Adam

Thanks Matt and GoBoy for all the updates. I'd have to pretty much agree with everyone here; the park has totally blown all of my expectations. From the highway it looks a very vibrant and exciting park. A welcome addition to the Gold Coast.

I don’t think it’s fair and reasonable to say we can expect Dreamworld to be “run down in places”. There is absolutely no excuse for not performing periodic maintenance on their attractions and general park themeing. Dreamworld does such a great job of the initial themeing for an attraction but then forgets about it altogether as they start thinking about their next major ride. I still believe their latest major attraction, The Claw, is a wonderfully themed ride. I only hope they keep refreshing it so it doesn’t begin to look tacky like many of their other rides. No themeing is better than ‘crap’ themeing. As for this new December ride, well, it does sound exciting. Dreamworld is lacking in the family department and it would be nice to see a fun ride that everyone can enjoy (instead of the silly little niche markets they are operating in at the moment). How big is the show building?

Just wondering, does anyone know if Movie World's attendance has increased this year? The park seems to be expanding rapidly. I'd hate for them to install three new attractions in three years (Shrek, Superman, Batwing) and then nothing for another four years while they recoup their spent capital in profits. I'm really hoping more people will open their eyes to how much Movie World has picked up their game over the past few years. They beat Dreamworld in many, many aspects. I'd hate to lose such a great park because of low attendance figures.

What's all this about? Is Movie World going to add three rides in three consecutive years? Movie World just can't stop 'til its got enough.

I think it's very unlikely the logo will change between now and when the ride opens. And why would it? It's a fantastically designed Movie World logo (as always). A more important question to ask is, will the ride actually open this year? It seems as though the year is nearly, pretty much, almost, over. Today construction looked very "underconstructed". It is great to see Movie World expanding though.

Great job Richard. The site is looking really good. I'm not a huge fan of the current "Park/Ride Database" landing page though (as seen here). The page follows no logical structure and it looks really tacky. If you could bring that single page up to the high standard the rest of the site is, then I'd be forever grateful. EDIT: I don't like the thing at the bottom where it repeats "Whitewater World Construction Update" five times. It would look uber cooler if you adopted a flickr-style navigation system where the page numbers are listed horizontally and the current page is highlighted. The next and previous buttons intact. Thanks!

Great job Liam! Awesome idea and looks fantastic.

Thanks for the news. Exciting that it's a new thrill ride, little disappointed it's a Vekoma. I'm really hoping it's not going to be a poorly designed (rough) passenger transport system like many of their previous coasters. Surely Dreamworld has enough money for a B&M roller-coaster? Or even just an average coaster?

Full article: http://www.chinanews.cn//news/2005/2006-08-08/26158.html

Spot on Spotty. The parks may be able to sue the culprits but technically speaking they're not breaking any laws—just rules—by publishing such videos. It does however become a different story if they infringe trademarks or copyrights in the videos, which is then in violation of the federal Copyright Act and relevant state laws. I don't think there is any need for anyone to worry though. Gosh. Let's just enjoy the videos.

Macquarie Leisure gives theme park dream valuation (via Australian theme parks) The value of Dreamworld has risen to $226 million after a recent revaluation. It's good to see at least one theme park doing well.

I agree, very exciting news indeed. I was hoping for a Journey to Atlantis style ride but any Intamin coaster would be fantastic. It's still quite a long way off though so it wouldn't surprise me if their plans change slightly.

Good-bye Magic Mountain? Six Flags puts six parks up for sale or closure Six Flags announced plans Thursday to sell or close six of its properties, including the chain's once-flagship park, Magic Mountain, in Valencia, Calif. In a press release issued after the U.S. stock market closed Thursday, Six Flags announced that it would sell the properties, to either a single buyer or multiple buyers, or that it might sell or redeploy the properties' attractions, to clear the land for real estate sale. Full article: http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/200606/139/ (via Digg)

Oh that's right - thanks Gazza. I remember the (huge amounts of) Japanese tourists all too well now.

Wasn't the Movie Magic queue removed for Superman Escape ages ago?

I think the guy who's being really brave at the top is pretty funny.

Guys, I found something that may be of interest to both of you.

Google has recently launched their new "Trends" service and with it brings a whole new world of statistical data. People from all over the world have learned some new and exciting things - Google is bigger than God, dogs are more popular than both cats and fish, and TV is more exciting than the movies. I spent some time finding out as much as I could about the theme park industry, here's a summary: Movie World, Sea World and Dreamworld are very closely tied. Movie World wasn't the only park that benefited from Superman Escape - all three parks peaked in December 2005 (Dreamworld was actually top!). Disneyland still remains ahead of Walt Disney World. Carnivals are more popular than theme parks. Has anyone else found anything of interest?

I think this is to enforce the correct riding procedure.

Rest assured Macquarie Leisure know how to make people happy -- just look at Dreamworld's financial reports, they're through the roof! I'm sure that the water park will start off with some cool attractions and themeing (what part of Dreamworld isn't themed?). I'm also confident they will be able to put together something pretty good for 56 million, and if they can't, I'm sure we'll see them investing further.

Don't worry, I'm sure everyone remembers this...

Oh, I totally understand you now.

Not being rude here (well, I am actually) but that is the silliest accusation I've read on these boards for quite some time. There is a huge difference between these two photos. Can you not notice the difference in quality or contrast? Or the difference between the actual content of the photo - the clouds, shadows, position of the train and construction crew? Also; can we refrain from posting photos directly? It breaks the layout of the site. Link the images using thumbnails like in this thread. Other than that, welcome to the forums Claw and nice photos PattieBoi.

Exactly. The only reason you can't take cameras on-board is to protect fellow riders and the people on the ground watching. If anyone here's been to Disneyland they'll know that you can take whatever you like on Space Mountain. No spectators? No hassle.

"E-brake" is a term used to describe an emergency stopping procedure when there is a malfunction with the ride's normal braking system. I'm sure you can see why this procedure is necessary. The normal braking system on TOT requires large amounts of electricity to operate; no electricity means no stopping. No stopping means pain. The second situation, as Scott experienced yesterday, is when the Tower of Terror's control system fails to launch the pod successfully. The ride uses a (large-scale) linear synchronous motor to propel the car out of the tunnel. By definition, the system must calculate the location of the pod and adjust the magnetic force every 1/100th* second (approx.) to ensure the magnetic force and pod are "moving at the same speed". A number of factors can cause the flux (flow of magnetism) and pod to get out of synchronisation. Once this happens the ride is instructed (for safety) to shutdown the magnets. All mechanical devices are prone to failure. I think it's a bit unfair to say that it malfunctions "so much" - I've never personally had a problem with the ride. Tower of Terror is using an early model of Intamin's launch system but it still seems to work effectively. So in answer to your question, they shutdown the ride for safety reasons. [*] I'm not sure on the exact number, it may be every 1/1000th second.