4 minutes ago, TBoy said:

Great investment by Funfields but I think Gumbuya tops it out with its two new coasters.

Having two significant coaster additions open up at the same time in a single park is pretty hard to beat (especially in a place like Melbourne which hasn’t really had any major coasters until now). But this is still an impressive addition to Funfields and will help them compete with Gumbuya this season. Right now Funfields absolutely blow Gumbuya out of the water (no pun intended) when it comes to water rides as GW’s current water park offering is pretty lacklustre IMHO. I think it’s smart for FF to continue to invest in and push the “Water Park” aspect of their park as it could give them a decent competitive advantage over GW going forward.

Meanwhile, Adventure Park is the park I fear will struggle the most. Now that the bar has been raised by GW (and to some extent FF) I don’t know if it has the same kind of budget the other VIC parks do to be able to complete with them. Hopefully they’ve got something up their sleeve. 

14 minutes ago, Noll_57 said:

Right now Funfields absolutely blow Gumbuya out of the water (no pun intended) when it comes to water rides as GW’s current water park offering is pretty lacklustre IMHO.

I agree. I would say FF has the best waterpark while GW has the better land rides, so basically Gumbuya absolutely blow Funfields out of the land when it comes to land rides. I might try to go to both in February. I would rather Gumbuya head in a different direction and put in more land rides compared to FF/AP, which is what makes it great.

I also feel like Adventure Park is going to fall behind. While the other two are competing with each other, AP hasn't got new rides in years, and it looks that there is none this summer.

Edited November 10, 20223 yr by TBoy

1 hour ago, TBoy said:

I also feel like Adventure Park is going to fall behind. While the other two are competing with each other, AP hasn't got new rides in years, and it looks that there is none this summer.

They added 2 new kids flats, although they may of already opened at the end of last season. Out of all VIC parks, I’ve always found AP the weakest and I agree that the gap will keep on widening with the other parks bringing on new additions regularly.

Here's a quick comparison of 1 day admission prices across the 4 major parks in Victoria for the 2022/23 season. From most expensive to least expensive (online purchased):

Gumbuya World

Off-Peak (LEFT). Peak (RIGHT).

  

 

Funfields

 

Adventure Park Geelong

 

Luna Park Melbourne

 

Edited November 10, 20223 yr by Luke

Here's Nearmap from 18th of October.

Note the red ring on the ground.

Could this be a hybrid with a small funnel before a bigger one?

Edited November 10, 20223 yr by Gazza

2 hours ago, Gazza said:

Could this be a hybrid with a small funnel before a bigger one?

It could, or could it be just the first ring of the overall big funnel?

The bottom of Green Room measures "around" 10 metres across. This red ring measures similarly. Could they be building the funnel from smallest to largest, and this is just the first?

Yeah good point, I thought that after the fact.

I was thinking it was this bit.

It also doesn't look like a typically funnel. Maybe this is why its a world first and it won't be a traditional tornado funnel. 

Yes, Proslide offer open top versions of all their tornadoes, for example, volcano bay has 32s and of course one of the 24s at adventure Park is open top as well.

Visited the park this past weekend to get some pics of Supanova. As suspected, the slide will feature a "cropped Tornado 60", which makes the element more of a halfpipe than a full cone. Giving it a visual point of difference to all the other Tornado's in Australia.

The slide's colours really pop/contrast against the existing Gravity Wave waterslide and the rolling green fields at Funfields. Another exciting edition to a really beautiful park! See link for more construction pics:

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/supanova

 

Edited November 14, 20223 yr by Luke

2 hours ago, Luke said:

Visited the park this past weekend to get some pics of Supanova. As suspected, the slide will feature a "cropped Tornado 60", which makes the element more of a halfpipe than a full cone. Giving it a visual point of difference to all the other Tornado's in Australia.

The slide's colours really pop/contrast against the existing Gravity Wave waterslide and the rolling green fields at Funfields. Another exciting edition to a really beautiful park! See link for more construction pics:

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/supanova

 

Awesome pics mate thanks for sharing!!

 

3 hours ago, Luke said:

Visited the park this past weekend to get some pics of Supanova. As suspected, the slide will feature a "cropped Tornado 60", which makes the element more of a halfpipe than a full cone. Giving it a visual point of difference to all the other Tornado's in Australia.

The slide's colours really pop/contrast against the existing Gravity Wave waterslide and the rolling green fields at Funfields. Another exciting edition to a really beautiful park! See link for more construction pics:

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/supanova

 

Excellent photos Luke! I'm keen to try them out when they open. I wonder how well the different colours will hold up in a few years 🤔 

Was just searching funfield’s prices and noticed to get a day ticket along with fast pass (which get’s you a single skip the ride queue to 9 different rides) is altogether only 7 bucks more than GW’s hefty $78 dollar admission price coming in at $85. That’s actually a fairly reasonable deal if you want to go to a park during the peak summer months to ride a new ride and avoid the crazy school holidays crowds that often make these parks too hectic.

Funfields have just uploaded a video of the new slide which clearly shows it's final form factor, which includes a "flying saucer" element which I believe is an Australian first. Looks great!
 

 

Edited November 28, 20223 yr by melbourne_guy
typo

And we have some new photos of construction today too thanks to @Luke

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/supanova

From the video, the layout:

 

Compared the original design:

 

Happy that they made the the final drop the same size as Gravity Wave, looks much better.

The flying saucer looks a bit supernova-ish too.

 

 

 

Edited November 29, 20223 yr by Gazza

Do we have an opening timeframe?

The park has mentioned on their Facebook they hope to have a date in December

43 minutes ago, seatfiller said:

The park has mentioned on their Facebook they hope to have a date in December

Will be a great month for VIC parks with this and the new coasters at Gumbuya.

Hope to go to both.

1 hour ago, seatfiller said:

The park has mentioned on their Facebook they hope to have a date in December

Translation: "In the coming weeks"

3 hours ago, TBoy said:

Will be a great month for VIC parks with this and the new coasters at Gumbuya.

Hope to go to both.

I have also heard that Luna Park Melbourne has a new CEO, an ex Village Roadshow Theme Parks senior manager. Could this mean some growth in that park similar to what has happened in Sydney? 

1 hour ago, Levram__ said:

I have also heard that Luna Park Melbourne has a new CEO, an ex Village Roadshow Theme Parks senior manager. Could this mean some growth in that park similar to what has happened in Sydney? 

We can always hope, but I would assume that would need commitment from the owner, and there appears to have been no interest from Lindsay Fox in investing in the amusement park 

Hmmm if there is no interest it wouldn’t make sense to bring in a fresh ambition focussed theme park person as CEO. 
 

We may be pleasantly surprised. 

I’m wondering if Luna Park has brought on this new CEO as a reaction to all the investments from other VIC parks, realising there’s now serious competition in the area? Perhaps this is their first step in rejuvenating the park after years of stagnation. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. 

I had seen that update and wondered if it were the same fresh faced Parkz Member that went on to that role...

 

What an enthusiast success story if so!

Below are some high-res photos from the trip to the park this past weekend. The starting tub, cropped Tornado 60 element, final S-curve and final drop have all been completed. The drop into the funnel was sitting on the ground (pre-assembled), ready to be installed next. Overall, I think the slide layout is really well paced, with an exciting beginning (flying saucer), middle (tornado) and end (s-curve into final drop). Looking forward to the bonus translucent colour effects.

See more photos here: https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/supanova

Edited November 30, 20223 yr by Luke