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Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/02/23 in all areas

  1. Ok lets put this misinformation and speculation to bed. Wild Mouse at LPS has a heritage order placed on it. It can not be altered and must be maintained as part of the operations of the site. Even if they WANTED to do something on that site, they simply cannot. ( But why would they? The park knows the value of such an historical attraction and its uniqueness given its long and varied history) There may be some issues that may require some new fabrication of parts ( of course given its age and its rarity, these parts are not simply ordered online and there the next day) It is one of only three wooden wild mouse left in the world. The heritage order alone makes this a signifcant historical ride and LPS knows this. If you believe REDDIT posts that state its being removed due to flooding ( if you even know anything about the ride how does that even happen??) then I am sorry, if you cannot dimiss that sort of blarney immediately, then more fool you. It is definitely Australia's 2nd oldest Roller coaster and only one of 3 wooden coasters left in the country. Simply put , Wild Mouse is not going anywhere and to even suggest that it is should be met with increduilty. All of the above information can be easily verified through simple Google searches. 100% this.
    4 points
  2. Scooby was announced as closing for refurb 3 days prior to its closure. I will say it sucks they won’t be seeing our parks at their potential, MW will have Batwing, Superman, Doomsday and Scooby down (who even knows what GL will decide to do), DW will have half the kids area closed off for refurb + GD and SS, SW will probably have Trident and Vortex down for technical issues. It’s a shame. Hopefully they return after 2024, once the half pipe, WoO, Dreamland, Dreamworld Flyer, Rivertown and Ocean Parade expansion are all opened up.
    3 points
  3. No not at all. To clarify, you are sort of correct but not entirely. The whole park is not heritage listed rather there are items within the park that are placed on the state heritage listing and together they form the Luna Park Precinct. These include ( from the Conservation Management Plan Luna Park December 2019) Further more, these items withing the precinct are also on the State Heritage listing and collectively appear on the National Trust of Australia register In discussing Wild Mouse's historicial aspects , it is considered of significant value , as can be seen by the below heritage analysis. As can be seen, this does not leave much room for it to be altered or changed intrinsically in any significant way. Of course, safety will always trump heritage and there may be some future safety items that may needed to be added to ensure its ongoing operation. These will always be enacted with complete regard for heritage issues and its value- much like how the Scenic Railway currently operates at LPM The heritage values of Luna Park Sydney are protected under a range of legislation, both state and local. Below provides an overview of the pertinent legislation. The below shows that the Wild Mouse MUST stay in its current site and cannot be ammended or significantly added to. There are areas within the parks where attractions can be added/removed ( hence how we just had 9 new rides added to the precinct , but this does NOT include removal or altering of the heritage signifcant items such as Wild Mouse or Rotor) The below snapshot of the site shows exactly what can be done with each area , including Wild Mouse and Rotor. This shows where new attractions and indeed any attractions can be located within the park and quite clearly states that Wild Mouse and Rotor may be moved within the park boundaries and can have fabric replacement BUT they must remain Luna Park rides. So to summarise- Wild Mouse cannot be altered or intrinsically changed. It MAY be moved with the park and can have new fabric replacement added to it to ensure its operation.( which being a wooden coaster is going to have to happen) Undere the CMP, it MUST remain a Luna Park ride which means that anyone holding the lease MUST maintain it and ensure of its future operation. I would urge you to track down the Conservation Management Plan to study as it is a very interesting read. This should quell any calls of the future of Wild Mouse into question and any speculation of its removal and finally any overreactions or "excitement" calls being elicited.
    3 points
  4. Just a suggestion - could you not make the thread a poll, and then each week a new thread with a new poll? Have a separate thread where the 'all stars' are published, linked from each week's poll thread?
    3 points
  5. Went to Carnivale on the weekend. Pros: New Atlantis at night is gorgeous. Seriously lucky to have this in the country. Atmosphere is great with vibrant lights and music. Ride waits are pretty decent early on. They don't put you into the cattle pen before the event anymore which is nice and if you've got a wristband you can stay in the park and ride the attractions between park close and the event opening. Still great that you get it for free with your season pass. Drinks weren't outrageously priced and there was a great selection. Families are the real winners for this event. Everything being open alongside the additional entertainment and atmosphere makes a great night out. Cons: The food selection is extremely slim and nowhere near as good as previous years. The food options are also very expensive for a paid event which disincentivises trying multiple things. Trident is a lemon no matter the time of day. Notes: Aquacolour is fine as a spectacle but has some major pacing issues. It would benefit from slowing down at some points instead of just going 0 to 100 in the first sequence and then never slowing down. VQ was a bit wishy washy. A lot of staff mentioned that VQ was completely down and wouldn't be used for the event despite that not being the case. Levi was running single train ops. For a special paid event that's a bit lacklustre. For a sold out event it wasn't overwhelmingly busy. Overall it's a great night out with friends and family and something worthwhile doing if you're in the area. It is starting to feel a little tired though and I'd love to see more emphasis on the food and drink selection in the future.
    3 points
  6. 3 points
  7. I honestly think the only reason they went with SBF for Trident is SBF offering Village Trident at a discounted cost when they purchased Cosmic Boom, and as it was a cheaper option they decided to opt out of the 60m Funtime star flyer to save some money. If operations continue being this bad while the ride is always down for wind or technical issues, i don’t think the ride has a very bright future at the park.
    2 points
  8. Wild Mouse is heritage listed. Its for sure not going anywhere. I know the park has invested quite a bit of money into retracking over the past year. Given the uniqueness of the ride all of this new track has to be custom made. I believe a few of the timber supports are getting reinforced too, and I think the trains have gotten updated restraints in recent years.
    2 points
  9. This comes up periodically and there's never been a cut and dry answer, and there ever will be. I think the answer is both personal and contextual. Aside from that it ultimately doesn't really matter. For our purposes, there are 3 theme parks in Australia, all on the GC. After that it's either amusement parks or water parks (or combinations) and beyond that its tourist attractions. If you want to split hairs and be all 'DW was a theme park now it's an amusement park' or 'SW is a marine park with rides' or 'Luna Park Sydney is a theme park because it has seperate lands' knock yourself out, but know you're wasting your breath with me. What's the threshold to move from one categpry to another? There isn't one, stop over thinking it. I'll give you one rule though, if lots of guests bring Gazebos or similar, it's not a theme park.
    2 points
  10. What the heck has happened to all the background music around Movie World? Walking around the park yesterday, the only area that had decent working audio was Main Street. All other areas were either dead silent with no music playing whatsoever or had so many broken speakers that it could hardly be heard. I know this may seem like a somewhat unimportant issue in the scheme of things (and that I’m being a little picky). However, it made for a very dull experience overall and caused many of the areas to feel pretty bland and lack atmosphere. Music is such an essential part of theme parks, helping to create an atmosphere, immerse you in the attractions and assist in making your time within the park a little more exciting, magical and special. Movie World has historically been extremely good at this, with themed music appropriate to each area of the park surrounding you at every turn. However, since 2019 things have taken a noticeable turn for the worse (and they’ve only gone further downhill as time’s gone on). Here’s a quick rundown of the current audio situation (from what I’ve observed) within the park: *Superman Escape’s external music - not working, hasn’t played since 2019. *Green Lantern’s queue music - not working, hasn’t played since 2019. *DC Rivals entrance music - playing, however only one speaker is functioning correctly. *DC Rivals queue music - playing, but only the speakers behind the murals and in the station unload area are working. *Scooby’s external music - not working during my visit yesterday, only seems to play half the time depending on the day. *Doomsday - playing, but multiple speakers are clearly damaged (sound very distorted and lacking bass or treble) *Wild West area - not working, hasn’t played since the WWF upgrade in 2021. *Looney Tunes area - not working, hasn’t played correctly since the RRRC upgrade in 2021. New speakers were added around the tree in mid 2022 and the area music briefly played through them for a while. However those are no longer operating either and the land is now back to complete silence. *Road Runner queue music - not working, hasn’t played for about 4 months. *Main Street locker area - not working, hasn’t played for about 4 months. So yeah, as you can see, barley anything is playing at the park right now and the fact that some areas (like outside Superman Escape) haven’t had working audio for over 4 years at this point is pretty ridiculous. This would never happen at any of the Disney, Universal and other “world class” parks out there. I actually managed to ask a maintenance worker I bumped into what the deal was with the lack for audio. He told me that “Superman’s outdoor mushroom speakers were stuffed” and they “were having trouble replacing them”. I’m not sure why they would have such trouble, considering they’re just speakers that sit on the ground (and I discovered that they can be purchased locally from this place in Robina, literally 20 mins up the road): https://www.scpaudio.com/LS-21-Garden-Speaker-30W-100V-3-Taps In any case, surly it doesn’t take over 4 years to fix something as simple as a basic audio system with a few speakers. As to why the new speakers around the tree in the Loony Tunes area have been turned off again, the worker informed me that they were “clashing with the sound of the carousel”. Considering the carousel and the area music have always played side by side with no issues, I’m not sure why it’s suddenly a problem now. The carousel wasn’t operating during my visit, meaning nothing was playing at all. However, it would have to be blasting pretty loud to effect the audio by the tree. In addition, all of the broken, neglected mushroom speakers in this area have still not been repaired and continue to sit there in silence, rotting away as they have done for years now. I understand I may sound a little overly negative here. However, to me music has always been such an important part of the experience of visiting Movie World (or any other theme park for that matter) and it’s incredibly disappointing to see it become so neglected by the park. In my opinion, VRTP have done a pretty good job with MW recently, turning it around and breathing new life into it (through actions such as tidying up the park, refreshing attractions such as JL, improving their annual events, announcing/building new attractions ect.) and they deserve praise for that. Yet despite all of this, the audio problem has persisted and continues to get worse and worse. It’s become so bad that even friends I visit the park with have noticed and commented on it. I’m hoping Movie World will continue the good work they’ve done in other departments and return the auditory experience of the park to its former glory, thereby assisting in making the overall guest experience the best it can possibly be.
    1 point
  11. are Huss Topspin’s normally as unreliable as Vortex? It seems like besides Batwing, Village make really poor decisions when choosing flat rides… Doomsday is down more then it’s not, Vortex seems to have an issue every second day, Trident can’t even operate in high winds even though it’s right next to a beach while also having horrendous operations… it’s a shame
    1 point
  12. Yep, good place to start, and finish. All down hill from here People would be annoyed, but so they should be when you are talking about a park makings millions of dollars a week owned and run by a company worth tens of billions, with access to basically unlimited funds, a population pool of over 250m people to hire skilled workers from, and with the manufacturers of your rides not a 20+ hour flight away, or potentially months away when parts are needed
    1 point
  13. Go with a cheaper manufacturer.. have lots of issues. Or pay a little bit more... and have a ride that more than likely wouldn't have as many issues. Hmmm... I know what I would have picked. Such a shame as the StarFlyer was a perfect fit, even the travelling model they had as a temp attraction is a better ride than this one.
    1 point
  14. I know you shouldn't really compare them but I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain this time last year.. middle of winter and in their clear off season. Every ride bar 2 were open all day - Superman Escape and their drop ride opened at 1pm. I honestly don't know what takes Australian parks so long. Imagine if splash moutain closed for 2 months every year...
    1 point
  15. That Australia is starved for entertainment options and operators can and do get away with lots of things they shouldn't simply because there is no competitor?
    1 point
  16. My first vote would be a poll, then TNT
    1 point
  17. It just would’ve been nice for them to experience both of these attractions and get their opinions of them. Plus Scooby wasn’t announced as being closed when CS first organized their trip. But yeah, I’m sure they were expecting some additional closures.
    1 point
  18. I find this happening to me more often too. Not sure why.
    1 point
  19. Almost every example you've given is from a time when Warner were invested in the parks. of course the parks all owned by the same mob, had the same attractions (Disney anyone?) because the R&D costs for one can be spread across all the parks you own, reducing the cost of the new attrraction. I wasn't aware SFMM had a PASS? I visited SFMM in 1996 and don't recall it being there - quick google doesn't show up anything either - got a source for this? (SFMM has had Looney Tunes for some time so the WB link isn't unusual, I just don't recall PASS being part of it) 100% I also got an opportunity to ride Leviathan mid-fireworks and my just-tall-enough-to-ride kiddo now has a new favourite coaster #ThoosieParentingDoneRight
    1 point
  20. Lets take a quick look at the scores and what I can say is ouch for EFM/KFF. 6-0 for TNT. I am putting bets on TNT winning and KFF turned into paperclips. Remember you have until Thursday to vote. Some advice: You will really enjoy MW's clone of TNT when it comes in 2024, it is very fast and intense for a family coaster and even goes on a 90 degree coming out of the tunnel, in which even DCR and Superman don't go above that at all. I would recommend not skipping it as it is awesome.
    1 point
  21. Forgot about that one @Naazon. It's a shame Gold Coast parks don't like to do night trading.
    1 point
  22. I thought so too. I wasn't going to go this year because it looked the same as every other year but ended up going just to experience the New Atlantis at night. The show on the water was my least favourite of all shows I've seen and if felt like a bit a mess to be honest. I ended up grabbing some food on the way home as the food was 👎 Carnival felt like SW gave it a free pass this year because of New Atlantis. SW did great with the New Atlantis at night, it's just a shame you can only experience it once a year.
    1 point
  23. I decided to prod the guy on reddit, and he said:
    1 point
  24. Lol I'd be worried if the waters of Sydney harbour had risen to the point they flooded the wild mouse, or were they saying it flooded from the base of the structure. They refurbished it earlier in 2022 (which was lengthy), it was open for a while than closed for maintenance in August as noted earlier in this thread. I asked the operations manager when I was doing the VIP thing at Halloscream and didn't get any detail other than it's under maintenance, which is fair enough, I wouldn't expect to hear about any issues. It would a shame to see it go, but it's been closed for so long now. Can we start speculating about the replacement lol. A groovy little Eurofighter; or a Maurer Spinning coaster (like at Seabreeze and Santa Cruz) would be fun.
    1 point
  25. I would say that early Movie World (early 90’s to the early 2000’s) was a lot closer to Universal’s standard then what we have today. I think the shift to focusing on adding thrill rides and less about theming and immersion has cheapened the experience (even though we have more attractions now than we did back them). Still, I wouldn’t call it a “regional park”, but I’d say it’s teetering on the edge of being one in its current state. It will be interesting to see what happens after WOO opens. If the area is finished off to the high standard they’ve been promising and is as well themed as the concept art, it could improve the overall image of the park and increase its international appeal. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
    1 point
  26. It might be that my definition is too simple, but IMO (and likely the thinking behind why it's being called a turntable in the first place) is that a 'switch track' is a whole section of track that moves linearly in one direction to be completely out of sync with the previous path, setting up another entirely unique section of track for that path, all while the coaster train is not locked onto either of the track pieces (i.e. 'switch track', it switches the track piece, examples being most coaster's paths to maintenance/storage, or ST's launch). Whereas a 'turntable' functions more like a 'transfer track/table', where it's function is to set the same section of track up to an entirely unique path whilst the train is locked onto it, and does so via pivoting instead of the linear movement of a transfer track/table (see the Gerstlauer example above for a 'turntable', and Blue Fire clones' maintenance/storage bays or Star Trek: Operation Enterprise's pre-launch sequence for 'transfer track/table' examples).
    1 point
  27. 1 point
  28. So the Yong family built their home first, got it all approved by council, and is willing to help out where they can to support their neighbours... but they're the bad guys? This is such a bizarre hit piece trying to make us feel sorry for millionaires. I agree with @Levithian. This is 100% on their builders and architects.
    1 point
  29. Here's the reality - there was nothing wrong with the coaster. Because if there was, it would've been scrapped instead of sold, and instead of thriving with very minimal downtime, it would've had the same kind of opening that Leviathan had. Buzzsaw's issue was that people didn't want to do thrill rides that seemed psychologically scary right after the incident. This continues to be the park's problem and why Giant Drop has had minimal ridership post-incident. It also doesn't help that Buzzsaw's position was essentially metres from the incident. The nail in the coffin was that the ride needed some ten-year maintenance (read: major work) at a time when the park's management thought that the only way out of their pandemic-exasperated fiscal woes was to contract the park's cost-base by any means necessary. Was it necessary? Prior to the government intervention/funding, maybe. But the on-flow effect of transforming the park from "The Biggest in Australia" to the opposite of that in 2023 is that demand for the Village offering has soared while Dreamworld's demand hasn't kept pace with general market demand.
    1 point
  30. I can understand that the maintenance department have their hands full and have to prioritise jobs. However, I still think it’s a little ridiculous that some of these systems have remained non-functional for over 4 years. I’m sure management would have realised they’re not working by now as it’s quite noticeable. Even if there have been issues with sourcing equipment, surely they could’ve come up with a workaround in that time. This issue doesn’t effect other parks (and wasn’t an issue at Movie World in the past), so I don’t know why it’s currently such a problem at MW. Either way, it’s pretty disappointing.
    1 point
  31. From the view of an onlooker it seems like it wouldn’t be that hard keeping effects working and speakers it seems weird they always break down but again I am not an electrician but it seems like if most these machines and effects are newish they shouldn’t have so many problems.
    1 point
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