POP

^ I read up on it all afternoon and I can safely say it'll never re-open. Several reasons. 1. The Land is worthless. Building any type of large scale investment on land that is SWAMP and below sea level + so close to the sea (as well as now a proven track record to be catastrophic) is like throwing money into the fire. 2. The population can't support it. The park was running on a loss and small attendance BEFORE the Hurricane and now that the population is 25%+ less, how on earth would that be a good investment? The park was supported by locals and locals only. 3. Huge start up costs; no return. As I said the park was already running on a loss, if you're going to spend $100 million starting the park back up you want to be guaranteed of a return. No such guarantee can ever be made with this park.

IKR! Dollywood is spending some serious moolah. First Mystery Mine ($17 mill) and now the new B&M ($20+ mill). Dollywood is such a pretty park as well, I'd really like to visit it one day.

Well that's the rumor that's been around. Apparently the city was also pissed they took out Batman: The Ride even though it was an investment by SF.

Six Flags don't own the rides, they were leasing the park from the city. The only ride(s) they owned were the ones that they built when they took over including Batman (which they removed).

^ They NEED a big investment in the next 5 years if they're ever going to get out of the 1 million lull they can't seem to escape. I'm talking $20 million for a world class rollercoaster. Then market it to EVERY state in Australia and they'll increase attendance by 50% and easily recover the cost in the long run. They just don't seem to be motivated about growing the park though. They take the safe way out every single time and it bugs me to no end. The person in charge of their investments in ride, should really be shot (not literally )

^ That is true but 2nd hand rides are notoriously hard to sell, now add in the fact that the electronics are completely destroyed and you've got a lost cause. I mean the vekoma boomerang from Wonderland only sold for $2 million and that was fully operational. It would cost probably that just to restore the electronics and do up the ride again. Even then you're not guaranteed.

It's not the tracks that is the main issue, it's the electronics and the huge cost that would be associated with restoring them (we're talking millions per coaster). The coasters have already been written off anyway and only one was salvaged (Batman: The Ride) and put into SF: Texas.

Dreamworld definitely has the most potential to grow but I don't think they're interested considering they've sold off a LOT of their land around the park. I also think Dreamworld has gone the wrong way in the last decade with some really bad choices in investments (Motocoaster is simply *awful* and Buzzsaw definitely isn't the type of ride to get people rushing into the park to try out). Out of all the parks, Dreamworld is the one that would most benefit from a large scale rollercoaster because that's what their demographic goes there for.

Well you see the city is protected by flood levee's that are supposed to keep the water OUT in the event of a Hurricane, but since Katrina was a category 6 and caused unprecedented damage, the levee's were destroyed and in came the water. If the levee's hadn't of broken, the park would have flooded somewhat but the water would have quickly subsided. But in this instance the water lingered for months and all of the rides electronics were completely destroyed. So I daresay the people who build "Jazzland" (original name before Six Flags took over in 2002) never saw this coming as they thought they were protected.

Each of the big parks averages roughly 1 million guests per year, but is it possible for them to grow? It seems like our parks have plateau'd and really have no interest in putting up money for big expansions like the parks in the UK (Thorpe and Alton Towers) are continually putting up trying to grow their attendance. Imo they're really only interested in putting the bare minimum of capital to maintain their current attendance because 1. it turns a profit and 2. there is no risk factor because they're more than likely not going to grow attendance any more by putting in a $30 million B&M over say a $10 loco or a $7 circular thingy.

From what I've seen and heard of Southern Star Amusement, let's just say that SFNO is dead and gone forever. Besides, no company in their mind would rebuild on that land its an accident waiting to happen. Not to mention SFNO was one of the LEAST attended large scale amusement parks (attendance barely 500 000 in a year) in America and was losing money prior to Katrina. Now that there are even less people living in NO, no one is going to touch this with a ten foot pole. As for the amusements, the salvageable ones have already been salvaged and the rest are only good for scrap metal.

After reading up on SFNO, it is now not my dream to get that park up and running again. It's built on swamp land AND below the sea level right near the ocean. Dumb dumb dumb.

My dream would be to go manage that park and get it re-opened. Would be amazingly cool to oversee that transformation.

Green Lantern >>> Buzzcrud I'm so glad I got the WVTP yearly pass instead of Dreamworld's and I didn't even know either or the parks were putting in new rides when I got them.

Welcome! Wow, you were there on opening day? That must've been pretty exciting!!

What would the weather be like? What day would it be? What sort of crowds would be there? What would you eat? What rides would you go on? What shows would you see? Who would you go with? You can relay your favorite day at a theme park or make up something

If one park were to go the way of Wonderland, which would it be? Imo if Village Roadshow were to get themselves in a sticky situation and they needed to sell off a park, it would be bye bye Sea World. While profitable, its sitting on a gold mine worth probably close to $100 million (estimate)

^ Yes, I've included Wonderland so that is fine too. PS I've received one set of votes so far! Hopefully we can get between 15 and 20 to really get a good idea of what the forum likes as a whole.

^ I'll keep that in mind for next year, thanks! Me and my brother already purchased WVTP 3 worlds annual pass - which was a big step for us because we've never done that before.

^ If there was going to be such an attraction in Australia though it WOULD be at Movie World. So not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

Nice going for TOT! I've never really been to a park when its been quiet but that's because I always seem to go on weekends. I remember though I went to Dreamworld on Easter Sunday with my german exchange student (who by the way spent all day vomiting up easter eggs after going on one of the spinny rides haha) fully expecting it to be really busy and it was surprisingly not. Longest wait time was about 15 mins. Was strange to me because it was sunny as well, actually PERFECT weather.

Instructions: 1. Pick your favorite 10 rides in any Australian theme park (not shows) 2. Rank them in order, 1 being the best - so on & so forth. 3. Send them via PM to me by this time next week. They rides can be from any of the major GC theme parks PLUS Wonderland, Adventure Land, Jamberoo, Aussie World, Luna Park(s) or any similar sized theme park. Once I have everyone's answers I'll add them all up and get a cumulative Parkz list! (By the way I hope I don't need approval for this, I didn't see anything about it in the rules but if so SORRY).

^ Congrats on 100 posts! 2 hours is seriously insane to wait for a ride but sometimes if the atmosphere is right (and if its night it really helps) and you're there with friends I think you notice it less. I certainly couldnt wait 2 hours in line with my family for a line :eek: haha. By the way guys, what's the shortest time you've ever waited for a *major* rollercoaster? I think 2 mins was the shortest for the Lethal Weapon and that was the last time I was there.

Just wondering what's the longest you ever waited for a ride in one of Aussie theme parks. I remember going to Dreamworld for one of their one off nights in 2003 and I waited 2 hours for Tower of Terror. And I only got to go on the Wipeout and that was the end of the night.

^ You're forgetting that year 12s finish mid Nov and uni students even earlier. I think anytime from the beginning of Nov will start getting hectic, especially at WnW.