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Drove past on way home, sx360 was running, couldn’t tell if people were riding it or it was in being tested but it’s great to finally see it running at last. Hopefully they will announce something soon as well as the spinning coaster

Carnivale 2021 could be described in one word: Generic. 
 I want applaud them for taking a new approach this year and trying to implement themed areas with specific entertainment and food offerings. It is really refreshing to see a park attempt to give the event a cohesive feel, it just disheartens me that it was executed in the cheapest possible manner. Each area was a small collection of vaguely relevant performers, a printed canvas sign and an often out-of-sorts float. Boundaries between each area were more often than not an afterthought. Why is the Tex-Mex truck in New Orleans and not in the relevant Mexico section of the park? Why is the Bayou float located in Africa? Why is Rio’s defining feature a set of wall lights and a third-party vendor? Rather than standing as strong individual experiences that come to together to form the pastiche that is Carnivale, each world is a hodgepodge that stems from a desire to market the event in a different manner. Within each section there is one thing I must praise: the food. Like the years preceding it, Carnivale 2021 has some great food. Options stem from traditional theme park fare of burgers, fries and hot dogs, through to curries and grill plates. As a more adventurous eater, I would’ve loved to have seen a few more “exotic” options through the park. A missed chance from some jambalaya and beignets.
 Aquacolour stands as what may be the only attempt at a nighttime finale in any Australian park, and I think it the type of show that can really cap off the night and leave a lasting impression in guests before they leave. It is a real shame to say that I didn't enjoy the show this year. While they dropped last years vague attempt at a narrative, they also dropped any personality or unique identity the show had. Royalty-free EDM and Dubstep scores the entire performance, seasoned with plenty Dramatic Rise sound effects for good measure. Clip-Art covers each and every foundation of water, so much so that I can't even recall what was projected. 
 Aquacolour grabs your attention right at showtime with a literal bang; fireworks. It is a move that reminds me of the former Illuminations at EPCOT, one of my personal favourite shows of all time. Unlike that show, Aquacolour doesn't maintain your attention. There are no peaks and valleys, no variation between scenes; it stays at a constant, middling pace as if it was put in cruise control. While I understand that it may be hard to pace a show when you have no narrative or dramatic arc, it can still be done, and it must be done to make an engaging show. Simply put, contrast is exciting, monotony isn't. Aquacolour 2021 doesn't carve an identity or leave a lasting impression, it just simply exists. I wanted to like this year, believe me, and there's plenty that I did enjoy. It such a shame to say that Carnivale 2021 just didn't leave an impression in the slightest. For whatever happens to the event in the coming years, I hope that Village can push themselves a little bit further and make an event that doesn't just satisfy but exceed.

I'm honestly curious how the spinning cars will be received. Backwards is one thing and Village now have that market down but could spinning be too much for some people? (inb4 gp screaming "they killed people, i'm not letting them throw me around in a spinning coaster") I'm excited to try it because i'm an insane masochist and i'll try anything once. I guess that comes down to how the spinning is handled since Mack have a few different options for the spin.

Leviathan for sure. The view of Sea World from across the broad-water is genuinely exciting again, and I think it'll be both a real fun ride while also being incredibly unique. Big Dipper is also going to be exciting in it's own way. So many folks (myself included) have suggested for years that something like a Raptor-style coaster would absolutely kill it at LPS, so to have that dream turn into reality is pretty awesome too. Steel Taipan... there's so many pros and cons to this project that I feel like Homer with the Frogurt... Dreamworld finally getting it's first genuinely great full circuit coaster! Yay! But it replaces an entire themed land with (based off the tender files on Parkz) arguably meh theming and no real concious long-term view of how that will integrate into the rest of the park's flow management (let alone how it integrates with Buzzsaw). Yikes! But, people say these Blue Fire clones kick arse! Yay! But, with the triple launch feature, they're not shortening the now un-necessarily long launch section, which really mucks up the pacing of the ride as a whole. Yikes! But, we're finally getting something comparable to Rivals! Yay! But, will it be too similar in the public's eyes? And is it too little too late, and has there been to much closed and SBNO that the penny may drop come December that the coaster is simply not enough to turn Ardent's fortunes around and have they finally burnt out the last remaining goodwill they had with the public? Yikes!

Perfect! Just in time for School holidays to end

Meanwhile my whole group loved it and are excited for next years. The older members loved the roaming entertainment and watching their grandson go on rides. They also enjoyed relaxing at the end watching the show. Orur son loved the ambiance brought on by the added music, both live and recordings and enjoyed the rides at night and was so captivated by the final show his ice cream wasn't touched (waste of money ). My partner and I enjoyed watching her parents and our son have a great night. None of us have ever experienced any themed night outside of Australia so maybe thats why we didn't fine it "generic" or maybe our expectations are lower. Either way we had a great family night.

I walked past today and it they have not removed the Zamperla rockin'tug next to hair raiser yet, It might be removed tomorrow but we will have to wait and see, Also the grass area in Maloneys corner seems to be where the rides will be placed while they await construction

Went on it last night and can't agree with this more. People seemed scared of it, there was 0 queue the whole night and hearing people be concerned of how scary it is, but walking off it, people were talking about how it "wasn't bad at all". Also it was just way too short. It needs at least 2 more spins, including 1 high speed spin and maybe 1 more flip, hopefully the opposite direction.

It's certainly not AA related, seen them there before years ago.

Transfer track for the Superman train I believe. Allows the carriages to be removed from the building.

Definitely pieces of metal

There's a Roadrunner weather vane on one of the buildings in WWF's town scene - only noticed it myself last year. There's a ton of props from the old Harry Potter exhibits still around MW. The large suit of armour at the entrance to Scooby Doo is one of the Wizard Chess Pieces. Aragog the Spider can be found in the Disco Room. All the Spiders in the Scooby Doo store.

What hidden gems are there, small details etc in local parks that you know about that the GP may not pick up on? I’m sure ex-ride ops or park employees may know a few. I noticed today on WWF that about 3/4 of the way up the lift hill on the right hand side there is sign that says (paraphrasing) “Management accept no responsibility for injuries or deaths on this site”. And whilst that fits the theme with the various random signs on the lift hill, the hidden gem is that the sign has a sign off on the bottom from the pseudo-site manager “G. Yong.” obviously referring to previous park manager Greg Yong who is now at DW. 99% of people wouldn’t know the linkage, clearly a little “in joke” at the park. Anyone seen or know of any other gems like this?

Never done a Woodie before, so Leviathan has me the most hyped! I think it will end up being the best of the three too... though Steel Taipan's Spinning Gondola has crazy potential.

Hi everyone! Here to give a quick update on the construction. More excavation work has begun at Maloney's Corner. These seem to be where the metal poles to hold Sledgehammer (the Gyro Swing ride) will be. According to the artist impressions above the thread. The staff access to what used to be Tumble Bug has had it's paint's and panels partially removed. As it's not mentioned in the artist impressions. I'm expecting for it to go as well. The rides were also being turned on to make sure they're still working. Venues are still happening at LPS! As a wedding is being held tonight in Crystal Palace as well. But they are entering via the Boardwalk instead. And I'm expecting this won't be the last either. You can also see the skyline of LPS has looks more basic with Maloney's Corner empty. Watch this space! The next update will be next time I get around Milsons Point again!

yesterday they had just moved very little things like the fences and those umbrellas, It's crazy how fast that all went

Quick Update: went past luna park today and they were mostly starting to pack up Maloneys corner and were removing the temporary fences, wasn't able to take photos because my phone died but i will try to get back there sometime in February

i was there for about 2 hours today and it felt rather sad knowing it was the final time i will get to go there for some time but when i have some free time i might walk along to boardwalk to see the progress that i will post to these forums

I was out for a drive yesterday and stumbled across more of the Taipan. Got the drone out and did a quick video, nothing exciting, first video I've ever uploaded so go easy lol. It's an industrial yard out the back of Yatala.

thanks, Yeah i was a little confused to what this was meant to be for 😂

I went on a bit of a road trip around regional NSW and rode a couple of toboggans, and broke a 1 year coaster drought, amongst other sightseeing. -On new years day I visited Corin Forest, which is a 40 min drive out of Canberra on a winding, but surprisingly fun road. https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/corin-forest Due to Covid they were running the Toboggan in 1 hour slots, which was actually awesome because it was like an ERT session, and you didn’t have to get off. The ride is on the wild side, the sleds don’t have governors, the track is steep, and there are a couple of hard turns you absolutely must hit the brakes for. It’s not just back to back u turns either, it does mix it up with other random turns along the way to break up the straights. You have to lean into the turns, but look out for the long weeds that whack you in the face growing by the trackside. The track itself had a few dings in the stainless, and some of the sleds could do with calibration because they pull to one side….In fact on my first run I came partially off the track on a straight section because the thing was listing to one side. Subsequent runs were a bit quicker, and with limited numbers you could space yourself to avoid catching up to anyone. -Later on New Years day I drove over the hill to Nowra, and checked out the Huskisson Carnival, operated by Joylands amusements. The place was very busy with half of Sydney seemingly on holiday, but it was well presented with a wide variety of rides including the Claw, Hurricane, Jurassic Coaster, and the target of my visit “Wild Mouse”, not actually a wild mouse, but a Galaxi type coaster that used to operate at Funland at Weston Super Mare in the UK (Thanks @Noxegon ). Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve been on a Galaxi for years. Thrillseeker is a distant memory, as is Metropolis, none of the major parks in the US seem to have them, and I haven’t been to Merimbula in a long time either, so I guess it felt novel. I dunno why they let bogans decorate rides though: It actually ran much smoother than I expected, no jolts or bumps aside from the final brakes. Reasonably popular with a 20 min wait. Good fun. "Step right up there's no waiting" I was thinking to myself, it would be great if someone like Gerstlauer took this layout, made the lift hill an uphill launch, and the first turn into a fan turn…would be a great standard model indoor coaster. -The drive back to Qld was long on the 3rd, but fairly easy these days since it’s largely non stop with the opening of Northconnex and the bypass of Grafton (I had to non stop through Sydney to meet the border pass restrictions at present). I made a bit of a decision on a whim to divert into Nelson bay to visit Toboggan hill park, my reasoning being the place has irregular trading hours, so I might as well do it whilst It was open and I was driving through the area at an appropriate hour (Often If I road trip to or from Syd, it’ll be very early or late passing through the area north of Newcastle) and rolled in around 3.30pm https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/toboggan-hill-park The place was surprisingly busy, with a 30 min line for the toboggan, but the staff were on the ball in terms of moving people through. The setting for the run is very nice, bushland and almost subtropical. The run is a decent length, with the turns a bit easier than the one at Corin, though the sleds have governors, so even if you send it and do a no brakes run you’ll max out fairly quickly and still not risk crashing. Unfortunately I caught up to a nervous rider halfway down so the thrills were short lived. At the bottom the operator saw that a catch up had occurred and told me to go again so I could get a proper ride. That’s service. If I had to rank the operating toboggans in Australia: -Corin -Jamberoo Fast -Jamberoo Slow -Funfields -Toboggan Hill -Big Banana Thredbo and Kinkuna Country I did too long ago to really judge fairly. -Bonus I was in Narrandera a couple of days before new years. I went down to the Lake Talbot swimming complex hoping to ride the last remaining Toboggan slide (As seen in the old SW water park, WnW Double screamer etc). It’s no longer there aside from a tribute photo on the entrance sign, but they have modernised the pool, and it’s huge for a regional town, with a new long body slide and a couple of brutal turbo tunnel type slides with an excessively tight and roughly joined helix. The open body slide was much more fun.