Luna Park Melbourne April 2023 Review

[TBoy]

Hello everyone! Over the weekend I decided to go to Melbourne and visit Luna Park and decided to share my thoughts here in this thread. Sorry for the lack of photos.

Luna Park is located in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne and is Australia's oldest theme park turning 110 a few months ago. Unlike the Sydney park, Luna Park Melbourne has operated since 1912 without closing. Unlike the other theme parks such as Gumbuya World and Funfields, Luna Park Melbourne doesn't see the need to expand. 

One thing that is noticeable is that there is no map on the website or in the park, making you go to explore the park and its secrets itself. The park is quite small without room for expansion.

Unfortunately, we went on a busy day where the park was sold out. We booked the tickets earlier in the morning so we didn't have to miss out. We arrived to the park at around midday and there was a 15 minute wait to get in. Once you get in, you are greeted with the Twin Dragon being right next to you, and the historic carousel being right in front of you. The ride has been operating since 1913 and is heritage listed. Also the Luna Palace is getting repairs, and the dodgems have been moved to a temporary white tent.

We planned on going on the Scenic Railway first, but waited due to there being a 40-minute wait. I first went on the Speedy Beetle coaster, a SBF Visa spinning coaster installed in 2019 similar to Crazy Coaster at Adventure Park Geelong. I had a 15-minute wait, and the dispatches were alright at around 3 minutes. Fun ride, however a little rough. One thing they do let you do is put in your seatbelt yourself which is great.

The next ride I rode was the carousel. It is one of the oldest rides in the park, opening 110 years ago in 1913. Luckily, the carousel was a walk on due to me arriving just when it was boarding. Some of the horses were out of action (I think 2 were) but most were operating today. Overall, a fun ride that still holds up today.

After the carousel, I rode the Enterprise. It is a HUSS Enterprise that opened in 1993 but manufactured 10-years before. I only had to wait around 15 minutes for it, in which the wait was worth it. as the operations. A lot of families were surprisingly going on it including little kids. A ride worth going on if you go to the park.

Meanwhile, the other people on my group decided to ride the Sky Flier, which was a Ferris wheel located next to the carousel and The Power Surge. The worst thing was they had to wait 30+ minutes, then wait 4 cycles because of a weight balance thing. I didn't go on it but at least I didn't have to wait that long.

After that, me and my sister went and rode a few rides. First up, we did the Power Surge. A ride manufactured by Zamperla that used to be on the carnival circuit and occasionally visit the park for peak seasons before being installed permanently in 2013. I would say it is the most intense ride in the park. Unfortunately we had to wait a cycle due to the same weight balance thing which made it so 8 of the 24 seats were unused.

After that we did the Supernova, which is an SBF Visa Star Flier similar to Trident at Sea World except it has 2 seats a pole instead of 3. It gave you some nice views of the park and St Kilda beach that looked really good. However there is one thing that ruined it. I reckon it had a 10-minute dispatch time which is horrible. We waited around 30 minutes which was a decent time though.

Then, we went on the ghost train. It was one of the most popular rides in the park and had a 35-minute wait. It is a very popular ride, installed 80 years ago and has been relatively unchanged since then. Operations were GREAT, only having 30 second dispatches which is great for a ride in Australia. One of the negatives however is that the queue is cramped, leaving no room to move around and the seats are also cramped, luckily I got my own car. Unlike many other parks, they don't call out single riders and instead make people ride on their own, slowing down the PPH.

I then went on the Twin Dragon, where it was a walk-on due to them actually calling out for single riders for once. It is similar to the one at Funfields, which was the former one at Sea World. It is less intense as the one just mentioned however but still a fun ride. The queue line is cramped like the ghost train.

After it was time for the Scenic Railway. We waited for 55 minutes to ride, not to mention the coaster was only running 1-train today even know the park was full. Luckily, the queue was less cramped than the previous two. With operations, unfortunately they were very slow, not to mention it had different unload/load stations that slowed down the operations. I'm pretty sure the ride was getting less than 150 people per hour by looking at the queue. Another bad thing about the ride was that the trains were very cramped and not good for tall people, as me and my sister both hit our knees on the train after each drop. Not to mention there was also no single rider most likely due to the weight balance thing. Overall a good ride but the cramped train and ops brought it down for me. 

Then, I went on the Pharoh's Curse, that is actually well themed and similar to Doomsday at Movie World. I was meant to get a walk-on, but they didn't allow it due to the weight balance thing, so I had to wait. After I did get on in the front seat. They had to switch an operator which caused a 10-minute dispatch time. I pulled down my restraint, but the operator pulled it back up and used the computer to pull it down, which ended up in me getting stapled that caused pain to my stomach and legs.  Also the restraints must have been damaged by people scratching it like foam. 

The final ride was the Spider. It was built in 1983 by Eyerly Air Company and has been operating at the park ever since. Like many of the other rides, I got my seat alone due to the weight balance. It's actually pretty fun for a ride like that, and have me some good spinning moments. After that it was time to leave, and my group had fish and chips on the St Kilda Pier before going back to Bendigo.

Overall, the park was an alright place to visit, but it goes down for me due to the horrendous operations including the 10-minute dispatches and the weight balance thing making many seats empty, also making the people per hour go down by a lot. Even my group (who were all GP except for me) complained about the operations. I only got on 12 rides in the 5 hours I was there. They also only have the standby line, no single riders or fast pass lines. They also need to upgrade the rides as they are becoming old, and many stapling you which make you hurt. The staff also seemed to just take their time and didn't care how long the dispatches were. My rankings:

• Operations: 4/10
• Rides: 7/10
• Staff: 5/10
• Atmosphere: 9/10
• Value: 6/10
• Overall: 6.2/10

Definitely not the best theme park out of all of them in Victoria, but some good fun for people visiting. I suggest getting there early as you might be able to get some walk-ons but getting there after 12 you will not on rides like Scenic Railway etc. 

[REGIE]

Cool definitely a unique park!  I personally like the atmosphere the old rides give the park and think they kinda make it for me. And I don’t just mean the real old ones like SR, GT ect. the enterprise, spider and similar aged rides are awesome.  LPM’s charm for me is the old collection of rides. Those 80s rides are slowly disappearing and replacing them would be a shame. It will happen one day but for now I love it.  LPM will never beat gumbuya world in rides and roller coasters so why go for that market?