Gazza

Isn't that a necessary evil though?....a ride can only carry a certain number of people per day, and it would be irresponsible for them to give out more than the ride can cope with, because if the balance is too far in the favour of fast passers then standby waits become unbearable. The Six Flags approach is what I would be worried about at DW, since it basically lets you pay to line jump (rather than pay to queue elsewhere) and it sort of puts a sour taste in the mouth of guests if a minority are basically pushing in all day. At Six Flags Magic Mountain I bought 4 flashpasses, and ironically, the only rides I had to use them on were rides being run well below capacity (Tatsu with only 1 side of the station open, with 2 trains, and Scream!, with only 1 out of 3 trains running) so it kind of annoys me you have to pay to avoid an unnecessary wait. This is the issue at Dreamworld. At Dollywood, the park is renowned for its good operations, so I can see why they don't need to charge as much for their Q-bot.

Preview vid here: http://www.s-spower.com/coasters/f1coaster/f1coaster.php Basically,it launches into a brake run. You hit world record speed, then you get slowed down to 100-90km/h or so to negotiate this weird "alpha" shaped element, then get braked again to make a slow trip back to the station. Seems like a missed opportunity....obviously it would have to be braked before the return trip, and a TTD/KK style top hat would add heaps to the cost, but something like a flattened parabolic speed hill wouldn't have been out of the question, and I dont see why the return trip has to be done so slowly. But the launch and that alpha shaped element do look really good...it ends the debates I have seen as to whether this is really a proper coaster.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0...078-952,00.html Bahahaha, what a tool. I think anybody on here could have told him Disneyland wont work up in Cairns. What makes it funnier is that they sent out the guest relations manager, so they weren't even taking him seriously from a business perspective. Oh well, guess they will have to settle for Adventure Mountain water park

Tony how is it you can make bad jokes, but wreck good ones?

Ease up Myk, it is a forum and if people are able to say why this is a bad idea then he should be able to say the positives, at least he has said who he is... The thing that is troublesome with this being at Dreamworld is that it gets a fraction of the daily attendance that the other parks where Low-Q has been implemented, and on many days of the year I don't think anybody will get it because bypassing a 10 minute line is pointless and you can't go off and do anything worthwhile in that period. For the busier days lines are needlessly long because quite often they aren't running rides at full capacity, don't have adequate staff on (And in the case of rides like Cyclone, it only has one train available regardless) To me, its not really needed at Dreamworld. I can see the benefits of it as a convenience item (Though of course, the only person to benefit is the user), but the 'pay per ride' model Lotl_90 mentioned doesn't follow this at all. I have wondered when a park would be like this. It would be interesting if some of the new Dubai parks were built around this model. My only concern is whether you could potentially be denied time slots, because using the lo-q device makes it easier to join queues, and hence demand for rides would be higher.

Good to see you supporting Movember.

Frustratingly the ride wasn't testing when I popped in today, with only construction work going on. They have planted the area in the middle of the two slaloms with flax etc, and have laid out driftwood logs. The tunnel has been lined with fibro, so hopefully they will do some fake rock on it. That shed at the front of the site is just a shop you will exit through. As for SWs other new attraction...well in the month since I last visited they have managed to do some rockwork, and that's it. IMO there is no way this will be ready for the originally stated 15/12/2008 opening date.

The latest webcast at http://www.rwsentosa.com/video/webcast08_dec.html says that one track of the pair will be intense with inversions, but the other will be more family oriented with turns and drops...oh and it will be themed to Battlestar Gallactica.

That is hilarious. Can someone else go write a comment about the shape, but not so harsh that it doesn't get approved....eg "I thought you were using real supercar bodies"....I'd feel like a prick telling them I was joking.

Big news day today. Lame....charging for something that was once free, without any real improvement other than seats and shade sails. I've always imagined it being the next thing to go since it takes up valuable real estate that could be used for year round attractions, and the place is dated but I guess the water park is here to stay then for the next few years.

Lol my comment is up: I was under the impression they were getting full sized V8 Supercar bodies, removing the excess weight, and then mounting them on the motion base. Pretty amusing how the park have said, But instead it is just the standard vehicles from the attraction manufacturer. I would have thought that the V8 governing body would be pretty picky about things like vehicle shape, given the target audience would also have the same eye for detail. Just seems a bit dumb to go to the effort of getting the rights, then not bothering to get a fundamental detail in...It's not like it would be technically impossible. The shape of the cars reminds me of the armoured vehicle that did a flip in PASS.

Maverick, CA Screamin and Atlantis adventure have LSM lifts and an LSM launch on the same ride. They don't use a mechanical chain like Fluch von Novgorod will.

I don't know if you are joking or not, but read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significant_f...luous_precision

Joz did you get a chance to count how long it goes for? I'm guessing that they will put Mr Sealion on the concrete pad in this pic, and it will be a sort of alcove off the main tunnel (notice how there is a big gap in the wall where it could go) Yeah, I agree it is an improvement on MDMC, pretty much because it does far more to appeal to families and looks to provide a richer experience with its theme, story and landscaping. The jury is still out on the layout for me, as the forcefulnes of the turns it what will make or break it. Initially I had hoped they would address one of my major gripes with MDMC...lack of airtime, though I suppose the extra launch and possibly stronger G's will make up for it. My main final hope for this is that the queue and station set the tone for the marine rescue mission...Sort of make it like an 'exhibit meets themed' area for SWs marine rescue efforts, with examples of equipment on display (have a look what they did with Wild Arctic at SWSD, maybe even some Honda water craft on display to keep the sponsors happy. Enclose the area with another one of these colourbond sheds that have been popping up...it wouldn't be too dear, and it would fit in fine. That way the attraction is fitting in with SW's entertain and educate mantra. If it is just some switchbacks under a shade sail I'd be a bit dissapointed.

So what's the plan anyway? Go to SW first thing and get on to Jet Rescue, then rush across to MW to see one of the first Stuntdriver shows?

While rides like Manta, Terminator and Blue Fire have gotten the limelight, there are still a few new coasters opening soon that are pretty interesting you may or may not have heard much about.... Fluch von Novgorod, Hansa Park. It's another Eurofighter, but suprisingly it will have an LSM launch, making it the only coaster in the world to have a chain lift and launch on the same ride. Construction photos are here, and you can see the twisted track and themed enclosed sections taking shape. Anubis, Plopsaland Another Launched Gerstlauer, but a bit more elaborate than the original Lynet at Farup Sommerland. You can see a animation here and it will feature an Immellmann, Dive Loop and Corkscrew, and two top hats. iSpeed, Mirabiliandia. It may have a terrible name, but this could well be the best and most well rounded Intamin Accelerator to date. The park have released a NL animation (a bit rough, but then again it is just park PT stuff), it has 4 inversions, airtime hills like Superman Escape, and rapid directional changes like Maverick. As a side note, people should check out the shooting spinning dark ride Mirabilianda opened this year, a post apocalyptic themed one called Reset: Anno Zero. Diamondback, Kings Island. A 65m high B&M hyper, what else needs to be said. The ride has its own site here. The main point of difference from most B&M hypers is that it will feature at water splash at the end, and the new staggered train design. The official page on the ride is here. GCI projects: Aside from Terminator, GCI are doing a yet to be named coaster at a small park called Freizeitpark Plohn in Germany. It has 27.5m high first drop, but from there out it is a twisted, ground hugging layout, filled with lots of little airtime hops. GCI have a pov on their website. The funny thing it is an American coaster, but the park is building it with EU funding. The other coaster GCI is doing is Prowler at Worlds of Fun. Its a similar idea to the German one with a ground hugging layout, but naturally on the larger scale of an American park, and a bit more spread out. The official park page with renderings and video is here. Happy Valley Shanghai The Chinese theme park boom continues, and this park looks to have a superb opening lineup. There will be a B&M Dive machine, an Intamin Mega Lite, an Intamin Mine train, but the only coaster to be named to date is Fireball, a Gravity Group woodie, with a layout that is a bit of a fusion between out and back and twister. The pictures section of the rcdb page has renderings and construction photos. Tranan, Skara Sommarland A world first. It is an S&S eagle coaster, its a little bit hard to explain how this coaster works, but imagine something with cars that can pivot like orphan rocker, but the cars hang off the side of the train, and the track goes upside down, but the cars stay upright. You can see a video of the prototype on the S&S site, as well as an animation of Tranan's layout. Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit. Universal Orlando. Last but not least is the latest big ride for Orlando. Its a Maurer Sohne X car coaster with onboard user selected music, with its main feature being a 50m drop from a vertical lift, into a non inverting loop (the track twists so people never go upside down). The park intended for this ride not to have inversions, so it will have similar broad appeal to its predecessor, Hollywood Dream at Universal Japan.

This cantilevered car jump is one thing I am fascinated to see in action. I wonder how well it will be hidden, and Wether people in the audience will be genuinely fooled by it. I think the set buildings are looking nice, but I hope they stain the building a bit, since they look a bit clean at the present time, though they have done it on the side walls, so I guess they will eventually get around to it. So definitely a worthy replacement of PASS? "Hummer and a chicken feed all in one..."

Feb 2009...that's a bit sooner than I expected. I think then an opening of late 2009/early 2010 is not out of the question. Though cadboy, if you are interested, I really would recommend going to the council website and downloading finding the pdf of the plans, they are much larger than the tiny pic I initially posted, and are basically comprehensive, with everything from sections, elevations and plans, as well as 3d artistic drawings of the park. Follow the directions in post #38 and post #42.

Glenn, is it ok if I ask if you are a rep from Lo-Q?

Another interesting thing I thought of happening at theme parks, but has anyone had it where you are at a theme park, and the whole day you end up in ride queues with the same people...I'm not talking about 'following' them consecutively from ride to ride as you work your way around the park, but say being seated with them at 10am, and then again at 1pm, and then again at 4pm, with other stuff in between with no deliberate action on your part. It was happening to me at Knotts, to the point where the other people were noticing too and were joking that we were ride buddies. What gets even weirder, is that I had this occuring in Orlando, at different parks, on different days. I think it stuck in my head because I kept seeing this family with this ugly british chavvy kid, who looked like how Ralph Wiggum would look if he were a real person. But anyway they were on the same bus as me to Busch Gardens, then I saw them at IOA, then again at Epcot and by the 3rd day I was really wierded out by it all.

Who said otherwise One thing though, did anyone else sort of have it in the back of their mind that DW would be the first park to go down the virtual queuing route?

You know, I think that sums it up pretty well. I mean, when they eventually go and build something worthwhile then everyone here will gladly go back and ride it, and all would be forgiven. But in the meantime I guess there is not much point caring....these days new attractions open more consistently throughout the coast so you can just visit them, and you can take comfort in the fact that WWW can't really go the same route as DW (eg you cant do Q-Bots or car simulators in a water park)

Hahaha, got it in one Joz. I think it must be the aura that surrounds a system that the 'big boys' use. The thing that concerns me is that systems like this allow parks to profit from inefficiency...Hey, lets not fix capacity issues on our rides, instead lets just charge people to skip a long queue that is our fault in the first place. What will make this a joke is that you can bet these will be for sale on the days when GD has one side going, MDMC has one train, Cyclone has one op etc. But then again, if its a choice between spending money to put adequate stuff numbers on, and making money by not doing so, of course it is going to be the latter. Now, I know that parks are businesses and need to make money, but it seems DW are taking that 'nickel and diming' approach....You pay $70 to get in, but then its another $15 in total if you want to experience two of the parks newest attractions, and then another $15 for food, and then $30 or so to get a Q-Bot, and all these little extras end up totalling nearly as much as the initial admission charge, and whilst you can spin this is the guest getting extra experiences, I think frequently being presented with extras to fork out for just ends up leaving a sour taste in their mouth. How long till DW introduce a parking charge for instance? I don't really like any of these queue systems, and that includes Disney's fastpass, because they only benefit a small proportion of people, and cause wait times to be longer for people in standby lines. IMO the Busch approach is best, just build rides with really high capacity and operate them with motivated staff. http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&...earch&meta=

I think what AlexB was getting at was posting as a member, not necessarily during work hours. Parkz has a lot of employees from all the Gold Coast parks, and I'd say virtually all of them would post outside of work hours just for fun. So the shed they are building it in is the one that had the rear end of a van glued to the wall? Anyhow, to ask a marketing related question. There is a good chance the target market (And indeed the public in general) have already seen or experienced a less advanced version of a driving simulator, or if they have been to DW recently, would have seen the one already there. How will marketing go about convincing the market that V8 Redline is better and different enough (Through its enhanced motion, wraparound screens etc) to warrant visiting the park?

Careful with those significant figures AlexB.