Leaderboard

There has been a severe lack of turbines in everything DW has done of late. Disappointing. #bringbacktheturbines

It's such a 'soft' advertisement that most People wouldn't even notice it. "AUSTRALIA'S FIRST" blends into the Clouds along with everything else being said. All critisism aside, this type of ride has never been marketed well (not even Disney). Possibly because it simply must be seen first hand to be believed. Truly remarkable in every sense. Oh @pushbutton mark my words when I say you are in for one hell of a treat when this opens!

The DW Cinema has now been removed from the park map, and this has been added too (No new info, but thought id share that they are advertising on the map)

Came across these today, on display at the State Library. Attached also is the information sign describing how they were taken. and a couple more!

I can't link the source as it was a word of mouth conversation. Whilst they are completely different services, in that one is about rides while the other is about sea travel, cruise ships are like a floating amusement park/hotel/shopping & dining precinct while theme parks are the same - the main differences of theme parks to cruise ships (apart from theming & not floating) is that you have travel daily to and from them & there is no on-site hotel. These differences don't apply to Sea World though as it has it's own resort. Cruise ships can also provide something new everytime - you can visit a different location each time. Up until September last year, in the past 5 years, theme parks in Australia haven't provided much new that is attention-grabbing regularly and when put altogether after a few years, makes a notable difference to a person's previous visit. For non-locals, DC Rivals HyperCoaster is the only new attraction in recent Australian history that justifies a new visit just for 1 attraction. Wet 'n' Wild Gold Coast is also losing it's uniqueness due to so many waterslides appearing nationally at places like water parks, local aquatic centres & even cruise ships. @jjuttp's earlier comparison shows that, for an interstate consumer, they are economically very even already and @CruiseSF's quote below pretty much sums up why I thought cruise ships could be a competitor for theme parks in Australia: The question that should be asked is are Australians increasingly replacing theme parks (particularly the Gold Coast theme parks) for cruise ship packages mainly because they offer roughly the same services for less cost & more convenience?

They’ve finished the wall for the commonwealth games now, much better (Photo TPSN)

The popularity of cruising has been increasing for a long time. Pretty much since P&O Australia started operations cruising has be gaining popularity. As the cruise lines discover we are a bigger market then everyone assumed they have started sending big more feature pack ships down here, and with that the rate of increase is increasing. Just a few years ago all we had was cruise ships with only limited features but now we have ships with surf simulators, rock climbing, dodgem cars, ice skating and an ifly. So more people are realising that ships are more of a destination now rather then just a method of travel. 14 years ago this was the newest ship we got here Whereas now we have some of the newest ships in the world. In 14 years the Australian cruise industry has advanced 34 years with the newest ship in 2004 being built in 1984 and now we are regularly getting recently built ships sailing from our shores. This is very much a reason for the huge increase in numbers. In regards to the parks. Cruise ships may have some effect, but it's no where near the biggest. The travel habits of Australians are changing, with more Australians traveling overseas to holiday rather then staying in the country. This in turn reduced some of the more tradition Australian holiday spots. In general a lot of other travel options are become cheaper and therefore giving people more options. So people who usually travel to the parks once a year are starting to travel elsewhere. I was reading an article the other day from back in 2015, which was basically an analysis of Australian travel habits, and it identified both economic and cultural changes. With flights being a lot cheaper then a decade ago and families finding different ways to get work leave being the main factors. There might be a few mistakes in there, it was put together while being distracted and needing to rush a bit.

Welcome to the forums @Tim Pearson. Although you may have only seen a rubber-belted conveyor, there are several different types out there - continuous rollers, for example. The style of conveyor used on Thunder River is fairly standard for this type of ride, and has been in use for decades. As has been discussed ad nauseum, it is not the type of conveyor that is in issue here, but rather the modifications made to it that are suggested to have been the cause. Take these images - from a river rapids ride at Disney's California Adventure: In comparison, you can see the slats at dreamworld are not as closely spaced: There are of course examples of river rapids rides that do use a rubberised belt: As for a rollbar, most river rapids don't feature this - however, from what I understand of this accident, a rollbar likely wouldn't have prevented what occurred. the raft did not flip completely over. There's quite a discussion on Parkz about the incident, with loads of speculation - it's worth a read if you're interested, as much of what you've pointed out has been discussed at length with good examples and arguments both for and against.