GoGoBoy

Something interesting I noticed on the DW facebook page. A person claiming to be a staff member commented that they had been told the ToT would indeed be reconfigured to enable people to face forwards and backwards. This comment has since been deleted. It is the deletion of the comment that makes me think that perhaps this is a bit more likely to happen than I first thought

^From the Six Flags website (not WhiteWater World): "Mega Wedgie, an entertaining waterslide with a whimsical name, provides thrill seeking guests with an exhilarating water ride!" - WORST COPY EVER!

Interesting choice of name. But at least they are keeping in with the 'Aussie beach culture' theme of the park. It seems to be pretty rare these days that our parks are consistent with their theming so they get points for that

Why do I get the feeling they are more likely to do what tipsy bella suggested and just add a longer tunnel with some lights rather than any real refurbishment? I am doubtful they would reverse the car although I think this would be a very interesting move and would generate publicity. I still hope they fix all of the queuing/theming/signage AND PAINT THE TOWER!! It looks so old and faded. I was thinking when the spokeswoman mentioned 'more power' that they were going to re-work it so that it actually reaches the top again

Wow awesome post themeparkgc. You did a great job with those pics... especially the layering of the expansion over the satellite image. Really puts it all into perspective. It's nice to see we're starting to get some more quality posts on this site! Very interesting to hear that the AVPX building is really only a temporary type of structure (I did always think it looked kinda cheap and temporary from the pics I've seen) and was the former Nightmares tent. This means it surely could be moved. As I said earlier though I think they want it there as part of 'Adrenalin Alley'. I really dislike that whole concept and it makes the place feel more like a cheap amusement park or arcade rather than a decent theme park. Even if they do keep AVPX it looks to me like there are other options for the expansion without changing the plans too drastically. I noticed there is a bit of blank space directly next to AVPX. The proposed new slide tower could potentially be moved back to this area giving it some more run room for the slides. The slides would just need to be re-designed to fit the space again. They could also possibly have parts of the new slides going over the top of the roofs of some of those buildings. This could also help advertise WWW further to Dreamworld guests. And my last option would be to either eliminate the proposed activity pool or reduce it in size

Interesting post thunder. I had a look at the original expansion plans again and you are right about the Shell events venue already being included. I think they wanted the AVPX where it is because it fits in with this lame 'Adrenalin Alley' concept they came up with. Basically they were hoping they could use AVPX, V8 cars, Flowrider and Cyclone as some sort of after dark events area. I suppose another option would be to reconfigure the proposed mammoth and tornado alley slides and tower. Shouldn't be too hard I would think. But space is certainly more limited now. Do you think they planned to move the maintenance sheds as part of this expansion? From looking at the plans it looks like they were going to do this but I'm not totally sure

So does that mean they are going to have to change the stage 2 expansion plans if/when they go ahead? I find it pretty disappointing that they would build a laser arena in an area that was set aside for a significant and much needed expansion of WhiteWater World. They already lost what remaining space was left with the addition of the Shell events venue. I also thought there could have been more opportunities for park cross-promotions having part of the new slides almost going over part of Dreamworld. Guess that idea was scrapped when they built the AVPX shed

I disagree. Shareholders (myself included) are raising serious questions about what is going to be done to arrest the attendance and revenue decline at Dreamworld. I think this year calls for some big changes to help re-establish Dreamworld as a top theme park. The ride re-launch is in July and I wouldn't expect a new ride until the end of the year. This would allow enough time for both attractions to be marketed individually. While I would agree that in any normal year it might seem like a large amount of activity - I think this year it is completely justified and warranted. Dreamworld needs to pack a real punch to get attendance increasing again. And we are yet to see just how much effort is really going into this ride refurbishment (by the way I am also in total support of much needed ride upgrades and refurbishments)

Yes the World Pass sale was responsible for the local attendance increase (as you'd expect) otherwise we would probably have seen quite a big drop. I think we can quite confidently say that small attractions such as the V8 cars and laser arena are NOT ENOUGH to grow or even maintain attendance. I am still expecting at least one major new ride this year in addition to the other reported attractions. It is the 3rd year in their capital expenditure cycle so if they don't build one they'd be crazy (plus think about their current declining revenues and attendance!). I think it's interesting but not surprising that the Motocoaster addition was not strong enough to increase attendance over corresponding years. Whereas the success of the Claw appeared to keep pushing attendance up. There is no doubt the park needs more coasters but they need to be good ones! I have my doubts about the family attraction as there does not appear to be any DA submitted and as mentioned above 2 months may not be enough to build anything significant

I completely agree with everything you said above Mickey. If we don't see a MAJOR new ride this year in addition to those other things mentioned then I think we'll see Dreamworld's revenue and attendance just keep on slipping...

Ardent Leisure came out with their half year results today and they show that revenue has continued to fall at Dreamworld. International and interstate visitors were down but local attendance received a boost from the $99 World Pass deal. For the first time both parks were lumped together when reporting attendance to the market so there was no way to work out how many visitors each park received respectively. On the new attraction front Ardent announced a new water thrill ride (likely the new waterslide for WWW previously reported on this site) and a new family attraction for Dreamworld targeted for April 2010. The major ride refurbishment and relaunch was also mentioned, scheduled for June 2010.

I completely agree. I personally really enjoy the log ride and definitely think it help makes Dreamworld what it is. It's really important to have these sorts of classic rides in the park that appeal to everyone. I think that with the removal of the mine ride it's more important than ever that Dreamworld saves what they've got left

Haha that's hysterical... I hate spiders!! I'm very surprised to hear they are going to all this trouble considering their recent policy of just closing any old ride that needs any significant maintenance. Very glad they are keeping the log considering they don't really have enough rides anymore as it is and especially not enough water rides

I noticed in the submitted documents that Proslide is referring to the slide type as a 'SuperLOOP' (as Richard referred to). So this does appear to be a new prototype as opposed to a version of a turbo tunnel etc. I'm just wondering whether Proslide created this new slide after having discussions with WWW and their dilemma or whether they had it ready to go anyway. I'm also wondering whether this will become a new standard product offering from Proslide. Any thoughts?

Good stuff thanks for those links themeparkgc... for some reason I couldn't find that info for myself on that site when I tried looking. One thing I find strange is the ride runout area practically reaching the wave pool. I wonder how that's going to work

Just studying the schematic a bit more it looks like it has some sort of weird entry... notice the block section at the start? So maybe they are planning a trap door style entry similar to the aqua loops. Now I am confused... is this a turbo tunnel or some kind of aqua loop hybrid? I also notice it appears part of the slide will loop over and then under the Hydrocoaster

Haha I agree Gazza! This changes things completely. Well at least this has livened up the forums a bit. I now think this will be a worthwhile addition to WWW and at least it won't be a replica of the looping slides WnW are installing. It is also a style of slide WWW currently lacks. My only disappointment is that they only appear to be putting one in. An open or partially open speed slide (possibly with a hump or 2) would have gone very nicely next to it (as we were discussing further up this thread). Still, maybe this can come later? I also see this as being quite a cheap addition for WWW which would make sense if they are adding some big things to Dreamworld this year (fingers crossed!)

Hang on a second... that IS a turbo tunnel isn't it???

I'd love to know where all this info and designs are coming from? Are they on a publicly accessible site or is all this supposed to be secret? All I can say is I hope Dreamworld are planning to introduce a MAJOR new ride this year (in addition to the big 6 upgrade) to make up for this fairly minor addition to WWW

That location is pretty much where I proposed a turbo tunnel and speed slide might go (refer to my image in one of the posts above). What a shame we are getting neither of those and only ONE slide to boot. But anyway... how very, very depressing. Bad choice for WWW in so many ways

Where??? ie. around which tower?

I certainly don't doubt the source... having been a member of these forums for many years I am quite aware that Richard has accurate info. I was just interested in seeing if there was any further information or documents posted with the application on the DA's online site

I couldn't find this info on the GC DA's online site. Any idea where the news came from?

Hmm I'd be hoping that ProSlide develop a superior attraction... the WhiteWater West version looks kinda ugly. ProSlide would probably do it well. Still I have to say this is quite disappointing. There is so much WhiteWater World needs OTHER than a looping waterslide. How about some more waterpark essentials such as a lazy river, family raft slide etc. Then they can look at these 'novelty' slides. I really think the park needs to grow significantly rather than just attaching a single new slide to an existing tower. I don't think we can blame WhiteWater World necessarily for stealing the idea. At this stage we don't know who came up with it first. There was talk that Wet 'n Wild may have copied from WWW. Still I don't see both parks adding basically the same slide as being of much benefit to the consumer or growing the customer base

I really hope some of the WTVP big wigs read this thread... some pretty important customer feedback on here