joz

I must admit I'm on the side of knocking the project. This isn't exactly a response to you MickeyD, but I've quoted you because you have inspired me to write more complete thoughts on the project (as proposed, opinion subject to change as more information comes to light) The main entry is an indoor ski slope inside a Re-creation of Uluru. That to me sounds the ramblings of a madman. Uluru still has an active culture, so it gets treated with a lot of respect in this country. Building a replica and putting an indoor ski slope is not treating it with respect, it's treating it as a novelty, turning a sacred site into a road stop. "Oh Joz what are you on about, building a replica doesn't take away from the real one and doesn't disrespect anything" What I'm saying isn't that this is a slap in the face to the real Uluru, what I'm saying is that this displays a lack of understanding of Australian culture, which isn't a good sign since that promises to be a fundamental part of the park. This isn't Australian history, it's Australian history as told by a Chinese business man who doesn't understand Australian history or culture. The parks principle themes seem to be 'Aboriginal Culture' 'Captain Cook's arrival' and a 'Chinese cultural area'. What a random combination of themes. There's nothing that goes all those themes together, no over arching theme, it's just a mish mash or half baked ideas, and I can't get even a little bit enthusiastic for it. Stuff like running a ferry service to Surfers and Carrara Stadium doesn't make sense to me. Might they bring in your groups via boat instead of by bus? Yeah probably, but to say there'll be a Ferry service is nonsense. And why go to Carrara Stadium? Unless the plan is to do some sort of park and ride thing on game day that makes no sense. Also according to the last report there won't be any thrill rides on opening. So there you have it, a park with no rides doing cultural shows designed by a man who doesn't understand culture themed around elements that don't gel together for a non-existent market of Chinese tourists + ski slope. I'm sorry but it sounds awful. You've been around the Gold Coast tourism scene, you know the crowd Movie World was built for, it was built to cater for international tourists who never showed up. You also know the reason Movie World is the way it is has to do with them going after the local market because what they were trying to do didn't work. Dreamworld at least opened with a couple thrill rides and Movie World had a couple good family adventure rides to keep them going. Dreamworld & Movieworld also both had good well defined over arching and compelling themes. This place has none of those things.

Bonus points for remembering that it's Hungry Jack's and not Burger King! I'm still willing to get behind the park though. They're easily the friendliest park in South East Queensland, and as much as it's a unique ride, Australia as a whole has so few coasters that everything here is unique, and I don't think you can get much marketing mileage out of a ride that's so small and old. Put it in America or the UK and all of a sudden you've got a more coaster literate population who can appreciate such things, but it's totally wasted here. I'm sad to see it go, but I'm not surprised. The fact they have plans to replace it with a similar ride doesn't do much to soften the blow, but at least they have plans to replace it and grow the park. So long as they're investing in the place and bringing new rides in I totally support them.

It actually sounds like a rather awful mishmash of tacky stuff that doesn't go together.

Did anyone else notice that this release came from Ardent Leisure, not Main event? Wonder if they're trying to keep the Main Event name untarnished? The response i think is a good one, while I think they do need to get a couple rides open, cutting ticket prices and adding in White Water World to the Dreamworld ticket price is probably what was needed right now, and it seemed like it was the long term plan anyway. Extending the passes by 6 months was also a good move, a lot of passes expire in December, and I can't imagine there is much desire out there to renew, but an extra 6 month so of healing and I think people will be more inclined to spend again.

I think they'd be mad to announce it now TBH. If they announce the ride now, you'll have to wait another 6 months before you can buy a ticket to ride it, by which time the impact of the announcement is gone. While the inner working of the VRTP accounting are a bit beyond me, for my taste, it'd make sense to open up VIP pass renewals around mid March, as well as open up new sales for a slight premium to account for having an extra 3 months (so $99 for renewals, $110 for new sales), defer the bulk of the income to next financial year, pocket the premium for new sales this year, then make your announcement mid March and then market the hell out of it.

Sea World did outside the Paradise Room, as well as Dolphins cut into the lawn in the distant past. No reason why Dreamworld couldn't do a similar thing, but I don't know that it's something that is or even should be high on their priority list at the moment.

I think people massively over estimate the amount of international visitation an Australian theme park gets. There is a reason that Paradise Country has been going after the local market so hard lately, and that reason isn't an over abundance of international guests. When you talk about how many international visitors a park gets a day, even a park like Paradise Country, most days you're talking about a couple hundred, not a couple thousand. Everyone thinks Outback Spectacular is sustained by internationals, and I'm pretty sure that was the goal when they built it, but from everything I've seen since it opened Australians make up the vast majority of the audience there. I'd be surprised if 20% of the other parks attendance was made up of international tourists. So the idea you can get enough Chinese tourists to an attraction in Australia based on Chinese culture to sustain a $500million investment I think is a massive departure from reality. Unless there is a traditional theme park buried in the plans somewhere to get the locals involved, this will fail. On the other hand I'm not totally convinced that the plan is to actually build it either.

Even if it is within guidelines, its a shitty, deceitful thing to do and who ever came up with it needs the sack. Rounding up for no nothing, what an embarrassment. You know what too, The prices in the parks all used to end with 95cents, now it's 99cents. That miserable little manoeuvre is your credit card fees taken care of, your product is fun, stop needlessly pissing people off!

@liz.wis Yep that's some bad 80's kid hair. It's almost child abuse the haircuts 80's kids had to suffer with. Like OK you got taken to Grundy's, but that hair! Lol Yeah that's the little coaster! I remember I used to love that thing!

I don't think so, the one Grundy's looks the same as the one's that Sea World and Dreamworld each have, where as the Broadbeach one looks like something entirely different

I don't know what I'm basing it off but I always thought the Tilt a Whirl came from Grundys. They also had a very small powered dragon kiddie coaster which I loved when I was like 4. Also who ended up with the carrousel when Grundy's closed? I think Sea World already had there's by then, so Dreamworld maybe?

Yeah quite looking forward to seeing what sort of mods might come out for it. Also I'd just like to leave this here, it's a an official video using No Limits to preview a new ride

It's all about how good you are with the program though. Nothing about No Limits is inherently professional, in fact there have been some very amateur looking 'official' preview videos made on No Limits. No Limits should be the go to for concept videos and previews as you can get amazingly accurate results, but also I have no doubt that someone will use Planet Coaster in a professional context. Having played the first scenario and mucked around with the game more generally it's probably not something I'll play a great deal TBH. It limits me right where I don't want to be limited. Maybe I'm too old, maybe I already got my fix on this type of game when I was younger, but as a game I don't find it to be that compelling, and the customization tools, while incredibly powerful, are just cumbersome and unrewarding. Having said all that though, this is the game I wanted RCT3 to be. It's really good, and I'm not disappointed I got a copy. If they support it, let the modding community get their hands on it, then I think it has a good life in it. While it's not something I'll play often, it is something I can see myself starting up occasionally when I've got some time to kill or want something casual to play while I'm listening to music

I've had a quick muck around with PC, it's not something I plan to obsess over for weeks at a time like the original RCT or NL2, but I can see myself just spending a few hours with it here and there to kill boredom. @reanimated35 Too early to say if I end up getting anything worth sharing out of PC, depends if I can find a time to be less busy, but I'll see. Must admit I've actually busted out NL2 recently, and reckon I've got a couple 'ok' things in the works.

How's your brand loyalty going?

There's nothing that says a panic room must be terrorfying, so there's no reason it couldn't fit. As for a 4D free spin, it's not a ride I'd choose, but at 122cm it has a low height restriction, and I can imagine the GP eating it up. I'm not totally against the idea of one in that location. What I would say though, is that area of the park at the moment is a playground for kids, and it's a popular corner of the park, so my instinct would be to expand on and improve the current castaway bay theme, rather than add two fairly adult attractions to a totally kiddie area. Rather than a panic room/maze, I think a MACK twist and shout to replace the kiddie pool would be the way to go. I don't think it's too similar to battle boats, I think it just adds to the critical mass of wet rides in that area to make that the place to go to cool off, (almost like a water park ). That area already has a gift shop so I wouldn't bother with that, but an expanded seating area and alcohol sales I think would make it better for parents wanting a break while their kids let off energy in the kiddie attractions. If the room was there for a 4D free fly I wouldn't be say no given the fairly low height requirement, but I don't think it's a ride that should take on the role of the parks big signature thrill ride either. Just my $0.02

According to rumour it needed some repairs done and they didn't want to spend the money

Something Sierra Sidewinder-esque would be rather good, particularly given it's 107cm height restriction and potential for a really good capacity. Manta as a marquee thrill ride is a bit weak IMO, I think they need something that'd really get the public's imagination, and I can't see Manta as being that ride, it's probably also a bit similar to Jet Rescue. Not opposed to that ride system though, after all Blue Fire and Manta are basically the same ride with different layouts, and I must admit I have turned into a bit of MACK fan boy lately.

^ This I think the problem is that no one who is with VRTP really get what made Sea World a good park when it was at its peak, it was that good mix of attractions the park had. Since they don't get why it's good they can't see the parks potential. It has never been the first choice for thrill rides (nor should it be really), but it traditionally has had a good enough ride collection that those who go to theme parks for rides aren't left disappointed. Now the ride collection is disappointing as rides have been removed without replacement, the shows have been cut and cut until we get to the point now where Jet Stunt Extreme goes for 10 unentertaining mins, the audio is so bad in the Seal Stadium that you can't understand it, and the Dolphin Show really fails to sell Sea World's message of the care for the animals and serious conservation issues, and given how much heat Sea World has been under from the poorly informed Facebook brigade, that seems like a message worth hammering home. Now we're staring down the barrel of 2 attractions closing without replacement, one of them being one of the most popular family rides on the Gold Coast. But it's OK though, they built a new roof lately. Phew! The park will never be the thrill ride capital of the Gold Coast, nor should it be really. But it does need 1 or 2 BIG thrill rides, and 3 or 4 family rides. Not kiddie rides mind you, family rides. Rides that appeal to people of all ages, with very low height requirements. What sort of rides? Well a flume ride ticks a lot of those boxes. There are a lot of combinations of rides that would work, when I made my proposal I went with a MACK launch coaster, Spinning Coaster, and shooting dark ride as a way to restore the parks balance, with a view to also adding a big night time show. Lots of combinations could work, (although I think a drop ride is a total waste of time on the Gold Coast with Giant Drop just down the road). I think they need to lay off the animal attractions for a bit, if you want to see animals on the Gold Coast, you're going to Sea World. They already totally own that market. I'd like to see a few different animal attractions open at Sea World in the future, but the balance needs to be corrected first. That means a new intermediate thrill ride (something on the same level as Doomsday/Pirate ship), a new family ride (replacement flume or Vekoma Madhouse, or better yet both in a new themed area) and a new big thrill ride (something to take over Corkscrew's role as the big impressive coaster in the park). Then you can add animal attractions and have them make a difference, but right now, it's a shell of a park that has a lot of potential, which is being dashed at every opportunity. Incidentally, if they do demolish the castle, get the projector from the 3D cinema over to WnW and do nightly Dive in Movies in Summer again.

Thing is if a ride is well designed and maintained and age isn't really something that makes a ride more dangerous. Sure you have to replace components as they reach the end of their service life, but just because a ride is old doesn't mean it's dangerous. On the other hand, shoot the rapids at Cedar Point. Replacing an older ride with a new one is fine too. But we're still waiting for replacements for the Corkscrew, Skyway, Pirate Ship, Train and the Plunge. Closing one of the few rides left in the park would be an incredibly poor move.

Wild West Falls is newer, and isn't in house. If there's an unknown design fault that creates a problem, that's on Hopkins. The same wouldn't be true of the Flume. Again having said that, they'd have to be total mental patients to close that ride with the park the way it is at the moment. Whatever it takes to keep it going would be worth it.

I've got a feeling that this would have something to do with what happened at Dreamworld. Like Thunder River, the Flume at Sea World is an in-house design. The cost of insuring an in-house is probably about to go through the roof. The other thing if something were to happen, Sea World would be fully exposed. You'd hope that they do whatever they can to get the ride running again, whether that be getting outside risk assessor and engineers to sign off on the ride/design or getting on the phone to MACK about refurbishing/rebuilding the ride. It's not really something that Sea World can afford to lose in it's current depleted state.

See I thought it might've been the house looking thing next to it lol

Judging from Ben's comments I'd have thought it was kind of behind the fairytale shop, or even be the fairytale shop itself? There's a little building there that looks like it could've been a house

So many random topics to comment on. In no particular order: On the other hand most passes get renewed (or not) in June/July. Getting a full year out of such an expensive ride might not be an awful plan. Tend to agree though that September/October seems the likely time for opening. Also are we on the part of the loop where people don't think it'll be a hyper built by MACK again? Someone let me know when we're back to the bit we were at before. Also 300 v 200 feet. Personally I don't care. I think people would be surprised how big a full circuit Hyper coaster is. You don't normally see gigas really use that extra speed for extra length. It all just goes into one big drop, for me, as nice as it is, 200 feet is pretty sweet. Also @loki75, don't feel too bad. People on this site are just used to people coming on and saying 'I know but you don't' sort of stuff. You've made some actual predictions that people will be able to compare against the finished product, so people will know later what the truth was/is.