joz

Reading through this got me thinking, I wonder if part of Dreamworld's 'decline' (Is it a decline if attendance is up and revenue is up?) is the lack of a John Menzies type of guy running the show. Remember, Dreamworld has changed CEO's a few times in the past decade, and in the meantime John has been at with SW and WVTPs for 36 years. Dreamworld with all these high level changes, haven't had, I guess you'd call it passion, from a career theme park guy. The modern CEO is focused on the bottom line, not the 'show' as it were, and while I have the greatest respect for Greg at Dreamworld, I would love to see what would happen if John became CEO of Dreamworld for a while (I'd give the giant hot dog on main street maybe 25seconds). You have to remember John is a guy who decided some ugly looking trees near the back of Seaworld needed to go because they obstructed the view of the Corkscrew, which by the way is having its paintjob freshened up again. Obviously, WVTP's aren't perfect, there are several faults with the parks, but I don't think its anything they aren't already keeping on top of, otherwise this topic would be in the movieworld section, titled "The quality of Movieworld". I personally don't have a problem with Dreamworld (I didn't start the topic) but obviously people out there are seeing the quality of Dreamworld slip. Are there some good signs at DW? Of course yes. For one, I'm happy to see the vintage cars moved from under the tower of terror track. That was always a pet peeve of mine from when ToT was built. Now we just need to see what becomes of Rocky Hollow, Goldrush and Blue Lagoon and all the other more run down areas of the park.

If the photo was taken from a public place, then Ian owns the copyright for those photos. On private property then I believe it gets somewhat iffy.

I should point out its financial year, not calender year. Interestingly, the competition did congratulate WnW on the succuess, with just a hint of being smug that Whitewater World WOULD grow the attendance of both parks.

Like mattcrombie said, it was just a trade show on the Gold Coast. The great thing about it is that in the media coverage they were all pretty much second teir companies who were featured. Zamperala were there flogging off their Flying Coaster (hopefully this year will mark the 5th straight year that no one has bought one in Australia) and "Disk-O" concept, some fountains guy was there talking about how his product hadn't taken off in Australia and some virtual queueing company (not Lo-Q) was there talking up his product to the media. Dreamworld's CEO was there and just said there was a new attraction coming which we all know about anyway, so nothing really that exciting in the media coverage.

Think you got it on an off day, I went on the ride no less then a week after you and found the ride to be running well. I did read your post before hand and the only thing that seemed to not be working was one of the lights on the "Death" animatronic. It didn't really detract since as you were traveling around it, it appeared to get brighter and brighter, as it was only the light on one side that wasn't working. The mist in the Wild Mouse room worked really well the day I was there, and in fact I like the mist effect better then the fog, mostly because the mist doesn't smell as much as the fog did, and I couldn't tell any difference in the overall effect. I agree about the red light over the drop though, it doesn't do well enough to hide the drop. I know its not something that can easily be done, but if it were possible to cover up the sensor lights on the track so they aren't visable from on the ride I suspect that would go along way to restore the surprise effect of that drop.

Since when has the Easter show been a theme park? And since when has DW not been a theme park? Anyway, this thread is not about your site, this thread is about the SW Eye. Well the Gold Coast Bulletin have really taken this one to heart, with a follow up story today, as well as an opinion peice, and a poll on their: website www.gcbulletin.com.au Since the Gold Coast Bulleting only keep stories on their website for a couple of days:

The Gold Coast Bulletin has run a few stories on the issue, and this is the latest (I've highlighted parts which are important to my post): Personally the more and more that comes out about this, the more I'm supporting the park. I must say that originally I didn't care one way or the other, but to hear there have been no complaints about the ride in Southport, and some council members support the ride, to me makes the whole story about why it should go pretty much null and void. After all, you can barely see the Eye from Main Beach. If anyone has a good reason to complain about the view, its the people of Southport, who haven't been vocal on the matter. Indeed, if you look at real estate ads in Southport, the Eye is front and center of the pictures of the view. As far as a wider "How do you stop other taller structures if you let this one stay?" argument, the point about it not being a problem in Coomera to me would indicate a valid precedent for future applications.

Well if you were planning to buy the Maga Cop bag with your hard earned cash, your outa luck:

Universal Citywalk is pretty much nightclubs and bars and the like. Citywalk on Coomera as it was proprosed in stage one is a anywhere planet Earth shopping center, so no, it was nothing like the overseas version. Thats not really a bad thing though, Universal's Citywalk is designed purely for tourists, and the dynamics of Coomera suggest this may not be the best model to go with. Its probably possible for Coomera to be the sort of suburb that attracts tourists, but its going to take more then DW and WWW to bring in enough tourists to support a nightclub area geared for tourists. Plus given the councils reply on the Citywalk, they're vision for Coomera is for a new Robina. I can see where both sides are coming from on this one. I must say thought the idea that they'll be modeling Coomera after Robina worries me, as Robina feels so poorly thrown together and thought out. Robina is pockets of public space seperated by large expanses of call centers, offices and what will one day be government buildings and more offices. Personally though, I'd love to see Mac. Lesiure try and go for the tourists in a way that can also be used by the locals. More smaller attractions (Bowling, arcades) with bars, resturants, and hotels. That to me would be so much better then building yet another generic shopping center that doesn't hold a candle to Pacific Fair.

Nah, they're getting brand newie. I must surprised though, I'm surprised the ease of which you skipped past... ... and instead focused on how it was only 20meters.

Seaworld is owned by Village Roadshow, along with Movieworld, Wet 'n' Wild, Paradise Country, and Australian Outback Spectacular. The Seaworld parks in America is owned by Busch (The company that makes Budwiser) who also own both Busch Gardens. They aren't now, and never have been connected with each other, and the only thing they share is the name. The parks do work together the same way all zoos work together, but there's nothing special beyond that.

The Shak may have moved to DW, though the slightly less embarressing Toasted is supposedly moving to SW while MW gets the new WB Kids Sat morning show. What can I say, its an exciting time in low budget kids TV folks

Took the words right out of my mouth there. 1000 people a day for a park that most people didn't even know was open is not a bad result at all IMHO. Plus I do seem to recall reading that they wanted to acheive something like 400,000 vistors a year, and you don't need an average of much more then 1000 a day to reach that. Good to hear they're pretty much on track.

Thanks for the trip report Morphix! Great to hear you had a good time up on the Coast. I've taken the liberty of moving all the trip report topics into one handy topic here in the General Thrills section. Enjoy!

That sums up my feelings right there. WnW is has plenty to keep you busy for the whole day (and night if you go on a dive in movie night), has a bigger selection of rides, and has IMHO a stronger ride lineup on paper. Having said that, if you've been to WnW then drag your sorry butt out to WWW and check out the new park on the block. Super Tubes is a great ride by all accounts, there's nothing like it or the Rip in Aust, and even the BRO is a step up from WnW's aqua racer in terms of ride experience. Plus, if you haven't been to WnW since Tornado, well guess what, thats at WWW too. Once you've been to both you can figure out which one is right for you. Personally, I don't like a park thats to small, otherwise you go from one ride to the other far to quickly and run out of stuff to do to.

This thread made it to AAL and the homosexual rights thread didn't? My faith in the system is shattered.

There are many people who live in Logan and Brisbane who work at the parks. Like Adam says, if your the right person for the job and you have reliable transport, then its all good. You could probably get a job at the parks if you lived in Perth if you could still make it everyday.

I reckon they should sell the Halfpipe to Aussie World. But thats just my humble opinion

Who calls their kids Reception anyway?

See, that's why we need international members all the time, to tell us stuff that's been announced overseas but not here yet. Many thanks Also special mention to Nev, who correctly wished for a Motorbike Coaster in the "Future Dreamworld Thrill Ride" thread. Still, judging by the article I guess its official, Australian Theme Parks are in love with Intamin. What with the ToT, GD, Claw, Thunder River boats at DW, and Superman at MW, as well as the roulette ball that is the Half-Pipe then that's nearly one new Intamin Ride every 2 years for about a decade. Nice to see that Intamin's Australian office is getting a good bit of work. As for the ride itself, well really, a launch coaster for DW would have to have something different about it to not be labeled a Superman Rip-off. A Motorbike coaster fits that bill nicely and should be quite marketable. The fact its a world first also looks great on the TV ads, regardless of if its only due to a technicality. What difference does that make?

The times of the day is probably the key here. Just after the park opened and people haven't made their way all the way to the back of the park and just on closing when people have already been on the ride are the best time to go WWF.

If the guy walked out in front of the ride when it was moving, then I don't think any amount of training could have saved him.

The Super Pass is the best way to go for SW, MW and WnW. It doesn't cost extra then if you were going to buy a one day admission to each park separately, plus it gives you the flexibility to come back and do the parks again if you missed something, or just want to spend more time at the park. Really, everyone on the boards can tell you how much time they would spend at each park, but everyone is different, and it just depends on what you like to do. DW offer the World Pass, which is good for 2 days, and probably the best option if your on holiday (Why there isn't a pass that allows more visits is a mystery). Plus it gets you into WWW, which is well worth having a look at.

Two things that are obvious from watching the video: 1. The kid did not get punched. He was pushed. 2. The kid deserved to get punched, then knocked to the ground, then beaten. Ideally with pieces of wood. There's nothing in it, the Dad has seen a shot at free money, and had a crack at suing them. What I want to know is, does the Dad have to pay the worker for lost wages when his case gets dismissed?

Thanks for the pics, when were these taken?