MrLukeCarroll

When NSW hits 95% double vaxxed which is hardly the same situation. Most people did the right thing earlier and have and are seeing the benefit of that.

Headed along yesterday for the reopening day and Halloscream event at night and was lucky enough to ride the 7 new attractions that were open (before Little Nipper broke while we were on it and Maintenance seemingly just gave up on it). It's a real shame they couldn't get Sledgehammer opened as I've seen videos with it testing whilst guests were on it, hopefully it's up ASAP because with it and Wild Mouse closed and Big Dipper not yet to open there isn't much on offer for even a moderate thrill-seeker. A number of the rides are individually presented well but there isn't much tying the new area together, with temporary construction fences as queues and a number of smaller things such as the Boomerang station being unfinished truly making it seem like they ran out of money right near the end. The standouts of the newly opened rides have to be the Boomerang Coaster which packs a surprising punch for a family ride, especially on the backwards parts as well as Loopy Lighthouse the perfect stepping stone for those not quite confident enough to ride the Hair Raiser. Halloscream itself was good but just missing some refinement to become truly great. They tied the entire event together with a "Sydney Witches" storyline which could have worked well if it was developed, but then had them just singing and dancing to pop songs as the main show of the event. While it was great to get some nights rides on the new attractions the real reason to attend the event was the three scare mazes. The first we tackled was "Rain Dead" and although this one had an interesting backstory where acidic rain essentially turns people back into a primitive state the sets and props didn't carry this theme through the maze. The actors within did the best they could with the material but it felt like there was nowhere near enough of them, with areas that clearly should have had actors left bare. An interesting concept but unfortunately a lacklustre maze to start the night. (Thanks to Will for the heads up in the thread it was the weakest so we got it out of the way first. Next up we entered into DecayMart 365, a sequel to last years DecaryMart and just like last year this maze did not disappoint. This maze sees you step foot into an abandoned supermarket overtaken by bloody thirsty zombies. While this may sound cliche, the great mix of talented actors, detailed sets and unique scares all culminated in a maze that was the standout attraction for the event for everyone in my party. I walked out with a heart rate of 165bpm so that's as good of a review as you can give a scaremaze. Our final maze for the night was Outback Slaughterhouse where you step foot into an Australian butchers barn where it turns out you might be the next thing hung up and turned into sausages. This maze's intense performers, confined corridors and special effects made this another don't miss attraction that's close to my heart as it's essentially a sequel to the maze I worked at the event a few years ago. With a large number of guests let in it felt like 5 hours wasn't quite enough to do everything satisfyingly, with queues for each maze being around 40 minutes consistently throughout the night. Still, it was great to get back to the park after almost 9 months of downtime, get on seven brand new attractions and get some good scares. Ultimately was it a perfect reopening? No. Is there stuff that could be improved both easily and more difficultly? Of course. Am I glad the park is back welcoming guests with some long overdue new experiences? I sure am! Enjoy some other photos I took over the day that didn't quite fit elsewhere!

Looks like a good length maze with a great variety of effects should be a good event for anyone looking for a scare! Watching the performer without shoes on though was truly the most terrifying thing in there, she's gonna get her toes stepped on hundreds of times over the course of the event.

Yeah I was on the ride when it went down, came into the station and the ride E-Stopped. From what we think based on what maintenance did to get us unstuck we think the gate sensor got shook out of placed and stopped the ride.

Let's also not forget for some guests it's not physically easy for them to hold that perfect position while a restraint locks. I've got a close friend who hates stand-up coasters because he has a physical disability that makes it difficult for him to hold that dream position we're talking about with stand-up coasters. Let's be careful we aren't being ableist when saying how easy something is, or insulting people who can't do it.

I hear there's a new family coaster opening up at Dreamworld soon!

So it's looking like state borders to Queensland will be open right in time for the summer school holidays to start. It will be interesting to see where the crowds end up going. There's a lot of double-vaxxed NSW folk chomping at the bit to go on a holiday over summer and with Dreamworld having a big new coaster it would make sense for people to make that their go-to park of their trip.

I thought Riddlers at Magic Mountain was a lot of fun, but yeah you have to get the restraint positioned right so theres that moment of worry in the station trying to stand in the right way when the restraint tightens. Thing is not everyone knows the best way to approach the restraints, especially if they aren't an Enthusiast and haven't read aboout/seen/ridden them before and know the best way.

Yep, spot on the money. One is touting their expansion as “world class” yet will deliver something incredibly lackluster compared to the concept art for almost double the budget of LPS which is delivering theirs on time, on budget and exactly as suggested in the concept art. Yet as @Dom says most people here will still praise VRTP…

Yeah I'm not gonna sit here and say that the area/logos/signage look spectacular but I don't think it was a lack of effort as much as a bad decision made by probably someone higher up without a creative bone in their body and carried out by someone with no power to change it. The fact to me that Volare fits well with the classic Boardwalk theming and was their most recent attraction before these seems to point to them thinking the Maloney's Corner area doesn't need thematic consistency with the turn of the Century Board Walk theming the rest of the park at least attempts to emulate. I'm not gonna fully pass judgement on Big Dipper's queue and station until it's complete though, a few weeks back we would have thought there wasn't going to be a themed wall blocking the station but now that is coming in. As I said earlier it currently looks more like a scare maze then a queue but there's still a few months till opening. I would be interested to see the rules in regards to a queue being so close to and going over a ride envelope.

I haven't seen the finished package for all rides obviously, but they appear to be pretty spot on to the concept art in regards to "theming" if you want to call it that. Bug for example has what looked to be the painted flats behind and some 3D flowers etc sticking out. Even with the handful of attractions running today the one big thing the area has going for it is Kinetics, I almost feel they put too much focus on each attraction individually rather than trying to give an overarching "theme" to the area to tie everything together. From what I could see is it great? No. Is it crap? Also no. See that was my initial thought with the Big Dipper trains being the generic ones until the owner came out and specifically said it was a budgetary thing. The fact that every smaller ride is straight up the base model and theme from Zamperla seems to point to something similar. I honestly wonder if it was a classic board room "Well we can have 6 rides spaced out more with better thematic consistency, some themed bridges etc or we can have 9 rides crammed together for the same $30million". Of course as enthusiasts and theme park history buffs I know what we'd ideally love this expansion to be. Hell I'd be happy with just a new old school river caves back there taking up the whole space but that wasn't an option. We can see what choice was made, and it will be interesting to see how it pays off.

The rides out the back are as well presented as anything else that’s been in the space over the last 17 years since the 2004 reopening. Ultimately the park refers to itself as an amusement park not a theme park like the GC parks, and with the lack of space available I think most of us would agree for their unique situation managing to squeeze so many rides into the space is still an amazing achievement even if it unfortunately limited the theming opportunities. If LPS had the same space available as the GC parks, and called itself a theme park then yeah I’d be slamming it too

Unlike a certain other park, there's no max limits on the new rides. Adults can ride any of the new attractions and the fact all of them are open during Halloscream an event reccomended for 15+ shows they are happy for them to do so.

Now that I can finally go that extra few kilometers outside the 5km bubble fromy my house to Luna Park Sydney, I popped in today to see the progress on all of the upcoming additions. Big Dipper has both trains on track and was finishing up the part of the queue that will take you over the first launch and into what can only be described as a scare maze looking lead up to the station. The front of the Big Dipper station was getting some thematic touches added too it, though it's a shame these appear to be incredibly flat compared to the building it's trying to continue the style of next door. Elsewhere it seemed to be a big day for testing, with Boomerang, Loopy Lighthouse and Cloud Nine all cycling in the time I was there. Sledgehammer was having the finishing touches placed on its locker system. The Big Dipper was also creating quite a buzz amongst the local wildlife, with a rather large beehive deciding to call the brake run home. The park's set to open next week and I'll be there over that weekend to finally ride at least 8 of the brand new attractions!

I'm saying if one of the big reasons behind the delays is getting people into the country how did they start construction and why did the stalls happen before that current wave of lockdowns, if the people were here to start construction why were they sent home before this current wave hit?