iwerks

Could be the licence to SD has expired, although you'd think it would be cheaper now.

Just a few thoughts on my visit the other day. Apparently Kraken has new rafts that require at least three people to be onboard. The queue was very small to start with, but was about half an hour for most of the day. Inferno was great fun. They used the count down to start with and then shot or dropped whenever they felt like. I think they did two shots, a drop and then a quick shot. The young guy running it was really good. The countdown is done by the man who does the voice over for Abyss. The Tunnel of Terror now has a camera for the final splashdown. The screens are located outside of the water mountain area (which looks great with its Wild West theming). The Bucanneer Battle boats have new buttons which sometimes get stuck. Sometimes the engines get stuck on or off, as do the water shooters. Had a long run early on, when no one else turned up, so they let us keep going. The Grand Prix had a fairly long queue all day, sometimes with a long fast pass queue too. Got in line at one stage, but it didn't move, so we got out. The cabana was great to relax in. Had a healthy Mark Shaw Caesar Salad for lunch and churros in the afternoon. The Kahuna Falls Cafe closed around 5.35, so I didn't get to have dinner in the park. There's a great little coffee hut next to the main pool now. It was about 32 degrees max, compared to about 38 last year. The main lawn was quite busy, but the new lawn, where the lake was, was pretty quiet. Also used the new members' car park, which was quite convenient, and the new gate was open by 9.45am with no queue at all to get in. Although the new car park is grassed, there were good sized parking bays marked clearly there.

Park's not doing too badly, today. Good crowd at AW. There're no shows on, today, for Cirque Extreme, yet I saw some of their crew out the front of their tent chatting to patrons, telling them it's not on. How cool are they? I wished them a good break.

Yeah, either park is barely a full day. I was thinking for MW they could do it in the old Maverick stage area. SW they could theme it to Under the Sea or something. Definitely plenty of room for it there. Either way, I think it's a clever idea. It's a good gap filler for the circus, which like many others, must be getting lots of abuse from the Peta crowd, despite their complete lack of animals.

Just came back from the 4pm show of Cirque Extreme, AW's seasonal offering. I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. I think what we seriously have to ask ourselves here is, 'why isn't this show on at Movie World?' The tent is massive, bigger than anything I've seen at the Fringe Festival. The front half is the foyer, where there's a make shift queue area (which will be needed) and a kiosk of sorts. Then there's the air conditioned auditorium, which can seat a couple of hundred people (AW's advertising says 650). The show is billed as going half an hour, but runs closer to 40 minutes. Before the show, there are a couple of likely lads with supersoakers quietly spraying unsuspecting members of the audience, similar to Waterworld at Universal. AW is also smart enough to have a couple of photographers on hand taking pictures of patrons and then scanning it to their wristbands. They're also selling tubs of fairy floss and popcorn. The show is broken down into a number of acts, starting with the impressive wheel of death. With each act you start off thinking 'that's pretty amazing' and then they top it again. It's a real family affair too: the performers range in age from a young boy to an older couple. After burlesque dancers, a lady with a fire gun, magic tricks and contortion acts, it climaxes with the high wire. The performances are seriously impressive and with a few tweaks could be used as a sequel of sorts to the Maverick Magic and Illusion Show at Movie World. I think Cirque Extreme is original and a lot of fun. Adventure World should build a permanent venue to house these guys. Congratulations, Mark, this is something special. (apologies for the iPhone pics - will have to get some better ones when I visit next time).

According to an official comment on AW's Facebook page, Andrew Sharry is now acting CEO of Adventure World. He was the Chief Executive and General Manager of AW in the early 2000s.

It's actually funnier that they haven't. It'll be like, 'who is he talking to?' Yeah @Brad2912, I've changed my mind about it too. He might end up on the Gold Coast, but that might not have been the plan. I don't want to even speculate, anymore. Good luck, Mark.

I expect AW will make an announcement, tomorrow. Best of luck, Mark. It's been great watching the rise and rise of Adventure World.

Good point - I'm sure they'll continue to build on their great management team. They have made a lot of smart decisions in the past year or two.

Devastated by that news. Hope everything is okay, Mark. Maybe it's time to bring some of your magic to the Gold Coast parks. They certainly could benefit from Adventure World's level of service.

It's like nixing an upcoming park proposal - a lot of people can see these posts. I know the chance of a new park being developed is remote, but if you keep posting that the funding has fallen through, someone might take you seriously. Same too if you say Dreamworld is going bust. Someone Googles that and finds your thread and believes you know something. A bit like that time @POP said he knew the name of the new coaster. Be careful what you post and be careful what you wish for.

Seriously, @SunshineTom, I don't understand why you don't want Dreamworld to succeed? Surely, you keep posting this stuff you want the park to fail? Give them time to plan their recovery. It's not going to happen overnight, but it will happen. We have so few parks here, you'd think you'd be a little supportive.

Hong Kong is a reclaimed bay. Orlando and Anaheim were orchards/farm land or swamp. Paris was farmland and Shanghai was a village/farmland. Disney could still own land in Australia under subsidiary company names and we'd never know.

Or Perth/Adelaide/Darwin. As much as I'd love to see a Disney Park like the HK one here, you do think the population wouldn't justify it. I suppose what we do have in our favour is the technology, safety and the service culture. Tourism is certainly higher on the WA Government's agenda now that the resources boom has gone off the boil. I think they'll be more willing to do a deal for a large park when the new stadium is finished, providing that the Liberals get back in. There are certainly locations up and down the freeway which look ripe for a park location. The problem is, you fly 5 hours from here and you get a Universal park and a bit further beyond that, a Legoland. I also think Disney is always going to choose a greenfield site and not an existing park. It's so much cheaper just to buy up farmland.

And then there's this incident from last month. http://www.smh.com.au/wa-news/adventure-world-employee-punched-in-face-after-refusing-entry-20161207-gt61wy.html

I don't have a problem with SS, although Green Peace and the Australia government do. My problem is with the 'empty the tanks' slogan. It's fine when it's brought up in normal conversation, but when it's repeated just to drown everything out, it's so stupid. It's like treating everyone else like they're two and that they don't know what's good for themselves. Most of us have looked into zoos and aquariums. We've a fair idea what we're getting into. Most of us have seen or read up on Blackfish. We know whales are best viewed out on the ocean. More than any three word slogans, I think it was this research on the Atlantis' dolphins' release that is the most damning and yet the most fascinating. http://www.aquaticmammalsjournal.org/share/AquaticMammalsIssueArchives/1993/Aquatic_Mammals_19_2/19-02_Gales.pdf Perhaps, the saddest part of all, is that the three dolphins who couldn't make it in the wild were brought to a pen in a marina, near present day AQWA, and were poisoned.

A local blogger did a bit of research on Atlantis here: http://www.katierebekah.com.au/adventure/thereturntoatlantis/ I love the 1980s video of the park. Also of note is the report on what happened to the dolphins after the park closed - it's tragic, but fascinating reading. But we didn't just have Atlantis. We also had Pioneer World, El Caballo, Dizzy Lamb Park, Bullens Lion Safari, It's a Small World and Elizabethan Village.

I would never think of linking parks in decline or flourishing with profit. Many times when they've just dropped a bundle of capex it's probably not a profitable time for the parks, but when they spend little money most enthusiasts aren't happy, but the parks would still be doing well.

It's a great idea and will only help advertise how awesome the park is. I know that in the past, attendants on the Rocky Rapids weren't allowing chest harness Go Pros. It's good to see that there's no arguing against that now and it's been clarified for everyone - bravo.

The late 90s was pretty good with Wild West Falls and Tiger Island's big brood of tigers. Plus Sydney had theme parks too!

I think we're going to see more theme park-type attractions anchoring tourist hubs. Things like the Lego discovery centres, 12D type rides and VR experiences, such as Zero Latency (which is expanding all over the globe). God forbid, it could be a way for Disney to get a foothold in our market.

Looks like another great concept from Sally Corp. http://sallycorp.com/news/sally-corporation-debuts-five-nights-at-freddys-the-ride/ Would really love to see more of their work here in Australia. I think MW proved it with JL that every park in Australia can afford and should have at least one dark ride.

Wait - we're picking up spelling mistakes now? Why stop at just the one? If it's close to Christmas, the park might be quite busy when it reopens.

Those capital cities have their work cut out for themselves. ?

Great article as always, Richard. It's funny to think of a coaster just shy of 200 feet as a middle child - very Jan and Peter Brady. ?