Dreamworld announces Wave Swinger, Dreamland (DreamWorks retheme) and new coasters

[TBoy]

I have figured out the clues and I think I know who the manufacturer of the wave swinger is. It is Zamperla! I am guessing it because:

• Greg Yong said the swinger is being manufactured in Italy, where Zamperla is
• Big Red Boat and Big Red Plane are being manufactured by Zamperla
• Zamperla make wave swingers that look like the one in the concept art

It seems to me that Movie World, Sea World and Dreamworld love Zamperla for their kids rides. Basically nearly all the kids rides except carousels/coasters are done by them. 

[REGIE]

I don’t know heaps about flat rides or wave swingers but I do know there are good ones and bad ones. Is zamperla the manufacturer that makes the good ones?

 

also it’s too bad big red boat isn’t one of the new skyline kiddie single rails

Edited February 18, 2023 by REGIE

[TBoy]

6 minutes ago, REGIE said:

Is zamperla the manufacturer that makes the good ones?

A bit hard to tell as most of the kids attractions are done by Zamperla. Basically all the kids attractions except coasters and carousels are done by Zamperla.

[Baconjack]

2 hours ago, REGIE said:

also it’s too bad big red boat isn’t one of the new skyline kiddie single rails

Yes buying an unproven model that'll probably shit itself 10 years down the track. Because Dreamworld certainly needs another one of those after all they've been through.

Edited February 18, 2023 by Baconjack

[Spotty]

15 hours ago, TBoy said:

A bit hard to tell as most of the kids attractions are done by Zamperla. Basically all the kids attractions except coasters and carousels are done by Zamperla.

Zamperla is one of the more reputable manufacturers for family rides in the industry. They did all the rides in WBK for Movie World back in 1997 when it first opened (except speedys and LTRR). I would say they are much more reliable and better quality than SBF Visa rides having operated rides from both companies.

[Tim Dasco]

From what I have heard its a clone of Volraee with 64 seats. So it'll be a big ride with big capacity and made by a good manufacturer. 

[HussRainbow87]

They’re already spending the money, they could have gone for a Zierer at least. Best of the best when it comes to a Wave Swinger. Their custom theming on some of their park models is incredible. 

[Spotty]

2 hours ago, HussRainbow87 said:

They’re already spending the money, they could have gone for a Zierer at least. Best of the best when it comes to a Wave Swinger. Their custom theming on some of their park models is incredible. 

I will agree happily with this, the Zierer's are by far the best model. I will admit though, the one at Luna Park Sydney actually does look pretty nice still.

[REGIE]

Yeah I really don’t mind. I haven’t been on either so to me it will be great no matter what. I am just glad it’s not a SBF visa.  I hope it’s given a classical look. 

[Jobe]

Out of the Wave Swinger type rides that are currently operating in Australian parks these are the major ones that I could find.

• Volare at Luna Park Sydney- Preston and Barbieri 64 seat model. This unit has been met with mostly positive reveiws and it certainly is well presented and of this list probaby has the best location of any Waveswinger in the country- above the eatery at LPS and flying out into the harbour. Of note is that Volare is heavily promoted still on the Preston and Barbieri website under their Waveswinger's category.

• Ballroom Blitz at Aussie World. This is a Zierer ride and one of their 48 seat capacity models. It must be noted that Zierer only offer 40 seat or 56 seat models currently, having discontinued the 48 seat and 64 seat models some years back Ballroom Blitz was added to the park in 2014 but has suffered some downtime in recent years. It was involved in an incident which saw 4 people injured in 2017 and as a result was shut for a lengthy complete overhaul. Happy to say that it is now open and operating normally at the park.

• Tree Swing at Gumbuya World is a SBF Visa Unit with 24 seat capacity. It was added it 2017 with the revamp of the park. Its probably not as exciting as the other Waveswingers on this list as it does not have the "wave motion" that marks the classic swinger but it is notable for how far the chairs swing out, giving a fairly enjoyable family ride sensation. Tree Swing is currently down for major refurb and will reopen later in the year.

• Wave Swinger at Adventure Park Geelong is a Zierer unit and was added to the park in 2012. Capacity is unknown at this but it certainly is not one of the larger models and i would surmise that its at least a 40 or 48 seat model.

• There is also a permanent Wave Swinger at The Hunter Valley Gardens near Newcastle. Try as i could, I was unable to get any information as to the manufactuer of this unit or specifications. If I was to hazard a guess it looks like either a smaller Preston and Barbieri or SBF Visa model. If anyone knows anything more then please feel free to update the info. This unit was added to the Gardens in 2018.

• I think that this lists all the permanent Wave Swinger rides that are located in Australian parks, this of course does not take into account the travelling versions of these rides on the show circuit of which there are more than a few. It also does not take into account the Sky Flyer rides such as Trident at Seaworld and Supernova at Luna Park Melbourne as I consider them different rides.

 

On 19/02/2023 at 2:01 PM, Tim Dasco said:

From what I have heard its a clone of Volraee with 64 seats. So it'll be a big ride with big capacity and made by a good manufacturer. 

• If thats the case then I would predict that the ride manufacturer will either be a Preston and Barbieri or a Zamperla unit- since either of these manufactuers still produce 64 seat units. I would lean towards Zamperla especially given Dreamworld's relationship with them and the fact that they are already getting a new junior coaster from them. This could be part of a package deal.

Edited February 22, 2023 by Jobe

[REGIE]

The Zierer one has the best look imo it’s very well presented and looks more detailed. But if it’s had a lot of down time lately I can fully see DW going for the good old trusted zamp

[TBoy]

37 minutes ago, Jobe said:

Tree Swing is currently down for major refurb and will reopen later in the year.

Ah thats why it is closed. When I asked people at the park they said that Tree Swing was down due to them needing a part and it would open in around mid-Feb. Must be rebuilding it from scratch or a retheme.

39 minutes ago, Jobe said:

I would lean towards Zamperla especially given Dreamworld's relationship with them and the fact that they are already getting a new junior coaster from them. This could be part of a package deal.

I agree. The fact that it is being made in Italy (where Zamperla is) and Dreamworld have a good relationship with them as well as the new rides being made by Zamperla makes me think of that. Yes P+B are in Italy but they have no relationship with Dreamworld which is why I think a Zamperla wave swinger is most likely.

[Spotty]

I'm not sure of the manufacturer, but the one at Adventure Park is 100% not a Zierer model. We have 2 travelling Wave Swingers (March's and O'neills) although I'm not sure if O'Neills still travels or not which are both Zierer. There is also one in Western Australia but I'm not sure of the owner.

[Lachie F]

On 18/02/2023 at 5:39 PM, TBoy said:

It is Zamperla!

If I am remembering correctly, I believe in the media event Dreamworld said that it was a swing ride being made by Preston and Barbieri

 

https://www.prestonbarbieri.com/products/family-rides/flying-swinger/

[Tricoart]

3 hours ago, Lachie F said:

If I am remembering correctly, I believe in the media event Dreamworld said that it was a swing ride being made by Preston and Barbieri

 

https://www.prestonbarbieri.com/products/family-rides/flying-swinger/

No joke, the first image that pops up when you load that website: 

And Dreamworld Flyer's concept art:

Look at the shadows on the ground, the empty seats, even the positions & movement of individual riders (hands out 'flying', holding onto the chains, looking away, etc). No secret where the reference image came from.

Edited February 22, 2023 by Tricoart

[REGIE]

I agree that’s beyond coincidence . I wonder when we will start to see ground work happen at that fountain 

[RobMac]

What this is, is DW trying to again con everyone, that a hyped up carvial/sideshow attraction, plonked in a really dumb place, is going to do wonders!  

Edited February 26, 2023 by RobMac

[REGIE]

They have not stated it’s going to do wonders… it’s just the nature of the attraction they give a lot of kinetic energy.. I don’t know why people enjoy putting down DW so much. Just be happy somethings happening there

[Rivals]

21 minutes ago, REGIE said:

They have not stated it’s going to do wonders… it’s just the nature of the attraction they give a lot of kinetic energy.. I don’t know why people enjoy putting down DW so much. Just be happy somethings happening there

Agreed, on here they put them down if they don’t add anything then put them down even more when they’re essentially redoing half of the park. Make it make sense.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

5 hours ago, RobMac said:

What this is, is DW trying to again con everyone, that a hyped up carvial/sideshow attraction, plonked in a really dumb place, is going to do wonders!  

Laying it on a bit thick there old chap...

Not every ride has to be a blockbuster e-ticket. That was where Movie World went wrong - building all the big rides it was sorely in need of a number of well balanced flats to round it out for quite some time.

Dreamworld had a great roster of non-coasters (until several of them were removed) and they need to rebuild and balance. They're not going to win if all they do is build $30M coasters - and I don't think anyone else - fan of the park or not - has said that a wave swinger is a bad decision.

[Slick]

2 hours ago, Rivals said:

Agreed, on here they put them down if they don’t add anything then put them down even more when they’re essentially redoing half of the park. Make it make sense.

At a high level the idea makes sense - build the kind of ride that can be opened as an up-charge for night markets that doesn't give away the gate and de-value the park's day ticket proposition. The problem is when you scratch deeper, there's a litany of reasons that should tell you why it shouldn't be a thing.

For example, every park planner or designer will tell you why it's bad to concentrate so much stuff into the first few metres of a park. The obvious one is that it hinders crowd flow management in a significant way - on a busy day, Dreamworld will have two rides, a show-stage and a critical photo point within centimetres of each other. Think about this then - people typically move to the first thing they see when they're in a park - as a result, will a guest's first experience of the day be stuck in a line that's overflowing because due care wasn't given to filtering people out first? The second reason is that there's a well-established tipping point between time in park and per capita spend. By extension, if you're concentrating your experience into a few square metres, people don't journey as far through different lands, they don't stop to buy F&B, they're not being immersed in different themed environments (marginal affinity relationship) and so on and they're less inclined to spend more time in retail etc. etc.

Thirdly - there's a reason why Disney (yes, Disney) don't have a kiddie ride right when you walk in, they have a train that gets people out of that space - it's out of place thematically. Those that say "well Sky Voyager this" or "it's a different park" are negating the fundamental reality that the park doesn't look the way it did precisely because of a continued culture (or rather, ignorance of culture and heritage) to preserve and plus what they have. Instead, we've got make revenue-first strategic choices that place all else second.

Finally, it removes a strategic point to place shows and events. If you're worried about kinetic energy, put in a better fountain display. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Edited February 26, 2023 by Slick

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

40 minutes ago, Slick said:

At a high level the idea makes sense - build the kind of ride that can be opened as an up-charge for night markets that doesn't give away the gate and de-value the park's day ticket proposition. The problem is when you scratch deeper, there's a litany of reasons that should tell you why it shouldn't be a thing.

For example, every park planner or designer will tell you why it's bad to concentrate so much stuff into the first few metres of a park. The obvious one is that it hinders crowd flow management in a significant way - on a busy day, Dreamworld will have two rides, a show-stage and a critical photo point within centimetres of each other. Think about this then - people typically move to the first thing they see when they're in a park - as a result, will a guest's first experience of the day be stuck in a line that's overflowing because due care wasn't given to filtering people out first? The second reason is that there's a well-established tipping point between time in park and per capita spend. By extension, if you're concentrating your experience into a few square metres, people don't journey as far through different lands, they don't stop to buy F&B, they're not being immersed in different themed environments (marginal affinity relationship) and so on and they're less inclined to spend more time in retail etc. etc.

Thirdly - there's a reason why Disney (yes, Disney) don't have a kiddie ride right when you walk in, they have a train that gets people out of that space - it's out of place thematically. Those that say "well Sky Voyager this" or "it's a different park" are negating the fundamental reality that the park doesn't look the way it did precisely because of a continued culture (or rather, ignorance of culture and heritage) to preserve and plus what they have. Instead, we've got make revenue-first strategic choices that place all else second.

Finally, it removes a strategic point to place shows and events. If you're worried about kinetic energy, put in a better fountain display. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I started out ready to refute all this, and then thought about the Disney comparison (which everyone says isn't a fair comparison but still, they're the leaders so...) and the Weenie concept to draw people further in. The castle, the mountains... etc etc. and I have to admit that it's true...

Then i thought about Movie World sticking batwing, Justice League, Green Lantern and DC Rivals all on the same 3m wide pathway. Soon we'll have Superman and Surfrider at the end of the same TWO metre wide pathway, with a potential shortcut connection to WOO land as well. (Oh, and theres not a single F&B outlet, and only one merch outlet within that entire footprint as it stands right now.)

After considering this, I realised that adding a wave swinger to the fountain isn't the end of the world.

...And unlike Sky Voyager, Justice League and Rivals, you don't have to practically join the queue to recognise if the line is long and decide you should just go elsewhere for now.

 

(Also, the show-stage and the critical photo point are one and the same thing so you can't really count both at the same time)

[Slick]

12 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Then i thought about Movie World sticking batwing, Justice League, Green Lantern and DC Rivals all on the same 3m wide pathway. Soon we'll have Superman and Surfrider at the end of the same TWO metre wide pathway, with a potential shortcut connection to WOO land as well. (Oh, and theres not a single F&B outlet, and only one merch outlet within that entire footprint as it stands right now.)

I think we can all agree that when it comes to flow and overall park layout design, Movie World ranks as one of the worst offenders out there. Fancy having flow be such an issue that you have to open up access to a closed ride (Arkham Asylum) to offer guests better access to the front of the park. It definitely shouldn't be used as the standard for best-case design principles. It's also sadly a product of its own success - complaints about noise have necessitated rides being huddled awkwardly towards the front of the park.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Exactly. So for all the reasons it does make sense to put it there, the negatives of having two rides and a stage at the entrance isn't the worst thing in town. When you sum all of the parts involved here, it's still the right move.
 

[Guest 239]

I agree with the sentiment of what you're saying  @Slick. A wave swinger in this placement is not ideal, but neither is Dreamworld's entire situation. They have to carefully balance profits and brand recovery. A big criticism I have for Dreamworld is that it's first impression once you walk through the gate is pretty bad. Sky Voyager sucked a lot of the charm out of Main Street and any kinetics that could recover the mood are hidden other behind structures (except for perhaps Claw but even then it's around a corner. Even during busy periods Main Street just has a tendency to feel lifeless and considering crowds play an important part in determining atmosphere I honestly think a bit of congestion will do wonders for the parks first impression.

Once it's up and running you'll be greeted to a much better first impression when entering the gates. You'll have the visual kinetics, happy groups of guests, gleeful sounds from the attraction, etc. Plus they then get the bonus of using it in the night markets which hopefully solves some of the lost revenue problems that you mentions.

In my opinion it's the best possible outcome for their entrance experience without completely redoing it.