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Paid a rare weekday trip to the park, today. It was only about 25 degrees when I visited in the early afternoon and I was surprised to find the car park half full. It was great to see that the themed shading was being installed for the Kraken. There also appeared to be some theming where I hadn't seen it before - between the other slides going down the hill. Was pleasantly surprised to see that the kangaroos were closer to the old food trough today, including a couple of joeys. What really amazed me here was that one of the keepers was patting one of the emus, which seemed to really enjoy the attention. Except for some patches of missing grass, the park was looking really good.

Favourite ET Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull Jurassic Park Splash Mountain Tokyo Bermuda Triangle Least Favourite Any spin and spew

So much I didn't know about Arrow, especially its relationship with the early days of Disneyland. This is essential viewing. Man, they were so 'milking the elephant'!

Great Arrow doco released today. http://www.legacyofarrow.com

Here's an interesting article that's come to my attention. A local blogger wrote a really nice piece on Perth's old marine park, Atlantis. She also provided a link to the study on what happened to the Dolphins after the park stopped operating and it makes for fascinating reading. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/whales/debate/atlantis.html Here's the article: http://www.katierebekah.com.au/adventure/thereturntoatlantis/

Nice writing and a good summary of today's events in the articles, Slick and Richard. Not really excited about more DC themed rides or movies. Good point, Troy. The families and those people who prefer less extreme rides do seem to have been left out of the equation - hopefully a new show could fix that. Whilst I'm looking forward to a new roller coaster, extreme or otherwise, I know many in my travelling party who will be avoiding it.

Yeah, it's pretty depressing when you can say most parks in SE Qld were better 5, 10 or 15 years ago. I also found it odd that this is just a list of Gold Coast theme parks. For us in the West, it's about as easy to get to USS as it is MW. Plus it's great to nip down the road and ride Abyss whenever we want to.

Hope you weren't born after 1995. One of the things you learn about the collapse of the WTC towers and Wonderland as well is that nothing lasts forever. What can constitute a major part of your life could disappear pretty quickly if, for example, an Asian conglomerate took over your favourite theme park.

Great sound.

Good to hear you're being mature tonight and it's great to have a sense of humour. At least with this title thread we get the tone of what you mean. I've seen too many parks in Australia disappear. When I visited Fox Backlot Studios in 2000, I didn't think that that park would disappear after they sunk a couple of hundred mil into it or that I wouldn't have another chance to visit Wonderland. That sucks. Let's hope we keep what we've got and manage to attract a few more players into the market. It's amazing that we have as many parks as we do.

Scooby was an okay replacement, although Gremlins appealed more to those people not seeking thrills. There's probably a lot of visitors to the park who got more out of Movie World in 1999 than they would now. I think many Australian parks are now just ordering out of the Zamperla catalogue than coming up with their own rides.

You do realise that a lot of people read these forums looking for information. If you post that you think one park will build a certain roller coaster or another park will close some people might take that seriously? There's a couple of small animal parks in Perth that I do worry about. Fortunately, most businesses seem to have their act together and are able to appeal to certain aspects of the market in order to survive.

Thanks for the clues about the next rides and the feedback, Mark. I would have thought the Kraken would have already had its peak period and that crowds will lessen off after this. I really wish the GP would educate themselves better on what the system was so we wouldn't have to change the fast pass rules for them. I also read at one stage that fast pass wouldn't allow people on to the same ride twice within fifteen minutes. Hats off to those people who can climb that hill 5 or 6 times! So looking forward to MI4/5. There's certainly a few high capacity rides under $7 million I would love to see at the park.

I thought the Kraken handled the fast pass situation really well. Even when AW sold out of fast passes I never saw more than a handful of people in the fast pass line (probably because they had to walk back up that hill). It would be interesting to find out why they're changing it.

Wow is someone hot and bothered? I agree with the fact that changing the rules with Kraken and fast pass is a bad move. Even when I had a fast pass I wouldn't ride it more than three times in a day - the fact is I could if I wanted to. Surely there'd be a lot less people visiting this late in the season. When I don't have a fast pass I don't mind, because I didn't pony up the money for a fast pass and I go first thing. Being a full time park would help, however I was at Peel Zoo today and there were like five people in the park (which was great for me).

Well, it sounds like Joz is in the know. I'd certainly pay good dollars to see the Revenant stunt show. Audioanimatronic bear, anyone?

I agree with there being too much DC, but over utilised the desert/Western related ideas? Are you kidding? One ride and a couple of defunct shows does not over utilise an idea. Don't forget Australia had a pretty big play in the gold rush era, why don't we base a coaster or a show off of that? I understand not everyone loves Mad Max and that any show built around that premise would have to be watered down, like the Waterworld Stunt Show was from the movie or Conan was from its films. It would be great to see the park filled with crazy characters from Fury Road.

Really disliked that Looney Tunes stage show - it reminded me how much the park was missing the Maverick Illusion Show, Let's hope they're constructing a Mad Max stunt show and rollercoaster after all. ?

Thanks Mark. Great to see the pirate is no longer armless. If MI-3 costs less than the Kraken that still leaves lots of options. I presume you'll be choosing a ride option with a fairly high capacity or perhaps we'll see the return of the castle. Could make a great venue for a bigger live performance show. Keep up the great work.

Yeah, I was thinking at least a Tom Sawyer Island raft would work. It would be cool if there was a dock on the piece of land where the sea viper used to be (and something to visit there). Epcot does have its friendship boats.

It seems ironic that they were closed earlier in the week when it was 40 degrees. I suppose it's something you can't plan for.

Keep your opinions coming, Push. Always great to hear what you have to say. The monorail is certainly a good crowd soaker, with a pretty high capacity. For me it's worth a trip in the afternoon, when your legs get too tired or it's too hot out. I think it'd be great if SW also had sometime of boat ride, even if it was just across the main lake.

The monorail certainly makes the resort an attractive place to stay, but it doesn't mean they couldn't put on a shuttle bus or have a gate at that end of the park.

Yeah, some people like to collect credits, for others it's the comfort of what you know. Disney, especially, likes to lock you in to their parks alone.

Yeah, for me, it's an important part of the park experience at SW. Problem is I've seen too many places get rid of their monorails over the years to know it is easier to replace them with a regular bus or tram service, pull down all the monorail track and replace it with a ring road or path with several stops.