Richard

The ride starts out as a tour of the Looney Tunes studios in Hollywood, including the filming of their latest movie, but it is discovered along the way that Bugs Bunny has tunneled down to Australia, and we're recruited to help track him down. Thankfully there's an set from an old movie set on the moon, with a large drill that we put into use to tunnel after Bugs. Guests then board boats and go along a gentle stream in search of him, with all the other Looney Tunes causing havoc all around. All ends well with a pretty unique elevator and splashdown. Yeah, it's essentially a Pirates of the Carribean style ride, though not nearly as grand in terms of theming or storyline. It is technically speaking a flume ride, meaning it is powered by a flowing channel of water, but I'm with rabid in that I wouldn't call it a flume ride, because that's not really the focus of the ride. GoBoi, it's true that they're designed to look like the studios, but to my knowledge, the Warner Bros. Studios at the Gold Coast are the only studios out there to use this particular studio design, which is definitely one of the cheaper out there. I've personally experienced Universal, Warner Bros. and CBS in Hollywood, which are all nice rendered and painted buildings. Paramount is also the same. Fox Studios in Sydney is also a nicer looking place, as are Fox's Hollywood studios. Sure, when you're making a movie on the inside, it matters to nobody, but when it comes to transfering the design toa theme park, which is supposed to wow and excite people with its appearance, it's a different matter. I never really liked the design, and I think it's pretty bad that they are so extensively used, unaltered, throughout the park. I love the rides and their theming is fantastic within the rides, but in terms of general appearance I it think leaves a lot to be desired. Take Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World, a park with the exact same concept as Warner Bros. Movie World. Rock 'n Rollercoaster uses a similar studio building (though, again, like most, it is nicely rendered and painted). However, this ride is themed this way. You know what'd work great in this particular situation? If they covered up the exposed white aluminium walls with some nice building fronts. I've never thought of it like this, but for what is supposed to be the Looney Tunes' home, there isn't much in the way of housing for the actual characters, or funky little shops selling all sorts of Acme goods and whatnot. Obviously just the façades, because there's no room to build actual shops or walkthrough houses there, but it just makes it that little bit more complete. This is how Disney and Warner Bros. parks differ - and I'm not saying that I don't like Movie World at all. Sure, there's not the budgets here like at any Disney park, but we're not really talking that much. I'd have to say that in terms of expenditure to attendance increase ratio, Movie World would have to be the park in Australia with the least spent on it.

Here's the outside of the building. It's the same unspectacular façade as every other indoor ride at Movie World - an aluminium shed.

What I'm a bit annoyed about is how well Macquarie Leisure Trust have been doing. I've been thinking about investing maybe $1,000 in Maquarie Leisure Trust units for a number of years now, and I've watched the unit price go from around 50c to a unit, up to now over $1.00. They seem to be a great company. Dreamworld was a fantastic investment for them. Not so much for the returns it gives, but because of its high value, it gives them more borrowing power. If you think this company is going to be expanding with more theme parks, I'd think again, I'd be looking at marinas (of which they already have a fantastic and growing portfolio), and other things like golf courses. If you want a bad investment, then Village Roadshow is your bet. Their theme parks are doing great, but when it comes to films and the company as a whole, they're getting too big a little to fast, and I'm not really a fan of some of their board of directors, or some of their recent decisions (in my opinion, in comparison Michael Eisner is a saint ).

It's the Holiday Inn at the Rooty Hill RSL, I think it used to be a Country Comfort. The reason for the Rooty Hill location is because it's the closest nice hotel to Wonderland Sydney. I've stayed there twice before (1993 and 2002), so I figured stick with what you know. I'm only able to be in town for one night, so close to the park is the way to go.

Refer to the post right above yours, willsy. They were unfortunately lost in the forum software change that was made some time ago. Gazza, if you want to edit your original post to add the attachments, that'd be cool, or I could dig around in the old system and find them and do it for you.

Yeah, friends etc. are fine, especially to get the numbers for Flea's discount (thanks for your work to help finalise things!). If you plan on bringing more than yourself, then let us know in this thread. I'll send an email out soon to everyone to make sure no one misses out.

So, you're saying that technology developed in 1995 is not surpassed by what Intamin are able to do now, in 2004? I'm not saying that the ride is not comlex, I'm saying that there are surely more reliable systems that are out there. LCDs and wireless systems doesn't make a ride the latest. What rabid said is right - the ride itself is far outdated - launches are far more efficient and exciting these days. Of course, I see nothing wrong with the actual ride - it still does its job as a thrilling ride. It's just blatantly obvious that the technology driving the ride is unreliable and could be improved. Having said that, I don't really care if the ride's system were changed, because it's never really effected me. Also, there's no technical reason that TTD or Xcelerator would close in the rain. I suspect the only reason they do this is the damage that the speed can do. Speaking of updated technology, Eureka Mountain has a new control system installed, which adds nothing to the capacity, but just makes it a safer and easier to operate ride.

I'd really appreciate it if you created a new topic rather than posting in this one. Okay, I understand the need for maintenance, and I can appreciate the ride being down so that they can have the full freedom to work on it to bring it up to scratch after a year or more, but what I don't understand is why they pull it down for so long, yet days like today - a weekday, they're not working on it. I can understand that maintenance teams can't be there all day every day, but if you pull a ride down, it'd just be smart to be working as quickly as you can to bring it back up again. Add up the hours they'll spend working on Reptar, and I doubt it'll add up to much more than a few days. I don't think anything happened with Cyclone to make the changes to the station. I always thought it was somewhat unsafe up the front of the train - you're about three stories up - it was an accident waiting to happen. They also added a bigger gate to the exit door. When the ride opened, there was nothing there at all, just an open door. They soon added a small airgate, but now they've gone all out with a jailhouse door. I'm not sure about the laser sensors you're talking about, but Cyclone's lift hill runs non-stop anyway, so there's no issue of it not starting or anything. Giant Drop's west side gondola was there today in its entirity. I'm not sure where you've got the information about it being shipped to Germany from, but it's sitting there, attached to the tower as always. Not operating, in typical Dreamworld fashion. The covers for Tower of Terror's lapbars are a cheap vinyl cover. They looked nice for all of about two weeks when they were new, until disgruntled guests got to them (you wonder why there's so much graffite in all of the queues at Dreamworld but not at other parks - it's because everyone's so bored from waiting forever). They were put there because after five years the original orange ones were looking a bit shabby. It can't be too long until Dreamworld takes off the red covers, because the orange restraints after five years were far better than the two year-old red covers. Unless Dreamworld plan on reworking or replacing the ride's controllers, I don't see the reliability issue being solved. The components of the ride are fine - it's the system that runs it that causes all the errors. It certainly could do with a replacement given how far amusement technology has come in the past seven years, but I just don't see it happening. Well, what you're speaking of is the old on-ride photo system's supports for Thunderbolt. You can see it in this picture. When the ride first opened, they had a Giant Drop style on-ride photo system, but it was later automated (is having two staff photographers on duty all day really the most cost-effective way to do on-ride photos for that ride?). In other news, Cyclone is getting a valley platform built in the sidewinder. I can't say I've ever experienced the ride valleying, but it does seem the most logical place for a valleying to occur, given that the sidewinder is the third highest point of the ride after the first drop. I can't imagine getting out while banked at 65º will be easy though. My last point, not that it matters to me at all, but Tuesday - shouldn't you have been at school?

To answer that last one, Whirlpool's trying to be a way to take 1000 people an hour away from the other attractions that split at the seams during the holidays. Unfortunately, the problem is that it's not too often that there's 1000 people in a given hour willing to waste their time on that thing. One thing's for sure, the winter version is truly a welcome addition to the park. It's just that the main, summer attraction was a bit of a fizzer.

I remember reading the memos from the discussions about Demon's inspection. There were some very stupid arguments put forward about Demon's safety, most of which were thankfully dismissed. You are entitled to your own opinions, but I think it is immature to spend time sending harassing emails. Voice your opinions by all means, but do so in a proper way. What you do is your own business, but at the very least, don't come here and encourage others to follow in your lead. It's sad that Wonderland is closing, but harassing emails, which presumably will just get tossed anyway, won't solve anything.

The thread where you discussed Wonderland's closure was here - no posts have been ever deleted, modified or moved unless they were spam or somehow offensive. I just looked through all the deleted posts and none of them have your name on them, so you haven't been bad either. Remember that most of that discussion took place at ThemeParkInsider, before shifting over here. The way I see it, you told us that the park was closing, gave us a date. It didn't happen, so you can't really blame people for jumping all over you - in fact you can really expect it.

It's great to see so many people eager to meet up at the park. Those that are coming in from a long way, I'd recommend the Rooty Hill RSL's Holiday Inn. I've stayed there twice before, it's pretty decent and I believe the closest hotel to the park. Being in the RSL complex, you've also got easy access to pokies and Keno. Total Thrills' Wonderland Farewell Attendees: Flea coasterfreak (2) willsy (?) DJKostya muke Andy_q69 joz stdragon03 (2) screammachine (3) djrappa Richard Jaggie mx5_boy (5) This is the list so far. Please let me know if I've missed you out. If you've got a (?) beside your name, it'd be great if before then you could give us a definite yes/no. If you're not on the list but would like to come, let us know, or just rock up on the day, though it would be good to let us know so that we don't leave anyone behind. If you want to bring more people (which is fine), also let us know how many are coming. Just post in this thread if you want to be added to the list, confirm or just have questions about it. It's gonna be great! We'll have to do this every time a park closes.

The leaks on the towers at the front (Super 8, Speed Coaster and Twister) are just the best example of a lack of maintenance. Though, to be fair, even Disney's Blizzard Beach had some leaks on their tube slides out the back, but the park was due for an extended maintenance period shortly after my visit - I'd be very surprised if the same leaks still exist. But it's not as if it's a small drip or anything - it is almost constant streams of water. I'd say that Double Screamer's done it'd duty full stop. It's a good ride, but it really shows its age, and ain't much in the capacity department. As for Whirlpool's peeling rubber, the summber it debuted (as a bunch of motel spas in the ground) it was the same. I was thinking this was just a "new ride" thing, but at the attraction's media launch at Easter last year (a great function by the way, complete with buffet full breakfast, live music and the highlight - Blair McDonough ), the rubber was still peeling. When it's Whirlpool Springs, because you're walking on the floor of Whirlpool, you're picking this stuff up on your feet, and so the bottom of the spas is pretty much loose "blue stuff" and when you leave, you take it with you on your feet. For those wondering what the heck the stuff is, it's essentially tiny rubber shavings that they stick down with glue, essentially the same as athletics track tartan. It's still a fun place to spend the day, but I'm with you in that they really need to do some work on the place.

The tower (The Skyneedle) is now at South Brisbane. You probably all know the chain of hairdressers known as Stefans. The owner of the chain, amazingly with the name Sefan Ackerie, has always had a hobby of buying up old Brisbane icons. He purchased the Skyneedle and moved it to his hairdresser's academy and head office. Last time I actually drove past it, which was about six or so years ago, it was just surrounded by a vacant block of land, but I don't know if it has changed since. The thing is in quite reasonable condition. It is still lit up with its bright neon lights every night. It's really one of those icons that has not really come to be known as an icon. For what it's worth, a few years ago when the Milton Tennis Centre closed down, he purchased the giant racket sculpture that was fixed at the top of the stadium, he stuck his own name/logo on the thing and donated it as a sculpture for the front QEII sporting complex out at Mr Gravatt. Let's not stray too far from the topic at hand.

I'd like to think people would have a bit more maturity than to send rude, perhaps harassing emails to the corporation. And Slick, really, don't you think what you said is a bit harsh? Wonderland Sydney is closing. They're not selling nuclear weapons to terrorists, they're shutting down a theme park, presumably because the land has the potential to be used for much more lucrative things. It's one thing to be sad or annoyed, but don't do or say something that you might regret later, because it just makes you look childish and silly. All I ask is you at least think about what you say, and be as rational as you can.

I agree with your sister. They by far had the best gardens and just general nice feeling throughout the park. The park is nice and big, easy to navigate and incredibly open. Compared to Dreamworld or Sea World the place is very open (I didn't bother with Movie World, because that place is just plain hopeless in terms of layout and scale). I just really hope that as many of the rides as possible find new homes in Australia, not internationally or at a scrap-heap.

Here's an article from a Malaysia newspaper. It says there mid-year, so maybe we have a bit longer than Wonderland suggested. What you must understand is the conditions that Wonderland's management were working under. As wonderbus suggested, they had next to no resources available. Sunway refused to give them any budget. Given the condition of the park, certainly up until the beginning of 2003, I think it was amazing how well they kept the place looking. I always thought Wonderland was a far better presented park than the Gold Coast parks. Stephen Galbraith should be praised for his efforts. To me he was not far off from being a miracle worker. You can't blame the management team for the closure. Sunway are closing the park. This is a decision from their board of directors and nothing Wonderland's management could change. Considering up until last year they were repainting much of the park and they're still running competitions right now (which don't expire until mid-year), I think this was sprung upon Wonderland's management as abruptly as it was to employees. I don't believe the "persistent losses incurred and difficult market conditions" excuse. The park has been turning reasonable profits, and the market is only as difficult as their non-existant attraction budget made it. The truth - the unfortunate reality of it - is that the price they'd get for the land the park is on is what the park makes in profits every ten years. It's the same with the Gold Coast parks (Dreamworld's selling off just about everything that's not for the park), so Wonderland's not alone. A tip: if you want to get rich, theme parks isn't the business for you - real estate and development is what you want to me in. This is what Sunway are doing.

Try reading the whole thread - not just the title and you'll know the answer to that question.

I've merged the two threads together given that they were about the exact same thing and posted five minutes apart. Have fun!

That's truly one of the oddest things I've ever heard anyone say here. Thunderbolt's trains are by far the worst I've ever been in. The padding might be softer, but because it's softer, it's also worn down to nothing in the places it touches you. The thing with Thunderbolt's restraints is they have a lower axis point. Rather than locking you in from the front of the upper chest, they lock you from the points on the shoulders. The taller you are, the higher your "lock-in" point is on your shoulders (shorter people are locked in from the front of the shoulders, and as you get taller, this point gets pushed back towards the back of the shoulders), which means the taller you are, the tighter you'll be locked in to be safe, which means pain when it comes to the roughness. You said that you find Cyclone's press down on your collar bone. That's odd - with Cyclone's restraints, they're designed to be restraining you without pressing down at all. Next time you ride, instead of jamming it down as far as you can, try leaving it "just comfortably down". I'm not by any means saying do anything stupid, I'm just saying use them how they were designed to get the best ride possible. Where Thunderbolt's restraints NEED to be pressing hard on you for you to be properly locked in, Cyclone's are designed to lock you in to be secure and still give you a bit of freedom. I must say, it probably is just you - I'm 183cm, and as I've said, I find it to be essentially the same. I suppose different people are accustomed to different things. As for good restraints, you can't go wrong with B&M restraints and seats. I've never "used" one of their lapbars (which are said to be the best), but their OTSR are great - they're not terribly soft (quite hard), but they don't at all press awkwardly on your body at all, leaving you quite free while secure. The only problems I had were at the Six Flags, and it's not to do with B&M, just that the average SF park-goer perhaps doesn't have the same cleanliness and hygiene as over here. Combine that with probably minimal cleaning, and you've got a nice slimey, greasy restraint.

I don't think "person higher up than the "front desk"" would appreciate their email address being posted here. If the emails don't seem to have gone anywhere, the phone will always get you started.

This thread is as good here as anywhere else. Drinking has its thrills after all, says me who's came home this evening with a headache and a bloated gut that's not having the time of its life (yet I'm actually sitting here thinking and trying to post, instead of calling it a night).

I can't tell you what to do with your own time and money, but calling up European companies isn't going to make anything happen quicker or better. As I was was hinting in my last post, most of these companies have confidentiality agreements with all clients - whether they have purchased rides or are "just lookiing". It is unprofessional and in many cases illegal for them to answer questions about clients, just as it is in any industry. If you worked for a company and you got a call from some guy asking about one of your clients - information you're not allowed to release, what would you say? "We can't comment on that..." - probably not, that just opens a whole barrel of further questions. You'll usually get "Please ask the park for this information..." or more likely "We have no knowledge of any new rides for the park." The beauty of it is they can lie to you because they aren't breaking any rules doing so, and it'll get rid of people fast.

I'd have to say Sea World by a long shot. Movie World has some good ones, but there are some who I have to say are next to clueless (Lethal Weapon one-train operation tends to attract them I've found). Dreamworld is utterly hopeless - I can't believe they've bee voted for. Wonderland Sydney's were reasonably efficient, but I found quite a few of them were there pressing the buttons and nothing more - no interaction whatsoever, not even a smile on their face (Knott's Berry Farm reminded me a lot of Wonderland). And Luna Park's are pretty hopeless, and I've seen them act downright rude to guests (not politely telling a man that his camera isn't allowed on the ride, even just to photograph his two kids in the seat in front while the train was still loading, but screaming in his face that he is breaking the rules and will be kicked out). Sea World's staff are very efficient (Corkscrew must be the best capacity, single train ride in Australia), courteous and just plain happy. As for Wet'n'Wild, well all they do is stand around all day and look pretty (it was funny at Wet 'n Wild Orlando - the uniform for the guys was nothing but a tiny pair of black shorts, the sort of thing you'd see on Baywatch). I've zapped this over to General Thrills, where it is better suited.

Well, I'm sure enough to actually post it here. As I've said before, I don't play the "rumour game". With me it's about reporting on the industry. If I overhear two operators discussing a new whopping great ride, I'm not going to go around and spread the word. I use stock exchange reports, council and government documents and the first-hand words of park officials. The ride has been confirmed for me by two of the above sources. As far back as August last year and as recently as a few weeks back. With Nick Central, they finished their four year plan to strengthen their position in their three key demographics - teen (thrill rides - Giant Drop and Cyclone), foreign (wildlife - Australian Wildlife Experience) and family (childrens area - Nickelodeon Central). I'd not think for a second that Dreamworld, now that Tomb Raider proved to be the success that it apparently was, would shift away from thrill rides. I remember Dreamworld's CEO, Tony Braxton-Smith being quoted in a number of articles and whatnot saying that Cyclone was not the end in terms of thrill rides and the future direction for the park would still remain on thrill rides. In short, this year will be a year for one of these new thrill rides.