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None of this is supported by evidence but I feel like LPS' main objective this year was to get the rides in and then use the money generated from the hype/crowds so that they can continue to develop the area. Considering that the park was meant to be open in July I can imagine that Luna Park were hoping to have cashflow to support Big Dipper as well but very little this year has gone to plan. Still I think it's impressive that for a park literally in the epicentre of what was one of Australia's worst COVID outbreaks that they still managed to pull this off. I'll hold off judgement to see how Luna Park Sydney develops over the next few years because I'm sure that the new rides will pull in some good cash for the park and draw back lucrative patrons like families.

Honestly with water rides I feel much safer with looser restraints, the ability to wiggle out of the lap bar gives me much more peace of mind if something were to go arry in the water. IE see the Splash Mountain incident a few months back wheere the boat started taking on water and everyone just got out of the boat. Anyone else feel like this?

I finally managed to get out and head to LPS for its first official day of trading plus attend Halloscream for the first time. The park was at its covid safe capacity and it was great to see many people enjoying the new offerings along with the classics also. It's hard to judge everything based on it being the first operational day running of the park. Naturally, some things could be better but I put some of this down to new staff finding their feet. Once I picked up my Annual Pass and checked in I headed into the park to meet my friends. The check-in was slightly odd, from talking to the guest relations person, they are using a new ticketing system and staff ars still having to get used to it. To me, that's not a supermassive issue but I was fairly patient also. From the ride lineup it seemed the carousel was not running all day, Wildmouse was not running and the same goes for Sledgehammer. I did manage to get onto Little Nipper, I was on it when it went down and the things mentioned above are true and accurate about it going down. Luna Land to me feels great. While the theming you'd expect to see at Movieworld is not present the colours selected to make this area vibrant and great for not just families, but anyone. The interaction Boomerang has with the area is great. I can't wait to see Sledgehammer and Big Dipper 3.0 interact with this area. I’ve read some people say the temporary “bike fencing” looks cheap and tacky. It does, but it’s temporary. Outside of peak operation I’d expect to see this removed and sitting inside the Big Top for storage. The crew running Boomerang was on point. The average dispatch time was approximately 1:40 at the peak of the day. It's great to see such a high throughput. All the new rides allow adults to ride with or without kids, that's right. If you want to ride you can, Got me some cheeky new credits that are for sure. Loopy Lighthouse is my personal pick. Big Dipper is looking great. It's odd seeing it in the flesh inside the park. Still trying to figure out how the exit stairs will work, I believe you'll exit next to Coney Island/Funny Land. I also attended Halloscream, I'm not much of a Horror fan but for this being my first event it was alright. You can tell Covid affects the performers in what they can do and it's a shame but completely understandable as everyone's health is important. Some of the random shows/acts didn't seem to make a lot of sense tho. This could be due to the fact I'm not into horror or the stories being told just didn't engage the audience enough. I'd like to think the second and was the case as it seemed a little too much “cheerleader” dancing was occurring and it had me slightly confused. Overall it’s nice to have the park open again. The rides looked good and over the next few weekends operations will get better.

That’s the maintenance shed not the station. It’s in a back of house area so it’s probably worth seeing what they do with sight lines within the park before tearing it to shreds. The actual station will be hidden further from view behind it. And spoiler: it’ll be fully enclosed to facilitate theming and AV elements.

VRTP are finally giving Sea World some love after many years of neglect. They're finally building some rides instead of more animal shows and they've committed to a major coaster build from a leading manufacturer even during two years of almost zero interstate and international travel. Cutting back on some theming isn't the end of the world given the circumstances, but let's also remember that the Hall of Justice, and Spooky Castle at MW are both Colorbond sheds with fibreglass theming applied to the outside. Theming can change, and they may even do it further down the track when the financial position is stronger. What is being built now may not be the final product, and even if it is, who cares? We're getting a brand new, custom, world-class wooden coaster and two additional flat rides at a time when it would have been easy to justify pulling the pin on the entire investment. Be Patient. Stop complaining. Enjoy the rides when they finally open regardless of how the theming turns out.

DW are already implementing new procedures to help with the parking issue. They have opened up the access road to Blue Lagoon park as extra parking. They are reducing the entry road to one lane. They have traffic control directing traffic down the first row so cars have to use the back half of the carpark. This is to allow day guests to exit easily and then Halloween guests fill the front car parks first. They have also removed the fencing that was used to store ST track.

Headed along yesterday for the reopening day and Halloscream event at night and was lucky enough to ride the 7 new attractions that were open (before Little Nipper broke while we were on it and Maintenance seemingly just gave up on it). It's a real shame they couldn't get Sledgehammer opened as I've seen videos with it testing whilst guests were on it, hopefully it's up ASAP because with it and Wild Mouse closed and Big Dipper not yet to open there isn't much on offer for even a moderate thrill-seeker. A number of the rides are individually presented well but there isn't much tying the new area together, with temporary construction fences as queues and a number of smaller things such as the Boomerang station being unfinished truly making it seem like they ran out of money right near the end. The standouts of the newly opened rides have to be the Boomerang Coaster which packs a surprising punch for a family ride, especially on the backwards parts as well as Loopy Lighthouse the perfect stepping stone for those not quite confident enough to ride the Hair Raiser. Halloscream itself was good but just missing some refinement to become truly great. They tied the entire event together with a "Sydney Witches" storyline which could have worked well if it was developed, but then had them just singing and dancing to pop songs as the main show of the event. While it was great to get some nights rides on the new attractions the real reason to attend the event was the three scare mazes. The first we tackled was "Rain Dead" and although this one had an interesting backstory where acidic rain essentially turns people back into a primitive state the sets and props didn't carry this theme through the maze. The actors within did the best they could with the material but it felt like there was nowhere near enough of them, with areas that clearly should have had actors left bare. An interesting concept but unfortunately a lacklustre maze to start the night. (Thanks to Will for the heads up in the thread it was the weakest so we got it out of the way first. Next up we entered into DecayMart 365, a sequel to last years DecaryMart and just like last year this maze did not disappoint. This maze sees you step foot into an abandoned supermarket overtaken by bloody thirsty zombies. While this may sound cliche, the great mix of talented actors, detailed sets and unique scares all culminated in a maze that was the standout attraction for the event for everyone in my party. I walked out with a heart rate of 165bpm so that's as good of a review as you can give a scaremaze. Our final maze for the night was Outback Slaughterhouse where you step foot into an Australian butchers barn where it turns out you might be the next thing hung up and turned into sausages. This maze's intense performers, confined corridors and special effects made this another don't miss attraction that's close to my heart as it's essentially a sequel to the maze I worked at the event a few years ago. With a large number of guests let in it felt like 5 hours wasn't quite enough to do everything satisfyingly, with queues for each maze being around 40 minutes consistently throughout the night. Still, it was great to get back to the park after almost 9 months of downtime, get on seven brand new attractions and get some good scares. Ultimately was it a perfect reopening? No. Is there stuff that could be improved both easily and more difficultly? Of course. Am I glad the park is back welcoming guests with some long overdue new experiences? I sure am! Enjoy some other photos I took over the day that didn't quite fit elsewhere!

I hope they got plenty of these bad boys.

Because our parks have learnt to not buy rides that are mechanical nightmares. The capacity was garbage too, and the ride experience was incredibly uncomfortable. I'm glad that it's going TBH

In regards to the gondola for the west side of drop: The gondola is looking slick. Brand new overhead canopy that's larger than the ones on the east side (which explains the reason behind extra arms coming off the flat yellow part between the seats and the catch car to hold it up). It has a black finish, but also has the words "Giant Drop" meshed into it (is it there to cast a shadow on riders? who knows). Just like The Claw, it too has received newly replaced harnesses and seatbelts.

This just shows that DW are listening to feedback and actively trying to improve things

I went on opening night after rebooking multiple times due to Covid. The park was buzzing and Halloscream was great. I got there a bit before rope drop and there was a lot of people there. We had booked a night session. You honestly couldn't tell the park was capped at 75% but I felt like the park was pretty safe. We had no problem having our vax status checked and you could tell it was a well organized system. This was my first Halloween event at a park and it was really enjoyable. The scare maze I experienced, Outback Slaughterhouse, was a great maze with lots of jump scare's and actors. What impressed me the most was how it smelt like a proper animal slaughterhouse. There was lots of street entertainment but you couldn't hear the actors. Now onto the rides. Now, obviously Sledgehammer was closed which really annoyed me as they had ages to make sure it was going. Maybe they couldn't get it certified in time but seriously, are you going to open a expanded LPS without your signature new attraction. I can maybe excuse that as growing pains but what I can't get past is that two of the other key rides, WM and Rotor were also shut. Like come on, you reopen after eight months of being closed and you can't manage to get your major rides open. Also, the operations on Hair Raiser were awful. The ops were really nice but jeez, they we're slow. Anyway, I had a enjoyable time and I think my criticisms will be ironed out over the coming months.

Does anyone know what the new boats will look like yet? In my opinion I reckon its pretty stupid their putting individual lap bars on it, as there was nothing wrong with the single bars and they were much faster to secure with faster dispatch times.

Will probably end up in a park with more relaxed safety laws, such as Malaysia or Pakistan

Look, hold on, that's not really fair. It's actually pretty on point for its original concept.

Cream is an interesting choice. I know a lot of people are going to argue that they'll hide this foliage or something, but it's going to be very hard to hide the giant cream coloured shed when the entrance is like 10 metres away and it'll be an eye sore from areas like the Nick Jr. precinct. There is hope that the metal frame work will hold some sort of theming but considering that angle you're still going to see a vast majority of that shed. I would have much preferred to see something similar to Sea Viper but for those playing Aussie coaster bingo you can tick off Colourbond shed.

"theming"

save the Buzzsaw why can't another Australian theme park buy it

Pretty sad to hear the park opened like this. It's great that they're is getting a lot of visitors, but two of the park's signature rides (one of them brand new) being closed on its first day is just a bad look. I hope they clean up the new area soon, they did so well with Volare and the new Wild Mouse facade and it's disappointing to see them completely forget that. I'll try to visit the park soon to form my own opinion. Anyways, I want to keep my hopes up. We've been anticipating this for eleven months.

They listened!

Thanks for the pics themagician. The sad face emoji was because of how terrible and non-sensical that whole pathway and area is

Good stuff. All seems very sensible.

They do. They have to. There are heritage orders on. It’s and the operators must maintain both rides.

The first interview of the batch is up! Many thanks to Maximilian Roeser, Mack Rides Head of Marketing, for sharing his insight on desiging Ride to Happiness, Hurricane and Steel Taipan! And also kudos to @themagician for his permission to use his Steel Taipan photos. Was Ride to Happiness specifically designed to provide a more intense experience? In that regard, did the Tomorrowland IP affect the ride design process? Maximilian Roeser: Ride to Happiness was designed to implement everything we learned from our previous tests and installations. So we could work on optimizing and tweaking the layout to the maximum and deliver a very thrilling experience. The Tomorrowland IP was added to a later date so that this did not affect the design at all. How did you design Ride to Happiness's layout with spinning motion in mind? Roeser: That’s actually a quite complex method of engineering. We have to keep in mind that the gondolas can rotate and therefore need to work with the most extreme outcome that we can predict. Generally speaking we still believe Ride to Happiness would be a great coaster even with normal trains – with the Xtreme Spinning Coaster it adds the ultimate experience. Ride to Happiness features very distinctive elements such as a "Curved Jojo Roll", an Outside Banked Top Hat and a "Banana Roll". Can you explain the thought process implementing those elements into the coaster layout? Roeser: Our layout engineers are free when initially working on a layout and presenting it the first time. Of course we have the guidelines of the customer and also budget and space are given. Therefore, we try to maximize the ride experience. We got very good responses on the "Jojo Roll" on Copperhead Strike and to the initial highlight of Time Traveller plunging down the station. We wanted to create something similar but with the given terrain an drop would not have been feasable. So in order to still keep this inital effect we installed the curved Jojo Roll and the drop effect was added behind the first launch section. The reason why the Jojo Roll is curved is pretty simple. The alignment of the launches and the station building was set due to the terrain and location of the ride. So, we had to get a curve to the launch section. The "Banana Roll" for instance is placed at the location where we needed to head back to the station direction, so we had multiple options and chose the banana roll for this. Hurricane at Suzhou Amusement Land Forest World will be Mack Rides' tallest coaster to date. Was breaking this record a requested feature from the client? Roeser: The client wanted to create a certain height but not breaking the record of our company. (Photo: Roller Coaster Dream China) Hurricane has a low-to-the-ground barrel roll just after the 62m Top Hat. What inspired you to create such a contrasting sequence of elements? Roeser: This ride is certainly the most extreme launch coaster we built. The inversion after the Top Hat will crack the speed record for world’s fastest inversion to date. So we look forward to the opening of the ride and how many people will dare to ride this spectacular attraction. (Photo: Roller Coaster Dream China) This coaster will also feature interlocking Cobra Roll and Looping. Can you describe the forces running through those inversions? Roeser: It’s a nice combination of hangtime and forces that push you into the seat. The elements are quick one after another so that you really have to look out where you will go next. The whole coaster is equipped with a high average speed so we look forward to riding it hopefully soon. What led to the introduction of a spinning car on Steel Taipan in Dreamworld in Australia? Roeser: It first started with the tests on Blue Fire for the Xtreme Spinning Coaster. We built 4 seats on top of the last coach of Blue Fire and tested at night to realize a working prototype. After this was done and we already got Time Traveller we knew we could provide an add-on for our launch, mega and hypercoasters and so we tested again with only a two seater configuration. Steel Taipan's final coach offers extra spinning motion (Photo: Gold Coast Theme Parks) As many coasters were designed as a standard seating coaster we can’t just put new trains on. But we have some of our launch coasters that would be capable of the new hybrid trains and we already see some parks thinking about this addition to their rides. We think it’s a great way to promote the ride with a totally new experience. Why did you add a backwards spike to the launch? The client requested this change in order to add an additional feature of three launches. There were also another ideas in place to create another launch sequence at the straight portion of the launch but we stuck to the launch as we got it on Blue Fire. (Photo: Gold Coast Theme Parks)

I visited the park today (Luna Land) and took some pictures before tonights first Halloscream event.