DJKostya

I would have loved to have done King's Island but it was closed while I was there

So I have just returned from a quick coaster trip to the USA and Canada. Overall the trip was great and I very much did not want to come home. Cedar Point (6 days) OK 6 days seems like a long time but when I last visited 10 years ago we waited 2-3 hours to get on everything and over 4 days we rode everything once and got some double rides on MF and TTD so my planning was with this in mind. Getting there however was a different story. It was dead. The longest queues were for Valravn and Maverick and even they were only 30 minutes. Raptor also got some big queues if Valravn went down. So a quick breakdown of the big Coasters: Millennium Force Still number 1 in my book. Over 6 days I rode this 50 times. Yes I counted the highlight was definitely front seat in the dark (Bugs taste like chicken). Valravn Was OK but I think that SheiKra was better. TTD Starting to get a bit rough but still awesome. I was also lucky enough to get a roll back Raptor This was way better than the last time. They are no longer trimming speed at the block breaks and are letting it run at full speed which was awesome! Rougarou This was better when it was Mantis and standup. The ride has become incredibly rough and was disappointing. Maverick This was my first time riding Maverick as it was under construction last time I was there. This was AMAZING! Both launches were amazing! Mean Streak I rode this once the whole time I was there. There is a damn good reason they are closing it at the end of the season. I offered to personally burn this pile of crap to the ground whilst I was there. Gatekeeper Another new one for me. Overall it was OK but not fantastic. TBH I think that this would be better if it was faster. The new park app was great for seeing how long ride queues were and I highly recommend it. There is also park wide free wifi. The park was spotless. As for food avoid Panda Express near MF. I ate there and got sick. Talking to people around the park that is pretty common. Canada's Wonderland (1 day) I had initially intended to spend 2 days here but I was very very disappointed with this park. It was a bit like going down memory lane what with Wonderland having some of the same rides. 2 out and back hyper coasters by the same manufacturer in the same park. Not sure about that thinking! Generally most of the rides were incredibly rough including Leviathan. So a quick breakdown of the big Coasters: Leviathan Was a pretty good coaster but was quite rough. Vortex Was an amazing suspended coaster, fast and lots of turns. Definitely a highlight. Behemoth Was incredibly rough but some great air time on some of the hills. Thunder Run (VR Experience) The park was offering free VR rides on this to season pass holders. It was amazing. The story that you saw (Dwarfs in a mountain mine being chased by intruders and then being rescued by dragons) was also pretty good. Wonder Mountain's Guardian This was pretty good however it was difficult to see where you were actually shooting. Backlot Stunt Coaster This was fantastic and was actually pretty smooth (Which was rare in this park). Flight Deck Hands down the WORST SLC I have ever been on. I have never ridden one as rough as this one. Mighty Canadian Mountain Buster This was also surprisingly smooth and had some great air time. Time Warp Never again would I ride a Zamperla flying coaster. There is no way of stopping your head bouncing around between the headrest. Wild Beast Hello Bush Beast! This was incredibly rough but did bring back memories. Ghoster Coaster This brought back a lot of memories. The Beastie was the first roller coaster I ever went on. Seeing as I can't ride that anymore this was a great trip down memory lane. Overall the park is nice but it just seems really disjointed and lacks some punch in the coaster department (Which is odd seeing as they have so many coasters). La Ronde (1 day) Whoever said I was going to be disappointed by this park (Sorry can't remember who it was) you were right. This park is terrible. When I arrived there were signs out the front advising that 9 rides were out for the day. That's nearly 20% of the park. The grounds are not maintained (I had to brush cobwebs off myself on several occasions). It's difficult to get around the park and all of the rides are in some serious need of some TLC. I know that rust can in some situations is OK but seriously the Boomerang looks like it should be condemned. So a quick breakdown of the big Coasters: Le Vampire Was running backwards which was awesome. It's stuck out in a part of the park that management seems to have forgotten. Cobra Was closed and looks pretty derelict. Dragon Also closed. Endor A typical SLC. Rough as guts (But not as bad as Flight Deck, not by a long shot). Goliath This was the only good thing in the whole park. Lots of air time hills and good speed. Le Monstre OK little rant about this one. So it has 2 tracks, both different. Fast Pass users can only access 1 side of the track. On the day I visited Side A only had one train running. Side B has 2 trains running. I'll let you guess which one the fast pass users got (Hint: it was not Side B). I waited over and hour to get on Side A. Easily this was the longest wait of the day. Each train takes 16 people and they were letting 12 fast pass users onto each train. As for the rides both tracks were great with lots of speed and some decent headchoppers. Surprisingly this wasn't as rough as I expected it to be. Super Manage Was also closed. So that was my quick trip to the USA/Canada. Overall it was a great trip (I of course did other non-coaster things). I would definitely go back to Cedar Point. Canada's Wonderland was OK but disappointing. La Ronde can go die in a ditch for all I care.

Whilst not great for coasters if you're in Singapore why not quickly duck over to Malaysia and visit LEGOLAND? Friends of mine went and stayed at the resort in one of the pirate rooms and said it was amazing.

After some unfortunate news I have had to change my upcoming trip to the USA/Canada I now have to spend a whole week at Cedar Point before heading north to Canada's Wonderland then La Ronde. How will I survive

I agree Sea World was never aimed at teenagers. I guess I was just generally disappointed with Sea World. It was lots of little things such as: The very long wait to get inside (Even when I got to a booth 1 adult cash payment took way longer than it should have) Jet Rescue out in the middle of nowhere fences with barb wire around the perimeter (Necessary I know but perhaps they could cover it so guests can't see from the inside) poor/nonexistent signage and no staffing to help people around when parts of the main thoroughfare are closed lack of food options because the main food court was closed. Things like that all add up over the course of the day.

So after a very long absence I finally made a trip to the Gold Coast this past weekend (Admittedly it was for a Roller Derby tournament) and decided to take a few extra days to get reacquainted with the parks. Movie World I hopped off the plane and headed straight to Movie World. I was dissapointed that Superman was under maintenance but I haven't had a chance to ride Green Lantern yet. I was really annoyed when rocking up to the front gate to see that Green Lantern was also not operating. It would have been nice if they had this information on the website or on their hotline (of which I checked both). Not wanting to really visit having 2 major attractions down I decided to cut my losses and head over to Dreamworld. Dreamworld To say it's been a while since i've been here would be an understatement. The last time I visited The Giant Drop was only new. Overall though I was pretty impressed with the park. It was clean and tidy and everything was operating. I was very unimpressed with HWSW as they only had 1 ride op to man the ride. Cycles were taking upwards of 5 minutes and the wait was around 45 minutes. It was still just as rough as I remember it being back when it was a Luna Park the last time I rode it. Aside from the Rapids and Log ride everything else was a pretty short wait. The highlight of the first day was definitely the ride op on BuzzSaw. That guy really enjoys his job, my favourite quote from him to a girl who was screaming BEFORE the ride even started was "Don't worry if you fall i'll catch you". Day 2 he was working on Pandemonium and was cracking wise the whole time. Sea World What happened to Sea World? I was very dissapointed overall with Sea World. The first impression that they made was terrible. I got there about an hour after opening time and had to wait 45 minutes just to get inside. I was handed the usual promotional stuff and a computer printed map on a piece of A4 paper. With the food court area getting the new roof getting around was difficult and very poorly signed, Jet Rescue seems to be abandoned in a corner all by itself (It was a walk on). Most of the rides were a walk on but I couldn't help thinking that there really wasn't much to do for the older crowd. There's certainly lots of rides for kids but not for teenagers or adults. The animal exhibitions though were great. One thing I did notice, sorry if this has already been posted somewhere, but there seemed to be some work going on around the old Sea Viper site. So that was my quick trip up to the Gold Coast. Overall things were OK, not great but OK. One thing that I did find interesting though through talking with the ride ops was that the parks were all on offpeak mode now that the QLD school holidays were over. When I mentioned that it was only QLD that was back at school and that most states were still off on holidays they mentioned that management only looked at QLD school holidays. I thought that this was a bit short sighted seeing as many of the tourists on the Gold Coast, hell even from less than an hour away across the border, were still on holidays.

I was at Sea World this morning and yes the pathway no longer closes during the Jet Ski Stunt show

So the article below appeared in the Herald Sun yesterday. It's interesting that the government is now keen for a theme park when they knocked back African Safari World a few years back. http://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/news/could-docklands-be-a-good-place-for-a-theme-park/news-story/049130b51097830cf608b736c1652b5d

I came across this article today. It's a bit disappointing to see that something like this has happened. http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/im-so-angry-and-hurt-right-now/news-story/c59278608cac803334196de35bc960e9

TBH I haven't been to MW since 2010 but I can still remember a few things of note about the visit that certainly did not help with the large number of people in the park. I visited MV between Christmas and NYE so peak period and was greeted at the front gate advising that Lethal Weapon was closed. I had a quick chat with staff (Who were all super friendly I might add) and was told that they were not sure why it had been closed in such a peak period but it was likely due to a mechanical issue. OK fine I still went in. After riding everything else the park had to offer (With the exception of the kids rides) I looked at my watch and realized it was only lunchtime. TBH I was a bit shocked but remembering that MW is only a small park shrugged it off. I've thought about it since and now this topic has popped up the main issue I saw was the lack of flat rides in the park. Looking at MW currently they only offer a total of 17 rides (Excluding shows) of which 5 are roller coasters and 7 are rides aimed at kids. That leaves 5 other rides for adults/teenagers. Rather than expanding the park with another (Please don't hate me!) roller coaster I'd rather see MW spend the same amount on 3-4 flat rides spread throughout the park. Throw a Screamin' Swing in near WWWF and theme it to a mine exploding, or a Fireball/Round Up themed as a cowboy lasso. What about a pirate ship? An endless chain haunted house? Anyways that was my thinking.

So I came across this article today: http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-ideas/new-billion-dollar-theme-park-to-rival-dreamworld-to-be-built-by-chinese-developers/story-e6frfqf0-1227604047571 Let the rumor mill churn!

It's interesting that everyone on here is so against this guy and his idea. Sure his visuals aren't great. Sure his backer looks a bit dodgy BUT he has an idea and now has some serious funding to back it. From my uni days studying theme parks the general consensus for construction of a park is the investment vs. first year visitors rule. You spend $X per anticipated first year visitor. If this guy spends $50AU per anticipated first year visitor (For ease of data sake lets take DWs 2014 attendance of 744,000) his initial investment would only have to be $37.2m. With his investment of $1b he could invest up to $1344 per anticipated first year visitor. I've attached a really interesting document done by the University of Central Florida on the subject. People also seem to be missing a big part of his development idea which is that it is not just a theme park. He's building multiple facilities including restaurants, sporting venues etc. I don't know the guy from a bar of soap but I know that some of you do know him from his days working at Wonderland over a decade ago. People change. A decade ago I was in a completely different career after finishing a completely different university degree to anything I have ever worked in. So whether he actually gets this to happen, lets wait and see. He has some serious funding behind him now and no company is ever going to invest $1b unless they are going to make money back. That's basic economics. themepark.pdf

Not quite true. DK does have 3 coasters currently in their lineup without inversions, granted though 2 of them are aimed at a younger crowd

This is sad I feel for her family. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-girl-dies-magic-mountain-ride-20150615-story.html

I did Disney World in 2006 not long after Expedition Everest opened. We only had 1 day to do Disney World as my buddy and I both got sick but we managed to cram in Animal Kingdom, WDW Studios and Magic Kingdom in a day. I wouldn't recommend it but we were able to do it. Rockin Roller Coaster was great and so was Expedition Everest. I guess we were lucky because when we were there everything on Everest was working properly.

In case you missed this news article today: http://www.news.com.au/travel/alton-towers-rollercoaster-crash-seriously-injures-four-passengers/story-e6frfq7r-1227380517755 Not good :-(

It's currently closed for refurb into a Wood/Steel Hybrid like the Texas Giant.

Came across this this morning, hopefully it's saved!! http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/six-flags-magic-mountain-rollercoaster-on-fire/story-fnizu68q-1227052153964

Try the National Library of Australia's Trove collection. It is the digitised collection of everything that the National Library has. Under legislation they are required to have all newspapers. http://trove.nla.gov.au/

Woops my bad Happy for this thread to be deleted then

I just came across this article on News.com.au. Could be interesting............if it actually happens http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-ideas/chappypie-china-time-chinese-theme-park-coming-to-nsw-central-coast/story-fnjpja3r-1227023096713

Having been to both here are my opinions: Disney - If you haven't been before it is certainly an amazing place to visit, even as an adult. WDW in Orlando offers a huge range of different attractions across the 7 different parks however be prepared to be surrounded by small children screaming for hours on end. My pick of the different parks at WDW is definitely the Animal Kingdom. Expedition Everest is awesome and so was Dinosaur. Universal - This would be my pick as the variety is much better here. Big coasters and amazing places to visit. I went just before Back to the Future closed in 2006 so I really want to go back to do The Simpons and Harry Potter. I am dissapointed the Dueling Dragons (Or whatever they are called now) no longer duel but both were still really good rides. Other highlights include the Men in Black ride, Jurassic Park ride and I also really liked the Mummy ride (Even if I did get stuck on it for over 2 hours!!)

I'm not sure if it is the same Python Loop but I do remember riding one at Darling Harbour when I was about 10, so somewhere around 1995. The had a little sideshow area set up next to where Sega World used to be before they built all the shops and restaurants. I remember because my dad asked if I really needed to ride it because we were going to Wonderland the next day for my birthday. On the whole on topic thing I have some very fond memories of the Corkscrew (It will always be the Corkscrew tome not this Sea Viper crap). It was the first looping coaster I ever went on way way back in about 1994. I remember being absolutely terrified of going upside down until my step dad literally dragged me onto it, I think he only slightly regrets opening that Pandora's Box now!!!

So um yea came across this today: http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/australia-has-been-named-by-tripadvisor-the-best-country-for-theme-parks-in-the-pacific/story-e6frfq80-1226990606846

God I hope Movieworld does something. This would be a really good opportunity to install something big to tie it into Batman's Anniversary. Unfortunately I dare say that seeing as it is July any decent large new attraction would have been announced by now, though we can live and hope. Oh and I grabbed the logo you posted as my new Avatar hope you don't mind