Gazza

I reckon they just went with a water park because they are cheaper to build and run and need less land, and hence less of a risk. This will cost $80 mil, compared to say $300 mil (The proposed budget for African Safari World) I'm also going to say that they went with a water park because they are good at running them! There's also less risk in terms of selling the concept to the public...Theme parks can sometimes be a bit hit and miss if the public isn't taken by the theme/concept (Eg Sega World) Water parks...you just go down slides and get wet and have fun, nothing out there about that! I don't think Jamberoo will have factored into their decision. That place is too far out of the way to really be as sucessful as a park in the Sydney proper, and doesn't have anywhere the population in the immediate radius that WnWS (First use of abbreviation?) will have. To me it doesn't seem like WVTPs style to go into a market with the aim of shutting a competitor down...If anything they would have gone the way of their two US water parks and Aussie World, and just bought the place out if they saw potential. Jamberoo would have plenty of time, their plans have been drawn up for years, they just need to go and order the slides!

And here's the updated map, with Aqualoop, Flowrider and the Zip Line. Terror Canyon has been shopped out.

^Much better for sure....The drop is bigger and the loop feels cool, it was also a bit smoother too. But the big thing for me was the efficiency of the ride, you could tell there was some logic to how the ride was set up, with one master control panel, but with each capsule having its controls mounted by the door, so the operator could get you all good to go without having to go to another control panel a few steps away. The spiel in the chamber was shorter too, which adds up in time savings. The ride was also free (by necessity) of that hideously frustrating thing they do at WWW where they put loose items in a bag, and send them down the slide, wasting a cycle, and then having to have the lifeguard at the bottom fish around for it in the splashdown trough.

I went on with boardies...they weren't those massively long ones though. A girl that was wearing a tank top type thing was told no though. Edit: http://wetnwild.myfun.com.au/Attractions/Rides/AquaLoop.htm

^Nah, i cant see any signs of the zipline, and the FlowRider is looking fairly close, fenced off, but the curved surface is installed and it has a nice big flowrider logo on it.

I came, I saw, I looped. Had a couple of hours free this arvo I didn't think I would have, so I headed into WnW to try this thing out..... Amazing! (No pics though, but the pics bloggers have been taking sum it up, nothing has changed since then) The AquaDrop slide wasn't working, the other four were though. So you head in, right at the entrance is a set of scales, and before you set off down the path your weight gets checked to make sure it sits between 40 and 130 (?) At the top there were plenty of lifeguards on hand, and it was a walk-on (The park was quiet due to the overcast and cool weather). The lifeguard has a little ignition key they use to unlock the capsule, and then release the slide. There's also a single control panel in the middle, so 4 people get dropped in sync. Warning signs tell you of the possibility of not making it, and assures you that the water will stop and nobody will come from behind you. In this case you just wait till you stop, then jump out of the slide. A female voice counts 3...2...1 and then the door snaps open, you are airborne for a fraction of a second, but you meet the slide again and rapidly build up speed, before you know it you're curving up. as you reach the apex you feel a little bit light (not weightless, but its still pretty cool). The second set of water injectors catch you, and you build up speed rapidly again as you complete the second half of the loop, and you can really feel the forces of the curve. The splashdown brings you to a stop, quite nicely actually, no wedgies or anything. My hot tip (Thanks to the lifeguard for telling me), but when you ride try looking up at the roof of the capsule rather than down at your feet. Doing this means you can see how far you are dropping (and at the same time, don't see what's ahead), you can appreciate the translucency of the slide, and you get no water spraying your eyes. If you ride the normal way you just get water in your face as is the norm with slides this big. One good point about the ride...It's pretty smooth! I was worried it might feel like a cheesegrater like some body slides, but it was fine. However, if you do ride lots and lots of times you'll still get red marks on your back and a little bit sore (after a while hitting the splashdown water does give your lats a bit of a pounding)...I gave up after my 25th ride As for bad points, the only real thing is that the landscaping hasn't been finished yet, so its just gravel underneath at the moment. Everything else is looking very polished, lots of nice chrome hand railings and Perspex. I can see the mini aqua drop being useful. I saw a few people hanging about up the top looking apprehensive, and eventually not riding. It'll also be good for younger kids who don't reach the minimum weight. You can tell it will be a capacity hog...no crappy operational procedures like the Wedgie! An engineer from Whitewater West was hanging about too, and I had a chat to him...One thing he was able to clear up was the reason for the access doors at the top of the loop...They're just for maintenance and nothing else...you can get a guy on a harness and rope down, good for if the sprayer heads need cleaning etc. So yeah, get out and ride it because it's heaps of fun and very re-rideable. Oh, and the thing by the wave pool will be called FlowRider, it's final name is on the park map.

Thanks for the write up rick, but one thing.... Disagree. Even on a quiet day when the queue is only say 10 minutes, the time spent in the queue still represents the greatest proportion of the ride experience (Ride goes for 30 seconds, queue takes 10 mins, so you spend 20 times longer in the queue than you do riding the ride) So for me well themed queues are really important, it sets the tone, and can be an integral part of the experience itself (In fact, it should be an integral part of the experience)

Hey, I made a good guess for one aspect: When people were speculating on why the back row was sans 2 seats I said. As for why the back row only has 2 seats. My guesses are that either -The new seats are heavier than the old ones, so something had to give. -There is something at the back of the car that eats into the footwell space, preventing seats in the outside positions. Dreamworlds final answer "Total weight considerations." How does this relate to your theory that the seats were absent due to air resistance issues? Now who is the one bullshitting? Of course they couldn't, because people on here are interested in rides, not metallurgy. Good, great, you can quote some discipline based technical knowledge in an ad hoc manner, but that's just one aspect of ride design, and doesn't give you the right to be arrogant. By all means, if there is a bit of detailing or whatever that people see and ask about and you can give a definitive answer then go for it, but to go around telling everyone to shut up and not give opinions because you're a boilermaker and they're not, and that puts you on a pedestal above them, is defeating the purpose of having a discussion board. People are only going to know bits and pieces, and it would be a pretty lifeless board if people if people were only allowed to comment on things they had in depth knowledge of. PS, why are you a boilermaker, and not an engineer?

That's what she said.

I'd imagine the ropes course is up-charge because of its throughput, basically. If it were free there would be no way for it to keep up with the sheer number of people wanting to go on it because of the complexities of harnessing people up, saftey demos, the fact some people will edge through slowly etc.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcjordanm/498...72633/lightbox/ Oh man, they actually themed the monorail support to look like a tiki statue

It looks like there is a huge bit of theming on the far left you cant see since its right on the edge of the photo. Granted there is that big space in the middle...perhaps some boats could be floated in that space or something? Otherwhise, I think this looks really well done overall. Quite a high level of detail and finish, and its going to take on a different appearance when you're down on ground level and the boats are moving about etc... And I quite like the way the toilet block has been redone actually.

Answer to the question from DWs facebook page: For those who don't know, Bob Tan is sort of the GM for Engineering/Special Projects at DW.

Wouldn't the air still be hitting 4 seats in total (There's the 2 outside seats on the second last row remember)

The old car had 3 seats in the front row as a compromise to provide better views for those in the 2nd row, since it meant the 2nd row would look between seats rather than directly into a backrest. As for why the back row only has 2 seats. My guesses are that either -The new seats are heavier than the old ones, so something had to give. -There is something at the back of the car that eats into the footwell space, preventing seats in the outside positions.

Not that I'm giving any credence to the idea of DW getting a Giga Coaster (lol?), but why would a new ride have to be compact limited solely to the blue lagoon site? Why not use land adjacent to Blue Lagoon too?

Heh, the new car looks kind of cute and squat...like everyone is sitting on a skateboard or something. Nooooooooo, I bet they are changing the curvature of the slide so you don't get airtime anymore (Like what they did on the Jet Streams at WnW)

No, its saying that JTTCOTE is a 4D adventure and thrill ride rolled into one.

The Orlando flex is a a good deal, but when I went I found it worked out cheaper to buy Busch/SW's and USO/IOA's own 'two park' tickets separately. Granted, both parks were running special offers at the time so I was probably lucky, but be sure to check it out.

OTSRs = Over The Shoulder Restraints....In other words those U shaped harnesses commonly seen on rides that go upside down.

Almost as good? This place has got everything WWW has, plus a crapload more. WWW is beaten. Ardent Leisure could quite easily go and enter into a market not yet served, such as Melbourne and Adelaide (And before anyone goes and makes some comment about the climate, remember that Canada and the northern parts of the US have outdoor water parks that get snowed on in the winter, yet operate over the summer)

Haha, just looking deeper at the plans, I'm fairy certain Proslide will have zero involvement. There was a slide labeled Abysss, and it appeared to be a tornado, so I assumed it was a mislabeling. But nope, Whitewater West have ripped off the design lol: http://www.whitewaterwest.com/cgi/page.cgi...5&zine=show http://newsplusnotes.blogspot.com/2010/08/...into-abyss.html Pic: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_cVF2LlOx6Zc/THWY...yss_Hanwha2.jpg

Double post. http://www.wetnwildsydney.com.au/ (Probably no point in downloading the image gallery zip, its just stock photos of existing WnW attractions) This map pretty much shows the extents of the site: http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&sou...mp;t=h&z=18 So 5.75km east of Wonderland. -The park will only run September to April. -$5.2 Mil to be spent on road upgrades around the park, paid for by VRTP. We have Turbo Tunnels...My water slide dreams have come true! And an overall plan for the park: So in terms of rides we have. -Family Raft Slides -Water Play Structure -Lazy River -Wave Pool -Pair of Aqualoops, with the loops interlocking like a pretzel. -Racing Master Blasters -Tornado & Family Raft slide at one end of the park -Boomerango & 'Python' Mega Tube slide at other end of the park. -Big inner tube complex,with regular, enclosed, bowl, topsy turvy (multiple mini tornados in a row) and drop slides. -Octopus Racer -Spas GoGoBoy...what do you reckon A couple of things I'm loving about the plans is that the Lazy River is placed to be central to the parks future expansions, so it will end up being the centrepiece of the park in the end. Also, notice how the main buildings are in a hub at the centre of the park, and this is all disconnected from the main ticketing operation. In the GC water parks all the shops, cafes etc are clustered around the entrance, but this seems smarter because it's more central to everyone. Hmmm, notice how the plans have a VIP covered parking lot, a normal one, and an overflow one? Different charges perhaps.

Well, I was more getting at the fact TOT has pretty much the largest coaster wheels known to man, and look at the size of that axle! And in any case, superfluous, non structural theming is going to be adding weight isn't it? I wasn't focusing on that bit....

And the current TOT one isn't lol?