Richard

Sounds like a very nice trip you've got planned. I was planning a similar trip for the middle of this year, but funds are a bit low after my recent voyage, so I'm putting that off and I'm going to do a world Disney trip probably the year after. That'll give me the extra time I need to save for business class, since I recently vowed never to return to economy (domestic is fine, but international flights are way too much in those cramped seats). Greyhounds are pretty awful. If you can, take Amtrak over buses, otherwise I'd probably go for a car, because it's a lot quicker (it'll be 3/4 or even 2/3 of the amount of time to go by car over bus) and there aren't any "questionable" people around you the whole time.

B&M are located in Switzerland. They design the rides, but don't do the actual manufacturering of the rides themselves. For all their European coasters, Giovanola do the steelwork. I've just looked it up to check for myself, and in America it's done by Southern Ohio Fabricators. I know they also buy their control systems and PLCs and whatnot from another company, and I'd assume the same thing for their braking systems. Whether the trains are actually built by them I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure they're all shipped from Europe. Everything is B&M's own design (with the exception of the control systems), but it's a lot cheaper to outsource. You buy a ride package from B&M, like most companies. They'll do everything from ground work to shipping/transportation of parts as well as the design and construction of the ride - mostly through subcontractors. As for what I make of the track rumours. At this stage, I can't make much of it. With the amount of information that is available, it could be anything - maybe not even coaster specific.

I played this game at Epcot's Innoventions for about 20 minutes. It's certainly a lot simpler than say No Limits, but it's a two way street in that it's also not as easy to do more complex things as it might be in No Limits, and designs tend to be very rigid (less so than RCT, but still quite "boxy") and don't flow very well. For what it is, it's not bad, and I'm pretty sure it's also a bit older than No Limits and others. $10 is quite good for this game, though I'd never buy it. If you're interested in the whole coaster sim sort of thing, it's definitely worth throwing into the pile for $10.

"The gay song"? Some political correctness wouldn't go astray here and there.

From a legal standpoint, regardless of what these snobs paid for their pokey little apartments, they are not "entitled" to a view of the harbour or the water or whatever. They can appeal the design, but if there's no written legal reason (height limit, building design code etc.), then I see little reason for the building not to go ahead. You can't buy real estate with water views way back up on the cliffs, and expect that same harbour view to remain for all eternity. As for the design, I admit, originally I thought it was hideous, but I think since then it's grown on me. It's fresh and bright, but not too bold. I'd love to see some closer designs of it or a model, rather than a low resolution impact study like we've got in that article. It'd definitely look a lot better in real life than that with all the glass and whatnot in the design. For anyone that used to play, does it look a bit reminiscent of some of the buildings in Transport Tycoon?

Hey, given the way the discussion regarding track was going, I've moved it into a new topic in General Thrills (see here), because it really wasn't park specific yet. Dreamworld here, coaster track and whatnot there.

Intamin do their own steel. Vekoma do their own steel. B&M outsource (in Europe it is done by Giovanola in Switzerland, USA I believe in southern Ohio). S&S-Arrow do their own, but they're not doing much coaster work outside of the wooden coaster department. Any other manufacturers are too insignificant to mention, and you'd be surprised at how little many of the companies, even smaller ones, outsource. While you mentioned welders, it's interesting to note that Vekoma actually put 12 hours of welding into each and every joint and connection when building the track and supports.

Almost no park anywhere will tell you what's wrong with a ride when it breaks down. You're very lucky if you get a "computer error" or "power blackout" response from an operator. Tower of Terror's queue is air conditioned, and very nicely might I add. If you choose to stick around (they'll almost always announce that the ride is experiencing difficulties and you can try again later), then you shouldn't really complain about the conditions you're in, because it's entirely your choice. I'll always stick around if a ride breaks down though - I've almost never got anything better to do at a park, and there are always interesting perks. At SFMM Scream! broke down, so we decided to go up to the station and see what was happening. Apparently we were inconvenienced because we popped in to see what's up, and we got exit passes, which was pretty neat.

With the developments made for Nick Central in particular, it's easy to realise how they're building things, and make a fairly reasonably (i.e. correct) assumption for the location. You've gotta love all the vagueness in this location discussion. If we keep talking so subliminally like this, we're going to develop a reputation - *snobby Dreamworlders*.

willsy, you're right, stole is definitely a little strong for this situation, and although my comments were true, they were spoken in jest, and they were purposely a little extreme or harsh.

Put me down for a B&M floorless (or sitdown, they both offer really the same basic thing). They seem like these huge twisted and complex rides if you've never ridden one, but actually, they're really some of the simplest and just plain harmonious rides out there. They're graceful rides that don't go for fast and twisted like Arrow was playing with (and don't get me wrong, I love that unique fast and crazy feeling that later Arrow loopers give, and I have no roughness complaints), but rather they go for incredible pacing and absolute precision. B&M can engineer their rides to be either incredibly noisy (Hulk), or incredibly quiet (Kraken), and with the noise Thunderbolt generated, I'd hope they went with noisy, because it really is quite an interesting roar. There's more than enough room here for a nicely wraped, but otherwise huge ride in Thunderbolt's spot. To be honest, no B&M coasters even come in my top 5, but I just think it'd work incredibly well at Dreamworld, plus even if they didn't run it at a suitable capacity (i.e. single train), the wonderful four-across seating, though providing no more seats per train than a standard two-across train, gives the illusion of sucking up more people, which sadly enough almost suits me just fine.

Well, Tobey Maguire is no piece of meat (me and my borrowed phrases that no one knows), but I know what you mean - sometimes the costumed guys can be a little too "differently proportioned" to truly portray the characters they are.

You could explain your entire post - as it is it required a lot of deciphering to understand. It's not about "chat shorthand" or anything either, it's just plain bad. There's no word "t" in this language and some capital letters where appropriate would do good, as would some paragraphs. Speaking of last sentences, yours is doozie: If you're having trouble with my last sentence, then no biggie - it was just a witticism thrown in there to tie up my post.

I'm pretty sure that Intamin actually had the designs for their Gyro Swings completed before Huss came out with the Giant Frisbee, and the first model was installed in South Korea well before Delrium was near ready. If anything, Huss ripped off Intamin's outward seating design for their Giant version. Reef Diver is a ripoff because Huss make the best one? Does that mean Intamin and Togo stole the standup coaster from B&M because theirs are by far the best? It's a Schwarzkopf ride that Huss (somewhat unfairly) stole, but that's getting off topic. I really doubt that there is any significant difference in price between Huss and Intamin's equivalent models.

If they were to go to outside park property, and then start building minigolf courses and bungy trampolines and whatnot to make a Bungee work, then you've got what's known in the industry as a two-bit operation. Perhaps not the sort of thing that one of the largest corporations in Malaysia is eager to spend money on. Though the lost-ball fee might do their international portfolio some real wonders. :cool:

Chris, you might want to read over the past page or two in regards to the specific manufacturer of the ride.

Nah, upcharge rides only work once there's already plenty of other things to do. You can't charge $50 to get in to ride 2½ full fledged thrill rides, and expect people to pay more for other rides. A park like Dreamworld could probably get away with it, but even Sea World and Movie World might have a hard time pulling it off, let alone poor old Wonderland.

willsy: your question regarding this site was moved to the Total Thrills forum, you can see it here.

In looking at a map of the Gold Coast suburb boundaries, it's clear that it is in Main Beach. Southport is on the "mainland", but the spit is considered Main Beach, so I guess Sea World is in the suburb of Main Beach. I was thinking just yesterday that it's time I revise all of the forum descriptions, so I guess I really have to some time soon. We don't want people going to Southport in search of Sea World and getting lost because they can't find it. I'd really love to see that if you can get your hands on it. I'm guessing 80's, when the name Surfers Paradise was as prestigious as Beverly Hills.

You could pretty well put in big bold writing on an envelope "Sea World", put a stamp on and it'd get to the park from anywhere in Australia. On a side note, did you know that if you don't stamp a letter, they'll send it anyway, but attach a $1.50 bill for the receiver to pay? I guess we don't even need the stamp and not only will it get there, but they're also $1.50 short for their next mega thrill ride. I've always considered the place to be at Southport, and so do a lot of sources. But when it comes to the Gold Coast, I'm pretty well lost. I know the way to the theme parks, but that's really the extent of my knowledge. I'd have thought it's definitely too far north to be considered Sufers Paradise (as nice as that name looks in any address), and Main Beach could be anywhere as far as I know, so I'm happy with Southport.

Welcome along willsy! While I don't doubt that the system is capable of doing 190km/hr as is, you'd also be talking 6G's (to be precise, 6.2G's by my calculations), which won't do many of the components much good (it wouldn't do any damage, of course), and you're going to be getting enough heat out of those LSMs to cook more than a few eggs (they currently need at least a minute between cycles for adequate cooling to prevent overheating). The ride you're referring to is Six Flags Magic Mountain's Superman: The Escape, which I'm next to certain hasn't gone anywhere near 180km/hr (right now it's hovering around a nice and easy 0km/hr until they can be bothered to reopen it). Our Tower of Terror is said to have gone 170km/hr during testing, with riders, but that is as fast as I believe either have ever been. Please try to put some effort to grammar and punctuation of your posts, so others can read them with minimal strain. Capital letters where appropriate and some attempt to spell properly would be greatly appreciated!

Cyclone, which opened December 26 2001 was considered a 2002 addition. Nick Central, which opened December 26 2002 was considered a 2003 addition. The ride, whose style has I guess been prematurely made public (just act surprised when Dreamworld announce it ), will follow suit. It is also worth noting that this ride shouldn't be considered a replacement for Thunderbolt simply because it's coming just after Thunderbolt left. There will be bigger plans for Thunderbolt's site further down the track. You can be sure of that.

Belgian, I'm just curious about one slight piece of information. When you say 2005, do you mean a 2004 opening for the 2005 season? Over here the theme park season (all 364 days of it ) technically runs from December 26 through until December 24 the next year. A ride for a particular season will debut on December 26, which is really the year before. The ride is listed as a 2004 fiscal year addition by the park's parent company, which means it'll be here just before 2005 hits us.

I've still got a few calendars left, that I'm still willing to sell. I have four available that will be sold on a strictly first-come first-serve basis. I'm lowering the cost to $20.00 a calendar. This is $5 less than they were originally, and it's at about cost, so don't hesitate. If you don't have one yet, then this is your last chance. Your calendar will be mailed as soon as I receive your order, so no waiting for minimums etc. this time. Please visit this link to pay by credit card through a secure and trusted third party credit card processor. Check the Total Thrills calendar page if you're not familiar with the ordering process - just remember to click the Australian flag to convert to Aussie dollars, otherwise your credit card company will do the conversion, and they always do it in their favour. A huge thanks goes out to everyone that purchased a calendar back in December. I hope you're happy with the product (let me know if otherwise), and thanks for supporting Total Thrills and the new site (whose name and other details will be announced somewhat soon!) - I genuinely do appreciate the support.

Is there any difference between adult and teen really? About the only difference is that teen rides need sexier names and funkier colours.:cool: I'd say Space Probe is above and beyond anything else at the park, so put that down as my answer. I don't think there are any rides that would do the park a favour by being removed. Surely give many rides a nice big rehab, but there's really nothing that's too beyond hope that it's better to remove than keep, is there? I'll go with Flea and completely retrack Bush Beast and so forth, only I'll go one step further and replace the trains with two nice new PTCs. They are some really comfortable trains, and not out of reach for just about any park that's turning a profit.