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For the love of God NO VR! We don't need more than one coaster with VR, it's not a slap it on every ride item. One unique experience is fine. Just enjoy the real outdoor actual life life kids and get out of the video game for just one day.

Just came across this link on Facebook. Looks like it will give us another reason to make the trip to the sunshine coast! http://www.ausparks.com.au/2016/10/aussie-world-open-permanent-haunt-maze/

I'm disappointed you didn't continue this in lyric form.

Thanks for the update!

Got a quick look driving past this afternoon on the M1. More fittings are appearing towards the south towards WNW. Still plenty of footings to go in by the looks of the stuff laying around.

Except no one knows this is being exaggerated until whatever it is has been announced. And what I was saying earlier is that even if the que is short, dispatch times are still long with VR on the train. But it seems the VR brigade will not be silenced so we'll just wait and see hey.

If the ride was designed for VR then maybe they designed a dual station. So that they can load trains with VR in one station and use the other station for normal rides. So this way they can load one of the trains with VR and lets say another 2 trains for normal operations. Assuming this is a big hyper coaster they are going to need more than 1 train. So this way non VR people don't have to wait for VR people to load and get the VR headsets set up.

I don't think so. But it's hardly relevant to making the point though. I'll correct myself: IF the park has a singles line and IF you have no friends and want to ride alone then Youll only have to wait too long instead of way way way too long.

Honestly I see no problem with or without VR. If it's got VR and you don't want VR, I don't see what's so hard about not riding with VR...??? I don't understand why you guys are reacting so much to the possibility of it. Is it unnecessary? Yes, two VR rides in a park is probably overkill, but does it have an adverse effect on anything (other than efficiency)? No.

I'll add it when there is more framework up on that side. Anyway, with that confirmation you gave us, I feel more certain that this is the layout of the new Lego Store/Market Place: @AlexB, on NearMaps, does the Lego Store octagon equal to 350 square metres like DW stated it will? Also, I just noticed another entrance in an earlier posted photo so here's another 'artist' impression:

It's correct that the biggest issue for the park is access. Even if you don't move BOH, a new access from Kopps road for service vehicles and staff would greatly improve flow so that you don't have the road between the gates and car park and you don't have service vehicles using the main guest entrance. As for BOH, anyone familiar with those areas knows what a nightmare they are in layout. Basically 25 years of hodge page grab for space. If it's one thing the place needs it's much more office space. I would leave administration where it is, however demolish the back half which is warehouse and entertainment rehearsal space and put in a multi level building there and consolidate ALL the parks admin (which is current spread all over the property) to there. Move the staff dining area into behind the Roxy, basically taking over wardrobe and food and beverage offices. Move entertainment green rooms, costuming and rehearsal space into a new building where maintenance currently is. Then push the kids area all the way over against the admin building almost and back against ricks. The existing boh road would move to the eastern side of admin. This gives you heaps of space for the kids area, lets Sam's share the Ricks kitchen as if would be moved back against there, and let's you take back over the half of Tunes building for another immersive attraction, possibly simulator or the like. Then you build a big ass maintenance facility out behind Wild West that also includes increased Food and Bev warehouse and parade storage. Like a really big facility. All of this includes new access roads suitable for large vehicles. You would also re do parade route access so you can do a one way parade through the park and out the other side and link back to the parade storage building. All ll this involves a lot to land clearing and leveling and would cost 10s of millions of dollars. But if you're talking how to do it right, this would be my plan.

Maybe the actor for that particular scare threw a sickie that night? ??

^I quite like Flight deck at CGA...Its not a big invert, but its forceful, and gets to the point without mucking around. The sort of coaster that is fun to reride. ********* I’m actually going to break order a bit and fast foward to the last park on the very last day of my trip, Universal Studios Hollywood. Partly because it’s still a fairly new attraction so it makes sense to be topical , and partly because I went to several “amusement parks” in a row after Carowinds, so i’ll break it up a bit better by doing a themed one. I haven’t been to Universal Hollywood for about 9 years, and a lot has changed, and some stuff was a bit hazy from my memory, so it was good to reacquaint myself. I think new for me were. -Transformers -Harry Potter -The modified SFX show. -Numerous changes to the studio tour such as Fast and the Furious and King Kong -Despicable Me -Springfield / The Simpsons ride Not bad… The previous day was a travel day from San Antonio to my parents place in Visalia near Fresno, with a lengthy stopover in Salt Lake City (Sadly not long enough to get to Lagoon though) The highlight of the flights was this lady. We got in late, but it was up again around 6:30 for the 3h drive down to LA. The park opened Harry Potter early at 8:00, but we didn’t arrive till 10, which was absolutely fine, with no queue longer than about 10 mins. They really have been busy here...The new multi level car parks are enormous! I took Mum along for the day (Dad had to work), and we had a great day! Wasn’t sure about how much she’d do, but we went on everything. Heading in it was straight towards the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Just like the one in Florida, there is immense attention to detail, plenty of fun foods to try and expensive souvenirs to buy. I do find it odd with both here and Orlando they went for the snowcapped village look, which feels strange since both parks are in warm climates. So, onto Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, initially riding alone via the single rider queue. If you want a run through of the queue theming, check out the galleries. The ride is a definite improvement on the Orlando version. More detailed, better lit sets, particularly in the chamber of secrets, brighter, sharper projectors in 3d, seemingly more arm movement, and better dementor movements. Basically, I think the issue with the orlando one is that the projectors are low power flight simiulator ones, and the rest of the scenes are also dark to match. The dementors on that one also just moved a bit like they were something you’d see in a ghost train. Onto the ride. For those unfamiliar, it’s a robocoaster on a track, which is basically a robotic arm with seats that can flip you around in any direction. This means they can really move you around in the scenes, have you on your back, and have motion simulator type sequences where you are in front of a screen being tilted around slightly. The robotic arm is deliberately well hidden….The station has a long slot in the back wall that allows the seats to poke through, with the arm hidden behind. The cars move through continuously, and you board via a moving walkway. Once you are seated an operator with an armful of 3d glasses hands you a pair, and another op checks your harness and uses an RFID band to tap your car to signify you have been checked. Those ops must get a lot of exercise effectively being on a treadmill. From the station you are lifted up, Hermione dusts you with floo power, and in a puff of green smoke you travel up a chimney to the astronomy tower in the castle past a projection wall. (Another change to the orlando one, you are basically just floating through a green vortex, rather than the brick chimney on the old one…didn’t like it as much, a bit out of focus) You then emerge in the astronomy tower, floating from side to side, and eventually fly out the window into the first projector bit, where ron and harry are flying on their brooms next to you. A dragon comes along and gives chase, culminating in it breathing a fireball right at you in 3d. At that point you peel away into a real life set and float through a charred section of the castle with the dragon clawing around the outside. The dragon attacks again, this time an animatronic that breathes a cloud of steam at you. The issue of the disjointed storyline still stands. All of a sudden you are down in the forbidden forest, with spiders dropping down around you. Next you flip onto your back and a huge animatronic whomping willow swats very close to you (looked like it had rubber skin a bit like a dinosaur animatronic) From there, you fly sideways into the middle of quidditch match on a projector dome. Dementors decide to swarm in and chase you and harry,and eventually you and harry are knocked down a ravine into the secret entrance of the chamber of secrets. This is the main place that seemed better than the original. The dementors moved a lot more realistically, the sets were more detailed, with more depth (vaults and arches continuing into the distance etc) The main thing missing is the bit with the fog screen and the photo of your face floating away when a dementor tries to suck your soul out. The finale of the ride is another projector dome, where the chamber begins to collapse, with you dodging bits of falling rock. You then escape the cave, and fly quickly across the lake to the great hall of the castle (why the rush though? Odd storytelling) You peel away from the screen seamlessly into the great hall, with crowds of students and dumbledore congratulating you, and then go through another fireplace to get back to the station. Odd storyline aside, it’s a great, very immersive ride, with impressive technology and sets. Between this and Transformers, it’s the best 1-2 punch of dark rides in the world. Next I did a lap on Flight of the hippogriff, which is a mack family coaster. If you tell the attendant at the entrance you are a single rider you get sent up the VIP queue, so no wait if you just want to try the coaster. Mack make great family coasters, very smooth and comfortable, and a touch more zip than a vekoma family coaster. The layout is very similar to roadrunner, except that the first drop is downhill all the way, and the helices seemed a bit steeper. Visually, its just as much of a treat as the main area. We grabbed one of those lovely frozen butterbeers and poked around a couple of the shops (So many interesting interiors!) before heading down the starway to the lower lot. Half the park is at the bottom of a big hill, so there are several banks of escalators (Imagine about double the rise as when you are coming out of Parliament in Melbourne or KX in Sydney, except it’s a ballache because nobody stands to the side, so you just have to ride at escalator speed for several minutes. At the bottom Mum and I worked through the rides in level of intensity, starting with Jurassic Park. I think I wrote about this one in my old trip report. Basically you ride in big boats past some nice tropical dinosaur scenes, but go off course into a back of house area where dinos have escaped. For those familiar with the ride, the dropping car effect is gone L You then head into the water treatment plant, go up the lift hill inside, and at the top a giant t rex lurches his head at you, but you drop underneath and down the main drop to the splashdown. It’s still a good ride, but I reckon they could plus the ride by replacing the dinos with more modern animatronics. Overall however, its one of the best boat rides out there. They had the nice feature of a kids play area next to the ride, which more parks should put next to major rides IMO. Next was revenge of the mummy. Again, a good ride, and I reckon people are too harsh on it in terms of it supposedly being bad compared to the Orlando and Singapore versions. Quick and to the point, but again, with current projection mapping tech they could surley replace those cardboard cutout elements in the main coaster section. Basically the first section is a slow ride through a tomb, with skeleton arms clawing from the ceiling, a big projection of some sort of sand god raging at you. From the tomb you are launched into the ‘underworld’, just a few quick turns in the dark, with some cheesy cardboard cutouts of underworld gods. You come to an abrupt stop against a brick wall, where projections of beetles swarm around, coupled with leg ticklers under the seats. You then launch backwards through a bit more track, and then come to a stop on a turntable. Shrouded in CO2 fog, and a bang, a door opens and you are back in the station. It was onto another favourite of mine, which mum described as “awesome”….Transformers. Its neck and neck between this and Potter for the worlds best dark ride. A queue line through the halls of a military base, with a cool aesthetic and plenty of monitors and techno shit leads you to the loading station where you grab some 3d goggles, and board the rotating, motion based vehicles. The story goes that Decepticons are attacking earth trying to get the allspark, and you have to help the Autobots move it to safety by riding in the newest member of the team, evac. Perhaps the one thing I missed from the Singaporean version was the bilingual aspect of the queue videos (Basically the would alternate between English and Chinese, subtitled in the opposing language, so the Chinese one would have a few unique jokes….anyways) The ride keeps the blowtorch on the whole time, with quick progression between scenes and nonstop action. It is to dark rides what hypers are to roller coasters. You’re just being dragged along for the ride. Like potter, it’s a tracked ride running through a combination of real life scenes and immersive 3d projected sequences, with the transitions between scenes done quite cleverly. For instance, one part has you being chased under a bridge on screen, but you reverse out, and as you move out from the projector screen you pass under the same bridge in real life that you passed under in the footage. Highlights include a bit where Grindor chases you into a rail tunnel, but is decapitated by a passing train. Theres another great bit where you get picked up by Starscreams grapple hook, and are towed wildly through the air around skyscrapers, eventually fishtailing and smashing through into a level of an office building, hitting computers and filing cabinets. There’s great attention to detail, like a hole that gets blown in a concrete wall, and as you pass through the hole, the tips of the exposed reo bars glow red hot but fade as they cool down. Love that kinda stuff. I was hoping to try the Energon drink they apparently sell in the area…It has been discontinued We then headed up the hill and got lunch at Cletus’ Chicken Shack in Springfield. Being adventurous we tried the waffle chicken sandwich, which had fried chicken, tomato, lettuce and I think some sort of maple mayo…on waffles. It was odd, but kinda nice. Normally I’m good at not missing stuff at theme parks, but I admit I dropped the ball here, and forgot to try a Flaming Moe at during my visit You could also get enormous doughnuts that were the size of a Whopper burger. The whole Springfield area looks great, with places like the DMV, police station, duff brewery. This could totally be fleshed out into an area of scale of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, for example with walkthroughs through the Simpson House or Springfield Elementary. They could even have rides, like bumper cars themed to Crazy Vaclavs Place of Automobiles, where the little cars could be themed to Zagragev Minzlotnyk Diev, and you have to put them in H on a single tank of kerosene. After lunch we went on the Studio Tour. All the usual stuff is there like the Psycho house, Wysteria Lane, Whoville, Jaws, the Earthquake subway etc, so some things don’t change. They have deleted the dancing cars on robotic arms in an old Fast and the Furious scene (Which has since been replaced by another F&F sequence ill get to) . I think there used to be a mummy themed scene with a spinning tunnel. Even without any filming going on, the multiple staged scenes make it quite fleshed out. The two new additions are two enclosed sections that have 3d projection tunnels and motion bases that your vehicle parks on. The first is King Kong, where you are basically in a fight between Kong and some Dinosaurs, with you being jostled around, and even falling off a ravine but landing in some big vines. The other is a Fast and the Furious one which was utterly confusing because I only ever saw the first one. Basically theres some shit about a deal and secret agents, and I couldn’t tell who was good or who was bad or why we were in trouble or why we had been brought to a party in an abandoned warehouse. But it comes good in the final scene, where your tram is being towed by two very powerful tow trucks along a freeway, with cars and shooting happening around you, culminating in a big jump across a half built bridge, in true hollywood style. So what else? The Simpsons ride. It’s a big simulator with a giant dome screen and multiple motion bases that replaced back to the future. My only criticism would be they animated it in Simpsons hit and run style (Or like that Treehouse of horrors where Homer was trapped in 3d world) with smooth edges, rather than the way they do newer episodes and Futurama (Still 3D animated, but with the black outlines) A few laughs, the humour seemed a bit more like early 2000s episodes than newer ones. The other simulator is Despicable Me: minion mayhem. Same sort of idea as the Simpsons, but on a smaller scale, without a dome screen, but it is in 3D! I was expecting to be meh about this one because Facebook ruined minions (apparently adding a picture of a minion to a meme makes it relatable) But it was actually funny! Basically you are shrunk to minion size and sent on a training course, so it feels like you are in a computer game level, with minions falling over a d being knocked over by obstacles. The exit of the ride is a random disco room where you can party with the minions. Nearby is the newly opened Walking Dead attraction. Universal used to have the “Universal House of Horrors” which was a great permanent maze, quite dark with good scares. This has replaced it, and has well detailed sets, and a few more theme parky type features like animatronics and the like. But its fully lit, not dark like a true horror maze, and the scarers just come charging through. And it feels a bit odd because there are staff in medical uniforms as minders all the way through. So its middle of the road….technically well presented with good sets, but not particularly scary or stressing. We went back into Wizarding World and mum conquered Forbidden Journey and loved it. I did another lap on single rider, and on Flight of the Hipogriff because I actually liked it. We sat in Three Broomsticks and tried a few more things, including the Fish n Chips (Decent), the postmix version of Butterbeer (Better than I remembered, would get again!), and Pumpkin Juice (Doesn’t really taste of Pumpkin, it was more a spiced drink that tasted of Cinnamon…if you like Ginger ale etc you’d like Pumpkin Juice. The last attraction we did was the SFX show. This was quite entertaining, with plenty of techniques shown…A man on fire, miniature models, foley sound effects (yes, guests still cant get their cues right!), motion capture, flying rigs, makeup, fake blood knives. The theatre was a full house and nobody left early so can’t question its popularity. They also mixed a bit of theatrics and humor into it, rather than it being a dry demonstration. Eg the flying rig sequence all “went wrong” with the guy on the rig being tossed and tumbled all over the place. We rounded out the day with another go on transformers, and Potter before calling it a day around 5ish. It’s a great park, and has made some definite improvements, with a really solid line up of attractions. It wasn’t too much of an effort to get everything done. (We skipped Waterworld…seen it, and Shrek 4D was skipped for the same reason) I think the main thing the park needs is a signature roller coaster. Japan has Hollywood Dream and Flying Dinosaur, Orlando has Rip Ride Rocket, IOA has Hulk. Singapore has Battlestar. I reckon the park could also do with a family dark ride, like the ET or sesame st ones at the other universal parks. So, that concludes this diversion, and Ill return to chronological trip reports for the rest of this topic.