djmcbell

As you know, SWUS and SWGC have absolutely nothing to do with each other, aside from the similar name. You have watched Blackfish, and yes, keeping animals in captivity is bad, yet SWGC at least seem to rescue injured creatures with the view to setting them free again. Though I do see your point about a polar bear. With that in mind, what about any kind of zoos? What about pets? In any case, you've watched Blackfish which is the argument put forward by the activists. I suggest you read the article slick mentioned in order to make an informed opinion, because you're only getting one side: http://goldcoastbulletin.com.au/lifestyle/pets-and-wildlife/the-truth-about-sea-world-gold-coast-theme-park-reveals-all-and-answers-critics/story-fnk74alk-1227179971254

I must confess, I don't recall enough of the theming of SM in California (plus they've probably changed it), or seen the HK version. However, a lot of the stuff at SM in Paris is pretty cool (and I do like the steampunk idea for Discoveryland in general - if only it was thorough, instead of some being steampunk and other stuff being traditional future). The launch on SM in DLP is alright - I always felt that they slowed it at the top to give you a feeling of weightlessness, hanging there before plunging into the ride itself. Quick one - why call it Treasure Cove (which implies pirates, jungle, islands, caves - more or less exclusively) when, if it resembles Port Royal, you could call it "Port Royal"? Much more accurate, and it allows for the possibility of a few franchises other than Pirates to use the space (e.g. a Ratatouille restaurant).

Hmm... I'd say that, even in Shanghai Disney's case, having a Pirates AND a Jungle area (which, again, Shanghai will have) is overdoing it a tad. Find a way to combine the areas whilst maintaining some focus on Pirates and stick in a Frontierland (which Shanghai Disney is lacking, judging from Wikipedia). In terms of infrastructure, you've got this in the Gold Coast. That is at least a good thing in some ways, as it'll be able to get custom from people visiting nearby parks (and vice versa). However, a second park? Wouldn't that be some years off, after we know whether the first was a success or not? You need to address some business fundamentals. We all know what it's like to visit a great Disney park, but sadly Disney is not a wish-granting money fairy.

Just what IS a drop bear? (goes to Google) Dear God no!!! (cancels visa) Oh wait, it says it's fictitious. That's okay then, right? Right?

I'll be honest, I do agree partially with the "news" report's point of view, but not with it reporting it like it's national news. We have to accept two things: 1 - people were injured on the Smiler 2 - the Smiler will, at some point, reopen Now, we all know that Alton Towers takes safety very seriously, like most theme parks. And after the Smiler incident it'll be even safer. I, like I imagine everyone else on this forum, will have no reservations about riding the Smiler once it reopens. I've ridden it before. I've ridden other rides where people have been injured before with nary a thought. Now, the part I agree with them on - people saying "oh we'll test it". Yeah, that's crass. As for the rest... well, there have been lots of incidents over the years, some involving fatalities, at parks all over the world (yes, even Disney is not immune). I don't think they've received the same amount of press. Personally, I think a lot of the hysteria (and it IS hysteria - we know the train was released when it shouldn't have been, and Alton Towers will have put every single restriction imaginable in place to stop that happening again, so everyone wetting their pants at the prospect of a repeat is an idiot) is down to how media is consumed nowadays. Within an hour of the accident, I'd imagine there would be a HUGE Daily Mail story on it, with bystander video, along with lots of other little stories nearby and hordes of hysterical commenters shouting about how all roller coasters are inherently dangerous and should be shut down (again, this coming from the DM, bastions of "ban this sick porn" and "check out our gorgeous models with sizzling curves baring all at the beach"). Smiler will reopen and be safer than it was before, just like Treetop Twister at Lightwater Valley. What, did everyone forget that one?

Only mildly Pray, where would this magical Disney park be built? What will its advantages and disadvantages be? What will the projected visitor totals be, especially given the nearby (ish) parks in Tokyo? In order to afford this, to start off with, what will they have and what won't they have? After all, Disneyland Paris didn't have Space Mountain to start off with. How long do you think it would take to see a profit? What infrastructure would need to be put in place if this were to become a full-on "resort" (eg train lines, rivers for boats)? At the moment this is "oh Disney should build the best theme park ever with ALL the rides". We've already established that Disney has looked into Australia and decided "actually, no, we shouldn't". I am intrigued by various franchises having their own sections though, like Pirates, BUT Pirates stuff tends to be jungle-based and we've already got a jungle area (with an Aladdin section too - perhaps, like DLP, jungle/Pirates could be combined and Aladdin represented by a bazaar area). Just don't do a Frozen section - Harry Potter in Florida is all well and good, but kills immersion by trying to convince us it's a wintry wonderland in the Orlando heat/sun. Out of interest, my (quick) idea would be (if Disney were to build at Avalon, for instance) to, first of all, make sure rail networks are put in place as the V-line runs right alongside it. Hopefully the existing rail network links up to Melbourne airport (don't know if this is the case). Make it so that, like DLP, people can use the rail network to essentially go straight to the park, or transfer to some other internal form of transport (eg trams, monorail). Disney has a tried-and-tested park design for "land/world" parks which they can, of course, build, and they'd know more about what they need to tailor than I do. For a bit of a boost in tourism and goodwill with locals, try and do some form of partnership with Werribee zoo (regular shuttles from the hotels/park for people wanting to visit it, sell tickets to it). Also, sell tickets from the hotels to other local attractions eg Eureka Skydeck. Build a "Downtown Disney" esque area around the waterfront, with a pier and ferris wheel (reminiscent of the boardwalk area at California).

So is this basically taking all the stuff from other Disneyland/world parks and shoving them into a single colossal park? Because I really don't think that'd work for Australia - it wouldn't turn a profit. There's a reason Disney haven't built in Australia yet - and also a reason why the occasional rumour persists. I would imagine that we, as fans, would want to find out how Disney could be enticed back.

Hmm... how does it work with Disneyland Paris? I don't think the people that run DLP are "competitors", but it's still another company that owns/runs a heck of a lot of it (I think).

Just watched that in it's entirety (God I'm a glutton for punishment). Seems she goaded him into saying that the safety checks weren't adequate to prevent such an incident and then harped on about them not being good enough. Unfortunately the media seem to be using similar tactics all the time, picking up on a single thing someone said and beating them over the head with it. I think the Smiler incident will have been unforeseeable, so whilst Merlin may well have the best safety checks in the industry, this wasn't prevented because, let's face it, nobody thought about it. It could have happened at any park.

The Smiler incident is indeed tragic, and there were very nearly deaths. Apparently the people who rescued them are being honoured in a "Pride Of Britain" award. Yet I think that the media are still making far too much of the issue. Is it the worst roller coaster accident yet? I honestly don't know, I don't keep up on them. I know there have been others in the UK which have resulted in fatalities (Twister at Lightwater Valley, Black Hole at Blackpool Pleasure Beach) but this has affected a lot more people quite seriously (due to the carriage design). Yet barely anyone remembers those incidents today with the same fervour. It surprises me though that Alton Towers is willing to reopen it without stating what happened (presumably they know by now), if only to reassure guests. Needless to say, this will stay at the forefront of the Daily Mail's anti-theme-park agenda (they pretty much have an anti-everything agenda).

Wow, people seriously attempt things OTHER than MK in a single day? I'm surprised that's possible. The only time I've been to a Disney park in the day recently was Animal Kingdom, and we didn't manage everything. Halloween, with Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, is another thing however, and something that everyone who's looking at going to Magic Kingdom in Sept/Oct should look into. We did it in 2012 and it was excellent. Though the tickets say the event starts at 6pm you are actually allowed in from 4pm (well, in 2012 anyway). They shut a few of the smaller rides (eg Jungle Cruise) from 5/6pm but most stay open until midnight, which is kicking-out time (we did endless rides of Space Mountain for the last hour, all more or less walk-ons). Great parade, fireworks, and there park has considerably less people in it. Yeah, there's no "scare mazes" or anything like that, but there's trick-or-treating for the kids, and that's about it. Which is fair enough - keeps the kids busy and keeps the queues down! Got a trip report on my website here. I think, at the time, tickets were $60USD, which is a fair bit less than the standard tickets into MK, but of course you're not allowed in as long. That being said, neither is anyone else. I'm unsure how they get rid of "non-Halloween people" after 6pm. A few quick tips - if you're attempting a park from opening, try to eat some breakfast before you get there. Typically we have a bowl of cereal at the villa. Lunch at 11-ish to mean you don't have long to wait for lunch, or long to wait for rides whilst everyone else has their lunch. Parade - got me there, but if you're just in the Disney area and want to enjoy the fireworks without going into the park (say you're over at Downtown Disney for example), you can go over to the hotels by the lagoon (Grand Floridian, Polynesian, Contemporary) and watch from there with a few drinks (I know, there's a bit of transport involved from Downtown Disney whether you've got a car or not, but it can be done). Souvenir shopping - wait until the end, of course, as just about everything is sold on Main Street on the way out. Or wait and get the majority of stuff from Downtown Disney anyway.

Hmm... I didn't really think of DW that way. We just saw the entry area, went a little bit into the back (basically towards Mick Doohan's doohicky and the Tower Of Terror (why would a coaster be going out of a giant Terminator's ear?), and then to the side where the Dreamworks area and Cyclone are. Didn't really go to the back, due to the lack of coasters. Maybe we should have... EDIT - Buzzsaw was also closed so we didn't venture into that neck of the woods either.

This was inspired by the "Sea World name change" topic which went into ways to differentiate a theme park, and talked about how tourists from Asia would frequently go to places like DW, take a few photos and leave it as there's not much to do in the park that they haven't already got. Which, of course, made me start thinking... "what constitutes an Australian experience?" A bit of a difficult one, especially to put into a theme park context. For background, as many here know, I'm looking from the outside in as well - currently living in the UK, been to Australia twice (Melbourne area, Sydney and Gold Coast) and looking at emigrating to Australia soon. In my experience, Australia consists of: 1 - beaches 2 - barbeques (on said beaches) 3 - nice clean promenades and park spaces 4 - the outback (haven't been there yet) and various desert-y things (thinking Sovereign Hill) 5 - nice green (and burnt) outdoors stuff 6 - Great Barrier Reef ... and that's about it. Which may, or may not, constitute a half-decent park. So, how to make the all-encompassing "Australia Park"? Well... a beach has to be in there. Possibly build the park next to its own beach, like Cedar Point, so that guests can use it? Of course, have the BBQs there too, possibly with a shop selling all the required food to BBQ (or guests can bring their own). Plenty of green space too. When in Florida I've always thought Aquatica looked an extremely nice place, and I think it's themed around Oceania (sounds like the announcers have an overdone Australian accent anyway). Something themed similar would work well as a "Great Barrier Reef" themed place, with some good kids rides and maybe a water ride or two. Double this up as an animal conservation centre too. A farm area, with nice rolling hills, would also work well. This could be an actual working farm and petting zoo, on a small space, with a few small rides for kids. Maybe a few other things as well, using farm equipment (partially inspired by Diggerland over here - Google it, people taking rides on diggers and stuff). Then some sort of big desert/canyon area, with a Sovereign Hill-type town. This would be where most of the thrill rides would be. Perfectly suited for some ace minecart coasters and more extreme ones. A good wooden coaster would do well here too. So, what do you think would help make the ultimate "Australia Park" in terms of theming, or things which seem uniquely Australian? EDIT - just thought, beach area could have some rides too, possibly a pier. Something like the boardwalk at Disney's California Adventure.

I guess one thing that will come from it is that SWGC really are the best people to advise and be in a partnership with. If SWUS couldn't get them, then they'd probably choose someone who won't insist (we hope) on decent treatment for the animals.

Dreamworld has a train that goes round a fair bit of the park though, I think (from what I recall, we didn't go round there much). As I say, Lightwater Valley did do it and, whilst the actors weren't very good and you could see them all lazing about from the stairwell of the Falls Of Terror, it's a good idea. Even better would be to slow the train down at points, pretending there's "engine troubles" or something so the zombies can have a wander up and menace the passengers some more.

Don't know if it's been mentioned before, but various parks around the world are available for you to look at in Google Streetview. Unfortunately it doesn't seem as if any of the Australian parks are on it, but hey-ho. As far as I recall, Blackpool Pleasure Beach is on it, as is Cedar Point, various Six Flags parks, Parc Asterix, Tivoli Gardens, Disneyland Paris, Alton Towers (I think) and a few others. Anyone know any other interesting ones? EDIT - quick way to check if anywhere has Streetview, all you need to do in Google Maps is click the Streetview button - don't drag it anywhere, just click it. Streetview areas will then be highlighted as normal without having to bother dragging round the icon, and you just need to click something to go into its Streetview.

Random idea so probably utterly rubbish, but how about a scare maze which starts out pretty rudimentary? The group of people goes through as normal, except... THERE'S NO EXIT! Instead, as they come to the end of a pretty standard scare maze and find what looks like the exit, they're suddenly chased back the way they came as the maze becomes more intense? Perhaps a second group of people could go into the maze at the same time, so they catch them running the other way? Another quick idea - one idea that I saw on the old ValleyMania forum (which actually happened at Lightwater Valley) is to use the train that many parks have, and have assorted zombies and so on try to chase and catch the train.

Whilst I know that Sea World in the Gold Coast and SeaWorld elsewhere (I think they talked about a park in Dubai at one point) are different things, the majority of people don't - and that majority is going to take to Facebook, TripAdvisor and whatnot and try to make their opinions heard. (as an aside, when I eventually get round to writing trip reports of the Aussie parks - got Paris to finish off first - I'll probably still find myself calling it SeaWorld) It probably is far too late to change the name, as BigKev said. People know. Even if the name had been changed as soon as Blackfish came out, people would still know. Basically, just about all marine parks are damaged by, well, being marine parks. People will see that Sea World has dolphins, turtles, sharks etc and say "well what about them?". It's an odd one - SWGC definitely came across as being more animal-friendly than SWUS (let's face it, the main draw of SWUS is a killer whale show in which, in order to show that killer whales are magnificent creatures who should be free in the clean oceans of the world, unfettered by humans, they bring out a killer whale to do tricks for fish in a small pool - kinda ironic really), but I would hope they'd push the animal conservation angle more. (and no, I can't think of a name - but as BigKev said, I doubt it'd make a difference now) In regards to SWUS, I think they could help themselves if only they could be bothered. In Florida's case, look into opening a separate facility dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of injured whales, dolphins etc. near Tampa. When it's done, send the existing stock of whales there. Open it to tourists (with Busch Gardens nearby, and SeaWorld itself operating buses to Busch Gardens from their Orlando park, it shouldn't be difficult) and encourage the science community to become involved. This would effectively create a fourth SeaWorld park, and save them a lot of face. Keep the existing SeaWorld (and Aquatica and Discovery Cove), but put more exhibits and rides at the existing SeaWorld in order to replace the stock that has left. EDIT - just had a look at this article, pretty interesting take on SWGC following Blackfish (though it is just an interview with the owner, attach to that whatever bias you will...). As a quick aside, SWGC say they release their animals back into the wild when they are fit. I'm unsure if this happens at the moment, but perhaps they should highlight this by holding a mini-party or carnival or event day or something when an animal is to leave? Sort of a send-off party or something to highlight it. Perhaps, if the animal is being released nearby, they could use the cruise liner they've got to accompany the release so people could watch.

Wow - admittedly only three responses on the DM so far, but all pretty sensible. I would have expected the usual "theem parks - graet for ppl who wantt o loose there legz!!1" or "waste of space - need more atr gallerys" responses (which are the usual any time a theme park is mentioned). Cynicism - well, I'm new round here but apparently this has been going on a few years, so I'll adopt the same as what's being said - I'll believe it when I see it. Though apparently the guy behind the project has secured an extra $1bn in funding recently. Or something.

I know this is going to sound like a mini-review, but I went to Dreamworld back in February this year and really didn't think it was much cop - even compared to Movie World. Out of the coasters: Madagascar - pretty good family fare Cyclone - looks interesting, but seemed fairly boring Buzzsaw - sadly closed at the time Mick Doohan - short, and I think Velocity at Flamingo Land is better (and I don't think much of that coaster) Tower Of Terror 2 - actually pretty good, didn't expect us to go out backwards We mainly visit parks for coasters and were done in a few hours. We did go on a few other rides too, of which Dreamworld doesn't do bad at. Really should have brought our swimming stuff with us and gone to the water park. In any case, what does it need? We didn't actually visit the "back" section of the park, but something big around there would be good (is that were Eureka was?). Doesn't have to be something hugely modern. Some people here have mentioned Maverick and Cedar Point (very good coaster) or something like Outlaw Run, but it just has to have a decent length and be quite fun to ride. From the coasters we've been on in Australia (Movie World, the boat one at SeaWorld - other one was closed, Dreamworld, Luna Park Melbourne), most of them seem to be over and done with quite quickly (Superman, SeaWorld boat coaster, Arkham surprisingly). Only really Scooby Doo, Green Lantern, Cyclone (possibly) and Scenic Railway seemed to have any decent length. There are a fair few rides Dreamworld could do, given the space (or what I think their space is like). Flying coasters, inverted coasters... but I think what I'd ideally like to see would be a regular steel or wooden coaster. Of course that may not necessarily bring the crowds. However, if you want to kill two birds with one stone... a few people have mentioned a dark ride. I'd say "why not combine the two?". Scooby Doo is an excellent way to combine a dark ride with a coaster, as is Raptor Attack at Lightwater Valley here in the UK (it's a small wild mouse-esque coaster, in a warehouse, in pitch black, with dinosaurs lighting up to attack you as you go past). There are loads of ways to do this (I always think one of the spinning wild mouse coasters would do the job, have it going through corridors and so on). Hopefully, if Eureka does reopen, it'll fill a gap.

Sadly, no, I don't think we'll see one either (though my family over there seem to be under the impression they eyed up the Avalon area of Melbourne a while back). I think the presence of already-existing, successful parks (such as the ones in Gold Coast, as you say) would actually make them consider the area more - they'd have a market there already. And let's face it, if you were going to Gold Coast and there was a Disney park there as well, you'd want to go there too.

Hope this happens, and it sounds like it may. Will keep an eye on it, especially since I'm looking at moving to Australia soon and, from the parks I've been to (both Luna Parks, the Gold Coast parks), there don't seem to be many coasters of a decent length (only Scooby Doo, and the Scenic Railway - which was quite painful).

Oh believe me, I'm pretty certain Disney would get a park in the Gold Coast. All those people already visiting parks there? A plentiful supply of customers ripe for the picking, 'cos let's face it - it's Disney! Why have people umm-ing and ahh-ing about whether they should go on a theme park trip to Gold Coast or a Disney location, essentially splitting their customers into two groups, when Disney (and the existing Gold Coast parks - having a Disney park there could boost their attendance too) could just feast on both together?