Gazza

Just copy and paste into word and do a find and replace with vanilla and licorice.

Maybe they can do AlexBs earlier suggestion and commission it via zoom meeting

Wouldn't shareholders be better off to wait for a rebound then literally selling them at the worst possible time? I've had shares drop at the moment but im certainly not panicking and unloading them.

I thought it had been a pretty major piece of news at the time of the announcement that Australia was finally getting a modern wooden coaster? That has long been something lacking considering most major parks will have a good modern one. I'm not saying you have to be a connoisseur, but it was announced over a year ago....

Mate you were the one that suggested the silly idea that teenagers burnt the house down out of revenge for people showering naked!

Why do you have to what your parents say once you are an adult? Particularly for something as minor as choosing what TV shows you want to watch?

When you’re a puritan so you shower fully clothed, and not naked.

So what was the point of putting pressure on the government to open again?

Isn't the Giga Splash like the now demolished Pilgrims Plunge at Holiday World? Hot Rails looks cool, but it would want to be significantly cheaper than a normal coaster. The whole point of the raptor is that the cars straddle a narrow track, so the center of gravity is lower, thus stresses are lower, thus the track and supports are cheaper. But Hot Rails looks more like a normal coaster that's just a teeny bit narrower. The Ultra Splash is a joke sorry.

I really doubt that champ. https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/au

This kind of illustrates the point though, a KFC with no chicken, a pub with no beer, a theme park with 3 out 4 of the "Big" coasters closed, they all appear a bit absurd to the customer. And yeah people can argue "BuT iT sAys oN thE WeBsiTe" like it's a get out of jail free card, but the issue is the product people wanted in the first place just isn't available.

I'm trying to imagine in my head how the modern Atlantis theme looks on a Wooden coaster station.

Energylandias Atlantis under construction for comparison:

So I have a few photos from my trip to the US i haven't published till now. One such collection was from Nickelodeon Universe. https://www.parkz.com.au/parks/US/Bloomington/Nickelodeon_Universe Parkz actually has some older pics from the place a few years ago (that my mum actually took when my parents were working in that part of the US) But, as part of my efforts to mop up the remaining parks I've yet to visit in the US, I went there myself (I wanted to visit Minneapolis anyway, as well as visit Valleyfair) The park is located in the Mall of America, at the end of a light rail line that runs from downtown Minneapolis. The airport is on the same line, so theoretically if you had an extended stop over you'd be able to duck over and visit the park. Easy to reach anyhow. The park is a giant square with a glass roof in the middle of the complex, with three levels of mall that wrap around the outside of the park. There are a few other attractions to check out, including mini golf, escape rooms, and Fly over America, a Sky Voyager style ride. I got a combo ticket which included unlimted rides as well as an admission to Fly over America. The place is quite clean and tidy, with bright paint and some pockets of nice theming...I guess being protected from the weather has its advantages. There is actually a fair bit to do as well, even if you are a thrill rider (And i didn't even do all the thrill rides there!) The park was once known as Camp Snoopy, the biggest reminder of that being a rocky mountain housing a Paul Bunyan themed log flume, (Like, why isnt it Wild Thornberries?) though there are a couple of other random non themed rides that haven't picked up Nick branding either. And why doesn't Nick Land at Sea World have this? Going down the paw patrol slide would surely be a kids dream, whilst being super cheap. As for the rides i did. Spongebob Squarepants Rock Bottom Plunge A punchy little ride with a good layout. The first drop feels like you are going to bang your head on the rafters. A tight loop, a cool little airtime hop, followed by an overbanked turn. There's an awkward roll, followed by a few quick turns to finish the ride. Avatar Air Bender A halfpipe coaster just like Surfrider, though it ran a longer cycle, and had a broken seat. Orange Streak Zierer family coaster with a stupid long train, so at least there is never a queue. Has a lot of long drawn out turns, and shallow drops, so really feels more like a tour of the park. Theres a 2nd lift hill part way through, making this a lengthy beast. Much Bepis: Fairly Odd Coaster A few six flags parks have these Gerstlauer spinning coasters, so I'm well familiar with the layout. I actually got a crazy ride on this one due to having an empty seat. These can be hit and miss because ive also had ride where its seemingly been perfectly balanced and held the same relative position through all the turns, like a compass trying to point north. TMNT Shell Shock Sky fly like Tailspin. This one had a helpful video clearly explaining how to get flipping going, so good on them for that. I loved the theming, right down to the control panel in a pizza cart. This one was in the middle of the road in terms of how easy it is to get flips happening. I did also like how it only had a lap bar type harness rather than OTSRs. Anchor Drop This is part of a ropes course / zip line / slide complex. They are all upcharge and can be done separate or as a package, though if you do the slides you get unlimited goes until you leave the area. I just wanted to have a go at the giant Wiegand snake farm slides. They're okay. Going in a spiral just feels a bit repetive, it would be better if they changed directions etc. Ghost Blasters Crap blacklight dark ride with unreliable targets. I'm at the point now where im not bothered if i skip these things over. Log Chute Actually a pretty lengthy and complex layout, with a giant paul bunyan statue part way through. Not too wet. Overall, the park is definitley worth a look if you are in Minneapolis. Generous trading hours and proximity to the airport make this an easy visit.

Even some walls and a forced perspective hole isn't that good. rappas pic of Talocan above I think sums up the benchmark for top spin rides. Even if you didn't do such huge theming, the way the stonework looks gives it real character, and you could do some other thing like "Wrath of {Atlantean Character}" If they were determined to do a vortex themed ride, then do it with a spinning ride which more readily lends itself to arranging columns etc around it in a concentric manner, as if they are being sucked towards the ride.

Pick a theme/name that can be done attractively for the budget. Not a vague one like "Vortex" that is hard to do.

He sure showed you rappa.

I think the issue is not so much "knowing what to expect", it's being presented with it in the first place. It should be like 1 or 2 rides closed max, and rides of the same category shouldn't be closed concurrently. I think some people will be happy to be there because it's a bit of normality and an activity they've been sorely missing, but I don't think it'll be accepted for more than a few weeks to have so many things shut.

Wouldn't a 3 year old find it harder to tell the difference?

It's an interesting question...What portion of guests at a given time at park are located in a queue normally? Like at SW is probably negligible because there are only a couple of rides anyway, and those rides are usually not busy. MW, not so clear....

Those photos are still on Parkz, no need for the wayback machine lol. https://www.parkz.com.au/parks/AU/Gold_Coast/Sea_World/ride/1440-Penguin_Encounter https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/ride-21-Nickelodeon_Central https://www.parkz.com.au/parks/AU/Gold_Coast/WetnWild_Gold_Coast/ride/512-Kamikaze

The queue line videos have subtitles usually, but nothing on the rides, though occasionally some shows will have some random English, eg Universal Monsters. If i had young family I'd not hesitate to go to Japan first! It's closer, cheaper and basically same time zone, so no jet lag. On the whole I felt it was an easy place to travel (so long as 1 person has a roaming data pack), its safe so it feels relaxing, and seemed kid friendly in many ways The parks will be busy though, and you will get on everything at least once, but you have to carry the mindset that for every fast pass ride you do, you'll have a 90 min wait on a different one. And of course, the holiday as a whole will probably be more interesting than say going to LA, and going to the parks + hollywood + santa monica or whatever people do on their first time in the US.

Universal Studios Japan https://www.parkz.com.au/parks/JP/Osaka/Universal_Studios_Japan/ Finally, onto the final three big parks! Universal Japan was the most expensive park of the trip. It was the 2nd and 3rd of January, so peak pricing for admission, as well as for a Universal Express 7 pass. Don’t ask how much I spent! The park is easily acessible via the local trains in Osaka, its like 20 mins from the main station, you change trains off the Osaka loop line and walk across the platform to a shuttle along the shorter line to Universal. The park opens at 8am, but opens earlier for hotel guests. I was there waiting at the turnstiles at 7am, and people were already there queuing for general entry. But for some reason, they opened the park to everyone very shortly after the hotel guests anyway, like at 7:30 or so. Excellent, it meant an earlier start! Future visitors should keep this in mind…you might get lucky like I did. So naturally I made my way quickly to get on Flying Dinosaur. The theming looks pretty cool, but there is no escaping that once inside it’s just an enormous cattlepen capable of holding thousands of guests…A couple of ‘islands’ of theming would have broken it up a bit, but it is what it is. The storyline is simple…JP scientists have created new technology to let people experience flight like a Pteranadon. The wait was minimal, and the ride is superb, dethroning Tatsu as my favourite flyer. The first drop is much better than any other flyer, because it is so steep, you feel like you are diving headfirst towards the concrete. (Compare with older flyers: ) Next comes a 540 degree zero g roll, where you end up on your back before coming up into a half loop…You’ve really got to prepare for the intensity. After a couple of high up turns there is the famous pretzel loop, but this one goes into a tunnel for a bit of extra thrill. The rest of the ride is a bit calmer, but very fast paced, as you loop and corkscrew around some buildings, finishing off with an inline twist. Perhaps the only black mark against the ride is how it has resulted in all of the Jurassic park zone having to be covered in nets. I thought it was a nice touch how all the supports were painted in a copper patina. Next up I did Snoopys Great Race to get it out of the way before the park got busy. A highly themed indoor kids coaster inside a sound stage, done as if you are filming a peanuts cartoon. The restraints are well designed, intended for a parent and child to ride together, with extra padding to hold the kid in. The Universal Wonderland kids area continued further back , but i dunno, it felt a bit too modern in some parts, and not 'fun' and immersive (I love SWs Nickelodeon land for that reason) I then headed towards the back of the park for Amazing Adventure of Spiderman. For those unfamilar, its a ride that combines motion base vehicles that can spin and tilt, that move through a a dark ride. You wear 3D glasses, and there are several large screens built into the sets, with a fair bit of interplay between the on screen action and the physical sets. The story goes that the sinister syndicate are attacking NYC, and you are cadet reporters from the daily bugle being sent out in special vehicles to follow the story. The queue line has this interesting treatment where everything is painted in matte to make it look comic book. Naturally, you get caught up in the fight between Spiderman and the baddies. One of my favourite attractions at Islands of Adventure, so i was interested to see how the Japanese version compared. Much the same apart from the dubbing, though the last time I rode this attraction in Florida they hadnt done the new animations. There are a few things i had never spotted that you cant see in POVs, like in the sewer scene a giant physical pipe flicks up in front of you in response to Hydros attack. There's also a hillarious moment on the screen where Dr Octopus is marching down the street and a car is hurtling away from him, tearing around a corner desparate to escape, knocking over a fire hydrant in the process. First express ticket I used was for Minion Mayhem, a simulator that replaced back to the future. This ride has a giant curved screen similar to Sky Voyager, however instead of sitting in long rows, you sit in individual 'open air' simulator pods that are on jacks. You board the pod in its own small room, the pod is lifted up above the walls of the room, revealing the giant screen in front of you. There are three levels of pods, so you can imagine they need a lot of staff to sort riders into each room. The ride film is the same as the hollywood version except they have added a bit of extra film at the start to match the moment where your pod is lifted up out of the loading room. The preshows thankfully have subtitles too. The story goes that you are being transformed into minions, and are sent on a training course. The ride film was enough to get a smirk out of me despite not really being into minions, since it felt like you were in one of those hamster races, except with mininons running all around you. The actual themed area is ridiculously busy, i guess they must really love minions there! There was a small demolition derby/junkyard jamboree type flat ride i didnt bother with, Since it was nearby i headed to Space Fantasy a Mack indoor spinning coaster with a sort of abstract modern spacey theme rather than the 80s space theme of Disneylands space mountain. This had single rider so the wait was minimal, and far shorter than what the sign said. I liked this thing at the main entrance, a little spinning car on top of the sign. The coaster itself isnt very big, not much taller or more intense than a roller skater, though of course some good spinning. It didn't really feel like a journey into space, just a whole bunch of lighting FX kind of stuck togther....They had scrims with lasers, they had a few blacklight planets, they had LED screen modules that responded to your arms waving around as you passed. It was a fun ride, but it didn't have that huge scale and sense of being in deep space like you get on space mountain. The loading system was cool though, with cars coming through the station perfectly timed, following each other to the millimetre, with conveyor belts....So just like the loading on Haunted Mansion, except they were dealing with individual rolling cars, not a chain. I had an early lunch at Happiness Cafe, and a minion burger with crumbed mystery meat. The coolest thing though was the freestyle machines. Normally these just do soft drink, but here they had a hot drink version that would do various combinations of of coffee or chocolate or green tea, with other flavours, so you could get a hot choc strawberry for example. I think at this point I did Jaws , which is basically spicy jungle cruise, with some bad shark animatronics that appear to follow your boat and jump out of the water. This has single rider. The queue is actually really well themed though, done like a historical museum. No photos allowed on the ride though. The next express ticket i had purchased was for Hollywood Dream: Backdrop. a B&M mega coaster, with one train out of 4 running backwards. They play heaps of warning messages on TVs about not doing backdrop if you are prone to nausea, but it's not that bad at all, especially if you have done DCR backwards. The ride also has onboard audio, so you can pick stuff like Pharell Willams or J Pop. The ride is great fun, with moderate air, but good pacing, and lots of twisting and turning, and a fairly intense helix at the end. Perhaps the most impressive thing is how they have squeezed such a large ride in, with the huge areas needed for the queue, double load station and 4 train storage. The express tickets conveniently put all your Wizarding world of Harry Potter attractions together time wise, so i headed in. This one is probably the best themed of the lot, since you go down a forest pathway to the land, making it feel quite secluded from the rest of the park...... Until you spot Super Nintendo World right next to you. They have a warm version of Butterbeer here too instead of the frozen one! Awesome. The shops were all the same, albeit more crowded, they seem to have adjusted the offerings for local tastes, eg Zonkos joke shop is one tiny end of the actual building its in, and they have made Honeydukes lolly shop encroach further since i guess people like lollies more than gags. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is great, but i preferred my experience of the one in Hollywood back when it had 3D. I noticed this one was a bit brighter than the others, so you see a lot more in terms of curtains and unthemed walls and breaks between the scenes. No single rider on this one either grrrr. For the best experience, keep your head back with your eyes focused fowards since it tends to work better for the sightlines. It's stuff like this that makes you remember you are at Universal not Disney...you cant just pretend the top of the wall doesnt exist: For those unfamiliar, you ride in a 4 person row of seats at the end of a robotic arm. This robotic arm runs on a track, and you are twisted and turned and spun through each scene high in the air. The mechanisim is carefully hidden during the loading process behind a wall (with a slot that allows the vehicle to move through the station with the end of the arm poking through), though at a couple of points in the ride you can see the vehicle ahead due to how many they are running. They also have Flight of the Hippogriff, a roller skater with very detailed theming. This was included on the express ticket....you certainly wouldn't want to queue for it considering it's just like Roadrunner. What else did I do? Hollywood Dream Might as well talk a little more about this one, you start off with an a lift hill enclosed in a tunnel, as the music climaxes you do a curved first drop, floater hill over the main street roof, an overbanked hamerhead turnaround, then another floater hill back over the main street roof. A couple more decent airtime hills follow, as you run parallel to the main street of the park. After a mcbr is a fairly punchy helix, then the track starts heading back towards the station, actually passing through the back of some buildings at high speed. I particuarly liked the safety video for the ride, it was done in this real 1950s "Jetstons" animated style for lack of a better word. Terminator 3D Still reigns as the best park 3D show IMO. The queue and preshow is in the wonderfully 80s foyer of Cyberdine systems, and the show itself takes place in an auditorium with live actors running around in front of the screen. Backdraft Blooper time here. Some of your express passes let you pick between 2 attractions. One such pairing is either riding Hollywood Dream and seeing backdraft....And i accidentally used it on Backdraft without thinking! Baahhhhhh. The show itself is impressive, with a couple of crap preshows with Ron Howard yabbering on, then you get to the actual main room where its a chemical plant that catches on fire, with huge fireballs, collapsing equipment and so on. Wonderful in the Osaka winter. I didn't get to Jurrasic Park till the 2nd day.....Sooked out and bought a poncho. It felt a little flat compared to the Hollywood original and even the IOA version, with some bits of theming taken out....Less moving bits and bobs it seems. Jurassic anus: Waterworld is waterworld. I gave it a courtesy visit. What i thought was crazy is people still sitting in the wet seats at the front, and the warm up pre show still doing the routine of soaking people with hoses....When its winter and 10c outside! Thoughts on the park overall: -Like most parks in Japan, admission is good value, though the express passes are very expensive. If you are from overseas they make you buy them through a travel agent...I used Klook. -The attractions are great, but the park is very crowded, but some of it makes no sense, like i can understand queues for attractions since capacity is expensive. But long queues for food does my head in, because they should have more stands and make more money? -The single rider queues are good, but its about 50-50 in terms of how accurate the wait time is. For example you'll often see 120 min standby and 110 single rider. Hardly worth it right? Well sometimes it'll be 110, other times you'll be on on 20 even though it says 110, so just bear that in mind. Space fantasy was consistently far less than what the display said. -Well themed, particularly main street, the studios section, San Fran etc have HEAPS of thematic detail. But since the park has expanded, they've obviously expanded into old Back of House areas, so a couple of attraction, particularly Universal Wonderland and Hollywood dream, it feels like you are looking at backs of facades that have been flag painted, so they don't feel as well done. Best way to describe it is the difference in feel between MW main street and the MW Arkham courtyard. -You could proably do the park in 1 day if you used express passes, but 2 days is more comfortable to take it all in. -Flying Dinosaur should absolutely be done first. And a few more pics to finish off. ( Heres about 350 more: https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/park-71-Universal_Studios_Japan )

The curving gesture around the ride looks cool, but the rectangular control box is a bit jarring and disrupts the curve. Even if it's just a rectangular building, couldn;t they do wires with vines, or ribs of steel or something to finish the arc?