Gazza

Quick question for Zane, But where were you standing to get these pics? http://www.rcdb.com/m/ig4293.htm?picture=12 http://www.rcdb.com/m/ig4293.htm?picture=10

But a thing that always makes me wonder is that if guests are supposedly fine without effects, then why go to the expense of installing them in the first place, big sound systems and banks of lasers don't come cheap! If guests in general (Not people on here) were coming out of Stunt Driver in the first couple of weeks pleased, even without the all the effects/show being finished, including crucial ones like the fireball, then why go and put the missing ones in? I think there is a bit more to it than you might think...It's not that people will notice what is missing, but rather it is about providing the extra wow factor, that will at the end of the day (As mickeyD said) determine what they really thought of the place on the whole. I think the difference between enthusiasts on here, and members of the public is that enthusiasts tend to quantify things....We can say that Superman is a good ride because it has a powerful launch, and ejector airtime and rapid fire pacing....would a member of the public look it the same way? No. But the net result is still the same, people come away raving that it's the best thing in the park. We can also say Scooby Doo is diminished, because effects x, y and z aren't working. With Scooby, people are still going to think its pretty good since the ghost train section remains quite solid, and the coaster track itself has enough going for it. But it is a real lost opportunity that they aren't trying to go for gold and deliver everything as the designers intended. If a friend had come home from a holiday, and could describe a this ride unknown to you, with tangible stuff like an amazing display of lasers and this "cool last drop you didn't even know about" wouldn't that make you more inclined to visit? If a ride was not just 'awesome', but 'super awesome', wouldn't that make it harder to tire of, and something you'd be willing to come back for. I'ts complicated I guess what the benefits are. Some might say people don't notice.... I find it hard to believe an overload of lasers with music booming isn't something that has a memorable impact on people (When it is there) It also seems paradoxical that people can say that the public aren't impacted by attention to detail and overall quality, when the most successful theme parks and operators are the ones that can be said to focus on this.

" What there's a reverse drop!??? " Doing that makes it even more obscure.

I'm sure Richo will deal with it soon enough. I personally just find his rants hilarious though....

But people shouldn't have to ride all day to get the full experience...Shouldn't the effects be calibrated so that each guest gets to see everything? To me it would be like McDonalds selling Big Macs, but only 8/10 have cheese on them, or 5/10 get sauce, or 7/10 get only one patty. Consistency of product is key......

Huh? You've been on it haven't you?

Yup, here is Flea and DjRappas TR from closing day, the 26th: http://www.parkz.com.au/forums/index.php?s...pic=731&hl=

Plus Wonderland's closing was on the 26th anyway.

Yeah All theme parks suck and are a waste of money, who would pay 95c to go to Dreamworld when youse can have sex with your girlfriend swimming in the ocean for free and cum in your pants ROFL>

The fiasco continues, they are dismantling the whole wheel up to the hub, replacing the rim and spokes. Apparently it is covered under warranty, but still....damn. Repairs are expected to take at least a year: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...69-2862,00.html Crazy to think one of the first articles published back on R-C was on this thing supposedly being open by 2006.

But i don't get how 95c is a 'slug'. A minor price difference shouldn't even come into the decision to go to one park or the other. I mean, In LA it costs $67 to get into Universal Studios but $59 to get into Six Flags Magic Mountain. Even though Magic Mountain has far more rides and is $8 cheaper, Universal Studios gets about twice as many visitors. Evidently people choose theme parks for other reasons... Plus you seem rather quiet on the fact that WWW charges more than WnW, even though they are half the size....Double standards? Totally agreed that drinks should be included in the meals. To be honest that factor alone is enough now to preclude me from getting food in the park...It's just flat out not worth it.

Thanks for the heads up. More useful info, I just discovered WnW is 5c cheaper then WWW. These are some really good savings going, So you can save $1 if you are careful with the parks you pick!

I think with the Disney water parks though, It's that they don't need to keep adding attractions to keep attracting visitors. The whole WDW resort is the draw card, and the water parks are just something you'd 'add on'. But to be honest, WnW has only ever had two well themed attractions (Terror Canyon and Calypso Beach) I thought that Typhoon Lagoon could have had more slides, but I guess it is more of a relaxation type park, and you could spend hours on that long lazy river, or in the surf pool, or snorkelling in shark reef. I could have spent a day there, but unfortunately 2 hours is all I could spare. PS, also on the attendance report, anyone else find it hilarious WDS Paris could only manage 2.6 Million last year...how they can build a low capacity spinning coaster that regularly gets 2 hour lines, but at the same time find it viable to build a TOT with those specific visitor numbers is beyond me.

No they can't.....Jamberoo is doing fine because the attendance numbers needed to make a water park work aren't that high. Heck they can make a case for a water park in Carins to be viable with just 250,000 per year. On the other hand Disney parks cost much more to build and run, and as such they need several million of visitors per year to be viable...far more than the Gold Coast theme parks put together.

Pretty much all the Gold Coast majors have something worth seeing...Movie World for It's well themed attraction, and of course Superman Escape. Wet 'n' Wild for the huge range of good water slides on offer. Sea World for its nice animal exhibits and solid rides like Bermuda Triangle and Jet Rescue. Dreamworld since it has a few good thrills and Australian wildlife. Whitewater World for its unique water slide types. Ideally, you should allow 5 days for the Gold Coast, so you can see every park. If I were to give my picks, then Movie World and Wet 'n' Wild would be the two non negotiable ones....Do DW if you want more thrills, Do SW if you want to see sea animals and a couple of good rides, Do WWW if you want more water slides. I thought you hadn't been to either though? Bear in mind you could get an Escape pass, and do Movie World and WnW, plus Dreamworld.

^Plug Dillon Rd Cairns into Google Earth ...the park is basically surrounded by sugar cane, so I imagine down the track they could just buy a chunk of land if they needed to expand.

That would be Crush 'n' Gusher in 2005. From memory, that is the only new attractions to have opened at the Disney water parks....I guess because of their situation they never have really needed to expand.

Plug! http://www.parkz.com.au/photos/US/Orlando/...Dooms-Fearfall/ The queue looked pretty cool, even had this radio thing playing ("Von Dooms Family Propaganda Hour") There was no preshow from memory...just some big doors on each side of the loading area.

Its because there is a harsh kink in the track: I can see that you tried to heartline, but the issue is at that point the track is still twisting too tightly, the roll needs to be made longer overall. Its a tough little spot, because its an unsual situation where the track unbanks, and then goes back in the same direction. The thing with heartlining is that it isn't about making the green line dead straight on transitions, but rather making the green line a nice flowing curve. For example, By making the bits of track leading up to the u turn a bit smoother, you get a more natural and realistic element.

Good to see WnW still up there...They seemed to have slipped a little bit in terms of rankings, mainly due to those Asian water parks opening. It's interesting to note that WWW could make the top 20 if they could get 10,000 extra in per year. After some rough measurements, I discovered Typhoon Lagoon is only 75% of the size of WnW....doesn't feel it though. As a water park though, its the best themed one you'll ever visit, but there aren't that many rides, and a couple are a little bit lame.

But that is circular logic. Part of the reason they made no money was because they never built any new stuff, so the public lost interest and attendances wouldn't have grown. Can and will, out of the big Australian parks, it was my least favourite. For all the crap DW gets, it still manages to be a better park...It has more coasters, a rapids ride that is fairly even (plus other water rides), a better drop tower , and a better 'big swinging ride' Bush beast is probably at the bottom of the list of the Woodies I have ridden anyhow.

Whats going on? A Laser tag thing gets 6 pages of discussion, and this gets nothing. Anyway, it looks like a really good park, naturally the things I am most happy about are the tornado alley and bowling alley (Pretty funny, I go start a thread on them and an Aussie park comes through with the goods ) Too bad they won't be coming till later on down the track.....3 parks here now have Tornado Alleys on the drawing board, stop torturing me and open one One of my favourite features is that Lazy River, it will work well as a transportation system, plus it has some nice little added features like the theming and the wave generator. But the opening line up are good choices, they all seem to be high capacity rides, and the crowd pleasers. A little observation I made is that the Mammoth Slide is a direct clone of the one at WnW. The place gives me an excuse to head up to Cairns anyhow (or stop over on the way to Asia) Are you sure on that one? Matching up the attraction counts: Cave of Waves = Lazy River Temple of Huey = PIPElines BRO = 6 Lane Octopus Rip = Mammoth River Slide Green Room = Tornado 45 Wiggle Bay & Pipeline Plunge = Play pool & Waterplay Structure Supertubes = Flowrider I guess Little Rippers = No equivalent I dunno if it would give WWW much of a kick in the bum...If WnWs relentless efforts aren't then what will a park 1447km away do?

JD, To be honest, I don't think anybody on here would disagree with you anyway...every time Disney comes up the consensus is that we aren't big enough and don't get the tourist numbers. LOL, not it wasn't. Any park that has a Vekoma Boomerang as its flagship coaster, and doesn't build new rides for 10 years automatically qualifies as crap in my books.

I reckon a preshow would be a bit pointless and stupid on a space shot ride. What I wouldn't object to is more theming around the queue and loading area so it seems like a top secret launch pad or whatever, you are pretty much on the money with what you said about it really only being some plants around it...it doesn't really feel 'industrial' enough, and it doesn't establish the theme strongly enough.

How does that help? The game in the arena is the choke point that decides capacity. You can have as many pre shows and briefings as you want, and these will make the experience longer, but at the end of the day, each guest has to go through the arena at some point, and if you can only do 30 people every 10 minutes then that's what you calculate capacity by.