GoGoBoy

Bit more believable than the re-opening of Wonderland in Sydney.

DJKostya - Do you really believe a company has given him $1 billion? It just seems highly improbable, in my personal opinion. Wet'n'Wild Sydney, developed by Village Roadshow, was a bit over $100 million. This is ten times that, supposedly. A $1 billion theme park proposal from Village or Disney or any of the other major conglomerates would be believable, obviously. But can you name ONE project the proponent of this project has developed previously that comes anywhere near this scale? I can't find anything. Where is the list of completed projects? Where is the client list? You don't just develop a major theme park with no or little experience, and you're even less likely to secure $1 billion in funding, even if you had decent, not incredibly dodgy, renderings. Buying and selling a few houses doesn't come close.

It just makes you realise even the major commercial news sites can't be trusted (except perhaps Fairfax, who notably did not run this story). So many outlets covered it, and I bet not one of them bothered to look into the details of the 'international consortium' known as 'Fox Petroleum', or 'Urban Estate Developments' -- the two companies supposedly behind it. Any decent journo would ask how serious this proposal is and what the chances are that these companies can legitimately pull this off and fund a $1 BILLION development. But leaving this aside, it seems utterly bizarre to me that if a developer actually did have access to that level of funding, they'd choose to develop a theme park based on the defunct and now entirely dated Wonderland theme park -- which even when it was still alive was actually nothing special in comparison to other parks around Australia and the world. There is this strange obsession with the park, but with $1 bil you'd surely want to aim higher than an old boomerang coaster and the rather average bush beast. And going by the renderings, a chair swing, ferris wheel and arcade make up the park's other 'major' attractions. Just weird, and entirely inconceivable. How can anyone actually give this any credence??

Nonsense. It keeps coming up because he keeps announcing it. Won't happen. Have you seen his website? Have you seen the 'Fox Petroleum' website?

THIS GUY again!! Why won't this die? It's not happening -- it's so obvious. Yet even Channel Nine Sydney is advertising it on the promo for its evening news bulletin. Talk about being sucked in! Maybe if Village was the proponent, it might hold a bit of weight. But how many times has this 'ex-employee of nine years' announced and re-announced this bizarre 'project'? How embarrassing for Channel Nine.

Those eyes are amazing! They've chosen a great theme. I love the way Adventure World is going the extra mile and giving their new rides strong story lines with theming and presentation to match. But at the same time it makes me really sad that Wet n Wild GC and Sydney make no attempt to theme their slides, and in the case of WnW Sydney, does not even bother to give the slides logos. One of the biggest complaints about WnW Sydney is the lack of atmosphere. Adventure World is showing Village it is indeed possible to theme a slide, thereby improving its appeal and, no doubt, the atmosphere of the park as well.

Would it be the most painful coaster in the world? Worse than the old Thunderbolt? I can imagine serious wear and tear on the track and wheels too as it literally slams into each corner. Funny though

​Haha, very true Westical!! What's a better word for a mildly animated prop that isn't quite an animatronic? Great to hear that so many of the show effects are fully operational across the major attractions. Surely it can't be a coincidence? I get the feeling there has been a concerted effort to fix up all of the little details that have been out of action for a long time. Perhaps the maintenance division was able to set aside some extra time?

Really? That seems very strange. I know the old Looney Tunes River Ride used a system of beams and reflectors that would trigger the scenes when a boat passed through. They were easily spotted on the approach to each scene. But as I understand it, most rides with show elements, particularly if they are track based, would not normally have that same system. They would be more likely to have sensors on the actual track itself. Justice League, for example, I would think has an entire ride control system which knows where the cars are on the track and activates the show elements based on that. Any experts with better knowledge of this care to chip in?

Justice League has a screen with pics of the riders and scores?? When was that installed? I don't remember it being there when I visited a few months back. But it was something that was always needed.

I'm not sure they'd be able to check the show effects when they do a track walk as I assume for the effects to be triggered the cars would need to be moving. Surely staff are not permitted to walk around the ride with moving cars? Regarding the final Scooby animatronic -- I was just referring to his mouth not moving. Not sure if any other parts used to move.

Firstly, I wish DW would stop with the motor sport themed additions. Secondly, if they must do it, as others have suggested it'd make more sense to put any new attraction next to the existing, isolated, motocoaster. Having two separate motor sport themed areas makes no sense. But then again, it would fit with the now all too common mentality of our GC parks that says themed zones are irrelevant.

You've just explained to me the relevance of the 'Park Row' sign in the first scene on Justice League. I knew you were meant to be travelling through the alleyways of Gotham City, but was never sure what Park Row was all about.

Have they actually fixed the fog screen and Starro projection? It's been so long I thought they might have given up on it. Did you also notice if they've fixed the other problems in the ride, like the spaceship door no longer operating and issues with darkness of the screens in the spaceship scene? The animation has been barely visible for some time. When the ride opened, the visuals were as clear and vibrant as all the other screens.

I was on it just after GL had its incident and the biggest disappointment for me was the barely audible music in the coaster portion. They used to blast that great remix of the Scooby theme, but it could only be heard faintly in the background when I was on it. I also miss the red strip lights that used to track down the walls and created an optical illusion that made the coaster feel much higher. I don't think there was any smoke either. And finally, the Scooby animatronic in the last room before the exit played dialogue but there was no mouth movement. Was this fixed too?

I have been very keenly following the construction of two Sally Corp Justice League-themed dark rides over in the States at Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags St Louis. As a dark ride fan, any new ride of this type sparks my interest. But particularly so with this one, with Movie World being the recipient of Sally's first attempt at creating a JL shooting dark ride. Anyway, the first ride to open at SFOT had its media day yesterday and a few POV videos have been released. It looks really fantastic, and is something quite special for Six Flags, which is notorious for minimal theming. It is like a combination between Universal's Spiderman, Transformers and Movie World's own JL. I don't think it had the budget of either Spider or Transformers, but it appeals to me more than either of these rides. It combines the usual screens with the interactive gameplay and motion-based ride vehicles by Oceaneering that move along to all of the action (unlike JL at Movie World). But perhaps most importantly of all, the ride relies heavily on actual physical sets, props and effects. This is the area Sally excels in and certainly sets the ride(s) apart from the very screen-heavy Transformers, and even Spiderman to a lesser extent. Here's the vid (warning: terrible sound recording):

You'd actually need brain bleach, not eye bleach, as you're imagining it, not seeing it. Don't forget Wild West Falls was once Wild Wild West -- themed to a (poor) movie of the same name.

Did you go to the waterpark? It seems like you skipped quite a few attractions. What about Madagascar? Or is that your reference to the 'slow boat'? The layout of Transformers is certainly interesting. I've never been on it but I've looked it up online. The ride actually occurs over two levels with two elevators to bring the cars up to the second level and then back down again. Apparently the transition is seamless with most people being completely unaware of the existence of the elevators and the two level structure.

An interactive Mario dark ride please featuring sewer pipes that you transport through, crazy colourful platform lands, mushrooms, Bowser, and that weird creature with the snout that shoots eggs.

Seems a bit odd. Appears to be just a bunch of stationary sculptures plonked around the lake. When they gauged interest in the idea on Future of Fun, I was picturing it inside a building so they could add lighting and effects etc.

And that 'waterfall' is the most basic and pathetic lazy river adornment in the history of the world. It's basically just a pile of bricks with a pipe coming out of the top with some water spilling from it. And you can see the pipe clearly.

The Village Roadshow directors attribute the drop in revenue to 'the wettest Summer in Sydney in 50 years' over the key trading period. I'm not sure if this is an exaggeration or not. Revenue and attendance at all the parks were down (weather blamed again), with the exception of MW which received a boost from themed events and Junior Driving School. I am not surprised in the least that WnW Syd has seen a drop in revenue from the PCP. Of course the park was going to go gangbusters when it first opened and everybody wanted to check it out. Unfortunately, many people were underwhelmed by their first experience and obviously weren't keen to return (I don't entirely buy the weather excuse). I absolutely think WnW Syd can fix this if they really want to. It is essential they improve the visitor experience, and they can do this by: 1. Installing new slides for the next season -- the park gets unbearably busy and it is no fun waiting an hour for a waterslide, there just isn't enough to soak up the crowds. 2. Do whatever it takes to ensure major attractions (hello Bombora!) are not down for an extended period. This just makes the queues for other slides worse. The lazy river also needs to be fully opened up, with more tubes added. 3. Significantly improve landscaping, signage and presentation. The park feels so sparse and the signage and presentation is virtually non-existent compared to somewhere like WhiteWater World (I suggest WnW Syd management pay a trip to WWW). The park also seriously lacks atmosphere due to the lack of theming & landscaping -- it just doesn't feel like you're visiting a theme park. 4. I agree with the other suggestions in this thread -- increase the seasonal pass price to make crowd numbers more bearable, but this should be tied to new slides and attractions as a selling point. 5. Better food, because apparently it's gross (I wouldn't know because when we were there the line was too long so we weren't going to wait). 6. Open during the week. Even if they have to rotate attractions. So many of my friends have suggested visiting during the week to avoid the crowds and when I tell them it isn't open they lose interest. Lots of comments about this on WnW's social media pages too.

Thanks for the great update. I am really surprised to hear that the Triple Vortex had to be re-engineered! I didn't see that discussed anywhere in the forums, but good find Parkz. Was it each entire chamber that had to be replaced or just sections of it? I'm not sure how long the ride was down for but it seems to me it would take quite some time to have entirely new fibreglass sections made in the same colour scheme and then shipped over from ProSlide. But what I find most bizarre is that this is not a new model of slide. There are a number of them around the place. How can something have suddenly gone wrong? As much as I respect ProSlide, this sort of thing seems to be happening to their products a lot lately. The Typhoon at WnW Sydney would flip riders backwards without fail, but I believe has now been fixed (not sure how). But the biggest problem has been Bombora -- it is a major slide at the park but it is constantly closed as apparently there have been too many injuries. WnW Syd also had to replace the family rafts on the mammoth slides with standard cloverleafs for some reason, reducing the quality of the ride experience. I guess it points to the imprecise nature of waterslide engineering?

I would suggest it would be more of a concern for El Locos with the larger MW-style cars. But I'm not sure if there are any out there? My understanding is that these larger cars (with audio etc.) were specially designed for MW at their request. But it looks like S&S are now marketing these larger cars as a standard offering - http://www.engineeringexcitement.com/product/el-loco-coaster/ The question is, have any other parks installed the 8-seater models?

I agree that having the GL out of action does highlight the limited nature of the park. I am heading to the GC with a friend (who's not a theme park enthusiast) next week for the first time in ages. We both wanted to go to MW but he did mention that he felt there wasn't much to do at MW. This is definitely a perception problem for the park and one I'm surprised they have never properly addressed. Their tendency to replace rides rather than build additional ones is a mistake. Anyway, we now won't be visiting the park as GL was one of the main rides we wanted to go on as neither of us have ridden it.