joz

Please note, this is now an roller-coaster.com exclusive, and is not to be discussed on any other website without prior written permission. Indeed, Shark Bay is open, and attracting big crowds into the park. As well as this, the train is now open from a year long rehab (quite possibly the longest rehab ever) and corkscrew has finished its annual maintenance, sporting a new paint job. Just on a few things mentioned above (this is from my limited, but generally exceptional knowledge of filtration): The algae in the pool, while being unsightly, isn't really of huge concern. Basically, its impossible to keep algae out of the pool for a few reasons. Most notable is the fact that the pool is outdoors, and gets lots of sunshine, which is wonderful for growing stuff. Don't forget, you can't just kill all the algae in there by dumping copious amounts of chlorine in the pool as its not good for sharks either. Add too that, you can't drop the pool and give it a good scrub, as, again, its not good for the sharks. Also, to be fair, they have been in there for about 5 months now. Its one of those things that the parks filtration department is going to be working on constantly, and its doing a good job keeping the water so clear.

SCG the best cricket ground in the world??? Barely in the top 3 or 4 in Australia never mind the world. Its truth that Melbourne was more important then Sydney for a while. A good example of this is the fact that in 1956, the Olympics were in Melbourne, in 2000 they were in Sydney. Anyway, its a bit unfair to call Melbourne the "butthole of Australia" when no one has mentioned either Adelaide or Canberra.

To be fair, for a long time in Australia's development, Melbourne was much more important then Sydney. Author Bill Bryson notes that in 1956 Melbourne was home to fifty of Australia's largest, while Sydney had just 37. (Sydney would compensate for this by making up "cruel but generally outstanding jokes" about Melbourne's supposed lack of liveliness, like; "Do you have any children?" "Yes, two living, and one in Melbourne"). The author does note that beyond the obvious visual advantage Sydney draws from the harbour, there is little to separate the cities in terms of quality of life (less then separates say New York and L.A.). Anyway, don't let this stop the rest of Australia enjoying this feud between Sydney and Melbourne... Which one is the centre of the universe?

So in other words, its coming either next year, the year after or any year after that? Can't wait! For a change (well, for me at least) I wouldn't mind seeing Dreamworld adding a big roller coaster. Asking Dreamworld to theme is a waste of time, and if they do theme it, I only whinge about the tackiness and half baked nature of it. Bugger it, build a big shiny new coaster.

3000 staff? No way. That'd leave you with 428 staff per day if you gave everyone one shift a week and you wouldn't want any more then that on. Maybe they are counting all the contractors that have ever been on the property? Keep going with the articles if you find them Goboi, most interesting.

Ashlee, do you have your parent or guardian's permission to be posting on this site? I'd be very surprised if your over 12, which makes me wonder if you've agreed to the terms of the site

Dreamworld's Giant Drop incident was exactly as Richard said, the car hit one of the cable separators on the way down. Not sure what the cause was, but from memory, the 'will not operate in high winds' policy started soon after, so read into that what you wish. There were no injuries on the incident, although it was covered on the news at the time quite heavily, the cable separators landed on the grass next to the ride, missing the operators and the model T lane. Dreamworld made (another) modification and put the very flimsy looking covers over the cars so that next time a heavy metal object falls off the tower hopefully it'll stop it from hitting guests :-)

The park used to put good films on, and even play two different (good) films on the same day. I think in Tony's tenure, thats one area where he has let the standard drop a long way (perhaps he didn't see the value in a nice big Imax theater with 400 seats in his park?). The Imax theatre has been under utilised recently. I firmly beleive that the park would benifit quite well from closing the theater down and give it a bit of a face lift and re-open it with good films.

Just while on the topic of the rapids ride: Anyone else notice that on Dreamworld's current ad the guy gets sprayed by water coming from behind the boat? Just felt like pointing it out.

Anyone else notice that according to the website Wild West Falls is set to open 26 December 2003?

Luna Park is also in a tough market for a week or three while Wonderland is lying on its deathbed.

So in a weird way you got a bit of the Thunderbolt's past AND its future?

My understanding of Drop Rides is they have a staircase in the middle so crews can repair the mecanics at the top of the ride, or is this only the case with ToT/GD?

Tomb Raider is a very interesting attraction, but wouldn't fit anywhere in Dreamworld. The thing I'm wondering is what happens in a few weeks when it finishes? Tomb Raider's architecture doesn't fit in Gum Tree Gully in the least bit (true it probably wouldn't fit anywhere) nor does it fit with Farmyard Friends. Its Dreamworld, its mismatched. Heck, I wouldn't even mind if they turned Gum Tree Gully into an 'Adventureland' style area (Everything else is stolen from Disney, so why not the good stuff?) but the park is just continuing to call it Gum Tree Gully to prove there is no real plan for the area.

True, but what do you expect them to say? Wonderland, home of Australia's oldest, and most painful rides! Truely in a leauge in its own when it comes to having only one or two decent rides! I think the whole Wonderland closing was summed up best on coasterbuzz, where the member said something along the lines of "Yeah, its got a boomerang, a clone of grizzly and a giant drop, so no big loss really"

I think its really sad to see Senice World deviate away from the whole "Home made with second hand cables - about to break" feeling they've got going on down there. The whole clear floor thing sounds very interesting too. I guess if they're building safe stuff they have to be creative in how they convince people they're going to die. Tell ya what though, I would've loved to read that article when we were there. Would've made the day

More attractions for families. Its the in thing at the moment, and makes good bussiness sense. The reason is that familes spend more money, and are easier to market too. Its nothing new, every other park on the Gold Coast has been doing this for years.

Apparently the Zoo recently bought more land in Coloundra, with plans to turn it 'into the best zoo in the world' (Source, some newspaper clipping on display at the zoo).

Yeah man, quite out of character for yourself. I've always thought you were more calm then that Take a deep breath each of you, then get stuck back in, quite good reading in this thread.

I know there was some support for the idea of leaving the loops there as a reminder to the bolt or having two big loops in the next ride the park builds... bad idea. Fare-ye-well Thunderbolt. Hope you make a better pile of scrap metal then you did Roller Coaster.

Like Flea I'm surprised the park is closing before it reopens for the night. I think its a good idea for the park, and hopefully it'll be a success and will scare WVTPs into doing night trading as well.

Its a rumour and was posted as such. Its supposedly common knowlodge around Dreamworld so I don't see the harm.

Well, after my rant (well, before my rant but I didn't find out about this till after my rant) I can say that there will be cheap tickets to get into the parks. Too say its the same 3 Parks Super Pass deal as last year is too obvious, so lets just say that it runs from April 1 to Augest 31

DJ: Omg, what a cute floorless! Wonder if we can squeeze it between Polar Bears and the Flume ride... Just a shame Seaworld is type cast to get short smooth rides with 3 inversions. Anyway, Dreamworld A Woodie would be good at Dreamworld if that damm Amphitheatre wasn't taking the best spot to put it. Come on Dreamworld, do everyone a favour pull the plug on Big Brother and build a woodie over the never-used-in-normal operations Amphitheatre. Thats about the only place in the park where I reckon a wood coaster would look good, although its a bit close to the town centre... If we're talking about a ride in Ocean Parade, I like the second picture. Admittedly that rides attractiveness does have more to do with my love of inversions and how well landscaped it is. I still say build a ride like GE force over the centre Island. Load the ride near Model T Lane (hell, this is Dreamworld, why not load right in the middle of Model T lane?), send it through the trees and give it a corny name. Sounds like a winner to me.

All the parks will do all right this year. WnW is more popular then ever, Movieworld will probably indirectly benefit from Scooby Doo 2 and Seaworld is expecting a big year with Shark Bay (unless there's another terrorist attack, killer virus or economic turndown). Really, I think the parks need to get back to basics. Try and get those domestic tourists in. South East Queensland is booming, the domestic market is more valuable then ever, so I don't understand why there is no push to get all extra locals into the parks like what Dreamworld is doing. IMO the parks would be in a healthier position if they left the international market alone for a moment and concentrated on getting locals into the parks (like Dreamworld is doing). Dreamworld's profit has been through the roof the past couple of years, the same years Warner Village experienced lower attendance, and lower profits with profits only returning to 'normal' this year when really there is no excuse for the business not to be booming. Maybe it all has something to do with the fact that unlike the defunct Seaworld property trust and Macquarie Leisure, Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow's principal activities isn't theme parks and makes up only a tiny fraction of the companies revenue, and to be a million or two short of the year before don't really matter considering film and TV just brought in $125 million