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Let’s hope they finally fixed the waterfall above the crocs and in the cassowary enclosure to coincide with this launch… although I’m not expecting it. I also saw pictures of new glass/perspex viewing windows being installed between the cassowary and Roos enclosure, are these works complete and do we know what animal this was for? Very keen to see if this is just a reopening of the theatre, and a few signs rebranded or if a little more effort has been put in…

I know you’re just estimating, but it cost a lot more than that!

Technically they got the storm expansion too

@TBoy i was just posting for shits and giggles.

The difference though is, despite the sheep shearing being cheaper than the others, it likely isn't popular enough to justify the costs unlike the others. Let's say the tiger maintenance costs $750,000 a year and gets 500,000 visitors, that is $1.50 per visitor. But if the sheep shearing show costs $250,000 to run and only gets 100,000 visitors, then that is $2.50 per visitor. The tigers are therefore more value for money than the sheep shearing show, despite costing more.

@Ashley Jeffery I asked park management about the shows removal and whether it would ever return and it won’t. It was very very expensive to run because of the care and requirements for the sheep. And when the park is trying to reduce overheads (while not compromising the guest experience), we won’t be something like that return.

Bring back the sheep shearing show.

It seems like something that will be constantly playing throughout the whole day and you can walk in and out as you please?

Our Country in Sydney. (it's been around Australia) The Grand Opening of Wild.

Wet n WILD has been open for years @Baconjack

Kinda weird that Sea World’s wild expansion ended up at a different park 10 years after it was meant to open!

The problem is finding something developed with cues for the effects. If the animation is not developed with these in place, you have to sit there for hours/days/weeks, time stamping a text file and developing and testing a cue sheet to program the PLC that runs everything with new sequences to sync with the video. It's not an easy swap out process to build a new show from scratch.

2020.

Whatever happened to DW having an indigenous tourist experience?

Dreamworld have revealed this morning that their former Corroboree is being rebranded into WILD with Australian Geographic. https://www.dreamworld.com.au/our-worlds/wild-with-australian-geographic/ You’ll find the heart of Australia here in WILD with Australian Geographic, where native animals and natural landscapes come alive. We’ve proudly partnered with Australian Geographic to celebrate conservation, education, and the animals that make Australia unique. The former theatre is also returning with a new cinematic experience by Australian Geographic called 'Our Country'. It's great to see this area of the park getting some love and hopefully it leads to more refurbishments and improvements. They have been improved Goldie's exhibit recently and the addition of the new Bilby house a couple years ago were great. I know recently the damaged netting over the former aviary has been removed, so giving areas like this some attention to improve the animal and guest experience would be great to see.

I think there's a middle ground. Let's take stock: It is clear from what is happening elsewhere that long-term viability for hydraulic launches just isn't there as more of them have long-downtimes or close altogether It is unlikely they would engage with a third party company for retrofit after TTD We know intamin's retrofit is expensive It may not be in the short term budget there may not be a build slot they can't afford to have another 'scooby' situation where it's down for multiple years. Scoob is out of sight, but Superman smacks you in the front gate. Cobble together a fix that buys you time - keep it running until the build slot is reached So I think an intamin-provided LSM retro is on the cards, but won't be ready for a while. Superman is on an unplanned downtime - so they just need to keep it going a little longer and the parts they've ordered are intended to do just that - buy time - rather than signify any commitment from the park to maintain the hydraulic launch on an ongoing basis.

That isn't the place I'm talking about. The Gold Coast Kart club was a proper/official racing track, not a place you could rock up to and pay to have a turn.

No it didn’t. It closed because the Gold Coast City Council is turning the track into a tip. They didn’t renew the lease.

On the one hand, the calibre of some of the shows they list in their projects is high, and therefore promising, but on the other, the website is absolute dogshit and there's very little information about the work they actually did on those shows. Yeah they also produced shows for Sunway lagoon. Many of their productions are middle east and asia. Looking closely, the 'lion king' show they feature doesn't look like it's Disney... I think there's a balance to be had here - PASS did the audience participation very well. It introduced the show slowly, allowing stragglers to take their seats while some of the character building was done. For those selected, it was a special experience (I was picked in 1994), but additionally it gave the illusion of the audience plant 'Rodney' being 'just another guy'. Once chosen though, the 'recruits' were briefed by 'Proctor' quietly while 'Harris' continued to play to the crowd with further exposition. HWSD lets this down because it drags on too long. The 'director' first has to choose everyone, and then the crowd sits around while those people make their way to the filming spots and react for the camera, all happening live. it's too slow, especially after the show already kicked off with high energy vehicle action. It's the innovator vs. the imitator. ETA: This is one of their shows out of China - and it's very HWSD-esque. Still donuts, still drifting, but promising with the inclusion of other stunts too.

Anime is decently popular, about as much as it is in America BUT unless it's something like 'Pokemon' it's not going to fill up the family and kids seats, like the 'Shrek' franchise would. Things like 'Attack on Titan' or 'One Piece' might have some mainstream appeal but not enough to boost ticket sales with the exception of enthusiasts. Another thing you've got to remember is the Gold Coast is a cultural wasteland for anything ~niche~. I wear an anime shirt in Melbourne I get people occasionally complimenting or recognizing my shirt, maybe a nod or a smile. I wear an anime shirt on the Gold Coast and people laugh or call me a "nerd" or "loser" or "weirdo" or "freak". The Gold Coast isn't representative of Australian tastes and Movie World isn't about to shell out a bunch of dollarydoos to cater to their "nerd/loser/weirdo/freak" demographic. Maybe a merch tie-in might happen but beyond that it's not gonna happen. tl:dr - some Australians like anime lots but not enough for any Gold Coast park to invest in it beyond something minimal or low-risk.

Out of curiosity. With the Roxy Theater how popular is well anime in Australia? The reason why is in case Village Roadshow takes a page from Universal, and adds a anime film in the Roxy Theater for their events?

My understanding is HSD is due to close in October with the new show starting by the end of the year.

It's pretty well land locked, so there isn't a lot of point in replacing useable track vs conversions to something else. It's not really a super rare launch system. It just uses hydraulic pumps and nitrogen filled accumulators to drive a series of hydraulic motors that spin the drum winch the cables attach too. The problem is when it's not an off the shelf part readily available, so even the manufactures have had to produce overhaul/replacement kits for reconditioning/repairing components right from when the ride was developed. Nobody but the manufacturers supply critical components for ANY of the rides. Even if the component was available locally from another supplier, it's just not how it's done and all responsibility for maintaining compliance/quality rests with the ride manufacturer. The biggest problems in recent years have been problems with the diaphragms sealing internally within the accumulators and keeping the pressure balanced, plus prior to that the chiller system that used hydraulic fluid cycles back through to cool down. Those things were really old and needed replacement years ago. Back when they actually gave a damn about launch cycles, on really hot summers days it was possible to cycle the cars too fast that they couldn't keep the hydraulic oil operating temps under control and the ride used to go into alarm because of it. The only thing that would feel similar to a hydraulic launch would be air. It has the same almost instant acceleration you don't get with electro magnets.