liz.wis

Has anyone seen this anti Sea World (Gold Coast) petition doing the rounds? http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/seaworld-gold-coast-queensland-please-tell-seaworld-that-we-demand-the-closure-of-their-foul-aquaprison-sea-creatures-forced-to-do-tricks-in-swimming-pools-it-s-time-to-say-no-to-animal-cruelty-in-all-forms I saw a link to it in my Facebook feed.

I have absolutely no recollection of 'The Village Green', but I remember the rest. When did the alpine mountain get demolished? (amazing, with all the other stuff still standing). Was that in the general vicinity of where Dreamworks is situated now? There was also no footage of the rapid ride, was this built after this time? I'm positive it was 1988 when I went on it. Anyone know what happened to all the animatronics in Gum Tree Gully? It seemed very well themed - and there seemed to be a huge amount of entertainers in the park.

I agree with the above. I spend about 80% of my time in the parks with my young kids, and I thought the (admittedly little information) on the mini cars thing sounded completely underwhelming, compared to the old LTRR, which was a great ride in its day IMO.

Most people I know have children around starting school age (myself included), and pretty much all have swapped over to Dreamworld, as there is a lot more for that particular age group. The other parks *are* better for most other demographics.

I'd have to say Orlando as well. Also planning a similar trip in the same timeframe, though my kids will be more around the 8 - 12 mark.

We've been to Dreamworld four times in the last 3 weeks, two whole days, and 2 afternoons, arriving at around 2pm or just after. We nearly got as much done in the late afternoons, as we did in the whole days.

I've been 3 times in the last 3 weeks, and it's been operating at least 2 of those days, for some part of the day. (I didn't go near it on the third day, so unsure if it was going or not).

I read a few more of the Micechat discussions on this ride, and on Knotts itself, and bringing the thread back on topic, it scarily mirrors how people are discussing Dreamworld. Lots of "it's no longer a theme park, but an amusement park", it was so much better in the day of "this" management company, old attractions being left SBNO, etc. *Edited because I can't string together a grammatically correct sentence this morning.

SeaWorld's response to Blackfish: http://www.pophangover.com/37274/seaworld-responds-to-blackfish-documentary/ "They're obese versions of Hitler, living beneath the sea, waiting to haunt your dreams". I LOL'ed at this far more than it probably deserved.

Here's a fairly average video - This is the most information I can find on it - http://micechat.com/forums/knotts-berry-farm-cedar-fair-parks/157102-kingdom-dinosaurs-ride-ruin.html Apparently it wasn't hugely popular, and from what I can gather, has been SBNO for a long time. I agree that Jet Rescue is a better ride, I just didn't think MDMC was as bad as it's described here.

That's what I was expecting. As a sidebar, I went to Knotts in 1990. I don't remember a great deal about it, as I was pretty young, with the exception of the animatronic dinosaur ride, which was probably my favourite part of the entire holiday (which included a few days at Disneyland).

We had a few spare hours yesterday and went down again for the morning, this time with the 2 year old, so we mostly planned the time we had around what she'd like. Started at Thunder River Rapids (no line this time), walked around to the log ride (completely dead around there, walk straight on) - this is still a fairly good family ride, could probably spruce up the theming a bit, and there was some random props around that look like they'd been dumped from elsewhere. We had a quick look at the animals (didn't fully go in coroboree), paid $1 for a bag of Roo food, which the kids enjoyed, then made it to Wiggles World. I'd never been there before, I think I was a bit underwhelmed with the size of the attractions, I was expecting the 'Big Red Boat Ride' to be a little bigger - very low capacity. 2 year old enjoyed it though. I thought the Rosie Tea Cups were decent - my 5 year old who doesn't like the Wiggles still managed to have a bit of fun seeing you can spin them at your own speed. We had to line up for about 15 minutes for the Big Red Car - 5 year old thought it was 'boring' 2 year old thought it was fabulous, so I guess it hits the younger end of its demographic. The majority of the theming had been updated to the new wiggles, there was a picture of sleeping Jeff rather than the new one, and something went wrong with the audio in the Dorothy the Dinosaur section before the exit. The shop had a mix of old Wiggle and new Wiggle stuff, probably the most overpriced merchandise they (Dreamworld) were selling - IMO the Dreamworks stuff is much better value, and I quite like I haven't seen some of it elsewhere - Miss 5 is mad about 'Turbo' and they had some Turbo stuff I hadn't seen outside the park. While we were up that end, my husband took 2 year old to get lunch, and I took 5 year old on MDMC, this was the first time on it for both of us. I think they need to do something about the queuing section - the line was fairly long, but they were sending around empty side-car carriages, as the divide between riders heights wasn't until further along in the line - it's good they do have a separate part, but it needs to divide further back I think, we could have got on about 15 minutes earlier otherwise - everyone else was over 130cm, only a couple of people wanting to use the side car as well. The ride was better than I expected - I think the launch was actually pretty decent. It's the fastest ride my daughter is able to get on (just over 110cm), and she liked being able to ride a 'grown up' coaster. I found the seated position way more comfortable than jet rescue. I'm of average height, and small build though. My husband is 6'1", and when he went on later, found the part over his back really uncomfortable. My daughter suggested it would be better if it were themed to 'Turbo', to match all the other Dreamworks stuff, and I like her point, other than the fact I don't think the movie would be particularly memorable to most people, and it's also out of the way of the Dreamworks stuff. We also had a look at the Big Brother house - I wasn't aware you could actually go in the house, for some reason I thought it was the just the camera run part. I haven't watched it for years, so it didn't mean much to me, other than the pool area was MUCH smaller than I would have thought. I took a stack of photos for my mum, who really got into the last season, and she thought it was great. Food - it was the second time the bun on my burger was barely edible, the rest was pretty good. Went to the MDMC area cafe, and there was hardly anyone there, we got served straight up, and plenty of tables in the undercover area free.

I didn't make it to Wiggles World, my daughter is a bit "too cool for school" about that particular franchise. We have a 2 year old as well, who had to stay home today as she has a broken collar bone, but we'll pop in there when we bring her in a few weeks.

So Dreamworld gets a fairly tough rap here, and I'm not going to argue with that, but I went today for the first time in 10 + years, and actually had a pretty good day. I was optimistic that a good number of people would be nursing their post-NYE hangovers, so thought the crowds (as far as school holidays went), wouldn't be too bad. I only had one wait today - of 40 minutes, for Thunder River Rapids, everything else we went on was walk on. I've changed demographics since last time I've been there. Last visit, I went with my husband mid-week, on an on-and-off showery day, and we spent the whole time racing between thrill rides - I'm pretty sure 'Giant Drop' was the newest thrill ride at the time, it was definitely before Claw opened. Today we took Miss 5 years, who we let chose what we were doing. She's at a big of a funny age - we've had SW/MW tickets since she was 2, and is now less-than-enthused with the Looney Tunes area (with the exception of Rocket Rollercoaster). She's reasonably tall for her age, coming in at 112 cm, so still a good couple of years off being able to get on any thing else at the other parks (with the exception of Jet Rescue, which she was just under for when we last visited about 6 months ago). I thought the Dreamworks area suited her age perfectly - rides like Gingy Flyer and Puss in Boots swing were a little more exciting than, for example, Tweety Bird Cages, the Yosemite Railway, etc. 'Escape from Madagascar' was a huge hit, we went on in 3 times. Reef Diver (which wasn't operating last time I was there) was another favourite. The last time I went on Thunder River Rapids I was about 5 or 6 years old myself, and that was quite fun for the 'nostalgia' factor. I'm not sure what's changed with the theming (if anything), but I thought it still looked fairly decent. We wanted to go on the Log Ride, but it was closed at the time we were in the area. We were also in a hurry for lunch, and skipped MDMC, but I believe that's one more that will be fine for her height. It was my first time sighting it, and I agree it definitely should be classed as a family ride, rather than thrill ride. We didn't get on any thrill rides today, as we plan to come back sans kids in the next few months. Had I wanted to go on Claw, Wipeout, or Shockwave, they appeared to be walk-on for most of the day. The lines seemed longer around TOT and GD, and BuzzSaw. Being a hot day, I was really impressed with the fans that sprayed water they had located around the place. The food pricing was comparable to the others (husband was keen that they had Krispy Kreme). Chips were decent, I had a burger, and the innards were fine (for fast food), but the bread was a bit staler than I'd like. All the bathrooms I went in were well maintained, and seem spaced out really well. You can definitely see the areas that are looking a bit run down - very sad to see Captain Sturt rotting away. I thought the theming around Dreamworks area was actually quite good - better than Looney Tunes at MW, and Beach Break Bay at SW. Looked particularly good around Kung Fu Panda. We went in without a particular plan, and wasted a fair bit of time getting from one place to the other, next time, we'll plan ahead a little better. Edited for: poor grammar.

Yes, that was the one! I'll see if I can track down the tape.

Slightly OT, but your mention of Nitefire made me think of this: I remember going to a night time event at Sea World, that involved lights, lasers, maybe fireworks (?), and for some reason, I have in my head an image of a helicopter in lights. It would have been around the time Bermuda opened. I was around 11 or 12, which would fit in with 1994. Quite a while ago, so my memory of it is pretty sketchy. I remember filming it on my parents video recorder, it's quite possible they've still got the tape. Does anyone else remember this?

Slightly OT, but has anyone else noticed an increase in advertising from them? I've caught an ad on channel 7 at around 7am a few mornings this week (as did my just-turned 2 year old, who started running around saying RIDES, RIDES, PLEEAASEE each time).

Yeah, it takes a lot to offend me online, and that doesn't do it, though I'm obviously going to disagree with you. I'm not going to comment on the fact you took one fairly tongue-in-cheek line from me, and could take that as a call to question my parenting abilities. I've managed to get the child in question to school age without killing them yet, so rest assured I'm not doing too badly FWIW, if my kids were at a park with pretty much anyone other than myself or my husband, they'd quite happily go to the bathroom when asked. Back to the main point - you mentioned similar distances to MW - there's a bit of a difference in flow of the crowd between MW and SW as well, so while the distances themselves may be similar, be in SW at a time, for example, when the dolphin show has finished, and a mass of people surge out, it's a lot slower thoroughfare than MW, which in some areas you can navigate and barely see another person (viewing area of Arkham, or coming back from Wild West on a quiet day).

Arkham Asylum for me. I really feel like I've been thrown around on that one.

I'd say Movieword are best, and Sea World worst - they're a long way between, when you've got a toddler screaming they need to go NOW!

I'm pretty sure if I went digging I'd could find a photo of myself that same year on the Go Gator ride.

A question on VIP passes (or whatever DW/WWW equivalent is called) - we typically buy them and renew them every 12 months, but haven't had any since our last lot expired in June. I was thinking about getting more at Christmas - do they re-release the 12-month ones then, or will they only be valid for 6 months?

I was driving out along Milton Rd today headed up to Mt Cootha, and saw a car/trailer covered in advertising for it.

I think the ride sounds fantastic, not sure about more super hero theming - not sure 'Doomsday' totally fits the 'scenic' portion of the ride. I think it'd really upset Dreamworld, who IMO, the TOT/Giant Drop is one of the bigger drawcards. Love the concept location up the middle of Superman.

I've openly bought in kids snacks, and have never been questioned. I typically do buy some food there as well.