joz

Just in time for Winter too Ian! Not sure what the plans are, but the operations did say something about closing the ride to re-work it earlier this year. Probably kept getting the same rating on guest surveys so they decided not to worry about it

Dreamworld didn't. They once claimed that they were the best theme park in the country. They rebutted similar claims by Seaworld by saying that SW wasn't a theme park, but was a marine park with rides (why they didn't just say "We're better" is sill a mystery). Dreamworld was once proud of being a 'theme park' and was well, strict on its definition. Sadly the park has let that slide more and more in the past few years along with originality.

I don't know about that Goboi, they can also steal names from Paramount (Reptar and pretty much every ride in Nick Central) Six Flags New England (Cyclone, Thunderbolt), Disney (Tower of Terror) Chance Morgan (Wipeout). That's not even going into actual generic names like Enterprise and Giant Drop. Why would Dreamworld do something creative and original name wise now? I mean what was their latest effort? Angry Beaver's Spooty Spin? No wonder they're going for crap stolen names these days.

Just on Jamie Oliver, if you want to talk like him just add either 'yeah' or 'right' at the end of each sentence. He did these live shows in London (well worth a watch if you haven't, quite funny stuff) and I swear that's how he ended every sentence. Anyway on Wonderland, over to you guys having the relevant discussion...

Am I the only one here who can see a problem with not even deciding the rides concept until after construction starts? I get the impression that Dreamworld have gone about this the same way most people do when playing RCT: build the ride, then worry about designing the queue and whatnot. I'd be surprised if they'll have enough time to do a quality job on theming (like Wipeout for example) paretically since they've only just figured out what too call the thing. BTW, excellent call Wonderbuss

I'd put it another way: He was able to maintain the efficiency while reducing staffing to more realistic levels. GD when it opened had 5 operators, ToT about the same. The numbers have dropped, and the efficiency is pretty much the same. I think I would have a different opinion of Tony if Cyclone's second train was added during his tenure. Maybe I'm to harsh on him, after all, in his time there Koala Country became the AWE, as well freshening up Country Fair, and merging Kennyland and Village Green to create Nick Central. Not a bad effort, I'm sure he'll do well at Great Southern Railway. Just hope they don't call on his theme park experience to design a station. (and before it starts, I'm not suggesting he personally designed Cyclone's station)

Nick Central and Hana Barbarra land right next to each other, despite the fact that Hana Barbarra chacters are already in a Gold Coast theme park? I'm with you on points one and four, but more second hand rides and re-hashed ideas don't really appeal to me.

So that must be why they've now only got one train on their entire network.

??? How so? Also, we're talking about a ride trade Gyro Swing from memory

??? How so?

wow, I thought we'd have to wait for years before my keyring would be good for anything

Depends on the ride, but genrally once a year. Don't know about DW, but I'm guessing that they normally close rides down either side of the Jun/July holidays.

You'll love it Ian, free grog on afterwards I hear! If they were going to do it, I think you'll find they'd do it for the Scooby Doo 3.

Do O'neils (and the other traveling ride companies) have any other interests in the shows, such as a percentage of gate takings, their own food vans or anything like that?

I dunno if new small rides are the answer, after all how many different ways can one be spun? What is needed is something that makes people sit up and take notice. Give the 'midway' some 'wow' factor again. One of those German models would be just the ticket. Also, on the size thing, why can't they customise the ride model to use an extra trailor? Don't tell me that they could spend millions on a ride and not spend $30/40 thousand on another trailor?

Bounty Girl lives again

Everyone is saying how secure they felt in the restraints, so as someone whose never ridden in them, its hard to have an informed opinion. From my uninformed viewpoint, it seems though that the restraints have too many 'loopholes' as it were. I mean, as apposed to OTSRs and other restraint systems, the Intamin restraints seem to be subject to sitting the right way and having the lap bar up against the right part of your body and being the right size. Its true that most of the accidents have been rider error/ ride op error, but there must be a reason that its mostly happening on Intamin rides. They just seem to easy to have a mistake on.

wow, I'm must be an Aussie, I actually say "Full Stop" in coversation

Ever considered a career in politics Richard?

If I was a betting man (which those who know me well know I am) I'd be placing a hefty sum of money on human error. I can't be bothered digging out any old thrillseeker photos, so I'll direct you back to the old Luna Park Melbourne Gallery. Thrillseeker was identical to this ride.

Corkscrew should be open, I'd be very surprised if there was any problems there. Thrillseeker closed in early 2002, and was sold (last asking price was US$50,000. God only knows how much it ended up being sold for in the end). I've not seen anything around the park about the plans for the water park this year, so I'd be guessing they'd be keeping it open for the winter.

Not sure myself, its been quite a while since I've done any work out at Movieworld for nearly 5 months now. The park's website doesn't make a mention of any closures (weird), so if your planing on visiting the park I'd suggest giving them a call. Otherwise, I'm looking over at Ian for some insight on this one.

How the hell are they going to spend $700mil on a water park? They going to build the whole thing out of solid gold? It'd better be friggen good for that sort of price tag.

I'd love to see them do one of those specials in a place like Iraq. "For an extra $20 you can even be burned alive for being an infidel, but be warned, there are some shonky operators out there. But for those who want the ultimate experience, you can go inside an Iraqi house, and every 30 mins the building is bombed by US aircraft, and afterwards you can have a photo taken with a guy who looks like Saddam Hussein (which could be almost anyone in Iraq)"

That'd be perfect, being an Intamin ride people could even hurl themselves from it!