joz

Maybe!

The concept art also has the default no limits station in it and had the ride rotated 180degrees and the scale of lots of things seems out. It's also totally different from the model that was released at the same time so it's clearly 'concept art' not 'artists impression' if that makes sense. To me, it kind of looks like the original concept art was designed to be experienced at altitude from the outside, where as what they're actually doing is to be seen from ground level inside the area. I think the real proof of the pudding though will be how much landscaping they can get in, if it's green enough with a few little bits and pieces around the place then I'd say it's faithful enough. "You would say that Joz OMG so biased!" I stand by my view at the start of all this that you can't do an immersive themed land in that area since the view across the water is the back of the Ski Lake/entrance building. Best off just having it be generally pleasant with a style tying it together. The 'Atlantis' stuff is actually the weakest element IMHO.

They don't write unimportant things like the definition of a theme park v an amusement park in stone.

Not really. In Australia, theme park pretty much means 'Big Amusement park where parts of the park have a different vibe to other parts'. The only park that doesn't fit that is WWW and I think that checks out. WnW sees itself as a water theme park, and by my own loose definition it works, and puts the WWW = water park V wnw = theme park thing into explainable context. The point is that its an arbitrary definition, and by international standards, an amusement park is a theme park here. Always has been, probably always will be. Given that you can do almost whatever in Australia and it counts as a theme park. Just do a quality job and at scale and you're doing great.

I don't think it's about the theme park v amusement park argument. It's about putting effort in v not putting effort in.

Theme Parks a Go-Go is for sale. Has been since the start.

Look one thing I'll say in defense of current management is they were handed a poisoned chalice. Like the park was an absolute mess in 2019 and the last few years have been an inevitable clear out. There's no money in demolishing old crap but it has to be done. The rides that they've closed also were legit end of life and it was pretty predictable that it was going to be contraction before any growth was possible. On that hand, I get it. On the other hand, blind Freddy could see all the rides that have closed in the past few years were going to close and the line up was going to be thread bare by now. So they deserve critisim for not replacing Wipeout with another flat ride when the opportunity was there, or not spending a few million on getting another decade out of the Log Ride. Everything they've done suggests the vision is for a smaller, worse park. The difference between that and say SW, is you get the feeling that they had a vision for SW that it's exclusively for families with small kids. Their vision wasn't to shrink it or make it worse, or cut it back, but just to have it appeal to a narrower group of people. I'd argue passionately that nearly every decision they made in the past decade did make it worse, but it did seem to have a vision to it. Even Liviathan supports that thinking. DW from the outside the vision look like it's just straight up 'Make the place physically smaller, have fewer rides, put a hotel in'. It's just a question of if that's a permanent vision. Rerouting the train suggests to me it is, and I think that's a shame. Part of the reason DW is in the state it's in is 20 years of small thinking.

I have strong opinions on this. To the point that whenever I start saying something on the topic, I turn the computer off, go for walk, and have a good hard think about why this causes me to rage so much.

I think when the rendering was done there weren't any actual plans, so the dude just went and made it well presented off his own back. The rendering also shows a path through the ride and a bridge that aren't a thing, and there's no tunnel on the rendering either. It's a shame that the back of SV is being left like that, I think rock work on the back of SV would have been better than the tunnel, but also whatever, and gotta be realistic that covering up SV presumably would have cost a shiteload more than what the tunnel is.

That's very good to hear! Nah, it's been going on for the past 2 or 3 years a lot. I've mentioned it once or twice before, but not for a while. I wasn't consciously picturing your posts when I wrote all that

There's a difference to posting in direct response to public comments to bashing someone behind their back or name dropping for the street cred, and I think anyone engaged in this in a good faith way can see that. You're allowed to say '<name> spoke to the media and said this. I agree/disagree with them' compared to just bringing someone's name up out of the blue to criticise them and things they've done. FWIW I wasn't targeting you with the original comment, I actually forgot the name dropping was a thing you'd done till you reminded me by posting about it. It's been a thing on the board for the past few years and I don't like it. I've probably done it myself if you go back in time enough, but it has been a bit of a trend at different times for lots of people to do it, and I don't think it is either good or helpful.

This has been a thing since basically forever. From my point of view, once something has been announced broadly to staff then it's fair game. If you really care about stuff not getting out, you don't release it to hundreds of people. Mostly, we don't do the NDA chest thumping here once it's at that point. I 100% guarantee you that once front line staff know, competitors know. There's no point acting like it's some big commercial secret. The other thing is that the people who know, mostly dont need to impress everyone with what they know. I would guarantee you that there are heaps of people who know, but they don't feel the need to post it to the forums for internet brownie points. There's an old saying; 'Those who know the least, know it the loudest', and I think that's really true with this. Oh you know 1 thing? Cool, so does everyone else! I think the general feeling isn't one of keeping secrets, but it's respect for the person who told you to not go spreading it everywhere. I think that's why some people get their noses out of joint when someone comes in and teases something. It's like 'We all know that, be more respectful' and bring up nonsense about NDAs and whatnot to justify it. Really though, there aren't any secrets, most people who have been here a long time know what all the parks are doing a long way out. Sometimes it makes things hard because you want to say what's up but you can't. Parkz got slammed for being too negative a couple of years ago about DW's future, listing Tot, Wipeout Buzzsaw and Log Ride as rides that will probably close in the next few years. Some of that was information sourced from a variety of industry and inside sources, but it was also quite important contextually to give the full picture and provide accurate commentary. On the forums it's the same, you can't have a real conversation when you know stuff without taking stuff into account. Broadly though, we as a group (i mean EVERYONE on here, not just the admins) get it right. Some people's lines are further than others, but I've not seen anyone have a full on dump everything they know online moment. Most people moderate themselves a bit and are respectful to their sources.The only thing I think we get wrong as a group, is we tend to play the person, not the issue. People love to name drop, and talk shit about management by name, and TBH I think that's worse than hinting that you know stuff. "This person mismanaged SW" "This person wrote a crap show" "This person botched the install of Sccoby Doo next Gen" isn't needed. SW has been mismanaged, that show is crappy, next Gen, particualy when it went in, was beyond a joke is saying the same thing, but isn't making it personal. I'm tempted to have that being a rule that we don't mention staff or management by name so you don't get the childish name calling and low key bragging that you get. Also put more effort into not being triggered by people obviously trolling, and don't be the NDA police. Peace!

Props to them for the video. That's the first bit of actual hype I've seen for any ride for a long time.

Well it's Steel Taipan, not Concrete Taipan. I think if you were just decorating it, it's fine, but if you're themeing it, it makes no sense to have a path that looks like a snake. To have a path look like the Steel Taipan has slithered across it would be theming though. TBH I'm kind of OK with the idea of a path that looks like a snake. It makes no sense, but it's not like it's traditionally themed anyway so who cares? I always imagined Steel Taipan having more of an 'Aussie Outback' meets 'Steampunk' vibe about it rather than 'Abstract snakey things' decoration, but since they've gone that direction, abstract snake path makes sense.

Storm is themed, and it's themed well. More than most rides in Australia it does create a sense of 'place'. The problem is it's themed to somewhere that's unpleasant to be. It does feel like being in a port after a disaster has hit, but who wants to visit a port after a disaster has hit? Most rides in Australia don't really create that feeling of place, it's decoration with a loose theme or a themed style. Steel Taipan and New Atlantis both seem to have that same thing going on. I think 'Story' as a concept is over rated, but when a ride is done well, you feel like you've visiting another place. For bonus points, it should also be a place you want to visit.

Either weekends plus as many other days as demand will allow in December, or it'll be Mondays in February

If history has been any indication, big investments in the run up to 'Cash in' on the event, instantly followed by a 6 months of poir results around the event, then basically back to normal, but with a product boosted by earlier investment, but needing something to keep it fresh.

Yeah righto, you hate Ardent, we get it!

It must be hard trying to find angles to make a much shorter circuit seem like it's an upgrade. New carriages is one way I guess. I've said for years that they should close the station at Billabong Cafe and Rocky Hollow and have it not stop at Main Station for 10mins like they currently do. With how short it is they'll almost need to leave Billabong station in to try and trick people into thinking the ride has a bit of length to it.

It's not even optics, it's that the park is really thread bare right now; they kind of need the filler. I assume it's one of those things where it's end of life, costs a ton to maintain, isn't popular and is closed a fair chunk of the time. I'm not surprised (or even sad) it's going, but I'd have thought string it out for a yeah and close it when you add a new flat ride or something cheap just to keep the park feeling full in the meantime.

What in the fuck does 'Given the ride's proximity' mean?

I don't know if I'm in favour of a big show building that extends to BRC, I'm just saying I'm not mad if they want to recycle the station building for a ride or something. The more I think about it, the less convinced I am it's a good idea, but still, buildings are expensive. So long as it gets used for something accessible to the public and not something like a train maintenance shed. Unless of course the public can access it.

Oh well hopefully they can change the angle so it's not just a photo of people's legs

Do those photos look better in real life?

As much of an eyesore as that building is, I wouldn't be mad if they gutted it, and kept it for now with the ambition of putting a dark ride in there down the track. Edit: just had a look on maps, that building is way smaller than I realised. Could just about put a flat ride in there