Easter show

[Nebuchanezzar]

EASTER SHOW REPORT (sans pictures) The Good: Setup was a bit better this year. I love having Chaos set up in the main carnival instead of down in the crappy wing of the carnival section down near the crazy mouse. Actually, all rides were swapped around quite a bit this year. Super Sizzler is where the Zipper used to be, The Hangglider ride is where the Super Sizzler used to be. Zipper is down on the edge of the sideshow near all the large bungee/costly rides. That's about it really. In essense, it was a lot more cramped than it had been previously, which leads to a better experience (more later). Ticket booths were new, but that's not that exciting. The (formerly) Ten News Wheel seems to be getting faster every year. Although I didn't go on it, you can just tell that it goes around tremendously fast. The Space Roller type ride (name is skipping my mind) is incredible, as per usual. A brilliant colour scheme in such a dominating area is a perfect crown for the sideshow. Speaking of which, a lot of the rides looked quite good this year. Zipper was in a fairly nice condition, as was Chaos. Hard Rock looked spectacular as usual, and the Ranger looked a bit healthier than it did last year. The Bad: NO CLAW! There was a ride that looked very similar to the claw, but no claw itself. What a tremendous dissapointment. I've not been keeping up with the news recently, so it was a surprise to not see it there. The new Rainbow colour scheme looks as ****ty as it ever did. There's something very cheap and nasty about such an awful, awful blue. It fits in nowhere in that carnival, it just looks horrible. The Zipper position was no good actually. Far too open, which means less near miss situations. Also, it was operating far too slowly, at half capacity with far too short ride times. More later when I remember it I guess. Overall, I'd rank it as a little more dissapointing than previous years. I can't say I was expecting anything spectacular, but with an out of place Zipper, no claw and horrible Tuesday crowds, it just wasn't as good as it's been previously. 6/10

[taronga]

What's your gripe about the crowd? Alot of people is not necessarily a bad thing, it only proves that rides are popular and we need a real amusement / theme park (not counting Luna Park) in Sydney.

[omgismejeff]

went to the easter show today...was seriously packed...then Xscream tuesday was even worst...omg...massive lines here's what i thought of the rides...going in order from the left to right in the carnival... power surge was where chaos was last year...near the end of the carnival..it was actually quite popular...there was always a line...the ride was abit different from the others and was abit short... Hard Rock had massive lines so i didn't go on... megadrop was good...alot better than i expected it to be... ranger was usual... speed..massive lines for that at around 3pm...was worth the wait... zipper was alright No Limits was a mad ride...best ride in the whole carnival IMO...after 4 swings you are already hanging upside down...omg didn't go on chaos...coz i wanted to go on other rides... Space roller was popular as well... and there were a few more...but thats all i remember my advice...get there early to go on the popular rides...coz by the afternoon there are massive lines for them..about 15 minutes wait for the really popular one...like hard rock and speed i was going to take some pics...but when i was on the way there i realise i forgot my camera..>.< be nice if someone took afew pics...hehe

[PattieBoi]

Right, so at 10am my friends and I got to Lidcombe Station, we made our way to the Sprint Platform and got on the train to the Olympic Park. We got to the show at around 10:30 It wasn't really packed at the Show yesterday, well not as much as it was on Sunday. So my friends and I entered the show, we walked around for a bit to check out what was new. After that we bought ride tickets and went on a few rides. My friend and I only paid $20 each for the Sling Shot because we were "Early Bird" riders. Rides we went on were (in order that we went on) Sling Shot: My friend and I were were the only ones that were brave enough to actually even think of going on the Sling Shot. So we paid and it was about a 5 minute wait. When we got on, one of the operators claimed that it was 10ft taller than the one at the Gold Coast and that it was faster too. Didn't know if he was telling the truth or not, but we still went on. It's quite fun, seeing as it was my third time on a Sling Shot. After the ride we each got a free drink off one of the operators. Taipan: The next ride was Taipan. As usual it was as boring as batpoo baseball. Don't know why my friends and I even wasted our time on it. It was about a 3 minute wait to get on. The ride over-all was absolute CRAP (excuse the language please). It was rough, REALLY rough and short. No Limit: After Taipan was No Limit. It was LITERALLY a walk-on. Yeah I know, I couldn't believe it myself either. A walk-on...ON A RIDE!? AT THE EASTER SHOW!? The ride was well worth the 15 tickets. The girl next to me almost through up :S Thank God she didn't! In my opinion, it's as good as Speed! Mega Drop: This ride wasn't as boring as I thought it would of been. It was actually quite fun. The funny thing was this girl I was with was going on about how crap the Mega Drop was. "OHH THAT'S NOT A MEGA DROP I CAN DO THAT - EASILY!!!" *hopes on, ride goes to the top* "OMG, PAT!!! IM SOO SCARED" *ride drops* "AH AH AH - OH MY GOD!!!!!" Ranger: Ahhh, good old Ranger. I couldn't leave the Show without going on this bugger. It was fun. We had to wait for about 7 minutes to get on, which was pretty cool. After Ranger, we had lunch. I bought a Kebab for $8.50 - it was actually worth it. It tasted REALLY nice. When we finished having lunch, we played a couple of games, won a few prizes. Then we bought showbags, I bought about 6 - sorry, I couldn't help myself! After the showbags, we went and watched some of the Shows, we saw some of the NRL Players, watched the Wood Chopping. We laid down at the park for a bit. When it got dark, we started going on rides again. Hard Rock: First up was the Hard Rock. It'd made me pretty dizzy, infact very dizzy that I felt like I was going to throw up at the end of the ride. Anyway, we had to wait about 2 cycles before we could get on. The ride didn't spin quite fast, but swung quite fast. Rainbow: Rainbow was next on our list. The Rainbow still provides a lot of fun and airtime. It was at around 6:30 when we went on this ride so we had to wait for about 12 minutes to get on. Which to me, was still a pretty short amount of time to wait for a ride, considering that it was a ride at the Easter Show too. Speed: After Rainbow, we were off to Speed. I was lucky enough to be one of the riders that had to wait at the top for the ride to stop. Great view of the Easter Show from the top! My friend was sweating like hell and he was gripping onto the OTSR's like they were his only chance of survival. The ride provided A LOT of airtime. At the end of the ride, I had to choose - buy the photo for $10 or get more tickets. I obviously bought more tickets. 'Moove' Ferris Wheel (formerly known as the Ten Wheel or something) The view from this ride during the evening was AWESOME. Shame my camera died on me. It was about a 20 minute wait for the ride. Zipper: Zipper was closed during the day for some reason. So we had to go on it at night, which in my opinion was quite better than riding it during day time. We had to wait about 3 cycles before we could get on. Zipper was the last ride for the day. We made our way to the *I can't remember what it's called* Arena to watch the 'Xtreme Korruption' It was probably the BEST show I watched while I was at the Easter Show. We also watched the fireworks at 9pm and then made our way home afterwards. Over-all the Easter show on Thursday, the 12th of April was pretty good. Infact you can even say it was HEAPS good. It wasn't as crowded, we didn't have to wait to get on the rides for more than 2-3 cycles. The operators weren't mean, except for the guy who was doing the restraints on Hard Rock. He tried to turn the restrains on Hard Rock into a "Ball Cruncher 3000" or something. I took a few pictures of the rides, please excuse the quality as they were only taken with my phone and I had to resize them.

[zaneymon]

Thank You Pattie for posting those photos.

[Gold Coaster]

Pretty good pics for a phone camera really. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to hitting the Show - will be down Sunday & Monday. Monday I'm actually meeting OzCoaster's Brent there which'll be good since we'll both be on the TPR midwest trip & have met this way - and hopefully you too, Pattie. Want to try to fit in a bit of Luna Park too. I think I may fly in Sunday morning, hit Luna Park, head out to Homebush for the afternoon/evening then have Monday for the morning and a second afternoon run.

[PattieBoi]

Why the heck is my post like cut in half or something?

[Bussy]

Went to the show the other day, I got there around 1pm and didn't leave until after 10pm. I didn't get to 'ride alley' only to the few rides that were on the Stadium Australia side of the show. "The Bus is now leaving for Sydney Showground, NSW"

Edited April 13, 2007 by Bussy

[O'NeillsRainbow]

Neb, Claw actually did appear at the Easter Show, but due to mechanical problems, the show gave them a certain amount of time to fix the ride, if not, it was to be booted. In this case, the ride was unable to be fixed, and Chants were called to bring in FLASH DANCE. Apparently Durkins have been having a fair amount of trouble with the ride lately... time to sell and buy something new? Their INSANITY has problems too, but ran very well at Moomba and the Grand Prix. Rainbow was operating much faster this year, looks like it had a good service. Garry has kept it mechanically well and its good to see it running soo smooth and fast. The paintwork needs some work, nothing major, but its good to see it running. Also was good that Shorts were able to quickly fix the Zipper.

[lester]

I agree with all you have stated O'Neills Rainbow, it is one of my favorite rides, no matter what the colour, but yes it could look a little better, its a shame Garry will not take it anywhere else but Sydney. You are very right about Claw, yes it is time to update some of their rides.

[Nebuchanezzar]

Neb, Claw actually did appear at the Easter Show, but due to mechanical problems, the show gave them a certain amount of time to fix the ride, if not, it was to be booted. In this case, the ride was unable to be fixed, and Chants were called to bring in FLASH DANCE. Apparently Durkins have been having a fair amount of trouble with the ride lately... time to sell and buy something new?

Lol, oh my no. If they were to sell my beloved Claw it'd be the end of my fascination with carnivals. What exactly were the problems with it? Anyone know?

[O'NeillsRainbow]

not too sure, probably mechanical problems, its happened before... but it must have been worse this year

[TOT]

in my opinion the zipper was horrible. it hurts when you hit your head on the roof. half priced rides were ok though

[Spotty]

The Claw has been having issues as early as Ekka 2006, where it kept on stalling and having to be reset.

[O'NeillsRainbow]

Lol TOT, you obviously don't know how to handle a Zipper ey.... I remember when I first rode it, I hit my head, now instead of sitting, I ride it standing up, with my head pressed against the top of the cage. Gives a much better ride, and I don't get thrown around.

[Nebuchanezzar]

^Definately. I can't say I ride standing up, put I do make sure that I have my head pressed against the back. Gotta love the Zipper though, I love the fact that you're thrown around so much. Concerning The Claw, I'm guessing that by stalling we mean something similar to jamming? As in, the motor (on one part, who knows which) stop rotating? No?

[Gold Coaster]

Yeah. As long as you're in the correct riding position, Zipper is one of the best and most intense experiences (in terms of flipping) I feel. Will miss getting to go to the EKKA/Gold Coast show this year because of doing those TPR trips... anyone know dates for the regional shows? Worse comes to worse, I'll come back via Melbourne or Adelaide for those shows.

[O'NeillsRainbow]

Neb, I remember claw had problems at the 06 Melbourne Show. It wouldn't lower, and for some strange reason, the gondola had to be reset by turning it a complete 360, while people were on it... then it lowered... No idea why its been playing up soo much.

[Nebuchanezzar]

Shoddy Dutch engineering. They may as well send it back and trade it for a Moveit32, or one of those "Experience" dealies. Both of which are quite insane. btw, those picrtures above are excellent. Particular the Chaos at dusk one.