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Intamin’s second ever Hot Racer (single rail coaster) has just opened at Walibi Rhone-Alpes in France. As we know, Intamin’s first attempt at this coaster model was the Big Dipper at Luna Park Sydney. For comparison, I don’t believe the Big Dippers height or length have ever been revealed, but Mahuka reaches a height of 18m, track length of 600m, has 3 inversions and reaches a speed of 67km/h. While Big Dipper has 2 inversions and reaches a speed of 72km/h. For those who have ridden Big Dipper, watching this POV of Mahuka, how does it compare in terms of its layout and what it has to offer?

I have seen a lot of people saying they would like bridges (theming) to be built for the rides of Luna Park, to emulate how the park was in the olden days. What would you like to see, theming wise?

Luna Park Sydney has released details of its new $15 million dollar imersive attraction, the Dream Circus. It has provided almost 90 years of fun but now Sydney's iconic Luna Park is entering the digital age with a new immersive attraction pegged to be the next chapter of the park's history. Luna Park opened in 1935 on Sydney Harbour during a time of economic and political turbulence during the Great Depression. The theme park offered "escapism, wonder and joy" for residents during that difficult time, CEO John Hughes said. The historical face of Luna Park and as it looks now. (Nine / Supplied) "Born in the midst of the great depression, Luna Park was built in Sydney out of this need for being social to escape through some of that frivolity," he told 9news.com.au. Eighty-eight years later, torrid times have hit again but Luna Park remains to offer a similar escape. "Now in 2023 with what is happening globally on the back of a pandemic, we think that there is this innate need again to escape, somewhere to go have fun and somewhere to go socialise." From December 22, Luna Park will have upgraded the Big Top to an immersive experience attraction, opening with a locally created experience called the Dream Circus. A render of inside the Big Top immersive experience. (Supplied)HERE The park has made the $15 million investment into redeveloping the Big Top to compete with the globally growing demand for immersive experiences. Luna Park will offer a 3000-square-metre fully accessible multi-purpose entertainment venue within the Big Top with "Barco projection technology, a spatially mapped audio system, hologram technology, motion-activated LED screens and the latest in lighting technology". It provides a 360-degree visual and audio experience in the Big Top that will initially be used to show the Dream Circus production and later for live music, product launches, fashion week and other corporate connections. The event space will open with the Dream Circus production. (Supplied) Sydney Luna Park CEO John Hughes. (Supplied) The move into the immersive and digital space is the future for the amusement park, the CEO added. "We know globally that Gen Z, Gen Alpha are craving these highly social and immersive experiences," he said. He acknowledged that simply relying on rollercoasters and rides at Luna Park isn't sustainable for the future of the theme park and moving into the digital space and creating an "Instagrammable" experience will attract a new wave of visitors. "Luna Park has historically pushed what is possible creatively it has always been a leader in the next best thing," Hughes said. "It is in our DNA. We are replicating it in a 2023 way to a 2023 audience who are largely digital natives," he said. The park already welcomes 1.1 million visitors per year - a return to pre-COVID-19 numbers, Hughes said - but with this new experience it hopes to attract 50,000 visitors this summer alone. Luna Park is sticking closely to its history honouring the best of the new technology while remaining a heritage Art Deco amusement park with classic rides and attractions. From the current to construction site to event space in seven weeks. (Supplied) The Dream Circus is a narrative journey to be premiered in the Big Top. (Supplied) But as the CEO noted, with Australia and the globe facing difficult economic times again in 2023 and the cost of living crisis squeezing budgets, the park believes it has hit the right balance on pricing with the new experience. Starting at $35 for kids and $45 for adults, the team said it is pricing "comparable to a movie". "When you look at the broad spectrum of going to the cinema, going to other attractions or going to shows that come to town we think that is priced quite low given the experience and quality," Hughes said. "Hopefully people can see the value proposition of coming to the park for a ride pass and an experience pass for the Dream Circus for a fairly affordable price." The link to the original article can be found HERE This seems like an excellent proposition for the park- at the same time it converts a function space that can be utilised into a permanent attraction but the attraction itself can also be used to enhance the features of the function space. It will be interesting to see just how and what this attraction actually looks like when it opens to the public. Either way, it certainly shows that Luna Park are still thinking out of the box and have followed up their recent significant investment of 9 new rides with this experience. The Luna park site has been updated to reflect the new attraction and has more info. It will be an upcharge and ticketed attraction and is not available if you are an existing annual pass holder. Info from the website is as per below:

I heard Luna park Sydney’s wild mouse has not operated since august but I didn’t really think twice that it wouldn’t open up again. That was until I saw this post on reddit. I had a search around and sure enough there’s a lot of rumours going around that the wood mouse might not ever reopen. The park has said nothing about it but I thought it deserves a topic for it. What do you guys think.

I might finally get to check out Big Dipper 3 in the coming weeks. But I was wondering since I don’t want to be at the park All day, just a few hours. Is there a pay per ride option? I remember there used to be. Or a morning option or something like that? Also I know everyone must be so sick of school holiday related questions but how are wait times at LPS during the hoildays? BD3 doesn’t exactly look to have a good throughput. if there’s any other tips or things you guys know I would love to hear about it! .

Time to do another "big" poll, this time with one of the most popular ride types in the country. Vote by Sunday.

This is the second last coaster poll, and I am doing these so one can be counted. Vote by Thursday.

Time to pick the fourth coaster in the list. This time there will be 3 options due to their being over 2 wild mouse coasters in Australia. Please note: this does not count the Crazy Spinning Coaster in carnivals, only permanent versions. Remember to put votes in by Wednesday.

This time we will be doing two polls. Also due to the WoO Boomerang not being open, you can compare it to POVs of Tweestyrd as well as the theming on the concept art. Vote by Saturday.

As some members have suggested, we will make the voting in seperate threads. This week will be Big Dipper v. Abyss. You have until Tuesday to vote.

Went on the “Big Dipper” today, it’s a good ride, not too intense. The ride doesn’t go too fast and isn’t too intense, but very shaky. I sat in row 2 on the blue train. Being a single rail and having a very light train, the rattle (especially in the front) is crazy. The launch isn’t world class, but it’s good. When the train exits the first loop the rattle on the front 3 rows shakes worse than every other ride I’ve ever been on. When you go around the second loop the g force is pretty high. In my case, my neck locked and the rattle banged my head up pretty bad. It’s one of those rides where, if you sit in the front 2 rows, you will get a headache.

Given this event is starting tonight and running from 21 to 30 October (more nights than previous I believe). I'd love to know what people's thoughts are on Halloscream? I've been going the last five years, and only went the first time because a friend was working in Mystery Manor, but I found it was a lot of fun. In 2019, they went 14 years + and took things up another level with 3 mazes in the big top (along with Mystery Manor and scare actors in the mirror maze). It's not Movie World level, but a lot of fun; and the only Halloween event I was able to do in 2020 and 2021.

After many years the Moon ranger and The tumble bug seem to be on their way out as both rides have been removed from the parks rides list. Both rides still remain on the park map but have a minus circle on them, they do say they are in maintenance but when you click see more it will say 'You are not authorised to access this page' if this is true it will be a shame as tumble bug was one of my favourites growing up but yeah I thought I may as well bring this up after seeing this