Sky Voyager Discussion

[T-bone]

An Article from the Courier Mail this morning. > http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/dreamworld-to-unveil-new-flying-theatre-attraction-for-gold-coast-theme-park/news-story/4f076ea1f13151e0a42a99b82a21de94

It suggests there will be an announcement today of the Flying Theatre attraction, and that there are plans to put in a dark ride in the spot of the mine ride.

Quote

DREAMWORLD will embark on its biggest spending spree in years in a bid to win back the hearts and minds of visitors.

Still trying to rebuild after the Thunder River Rapids tragedy that claimed four lives last year, Dreamworld will today unveil plans for a state-of-the-art simulator ride that could open next year.

The new chairman of parent company Ardent Leisure has also mooted investment across the park.

Ardent chairman Gary Weiss told The Courier-Mail he was confident Dreamworld could return to its former glory, luring more visitors with new attractions.

“We believe reinvestment into Dreamworld will result in a material increase in earnings over time. The sale of Dreamworld is not part of our plans for the future,” he said.

Mr Weiss has returned from a fact-finding mission overseas with Dreamworld chief executive Craig Davidson, during which the park secured a “flying theatre” simulator ride, the latest trend in theme parks across Asia and the US. The 40-seat simulator will be housed in the park’s old IMAX theatre, with passengers taking a virtual journey across Australia, heaving, swaying, surging and rolling through the Aussie landscape.

The riders will experience special effects such as wind, sound, light, mist and scents as they soar through the air. A similar concept is behind thrill rides for Star Wars, Harry Potter and The Simpsons at theme parks overseas. Mr Weiss also mooted a new “dark” attraction on the site of the long-closed mine ride, new attractions for children and significant expansion at sister park WhiteWater World.

“There had not been investment into a major new ride for some time (and) theme parks need new and fresh attractions to draw back customers,” he said.

Mr Weiss was appointed as Ardent chairman in September, arriving with a mandate to restore confidence in the company’s flagship theme park.

He conceded it would take time after the deaths of Kate Goodchild, Luke Dorsett, Roozi Araghi and Cindy Low in October 2016 on what was considered one of the park’s tamest rides. Dreamworld lost millions of dollars after closing for six weeks following the tragedy, but at Ardent Leisure’s AGM in November it was reported the park was once again making a profit.

“The tragedy has had an enormous impact on patronage,” Mr Weiss said.

“It will take time for patronage to return to the park.”

He said he believed the public wanted to see Dreamworld succeed.

“Dreamworld is an important contributor to both the Gold Coast community and the Queensland economy more generally,” he said.

It is more than three years since the most recent of Dreamworld’s Big 9 thrill rides, the Tail Spin, opened, while competitors Village Roadshows has built a number of new roller-coasters and attractions at Movie World and Sea World in that time.

 

 

[Brad2912]

Sounds promising, though the “could open next year” isn’t overly reassuring.

look forward to the press release/ announcement today 

[Jay Jay The Jet Plane]

I haven’t felt so excited for an attraction to be built in ages at Dreamworld (not as much as for $30 hyper coaster of course) 

Coming from someone who’s been on Soarin at Epcot and DCA, I strongly believe this will be the thing that I think will pull people back through the gates and I strongly believe that you guys will enjoy the ride 

Re to other information that’s been reported 

I’m curious to find out what they are thinking of Mine Ride’s replacement  but I do think that an expansion to WWW has been well overdid 

Edited December 26, 2017 by Adventures With JWorld

[themagician]

DREAMWORLD’S FLYING START TO 2018 WITH NEW WORLD-CLASS ATTRACTION ANNOUNCED 

The thrills keep on coming at Dreamworld, with a unique new attraction set to open in late 2018. The yet-to-be-named ‘i-Ride’ flying theatre by Brogent Technologies will be the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and will be housed in Dreamworld’s former I-MAX Theatre.

Sway, surge and roll as you embark on an immersive journey of the Australian landscape aboard a 10-seat gondola, suspended over a hemispherical screen. You’ll even get a range of special effects such as wind, sound, light, mist and various scents to enhance your 4D simulated ride experience.

The ride will be similar to existing attractions such as FlyOver Canada in Toronto and Voletarium in Europa Park, Germany and promises to be lots of fun for the whole family.

With rides for all thrill levels, wildlife experiences, live shows and presentations, cultural displays and a water park, Dreamworld truly is so many worlds in one!

[WalleyWorld]

^Very exciting news! I absolutely love Soarin' at DCA. I couldn't have picked a better family attraction for Dreamworld. 

For those that are not familiar with the 'flying theatre' ride concept, I found a couple videos that help explain the 'i-ride' mechanical system from Brogent Technologies:

 

Edited December 26, 2017 by Luke

[zacsta_1997]

This is actually quiet exciting for dreamworld. 

[Slick]

For those wanting to skip the article and paywalls, here's the major points:

• Brogent i-Ride going into the Dreamworld Cinema, essentially a "Soarin' over Oz"
• Four gondolas with ten seats each totalling 40 seats
• "4D" experience (which doesn't necessarily confirm 3D glasses or not at this stage)
• Will have "wind, sound, light, mist and various scents"
• A Dark ride will go in behind it once complete where the Mine Ride was

Some various thoughts of mine and typical OurWorlds rambling can be found here. No doubt when @Richard wakes up from his snooze he'll craft up something a little more professional.

[BNErider]

FKin' awesome, great work Dreamworld.

[MickeyD]

Feeling a bit gobsmacked right now at this news, this is absolutely the best decision for DW - or any of our Parks. Village had every chance to build one for years, snooze you lose😉

I don't quite understand the Capacity of 4 x Gondolas. Maybe someone here knows but my guess is 2 x rows of 2 -or better still- 1 top row, 2 in the middle and 1 at the bottom. This would make more sense to me with the spherical shaped screen and mean that all carriages would have an equally great experience.

For those who have been on Soarin, it has 3 x rows and 3 x levels (all starting from ground level) and then raised up to the screen. The experience for the far corner spots in each Theatre is not as good as the ones more toward the middle. Disneyland has 2 Theatres, WDW has 3.

This DW version would have the Gondolas 'sliding' out of the wall and into 'show' position, making it much more suitable for the DW Theatre.

At just 40ppl per cycle, I am disappointed to hear DW once again being so conservative with the Capacity. Assuming the ride/show presentation being around 5 minutes, the complete Cycle time would be up to10 minutes. If the total Capacity is indeed to be 40 per cycle, expect VERY long and slow moving lines to ride. 🤔

Sidenote, when MW opened BATR it ran 6 x motion bases of 20 = 120 per cycle of up to 8 cycles per hour.. only when it was very quiet, they would reduce to 2 x motion bases (40 riders) per cycle. 

I think they really need 6 Gondolas, cut back to 4 (or less) as required.

[themagician]

I’d say they wouldn’t be able to fit anymore gondolas into the building, without investing even more money to make much larger. But I am very excited to see what the park does with this, and being right at the front of the park, should be very popular with everyone.

Adding more slides into WWW is very much needed, so hopefully they build another tower for a couple more slides. And hopefully in time for next summer. WnW hadn’t added a slide for quite a while, so this could give them a one up on that park.

And a dark ride to replace Mine Ride. Wooooo, I know someone on here will be particularly happy with that news. I can’t see it happening for another couple of years, but still great to here they have plans. 

Great to see the park will be developing and that Ardent are willing to invest some money into the park. Let’s make Dreamworld great again.

[pushbutton]

I'm very sceptical about the idea of a dark ride where Eureka was, given what we know from the recent Parkz interview with Craig Davison, when he said a dark ride was being considered in the form of the existing track from Eureka, covered by a new enclosure of some kind. That track has obviously now gone.

Nonetheless, if they are now seriously considering a completely new dark ride that might potentiallybe very good. I'd await further details! 

 

I am dumb, so I await correction by someone wise! 

[New display name]

I don't think Dr Weisis is the one calling WWW a sister park.

"Mr Weiss also mooted a new “dark” attraction on the site of the long-closed mine ride, new attractions for children and significant expansion at sister park WhiteWater World".

Moving on -

Who remembers stage 3 for WWW that never got off the ground.  A major expansion to WWW would be great and well overdue.

 

 

In reality, I would bank on one new slide tower.

[Minions!]

I would love to see that happen, but I cant ever see that happening now. But the lazy river should be going ahead with 1 new slide tower.

[themagician]

I too would love them to revisit these plans and make these ideas happen. I don’t see them doing all of this at once, but one new tower with two slides is my current bet

[razza1987]

I hope there are really handles like are in this picture. Soarin at Disneyworld was amazing but scary because I felt like I was going to fall and there was nothing to hold onto

[Santa07]

This is a massive leap in the right direction for Dreamworld, a flying theatre is perfect for the park (or even for the GC in general) and something that will definitely bring the crowds back through the gate. A WWW expansion is something that should've happened long ago so very glad that's on the cards too. A dark ride has the potential to become one of the best rides on the GC - looking forward to seeing what they have planned for that.

[GoGoBoy]

I think a lot of us on here had quite high hopes when Gary Weiss took over based on everything he was saying Ardent needed to do to make DW a success. Then it started to look like he might end up disappointing us. This latest article gives plenty of reasons to be optimistic again, so long as he follows through on everything. It is clear he knows what needs to be done to turn DW around. The flying theatre, dark ride and WhiteWater World expansion are all absolutely on the money.

DW has so much goodwill built up in it; it is an iconic brand, and with a bit of commitment could easily become a big profit generator again. The previous Ardent chairman and directors should really be ashamed of themselves for neglecting it, or at least not giving it the attention and investment it deserved.

Edited December 27, 2017 by GoGoBoy

[XxMrYoshixX]

While simulator rides are not my cup of tea, a flying theatre is a fantastic addition to the park and is a good family oriented attraction that Dreamworld is sorely lacking, filling the void left by TRRR. I like the idea of a new dark ride in the future as well - Justice League down the road is, needless to say, a pretty underwhelming attraction, and there should be another dark ride that can one up it.

But, if Dreamworld are only able to get 40 people per cycle on this ride, the capacity on this ride will be very poor and the lines will move very slowly.

Aside from that, the expansion of the water park sounds like good news - if this was three-four years ago, I would have argued the park to build a major new slide tower by ripping down Cyclone, but considering that its renovation is the latest thing the park has spent money on, they will probably keep it for a few more years. Whitewater World could do well with a Boomerango or one of those King Cobra slides Six Flags bought.

47 minutes ago, Minions! said:

Giant Drop, New Look and Refurb.

Wait a minute, I know Giant Drop is going down for maintenance sometime in February, but are they actually refurbishing the ride like what they did to Cyclone and Wipeout? If so, this is huge news.

[Slick]

22 minutes ago, XxMrYoshixX said:

Wait a minute, I know Giant Drop is going down for maintenance sometime in February, but are they actually refurbishing the ride like what they did to Cyclone and Wipeout? If so, this is huge news.

Not quite. Craig's mentioned in at least one Parkz article that they're going to clean up Giant Drop's pathways, and naturally if you're going to redo the queue, you'll probably do something semi-nice with it along the way (btw, by all accounts it's running up parallel along the Tower of Terror track and then across the train tracks, but that could have since been abandoned since from first hand experience being that close to the incline is deafening).

Also, given how, uhhh.. we'll say "inconsistently" Giant Drop's been running lately, a major refurb wouldn't surprise me at all.

[Brad2912]

The maze of elevated pathways is due to be removed. In what manner I am not sure, but would like mean at the minimum a new external queue line and entrance for GD

[pin142]

Great work Dreamworld for actually announcing the attraction before anything significant has begun construction wise! Loved Soarin' over California (didn't get to experience the new one as it was closed last visit) and to have something like that is a great move for the park and something I am looking forward to. The dark ride is interesting, could there be a chance of having another Sally Corp creation in Australia?

[Mc coaster]

I just went on Soarin’ at Epcot for the first time a few days ago and I loved it but I would hope it be more like Flight of Passage (for anyone that does not know it is a new ride in Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s land of Pandora) most people here refer to it as Soarin’ on steroids. It has the same concept but instead of swooping up at the beginning you are already on the level you will experience the ride  and the seating is individual kind of like you are sitting on a motorbike. It also has tones of effects that make it immersive like heat when you see fire, water you are over the sea and smells for the different places you go.

 

[xRazzBerryx]

Wow. I’ve gotta give you credit for waiting in the huge line for FOP @Mc coaster. I think the ride is a cool concept, but it really would only work with an IP. It works well with avatar, as you are flying around on a banshee. I think a Soarin’ style ride will do just fine as you fly around Australia. 

 

Here is a Brogent i ride that recently opened in Europa Park called Voletarium. The theming on this is outstanding & definitely makes the whole attraction so much better. 

 

I do wonder what theming Dreamworld could do & how well it can be done. I’m not expecting a huge amount, but hopefully they put some effort into theming! 🤞🏼

[MickeyD]

The Avatar headliner cost more than what the entire DW Park is worth! It won't be as Wild an experience either, however with advances in motion etc since Soarin I think the 'swooping' effect this ride system does, not to mention how versatile it is,  it'll be a lot of fun!

Remember it is being targeted to a family audience that a very broad demographic can enjoy together. 

Wow that themeing at the Europa Park one is outstanding!

I don't expect much at all themeing wise, but I'm OK with that.

[Mc coaster]

13 hours ago, xRazzBerryx said:

Wow. I’ve gotta give you credit for waiting in the huge line for FOP @Mc coaster. I think the ride is a cool concept, but it really would only work with an IP. It works well with avatar, as you are flying around on a banshee. I think a Soarin’ style ride will do just fine as you fly around Australia. 

I understand we’re you are coming from and I know dreamworld will not do this but I think they could have themed it to something like How To Train Your Dragon with you on the dragon maybe in a race with the other characters from the movie.