Richard

Anyone else find the theming for Cyclone at least a little ironic right now? Everyone's reported fine and dandy, so it's an open floor for the varying degrees of humour that exist out there.

We can do without the potty humour, or in your case Slick, the totally meaningless humour. Chippy'll have a bit of trouble at least expressing his opinions on this one, unless he comes back from the grave.

Out of K'NEX? Aren't they a bit holey to make a flag look anything other than shabby? I guess they couldn't secure a deal with Lego, so just go to the next best thing I guess.

Anyone know the reason for the delays with Shark Bay (I mean aside from the fact that they started too late, and the "bad weather")? How's the structure looking? I can't imagine it's too far from at least appearing complete. Trouble securing enough sharks to make it worth while, or is Johnny just waiting until he gets his Great White to open it?

Yeah, that's from the work. I'll try and get the work done this afternoon - I should be able to get the new forums running by tonight.

I thought it'd be worthwhile adding an update since earlier this morning. I've done a test of the upgrade system, using a copy of the database I made this morning. It all went smoothly - no issues anywhere. I want to make the actual change some time next week, which will mean no more than an hour of downtime for the forums. This is the first step to bringing you the new site in coming months.

I've removed the Photo Album from the site (the link at the top is still there, as well as links around the place, which I'll be removing soon) to help some changes that are coming very soon take place. I'm sorry if you've lost some pictures there, but it's all for the best. The attachments in the current forums will be lost also, but the feature will remain.

Wonderland's certainly slipped a lot since 2002 when they got rid of the former Hanna Babera Land, but they do a lot of things better than Dreamworld. To call Wonderland an ugly park compared to Dreamworld is strange. There's not a park out there that's more inconsistently designed and themed than Dreamworld (hate to break it to you, but Movie World comes close, just their theming is of a higher standard, so it's much overlooked). At least do us a favour and compare it to something that deserves the recognition it gets like Sea World.

Cool - good to see things coming together at Dreamworld. It's nice that the cow is making cameo appearences around the park. Speaking of which, we're about two years overdue for giving her a name. Suggestions anyone? I'm going to have to make some serious attempts to get to some theme parks soon. I'm liking the looks of Tomb Raider. It looks similar to Universal Studios Hollywood's Mummy walkthrough, which I thought would be pretty bad but was actually one of my favourite things there. Sounds like they're really making their usual efforts to get Cyclone going well. As someone who's now conditioned to two-train minimum, I think I'll wait a few weeks until school is back before I embark on a nice reality check.

Coasters use a clothoid shape for loops these days. It's normally described as an inverted teardrop. To draw the shape, start by drawing a quarter of a circle, then draw half a circle of about half the radius, then draw another quarter like the original. Of course when they're designed, they use parabolic curves and whatnot rather than ciruclar to make it a little smoother. Now, the reason circular loops are iffy is because they don't adjust for the speed of the train. If you designed it big enough to have nice G-forces in the entrance, it won't clear the top because it's too high. If you design it to complete the loop, you can imagine it'll be much smaller and hence significantly higher G-forces. Maybe not break necks, but you are talking probably 7 or 8 G's at least. You'll have more than a few people blacking out.

You're talking about Dodonpa I'm guessing. It's at Fujikyu Highlands in Japan. It was the fastest in the world from 2001 until Top Thrill Dragster opened last year. 0-107mph (170km/hr) in 1.8s. Now, as for my dislike for S&S, it's more regarding the company than the rides they build. I've ridden most of their different varieties of rides, and they're pretty good, but the company and their dodgy ways of doing things is like a ticking time bomb for the company. Considering the smoothest coaster I've ever ridden (that's including about a dozen Intamins and B&Ms) is a Vekoma (Disney-MGM's Rockin' Rollercoaster), it just goes to show that you can't really judge anything that you haven't been on. That doesn't mean to say you can't make reasonable assumptions, based on reviews, photos, videos, Discovery documentaries and whatnot, as I often do.

Disneyland has no water park. You're presumably refering to one of Walt Disney World's two water parks. I've been to one (the other is closed right now), and it was the sweetest water park ever. I put up a really quick trip report in my Orlando thread. Gazza, I like it. It's a very small and tight design which makes great use of the land it's on.

Next on the agenda it to come home. We're leaving in four days for Brisbane via Sydney via Auckland via Los Angeles via Chicago (all in the name of cheaper tickets ). We've still got a few days to spend at parks. We've got two more days at Disney and another day at SeaWorld/IOA. Blizzard Beach, one of Disney's two water parks. Typhoon Lagoon happens to be shut for maintenance, but Blizzard Beach is considered the better of the two. They're home to Summit Plummit, the world's tallest, fastest and most painful body slide. It rocks, but you'd never do it more than once in a visit. They also have just about every other slide you could want, including a lazy river that circumnavigates the entire park, whcih has tubes with a bottom, so you never have to get wet. 8)

I'm not a member, and I probably never will be because of the way the organisation is structured, but that's another matter. I get my information from my head, which I've aquired from a few years of browsing coaster sites, posting and reading forums. If I don't no something, or need to verify something, I'll usually use RCDB. I haven't done that since I left Australia though, because it's too difficult using AOL dialup and a laptop that was bought (second hand) for size and cost.

No, it's not rougher than most wooden coasters, but it is more painful. The thing with Thunderbolt vs. Lethal Weapon is, there were techniques one could use on Thunderbolt to make the ride completely painless. On Lethal Weapon, you're strapped down and locked in. If that thing's going to strike you, then you're not getting out of it. You can put your head forward, hold it to one side, leave your restraint out a click and whatnot, but you're pretty well screwed whichever way you go. It tends to be different parts of the ride that get different riding positions too (for instance if you leave your head forward, you'll be find up until the sidewinder, and fine after that, but you're going to do some damage in that sidewinder). Post something interesting, using the English language and you might get more activity in the Luna Parks forum.

A few things. As Daniel said, it doesn't need to be done every year. The rides that do have it done yearly tend to be those that tear themselves to shreds, like Cedar Point's Mean Streak (which employs its own dedicated team of carpenters full time). Even just one proper job would be good enough for five or six years. Secondly, the ride tends to be closed for at least a month each year for maintenance. If that's not enough time to get a complete retracking done, then it sounds like you're hiring the wrong tradesmen. Now onto Son of Beast. It's considered quite rough. From what I know, it's not an "enthusiass" thing, but the trains were designed seriously too small. Anyone over like 5'10" gets their legs beaten to death by the slightest bump in the track. They also say that the loop, which is supported by a steel substructure, is the smoothest part of the ride. A normal PTC train for instance gives room for harmless and padded bounce. If you're locked down tight you're just gonna start thumping things hard, that's a fact. To be fair, just about every coaster which has had complaints of being rough over here I've considered smooth. The ride wasn't built by PKI. I don't know why the hell they're crediting themselves. It was a Werner Stengel design, built by RCCA and the trains were custom designed for the ride by Premier Rides.

Interesting thought. I like the looks of the ride - and I have a pretty big hate for S&S. One thing though, and this is just me the realist as usual speaking. Why install two new attractions in a single year? The attendance increases brought about by a second new ride wouldn't justify the additional investment made. You'll almost never see two new rides added in a single year for this reason. Also by stretching it out over a few years, you'll have increased the attendance for a longer period of time. This year's interesting new ride should keep them covered for a few years. Maybe remain hopeful about an S&S Sky Swatter in a few more years, though a coaster would be much much better of course.

Let's try not to turn every topic into one about the Huss Rainbow if possible.

Interstate is nil-to-none. Wherever they advertise, it must be good to win the award. It's not a bad effort. They're the only major park in Australia to win, and that's not bad, especially considering Dreamworld's former General Manager (he's now a creative consultant for the park) is on the IAAPA board and whatnot, which would in theory at least point more in favour of the Gold Coast parks.

That's pretty cool mate. I'm impressed! Add me to the list of those eager to see the water park.

It doesn't do the full 360º, but Delirium does swing high enough for the outside edge to be essentially inverted at the maximum height.

Actually, by saying Bush Beast doesn't need any major work itself shows that Australian wooden coasters are needlessly rough and painful. Yes, a wooden coaster is supposed to have a bit of character, but seriously, Bush Beast crosses that line and then some. You mightn't think it's really that bad, but trust me, it is. Just because it's not 75 years old doesn't mean it doesn't need serious work done. It's painfully rough, so it's time. Some wooden coasters get a complete retracking every season. That's not just replacing a piece of wood here and there - that's replacing 4-8 layers of two inch thick wood from station to brake run.

Actually, it really is that bad. If 75+ year old Giant Dipper at Belmont Park can be smooth, then there's no excuse for a 20 year old coaster. It can't be too far from 90km/hr. How do you propose it completes the course if it's lost any significant speed over the years? There's an incredibly fine line between making it and valleying. If I were at home I'd pull out some of my friend Newton's formulae and go about proving it, but the bottom line is you're not going to loose more than a few km/hr off the designed speed before it valleys.

I figured we needed a new thread for my trip. It's been big enough in the other one, and this is a long long review. Busch Gardens, Walt Disney World, SeaWorld Orlando, Islands of Adventure. It's been a few days since my last update, and in those few days I've ridden all of the remaining coasters of the trip and been to every park in Orlando. We went to Busch Gardens on Sunday. They have the single most stupid shuttle system from Orlando (Tampa Bay is an hour+ away) - I'd hire a car if doing it again. We went for Rhino Rally, given its reputation for being a big queue ride. It's essentially a safari ride for the majority, which would be a lot better if the driver took the ride seriously. As great as the whole "give animals and landmarks stupid names" thing goes, I'd really prefer a more realic experience. The rapids section is overhyped and boring, which made me really disappointed that the driver took it as such a joke. Kumba was next. It's truly an amazing ride, but superb up the front. Its first drop is great, but nothing different from just about every B&M sitdown/standup/floorless. I couldn't care less about every inversion but the zero-g-roll, which is truly the best inversion ever created. Thanks to Busch's renowned high-capacity and low (relative to Orlando) attendance, the ride is a walkon for any seat but the front pretty much all day. We next went around and did the river rapids ride. They're all very different over here. They make it no surprise to get soaked, unlike at home. You will come off this thing dripping wet. We did a bunch of other things, including R.L. Stine's Haunted Lighthouse, which stars whoever the guy who played Doc Brown in the Back to the Futures, with a cool Weird Al cameo at the end, which was all I really wanted to see. I thought it was as good as Pirates, which it replaced at the Anheuser-Busch parks here (perhaps our Sea World didn't think it was worth the asking price?). Montu is a great ride. Better than Batman, and too different to compare to Dueling Dragons, which is all I can say. All the diving underground is cool, and again I simply love the zero-g-rolls. Gwazi is nothing special. This is the first wooden coaster that is on par with most opinions of it. It's fairly boring, and about equivalent in roughness to Psyclone, which ain't good. At least it has the nice PTC trains that I love (NOTHING like those PTCs that Bush Beast runs, by the way). The two sides a fairly comparable, and they made no effort whatsoever to actually duel the trains. They were so bloody slow at load/unload, that probably 75% of the ride time was spent stacked in the brake run waiting. Python proves that our Corkscrew is a rarity among old Arrows. It's rough and pretty painful, even with the softer OTSR (between Corkscrew's hard ones at Cyclone's super-soft ones). Scorpion is just an old Schwarzkopf, which would be rough if it had OTSR, but isn't bad with just the lapbars. The helices are Goliath-like in force, which I like. We didn't ride the log flume, which was about as ugly as those at SFMM. Their shoot the chutes, named Tidal Wave really lives up to its name. It soaks those on the rode, and absolutely drenches everyone on the bridge. They have a glass pane at the end for those that want to see it but not experience it, which is hit by a wall of water that is strong enough to actually move the glass, which was thick enough to not budge at all when I threw my weight into it to test its strength. We managed to do Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Epcot in one day, and Disney-MGM in a much slower-paced second day. We've still got three days plus up to four days at the non-theme parks at Walt Disney World, so we take take time and redo what we want, and see everything we missed. Magic Kingdom is like Disneyland with double the capacity. Space Mountain was first, and it was truly above and beyond all my expectations. It's hard to imagine if you haven't ridden either the Disneyland or MK versions, but for such a relatively simple (yet quite intense) coaster, it really did freak me out (and I don't just mean the "Cool! Airtime!" sort of freaked out). We then went over to Frontierland and did BTM with Splash Mountain FastPass tickets in hand, plus I figured out how to scam the system (I won't be revealing in a hurry), so as to get more FastPass tickets. Big Thunder Mountain is gentle yet great fun, and goes all-out in the lift hill department. Splash Mountain makes the story so much less ambiguous, but on the same note, it also makes figuring out the story no longer half the fun. I didn't think it was quite as good as Disneyland's - they are both very different, not just in the size of the logs. Animal Kingdom is a boring park if you're after your regular theme park. It has Primeval Whirl, which is certainly below Disney standards, and Kali River Rapids, which you can really see is what Grizzly at DCA was based and expanded upon. It's got fantastic theming, and some cool elements. The real masterpiece here is definitely the safari. It's as authentic as the real thing (I'd imagine ), and compared to Busch and San Diego Zoo, the animals are a lot nicer looking - it's as if they paint them, or reject the less-than-perfect ones or something, because they're all so textbook perfect. We got approached by some giraffe, which was quite a magical experience. I finally did "It's Tough to Be a Bug" at this park, which I don't think was nearly as good as Shrek 4D or the best of them all, Muppetvision 3D, but it was fun. Epcot is the true gem of WDW. We got into the 35 minute single-riders queue for Test Track, which was quite a great feature, and very efficient. This ride is just so amazing that it's almost hard to describe. It's basically what the name suggests - a testing track for cars. It takes you through a range of tests, including braking, rough surfaces, extreme temperatures and high-speed plus a whole bunch more. It was truly the best ride I've ever ever been on - no joke. That was until we did Mission Space next. Mission Space is best described as a simulator, built onto arms of a centrifuge, similar to La Revolucion at Knotts. Unlike most simulators, where you are given the visual illusion of various feelings, this, you actually feel the high G-forces of the launch, the weightlessness of space, and all the rest. Combine this with the fact that you're pressing buttons to control parts of the journey, and "steering" the ship with a force-feedback joystick, this is truly the best ride I've ever ridden. It's so great, and you just know that nobody other than Disney will ever pull off this sort of ride. The next day we went to Disney-MGM Studios. It's like Movie World, only bigger and with some decent non-ride attractions, which Movie World loves to remove. We did Tower of Terror first, second and third, because Rock n' Roller Coaster was down for most of the day. Because they're now randomly running four different programs, you really don't know what to expect. If you like the "initial drop" feeling, you'll love this thanks to the repeated drops and even S&S style upward launch and drop. We did many of the great non-ride attractions. Millionaire-Play It! is great, equal to DCA's of course. I couldn't beat my record of number eight in the audience (out of 500, it's really not that bad), but Simon got to number one for a bit before getting the remaining few questions wrong. A kid got on, which means he was the fastest and most-correct in the audience, who used two lifelines on the first two questions, and got wrong with "What does Harry Potter ride", with a 50/50 between mop and broom, which got some good chuckles. There's a great museum dedicated to Walt Disney, which I personally loved. When Rock n' Roller Coaster opened, we waited about 30 minutes for this, but it's worth it. The launch is great, and amazingly it's a smooth coaster - probably the smoothest I've ever experienced, which proves that the Vekoma badge isn't the problem - it's the parks who don't maintain them. Kind of silly though - it's just a few inversions and whatnot in the dark, to a seemingly random Aerosmith soundtrack. To get to Walt Disney World from International Drive (the touristy hotel area of Orlando), you have to catch two buses, with a transfer at SeaWorld. We figured it was too cold (it's turned freezing over the past few days) for WDW, so we just wandered over to SeaWorld and spent half a day there. We wandered around for a while, but eventually ended up at Kraken, which truly is the best floorless coaster in the world. The zero-g-roll is the most perfect one ever, and you know how much I love them! It's actually noticeable smoother than most other B&Ms, which makes this thing silky. Combined with the silence of the ride (it uses sand and dampeners and whatnot to make it quiet for the nearby animals), so it's quite a different ride. We watched Journey to Atlantis for a few minutes, seeing as we weren't decked out for a wet ride in this weather. We're saving it for another, better day. There's a pretty awful simulator there called Wild Arctic. You basically board, go for a terribly synchronised helicopter ride, before getting off in the Arctic to see some actual animals. There's some beluga whales, seals and polar bears (which aren't as cool as those at our Sea World). We decided to get out of there after lunch, and ended up at IOA for the afternoon. It's amazing to see how empty this place was after some seriously packed days. Hulk was a 5 minute wait according to the sign, which always translates to walkon. This ride is sweet, but to me, the element that makes this ride wouldn't even be considered an element by most. After the second loop, there's a downward s-bend. It's all of about two seconds, but to me, it's just the coolest thing ever. We then got over to Spider-Man again, because it was only a 20 minute wait, which was also pretty close to a walkon. This is the coolest ride Universal have in their arsenal, and it's just so cleverly done that it's worth riding just to figure out how different effects work. Dueling Dragons was calling us. Absolutely horrible one-train operation meant it was a 30+ minute wait. We rode Ice first, and decided to wait an extra 30 minutes for the front. There is no other seat but the front on this inverted - more so than normal ones. We then rode Fire, just going for a middle seat. I can't really compare the two until I ride them both in the front, which I'll do when we go back and crowds die down some more. We dared to ride Jurassic Park, which amazingly isn't nearly as good as Universal Studios Hollywood's version. About all I preferred was the fact that it had better looking surrounding rainforests. We're just going to go back to parks and ride what we've missed at all the parks, and get some video and photo footage.

I don't see why you'd want to get used to it. As great as it is riding a 90+ year-old ride for the whole "Wow, look at me, I'm riding a 90+ year-old coaster!" factor, but as far as coasters go, it's forceless, slow and well, boring.