Whirly Wheels?

[Dylaan]

I actually would rather Whirly Wheels if they didn't lower the capacity. How are people seated in them? Is it face to face or what?

[Gazza]

You sit side by side but in alternate directions, so in other words you sit sideways but you can look diagonally to the other person. Look at the pic i posted and the way you sit should be pretty apparent. Personally though the 4 person rafts are better IMO, better capacity, more momentum, more friends to ride with etc. But i dont see how getting it up the stairs would be difficult, 4 people sharing the load would make it bearable.

[WalleyWorld]

Just a quick question Gazza, Is that ya real enter score? If so, that is really high!!! Looks like that time you spent of R-C.com.au paid off. \ CoasterBoy6

[Gazza]

Indeed it is, the proof is in the pudding: And for the benefit of you Queenslanders, that score is equivalent to OP2. For those of you playing at home look in the results guide in todays Herald Sun, my name is fourth one down for Economics (look under 50, its in alphabetical order), also got in there for Visual Communication and also Physics, but thats enough bragging on my part (lol I earned it, im unco at sport so i never "win" anything) But getting back to the whirly wheels, for those who have ridden them, do they go any higher and do they spin better? (since they are not an awkward clover shape)

Edited December 12, 2006 by Gazza

[WalleyWorld]

Just a quick pic for everybody to look at. It's a close up of a Whirly Wheel: Whrily Wheel P.S: It's the bottom picture on the page.

[Dylaan]

Thanks for that pic. Is that the raft used on the rocket slides or something else?

[Gazza]

Yes, in that pic the canary yellow one with black handles is used on the rocket, the saffron coloured raft with blue handles is a cloverleaf and the green one is the whirly wheel.

[myk]

They're so gross lol I WANT CLOVER LEAFS BACK

[Dylaan]

We were there yesterday and they were still using the whirly wheels. The cloverleafs were over near a shed inbetween BH and Mach 5. I asked an op if they knew why they were only using 2 person rafts over the 4 person ones. They said that there was an issue with safety or something along those lines but she wasn't 100% sure as she'd only been working there for a week. On a better note, the line moved so damn fast it was amazing. There were people with tubes lining up to give them to the people waiting as opposed to people waiting for them. Kudos goes to the guy dispatching the rafts so fast that the camera couldn't cope. I think he's name was Glenn or somthing similar. No joke, he was sending people off every 10 seconds and boy was it speeding the queue up. The lines were out of the queue house but I didn't wait any longer than 15 minutes at any stage throughout the day for a ride. Another thing I noticed was on Mammoth Falls they had barcode scanners at the top for people with SplashCash Wristbands who wanted an onride photo. How long have they had these for?

[myk]

Not long. I saw them about 2 weeks ago for the first time. It's a great idea I reckon!

[lil' monster]

I'm going tomorrow with my friend (16) and my 9 year old nephew. He's never being to a theme park and I just have a feeling he's going to be dragging me on every ride in the park except i've refused to go on the freefall ones-my friend's doing those instead (that is until she sees the height)

[GoGoBoy]

I can't believe so many people still seem to be choosing to go to Wet 'n' Wild when there is a brand spanking new waterpark down the road. It doesn't make sense

[Dylaan]

Well I think that increased cost + less rides = not as good... Yeah, I know they have way better rides, and I'd really love to get a chance to go there but I just can't see myself spending an entire day there. Maybe half of it at DW. WnW is still a great park and I'm going to keep going there...

[Gazza]

Just on that, I was speaking with a colleague who had just been to schoolies on the GC, he had been to WnW so I asked him about Tornado, to which he replied "We didn't bother, it looked crap". I guess the GP might not be as impressed by some of these new rides as we thought , but then again that isn't an indicitive example. I think WnW Rocks is right on the money, i think the cost factor is one that even I have forgotten about, but if a park down the road is twice the size for lower admission then that alone is a pretty powerful factor in terms of getting people to visit. A couple of other things to consider is that this is the first full summer holiday period with the H20 zone finished completley, so that is still a "new" attraction for many (Giving WnW a bit more ammo against the new rides at WWW) Plus, WnW is still an excellent park, even if it isnt the newest so again thats going to get people through the gates. It also comes down to that quality v quantity thing, the GP tends to show preference towards the latter (Hence DW being the most popular park), but in this case its WnW which has the quanity, perhaps explaining the attendances.

[rappa]

Let me tell you WnW is PACKED! Every day I can't believe how many people are piling into the park. I think another factor is probably that EVERYONE knows about WnW so for many it's a no brainer. I will probably take a while for the greater Australian population at large to get the picture that WWW is a waterpark on its own to go visit as opossed to something new at Dreamworld. Also I heard that the ride attendants were having a lot of trouble keeping hold of the large 4 person rafts on tornado at the top of the slide. That may be why they are trialling the 2 person rafts.

[Gold Coaster]

They were pretty hard. When standing in the dispatch trough at the top, there is quite a bit of suction as those of you who have ridden Tornado will know. We have to watch for each tube to reach a certain point in the funnel before dispatching the next one. So, it can be a bit tricky juggling keeping the tube still and being able to see the funnel. Particularly if there is a lot of weight. So many people have left WNW it's not funny though. Heaps of new staff there now.

[Gazza]

They were pretty hard. When standing in the dispatch trough at the top, there is quite a bit of suction as those of you who have ridden Tornado will know. We have to watch for each tube to reach a certain point in the funnel before dispatching the next one. So, it can be a bit tricky juggling keeping the tube still and being able to see the funnel. Particularly if there is a lot of weight. So many people have left WNW it's not funny though. Heaps of new staff there now.

Hmm, maybe they could have a rubber gate like on Speedcoaster to hold the raft in, and a CCTV mounted on the walkway so you can see whats going on in the funnel. I guess the new rafts were probably cheaper though.

[rappa]

Just thought I'd let you know that the Clover Leaf 4 man tubes are back in circulation. You have the option of either tube now.

[Gazza]

Its good they have the 4 man rafts back now (Well the park has been pulling huge crowds so they would want to have capacity as high as possible) But really, I dont see the point of 2 person rafts; groups of 2 can just combine and share a raft. Im guessing it takes a similar amount of time for a cloverleaf and a whirly wheel to pass through so why not make the most of the capacity they have? I guess they have bought them now so its a bit late, but hopefully on busy days they will take the whirly wheels out of circulation.

[lisalila]

Actually the line moves pretty quickly with the Whirly Wheels because there's a raft coming out every 5 seconds, takes 10-15 seconds to walk to que line and hand over the tube. We only waited 20 minutes for Tornado and the line up was pretty far back from the que house. Waited longer for the black hole.

Edited January 2, 2007 by lisalila

[Dylaan]

Yeah, the funnel's crapping out people every few seconds even with the Whirly Wheels! If they can keep the speed up with the cloverleafs you'd hardly be waiting more than 10 mins. The one thing I liked about the Whirly Wheels was that you can roll them along the path, easier than carrying, and quicker too... just don't slip over! EDIT: According to my friend who's uncle works at WNW, they are thinking about adding a raft lift similar to the one on WWW's Tornado. I'm not sure whether it's true or not, he said he's uncle's name is Mario and he works in Admin somewhere. Can anyone confirm any of this?

Edited January 3, 2007 by WnW_Rocks

[Gold Coaster]

Not allowed to say, sorry. *taps nose*

[myk]

Just say. As if they are going to find out. It's a raft lift. WOOO BIG SECRET LOL. Just kidding, if you can't say don't worry. It would be a good idea. It could go from the right side of the funnel near the entry, vertically up to the station.

[aidan]

It wouldnt be able to go from the pool to the tower in a straight line.

[sonic123488]

correct me if I'm wrong, but I actully heard that they got rid of the clover-leafs because of injury?