Noxegon

G’day folks - long time no see! As some of you may know I’m the deputy editor of First Drop, the print magazine of the European Coaster Club. Our upcoming issue (going to print in the next week or two) will have a feature on Jungle Rush in it. We’re looking for more action photos to include - basically those showing moving trains full of happy people. They need to be at print resolution (so off a camera ideally, though a recent smartphone also works if you can download the high resolution originals). If we use your picture(s) we’ll happy give you a membership of our club. The most useful bit of this for those living down under is six issues of our magazine by post, though you’ll also get access to our ECC Live series where we chat with people in the industry on Zoom. Recent participants include Neil Dwyer from Six Flags Qiddiya, and Eric Bertch from Lost Island. Shout if you can help, either here or by email to richard@coaster.club. Many thanks!

I doubt it makes much difference to Aussie World's usual clientele. My sense from visiting there a few times is that they don't really draw visitors from outside the immediate local area.

Why would a park remove a perfectly good wooden mouse and replace it with another? Aussie World's mouse was a great ride. It's a huge shame that they weren't able to keep it going.

Yes, I was astonished by how many mullets I saw in Australia. My condolences to all at this difficult time.

You're spot on with this. Project Zero is a solid attraction. I still think GL is better, but the margin is much smaller than you might think.

An official POV of Leviathan has been published:

All good

Really uneasy at any attempt to rank coasters based on watching a POV. I've ridden Tweestryd and the LPS Boomerang so I feel qualified to vote – but I don't think people should be judging without actually riding.

For what it's worth, I have a coaster count of over 3000 at this point – and I can say that I've never ridden anything quite like the roller coaster at Green Valley Farm

Not sure if they're old enough for this audience, but I did just rebuild my Luna Park album: https://www.themeparks.ie/australia/lunasydney/index.htm

That part of my life is long since over.

If I had to pick something, I'd say sitting in the airport at 7:00am on Saturday morning awaiting a flight to Armidale and thinking "what the hell am I doing with my life"? :)

I've posted trip reports from the parks I hit on my recent business trip to Australia. Luna Park Sydney: https://www.bannister.org/coasters/trips/2023/0203.htm Green Valley Farm: https://www.bannister.org/coasters/trips/2023/0204.htm Sea World, Dreamworld: https://www.bannister.org/coasters/trips/2023/0205.htm Gumbuya World, Luna Park Melbourne: https://www.bannister.org/coasters/trips/2023/0211.htm Aussie World: https://www.bannister.org/coasters/trips/2023/0212.htm

So can I – forever. I don't get reaction videos at all.

Apropos of nothing, those air launches are absolutely incredible. Hypersonic was great, and Dodonpa (pre-modification) was absolutely insane.

Thanks for the information. Will likely give it a miss so.

Olympia Looping has no seatbelts, and routinely manages almost 5000 guests per hour at busy events with a dispatch of a full train every 22 seconds.

What’s the Beast? Is Crazy Coaster the only coaster at Narre Warren?

Genuinely wondering what the purpose of this is and what possible benefit can be derived by an operator connecting a seatbelt instead of a guest.

There are actually three wooden mice still in operation. The other two are in Surabaya, Indonesia – one came from Adelaide and the other from Melbourne.

The ECC group were supposed to fly home from Auckland on Saturday morning. I guess you can all figure how that went Those on the Club flight have been rebooked to get home five days late.

Dingo Racer rotates guests too. Aussie World leading the way.

Apropos of nothing, and perhaps to lighten the mood, I’m reminded of a scene I witnessed at ah airport a few years ago. Passenger barked “do you know who I am” at a gate agent, who promptly got on the PA with an announcement “Ladies and gentlemen, we have a passenger at the gate who doesn’t know who he is. If you can help him, please approach the counter.”

I think the key point here is “faster than they should”. From my own experience at Green Lantern, operations suddenly got much faster after the queue closed for the evening. Working quickly clearly wasn’t a problem then, so why was it an issue for the rest of the operating day?

I think you’re being a bit harsh with that to be honest. Let’s look at this from the (admittedly rather narrow) perspective of a coaster enthusiast visiting from Europe. This person has been to a few hundred parks, and has been looking forward to the ones in Australia for years. They arrive at a park and discover long wait times. Stuff happens, so it goes. Then they make it to a ride station and discover that the Intamin that would dispatch every minute or so in the rest of the world is going out at around 20% of that speed due to additional checks and faffing about. They’re only going to get on a tiny fraction of the rides that they’d hoped for - because, as someone else said in this thread, Australia knows better. Yes, they will be angry. And objectively I can understand that. Safety is important, but it’s completely possible to be both safe and efficient.