Gazza

Are casual viewers going to misinterpret that "We don't strike, we rise above the rest" as some sort of commentary on union strikes? The trains are cool, I quite like the touch of the glowing eyes and the clear coat that gives it that 'slimy sea monster' look. I don't think there are many coasters with carving this intricate.

They are on the website now, including a video: https://gumbuya.com.au/world/oz-adventure/ Trailer for Project Zero: https://gumbuya.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ProjectZero.mp4 Trailer for Project Zero plus some POV of TNT https://gumbuya.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TNT-ZERO-1.mp4

100%. The parks are filling up on a regular basis so clearly no need for discount tickets to get people to come.

Worlds first spinning rear seat.

Dreamworld already has one.

This is a bit of a shorter trip report for Kolmården Zoo. https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/kolmarden It's an interesting place. Primarily a zoo, but it has a couple of bona fide theme park style areas in a couple of patches. It makes for an interesting mix, sort of like a Busch Gardens Tampa with smaller rides area. The mix is more like 75% animals 25% rides, but the rides part has a couple of stand outs that make it worth the trip. It's about 115km from Stockholm, (near the city of Norrkoping) and via public transport it took about 90 mins to get there. You have a couple of options, get an express train, and then a longer bus trip backtracking to Kolmarden Zoo. Alternatively, you can take a slower local train which stops at the village of Kolmarden itself, and then have a shorter bus trip to the park. The park is quite spread out and hilly, it's more like an open range zoo, but about half the size of the one at Dubbo, so its walkable, but it can take a while. The day was quite sunny for Sweden, which made the walks a bit sweaty, but the reward was Wildfire was running very fast. Wildfire is at the back of the park, but I first made a detour into Bamse Varld (A popular swedish bear character that gets superpowers when he eats a special type of honey) The area is quite cute, with fairly standard flat rides given quite a bit of polish with good theming. The target here was a lap on Godistaget (Lolly train) before the crowds got to it. With that out of the way I continued to Wildfire, passing the Aparium and Savannah enclosures. The ride was only ever a 1 to 3 train wait for most of the day, so the single train operation didn't really harm things much. I rode about 9 times so definitely got my money's worth! The ride is awesome, and damn fast, and aggressive in parts (But never rough). One of the best settings for a coaster, perched on a steep hillside with views over the forest to a bay. From the station you head up the lift hill, make a panoramic turn at the top before a small hump and a huge steep drop that lifts you out of your seat. It's all a blur as you make your way into a zero g stall, curving upside down with the structure whizzing past you. Another steep dive and incline and then one of RMCs signature wave turns, a sort of airtime hill that banks sideways suddenly at the top. It then heads uphill with a couple of camel backs, before a corkscrew that has you diving back off the hill. The remainder of the ride is more of a blur, with heaps of hills, twists and even a corkscrew as the layout winds back and forth on itself at the base of the hill. It's a level of confusion in a layout not seen since thunderhead at Dollywood. I've heard people complain the layout is slightly too long for the height of the drop and loses speed, but I didn't feel that at all. It's fast from start to finish, and the warm wheel bearings no doubt helped. One of the best in the world, and very close to the likes of Steel Vengeance and Hakugei, and pretty much on par with Lighting Rod (But I mean, overall RMCs as a cohort are quite close ) The other must do attraction is the Safari. Was probably a 35 min wait for this one, since it gets popular. You ride in a gondola over the main open range exhibits, with the cable following an irregular route that zig zags over the area. At some points the cable runs low to the ground, with water underneath to prevent animals getting to close, so you do get some great views. On the way you see Bears, Lions, Giraffe, Elk etc, though in particular the lions were difficult to spot. A solid 30 min ride, so again you get your moneys worth. The other coaster in the park is Delfinexpressen, a standard Vekoma roadrunner clone, but with Dolphin themed cars. The pirate ship was the sole 'big' flat ride. Grabbed lunch in the area too, a very nice open kebab with pickled cabbage etc. This is the sort of food I wish was available more widely at parks in Aus. The park is apparently getting rid of its dolphin show Hope. It was unusual because it was held indoors, with a big screen that would show spectacular imagery of reefs, waterfalls. As for the show, nothing that we haven't seen at Sea World before. There's also a normal exhibit type area a the back in a separate part of the building. The park is laid out in a bit of a loop, so it's easy to see everything. Seals and sea lions... Tiger world was enormous. Other nice areas included a large field with south American animals like Capybaras. The obligatory animal nursery, themed like a traditional Swedish farm. And much much more. Overall, it's hard to fault the park. As a zoo, it has plenty to offer, with large natural looking exhibits, the rides are just a bonus. Glad that wildfire exists, but it seems the rides and their themes can clash a bit with the park. I mean you can understand Delfinexpressen, but then why have they got the sawmill themed Wildfire (There wasn't really any education about wildfires in the queue, it literally was just Buzzsaw type theming) If they are going down the rides route, it would be good if it was balanced out with a few more family and thrill type stuff to make that aspect of the park strong enough to stand on its feet (The Bamses Varld area felt quite complete on the other hand) Overall, if you are a coaster fan, Wildfire is worth the trip alone, and the zoo itself is high quality, so you won't be bored from just the coaster. Park photos: https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/kolmarden

There's some newer pics on the Mitty theme parks FB page too https://www.facebook.com/mittythemeparks/

Possibly a little cheaper, but not the point where it becomes affordable if taking the majors. Most of the cost is going to be the construction, not the design. See something like Riddlers, that's definitely workable, but Batman Knight Flight or the Abu Dhabi version of JL, probably not. In terms of trackless, Big Red Car was trackless, but currently operating Kindgom Quest at Legoland Discovery Center Melbourne is trackless.

An interesting thing I heard once is that no clone is truly a clone. Any attraction is naturally shaped by the regulations and building codes for where it is originally planned. So when a clone is built, its never truly identical since everything has to be tweaked. You might find fire exits in one place Don't work in another. Structural calculations might be different. Local materials available. Electrical standards etc. It might make things easier in terms of being able to skip over concept and schematic design and go straight to DD and CD. There might be some small savings, but the idea that you're going to get a 30m Abu Dhabi ride (built by Bangladeshi labourers) for 20m in Aus through "savings" is a bit of a stretch to day the least. For media, you would save time on the development, but the content creator is still going to charge you money for it because its their IP.

Thanks, every time this thread gets bumped I feel compelled to watch that video again.

Come on man, You kept going on about fire when the width nor height of the wwf lift tunnel is clearly not 3m in any dimension to allow it to be a safe distance away. There’s no doubt fire on rides is possible, but its not possible to jam it into a tight spot that was never built for it. See with escape from pompei, the sets themselves are at least 4 or 5m high and then the black space above means the show building is even higher and they have space for the ducts necessary for heat extraction when you have fire going off for an entire operating day in an enclosed space, not just at random times during an 80 min outdoor NRL game. I’m guessing you’re going to come back and say “Yeah but they could just rebuild the lift tunnel to be bigger and made out of fire proof concrete and add air ducts” which if of course is possible but not affordable.

Really?

Lmao! I like this version of the hotel though, gives me big Crown vibes, though the pool needs some water slides. The height is crazy though taller than DCR, it's almost a Giga hotel.

Yeah but you can see from google earth that the entire lift tunnel is 5.5m so therefore it's not possible to be 3m away on either side so you shouldn't have suggested it.

Though the release says “One of our brand new rides The Leviathan” Where does it mention Trident is available?

But at the NRL you aren't sitting in a tunnel (It's open air), And also on WWF I dont think there is 3m of spare space to the side of the lift hill to meet the " 1 meter vertical and 3 meters laterally" standard @Dean Barnett ?

Skara Sommarland 17th of July The day after I went to Tusenfryd I went to Skara Sommarland. The park is about 120km east of Gothenburg (Where Liseberg is located) https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/skara-sommarland This park was sort of a 50-50 for me in terms of dedicating holiday time. The main reason to go here to to try Tranan, the worlds only S&S Free Fly coaster, but the park also has a few cool Proslides too, so i decided to give it a few hours. Wouldn’t necessarily be for everyone. I didn't actually do a whole lot here, most of the rides are fairly generic, but still there was enough to keep me busy. To get here you can get a train to Skovde (From Gothenburg) and then a bus to the park. Sweden actually has good buses. You’ll see coaches that form part of the local transport system and covered under the same fares that supplement the normal urban buses, and they run at a usable frequency, eg about every hour. Only hiccup was the day was a Sunday, so trains start later, and I could only get to the park about an hour after opening. Not that it was really a problem. First impressions is that the place reminded me of a bigger version of Adventure park geelong, lots of open lawns and picnic areas, a few lakes, with a smattering of amusement rides and water slides. They also had cable water skiing and some go kart tracks, so its definitely more amusement park than theme park. The presentation was ok, they’ve done up some parts, but it still feels like an older park. I started off with Spinner. This is a Maurer spinning coaster back before they produced the XC2000 with its overbanked turns and cool stuff. It’s more like a normal wild mouse, but lacking any sort of steep drops. Good bit of spinning, but otherwise nothing to write home about. Up next was Tranan. I’m glad I got to ride it since I don’t think another one will ever be built, except maybe if a random park in China decides it wants one. The gimmick is that its kind of like a wing coaster, but the seats stay level like on a suspended coaster / 7 dwarves mine train, so the track can do twists and run inverted or upright, and the cars themselves never go upside down. In particular the twists are interesting because one side of the car goes ‘over the top’ and the other sweeps underneath. You sit in shallow seats with a seat belt that locks electronically. Overall, it’s “okay” Temporarily delving into some physics, but because the seats are so far off the heartline of the coaster, it makes some of the sensations of the ride feel a bit weird and awkward, rather than the “free fly” it purports to be. You imagine the car going around a corner at a certain speed. The seats on the outside are going around a wider radius, so go ‘faster’, and likewise the seats on the inside follow a smaller radius and go ‘slower’. Its a bit like when you are on a classic Whip ride and get that jerk of acceleration when you go around the pulley at the end. So because of this you feel lurching like the train is hitting a brake, or accelerating suddenly whenever you reach a turn, and the swinging car is a bit wobbly. The layout is a few back to back turns and a couple of twists, so you well and truly can experience what the ride can do. For example see this pic of the first drop. Immediatley after coming off the first drop you feel like you slow down straight away in the inside seats because its almost like you are pivoting and turning on the spot. The outside on the other hand feels way faster. So its still fun, an interesting gimmick and mechanically impressive, but doesn’t necessarily result in an enhanced ride experience. Temper your expectations I got changed and headed into the water park. Yep you heard right, there’s an outdoor seasonal water park in a place with a harsh snowy winter, so it makes it even more laughable when people said Melbourne was too cold for water parks. The water was heated, but it still felt a teensy bit cool. They had a nice cloakroom rather than lockers which was a godsend considering i had my luggage. They had a couple of those old school concrete slides (Like Mountain Rapids at AW or Krakatoas at Blue Lagoon) Quite lengthy and interesting, with a few bumps and pools. Big Drop is a trap door freefall slide, but was interesting in that it went through an underground tunnel. I like freefall slides so another winner. The Snakepit is a group of 3 generic proslide bodyslides. Proslide put a fair bit of kick into these, and they are pretty darn intense, particularly the green enclosed one. The Racer is a 4 lane racer, A bit of a hold up at the top when a little kid freaked out when confronted with the view from the top and the prospect of riding head first, and then the Dad tried to convince the kid to go. Sheesh if the kid doesn’t want to go, then don’t waste time upsetting them by trying to force it. Good air on the dips by employing professional riding methods. There was a Tornado Wave called Cobra but skipped that one. The other one I wanted to try was Waka Waka, a really long raft slide with 4 of those proslide flying Saucer Elements. They are totally a gimmick of course since all they do is provide a slightly nicer view out of the slide on the turns, but overall it’s still an objectively good slide due to the ballistic pacing and force you get on the back to back turns. And it’s looooong. I was done with the water park so grabbed a bite at the water park cafe and headed back into the dry park. The queues on Tranan had dropped off so I did a couple more goes on that to cement my opinions on it and make the most of what would likely be my only time to ever ride it. They also had Snake. I love these high speed booster flat rides, but this one was spiced up with an additional arm that makes the circular rotation more irregular, so sometimes you do a big circle, and sometimes an extra tight one with some force. At only 8 per cycle the queue moved a bit slow, but I got some relief when they called for a single rider. Had a stroll around and looked at the rest of the park. The last coaster was Gruvbanan, a mack powered coaster. The coaster is about 3 helices and some turns. One of the helices is in a big shed but it doesn’t really make it dark inside. The ride is built on a mound, with the queue cutting through in a trench underneath, so you walk through a long gold mine to reach the station, so points for them making that effort. With time to kill till the next bus I did another lap on Spinner and a couple more on Tranan since it was down to a walk on at this point. So overall, the park is pleasant enough, but I would only really bother if you are uber curious about Tranan. Otherwise, it’s nothing you wouldn’t have seen before. Check out all the photos here: https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/skara-sommarland

It is indeed about diving hence the logo (Not really about a tall standing penguin) It totally gives me the vibe that someone at the park got stuck on the idea of diving penguins and this is what we ended up with (2:15) At the time I thought it was a kind of cute idea but at the same time a penguin is not quite badass enough for a thrill ride IMO. Pretty much lol. No station building, and gravel below the ride.

Do they have magic bikes yet? That's my first guess

For the Dive Coaster I think it's meant to be like a deep diving penguin, and with Mako I believe it's the fastest shark in the world. But SW overall seem to have really dialled back their theming (Manta at SWSD was perhaps the last) Ice breaker for example I was hoping for more of a port theme with the train dodging icebergs. Pipeline looks good, I've never understood the hate for standups.... just so long as you dont get a nutshot from the bouncing harness. For the announcement trailer, why did they do really dramatic music and not fun Californian surf guitar?

How's Trident looking in terms of progress though? I get the impression that they will probably open that at the same time and just be done with the area.

Lol what a generalisation. The maintenance of a ride is different to the operation of a single rider queue. If the screens aren't working, then that needs deliberate attention by the staff. If you get a few trains in a row where it's all even numbers, that's not the fault of the park. It could very easily be a bunch of odds. I've been there when 3 or so singles went on the one train. That was good luck. Re 4 across B&Ms, curious about the difference? If you have a party of 3, then they'll want to sit in the same car, so it doesn't really matter if it's 2X2 or 4X1 seating right?

But stuff sorts itself out. If the single rider queue gets too long, people should just leave it and join the main queue. There's no real obligation to 'keep it moving' because everyone using it knows full well it's entirely down to the luck of single seats becoming available, and staff don't control that, nor should they. Did you wait less time than the main queue? If its 2 seats every train, you're making guests in the regular queue wait longer for no good reason since that's 9% of capacity now gone. At other parks however the entry host sometimes just closes the SRQ if it gets too full.

Nooope that's not the point of a single rider queue. The idea is that it CAN reduce your wait, but it's entirely luck of the draw, and it could even be as long a wait as the main queue. If it was known that they grabbed 2 guests at a time, then pairs (or even singles) would just treat it as their personal VIP line. It would annoy pairs waiting in the main queue if 2 people were grabbed from the singles queue to go in front of them.

I'm guessing they worship it or it lives there.