Wet 'n' Wild Sydney Construction

[Tim Dasco]

Adenture world uses Aqua cash which is the same thing.

[JacobSibbald]

I was on exchange in the USA for all of 2013, so have only recently started taking notice of Wet 'n' Wild Sydney, and can't help but notice the abundance of features similar to MyMagic+ at Walt Disney World in Orlando, and have to wonder just how close they get to infringing on patents owned by Disney.

Did you happen to do the Disney International College Program? If so I'd love to know your thoughts!

[nitromefans]

More Extended Hours

[Gazza]

So, I was at WnW Sydney last Thursday, and being a school day, overcast and slighty cool meant the park was quiet. I arrived 10:30 and had done all rides by 1 or so (But the Whitewater West tube slide complex opened at 12pm)

Started with H2Go Racers. The timing system gives both your place, and your time which was nice. I could manage about 16 seconds or so. The actual finish line is slightly further down the runout, and not just at the bottom of the hill like super 8, so to win/get a good time you actually need to carry your momentum a bit more.

The start tub is better designed than the BRO/Super 8, since it is at waist height, and you can comfortably tip forward, rather than doing a big leap onto your belly. The start lights also have an audible sound....Beep, beep, beep, beeeeeeep....Quite cool.

As for the slide, the twists at the start let you pick up some decent speeds for the helix. From there on it becomes darker, barring the section of "rainbow tunnel".

Next I did bombora. Feels like a shortened tornado, and at the bottom it can be a bit rough, so hold on! But really cool and out of control feeling. Another highlight was the 540 degree helix...The raft banks right up, and since cloverleafs have you sitting up high, it feels pretty cool.

Next was Tantrum, another solid one. This slide feels like it goes on for ages, which was satisfying. Quite long "in between" sections, really good speed pick up on each helix, and each tantrum funnel rocks you heaps of times. One thing that was kinda freaky was the way each spiral drop into each funnel felt like it was coming in "the wrong way" (so the raft would be banking towards the narrow end of the funnel on entry, if that makes sense), so there was this slight fear you would flip out.

Unlike the other one of these ive ridden in Melbourne, this one controls the speed more at the end of each funnel. The raft comes to a near stop due to the amount of water being pumped in. You soon pick up speed again, and truth be told, it would probably be dangerous if your speed wasnt trimmed like this.

Next was T5....Excellent, like most tornados. This one started off a bit sluggish, but the spiralling drop makes up for it. Unlike the Tornados at WnW or WWW, you dont bump into water (back to this in a sec) upon entry into the funnel, so the first couple of oscillations are really high. The final helix tops off a great ride.

Now, this ride is slightly in my bad books ( ) due to me unintentionally falling out on my first ride...I guess i wasn't gripping hard enough due to a blister on my palm. No harm done, i was able to just hold on to the raft and stay with it till the end...Anyway, what tends to happen on this slide is that the first couple of turns are slow, so water dams up behind the raft. When you drop into the tornado you leave that mass of water behind, and it doesnt quite catch up till the 3rd oscilation or so, which means you get a bit of a wallop when you don't expect it, and that was enough to own me,

Next was double bowsleye. This one was better than i thought it would be (Going by videos and other reviews)...Equally as fun as say mammoth falls, and suitable for a family audience. The actual bowls are pretty cruisy, but the enclosed helices were decently fast, which was nice.

After that was Riptide...Another excellent slide. The first few turns in the dark really pick up some speed, and the double drop is cool due to the headchopper under the camera and under curler.

Curler was alright. Reasonably gentle though. I thought Double Bowlseye was better to be honest.

12pm still hadn't rolled around, so i did 360 rush. The main differences to the GC version is that the trap door is see through, which improved things, and the chamber you stand in has a motorised door, so all the op has to do is stay in one place and people just step in themselves. The slide also felt like it had less water in your face than the GC version, so overall, I give the Sydney version a slight edge.

Once the 2 man slide tower opened I headed over, starting off with Typhoon. This one was a pleasant surprise. Videos of others seemed to make each of the "barrels" in the slide look pretty tame compared to a tantrum, but it was really cool. You just glided really smoothly up and down a few times in each, and it just felt really well done. The first chamber has a quirk of turning every raft backwards for the remainder of the slide. This happens so reliably in fact that the onride photo points backwards to account for this.

Aquatube is very fast, so fast in fact a bit of water is pumped in halfway through to slow you down a bit, so you get a bit soaked by that. It literally felt like you blitzed through in 15 seconds flat.

Next was Halfpipe...Decent, and you got really high, but I found it pretty similar to the feeling of kamikaze. I preferred its bigger brother, Bombora actually.

The spin/drift you get over the small bunny hill is cool though.

Tropical Cyclone was a suprise. I didnt realise this one was also pitch black inside (was expecting translucent like Constrictor on the GC). Again, really fast and dizzying. Imagine something like broken headz at WWW, but a bit more juice.

Finally I did two of the breakers. I didnt realise both were slighty different. The inside lanes have a single big drop at the end, whilst the outside lanes have a double dip. The single big drop one was better. You can also do these as a single rider, sitting in the back of a double tube.

Starts off promising, with a powerful uphill boost. The water coming off the blaster section hits you in the back/ ends up hitting the back wall of the first enclosed turn, which is kinda comical. You lose a bit of speed as you approach the final drop, accellerate down, but then stop fairly quickly (The runout feels like its about 4 times longer than it needs to be, and the exit to the runout is right at the end, so a bit of a walk lol.

The stairwells up to the top have been partitioned into 3 lanes...Tropical Cyclone/Aquatube share 1, Breakers all use one, and then halfpipe/tropical cyclone use the other one. The lanes are very narrow, only a person wide, so the only way to carry your raft up is to hold it sideways, in front of you like a novelty blow up hammer.

I didn't do surf deck, nor skycoaster.

I was a little chilly for the wave pool most of the day, one interesting thing though was the padded floor. The sandy beach was nice and warm though.

Boomerang Bay should look good in a couple of years, owing to the fact it has immature bamboo around it. That stuff grows like anything.

Only one half of the lazy river was open, but when i was in there in the arvo after it had warmed up a little, it felt like only 10 or so people were in there. The side waterfall was off, but there was one section that was a bit like spa jets that you bobbed through.

I stuck around for a little while longer and did a couple more rides on anything. Unfortunatley , i didnt reapply sunscreen, so got a bit burnt, so i was a bit sore the next day, and not really up for the friday night session with the light show...next time.

[Keegs]

I've been down a couple of times since school started, usually only spend a few hours because it's so quiet and can get heaps done in no time. In that time I've ridden the racers at least 15 times, averaging times of 13-14 seconds.

Protip: The lane that starts as purple is by far the fastest due to the speed you pick up in the curve. Me and my friend noticed whoever used that slide always won by a large margin. I think it's the 5th lane from the left.

From experience, lanes 1, 3, 6 and 8 are considerably slower while 2, 4, 5, and 7 pick up a lot more speed. This is because the former lanes have a long straight section between the twist and the helix, making you slow down.

[bern1992]

Did you happen to do the Disney International College Program? If so I'd love to know your thoughts!

I did indeed. Check your PM.

[Dig]

More new hours for March. I went again the other day. Apparently they now close Boomerang Bay at 5pm (with no notice anywhere). My friend bought the discounted "after dark" one day general admission ticket, he was a bit annoyed that they didn't have any notice of the lazy river being closed. On a more positive note, the wave pool did seem a bit different this time. Not sure if it's because there were less people in the water or they've changed it. The "waves" were much stronger on the walls, pretty weak in the middle. So naturally, everyone herded to the edges of the pool to fail at body surfing.

[Monkeypie]

I'm going on the 2nd of March, SDA union half price ticket day. Hopefully get a go on everything as we have a 4 hour drive to and from Sydney!

[Keegs]

How's everyone's experience been with food? The burger I had last time almost ruined my day, the pizza is completely disappointing and the hot dog is below average at best.

Anything that might not make me mad for spending ridiculous money on?

[zacsta_1997]

I'm going on the 2nd of March, SDA union half price ticket day. Hopefully get a go on everything as we have a 4 hour drive to and from Sydney!

Hope you have fun on that day Monkeypie, but just to warn you there will be LOADS of people taking advantage of this offer. I know, companies like Hungry Jacks, Woolworths, Big W and many other SDA union members would be going, and also the general public too. I hope you get all the rides down but expect lots of people to be there.

[jjuttp]

Curler was alright. Reasonably gentle though. I thought Double Bowlseye was better to be honest.

The first chamber has a quirk of turning every raft backwards for the remainder of the slide. This happens so reliably in fact that the onride photo points backwards to account for this.

Only one half of the lazy river was open,

The Curler on opening day was by far the best i've ridden it. The 2-man rafts pick up almost twice as much speed, and the ride feels more like an oversized Tropical Cyclone. Plus you go up almost 90 degrees on the turns.

Also on the 1st day, that camera was turned so it got you as if you came down face first.

It's been that way since opening.

How's everyone's experience been with food? The burger I had last time almost ruined my day, the pizza is completely disappointing and the hot dog is below average at best.

Anything that might not make me mad for spending ridiculous money on?

The burger was meh. Better burgers at Blacktown Station Maccas. And my pizza was just an oversized meaty cookie.

[Reanimated35]

Thanks to rac2073 in the other thread for the pic.

Could member who is going to WnWS soon please get a photo of what the theming/ground is like currently under the slides?

Judging by this pic, it's horribly plain.

[Gazza]

You will be waiting till september.

[iwerks]

I hadn't even realised they had closed for the season until I checked their website the other day. Does anyone know how the season ended?

[Reanimated35]

You will be waiting till september.

Ah, didn't realise the park was seasonal (I don't do water parks so I hadn't really been following)

I hadn't even realised they had closed for the season until I checked their website the other day. Does anyone know how the season ended?

Probably with them closing and locking the gate.

[iwerks]

reanimated35

Probably with them closing and locking the gate.

I was hoping for a little more detail than that - a late season TR or financial results perhaps? How did people who bought season passes feel - were they good value for such a short season? And on the last day, before they locked their little padlock, did it look more like picture A or B?

[Gazza]

^Missed opportunity to post this video:

I'm guessing it was just moderate crowds...nobody complaining that the park was overcrowded on the FB page, and it wasn't all that warm.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

^and it wasn't cancelled at the last minute...

[iwerks]

Yeah, after the financial results in February and snarky reports, like this one from Perth Now:

http://www.perthnow.com.au/travel/travel-news/splash-out-or-lash-out-at-wetnwild-if-you-thought-queuing-for-a-slide-was-bad-try-waiting-to-get-your-phone-call-answered/story-fnjjv9zm-1226806114876

it all gets pretty quiet. The first few reports on TripAdvisor (those being the last posted) seem pretty positive.

Thanks Gazza for the documentary footage of WnWS in December.

I was going to go with these pictures originally..

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Lol.... I was thinking

or

[Flea]

I was there a couple times during the last few weeks -- crowds were ok. 5-10 minute waits for most slides.

Will be interesting to see what changes they've made for the second season. Biggest issue for me were the queues -- I remember waiting an hour once for Bombora only to find out 90% of the people in line were waiting for the other two slides. Once the queue split near the top you could walk straight on.

I imagine the newness of the park will carry them through the season without any additions, but will Sydneysiders put up with capacity closures and overcrowding? Will they cap season pass sales at a lower number than last year or introduce tiered passes with blackout dates?

Edited July 31, 2014 by Flea

[JulieLovis]

It will be interesting to see how they price the season passes this year after running the Gold Coast VIP pass on TV in Sydney recently.

Will they increase the price based on the success of and expecting a repeat of last year, or reduce the price expecting a drop off and to retain numbers?

What are everyone's thoughts?

[rappa]

I think we'll see some big changes and improvements this coming season.