joz

You'd think another hotel would be somewhere on Village's long term plan, the only thing they have to do before building a hotel out at Oxenford is give people more to do out there besides the parks. I don't think its going to be easy filling a 400room hotel so far away from Surfers based purely on the parks. Nara gets knocked by how far away it is from Surfers, and its literally a 5min drive from 'downtown', and I just feel that people will want to do more then the theme parks when they're on holiday. Aussie Outback is the kind of thing I mean, something to give the area a bit of substance beyond the parks, because again, I'm not sure people want to shun the beach for the parks in any significant numbers. Good on them for buying Nara, hopefully that'll mean more of an intergration between the hotel and the park in the future. Its always struck me how segregated Nara and SW are from each other, the only common link between the two is the monorail station, and the name. I mean how great would it be to see the water park open after park hours in summer exclusively for hotel guests, or even just having staff being interchangeable between Nara and the other 5 properties. I don't think most SW staff know any Nara staff, or even anything about Nara, and I suspect most of Nara's staff don't know a huge amount about the park. Again, I think Village taking full control is great, hopefully they take the chance to improve things there.

... and I bet they're excited to be able to steal off someone else now! Nah, This is pretty exciting, good luck to them, as far as Aussie water parks go, the number 3 spot is there for the taking, and they've got daylight between them and Adventure World.

Half-pipe demos? Live music? Sounds kinda like Xtreme World at DW, which was a huge success, so much so that it came back 3 or 4 years in a row. I think the market will respond (so long as there is a heap of TV spots and posters in Surfers) and going after schoolies will succeed. As for the website, well its a huge step up from Superman's website and seems pretty well targeted. The Wez 'n' Will thing is a bit weak, but the park doesn't have a real mascot (besides Matilda), so why not just make it a couple of guys? Its pretty original, I can't see it costing a heap of money, and it makes WnW look more like a social place to hang out rather then just a place to go on slides. On something of an unrelated side note; whats wrong with kids these days if the fact that WnW is a good place for a perv needs to be pointed out? I mean I knew the education system was failing but damm.

Richard's posts pretty much sums up my feelings on her article. She's done a great job of getting her name out there by talking about stuff she really has no idea about and just, well, having a dumb rant. I mean whats with blaming Steve Irwin for everything from habitat loss, to animal cruelty, child abuse (and a bizarre conspiracy theory that goes all the way up to John Howard thrown in for good measure) and being mean to chickens. Give me a break. Steve was a great man, and before you start claiming animal abuse, understand some stuff about animal handling. If taking an animal on a TV show is animal abuse then I want to know why no one had a problem with it before his death, and why Ranger Stacey hasn't been brought to justice yet (seriously, she's been taking animals into studio lit environments as long as I can remember). I don't think much of the 6.30 time, (along with any news source which can't work out the difference between a Stingray and a Manta ray; ones kinda big with a stinger, one's huge with no stinger, not hard to get people), and I think even less of people who try and leech of someone Else's fame and tragic death to get their deluded face on said 6.30 time slot. RIP Steve, one things for sure; if there's a heaven, it'll never be the same again.

While not strictly speaking Dreamworld news, I think this from Screamscape is quite interesting: Wonder if the Big Red Car ride will get cloned over there. It'd be the first time a Dreamworld original ride got cloned overseas, and what a great ride to clone too!

Though its unused in the photos, I think Paradise Country is now in that general area. One thing I don't think I fully realised is just how big the area between Lethal and Wild West is. With clever design you could fit a couple of big rides in there, and when you combine that with area 'C' and the Western Arena then there is really an abundance of space. I think we'll see a few more replacement attractions before any size able chunk of that land is used. Matrix would have to be due for replacement some time soon, Batman is (debatable) past its use by date, and River Ride, while being a very solid ride just takes up so much darn space. Personally though, I stand by my idea of putting a ride in Lethals preshow room. Maybe something Harry Potter related and re-theme the Chinatown themeing to look like Digon Ally? Or perhaps theme it to Happy Feet, since its going to be such a big movie and all

If you know where to look you'll see the transfer track pretty easily, and if you don't know where to look you'd probably notice it after a couple of rides, though you won't be able to see the other train sitting on the track like on Road Runner or Lethal. When your on the ride you can see it on your left between the fake station and the stairwell.

Just to ruin the magic of TV: the people in WnW when Grant was there were park staff + family. There was only 30 or 40 people, so they had to follow Grant around and make sure they were in the background of each shot.

I don't think its a MW thing, or if it is they've gone halves with the organisers, otherwise MW would be selling tickets instead of Ticketek handling the whole thing (lame). Besides that, tickets on ticketek are $40 rather then the $35 MW has on its main site, so yeah hard not to get the feeling that MW is more or less just playing host here. Still, hopefully if its a success then the people with the power will see it and try it again. A whole heap of parks put on concerts and it works for them, so why not make it work here and bring in the extra cash.

You know what, I've defended the new Luna Park, but wow you've got to be kidding me. This is the same company that has stated that the park revenue is ahead of expectations, and leases the site for $1 right?

Thing is the colours of our Tornado and the mystery one in the press photos are the same, and since its always photos of the funnel rather then landscape I can't see a problem with it. They did the same thing with Superman (showing an Xcel vid) and changed it as soon as they had their own footage, same will probably happen here.

What do Vekoma even sell these days? In-vertigo - Vekoma haven't built one for a few years but from memory they tend to work pretty well and are pretty popular. SiB - You'd think that one unlikely since they've been so much trouble for the few parks that did buy them Flying Dutchman - Again, haven't been sold for a long time, and only ever sold 3. Don't think they they'd be able to offload one on DW that easy Launch Coaster - I don't think DW is stupid enough to get one, aside of course from the aforementioned Booster Bike, which already have 3 installations. Tilt Coaster - Nice gimmick, can't see it happening though Wooden Coaster - Haven't made one since 2001 and only made 3, but wouldn't surprise me to see one of these grace DW Boomerang - Don't laugh - you won't be when DW builds one.

Not all rides are $1million, but its a bit naive to say that none are. Rides aren't cheap, neither are the things Ozshowkid mentioned, and the thing is its not just about making a return on the investments, but also running them at a decent profit, and on a ride like Vomitron (or whatever the traveling version is called) or any other low capacity ride you simply aren't going to to that at $5 a pop.

I'm really digging this new ride from a "What a great ride systems" standpoint. Unlike the older vertical drop rides this is 10 across. I mean wow, 30 people per train, and with such short block sections its ganna be one hell of a people eater. 1,400 isn't the highest capacity out there, but I bet they have very little trouble meeting that. Plus it looks like a hoot as well, so very solid addition.

Lethal Weapon 4 came out in 1998, Lethal Weapon the ride came out in 1995. I think you'll find the themeing for the ride has little if anything to do with the 4th movie.

Thread doesn't just deliver, its the post with the most!

Um, thanks?

You could always just move the Lethal Weapon entrance (and exit?) around to the Superman Plaza, and just gut the theater to put a flatride in there and use the existing switchbacks for the new ride.

Now thats exactly right, but the thing of it is most woodies are either poorly designed or maintained, and as such, said well designed ride is something of a rareity. If either Intamin's wooden coasters or the mostly steel Gravity Group coasters turn out to be more hassle free then older designs, then I'll maybe say Wooden Coasters, but until then I'll say steel all the way.

$30 for the Slingshot isn't too crazy but which rides cost $15?

What'd you expect? For them to pat you down before entering the queue line? Most of the time a visual glance is enough to tell if there's something in your pockets, but as the rider you have to take some responsibility in what you take on the ride. Something like a $1 coin in your pocket isn't going to stick out at all, so in that case it up to you to do the right thing.

I almost wonder if part of the reason is beacuse Village isn't wanting to part from their park models they already have. I mean it'd be pretty stuipid to build a Movieworld or Seaworld in Sydney so it'd have to be something they don't have much/any experience in. I don't doubt they could pull off a different style park, but they seem to want to stick with what they know. You'll notice that the parks they have talked building O/Ss are new SWs, MWs and in the case of the Sunshine Coast, another WnW rather then a new style of park.

I say go for it, and stretch it as far as you can. Its the closest to experiencing DW "Pre-flowrider" as your going to get, and Flowrider has already been prophisized as the first sign of the Apocalypse, so its better to pretend its not there anyway (For the record I'm not a huge fan of Flowrider, but don't mind it either, just felt like stirring)

Its interesting to hear them talk about building more Movieworld parks once again. One thing I want to know is what made Warner Brothers sell Movieworld in Germany, and what Village knows about that parks books that makes them feel as if Movieworld parks are a good model. Another point which I feel has been lost over time: Movieworld Germany was to some extent "selected out of convenience" as before Movieworld was built there was a movie themed park on that site which lasted all of one season. One thing I can't help but feel though is whatever they do, a hefty chunk of that AU$200million had want to be on rides. Problem is that the scale of European parks is much grander then Australian parks, so much so that even if you recreated the all the rides at MW in Athens, it'd probably even then be too small, particually to compete with Disney and the parks in neighbouring countries. Now obviously you aren't going to be able to build a park identical to MW for $200mill, so they'd want to have something very creative up their sleve, or at least be very carefull about what rides to take over (how about Scooby AND Gremlins?). I know, I sound rather pessimistic, but I'm far from it, just I think this isn't going to be a "walk in, build a park let the profits roll in" sort of thing. You have to trust that they've put in allot of research into this, afterall Village can't afford to sink $200million into a park that is anything but a 'blockbuster'. They're already $250million in debt from buying out WB's share of the parks don't forget. As for the Asian market, why bother building a $200million Movieworld when a $5million Paradise Country would probably do just as well?

I think allot of the problems are how wide the radius of the turns, including tophat, are. Thats is where allot of the tweaking is going afterall. The stage I'm up to is making sure all G's are in the green and reflect what they should sorta be doing, and so far thats good, except there doesn't seem to be much air over the first bunny hill, so that'll obviously have to change