rappa

I'll second the vote for Wipeout, it's still my favourite ride after all these years. I'd have to put it down as my favourite flat ride out of anything I've been on in the world. Like Joz said it's just a really solid attraction, what is even more amazing is it's a Vekoma! Provides really good thrills that just make you smile, doesn't get you sick at all (which I do find with The Claw).

I like Robina too, but that's more because of the random hot chicks you meet on planes that happen to live there

All good things come to those who wait...

Definately the first option mate. Really not into the tacky full page calenders that take up half the wall and the wall just wouldn't look the same without the good ole R-C calender up there. We need the 13 page version so that we get the little surprise each month as to what the next photo will be This month is Road Runner month

P-P-P Peppermint park It's four acres of fun It's cool and it's great and It's Port's number 1! Can't remember the second owners surname although the woman was definately Marleen and her husband may or may not have been Bob. Aparently the main difference between the 'old' and the "New Peppermint Park" was that the original park was more of a sports based park and even had a grass skiing hill. The new park was aimed at families with the addition of the Mini Golf course and all of those attractions. This all happened before my time (so you're talking early 80s) and the 2nd incarnation of the park was amazingly successful. With its demise which should never have been allowed by the council the town is pretty much destroyed as a tourist destination these days due solely to the complete lack of attractions present in the town.

Actualy I think you're wrong (everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I don't agree). The two terrain slides at PP were great, pretty decent slides plus none of that scaffold junk to support them. Much better than the flumes at WnW.

I am still yet to dig out my 20 year old brochure stash but in it I can assure you I would have nearly every brochure from the park that existed. The park went through a couple of transitions, the biggest one when it became "THE NEW PEPERMINT PARK." I'm pretty sure all that changed was the addition of the skating rink and peddle karts, I'd have to ask my father to be sure. Mostly it stayed the same throughout most of its life with a few of the smaller attractions moving around a bit. It had a couple part-owners, one half of which I believe was the Spry Family who also had a good share (if not all of it) of Fantasy Glades just up the road. Two brothers in the family (Rod and Martin) also used to operate the Fanta-sea II Cruise boat and a Parasailing business in town as well. I believe their father ran Fantasy Glades. The other owners were couple who our family were very friendly with and used to always have a good chat with. I will get their names off of my father this evening as well as they are escaping me at present. I think it has been a good 5 years or so since I was last there. I was very sad to see the place go, was a very well fun, aesthetically pleasing and friendly run amusement park which added tremendous value to the area as a tourist destination.

Didn't you have a Video Camera attached to you down at Bush Beast Bussy?

I think we have to look at this for what it is, a freak accident. Think about just how long those 5 trains, 11 blocks and 2 stations have been operating without incident and how many patrons they have put through, I'd say probably more than any coaster out here (or park even) in its entire lifetime. Disney will always push the limits because it simply has to have a far greater capacity to it's rides than any other park, MY GOD look at Pirates for that! What I am interested to see is if this was a PLC failure (ie it kept the block open as oposed to closing it in front of the inbound train) or a Mechanical Failure of the Brakes themselves failing to stop the train even though they were instructed to do so. I'd say we are probably looking at a good month of this thing being down which is unfortunate for the park at this peak time of the season.

I know Wonderbus pretty much had a camera attached to his arm the entire last day... I'm sure he would have some great stuff, was certainly one of the most vibed up days I've ever seen at the park.

Last night at DCA two trains appear to have collided on Calif Screamin. One stationary and one travelling a full speed but failing to stop in its block. Both trains full with 24pax each, 15 people taken to hospital as a precaution. The media is of course blowing it out of proportion as usual saying 60 people injured, pity its only two trains of 24 so I don't know how their calculators work. Plenty of info here http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewt...pic.php?t=17952 . Elissa made a good point, whilst people are jumping on the Intamin sucks band wagon, it's a sign of their good engineering that the trains stayed intact and didn't break apart resulting in major injuries!

Obviously the reason for having the entire enclosed funnel is for the increased visual impact. The forced perspective also makes the funnel look a lot larger and make the hole at the end look much smaller, adding to the excitment. Having a complete circle also adds a lot of strength to the structure as well. Without the top half holding the two sides together the exterior support stucture would have to deal with a lot more lateral pressure outwards from the water, the raft and just the general weight of the fibreglass itself.

I think that's it for this ride at the moment. I should have some more in the old brochures for the Park but I will have to dig them out first.

Here is another photo showing more of the ride in question.

Well I just happen to have the photo evidence As taken from the official book you used to be able to buy of the park. (as you could from Seaworld and Currumbin, much better souvenirs than available today, full of history and fantastic photos of the park) I would guess this book is no later than the lat 80s, I can't remember exactly when I got it, was too young. Certainly the time when DW pretty much had the original line-up + TB but before the Rapids and Mine Ride were built. Back then the park certainly did look amazing and colourful, nice to have the additions of today but the presentation back then was top notch.

Zagan I think you might be mistakingly thinking of the Reef Diver/Enterprise ride. I remember when Roulete was taken out and sat out the back for a little while. Richard is pretty acurate with that timeline.

Okay let's review shall we... First of all no one has said that they are getting a waterpark next. In fact I am just going to come out and say it that they ARE NOT getting a waterpark next. This is not what Adam is speaking about so we can all stop stressing over that. Next, if they build a waterpark it will be the end of Blue Lagoon, it will go and they will re-use the land so no dramas in regards to having to walk to two areas. Best bet is to use the TB site for a waterpark and the BL site for the next coaster as it gets some focus away from the right hand side of the park. Saying that "you can just go to WnW" is exactly why Dreamworld would want a waterpark. They don't want you going to WnW, it's the opposition. Movieworld is a dry park and it's water park is WnW, works there so no reason it can't work for Dreamworld. If DW did want to invest in a Water Park they could easily compete with WnW in terms of technology. It's only a matter of making a call to Coffs and ordering some fiberglass from AWL. If they wanted to beat WnW they could do so easily by importing some overseas designs. Look at SFMM and Huricane Harbour, the two work perfectly, this is the exact type of arrangement you would see with DW. Makes perfect sense to me.

Oh totaly agree, a kick arse woodie would be fantastic. Sadly though I think we might have to hang out and see if MW wants to go there in the western area. Might be a while though because they haven't even opened their latest coaster and I doubt they would build 3 coaster attractions in a row. I just don't think we could 'trust' DW with a wood coaster. Cyclone is rough enough!

Glad to hear that ST. I must say Dollywood is one of the parks I most look forward to visting some day!

Well if that's your thing sounds like the wheel from DCA is right up your alley!

Tough call there... I too would love to get up to CP but so far the distance issue has been the problem (its no where near NY and even further from LA). I highly reccomend Knotts. It is my favourite of all the non-disney parks that are out there. I am sort of more into quality than quantity so this park really does it for me. They don't have a rocket with the height of TTD but Xcel is highly regarded as one of the best rocket coasters. The same thing sort of goes with Ghostrider, there is nothing to compare it to in Australia and is a far better ride than either of the other two woodies in SoCal. If you are willing to throw away any values for the quality of the park and just want to get on some wicked coasters then SFMM may be worth the visit for you. For me Batman, Riddlers, DJV, X and Goliath really do make the park worth visiting. Having said that maybe you want to give GA a go. I haven't been there but it will give you a 'six flags' style park on that side of the country.

Hey I'm all for more Intamin down under!!

Okay just spend 10 mins trying to find a photo for you but I can't find a pic of the train in the station anywhere Basically you have your standard OTSR horsecoller type restraint that goes over your shoulders (funely enough). So picture yourself standing with a restraint over your shoulders. So you're not going anywhere up, infront, or to the rear but if you were to lift your feet off the ground of course you could slip down out of the restraint. To prevent this from happening there is a small (bike seat like) 'seat' for lack of a better word that extends from the back rest out between your legs. It is there purely to stop you slipping down out of the restraint should you lift your feet off the ground for some strange reason. It is not intended to contact your body during the normal operation of the restraint/ride. The whole restraint system 'floats' up and down when unlocked to as to alow you to fit it to your height. When you board the train you adjust the restraint to your height (ie set the position of the seat). The op. then locks the vertical movement of the restraint. You can then lower the OTSR which is locked also. When the riders are not morons and all is done right it is a very comfortable and safe system. The problem comes when someone doesnt get the restraint right and the train has to be unlocked, re adjusted and then locked and checked again. The good thing is B&M use a very smart system where by each row can be individualy locked and unlocked so this minimises inconvenience. So there you go... clear as mud? I think probably explaining a stand up restraint is as hard as explaining a floorless coaster

Oh hey don't get me wrong, I totaly agree it's really not that hard of a concept to grasp. I'm just pointing out that for some reason people DO seem to have a bit of a problem comprehending a floorless. Think of it this way; "hey, can we go to Dreamworld? I want to ride that roller coaster where you STAND UP" or "Hey, can we go to Dreamworld? I want to ride that roller coaster where the seats are kind of above the track so it feels like it has no floor because the wheels are behind you" You know what I mean? I'm with you, I'd be totaly happy with either

I agree that the floorless is a great coaster, I enjoyed Scream but was dissapointed in the lack of smoothness. I do however thing the floorless poses a problem in marketability. I say this purely due to the sheer difficultly I've had myself in explaining the coaster to non coaster nerds like ourselves. The GP just seem to have a problem understanding how a coaster can have no floor. They first thing "oh like lethal weapon" but the you have to explain that the track is still below you. Not as easy as just saying "hey you stand up!".