aaronm

^I was just thinking about Blue Fire's station. They can actually operate that coaster with separate load and unload, or a combined load/unload area. Just comes down to good station design.

Given that Carnivale's primary goal seems to be to sell food, it seems like a mistake to have this as a separately ticketed event. Especially considering that Sea World doesn't have much in the way of rides to occupy guests when they're not dining. Better to just keep the park open past 5 and include it in regular admission.

So at what point do we consider Doomsday SBNO, given that it's been down for maintenance longer than it was open in the first place?

On the positive side, removing VR will allow the park to fix the mess of pathways, bridges and ramps in that part of the park. There's a decent amount of free space to be reclaimed that's currently unusable.

I'm sure the park can recover, but they will need to invest in some decent family rides to fill the gaping hole that will be left after the loss of the rapids and possibly the log ride as well. Almost all of the park's attractions are either kids-only or adults-only, very little for families to enjoy together which is their main income-bearing demographic.

I can't see Disney ever building a park in Australia, especially when the ones in Hong Kong and Paris have struggled even with a significantly greater population catchment area. They may decide to build an Aulani-style resort here one day, but that would be it.

Oh not having a go, I was more amused at the fact that they've announced this twice before they've even started shifting dirt around. I'm disappointed that Universal Singapore isn't getting in on this though, they might not have room for a fully-fledged Nintendo land but there are still a couple of expansion plots they could put something in.

Haven't they already announced this a few months ago?

The trains on Helix and Blue Fire are among the most comfortable out there - good freedom of movement in the seat without feeling stapled.

Sounds like this might be related to the seatbelts DW has added to the ride. I haven't seen those on any other installation of this coaster, had assumed they were more about perception of safety more than anything else.

Looking at rides opened in the last few years, Intamin have had Intimidator 305, Skyrush and Taron. Not exactly a rut though they do seem to have fewer really exciting rides in general - on the other hand I guess this comes down to what parks are actually wanting to buy. Gerstlauer have been kind of mid-tier for a while, but after riding Karnan earlier this year I'd say they also have the potential to compete with Mack and Intamin on the big rides.

Mack definitely seem to be making the most interesting new rides out there lately - Lost Gravity, Pulsar, Arthur, Helix, and so on. I'm pretty excited to see what they've come up with for Movie World.

I suspect this probably isn't something the park is doing deliberately, rather a bug in their POS software that is rounding EFTPOS transactions like cash. Assuming the ACCC bothered to investigate, they'd probably just issue a warning and tell the park to fix it.

A Lost Gravity clone would be a great addition, was very impressed when I rode it earlier this year. Good fit for the park too, not crazy expensive and doesn't look too "extreme" to the GP. In terms of family appeal, a Mack spinner along the lines of Sierra Sidewinder might be a better option for them though. It's a shame the rapids are going away because they're one of the few rides that family groups can enjoy together, not many coasters or flats that are like that.

The way the media report this kind of thing seems to demonstrate they care more about being first than getting the facts straight. In any case, always awful to hear of accidents at theme parks. Thoughts are with Dreamworld staff, and the families of the victims.

Based on this IGN competition, the ride will open on either October 1 or 2: http://www.au.ign-hub.com/movie-world-competition/

Agree that $5 is probably the maximum, though "good value" is probably closer to $3. I'm not surprised that it's an upcharge, as otherwise it would be a capacity nightmare. On Alpenexpressen they had six rows dedicated to VR, with the rest of the coaster remaining open to regular guests. I'm guessing Movie World will do something similar.

So of the VR coasters I've tried, Bobbejaanland handed you the headsets once you were seated in the car, and Europa just gave them to you near the front of the queue. I preferred the Europa approach as it allowed me to adjust the headset while I was waiting for the ride, and didn't impact their dispatch times. It really should take 20 seconds or less to adjust a couple of velcro straps and make the thing fit your head. Though given some park guests' inability to even get themselves into a seat and do up the seatbelt properly, this could be a challenge too far for some.

I've tried three VR coaster options this year - Mount Mara at Bobbejaanland, and Pegasus and Alpenexpress at Europa Park. Mount Mara was just kind of OK, though that ride is all indoors and dark anyway so it's an improvement on the normal ride experience somewhat. The two at Europa were both excellent, and used the technology well. The VR on Alpenexpress even included a realistic-feeling inversion, not bad for a powered coaster! All three used the Samsung Gear headset, and all of them had a stutter at points where the device was having trouble keep up with the speed of the ride. So that makes me wonder how effective the current VR tech is going to be on a much faster ride like AA. I'll try it at least once, in any case. Hopefully the park figure out a way to do this without making dispatch times (even) worse. edit - do we know if MW are planning to charge for this? The ones at Europa were a nominal fee (2 euro), presumably due to the limited capacity.

Of the dozen or so SLCs I've tried, Arkham is the only one that's had much in the way of theming or onboard audio. It also has the most comfortable ride (by a really, really long shot). It's still an SLC and has all the flaws associated with being that, for sure. But I don't understand why it's such a fanciful proposal to suggest it's the best one. Because Jaguar might have better restraints?

So after Superman, would have to be Jet Rescue or Green Lantern for me. Jet Rescue is just a great family ride, reminds me a scaled-down Maverick. It feels fast and forceful without being too extreme for kids to ride, which is perfect for a park like Sea World. Also wins some points for being relatively unique, there's nothing really similar out there - Juvelen might be close but it's a much less intense ride. On paper Green Lantern shouldn't work - too slow, too short, too gentle. But when you actually ride it, from the dive-coaster-like first drop to the slow inversions, there are some great "woooaaahh" moments throughout, especially on the outside seats. And it's even better when you luck out and get a car with working audio. I like that there's plenty of love for Arkham here. It might be a lowly SLC, but it's probably the best one there is. It's certainly much better themed than any of the others that I've been on, has a bonus helix, and is also far less likely to give you a concussion. I'm pretty sure it's the only SLC I've bothered to ride more than once!

$300 seems a little pricey to me, but the overall experience looks good. I did a similar thing at Busch Gardens Williamsburg a couple of years ago, cost about US$70 I think (meals weren't included, but we did walk to the top of Griffon). I feel like once you've seen the inside of one maintenance bay, they're all pretty much the same. Still I'll be interested to hear how it goes from those who've booked, should be fun!

Of course. I was more questioning whether the park would pass on a Blue Fire clone, on the basis that punters might see it as too similar to Superman.

Doubt it fits the definition of "world's best" but after riding Lost Gravity a couple of weeks ago, would love to see something like that make its way to Movie World. Just a fun, messed up coaster that keeps surprising you even after a dozen rides. If the Mack rumour is true something like Helix or Blue Fire would be an excellent addition, though who knows if they want (gasp) two launched coasters...

^The Europa Park VR is the one I'm most keen to try, as the ride video was developed by their in-house media team (Mack Media). I suspect that like a lot of attractions, the quality of the VR experience is going to vary widely between parks.