Just a brief and public note of thanks to everyone who helped make our trip to Australia and New Zealand special.

I'd like to particularly highlight Joz and Gazza for going way above and beyond the call of duty.

The trip was fairly successful even if we did miss out on five coasters due to maintenance – both Wild Mice, Jet Rescue, Buzzsaw, and Road Runner.

I'll post back here with a link to our trip reports/photos when they've been published.

That's awesome Noxegon. It's great that you had a good trip- a shame you missed out on the coasters that were down for maintenance though!Looking forward to reading your trip reports with your outlook on our parks, and hopefully it will not be as long before you grace our shores again!

Great job, Noxegon. I'm glad someone's living the dream. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us and posting here. Just out of interest, do you normally tap into the local scene via theme park forums when you visit a country?

It does kind of depend on where I'm going.

If there's an active community of local enthusiasts then I will try to use it, because I find that local knowledge can really help out with trips, both in cost saving and also in ideas – to use a very real example, people from this community suggested we should go to the Ginger Factory as a plan B after we were rained off Aussie World, which is not something I'd have found on my own.

Day three of my trip has just been posted:

http://www.bannister.org/coasters/trips/2015/0213.htm

Thanks again

Loving reading about all our parks from an outsiders viewpoint Noxegon - keep it up!

Thanks for the feedback AlexB.

Merimbula posted:

http://www.bannister.org/coasters/trips/2015/0214.htm

Melbourne day has been posted:

http://www.bannister.org/coasters/trips/2015/0215.htm

I've always wanted to visit LPM, if only to experience Scenic Railway just once. There's never been anything else in Melbourne that's really interested me to go. Considering your 3 TRs for the park over more than 7 years - i'm pretty well convinced that at this stage - it's not worth the effort. Maybe if they introduce something new that is worthwhile... but that's unlikely.

I really wish you'd been doing your trips prior to 2004 - I would have loved to get your views and opinions on Wonderland Sydney - my home (and first) park. Love it as much as I do - I know you'd have had a few negatives... but that's what an outsider's view is good for. Thankfully - none of us here on Parkz (as far as I know) are Brazillian... they sound atrocious!

I just realised that I haven't responded to this thread, and just wanted to do so to say, no worries mate, hope you had a good time!

Also having read up to date so far, my desire to go to Luna Park Melbourne has now all but faded. Except for the possible pleasure that is standing in a small park that relies on it's charm, which is througherly lacking in the charm department.

Edited March 10, 201511 yr by joz

Charm is what you'd hope for with Luna Park Melbourne. My most recent visit was about six months ago; I've never been to a park so dirty and dilapidated in my life. I actually find it a bit disgraceful that such an iconic piece of history is being allowed to rot like this when it certainly gets the patronage to justify a serious makeover and redevelopment.

The Scenic Railway was down for annual maintenance so we were spared that pain, but it sounds like it still possesses that unique ability to cause so much roughness at such slow speeds.

The Scenic Railway was down for annual maintenance so we were spared that pain, but it sounds like it still possesses that unique ability to cause so much roughness at such slow speeds.

I bet Mack was working on it again...

Charm is what you'd hope for with Luna Park Melbourne. My most recent visit was about six months ago; I've never been to a park so dirty and dilapidated in my life. I actually find it a bit disgraceful that such an iconic piece of history is being allowed to rot like this when it certainly gets the patronage to justify a serious makeover and redevelopment.

The Scenic Railway was down for annual maintenance so we were spared that pain, but it sounds like it still possesses that unique ability to cause so much roughness at such slow speeds.

Nothing is worse than Conneaut Lake Park..........

Nothing is worse than Conneaut Lake Park..........

You know, it's interesting that you would say that.

Conneaut is in appalling condition, but I rather liked it for what it was.

Sadly, Luna Park Melbourne is indeed appalling and I agree with Richard. I visited the middle of last year and was shocked by the general state of the rides and the grounds overall.

LPM was a really good place & it's sad to hear that it's been allowed to get so run down. I went there many years ago, at that time they had some attractions that haven't been there for years like the Giggle Palace which was a smaller version of Coney Island at LPS. There was also a small River Caves, wooden Big Dipper & The Whip which was brought out from Coney Island USA. The park was old back then but still seemed well maintained.

You know, it's interesting that you would say that.

Conneaut is in appalling condition, but I rather liked it for what it was.

Their woodie is great but the rest of the park is a dump and it looks more like a ghost town than a park. It's really sad to see a toboggan just lying around and part of a round up.

It's really sad to see a toboggan just lying around.

The Conneaut Lake Park Toboggan was totalled a few years ago when the car roof wasn't closed properly and it came open inside the lift tower. If you look at any recent pictures of it you can see that there is a car wedged half way up.

I can't say I'm saddened by that. Toboggans hurt.

The Conneaut Lake Park Toboggan was totalled a few years ago when the car roof wasn't closed properly and it came open inside the lift tower. If you look at any recent pictures of it you can see that there is a car wedged half way up.

toboggan3.jpg

I can't say I'm saddened by that. Toboggans hurt.

It's sad to see a park end up like this. Any idea of what their attendence figures are like?

Small. There were probably about twenty people in the park the last time I was there.

Noxegon, I never cease to be amazed by your adventures to get credits. Glad you had a great time downunder.

I went to Luna Park Melbourne in January and I didn't think it was especially bad, just extremely light on for anything to do.

I had a look at my coaster counter list and I've been to 130 parks that have coasters, but I can't say I've been to Conneaut Lake level park yet, just some parks that were rather short on attractions. Castle Park in Orange County struck me as being rather ordinary because 2 of the 3 coasters weren't running. Hades at Mt Olympus gave me a mugging of the kind I've never experienced on a coaster before, though the park had some fun stuff.

Noxegon, I never cease to be amazed by your adventures to get credits. Glad you had a great time downunder.

I went to Luna Park Melbourne in January and I didn't think it was especially bad, just extremely light on for anything to do.

I had a look at my coaster counter list and I've been to 130 parks that have coasters, but I can't say I've been to Conneaut Lake level park yet, just some parks that were rather short on attractions. Castle Park in Orange County struck me as being rather ordinary because 2 of the 3 coasters weren't running. Hades at Mt Olympus gave me a mugging of the kind I've never experienced on a coaster before, though the park had some fun stuff.

I still haven't had the chance to go to the US but there is always the wacky worm credits in Italy to get.

I've just posted my Warner Bros photos:

http://www.themeparks.ie/australia/warner/index.htm

Nice photos! I had a genuine moment of thinking 'how the hell did you get photos of Arkham from the studios?' before I remembered that your last visit was when Dawn Treader was on display.

Yeah, I was toying with the idea of leaving those two as Lethal Weapon but decided that'd be too confusing.

I still haven't had the chance to go to the US but there is always the wacky worm credits in Italy to get.

Lol, I've been on a few wacky worms in Italy, fortunately coasters like iSpeed and Katun and the general wackiness of Italian parks made it worthwhile - I mean mixing an ancient Egyptian theme with the Terminator, that's wack.