joz

Actions speak louder then words. If they expand, adding good rides, good attractions, and fixing up what they should, then you won't hear any (well, knowing what some people are like; as much) complaining. I don't think its so much about what Dreamworld said as it is what the newspaper said. Comparing Dreamworld to Disneyland is probably not the best idea, and of course it will generate some talk. The other quite obvious point is that the guy isn't talking about expanding the park, but rather is talking about all the town centre stuff. He can't be talking about only the park, as 38ha + 45ha = 83ha. Dreamworld only own 85ha, so that's all the excess land they've been talking about for so long. Obviously the new town centre is going to be more then 2ha. Really, this article doesn't give any new information, other then to talk up what they are doing. Now, I'm happy to see Dreamworld putting new screens in the queues, and putting shade at Tiger Island (excellent idea BTW), but this article implies something which is false.

Read what its all about Wilsy. Its on topic.

I think the queue TVs are good. The problem is if they are installed as an alternative to fixing the real capacity issuse. On a ride like ToT and to some extent Thunder River where you can't make the queues move much quicker no matter how you tried, then I think its a great idea. The other thing you've gotta wonder is just how long the TVs will be turned on for, or how long they'll have sound on. As for Dreamworld trying to turn into Disneyland, well, good luck to them. The funny thing is how its being mentioned this like its a new thing, when in reality Dreamworld has been trying to be like Disneyland for years now.

That makes sense, because I was making the point that the big coasters don't really need all the extra elements after the tophat. :confused:

Well, since its aimed at adults I can't see whats wrong with liking south park. Do you think the average 10 year old knows what time share is anyway?

Good move, hopefully this can take some of the pressure of off the rides when the big Xmas crowds come to town. Heck, it may even attract a family or two to Dreamworld!

Why am I surprised that Mickey likes Disney Welcome aboard good sir. Like they all say Steve$, soak it up, there's no other park out there with as good an atmosphere as the Disney. Mickey, Richard, Mik have pretty well summed up my thoughts on the whole Disney thing. Hopefully that'll be yours as well. Have fun.

Thing is people love the big rockets. TTD is getting really good feedback, and SFGAdv's new rocket is getting people excited about going back to the park. Even though the ride is really short, people are lapping it up, much more then with S:TE. Really, if they can get it too to work properly, then they've got a real winner on their hands.

Well the site was new to me, thanks for the link imperial.

...and a great big Amen to that Clairey. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Call Vekoma out? In 10 years since the rides been installed, there's probably been that many (subtle) modifcations made too it that Vekoma would have no idea what to do with it.

It comes down to two things for me: What is the extra capacity? and how much extra is it? If the cost is going to be a couple of million more for, say, and extra 50 people per hour then it would hardly be worth it. If its going to cost an extra million or less and allow an extra 100 people + then it may be worth it. Strangly, I tend to think Dreamworld went the right way with the smaller model, even with its smaller capacity. The Claw in my mind is the parks best addition since Wipeout, and just like Wipeout, the queue moves fairly regualaly, and the ride has what I'd call an adaquate capacity. The themeing on the Claw is not great, but the feel of the area around the ride is very nice (something that you can't really say for Tower of Terror no matter how good the ride is), with nice landscaping, lamps and the like. Re-riding the Claw is a pleasure, not a chore (Read Cyclone), and as a whole, the ride is excuted pefectly. The bigger model would have just cost more.

We show Cartoon Network a couple of places at Seaworld despite the ads. Indeed when I've watched it an amazing amount of advertising is for Seaworld (and Seaworld Gold Coast holidays), and I can imagine it'd be the same for Nick with Dreamworld. In any case, there little or no chance that an ad will appear for, say, a rival park, so ads shouldn't make that much difference.

If they did that, then it'd be pre-recorded stuff thats on an hour (at best) loop, and we'd be back where we started from. Still, I'm surprised the ride ops are able to have the screens turned off because they're sick of them. Its not for them, its for guests.

First time I went on Claw, the screens were showing an overview of the ride. The thing is that when the ride was operating, the screens just went blue. Seems they didn't work when the most interesting stuff was going on. Maybe that's why they've just turned them off?

Thats the way it normally works. Its a hit and miss thing if the current stuff in the queue is turned on. To me its been a bit of a mystery as to why Dreawmorld has thousands of dollers of audio visual equiptment in the queues (Cyclone particually) when it rarely gets used. Though on my last visit I couldn't help but notice the radio Dreamworld thing with music playing in Cyclones queue as well as Claws. Maybe they're going to play the music film clips like at Wet 'n' Wild? Keep us posted anyway, sounds very interesting in a low key sort of way.

Hall of fame status is given to a facility that wins the same category 3 years in a row. Dreamworld has won the publicity and promotions award for the past 3 years, and is such in the hall of fame. My understanding is that Dreamworld are now ineligible to win the publicity and promotions award for the next 2 years. You can win back to back titles. Aussie Zoo actually won best major attraction in 2002, 2003, and had it won last night it would have entered the hall of fame.

The list for the tourism awards judges can be found here as well as a full list of winners here. Dreamworld deserve the credit, after all, if you check the previous winners on the second link provided you can see they've been nominated best major attraction for the past 4 years (the only facility to be acheive this). Really, they've been building up for this since 2001 with the addition of Nick Central, the Claw and general park improvements. Dreamworld is also easily the best when it comes to publicity and promotions (think Big Brother, nude claw ride and a new ad every couple of months), and hasn't been beaten since 2001. Be interesting to see who wins that one next year as Dreamworld are ineligble from winning, due to their "Publicity and Promotions hall of fame" status.

The list for the tourism awards judges can be found here as well as a full list of winners here. Dreamworld deserve the credit, after all, if you check the previous winners on the second link provided you can see they've been nominated best major attraction for the past 4 years (the only facility to be acheive this). Really, they've been building up for this since 2001 with the addition of Nick Central, the Claw and general park improvements. Dreamworld is also easily the best when it comes to publicity and promotions (think Big Brother, nude claw ride and a new ad every couple of months), and hasn't been beaten since 2001. Be interesting to see who wins that one next year as Dreamworld are ineligble from winning, due to their "Publicity and Promotions hall of fame" status.

Very moving, heres to hoping that doesn't happen on the Gold Coast (only 70 years until SW's lease is up). Thanks for the taking the time to keep us posted Alex.

Think Xcelerator at Knott's and you've pretty much got the ride they're talking about.

Took a trip down to Dreamworld today. Just thought I'd leave a few points behind if its of any interest: * Main Street is looking much better with the new splash of paint. A bit on the bright side, but still definitely good too see. * Two person op on Cyclone all day, and both sides of Giant Drop working all day. Capacity up a touch, but still sucks. * Lots of ex- WVTP staff. What's the go with all the WVTP staff at Dreamworld and all the ex Dreamworld staff at the WVTPs? * Saw the Tiger Island presentation for the first time today. Well done Dreamworld. The park is also adding a huge shade cover over the viewing area, which is IMHO a very welcome move. Two thumbs up from me. * The fire house game is still undergoing renovations. * Wipeout is still closed (shock horror I know since the parks website lists it as being closed). The ride seems to have mostly been put back together, with work going on in the (empty) pool. Any idea why its opening has been delayed? * Staff were mostly friendly, talkative and happy to help. Special mention to Alan (I think?) in the Kakadu Cafe and the guys doing the dart game in Gold Rush Country. Hope this has been enlightening

How? Is there a phone in there? lol

Does he read this site?

I've been to Infinity, and thought it was quite worth while. The effects weren't quite impressive as I'd hoped, but they were still quite cool. The room with the strobe lighting and the balls was probably the best. The other impression I got was that the experience was just to short. Even walking through it slowly you still find yourself ejected into the real world just a touch to quick. On topic: The company that operates Infinity have recently opened a second attraction in Surfers, Space Walker. I had the pleasure of experiencing Space Walker, a couple of days ago, and thought I'd leave you with a trip report. After walking out of the Blazing, hot sun, we were standing at the ticket desk, with what I'm guessing was a rather stupid look on our faces. "Would you two like to go into space?" we were asked by a young girl, who was sporting the sort of uniform you'd expect to see at a Trekkie convention. This was quite a sight, since you don't normally see girls in these sort of clothes. Plus she was attractive, and wearing a strange Silver wig. "Umm, yeah, me and him" I motioned to a friend of mine, who was still adjusting to the cool air, and was semi-transfixed by her wig. "Ok, now the whole experience is 2 hours, so do you need to go to the toilet? Because there are no toilets in space". We chuckled, paid the entrance price, and were asked to proceed to the teleporter (normal people call it an elevator, but this isn't that sort of place). We emerged at a Space Station, surrendered our mobile phones (apparently there's no reception in space either) and headed over to the transport pod. The next shuttle wasn't leaving for another 5mins, so we stood at the door, looking at all the 3D pictures of space. After 6 or 7 mins, we were admitted to the transport pod. It was basically a theatre, with seats that were somewhere between church benches, and full recliner chairs. So began our "Journey". Now, I really want to enjoy this place, but this is where it kinda started going pear shaped. The movie that followed went for about 20mins (I'm guessing, since I didn't have my mobile to keep time, good idea that) and basically consisted of travelling from somewhere in the universe, to somewhere else in the universe (I think we were meant to be travelling to Earth, but I can't be sure). While we were travelling, an alien (looked like a Jellyfish, and I suspect is actual footage of a Jellyfish) was talking to us, educating us about the Solar System. Or at least that was the intention, but the narrative was kinda hard to hear at best. One thing we did get though was that once our pod "docked" we were to disembark and select one of two ways to get into space. Both options appeared quite cool, so we spent a good couple of mins trying to think of which way to go. Once we disembarked, we had to go through Cosmic Customs, which involved standing in what looked like a metal detector, but was in actual fact an "On ride photo". Clever. We were still debating which path we would take into space. One was kinda like what the whole of infinity is, and the other was one of those spinning tunnels. Since there was no one else there, we experimented and did both. The Spinning Tunnel was probably the best way to go. Thus it was, that we were at the main attraction, Space Walk. Its basically a path in the dark, with a mock up of the Solar System and universe around you with educational videos along the way. It was kinda cool, but was shocking to discover this was the main attraction. This was what we'd paid to come in to see. Naturally, we watched all the videos, which it must be said, were generally quite well done. Within about 20 mins/half an hour, we had meandered to the end of the 30 or so meter walk, and entered the "Black hole" (travelator with lighting effects) which took us back to the start. When we exited, we both had very similar thoughts on the attraction, and a basic summary is follows: 1. The staff were fantastic. They didn't break from they're character, and stayed true to the feel of the place. Anyone who can call an elevator a teleporter without blushing deserves a pat on the back up in my book. 2. The film was too long, not interesting enough, and at times very hard to understand. I know it would have been expensive, but I really wish they'd made this section a simulator, and not so educational. 3. Making people choose one way or another was in my mind a mistake. It means you miss half of the special effects. The return journey (blackhole) will soon be accompanied by another second option, the Stargate. Maybe this is in the hope that people will feel compelled to come again to experience the other entry and exit. 4. The actual walk itself was very well done, but just not all that spectacular. It would make an excellent queue in a theme park, but as a stand alone attraction I'm not sure. It is a better walkthrough then Harry Potter and Matrix though. Again, I really wanted to like this attraction, but overall it seems to be lacking something. Really, what I think its missing is its not infinity. That's its biggest problem. What we were really hoping for a kind of "Infinity 2", not an educational experience. When the staff told us it was educational, we figured it'd be like infinity but with educational stuff. Not even close, this is completely different, and I think that's the attractions biggest problem. If your on holiday, check it out. Even if your a local, check it out once. Its worth a look at, but its sadly not worth it a second time. Maybe the bar they're adding will enhance the experience, and the Stargate ending might get me back a second time, but overall this is one of those "Looked really cool on the drawing board" ideas, but doesn't quite work. I'd give it a 6 out of 10 overall.