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I get why there's this 'hate' culture towards the skill games. They (in all the parks) have been executed poorly. They don't 'fit' within the parks. But I want to take you back to a park that opened 28 years ago... of course i'm talking about Australia's Wonderland Sydney. By my count around the time most of us remember (2000-2004), there were 20 skill games in that park. There used to be a couple more. Some of the 20 only opened in peak periods, so on a general trading day, it was likely closer to 15. These games were EXTREMELY profitable. Judging by the fact that most of the games in our GC parks are not open for a full day, or even at all suggests to me that they probably aren't. Having been involved in the training of the Wonderland crews from time to time, theres a couple of reasons why (in my opinion): Microphones. Each and every game at Wonderland had a microphone. Spieling was a big part of the cast member's job. We trained our people to go nutso-skitso excited when someone won a major prize. Making it exciting and fun. For the same reason (use of microphones and going crazy) being a winner was actually something fun, worthy of recognition. The game op would announce the winner loudly and proudly and wave the prize everywhere to show everyone how lucky the winner was (this of course also had the effect of enticing more players) Game Variance. Wonderland had one bushell ball game, and one 'shoot the water pistol at the target' game. I'm pretty sure that both SW and MW have both. If you play the game at one park, why would you play the same game at the other? They know that most people who visit one park will visit both because of the group-park pass deals, so why offer the same product everywhere? Prize Variance. Although some prizes found there way to multiple games - some easier to win than others, there were many different prizes at many different levels that you could win. Desirable Prizes. While the park had a lot of variety in both games and prizes, the biggest giant prizes (think of a 6 foot tall Pooh Bear) were the games that were hardest to win - get a $1 coin on a glass table. Get all 1's or all 5's in the laughing clowns. Lastly - the cast members were all a young, enthusiastic bunch who were motivated by their supervisors to try and hit revenue targets or sales records with rewards or other prizes... ones that the staff wanted to get (i don't know if the GC parks do this, but judging by the lack of motivation, probably not) In wonderland, you could walk around all day and see people everywhere carrying a 'stuffed toy'... and big ones too. School groups were big on playing them when they came to town as well... This is something you don't see at the GC parks very much... which implies one of two things - either nobody is playing them, or nobody is winning. If the park were smarter, they'd make the games easier to win - give away a few more prizes, and when people see them around the park, they'll see the games and think 'that 8 year old won that big teddy - surely I can'... And by letting more people win, less people will view them as 'nasty skill games' because if they win, it's something that they like. Given our recent discussion about the Holiday Club folk, chances are you guys probably don't want game spruikers on a microphone throughout the park, however, given Wonderland was modelled on successful american theme parks (and the games were profitable) perhaps the microphone is suitable? If it puts more revenue into the park, and doesn't cost you anything unless you choose to put your hand in your pocket, what's the problem? At least in SW and MW, the games are all clustered together and (at least in movie world) you can detour around them if you want to. Yes, i've gone very off topic from the train crossing. I think Joz is on the money here - they don't want to open the gate because they want people going past the shops, so why not move the games back and extend the plaza area. It wouldn't hurt to change up the games too. Considering the pathway to their newest attraction is (at one point) about 2 metres wide, it isn't exactly a broad thoroughfare for guest movement. It's time the gate was brought down... Perhaps (like with most things) someone needs to create a facebook page about it's removal - share it around a lot and get people to 'like' it and then use the 'like' power to show the park that something needs to be done... take it out of the 'enthusiast' community, and into the 'general' community. As soon as you tell the general 'facebooker' that the gate is only there to force people through the retail plaza, you'll have soccer mums sporting Uzi's just begging for a fight...

I think the first thing that needs to be done on MDMC is change the godawful legcrushing restraints. Intamin really screwed up with their prototype motocoaster train. I know the seating position fits the theme, but surely they can change it to have a seating position more like Jet Rescues (which is much more comfortable)?

Yeah I can see why you're confused now, that'll happen when I don't pay attention to what I'm typing and end up saying two completely different things FWIW when I say they could build more games, what I mean is by pushing the games back from their current location it'd open up more space so they could add an extra game or 2 to the plaza. When I say I oppose new games I mean I think the games shouldn't spread to other areas of the park. #back-pedalling

I headed down this evening. Didn't get in until 8 pm and stayed til 11. The lines at this point were still huge on all attractions, and disappointingly Boomerang Bay was closed. I bought a locker, no issues there, headed to the Riptide since the line was moving pretty fast. Afterwards decided we'd try the H2Go Racers thinking the line would move quick, but noticed that only 4 of the 8 lanes were operating. No idea why. Ended up waiting a while for this because of that. The 2 aqualoops on the far side weren't operating either, but the line for 360 Rush didn't seem too long. Was probably around 9 by the time we went to line up for the T5. Got on it just before 10. It's so much more intense at night, loved it. Went to have a rest and at about 10:15 we decided to check out the Whitewater West tower, and was very surprised to see there were next to no lines on any attractions. Between then and just before 11 when they closed, we got in every slide but The Breakers. I was told they were closed due to lack of lifeguards. Half Pipe: Loved this one, definitely lives up to the hype. Insane speed. Tropical Cyclone: I found this to be more exciting than its Gold Coast counterpart. Nothing amazing but a solid slide. Aqua Tube: Was really surprised with this. Picked up some nice speed around the turns. Typhoon: This one was actually much better than I expected. We were the last ones on it all night, all the slides had been closed. Pretty fast and the rattles are nice too. Went to check our on-ride photos before leaving to find the Riptide had taken a photo of the group that rode it before us. Probably swiped the band too early. They've made some attempts at correcting the utter confusion on the towers. The Whitewater West tower had stickers with ride names with their respective colours on most of the individual stairs pointing you in the right direction. The Proslide towers had posters at the bottom saying "T5 (green and yellow) and an arrow pointing to the left, and so on. I'll most likely not head back until February when school starts, hopefully they fix all the minor issues by then.

There's already something like this in Australia, it's called Warner Brothers Movie World.

the good thing about Malaysia is in the scheme of things you can island hop to some blockbuster properties... Disney in Hong Kong Universal in Singapore Fox in Malaysia And then there's Sunway....