joz

Not too many, but I'll try and remember more when I can. "They take the Polar Bears for walks around the park in the afternoon", "Watch the pirate ship, it goes upside down. Watching? Its about too... Oh, must have already done it", "Yeah, the monorail goes right down to Broadbeach". One of my favourites (and this has happened a few times, but always makes me laugh); recently a bloke came back to the counter of burger bar with a souvenir cup and was trying to get his deposit back on it. I think he wanted us too give him $2 for returning the cup and got quite stroppy when we didn't.

Always open except for annual maintenance, kinda rough but mostly not too bad.

Why go back on topic? Aren't there more hairs we can split?

Thats one only DW managers can answer.

Stairs? Noticed them, used them slick. Still, I don't like being the first person to use them if you know what I mean. I'm far too well behaved Calm down Goboi, we all know that parents will try to sneak their kids on rides. Parents do have blinkers on when they go to theme parks. Try and tell them they can't take a stroller into a show because its a real hazard in an emergency. Anyone who works in a theme park knows it. To be fair though, I reckon its more ignorance than anything else. I mean, when you go to a theme park you don't think of why these restrictions exists (parent parking prevents parents with strollers from having to walk to far), but more ways around them (I find the best way to park in parents with strollers parking in the supermarket is too go shopping with my mum and have a stroller in the back seat. Also ignoring the sign works). With regard to safety, 9/10 parents understand when you explain to them what the restraints are designed for, and how they are unsafe. Its just the 1 that makes life difficult and inspires one too steal parking spots.

There's a couple of problems with the current set up of Cyclone's queue. For one its a 5 min walk after the ride to get back to the park, and the area is hardly scenic. The other far more serious problem is that the end of the queue is a long way from the station. This means that the operator must hike down to the queue, count the guests through, and them follow them to the station and let them in. Another problem this creates is the last 4 or so seats aren't together, there normally singles. So if the operator calls 24 people through, then the last group will on occasions not ride unless they can ride together adding more drama to the process. It normally adds about 5 mins on top of the cycle times.

I direct your attention to The monorail society (yes there is such a thing) and read the stuff about light rail. I'm no monorail nut like the guy is, but its hard to argue with what he says.

Top marks for keeping on topic there. Personally, I'm liking the idea more and more the more I read about it. The switches still mystify me, but if they can do what they say they can do, then I'm all for it.

The final word

Here's a story that should be of interest: Railpage.com Thoughts anyone?

Ouch, and on that point, welcome to the boards!

Its on the right of the screen on the home page. Next to the Big Brother stuff. Agreed with Richard on his opinion too. Shows you can talk a ride up without going crazy with jargon (They only called it the ultimate thrill ride once, and we'll let them have that one ). Also good too see construction shots on the website. Well done DW!

Because its cheaper and no one can tell? Just a guess...

Both designs are pretty good. Though I think we all pay a tribute to our old pal chippy and may we never have to hear from anyone like him again!

Wow, serious chill pill dude. No one here has complained about the ride, so get that out of your head. People have said that others may mistake the ride for the portable ride. So what? This doesn't mean its a bad name per se, just that people may mistake it for a different ride. If this is the medium, what's the smallest version (not an argument, more an honest question)? I also don't get the whole "You are all spoilt and don't think about anything." The point Richard has made, is the ride isn't as thrilling as the park is making out. Since when does that mean the ride isn't fun or appealing? Answer me that. Myself, Goboi and Richard (and others but I can't be bothered looking to see who) have stressed that this will be a solid addition to the park, and will be beneficial. Overall, it will be a great positive for the park. Why aren't you reading this? Why are you so persistent that we're saying its not good? Richard made the valid point that the ride is fun, re-rideable and a generally pleasant experience, but not particularly thrilling. This is consistent with what has been said about Drayton Manor's version, so this is fact, not just us whining. We then pointed out how this is at odds with what the park said (which describes the ride as the most thrilling ride ever), then you accuse us of saying the rides not good. Where'd that come from? Seriously guys, take a chill pill. I can't talk for everyone else, but I'm looking forward to this ride. Accept it.

The Australian originals are Bermuda Triangle (SW), Batman Simulator, Looney Tunes Adventure, Gremlins are the Police Academy show. Road Runner and most of Looney Tunes Village was in Germany first, before being duplicated out here (though Germany's version of Road Runner does appear too cool to behold ). Indeed, for a while there the Australian and German parks were very closely linked, with many Aussie staff working in Germany on Movieworld over there before Six Flags came along and added more thrill rides to the park. I'm with Richard on how it shows the potential of our Movieworld. Some of those rides (Blazing saddles, Riddlers) look great, and would add a new dimension to the park. One of these days I'll get out to Germany to check the park out, in the meantime, thanks for the photos stefanf!

I don't know, when ToT I heard many people say it was boring. "It just goes up and then back again. Wow!". Can't say I agree with them since I like ToT (and seem to like it more and more everytime I ride it), but there you go. Same thing here, they're trying to make the ride sound like the most extreme ride ever, which is kinda hard to do when you've got 3 other rides in the park which quite easily are more thrilling then it. I do think though that unlike the other 3 this one will have universal appeal, and probably strikes the balance between high excitement and low intensity better then most of the rides in the park. I'm really looking forward to the experience, and the nifty view the ride should bring. Just the phrasing in the release is a bit ambitious, almost like there willing the ride to be more thrilling. This isn't a DW specific bash, a quick search through the Press Release Database reveals this golden nugget from one of SW's press releases (See, how unbiased am I?)reveals this take on a Zamperla convoy ride which is on Cartoon Beach in the form of Woody's Beach trucks ):

Thing its not even remotly thrilling even by Dreamworld's standards (apparently). Its going to take more then a Gyro Swing to out thrill GD. Still, I dare say once people get through the doors they'll forget all about the marketing hype, go on the ride, find it pleasent and get there thrills elsewhere and head back for another ride every so often.

Just back to the topic of press release writing style: Wow, thats one of the craziest press releases of all time. I was on the edge of my seat just reading that whirlwind of marketing jargin. I thought there'd never be anything to match the line "Self indulgent bliss" from the Whirlpool release. It kinda make you wonder if there is a competition between the parks to see who can write the most laughable release. Still, I must commend DW for something: One of my pet peeves is gone, DW is no longer calling Cyclone a 'gravity' roller coaster. Well done. I can't wait till I can ride the Claw, or to use just one of DW's own narratives, "the most menacing of its kind ever built".

I dunno what DW (or Ride Trade, probably their stats) is smoking stating a capacity of 850pph. That's 26 rides an hour or a cycle time of just over 2mins. Good luck guys. Must admit though the closer it gets the more I'm looking forward to it. Maybe not the answer to all the comments we've been making, but certainty better then allot of the suggestions out there.

Yeah, well in any case at least we know for certain that its not the giant one we're getting Oh well, bring it on, I'm always a fan of new rides, even if it is from Intamin.

Kenny Sutcliff, bloody male model from Mudgee, ol' sexy eyes lol. Nice photo Richard. Just one thought though: Does it look that big in real life?

I quite liked that nice long post. It seems to pretty much repeat what we've been saying for ages now. Nice to see DW upping the staff level at busy times, (as we'd more or less expect) but its what happens next that'll interest me. Really, from what I can see as an outsider, your suggestions seem pretty much spot on. Though I must admit I've never had a problem with Wipeout's queue, since it rarely extends outside the queue house, and is normally only one or two cycle wait. I've yet to really see ToT since the queue has been redesigned, though I suspect you’re right in your judgement here. Really, two of the more obvious problems in terms of capacity are GD and Cyclone. There's a couple of your suggestions that we've suggested many times before, and if they were implemented, would make me a much more happy camper. GD should run both sides all the time, and Cyclone should always be staffed with 2 people. They don't look designed to run any other way. Cyclone could probably also benefit (even if only slightly) by having the final brake run re-programmed to speed up parking the train. Like I say, your observations have pretty much confirmed what we've been saying about poor performance, and this is in the holidays when the rides performance is at its best. At least YOU get it though. Maybe you should apply for a more senior position?

Wow, quite a nice collection you've got there. Have a look kiddies, there's some really quite interesting stuff in there, not limited to this golden nugget from an old Wonderland release: "After the events of S11 and Ansett Collapse, Wonderland Sydney recorded the most successful October school holiday period in 5 years with 20% higher than 2000 figures."

Tell me about it, our last genuine new coaster was Scooby Doo, and how long ago was that? You could always cheer yourself up and look on the bright side like Movieworld's Website which still lists Scooby Doo as 'New!'.