Gazza

Just a little update, they are giving this its own ads on TV and radio...I wouldn't be surprised if the advertising for this was getting close to the cost of the ride (Given Zamperla stuff is dirt cheap)

^Ah, but they aren't before that point when a group of passengers is experiencing them in normal sequence.

But the station is before the chain lift...

It might have been, it did seem to get going on the last straight, one thing that did happen is that a couple of the waves actually poured into the boat properly, so you got properly wet (though still nowhere near as bad as rides like Shipwreck Rapids) instead of just having a bit of water flicked onto you like normal.

After reading a report on what the new trains are like on the Great Nor' Easter I really do hope that MW might consider doing the upgrade. Upgrading older rides is hardly unreasonable given they have done it at WnW. It just seems like a really smart thing for them to do, not only does it improve the ride, but it would get people to stay in the park longer since LW would become much more reridable for the majority. Reportedly, the upgrade cost $1.2 Mil USD which I think is worth it.

One other little bug, say if you pick the park scenery narrowing option from a ride page like this: http://www.parkz.com.au/photos/AU/Gold_Coa...-s-Motocoaster/ The link is missing a slash: http://www.parkz.com.au/photos/AU/Gold_Coast/Dreamworld/park-scenery/ No problems exist when clicking from a park profile page.

Did it today, as far as family flat rides go its pretty fun. The vehicles feel pretty free, and it spins at an appropriate rate. I guess there's one main negative point, but from the previous pics, I had been under the impression that the pads of a darker yellow on the carriages were soft, unfortunatley they weren't, so it was like lying on a hard floor. Also, you had a tendency to slide backwards a little bit, with that narrow wedge being the only thing in the way, so i was sort of holding myself forwards to prevent getting squashed. I do hope this is not the only new thing for this year though. In other news, the ramp down to the BB cafe from the bridge over the rapids has been partially demolished, and replaced with a concrete ramp. My hopes and dreams were shattered at about 12pm in the cyclone queue when I discovered I had failed to put my boardies in my bag, yet had put in a towel and sunscreen, the water park had all walk ons, so I was planning on doing the $15 after 2pm thing, but no. I also managed the biggest fluke of a photo: http://www.parkz.com.au/photo/AU/Gold_Coas...ng_down_in.html I went up to the viewing area of vortex, planning on taking a photo, I took it, but I realised the dial was on scene mode (fireworks setting) instead of autu. Impatiently I waited for it to do the exposure so i could take the photo again, not really holding the camera still or anything. I come home, and it came out really well for no apparent reason, like something out of doctor who.

From most to least intense: Superman Batwing TOT Next time, maybe just hold your breath for the whole of the two seconds it spends launching, instead of attempting to breathe? I have had no such trouble with breathing though, but I think you could be right in saying that it could be because it was the first launched ride you had been on....as far as launched coasters go, It is probably one of the fastest accelerating ones out there, save for Dodonpa and a few of the bigger Intamin Accelerators. I'd encourage you to give Superman another go, and get used to it, I mean, its not going to harm you is it? Don't understand why people get scared of rides so easily on here....

For those still interested in Sega World, I found an old Great Outdoors segment, and subsequently a TV ad: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=LEFcW0HXkIU http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=XF-xXb07d-k&...feature=related

Well, on the triple M website (Did you even check there?) it says it ends June 28. Just whisper "Triple M" to the seller, and present proof of being a local resident and you're all set.

Its funny, I was at MW a week ago and later in the day SE's queues had dropped off to a point where trains were going out half full. For a few goes I was able to get off, quickly re-enter the queue to catch the same train as it entered the loading station.

^You're right actually...out and back layout Though I still would rather see an extra ride in the park rather than an old one replaced, and at the same time would like to deviate away from yet another Batman themed ride. I guess the way I see it is that you would need a 50% increase in floor area to fit a new ride, so I guess spending on the ride building would be half as much as on an empty site, though once you factor in renovation costs for the existing building, you're probably better off just spending that bit more to start a fresh...and not scrap a $17 Million ride in the process. Also, if anyone was interested, I stitched together a fairly high res aerial shot of MW (And there is a scale bar too, sort of in an odd spot in an empty area in the studios) so people can dream up things to their hearts content.

^Didn't show the bit from the show where he promptly puked a milkshake back into the cup after having some. Sort of reminded me of....nah forget about it actually.

^The issue with that is where would you expand the floor area? You cant go backwards because superman is in the way, you cant go to the left because the roadway from the bridge leading into the studio admin is there, you cant go to the right because batwing is in the way...you could go fowards, but then you would be destroying those nicley established trees and there, and you would be left without a plaza at the front of the ride. Typically, these rides need about 4000 sq m of space, so the current building couldn't feasibly be expanded to that size, even if you did build over the plaza at the front of the manor. My opinion of Batman has changed slightly, I went on with some obviously first time riders, and through the ride, and at the end you could hear them saying 'that was so cool', so it does have some life in it yet. I personally think, as previously suggested, an third upgrade to reflect the new batman movies would be fine....perhaps change some of the logos in the batcave to the new one, and build a proper facade at the front of the ride, integrating batwing somehow (perhaps make that end of the manor a sort of place where all the bat vehicles are kept and serviced) I don't really like the idea of replacing one ride with another because it means the park is never really growing with visitor numbers. A regular simulator will always have a place at MW...I mean Disney's star tours is one of the oldest simulators out there, and is still going strong..ride wise they both seemed pretty similar, I guess all Disney's has going for it is its awesome queue.

I've been thinking about the idea of a multi motion dark ride for MW, but as has been raised in the past, the issue comes down to the large cost...which got me thinking. Looking back at a POV of Spiderman.... http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=5mR2m_O6ceE One thing I noticed is that despite having the ability to pitch, roll, and yaw (spin) it seems as if only the yaw and pitch abilities are used to any large extent...spiderman jumping on the bonet, Electro zapping you, flicking backward when you get hit by the pipe, escaping Doc Ock, the shock wave from the pumpkin explosion etc) I think this is the key. Currently these rides have quite a complex system underneath. (See 1:35) However, I think this could be simplified a bit. Imagine the ride vehicle has two rows of 4 seats. it would have high side walls to direct your view to the front, and simple manual swing doors instead of the overhead type seen on Spiderman. Lap seat belts would be the restraints. The key would be cutting down on weight. The actual seating area of the vehicle would only be about 2.2*2.2m in area and would hold 2 rows of 4, and under the floor at the center of gravity there would be a fulcrum controlling pitch. This means the actuator doesnt need to support much weight since it is all taken by the fulcrum...So basically the vehicle is a glorified see saw. However, everything would be mounted on a turntable that rides upon the actual moving vehicle, the turntable would have a radius of 3.1 m, so everything sits within it. Now, getting a turntable to spin around is a fairly simple affair given so many rides do it already. As for moving around the show building, there would be a centralised hot rail, and the drive wheels (Normal car tyres?) would run directly on the concrete floor, either side of the center of the vehicle to make an effective turning circle of zero. The rest of the weight of the vehicle would be taken by just off the shelf heavy duty swivelling castors that would run on the floor. Now, one limitation is that the 'freefall' scenes this these types of rides are known for couldn't be done effectively without the ability to roll. The way you could get around this is by having the vehicles roll onto a table that is able to tip side to side. It would have coaster style brakes, so the vehicle would be quickly 'pinched' in place. Again, a sideways version of a seesaw, so fairly simple mechanically. The advantage of doing things this way is that you aren't duplicating a system on every vehicle that is only used for a very short period. Would these sort of vehicles be expensive to make? Would they work mechanically? Perhaps the mechanically minded on here could give some feedback (Richo?) As for the other costs.. Now, Spiderman uses 2:20 minutes of on screen footage...now Wall E reportedly cost $120 million, for a film that runs for 97 minutes...or $1.23 mil per minute, so lets just say that the film footage for such a ride would cost $2.8 Mil to produce. Another good way to cut costs would be to reduce the amount of screens in the ride. On Spiderman for instance where there are screens you spend literally only 10 seconds at before moving off, so if you made the ride vehicles stop at screens for longer you wouldn't be duplicating so much projection equipment. Thematically, one common thread with these other multi motion rides is that they have richly themed queues from start to finish, which is great during a long queue, but more often than not, simply walked straight past (Eg Indiana Jones) You could rework it so that it has 20 minutes worth of themed waiting areas, with the overflow for the busiest of days just being an outdoor queue. The ride building would just be a big shed, so it wouldn't need to be too expensive. Any thoughts on this?

I think most coasters would have been spewed up in at some point. It was sort of funny and gross at the same time, though personally, Id say the fact they ate 17 hot dogs and drank 6 milkshakes in the hour would have made them spew even without riding any coaster. LW would have bashed them half to death if they attempted to ride it for an hour

^Yes, Thats the one! I remember thinking about this a little while back, but all I could remember about the movie was a bloke that learned baking in jail. All I can remember is an inverted coaster, and one of those waterslides where it drops into the pool from high above. Edit: Googling led me to this thread (On this site, what are the odds http://www.parkz.com.au/forums/index.php?s...&#entry7366 ) The coaster was Flight Deck at California's Great America (lol at that ride name) Also, we can add another park to the list, Knotts is in Knocked Up.

Just on that, I've never understood why...If you are that tall then the couple of centimetres lost by removing your shoes wouldn't make a difference surely?

They just have a red carpet whenever they have a premiere, so really it just the same as any place when they do that...just turn up early, get a good spot, and hope that they shake your hand or whatever. See http://movieworld.myfun.com.au/Park-Info/N...-GOLD-COAST.htm Just on Superman, Andy just spewed.

If you're having trouble with R-Cs uploading system, you can always try http://imageshack.us/ I remember that article being brought up a few years back on here, I was actually able to read the copy of FHM in question at the barbers, I wouldn't mind seeing it again actually, so a scan would be great.

Which movies? Also, its worth checking this out: http://www.parkz.com.au/about/FAQ/Communit...idelines.html#5

I know motocoaster keeps cropping up as a bad Intamin ride, but you can sort of put that down to a couple of major reasons -Boring layout. -Uncomfortable and slow loading train design. Now, there is plenty you can do about the first point, If Motocoaster had done something a simple as putting in a few bunny hops (instead of that single 'speed hump' ) then I probably would have liked it a lot more, so really it comes down to what they have in mind. As for the second point, there are other ride systems that load faster.... The more and more I think about this, the more and more I am convinced that they would be using the aquatrax ride system ahead of the Motorbike launch coaster, from what has been rumoured. Jet Ski seating for starters, which an Aqua Trax has. Another rumoured features is that it will be having two launches. Now, here's where it gets interesting, if you are having two launches there is a clear advantage from a blocking perspective...it would be more suited to small 8 passenger vehicles than a full train you would have no hope of loading in the time it takes to pass the first block. Secondly, braking a train and relaunching is obviously a bit inefficient, so if you are only having to relaunch small vehicles instead of a full train your power usage is a bit lower. Also, the ride is in a tight spot, and the longer the train, the wider the turns etc. need to be to balance the forces between the back and front, though things are far easier with a shorter vehicle. Also, a magnetic launch is another one of the rumours out there..the Aquatrax is magnetic, the Motorbike coaster is Hydraulic. The Aquatrax can also do a nifty B&M style water splash, so if It can do that I'd imagine it would be more preferable given the theme of the ride. lf I'm wrong feel free to tell me.

I once saw that happen on Batman at SFMM...They couldn't get the restraint past the 45 degree mark.