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My money's on Tower of Terror or Wipeout being next to close. On one hand, whilst Tower of terror itself is roughly two thirds into its service life, the launch system didn't have the overhaul the sister ride in Six Flags Magic Mountain did and looking back through the forums and the ride's downtime throughout last year suggests it hasn't aged well. Would it be so bad though to close a ride that visually tears the park in two and continues to make horrendous noise and then open up the Giant Drop to getting a Falcon's Fury style conversion with swinging gondolas? Then, Wipeout. It's close to the end of its service life. It's a freak-show of engineering. Most of the others around the world have closed because they're so tough to maintain. It's still one of the best flat rides out there though, and i'll be sad the day it closes.

Nevermind. Thanks google. https://pointbuzz.com/Content/ttdtech

I thought the same too when the website was updated at the beginning of the month. However, I've long suspected that VRTP's long-term strategy was to return SW's focus as a marine park. Recently, I categorised every attraction that SW has opened & made a graph based on the attraction's operational periods/categories and it told a story: As we all know, it was started under the 'park' name of Surfers Paradise Ski Gardens by Keith Williams, who operated a ski show as the sole attraction until 1972. In 1972, the park was renamed Sea World and the focus shifted to marine animals (from 0% in 1972 to 64% of attractions in 1977). This focus lasted until 1977 however, it was the main attraction category until 1982. The major attraction built in this period (1972 to 1977) was the stadium that currently houses Seal Guardians. In 1977, SW noticed a theme park called Dreamworld being built nearby so they started building thrill/family rides and lots of them (from a 8% focus in 1977 to 42% focus in 1983). Thrill/family rides became the park's main attraction category in 1982, the year after DW opened. The major attraction built in this period was the iconic Corkscrew rollercoaster. In 1983, the park was sold by Keith Williams to Pivot Leisure (who later floated it on the ASX & thus owned 67% of the park) and from 1983 to 1991, the park diversified - it was a mix of every category but thrill/family rides was still the top category (averaging 35% of the park's attractions). The major attraction built in this period was the Water Park. Whilst separate from the park (and hence not added in the statistics I used), the Nara Resort also opened in this period too as another example of diversification (half owned by the Nara Group until 2006 when Village Roadshow became full owner of the Resort). In 1992, Pivot Leisure sold it's 67% interest in SW to Village Roadshow & Warner Bros., who have been the main owners ever since (with 100% ownership since 2002 - Warner Bros. left the joint venture in 2006). At the time, they also owned Wet 'n' Wild & MW but Village Roadshow took full ownership in 2006. In the years prior to 1992, the Research & Rescue Foundation was formed. Since 1992, there is an increasing focus on marine animal attractions (from 29% of attractions in 1991 to 43% of attractions in 2017) and has been the park's main focus & attraction category ever since. This is most likely because the owners wanted each of their parks to have it's own distinct identity. However, SW's late 1980's brand image of 'diversity' was never re-positioned to cater for this. The major attraction built in this period is Polar Bear Shores. We've probably only just realised this was their strategy now as the iconic rides of the park from 1977 to 1992 have all but disappeared. Most of those rides disappearing for reasons other than reaching the end of their life span. All that's left is the Carousel. However, that is now aimed towards Nickelodeon's target market - just like nearly every new ride that's opened since 1992. They are not thrill rides but instead aimed towards families (Castaway Bay, Eye, the 4D Theatre, Bermuda Triangle, Storm Coaster & Jet Rescue). The graph also suggests this is the case and that the trend will not change course however, there is enough to suggest that only 1 new thrill ride can fit in at SW still but until someone changes SW's focus again, thrill rides will never be a major part of the park again. A big test will be Viking's Revenge Flume Ride's replacement. All we know is, according to Clark Kirby, is that they "are planning something big and...impressive". The graph I created suggests another animal exhibit or small family ride. It depends on the size of the attraction's footprint. If the 4D Theatre remains open, the graph is most likely correct (unless there is a thrill ride, not at MW or Wet 'N' Wild Gold Coast, that you can fit in such a minimal amount of space?). If the 4D Theatre closes, the possibilities are endless (even more possibilities if it includes the (reclaimed) land near the site of the former Sea Viper rollercoaster/Pirate Ship). I agree with @jjuttp though as SW has always been a marine park at it's core no matter how many rides it features. I've always treated the park as such. When people think of SeaWorld in the USA, they don't think of any of the rides - they mainly think of the marine animals (particularly the killer whales). However, a solid ride line-up is a bonus and always brings in extra visitation. Since Pivot Leisure sold their 67% interest in SW in 1992, the biggest failure on the part of the owners is not re-positioning SW's brand image from the 'diversity' of the late 1980's to the marine park it has been since then. It's only now, 26 years later in 2018, that it seems they begin that re-positioning. But it's too late and SW's visitors & enthusiasts don't like the park as it is.

Visited SW for a couple of hours today. It is always a lovely place to take a stroll and enjoy the Day with the Animals and Environment, if not anything else. Being so close to where I live, if anything else SW is a spectacular Parkland and I am glad it's still there, despite seeing better days. Some potentially exciting news; it seems progress is finally being made on the reclaimed area beside the old Corkscrew/Pirate Ship site and around the old Lighthouse where some dredging work continues. Ray Reef remains closed. My guess is Village Lawyers found a risk and won't reopen until deemed safe. Wtf Pfff.. Shark Bay is getting some TLC and Storm looks to be getting some serious work too.. tick! A few pics from my phone..

Looking at global trends (the widespread popular opinion about "tanks", not to mention multiple countries banning dolphin enclosures etc.), should Sea World continue as a marine park it won't survive the next few decades, suffice to say @joz has already made some great posts about this fact. Realistically how the park needs to evolve is exactly where they don't want to go - shifting the focus away from animal exhibits to animal inspired attractions & rides. It's not unheard of - both Universal's parks & indeed our own Movie World made the shift from attractions looking into movies to attractions where you're actually in the movie (or IP or whatever). The real money for any theme park is winning over season pass holders who don't typically visit often and getting them to come back. Whilst Dreamworld's thrill ride offerings may not compare to Movie World's for example, there's more than enough other varied attractions, whether that's wildlife or the water park, to win over a lot of different audiences to make that trip back. By comparison, while having four parks in Village's pass sounds great on paper, how many pass holders are they then burning when they make a trip out to a park and there's really not enough to satisfy a diverse group (e.g. a normal nuclear family visiting Sea World) and then losing to Dreamworld? They'd actually destroy Dreamworld when it came to profitability if each park could stand on its own two feet and not continue to have such ridiculously glaring oversights (Movie World with its first rate thrill rides but sub-par kid's area, Sea World with its great kid's area but nothing remotely thrilling or Wet 'n' Wild with its lack of literally anything new or exciting).

As someone who worked 4 years in retail, i feel i am fully qualified to say, no it wont.

My non-engineering brain simply assumed that the harness on AA didn't move during the ride, and the motions of the ride just caused my legs to slip forward under the bar - jamming it in tighter. I wouldn't have thought the harness would allow movement in either direction once secured. My limited knowledge on hydraulics tells me if a ram can move down, that means fluid is permitted to escape from the bottom of the cylinder, however the ram can't move down without causing a vacuum in the top of the cylinder (which would try to stop the ram from moving down) unless fluid was allowed to enter the top cylinder - if fluid can enter the top cylinder, then only a very sophisticated setup of one-way valves is going to only allow that to move in one direction. I'm not claiming to be any sort of expert here - i'm a complete novice - is there anyone here who can explain this to me or talk about how the restraint locks actually work? I would have thought that the cylinders would lock in place prior to dispatch - as allowing them to move in either direction could lead to catastrophic consequences... or is all this irrelevant, and its not actually hydraulics but a ratchet lock? anyhow - hope someone out there knows something about these things and can answer it!

The Mack restraints on DC Rivals are amazing as they allow for a tiny bit of movement, loosening or tightening, making them the most comfortable restraints I've ever used. I've seen this be mistaken multiple times by guests as the restraint not being locked properly.

Just checked and it's not listed in order. If I was a casual guest I would have missed Arkham's closure and probably be more angry that I checked and wasn't informed.

Haha, take it easy man. I'd be surprised if a cursory search found no such obsession in your posting history. That's without mentioning the 'W' word

My experience riding it several times since it reopened a couple of weeks ago give me the impression it's really not being looked after. Both of the lift hills are making a loud creaking noise, and most of the effects are either not working, or working poorly. In my experience, these things are usually indicators that the attraction is being wound down and likely to be retired soon.

To be fair though, SeaScrewCorkViper had had a massive overhaul - rebranding, the works, and the word from VRTP management was that they were going to do 'anything' they could to keep it running as long as possible. We know the outcome there - and i fear that may be the case for wipeout if it keeps having the same issues.

I say to you Alex the "B" man what makes an enthusiast? My top 5 are - 1. You know you're a coaster enthusiast when you visit this website everyday. 2. You know you're a coaster enthusiast when you drive over a dip or rise in the road and rate the airtime. 3. You know you're a coaster enthusiast when you think having your lap bar 10cm above your waist is "Fun." 4. You know you're a coaster enthusiast when the word "Woody" has no sexual connotations whatsoever! 5. You know you're a coaster enthusiast when you're particular on where you sit on a roller coaster.