joz

I can't help but think you might be over estimating RCT3 a bit to think these extra details are necessary, but in any case, here is one I took today, but that's it, no more

Sorry it's still not totally clear, but here is a bit better, you can at least make out more and guess the rest. Thanks to Richard for getting this off the server:

OK I'll bite... What spare stretch of land behind the Murrisippi? The only thing I can think of is between the train station and the Oakey Creek station?

^ Whose comparing Movieworld to Disney? I'm sorry but I can't let that go unchallenged. First off, I will concede that yes, they should have announced that it was closing officially, I totally have no disagreement with you there. BUT..... Last Wednesday, I told this site (where the fans hang out) both that the ride was permanently closing despite the wording on the official site, and that the ride was potentially going to close earlier than the listed date, so fans could have one last ride. If that ride is so important to you, why didn't you go ride it? Don't say you missed the post, because an hour after I posted the news, you said that Movieworld were stupid morons, so don't come on here now and piss and moan that you didn't have warning, because you did, and even with that warning you didn't make an effort to go ride it. "Oh but Joz, you said get there by the 13th" Yeah I did, and I then followed that with "The ride might close after this weekend" and personally, if going on the ride one last time is so important, then I think you should have assumed that to be correct. I mean, you were happy to believe me when I said the ride was closing, but not that the ride could close early? Why not? You may well be upset by the ride closing, but all you've shown here is that you just want to have a good old bitch about Movieworld. "I'd rather have a slightly outdated animatronic boat ride than another lousy sleady rotten lazy rollercoaster in the park that has no feeling, no context, no heart and is over in 10 seconds!" What on Earth are you on about? Why do you come on here and bitch about something that you not only know nothing about, but are also dead wrong about? What ride in Movieworld fits that description anyway? I'm sorry, but I simply can't express in words how little sympathy I have for you at this point.

I find it more odd that "It's old and costs to much to maintain" is the line that staff are using instead of "It's closing to make way for a new family ride for later in the year" which is a much more positive message for guests. Obviously, actually telling the staff that the ride is being replaced rather than saying nothing, wouldn't hurt the chances of that happening.

Awesome! Been looking for an excuse to go to Aussie World for a while now.

According to a small child who often goes on Flowrider at Dreamworld, and who happened to be using the Flowrider the same day I was using it (yeah, my sources have really gone downhill) the WnW one is smaller, but Wet 'n' Wild's wasn't split down the middle, so was better. Pleased to see they've now undone what was good about it. Should be interesting to see if it's a temporary or permanent thing.

That's true, but even when the ride opened there really wasn't any themeing specific to Wild Wild West, aside from the song being played in the queue video and a poster for the movie. The themeing (including preshow) was pretty much generic, and the ride has many more elements from Blazing Saddles and Rio Bravo than from Wild Wild West. I agree though, themeing the ride to the genre more than to any specific movie was a great move. Thanks for the reports from the parks, always good to read what other people are saying about the parks

^ You're missing a bunch of observer positions (2 in high zone in Scooby, River Ride, and I think 1 on WWF)

^ Are Movieworld adding a roller coaster / thrill ride?

To be fair, it's not up to guests to know if there's work going on or not. But yes, the building are being fixed up after Xmas. Incidentally, the solution MGM studios have come up with for installing and removing the Osborne Xmas lights is to simply close off the whole street, which rather obviously wouldn't work at MW.

Wow melodramatic much? I agree that it is sad to see an original ride closing, but lets be honest here; it's not a timeless ride. It's not just the hardware that has worn out, the look and feel of the ride is dated. Also as much as it pains me to say it, MW is such a landlocked park that this sort of thing has to happen. There's bugger all room to really expand the park so the only sustainable option is to constantly replace existing attractions, and LTRR has been an ideal candidate for replacement for a long time now. Obviously this is all dependant on the replacement being good, but I'm optimistic that whatever takes over that building will be a solid addition to the park.

The maintenance pages have been updated again, and on the Movieworld page we see: Don't let the 'until further notice' fool you. Word on the street is that this time it's final. Those wanting to get a final ride on Looney Tunes River Ride are advised to get to the park by Feb 13, as after this date there will be no more rides in Snowy River Sam's boats to find that Wascally Wabbit. There is also talk that the ride will actually close after this weekend, so don't delay folks!

^ Damn, and I was looking forward to the water park round too. Also the nighttime spectacular round, and the new themed area for SW round. Incidentally, if time hadn't beaten me, my entry for this week would have been an area themed exclusively to the current batman movie series. The idea would be to remove all traces of the Tim Burton Batman, Batman Beyond and Batman Comics from the park, to be replaced exclusively with the current Nolan Batman. The land itself would be built on some of the swamp, and the studio admin buildings (which IMHO should be moved away from the park) and would have included a new Batman Simulator (hardware permitting), new Batman thrill ride, Stunt show and retail area. Also included would be 'float friendly' back of house access to accommodate one way parades at Movieworld, and a spare plot of offstage land ready to be turned into an Arkham Asylum maze for Halloween, and an area designed to accommodate the White Xmas "Ice" skating, to relieve pressure on Main Street. Sad to see it end, but fair call. If you feel the desire to bring this back, I (and I suspect the other staff) support you. I had fun giving my ideas for the competition, and commend both winners for their great ideas

^ Ah yeah, now I think about it, 'single bluff' is probably what I actually meant.

^ hey, I'm just repeating what the rumour mill repeated to me. With how much secrecy there is about next year I wouldn't put a double bluff past them

There's something really frustrating about all this and I think I've figured it out: On one hand, Dreamworld are showing signs that they really get it. They've been celebrating the parks 30th birthday, really pushing the parks history and celebrating it. Incidentally, Sea World is turning 40 this year and Movieworld is turning 20, both milestone years that are getting no similar marketing push. Seaworld's Ski Show was scrapped in it's 50th year rather than being used as a promotional tool. TBH I'd be surprised if anyone in the marketing department at Village knows the age or history of the parks but that's another issue. Of all the parks, it's Dreamworld that seem to be in touch with what the park is about, they reference the past and embrace what makes them popular. The fact that Kenny Koala and Goldie still feature is testament to that, and many of the new entertainment offerings seem to reflect a willingness to embrace what's best about the park, and the message they're trying to get out there is a good one. But then at the same time as this is going on, the Imax theater, one of the parks original attractions, gets butchered and turned into nothing more than a standard cinema. What's more, it now doubles as an up-charge attraction? Super guys, just super. Sure, the Imax theater did need some life breathed into it, but getting rid of it all together? So disappointing. Also disheartening is seeing so much of the park rotting away (mine ride, sky-link, blue lagoon, amphitheater, ah lets face it the entire northwest of the park) while the at the same time, almost everything new in the park is either another up-charge or involves things being painted with brighter, and more garish colours. I'm really just hoping this new stuff for next year will be awesome. After what happened with Aqualoop, they're understandably keeping it very close to their chests. The only thing I know about next years attraction is that we can expect Intamin (not a huge shock given the track record and the fact it's mentioned in this thread) and one of the new rides will be built in an area that will push out the boundaries of the park. That's all I know, but within that there's huge scope to be impressed, and I'm cautiously optimistic to see what this new ride will be. I just hope it turns out to be a major success, and those with the power see that there's some serious money to be made running a theme park instead of just a shopping center.

I'd love to see one of these rides done as a dark ride. It's such a good ride system and I'm not aware of any that have really been done well, Journey to Atlantis in Orlando being the best I know of, but that was such an odd mish mash of a ride that it missed the mark for me. If you can have the same ride system as that but with a Bermuda like story telling element, then I think that would be a real winner. Sadly of course, you're right and if they do go down the water coaster path, it will probably turn out more like Sea World Cali's ride (which like it's namesake in Orlando is a mish mash ride that misses the mark, but with pretty much no themeing), or like the overly complex and utterly pointless Atlantis ride in Texas.

Am I the only one here who has a problem with this? Why should something falling out of some one's pocket cause 20 mins downtime? Sure, the injured (if they were injured, I've a hard time imagining they would be) people must be seen to, but surely that's not something that would tie up the ride ops for 30 mins? Something doesn't click with that story... Gazza, the Ocean Park B&M is a Stand Up, first one in 12 years, awesome! I was starting to think they didn't still make them.

I guess it's nice to have shade anywhere, but that is rather puzzling. It's too far back to be made for Illuminate (though I've no doubt that if it does rain on days with a show, people will have no problems being that far back from the front), and it's really to small to be useful for a function venue. Of course maybe someone just decided that they should put shade somewhere, and that happened to be the 20 square meter area that was deemed worthy. Fair enough I guess, but odd. Gazza, looking at where the water is on the ground it looks like the rain just came in on a slant. Given how wild the weather was last week that's not surprising.

I didn't enter this one, because I honestly couldn't think of an animal attraction/ ride combo that would satisfy the conditions of the competition, which I would also like to see built. I did think of plenty of ideas, none of which were wholly satisfying. For reasons I won't go into, I don't like animal exhibits that are in a ride, so combining the two doesn't sit well with me, so either the ride was way to weak for the area, or too scary or the animal attraction wasn't up to scratch. In the end I concluded that such an attraction combination was impossible to make good at Sea World, and instead waited to see how bad any ideas that did come up were. I must say, I'm blown away by themeparkgc's entry. What's been done in the entry above is different to what I was thinking, and it's very smart. The ride happens to be themed to the habitat of the Californian Sea Lion, which is one of the most common species of Seal at Sea World. That habitat is of course the Pacific Northwest, which is ideal for this type of ride. What's more is it's family friendly (height requirement is 107cm) and would be an addition that I'd be thrilled to see at the park, and given the high standards I hold for new attractions at Sea World that is the biggest praise I can bestow. I think it's a shame that with only one entry this week this won't be able to 'earn' it's points, but the points that it will be awarded are more than justified. Fantastic entry

^ Yesterday as in the crazy busy day? What's with canceling shows on such a busy day? How many people have to turn up to do all the shows? Just curious, as tha seems quite odd to me. Also what are you trying to say about Jukebox and a few others?

Something I feel worth mentioning: Angus was the most common beef in Australia before McDonald's started advertising it. Since it's been advertised, people think it's a premium product, when it's been the most common form of beef all along. The other thing is the meat is minced, so the quality of the beef doesn't really add much to the whole flavor thing anyway. My favorite example of this is you can now buy Angus meat pies. I mean lets be honest, a meat pie is mince and gravy. It could be made from KOBE beef and wouldn't taste any different at all. As for the how bad Dreamworld is thing, F&B across the parks is beyond woeful. I used to say I didn't mind the food being expensive so long as it was good. Then it got more expensive and it got bad. Then it got more expensive again and and got worse. Now throw into that, the service is now bad to boot (I waited about 50 mins for food at WnW a week ago, and that's not an exaggeration). I'm sorry, but F&B at all parks is bad. There are a couple exceptions to be found, but in general, the food is crap, overpriced and with an unreasonable wait. Thankfully for us though, there is a McDonald's out the front of every Gold Coast theme park (incidentally if you go to McDonald's at the parks closing time, you'll see where all the theme park customers went for food and Ice Cream) There are also maintenance issues across the parks which could be pointed out to similar effect. Same thing with the up-charges, SW has it's pedal boats and glass bottom boat rides, WnW has it's new stuff, and MW has hundreds of those bloody Dog Tag machines. That of course doesn't mean that the complaints at Dreamworld are invalid, but I do think in the video that Dreamworld is perhaps being picked on. If the order of the video is the order of events, then it is a good example of how crap F&B can seriously damage the perception of a park as a whole, and one I think people in charge of all the Gold Coast's parks would be wise to be aware of.

I'll be honest I don't check in with this thread as oftern as others. But I just read through, and LPS is getting a Disk'o? Thats way cool, I've always wanted to try one of those. If I had just a little bit more money I'd be heading down for that. Anyone know if it's going to travel once it's done there?

It is most definitely quieter on the weekend. I suspect what is going on is a significant number of people think "I'm not going on the weekend it'll be busy!" so hold off on their visits till the Monday or Tuesday. Boxing Day is busy, but for some reason not as busy as later in the week. I think it's a combination of people thinking it will be busy and avoiding the parks, and tourists spending Christmas at home and not getting to the Gold Coast till after Boxing Day. New Years Day is normally comparatively quiet, and I think it's a good guess that people being hung over is the cause.