Richard

Cool news there! What have they done to the ride, did they rehab the trains, do some retracking, or is it just some strange occurance? The problem with the midcourse brake has been around for years, let's hope the new modifications are here to stay! Have you let the park know, either in-park or via email or something, that you're impressed with how they're operating the ride? Do that and we might see more positive changes around the place.

Yeah, I'd have to agree with Psycho here. What would be criminal here is to charge people their $16.50 and then a short while later close the park. From the sounds of it, no one paid for the extended hours, and no one go it. What's the problem there, especially if as you say the weather was terrible and of course World Cup was on. I wouldn't expect too many disappointed faces (obviously we happen to have a few here - but were there really any losses, aside from a few minutes of your life? ).

I stand by that comment I made. If you are so dissatisfied with your employment that you must post some of the things that have been said. I'm not talking about attendance figures; I'm talking about some of the degrading comments to Wonderland's management. Call me strange, but if I were an employee that felt that a park was as "completely screwed" as has been the overall suggestion (whether this is management, attendance, park conditions or otherwise), I'd be the first to resign. And similarly, if I were running any business and had employees turning around and saying some pretty distasteful things about it, then they're certainly not the sort of people I'd want representing my business. I don't want to go through this thread and quote a list of things various people have said that certainly aren't the sort of things that a current employee should say (and indeed, not all were even made by people who are or were employed by the park). Just because the job finishes at 5pm every day doesn't mean that after then anything said doesn't count. I'm not talking about freedom of speech or anything, just some basic pride in what you do. Really, if you (referring to nobody) were an employee at Wonderland, and saying some of the things that have been said here, then I really don't think Wonderland is the place for you - for the sake of yourself and the park. I thought it might also be worthwhile pointing out that research has shown that sarcasm is not understood by children until around the age of five, so I guess a three year old couldn't have thought that up. So, Wonderland Sydney has altered their attendance records, putting them into "class 4", which means they're up against bigger parks, with bigger advertising budgets and covering a greater market. Yep, sounds like a sure way to win prestigious IAAPA awards. That was sarcasm. Look, we can discuss other issues regarding Wonderland, but I'd like to think that we've pretty well come to the conclusion that the attendance isn't as bad as one might suggest.

Daniel, no assumptions are being made. Two people who have contributed to this topic have at one stage said they're former employees of Wonderland. And I'd like to think that no one here is enough of a loser to not only post at a site like this (), but to also actually make up things about themselves. Let's be honest, it's one thing to not enjoy a job, aren't most jobs like that? No one's really forcing you to be there - there are alternatives. If you're so dissatisfied with it that you've got to come online and essentially badmouth the place, whether true or not, you really shouldn't be there, for your own good. This is why I'm suggesting that there's no current employees posting in this particular thread. You said earlier that one million is a big call. Don't you think it's also a big call for one person to suggest that Wonderland is lying about its attendance records? Call me old fashioned (and absolutely nothing harmful or offensive is meant by this comment - it's just straight up where I'm coming from), but when it comes to the word of a large company against the word of a single person who happens to be a former worker of that company, I'll go with the company.

I know it's ex-employees because you've said it before, and just a few posts ago, another member said it too. Also, if a current employee were to post some of the things that are being suggested here, I don't think they are the sort of people that should be employed by Wonderland anyway, and I'd say it. Now, I'm not suggesting anything about your own occurences, but I will say that I'm sure it has had an affect on your own views on Wonderland Sydney. Spend some days at some of the Gold Coast parks during winter. They're obviously not as bad as Wonderland, simply because they do attract a lot of southerners, but it's pretty well an established fact that during winter, unless it's a holiday, you're going to find any park relatively empty. Even your Disneylands or Universal Studios will be relatively empty.

You're asking about Vomatron, so I've decided to put up a short video of the ride in action. This took me about five minutes to add the title and soundtrack to the unedited footage (it's a single shot of the ride), so don't expect anything more than a straightforward look at the ride in action. If you think the song choice is odd, look at the opening title, then look at my avatar. The song is called Metropolis by Toshiyuki Honda. The video is 4:08. It's a nice and easy 3.4mb. You will need Quicktime to watch it though. Quicktime's just a much nicer format than any others. http://oldsite.totalthrills.com/videos/vomatron.mov You'll see it has the lovely Intamin restraints, like the retrofitted Slingshot also has now.

There was no 1.5 million referred to. They are in the category of 1-1.5 million, and they're definitely on the bottom end of that. So, Wonderland Sydney are the ones bending the truth to IAAPA here, not a few ex-employees? I've taken what you said. We've got 6,000 people each weekend and I'll give you 1,500 total midweek (which I'll say is an undeniable under-estimate). That's 7,500 per week, and taking out school holidays (we'll get to that later), means 307,500 per year there (41 weeks). Now, holidays will have higher attendance. Again I'm under-doing it here by saying 5,000 guests per day for the 11 weeks of holiday per year. That's a further 385,000 per year. We're up to 700,000 using some pretty pessimistic figures. I wouldn't doubt at all that they reach 1,000,000. Considering less than half of the guests attending the park are actually from Sydney, you can see how they can get the million mark despite being quite unfair the Sydney people.

Hey, there may be all these political issues inside, but let's look at the outside for a second. They received two first places in IAAPA's Brass Ring Awards (1st places for best brochure and print advertisement as a class 4 amusement park). Attendance can't be slipping too much either, as they're still Class 4, which is 1 million - 1.5 million guests annually. Somehow I don't think there's too many days (that it's not cyclone or blizzard conditions) where staff outnumber guests. Hey, I mightn't go there often, but I'm looking at cold hard facts straight from IAAPA.

Yeah, I think that's absolutely right. They really need a lot more slides - as it is, they've got what, about 12 or so slides. Meanwhile, as I said in my previous post, there are theme parks whose "small" water parks are getting slide complexes with more than 12 - added in just a season. The only way you can fill a day at Wet'n'Wild is by re-riding things like Aqua Racer, and though tremendously fun, it's good to have such a variety that you don't need to spend two hours doing that (two hours out of a seven hour day is a lot). The Australian public just doesn't yet know what real water parks are made of.

Regardless of how you think Wonderland has treated you or employees of the park, I don't think it justifies some of the negativity that is in this thread. I'm all for free speech, but if all you're going to do is bag the place, then it's going to get very tiring very quickly. You know what's odd? That Warner Bros. Movie World has had frequent deals (including right now) that get you a year pass for just a day-and-a-half, same goes for Sea World. Together they bring in more attendance than any other two parks in Australia (you'd be looking at a combined total of close to 2.7 million in most recent years). Dreamworld it seems is really the only park that doesn't offer frequently discounted year passes (not by coincidence; I'd bet that they've also got the highest number of passholders of any park in Australia). This is an absolutely perfect technique for marketing - one that's used by Cedar Fair, Six Flags and other market leaders in America. You're pretty well guaranteeing guests through the gates. Spend say $50 over the course of the year (which is probably well under the average season pass spending per year), and that's $50 minus costs that the park would otherwise not have gotten. If the treatment to staff is as bad as you're suggesting, then why isn't everyone getting out? Don't tell me that there's no alternatives for a hardworking, polite young person out there in the workforce. Let's be friendly to others, regardless of their opinions. It's one thing to disagree, and simply state so, but to start flaming etc., because they're "wrong" in your eyes is unnecesary. This goes for everyone.

Well, I got out there today. And from what I saw of Whirlpool, given that I didn't ride it, it's a pretty lame ride. It doesn't seem that much faster than Calypso Beach, not to mention it's tiny in comparison and not exactly the prettiest thing. From what I saw, there's not really any smaller whirlpools or anything to spin you or create rapids or anything - it's all pretty much a continuous one-way, gentle spinning. To be honest, there's a council-owned swimming complex in Brisbane I know of that has a better whirlpool than this one. As I guessed, it's just meant to be a way to suck a few more people out of the spilling queues on other rides. It's by no means a destination ride, and was never meant to be. Now, a new tower complex with a half-dozen new tube slides would be my ideal people-sucker (and you look at what some of the relatively small theme parks in America added to their water parks this season - i.e. SFWOA or Dorney Park's colossal things), but considering the scapegoat that is the world economy crisis, you can't expect much.

On that note, I'm pleased to announce the definite inclusion of the following attractions in the calendar, thanks to Warner Village Theme Parks. •Lethal Weapon (Warner Bros. Movie World) •Corkscrew (Sea World) •Viking's Revenge (Sea World) And others which I won't mention. I've gotten a few orders, but we really need more - sooner rather than later. You've only got two weeks today, so get your credit cards out and get ordering! Remember, if you can't pay by credit card you'll have to contact me ASAP to get details on paying by cheques or other methods. www.totalthrills.com/calendar.php

Fair question, I'm glad someone asked it because I didn't cover it anywhere. Permission has been asked from most major parks who are intended to be included. Notification has been given, and if in the 2+ weeks I haven't gotten a reply, saying either "Yes..." (or "Yes, but...") or "No.", then I can assume that no reply means they simply don't mind either way. The final design won't be in until December 3 for printing and although I don't want to change it, if I get a request from a park that they don't wish to be included, then it will be removed and replaced with another picture from another park. As I'm sure you know, professionalism is my game. I'm not here to make a fool of myself, or get myself into trouble. By the book is how I'll always operate around here.

I presume if it wasn't the Scenic Railway, then it was Metropolis, which is of course a Pinfari Galaxy (RCDB says its SDC, but I'm pretty sure it's Pinfari). Scenic Railway is a horrid ride in its current state. I think that its top speed to roughness ratio would leave it as by far the most painful ride in Australia - I mean it's by far rougher than Bush Beast as is, and it only tops out at like 30km/h. Anyway, if I were a spoilt wannabe pop star, I know I wouldn't put myself through a ride like Scenic Railway. I guess Luna Park's management are smart enough to not put people on it.

It should still accept AMEX - it just won't be able to convert directly to AUD. Your bank will do that for a slight charge, which certainly isn't nearly as much as the time and frustration sending a cheque in the mail is. You might end up paying $26 or something - it won't be significant. If you're trying to pay with AMEX, don't change it to AUD - leave it on USD and it will work fine.

There's no way you can know without contacting the agents, and they're basically not going to waste their time unless you're acutally a serious potential customer. Maybe if you've got a farm between Melbourne and Adelaide they'd let you know... But my best estimate would be $500,000 - $1 mil. Anything higher and I think you'd be kidding yourself. I mean, John Longhurst paid $4 mil for it in the early 80's and it's only gotten worse since then. I'd like to think that the rate of depreciation is higher than the inflation rate over the past 20 years.

MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE HERE I thought this would be interesting to do. Using a collection of photographs featured on Total Thrills, I've designed a calendar for 2004. It features thirteen high-quality, glossy photographs of roller coasters and other rides and attractions around Australia. Rides include: •Thunderbolt (Dreamworld) •Cyclone (Dreamworld •Scenic Railway (Luna Park Melbourne) •Bush Beast (Wonderland Sydney) •Wild Mouse (Aussie World) •Crazy Mouse (Brisbane Ekka) •Orphan Rocker (Scenic World) And of course six others from some of Australia's best and biggest as well as least known theme parks. The calendar is just AU$25.00, including postage+handling! They are being printed by a company that specialises in calendars. They're not an inkjet home-brew job by myself. We need to sell a minimum of 15 calendars (but we're not limited to 15). So buy one for yourself and a few to give away. ALL ORDERS MUST BE RECEIVED BY WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 3! Shipping will be done in mid-December for arrival prior to Christmas so you'll have time to wrap them and give them away. Orders must be from within Australia. Payment is by credit card. If you wish to pay by cheque or other, email me. MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE HERE

Not only is this adequately on topic, but it's also very interesting reading. Bush Beast, if it were to run properly would need more than what an in-house maintenance team could do. Call up the Gravity Group, and pull the plug on Bush Beast for six months and you'd have something to write home about. The current way of operating appears to be replace wood only when there's nothing there. It'd be so much cheaper and cost effective to pull the plug and see what they can do from scratch with a decent design (look at PGA with a clone of Bush Beast - as rabid will tell you it's just as bad or worse). I think it's obvious that Sunway are in it for the land. The Wonderland management team are certainly there to run the best park they can - they're pretty much all seasoned experts that were lured down from the Gold Coast parks, but sadly Sunway aren't. The park's profitable, I don't think there's any denying that, but it's a shame Sunway don't seem terribly interested developing what has the potential to be a world class theme park. I think Wonderland's management team do a fantastic job with what is obviously a very tight and limited budget. I mean, the place is hardly perfect, but it's leaps and bounds over what it was when they first picked it up.

I mentioned earlier that there's a Sea World video coming. This is slightly different. I haven't gotten around to actually making mine yet, but my brother, who actually shot the footage, played around and came up with this: http://www.totalthrills.com/swvideo.php I might get around to making what I wanted - which was to be significantly longer and have a little more to it. This one is just a three minute video synchronised with the song (Ben Lee's Nothing Much Happens). Comments etc. are greatly appreciated!

I do agree with rabid in that Dreamworld's operations department would really show how not to do a ride with a "Perilous Plunge". As for the argument that Dreamworld doesn't need any more water rides because of the two they've already got, I'd say that certainly in Australia, there really is no limit to the number of water rides you can have. I mean, Thunder River Rapids is pretty well a high capacity no-brainer, and it manages hour plus queues without any effort. Rocky Hollow is exactly the same. Now, maybe for capacity reasons alone, there's no need for a Perilous Plunge type ride, but I'd think if they went for some of the less risky styles of water rides - even the standard version of the shoot the chutes, they'd have a ride that though certainly not a signature attraction, would definitely be a very popular and welcome addition at Dreamworld.

While at Sea World yesterday, it was pleasing to see how construction progresses on Shark Bay. It has been suggested that construction is behind by two weeks or so, and they're aiming for a later holiday opening date. It's actually quite a large area, as you'll see from the 10 picture construction gallery here: http://www.totalthrills.com/sbconst.php

Yesterday, after initially disappointing weather, it managed to pull through and we got a nice day down at the Gold Coast. I also managed to snap 264 photographs all day, which means a fairly big and all-inclusive update to the Sea World gallery. This sets the tone that I want to carry through with future updates, where instead of relatively small ones with 10 or 15 photographs, I'll have 100 or 150 in each gallery. It'll be a lot to get through, but it'll make for some very complete galleries. The video I mentioned in another thread (for those that haven't read, essentially a small film of 15 or so minutes, capturing what Sea World is), will also hopefully be on the way in coming weeks. I haven't yet looked at the footage we took, but I'm sure there'll be enough to work with.

Am I to assume the Tumble Bug you speak of is the classic Harry Traver ride. Kennywood has one, and from what "they" say, it's certainly a lot more fun than it looks.

A little side-tracking's okay, so long as it's interesting. There is another thread where the Giant Drop/Space Probe found themselves (here). By all means keep this discussion going for its original purposes, and I'll make sure things don't go too far from the topic at hand. I mean, the comparison of the two drop towers is quite relevant to this discussion.

Yeah, let's clear this all up... There are two Boomerang Bays coming to Paramount parks next year. Paramount's Kings Islands are replacing/renovating their Waterworks water park, to make what sounds to be a very serious attempt at an all-inclusive and well themed water park. As rabid said, Paramount's Great Adventure are also adding a Boomerang Bay, replacing Stealth. They say that the park wasn't correctly targeting its major demographic (families) with Stealth, and it sounds to be a fairly rotten ride with dozens of design flaws, so they're doing the smart thing and removing it. With a rumoured stopover in The Netherlands (you know, California to Carolina... it's practically on the way) for a bit of a fixup. I'm moderately interested in the new flyer for Canada's Wonderland. It's the Zamperla model, which they say is by far the worst of the three (as you would expect, I suppose). You say it's Tomb Raider themed? Sounds cool, but I'd keep in mind it certainly won't have a squillionth of the budget of PKI's version, so I'd say anything they do won't exactly do the Tomb Raider franchise proud - of course I'd love to be proven wrong.