joz

Probably my favourite bit of Wonderland would be Snowy River Rapids, and the whole Goldrush area. Its got the same feel to it as Goldrush country at Dreamworld did pre Macquarie. I am also taken by the whole area surrounding Demon and the lake at the front of the park.

As for how long to spend at each park, well, I've only been to the DLR, as my intense 4 day park stopover in LA turned into a 3 day vomiting experiment with only one day to do the parks. In my experience, I say one day at each park is enough. When I went, I got a 1-day hopper pass for both parks, and was able to see just about everything that interested me in one single day. The only thing I missed was Soarin', which was my fault as I got a fastpass for Mulholland Madness instead for some unknown reason. As for must do attractions at the parks, well, just about everything at DL and most of DCA is worth a look. Indiana Jones is a must, along with all the 'classic' disney attractions (Splash Mountain, Pirates, Jungle Cruise etc.). If your short on time, I'd probably reccomend missing Innoventions, HIStA, and pretty much the whole of Tomorrowland. At DCA, make sure you check out Cali Screamin', Soarin' (from all reports) and Grizzly River Rapids.

Hard to go pass Dreamworld. They've more or less confirmed new attractions are on the way to replace the rust pile which was once known as Thunderbolt. I doubt Wonderland will get a new attraction ever, Seaworld's next ride has been confirmed as "years" away, and with Warner Village spending up big on Shark Bay, The Outback Show and Paradise Country, I suspect the money may be a bit too tight to buy something big for Movieworld.

Is it just me, or is does LW seem to be the new whipping boy now TB has closed?

A little article on www.screamscape.com has caught my eye, and just thought I'd bring it to everyone's attention: With Dreamworld and Paramount such good friends, and Dreamworld with its new Nick Central area, could it be the obvious choice to replace the Australian Outback Show? Have the 2 other 3D films on the Gold Coast made it not worth the efforts? Post your thoughts here.

Does the attendance from the Australian Park get counted towards Wonderland? Everyone's saying thats where most of the attendance comes from, and would quite fit quite well with the conflicting view we've got going around here.

Tell ya something, we had a 'difficult' year up north, and the only time I can recall the attendance dipping below 1000 was a rainy day, in the middle of the week in June, and that was only around 200 people. Just for the record, every ride opened that day, and every show went ahead. 50- 100 people in the park in one day? Thats all of $5000 in gate takings if everyone's and adult, and pays full price. Doubt that'd pay for much.

You know guys, I ask every customer I serve where their from. If their from Sydney, I always ask "How do we compare to Wonderland?". I this answer 9 times out of 10: Don't know, haven't been there in years. They never add anything. People are voting with their feet, and will continue to do so for a while to come.

Its a bit of a neglected market isn't it? There's a real demand for theme parks between Melbourne and Adelaide. With a population numbering in its 10's of 11's, and its new international landing strip, its surprising no one has invested millions in that area. Thank god for Johnny ay!

Interesting about Tony and Juleen going to Dreamworld. They did shows there for many years before they went down to Sydney. It'd be good for Dreamworld to get the show back, as having seen them perform in both places, I prefered the show at Dreamworld. Wonderland's show just seemed to scream "Tacky!" the whole time I was watching it, where as Dreamworld's was more of a fun diversion during the day. The only thing I liked about the Wonderland version was that Tony and Juleen were getting a bit more exposure for themselves while they were down there.

I don't know about anyone else who watched it, but I saw it and lost all respect for Guy when he said it was the scariest thing he's ever done. It was Metropolis, which makes it on par for thrills with driving behind a Volvo. BTW I don't watch Idol, but my girlfriend does, so I had to sit through it.

While on the off topic topic, I would like to make an off topic post to bring this topic back on topic... I went on Scorpion at DW when it was there, and I must say it is one of the better carnie rides out there (and I'm qualified to say that being the veteran and expert on the topic that I am). At the end of the day, if it were in RCT, its nausea rating would be around the 7 or 8 mark. To me, it was little more then a more intense scrambler, and although fun, I doubt I'd place it in my ideal park. Each to their own though.

So Catwomen is getting her own movie without Batman ay? Be interesting to see how they go about that one...

Finally got around to downloading it, and I must say I'm quite impressed. Simon has done a good job putting all that together. Nice mix of stuff too, although it would've been good get bits of the ski show Go on guys, if you haven't watched the video yet, go do it. Its well worth downloading and sitting through.

If we're ganna be like that... MW 1 DW 1.5 (Counting TOT as half a coaster, that way everyone's happy) WL none worth counting (like that isn't the case anyway :shock: ) I'm not dumping on Vekoma, they produce good, cheap rides. I even went on a couple of Vekomas while overseas, and while they weren't without bumps, they were enjoyable. However, I have noticed that their rides do tend to rate quite highly in the area of roughness. If they could get a formula to fix the roughness, I think they'd be building some of the best rides out there. Also, as DJ mentioned, its not just Vekoma that do rough rides. I've been on Meisho, Arrow, Intamin, Schwarzkopf, B&M, Pinfari and all of which have sections on their rides that are considered rough.

As far I'm concerned, if there's a trick to riding a coaster without getting hurt, it needs work. I hope BB goes, but I have my doubts. Like Phsyco, I also don't take that much notice of Wonderland rumours. A rumour that the BB will close just in time for Xmas is kinda hard to beleive, although it might be a Xmas promotion? Something along the lines of a bonfire....

Or maybe they're going to instal Wizard's Fury :?: :bert:

Lethal Weapon for quite a few years has been an on/off sort of ride. I was quite interested to see last week that one of the trains was going through a re-hab, which hopefully will smooth the ride out a bit. Thing is, what you've got with Lethal is a 8 year old Vekoma SLC. I think Movieworld have done a good job maintaining it, but with a ride like that, there's only so much you can do without replacing entire sections of track (those two in-line twists are my vote to get replaced btw). The whole spring loaded wheels probably ain't ganna work for it, and the ride looks to already be using a softer wheel compound. Like I say though, LW can go through periods where a session with Mike Tyson would be preferable, and other times when your head won't once touch the restraint.

After visiting Wet 'n' Wild last week, I can confirm that operations of Whirlpool involve letting 30 people or so into the attraction, operating the whirlpool for a few mins and then slowing the water and letting the people out and start over again. The best way I can describe it is that its like loading a bumper cars, in that the tubes are scattered randomly throughout the attraction depending on when the people last in the tubes got out. Also like bumper cars, little kids scramble through and get all the good tubes. I didn't mind the ride itself, but as it is very popular with young children (the ones that are at the age where being irritating is a prerequisite), I don't think it'll be a regular attraction that I visit when I go to the park.

Interesting, looks like an early version of Wizard's Fury.

Whats Tumblebug?

My point about the Tomb Raider theme was that if Dreamworld were to add a permanent Tomb Raider attraction next year, that what ever Paramount do with the name could be coming over. Boomerang Bay replacing Blue Lagoon and a Tomb Raider themed Zamperla flyer? Sounds possible, just hope they go with a better flyer. Unless of course they put Boomerang bay on the thunderbolt site...?

Its been a while since I've been on Demon, so my view is probably wrong, but I'd go Cyclone any day. I didn't find going backwards through the inversions in the least bit enjoyable, and the braking system is a joke with how rough it is/was. Ok, Cyclone doesn't have as many inversions and it does have one of the worst cycle times on any ride I've seen anywhere, and it does have a poorly designed (thats as polite as I could put it) queue house, but the ride isn't that bad. It has a few fast spots, and for the space restraints it must have had, used the land very effectivly.

Personally, I think they are the most ugly rides ever conceived. It'd probably suit Dreamworld quite well.

Its a bit of a given that its going to another Paramount park (Carrowinds isn't it?). Just one point: Is anyone else interested to see that the new flyer at Canada's Wonderland is to be given a Tomb Raider theme? Don't forget that Rugrats & Nickeloden were well inserted into Dreamworld well before Nick Central, and Dreamworld and Paramount seem to be getting along quite well these days. I dare say if it wasn't for Dreamworld, Paramount wouldn't even know there was such place as the Gold Coast.