Yyosh

It's completely gone from the park. It doesn't appear on the park's website anymore so it's safe to assume it isn't returning.

I'm guessing it was removed because the ride was really unpopular. It never had a queue and you'd rarely see anybody riding it. I'm glad it's gone as it was really ugly and cluttered the area around Hair Raiser's queue.

I went to the park this evening and Big Dipper's still (obviously) down. I'm hoping the park will use this time to add proper lockers to the station instead of the tubs on the ground they've been using. Rockin' Tug has also thankfully been removed And sledgehammer's 240 cycle has been modified to last longer. (Sorry for the lack of good images)

This notice has been put on Luna Park's website. I hope this is temporary. BD's only closed for two hours after the rest of the park opens but I imagine some guests might be annoyed by the delayed opening.

I won't get too excited about that artist's impression because it isn't anything new sadly. It's actually not too far off what ended up being built for the 1995 reopening, and looks strikingly similar to a model which I believe was shown to Ted Hopkins before he passed away. The giant Big Dipper has an incredibly similar layout to the Arrow looper that was built, and the smaller coaster is just the Wild Mouse. There's footage of it here at 52:34. Notice Spider originally being the Troika, Rotor's (ugly) facade and the massive fake mountain. I'd love to see full photos of this model but I've been unable to find anything more than this small clip from Spirit of the Carnival.

Can confirm. I was at Luna Park today, it opened at around 1pm.

Went to Luna Park today and I got to get my first rides on Big Dipper! I don't have many things to say that others haven't said yet, but that was so much better than I expected! It's not the most intense coaster I've been on, but it was a really, really fun ride, especially at the Maloney's Corner section. I also found it to not be as rough as it looks offride thankfully, but it did have a rattle, especially in the back rows. Only the red train was operating today but the crew was very efficient and dispatches were extremely fast (some were around 40 seconds)! Wild Mouse was also operating, and it felt a lot faster than I remember it being back in January! For some reason though the park website still lists it as under maintenance.

How were the operations? I'm guessing the trains would've been stacking due to the ride's short length but were the dispatches fast?

I actually quite like it. I think it keeps the style of the entrance and the font reminds me of Luna Park Melbourne's Big Dipper logo. It's a lot better than the logos for, say, Bug.

The full POV has now been uploaded to youtube: I visited the park today and sadly from the ground the ride does look to be quite rough (there was a lot of shaking during the Sidewinder). Hopefully the layout can make up for this as it looks to be a great ride regardless. Wild Mouse was also testing so I'd expect to see it back open again soon.

Park artist Ashley posted some more photos of Big Dipper to his Instagram, including one of park staff on the ride: https://www.instagram.com/p/CXu5MD7BSoC/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CXu6Zathj4L/ The queue seems to include photos of the ride. It's hard to make them out exactly from this one shot but hopefully there are also photos of the past Big Dippers there. Super pumped for when this thing will open!

Do you have any more information or sources on this? I tried to do some searching but could only find this thread. I also thought Ranger was being used for parts on other rides...

Staff have been spotted riding Big Dipper! https://www.instagram.com/p/CXXFErahVPQ/ https://www.instagram.com/kevin.einsteinz/

That's a bit of an old image..

Has Sledgehammer gone back down?? The website doesn't say it's closed, that's disappointing. Though Wild Mouse looks like it's having some pretty extensive (and most likely necessary) maintenance and Rotor I believe is only closed because of COVID and the fact its outside of the temporary entrance. It hasn't operated since early 2020.