Should it bother?

[sonic123488]

White Water world seems to pride itself on new rides, while Wet'n'wild prides itself on the best rides. Do any of you think that White Water World will try to compete, and build the biggest and the best or will it just bring in Australian firsts, and if it's something that's the best what will it be?

[TommyDig]

I was talking to one of the lifeguards there last week and he told me that WWW may be putting in a lazy river as part of their Stage 2 development. So i guess they will try to compete with Wet n Wild with both biggest and best as well as Australian firsts

[Gazza]

I think WWW will try to bring in enough people and keep it just competitive enough so World Pass sales keep ticking over and people keep coming back, though I don't think it will ever be as big as WnW. They have established their base line in terms of park size, so all they need to do now is just add worthwhile new rides so people keep coming back. Its sort of annoying how they have made future expansions hard for themselves by what to me seems like poor initial planning. Have a look at this pic: It just seems like the park has huge expanses of concrete in places it doesn't need (Eg that whole entry plaza, or between toilet block and wave pool at bottom of picture) when you are at the park you could shoot a cannon through these areas because they supply path capacity in places they are not needed at all. Furthermore, there are also huge expanses of sparsely planted bark chips, and of course gravel that serve no purpose other than to space everything out too much. A good example is the space between pipleline plunge and the rip, its a big area that only a narrow path snakes through, yet its now too difficult and small to build something decent there. These situations are repeated across the park, really indicating poor planning. You can also see with the ride layouts stuff could have been placed a bit better to use space more effectively. BRO for instance could have had its right side helixes hung over the internal roadway, so the 8 lane dips part could have hugged the very side of the roadway. Super tubes could have had a better tighter layout with the out and back parts of the slide directly parallel. That's just my view on it all, hopefully with the expansion space on the thunderbolt site they will be a bit more logical.

Edited November 4, 2007 by Gazza

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Well, for me, as far as a water park goes, by far my biggest hatred is the stair climb. I'm pretty healthy myself but to run all the way up the stairs (who walks... really...?) for a wait, a slide, and then do it all over again... I want to see some form of water proof people mover - escalators, elevators, i don't care... something to reduce the walking and effort, and more relaxation and enjoyment. I know it will never happen.... but that would make any waterpark perfect. No waterpark is perfect without that.

[Gazza]

^Funny you should mention that, Mirabilandia (A theme park in Italy) has lifts to reach it's slides in it's attached water park. I know what you mean though, after a quiet day at WWW my calves were murdered from all the running up the stairs I did. I think lifts would be of greatest benefit on high slides with short queues, eg Mach5 at WnW. Stuff like tornado doesn't need it because for one, you are struggling with a raft, and secondly, the queue is a steady pace up the whole length of the stairs.

[sonic123488]

Lifts could be useful, but they're expensive and they can break down, but yeh If White Water World wanted to compete they should've really done better planning in the first place.

[Churros]

^Funny you should mention that, Mirabilandia (A theme park in Italy) has lifts to reach it's slides in it's attached water park. I know what you mean though, after a quiet day at WWW my calves were murdered from all the running up the stairs I did. I think lifts would be of greatest benefit on high slides with short queues, eg Mach5 at WnW. Stuff like tornado doesn't need it because for one, you are struggling with a raft, and secondly, the queue is a steady pace up the whole length of the stairs.

What is with all the concrete around that slide Gazza? Don't you think they could have done a better job of using space I personally think WhiteWater World has done a good job planning. They have kept everything within good distance while having enough space to not get sufficated.

[Gazza]

Yeah, but Mirabilanida aren't surrounded on all sides (the park is surrounded by vacant land from the aerial shots I have seen) Plus you can see from that shot the lazy river directly abuts the lagoon the slides empty into, which is good use of space. If it were WWW, I would be they would have left a 10m buffer, and then just filled it with bark chips. Anywhere else, WWWs design would have been ok, but it really isn't space efficient enough given their current situation. Having a spacious park is nice, but you need to compromise, when you get down to it, they are going to be there for 20 years at least, could they really sustain themselves for 20 years worth of expansions with the space they have. Suffocation is not an issue, just look at WnW, I mean down at the southern end of the park they have got a good 5 or so attractions all close together, but the nice environment makes it work. Anyway, IMO it is far more interesting when slides are close together and are intertwined, visually, the old version White Water Mountain at WnW was the best looking water park attraction for this reason. WWW is a bit too much of a concrete and pebble garden environment for my liking. I mean, what does it achieve to have the massive entry plaza they have when nobody even congregates there? Ill concede that the Temple of Huey gets it right in terms of use of space, its designed around an existing ride, and keeps the queue area, landing pool and tower all close together. If I had been in charge of design, I would have slotted things together more neatly, had nice clear lines for guest movement around the park, and arranged the attractions along these lines, furthermore, decent sized spaces would be left for new attractions, and they would be planned for. Areas of dead space, such as under the high up parts of rides would be used for dry areas/deck chairs, the space under the BRO would have been perfect for this purpose, its already effectively a huge fibreglass roof, so it would be a good shaded area. Just my $0.02 on space efficient design.

Edited November 4, 2007 by Gazza

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

What I was really getting at here was for all the slides... including those with long queues or rafts. I'm just sick of climbing the hills, and as far as the rafts, I hate carrying them - they're big, bulky, in some cases heavy, and if the wind picks up while you're climbing you resist take-off! I would like to see queues at the bottom of the hill or staircase, and then send up a group in a lift, or on an escalator... in the case of a lift - perhaps like they USED to do it on ToT. It wouldn't take much to make the lift open air - like a mine-lift perhaps? Anyway, Dare to dream...

[Churros]

What I was really getting at here was for all the slides... including those with long queues or rafts. I'm just sick of climbing the hills, and as far as the rafts, I hate carrying them - they're big, bulky, in some cases heavy, and if the wind picks up while you're climbing you resist take-off!

Google image result for "AlexB":

[mickey_079]

HAHA... aww these forums always need a bit of humour

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Oh yeah, cause i'm the one whose nick, avatar and signature are all related to a deep fried, sugar coated treat. Churros is the guy you see on SDSC where the operator is forcibly pushing on the lap bar, before releasing it and directing him to the exit door.

[dreamworld_rulz]

I'm pretty healthy myself but to run all the way up the stairs (who walks... really...?)

I do all the time. Infact I've never ran up stairs. Why? What's the point? No one is going to past you and your not going to get on the ride quicker as you have to wait for other riders. Don't see the point really.

[Gazza]

What about if the ride is a walk on? Running means you get more rides in. And people do go past you, you see that phenomena quite clearly on stuff like White Water Mountain. I guess people run because that excitement sets in, you wanna be on that slide NOW.

[dreamworld_rulz]

What about if the ride is a walk on? Running means you get more rides in. And people do go past you, you see that phenomena quite clearly on stuff like White Water Mountain. I guess people run because that excitement sets in, you wanna be on that slide NOW.

Well it's never happened to me.

[stardust]

If someone's walking we will always run past them. On long stairs, you don't want to wait half an hour for lazy people to get up there.

[TheMightyBoosh]

An interesting discussion... Theme parks traditionally cater for the lazy. Everything customers want should be within 1 or 2 minutes walk at least. Now from a 'healthy society' perspective I believe that words like 'lazy' or 'obesity' come to mind but you have to understand that theme park customers pay for this privilege. Apart from the obvious physical appearance (i.e. above photo ;-) ) nobody knows the sorts of physical activity these customers undertake every day. But the cost to the park to install elevators etc would be far too great. First the elevators, then the bigger tubes, then the bigger conveyors for the tubes then thicker slides and support structures etc. You get my point. My only gripe with stairs is always being one step behind and looking straight into the huge dimple ridden, milk white tourist's ass who is complaining about the stairs. Last time it was the hydrocoaster and that queue line moves like a snail race so how can one step every minute be such a physical challenge?? Sometimes I giggle at the thought of a water park making 'those' people run the stairs before queuing at the bottom! Then there would be no complaints about taking one stair every minute. Oh well.... it's a good thing that the rides at the local water parks are actually 'worth' lining up for! It makes it easier to put up with whingers! TMB

[Guest dreamworldfan]

the next biggest loser season should be filmed on the Mach5 stairs at wet'n'wild thatd show them

[Spotty]

I was actually thinking of getting them to carry the Tornado Cloverleaves up in strong winds.... far out that IS a workout!

[thedivinemiss_m]

I went to WWW with my hubby for the first time last Tuesday. We were planning to spend most of the day there, however in under 2 hours, we'd been on everything, and it was all quite average. The aquacoaster (hydrocoaster?) was pretty good though, and I have to give them credit for putting in conveyor belts for the big rafts for stuff like the aquacoaster, greenroom and rip. AlexB, the stairs are a killer, both at WWW and WNW. I think it's a subtle ploy by QLD Govt to combat the obesity epidemic sweeping our nation LOL sneaky devils. In short, WWW has nothing on WNW

[GoGoBoy]

In short, WWW has nothing on WNW

I disagree. I personally much prefer the slides and attractions at WhiteWater World. In my opinion they are just much more fun. I also like the fact that they have the latest generation slides and the presentation is better than WnW. However I do agree the park is sorely in need of expansion. We know there are plans underway but it is just a matter of them actually starting the construction

[sonic123488]

As I said on the first post, I think White water world has better quality of rides which incorporate the latest technology. But there just is just not enough to do. I hope this can be turned around with stage two.