What's next?

[cadboy]

I am interested to know why you don't think MW won't build a wooden rollerocaster soon. Cheers

[MickeyD]

I am interested to know why you don't think MW won't build a wooden rollerocaster soon. Cheers

Well I worked at MW for nearly decade and over that time I got to know some pretty key people. I have formed some great relationships with some who I still keep in regular touch with. I try and stay on top of the goss going on over there since leaving but I also understand and respect the sensitivity of their future plans. That said, everything is subject to change!! If John Menzies says they are going to do something, I wouldn't believe it until it is officially announced! Woodies would certainly add charm, character and uniqueness to the Park but would the general Australian public also agree? Whilst it would make a great family ride, MW have always tended to go for new technology and what has done big overseas. For example, Batman Adventure was built on the basis of success of Star Tours and Back to the Future. WWF was based on the success of the Jurassic Park ride. Interestingly we have recently seen the arrival of Shrek so what next out of the gates of Universal?? I suspect a version of the Hollywood Rip-Rocket Rollercoaster as Gazza and others on the board have suggested:)

[cadboy]

Hollywood Rip-Rocket Rollercoaster sounds great with that record breaking loop. How much though, it sounds like a pretty expensive ride.

[Guest dreamworldfan]

They should have spent the money on the Soarin' clone (Australia flight) they were going to build when they bought South Banks IMAX projector. apparently they wouldn't pay engineers the amount they said it would cost. maybe not scary, but who doesn't enjoy Soaring Over California or Soarin' as a nice fun ride.

[Chaos-Maniac]

Hows the giant roof going over the Main Street?

[MickeyD]

Menzies has been mentioning the roof over main Street for years and I still suspect that one is a bit of a pipeline "oneday maybe" project. -Sure the Universal Florida version of Rip-Rocket will be too expensive a project for MW to consider a complete clone but they could do a version that is just as fun for half the price. Back to the Future IMO was as good as Batride when it opened and BTTF cost somewhere in the realm of 70mil. MW did Batman for around the 12M figure I would have loved to have seen the proposed Soarin attraction come to Australia. It's a much needed family attraction but i think that idea has been and gone now.

[DonjaiInLA]

SPEED RACER, could be nicely transfered over to an Autopia style ride, and relatively cheap, reading the forums it appears your theme parks just likes to but cheap attractions

[Gazza]

I've been thinking about the idea of a multi motion dark ride for MW, but as has been raised in the past, the issue comes down to the large cost...which got me thinking. Looking back at a POV of Spiderman.... http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=5mR2m_O6ceE One thing I noticed is that despite having the ability to pitch, roll, and yaw (spin) it seems as if only the yaw and pitch abilities are used to any large extent...spiderman jumping on the bonet, Electro zapping you, flicking backward when you get hit by the pipe, escaping Doc Ock, the shock wave from the pumpkin explosion etc) I think this is the key. Currently these rides have quite a complex system underneath. (See 1:35) However, I think this could be simplified a bit. Imagine the ride vehicle has two rows of 4 seats. it would have high side walls to direct your view to the front, and simple manual swing doors instead of the overhead type seen on Spiderman. Lap seat belts would be the restraints. The key would be cutting down on weight. The actual seating area of the vehicle would only be about 2.2*2.2m in area and would hold 2 rows of 4, and under the floor at the center of gravity there would be a fulcrum controlling pitch. This means the actuator doesnt need to support much weight since it is all taken by the fulcrum...So basically the vehicle is a glorified see saw. However, everything would be mounted on a turntable that rides upon the actual moving vehicle, the turntable would have a radius of 3.1 m, so everything sits within it. Now, getting a turntable to spin around is a fairly simple affair given so many rides do it already. As for moving around the show building, there would be a centralised hot rail, and the drive wheels (Normal car tyres?) would run directly on the concrete floor, either side of the center of the vehicle to make an effective turning circle of zero. The rest of the weight of the vehicle would be taken by just off the shelf heavy duty swivelling castors that would run on the floor. Now, one limitation is that the 'freefall' scenes this these types of rides are known for couldn't be done effectively without the ability to roll. The way you could get around this is by having the vehicles roll onto a table that is able to tip side to side. It would have coaster style brakes, so the vehicle would be quickly 'pinched' in place. Again, a sideways version of a seesaw, so fairly simple mechanically. The advantage of doing things this way is that you aren't duplicating a system on every vehicle that is only used for a very short period. Would these sort of vehicles be expensive to make? Would they work mechanically? Perhaps the mechanically minded on here could give some feedback (Richo?) As for the other costs.. Now, Spiderman uses 2:20 minutes of on screen footage...now Wall E reportedly cost $120 million, for a film that runs for 97 minutes...or $1.23 mil per minute, so lets just say that the film footage for such a ride would cost $2.8 Mil to produce. Another good way to cut costs would be to reduce the amount of screens in the ride. On Spiderman for instance where there are screens you spend literally only 10 seconds at before moving off, so if you made the ride vehicles stop at screens for longer you wouldn't be duplicating so much projection equipment. Thematically, one common thread with these other multi motion rides is that they have richly themed queues from start to finish, which is great during a long queue, but more often than not, simply walked straight past (Eg Indiana Jones) You could rework it so that it has 20 minutes worth of themed waiting areas, with the overflow for the busiest of days just being an outdoor queue. The ride building would just be a big shed, so it wouldn't need to be too expensive. Any thoughts on this?

Edited June 24, 2008 by Gazza

[jcgoldcoast]

Gazza, I really think this sounds like a good idea. My thought for the ride would to be to replace the (extremely) dated Batman The Ride. This would allow the attraction to be bought in line with the new Batman movies and at the same time save some costs by not having to build a whole new ride building. From my measurements, I don't think there would be enough room in the current simulator building, but there should be plenty of room to expand the show building out behind SE to LW. Has anyone got any ideas on what a story line could be for this attraction?

[Gazza]

^The issue with that is where would you expand the floor area? You cant go backwards because superman is in the way, you cant go to the left because the roadway from the bridge leading into the studio admin is there, you cant go to the right because batwing is in the way...you could go fowards, but then you would be destroying those nicley established trees and there, and you would be left without a plaza at the front of the ride. Typically, these rides need about 4000 sq m of space, so the current building couldn't feasibly be expanded to that size, even if you did build over the plaza at the front of the manor. My opinion of Batman has changed slightly, I went on with some obviously first time riders, and through the ride, and at the end you could hear them saying 'that was so cool', so it does have some life in it yet. I personally think, as previously suggested, an third upgrade to reflect the new batman movies would be fine....perhaps change some of the logos in the batcave to the new one, and build a proper facade at the front of the ride, integrating batwing somehow (perhaps make that end of the manor a sort of place where all the bat vehicles are kept and serviced) I don't really like the idea of replacing one ride with another because it means the park is never really growing with visitor numbers. A regular simulator will always have a place at MW...I mean Disney's star tours is one of the oldest simulators out there, and is still going strong..ride wise they both seemed pretty similar, I guess all Disney's has going for it is its awesome queue.

Edited June 25, 2008 by Gazza

[jcgoldcoast]

The show building could be expanded out behind superman in a 'dog leg' L shape kind of building. I have attached an example of where this extension could go. This could more than double the size of the current area where the simulator motion bases are. Would it also be possible for some of this ride to take place on more than one level? It could be quite interesting to see something happening below you, similar to the bridge area on Indiana Jones.... EDIT: typo

Edited June 25, 2008 by jcgoldcoast

[Gazza]

^You're right actually...out and back layout Though I still would rather see an extra ride in the park rather than an old one replaced, and at the same time would like to deviate away from yet another Batman themed ride. I guess the way I see it is that you would need a 50% increase in floor area to fit a new ride, so I guess spending on the ride building would be half as much as on an empty site, though once you factor in renovation costs for the existing building, you're probably better off just spending that bit more to start a fresh...and not scrap a $17 Million ride in the process. Also, if anyone was interested, I stitched together a fairly high res aerial shot of MW (And there is a scale bar too, sort of in an odd spot in an empty area in the studios) so people can dream up things to their hearts content.

Edited June 25, 2008 by Gazza

[little lefty legend]

while the concept of another batman ride sounds good, i dont think it will work "too many cooks spoil the broth" (or whatever) movieworld already has the batman simulator ride and batwing escape, no use making another, when both are perfectly fine and still drawing numbers. best off doing what someone has said. update the theming to the new movies on the simulator one, and spend the money that could be spent expanding it on something completely new Speed racer sounds alright, but there are probably a tonne of viable themes out there. personally i think they really need to do something to the WWF area, it hasnt been updated in god knows how long and could definately use new life

[Gazza]

Something I started mapping out mentally (Ironic I should do it on a day I was there with other people) is the possibility of Single Rider Queues being introduced on the parks main rides. I think on some of the attractions, it would actually be a pretty simple and cheap process, and could potentially be marketed as something innovative (even if was only on myfun and via the newsletter) if it were done across the board. Batwing: There is actually a direct path link from the main path to the grouping area that is currently roped off and used for a holding area if the ride breaks down, so run the SRQ through here. Scooby Doo: The vestibule once you enter the castle has a very convenient feature....two doors. The door on the right would lead into the main queue, but the door on the left would lead into a queue that runs along the wall of the main queue hall (so really it's a reverse C shape viewed in plan), it would lead into the narrow tunnel, which would have its queue rail shifted to the centre, to keep the two queues separated, and it would run through to the grouper position in the station. Wild West Falls: Near the start of the queue, you walk past a timber screen next to the station from memory, so simply cut some of it out to provide direct access to the station. Lethal Weapon: Exit ramp would be divided, and signage at the ride entrance would direct riders to go through the shop to reach it. Superman Escape: Given this ride employs a grouper there isn't a real need for an SRQ.

[rappa]

Menzies has been mentioning the roof over main Street for years and I still suspect that one is a bit of a pipeline "oneday maybe" project.

The abundance of footings and absense of Main Street would suggest its very much a today project.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Although considering that post was made near on two months ago, it couldn't have been very obvious back then....