon Race, Scooby Doo's Silly Stix, Beastie, Bam-Bam's Ball Bash, Judy's Jetliners. There were also rides named for - Pebbles Flintstone, Dino Flintstone, Jabberjaw and a few others im sure, that i can't remember. I can't place a name for the Carousel, and what was later called baby-bumpers. Can anyone help with the rest? and if you're not sure what they were, any i've named i know, so you just have to ask... ok long one... im shuttin up now. >>>Edit>>> and also the paddleboats that i can't remember either...

"time to say goodbye to Tom and Jerry, and other Warner Bros. Characters" this is what is captioned under a picture on the "movie park" link belgian posted... i might be misreading the concept here, but - unless im mistaken, aren't Tom and Jerry both Hanna Barbera Characters and not Warner? just thought i'd ask...

to take Richard's point on "RCT style thinking" - what would be the ramifications of SW taking a coaster out over the lake inlet on the western side of the park? i mean right out over the fence? They have the jet ski hire at Nara and at the park, so they have rights to utilise the inlet for recreation, how hard would it be to get permission to whack a few supports out and over, say 10 15 metres out from the shoreline? Run the body of the coaster in over the jet ski hire and the little swamp area that they were storing a shark in until about a year ago, bring it over the stunt show lake and have launch area etc on the eastern side of the lake? and before anyone says a jetskiier would hit it the pylons in the inlet... it would obviously be well indicated protected. just curious...

I have to ask on a completely unrelated note Dj, whats wrong with Staging Connections?????

Ill agree with WonderBus there.... Wonderland was constantly being hired out for night functions. they used to have an entire website and brochure pack set up for the purpose. I did a couple of those functions as photographer demon-probe photos etc. A park can make a lot of money from these functions - take your normal function costing for food, venue, staff, alcohol, and tack on a charge for the hour-to-hour operation of one or more attractions on top... its worth the expense. Wonderland used to hire out their rides after hours on an hour-to-hour rate, I cannot recall the exact figures on here so these are BEST TO MY RECOLLECTION FIGURES - Bush Beast - appx $700 per hour Demon - appx $1300 per hour Probe - appx $1500 per hour Snowy - appx $700 per hour all the other flat rides attracted nominal fees ranging from about $350 - $500 for things such as skyhawk and endeavour to $500-$600 for bounty's revenge or Zodiac. They offered packages utilising one theme or another - billabong grove, goldrush (and sundowner theatre or goldrush theatre), the beach and sundowner, transylvania and lakeside, botany bay and outback restaurant or Hanna Barbera Land and its surrounding area. I can't recall the pricing for each world but it was hefty... they still had quite a lot of bookings though...

I have a faux-brick contractor next door to me - the "spreading of the sand" is a gritty gravel type substance used to "rough up" the surface to allow for grip while walking. As far as the theming, im no expert, but a tropical beach area on a remote island (think Survivor 1) you had beach in one point, and jungle area 10 metres to the side. I think theming like this while not perfect is ok, and kinda fits a theme of some strange exotic animal escaping from the jungle to capture beach-goers on the sand with its huge claw and drag them into the jungle... I think if dreamworld is committed to this theme, the 2d painting behing the claw will be moderately temporary until they can cultivate a real live jungle bush surrounding. I will be there on September 19, so i can't wait to see claw in its full glory..

in regards to there being a failsafe, what would be the better choice in regards to an outage of power or other such event? hydraulic or pneumatic?

being that it's now monday... where are they?

Calling all Queenslanders! Im making my way up to the Gold Coast this september and will be making visits to all 4 Major Parks while i am there. No Dates are firm yet but it will be between the 14th and the 22nd of September, excluding the 18th. I realise this cuts out the weekend so it might not work out, but anyone interested in meeting up between these dates, let me know!

Calling all Queenslanders! Im making my way up to the Gold Coast this september and will be making visits to all 4 Major Parks while i am there. No Dates are firm yet but it will be between the 14th and the 22nd of September, excluding the 18th. I realise this cuts out the weekend so it might not work out, but anyone interested in meeting up between these dates, let me know!

RCT - i believe you're talking about the shuttle version coaster it has ready-made? i think going by what i remember of the game, the shuttle uses LIM or some other high speed propulsion, whereas demon uses only gravity. You've got to remember that (excluding the ups and downs) demon is in a constant state of slowing down the moment it leaves lift 1. it makes it halfway up lift 2 after performing a full circuit, and it comes to a complete stop before going back the other way. so it has half the time to gain speed again as it drops backwards... it wouldnt make it through the first loop without being lifted higher up lift 2 for the run back.

gazza the boarding gaps on the rafts on SRR were spaced so that as one entry point was out of reach of the station the next one was within reach, so as the raft spun, you could load the separate sections of the raft, rather than stepping across the raft itself. they wouldnt go to the right hand side of the channel as there were still guide rails as there are today. the spinning cone was there originally when the turntable was operating, basically to suck the raft off the turntable and throw it into the rapids, giving it a bit of a spin on the way, and to stop it from hitting the concrete wall on the opposite side. the cone originally did have wooden planks bolted to it but they disappeared over time.

SNRR used to have its station as a turntable yes, but it was considered that capacity could be increased and risk minimised if they made it stationary and just stopped the rafts. it also meant that more (or less) rafts could be run as the queue would flow as fast as the loaders could run it, rather than try and load in time with the arriving and departing boats. i have never seen DW's rapids until last june, so i dont know if it would turn or not but looking at other similar rides (such as the one at Knotts i think it was) it would be safe to assume it did once rotate. as with SNRR, the dam in DW would indeed be used to store the water overnight, as running the pumps 24/7 would be murder mechanically. Wonderland chose to hide the dam by theming a dock wall over it, but it could still be seen from Bush Beast. For those that have ridden it, SNRR used to offload BEFORE the conveyor belt on the wooden station opposite the dam, but it fell into disrepair once they stopped the turntable. it was also a little dangerous as the lower parts of the dismount station, which were made from wood were submerged NIGHTLY in the dam water and as such became slippery and rotten.

i never said there was anything wrong with OzCoaster. i dont know about regularity... in this case he had some up before r-c.com.au, but what i am saying is that Richard generally offers a full screen image linked from a thumbnail, whereas ozCoaster - its WYSIWYG... you can't view the image larger unless you request it directly.

can't wait Richard. hopefully a better quality higher detail that what ozcoaster has. looking forward to it

not too sure tails, but this latest pic (i haven't seen any this far into construction on R-C.com.au yet) shows the claw construction has been completed - the landscaping etc is all that is left... http://ozcoaster.net/ozupdates/dw1308/page11308.htm