Jamberoo Action Park - Boxing Day 2022

[Gazza]

 

Photos: https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/jamberoo-action-park

This summer I decided to do a road trip down the Princes Highway from Brisbane to Melbourne.
I had not been to Jamberoo Action Park for about 10 years, but the addition of Perfect Storm and Velocity Falls made for a good excuse to make a pit stop.

Dates and timings meant I had no choice but to visit on Boxing Day. Normally you’d avoid a park on a public holiday in the middle of summer, but my fears were unfounded and it turned out to be “busy” but not unbearable, helped a bit by the operations being good.

I drove down from Taree that morning so didn’t get there till about 11. First impressions, wow the trees have certainly grown a bit. If there is an award for the nicest looking car park, Jamberoo gets it.

In fact, the park as whole is well hidden. The boundary is surrounded by a line of trees, so you see none of it until the entrance to the car park.

I headed in, avoided the crowds by getting the lockers near the mini golf / pizza place and actually started on Taipan.

Last time i was here they only had left side running, so made sure I did the right with the helix instead.
Similar comments as my last visit, its quite a fast slide and quite lengthy so it feels like a bit of a space warp. It doesn’t wash wildly onto the walls like Mammoth Falls. Due to its tucked away location it was a walk on.

Right, time to take on Velocity Falls.
At first I was wondering how they spent $10m on a mat racer and a couple of drop slides, but really it's an entire major new area with pathways everywhere, literal mountains moved for earthworks, several new bridges, and even 10 ‘luxe’ type cabanas that more resembled a proper caravan park type cabin than a picnic shelter. Yeah the plants need to grow in and yeah some minor things need  to be finished, but judging by the rest of the park it'll look very lush in a couple of years.

Heaps of rockwork, and even some waterfalls running underneath (The bridge for the bobsled also doubles as a footbridge)

Stinger Twist is a skybox drop slide like wedgie, but it is followed by a few enclosed twists and turns down the hill, not unlike the River Rapids at WnW.
Surprisingly less intense than i expected, after the initial helix, it actually peters out a bit and you do the rest of the turns at a steady pace. Not much water spraying in your face either so thats a plus.
If you've ridden Wedgie you’ll know it can be quite full on with its forces, this one is more moderate.

Stinger Bump is the other one and is more just a very drawn out speed slide. This one seemed to throw an absurd amount of spray up so ended up riding half squinting all the way down until eventually there was a bit more water around me, indicating i had reached the runout. Couldn’t really feel the drops because they were so gradual.

Both slides had about a 20 min wait. They are popular with thrillseekers, though obviously capacity is limited. They did seem to have an issue with people getting in the wrong queue (and lifeguards would constantly make announcements to the queue to tell you to make sure you are in the right line), and having two similarly coloured slides doesn’t help. I’d suggest extra signs and stencils every few metres along the queue to help, to supplement the sign at the front of  the queue.

Octo Racer (Why did they pick sea creatures for the ride names in a waterfall themed area?) is a highlight. Excellent capacity, they were operating in a common sense manner starting one race as soon as the previous one had crossed the finish line (Plenty of time for people to clear out before others reached the bottom). The intermediate open air “rally points” sort of don't work since they are so short, so you seldom see other competitors, especially if they are more than a few body lengths ahead or behind. It’s not really until the final stretch where you see everyone at once. 

The enclosed sections are good. I preferred starting from the ‘middle’ lanes, because the helix on those lanes gets tighter towards the bottom so a sense of increasing force and speed and It gets even faster in the twister section.

Also have to give credit for the little things. It has a good timing system, with beeps, not just lights, and it gives you your time in addition to your placing. The start tubs are nicely designed, positioned at waist height so you can lean into them instead of crashing onto your chest.

Ended up doing 4 laps, trying each relative lane position from the middle to the edge.

The last new slide I had to tackle was Perfect Storm.

The line was huge, stretching a good 50m down the hill from the load area.

Again, high capacity saves the day. The park had four staffers at the top. Two pulling rafts off the belt and two loaders, so they were more or less able to send people down as quickly as they would load, so the line moved quite fast and was probably only 20-30 mins.

It helps too that the queue line is really nice, with trees on both side, so its very shady.

As for the slide, it's surprisingly rapid fire. Normally these tornadoes with long lead ins can be a bit lumbering as you make your way around the turns an helices.

On this, you drop almost immediately into the first funnel, a brief S bend leads into the next funnel, and from that its pretty much a straight away into the big drop, so it wastes no time at all really. My 2nd ride was in a fully loaded raft so crazy airtime, and almost a little scary since it felt like we were headed towards the pointy end with too much speed. In fact the final helix is very fast too, you can expecct to bank high.

The main letdown is that the big funnel had none of the thunder and lighting SFX, and wasn't all that dark. Still a good ride, but I would have liked to have ridden it in its prime. At least the outside looks cool, and quite impressive how much stuff that structure could take.

Also, was the school bus in the theming supposed to be a South Park reference?

Surprisingly, the line for Perfect Storm was only slightly longer than Funnel Web. Yeah Perfect Storm is better, but not that much better would you believe.

Jamberoo Express is a trackless train that does a lap around the park, even running steeply up the hill along a high road behind Taipan, Velocity falls and Perfect Storm. The driver commented they are getting a more powerful engine, since the current one struggles a bit with the hills. We had to stop a couple of times to make sure it didnt overheat.

The park has evidently spent heaps on roads up here, since there are full on concrete bridges at a couple of points.

Was hoping to get some shots of the rides, but the trees they have planted obscure most of them. A good problem to have I guess?

I did one go on the Bobsled to reaquaint myself The main wait seemed to be for the chair lift, but the Advanced track itself was quite empty (Most seemed to be going on the beginner track and it was hilarious seeing the number of slow riders with 7 or 8 people backed up behind) It's good how the park actively discourages slow people from using it.

It seemed the top area was a bit of a bottleneck. The line for the easy track seemed to block the hard track, which meant the capacity of the hard track wasn't being used that efficiently. Was good for me though since i could do a no brakes run to the bottom, and it's a pretty good run overall.

The new tunnel under the walkway to top of Velocity falls is a real headchopper, but you lose a bit of speed on the new bridge.

 

I'm not sure why I skipped Rapid River last time I was at the park, but I'm glad I did it this time!

The park was enforcing a single lap policy, so it was only about 5 mins to line up and get a tube. It's the nicest lazy river in Australia, heavily shaded by mature trees, and a few elements on the way. From the entry point you drift past some low fountains that shoot across the channel. No avoiding these and plenty of giggles from everyone. On a long straight section you pass over some spa bubblers, which dont really generate much movement but do tickle your feet.

The course is built up against a hillside, so the best part is a cave, which also features a wave generator. Holes in the ceiling have water trickling down through, much like rainwater seeping into sinkhole.

Finally, you pass a set of cascades running into the channel, so drift towards these if you want to get wet.

Went for a dip in Outback Bay, its rather quite shallow, even 2/3 of the way out you can touch the bottom. Credit to them for playing the Boxing Day test on the big screen!

I decided to close out on the one freefall attraction I haven't ridden in Aus. The Rock.
Slight nerves on this one, but hey, if little kids are jumping off so could I.

I built up to the 5m jump by doing the little drop slide that's 2m up first.

Anyhow, it's not too bad, over quicker than you expect, and very refreshing!

Overall, Jamberoo is a great place. The whole day felt hassle free. In the space of 5 hours (had to leave at 4pm) i managed 13 attractions, which wasn't too bad considering I was just ambling along amongst the crowds. It's clear capacity is a huge focus, staff were good and the park feels nicely presented and easily the best landscaped in the country.

Edited January 18, 2023 by Gazza

[REGIE]

I really like how the bobsled goes over the octoracer. Definitely the highest bucket list waterpark in Australia for me at the moment. I am so excited for my Melbourne park trip in a few months

[TBoy]

Jamberoo looks to me like the best themed water-park in Australia. Most of our waterparks are just concrete with slides towers on top (cough cough Raging Waters Sydney and White Water World) so nice to see a well-themed one.

[DJKostya]

I love Jamberoo. They put a lot of effort in to make it high quality and it shows.

My understanding from family living in the area the reason they use a lot of trees etc. is to somewhat obscure it from view so it doesn't impact the local view/aesthetic, which IMO as you rightly point out just makes the park look that much better. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

51 minutes ago, DJKostya said:

I love Jamberoo. They put a lot of effort in to make it high quality and it shows.

My understanding from family living in the area the reason they use a lot of trees etc. is to somewhat obscure it from view so it doesn't impact the local view/aesthetic, which IMO as you rightly point out just makes the park look that much better. 

I think that's correct - I recall during one of their more recent attractions (last 10 years or so) there were some objections from residents to the slide colours proposed, and thats why they've used mostly grey panels.The boundary and surrounding trees are likewise to obscure the attractions from outside the park for the same reasons - to keep the residents happy.

[jjuttp]

12 hours ago, Gazza said:

Also, was the school bus in the theming supposed to be a South Park reference?

I think when it was first opened someone did a TR and said it was.

 

Also, do they let you get a step or 2 run up on the octo racer, or do you need to start hovering over it?

[REGIE]

13 hours ago, TBoy said:

Jamberoo looks to me like the best themed water-park in Australia. Most of our waterparks are just concrete with slides towers on top (cough cough Raging Waters Sydney and White Water World) so nice to see a well-themed one.

Idk I really love how WWW looks even if it’s not necessarily themed. I love how good coaster goes through it. Really adds some atmosphere and kinetic energy and makes everything feel like it’s intertwined unlike wet’n’wild which feels like a bunch of placed rides at least in the back of the park and WWW has some nice trees too and a better themed wave pool. Wet’n’wild green slides and constricter do look like though. But WWW is my personal favourite looking water park because the gold coaster interacts with the slides.

Edited January 19, 2023 by REGIE

[Noll_57]

Great trip report! Jamberoo is a beautiful park, I’ll have to head down there and visit it again as soon as I get the opportunity. 

[GoGoBoy]

Jamberoo has come so far. So sad to hear that the audio and SFX in Perfect Storm weren't working though. That was a selling point for me 

[Levithian]

Come on, is it really a water park if you haven't burnt your feet on bare concrete baked by the sun during the hottest part of the day?

Everyone else should take note. Not just waterparks either. Looks amazing. 
 

[Gazza]

On 19/01/2023 at 9:03 AM, jjuttp said:

I think when it was first opened someone did a TR and said it was.

 

Also, do they let you get a step or 2 run up on the octo racer, or do you need to start hovering over it?

The start tub design has two rebates for your feet so I think the intent is to not run up.