aaronm

I'd be surprised if they kept it closed during the school holidays given the park needs all the capacity it can get.

Wasn’t the Big Banana building one as well?

Any news on Dingo Racer? Thinking of heading to the park late June.

Rivals running one train seems odd given the crowds and wait times, presumably something is wrong with the second train and they can't run it?

I must be a terrible enthusiast, what the heck is a beach ward?

I think they are the other most likely buyer apart from Merlin, unless private equity steps in (god forbid we see a repeat of the Macquarie years…). But whoever was to buy the park needs some deep pockets and a fair amount of patience, as well as industry experience, if they are to succeed.

If Merlin was to swoop in I would be optimistic, with the potential to build a Legoland gate next door as well.

I imagine most on these forums would have some sort of annual pass, but I find it hard to believe a day guest would spend $110 on admission and walk away happy with the current park offering. There always seems to be at least one major ride out of action and some fairly lengthy waits on others (seemingly due to the park choosing to run fewer trains or have fewer staff present). And even of the open attractions, a few (Scooby, HWSD, JL) are in a pretty sad state these days. When Rivals opened it felt like the park finally had all the elements of a fantastic lineup in place. The ride offering isn't a problem any longer, it's understaffing and poor maintenance, and guest feedback is dismissed "because Covid".

Agree the risk level is not really any different from sporting matches, which were largely operating "as normal" until a few weeks ago. Unfortunately as we're seeing in Melbourne it doesn't take much to go from normal to outbreak lockdown at the moment, which is why I'm surprised that Village are powering ahead. Regardless, has been too long between haunts for me, glad this year's event is going ahead and hope to make it up there!

Bearing in mind that a good portion of the target market (under 30s) are unlikely to be fully vaccinated by October, I’m surprised this is going ahead. Seems an ideal environment for a COVID superspreader event and much harder to enforce social distancing than during the daytime.

Unless it's one of the smaller dive coasters, I tend to agree that B&M's offerings are probably too big for the market. Something like Vekoma's Lech Coaster or a Gerstlauer Infinity coaster would be about right size and budget-wise.

Still 60+ minute waits for Superman, Scooby, GL. I guess Rivals being closed doesn’t help but it’s definitely not quiet.

I might be misremembering but didn’t they start out with 7 trains when the ride was new?

Green Lantern only running 2 cars today as well, is this a Covid thing or are there other reasons why the park has fewer trains running on the coasters?

Bumped out again to 7 May now

It’s a hard choice, probably Leviathan for me as a brand new woodie is always worth getting excited for. No doubt Steel Taipan will be a great ride, the blue fire layout is very very good, especially the final inversion which always seems to come as a surprise. Big Dipper is a bit of an unknown, looks good on paper but Intamin prototypes can be very hit and miss. Hopefully it’s at least as good as an RMC Raptor. All three will be worth a visit, 2021 is an excellent year for new rides in Australia!

New theme looks great, much better fit with that corner of the park and the whole Ocean Parade/WWW area.

Also true, I was more surprised at the inclusion of Africa, not a region I'd typically associate with the idea of Carnivale.

“One of these things is not like the others...”

That second week of March with both Jet Rescue and Storm Coaster closed on the weekdays... ouch!

By "separate spinning gondola" I assume they're just talking about the spinning car at the back, a la Time Traveler's whole train, or I have missed something?

Unless they manage to snag a secondhand Batman clone I don't see a B&M going in as a replacement. If not an RMC Raptor maybe a Gerstlauer Infinity would be a good fit. Would be great if they could somehow integrate the track layout with Superman's helix and make a better use of the space back there too.

Genuinely excited to see a decent woodie being built here, hopefully borders are opened up once it’s ready to go.

Sea World have done a nice job with this ride, ok it's no Talocan but definitely more than the bare minimum.

Shareholder and customer. Frustrated on both fronts, but mostly as the former.