Richard

Yeah, it looks interesting. I'm not sure how well it'll come off as "Australian", but it looks like it's going to be very interesting nonetheless. I like how they mentioned the Gold Coast - somehow I don't think we're going to see the park themed with sky scrapers, nightclubs, cheesy tourist attractions and theme parks. 8)

I think Dreamworld on the whole do a decent job with theming, given what they've got. I mean, it's certainly not top priority with new rides, like it would be at Movie World, and I don't imagine it is given the budget it would need to truly be good. I mean, look at Tower of Terror - any storyline they've got going there isn't exactly obvious, nor would it make much sense (one minute you're in what resembles a mine shaft, the next you're walking along a narrow walkway with tiny dots resembling cars below you), but what they have done is pretty decent, and on the whole reasonably convincing. Plus if the sound of cars launching every minute doesn't give you the chills, the airconditioning set to approximately -190ºC surely will.

I assure you that Cyclone takes the inversions at roughly the same speed as Demon. They're roughly the same size (because of how they used to design inversions), and if it were any faster you'd have extreme g-forces, and too slow and you won't have the speed to make it through, or centripetal force won't be enough to hold the train to the track and you'll have all sorts of awkward sensations. As far as I'm concerned, the vertical loop and sidewinder/boomerang are all nothing inversions. They don't provide any actual physical sensations. If there were corkscrews or zero-g rolls or whatnot involved, it'd be different, but as they are they don't really give anything. Cyclone really is the better ride. I honestly don't see any comparison in terms of ride quality and substance. Nightshifter, I'm not sure if you've ridden Cyclone (or Big Dipper for that matter), but personally, having ridden both many many times, I can confidently say that Cyclone is the better of the two - and I'd like to think that's not just my opinion, but rather common sense.

I think there's still a comparison to have. After all, if you can compare rides like Tower of Terror to Runaway Reptar, then I think Demon to Cyclone is fair. Now, I voted for Cyclone. Let's go through my reasons: Ride Substance Cyclone is a considerably longer ride. Whereas Demon simply takes six inversions in quick succession, Cyclone has the lead up to the two inversions in the form of the fan turns, s-bend and helix. Demon is "bam, bam, bam and back again". Trains This is more trivial than anything, but I'll compare the trains for you. Cyclone uses the Arrow restraints which to start off with are a lot more comfortable than the Vekoma restraints. Now, Cyclone has these nice soft things that make any (pretty minimal) headbanging bearable, while Demon's rock hard things aren't too kind on the head (thankfully it too is fairly light on the old head... at least on all of my visits, some of you might disagree). The rest of the trains are essentially identical, so there's little use comparing it there. Aesthetics I discounted this one for my vote, because I'm giving my opinion on the ride, not the ride's surroundings and prettiness. I mean, if it came down to surroundings or how it looked, my favourite ride would be Luna Parks' Scenic Railway, but you don't see that happening. I've included it here as a disclaimer - you'll see it's favouring Demon. Cyclone has a bright and chirpy colour scheme, which I personally like, but all that does is highlight the dirt and roads under the ride, and the hideously plain station. Meanwhile Demon's surroundings combined with the black paint create excellent atmosphere. Plus those black steel "jailhouse" air gates in the station add nicely to the anticipation. Dreamworld tried their hardest with a storyline for the ride. I think they did reasonably well, but as we've come to expect, it slowly becomes less and less "complete" until it's pretty well all gone. I'm sure many of you who've been there recently wouldn't even know that the faux news updates featuring Gold Coast newsreader Natalie Gruzlewski even existed once upon a time.

I don't think much more needs to be said than what has already been said. Just be happy with what you all know already, and rest assured that I'm sure you'll be happy this time next year.

The problems with the ride at Knotts is pretty much confined to Knotts. The overkill restraints that they have were an order by the State of California. And the capacity issues seem to largely be brought about by the series of incidents that have happened on the ride which have meant that it was either impossible or inefficient to actually run more than a single boat on the course. I'd imagine it was designed to run three or four boats with ease, but the current restraints don't allow that. I personally don't think Dreamworld's crews would allow it either, to be honest. Remember that Oakwood (home of Megafobia) in Wales built a near-clone of it (it is oval shaped rather than figure-of-eight), and though it is less publicised, I don't think there have been many issues with capacity or whatnot that plagued Perilous Plunge. It's probably not anywhere near my number one choice, but it's a great looking water ride - a sort that Dreamworld doesn't have. If they could find a way to slot it over near something else (I could see it built over Cyclone's helix area - tucked in that corner), and keep the Thunderbolt area open for some real rides, I'd be in heaven.

Yep, the information you've read somewhere is correct. Luna Park Melbourne is being sold. Who knows the reason behind it - it's getting more and more popular by the year. My guess is that, coupled with the increasing popularity of the St Kilda area has lead to a boost in the value of the real estate. We're talking in the 75+ million mark for the land the park is on, so my guess is if the owners sell now (given that the real estate market is pretty high), they'll be making a serious killing on it - making the operating profits seem insignificant. Here's the press release: From that, I definitely get the feeling that they purchased an underperforming park, did the necessary to keep it running and boost the value a bit, and waited for the market to get to the right point, and collect a cool return on the investment. Kind of like all those couples who move from old house to old house renovating then selling. Sad? I think not. The park's staying - there's no doubt at all there. New owners might mean some more capital expenditure in the future. I know the Scenic Railway needs a heck of a lot more than a lick of paint to make that thing remotely enjoyable again. What was the site you found the link to Total Thrills at? I'm curious to know (plus my usage statistics for this site aren't working too well).

Yeah, I caught it (thanks to daylight saving, when you got me in MSN, the show had only just begun). All of the Discovery coaster specials are the exact same thing, just with different rides. Only coaster shows use this format of documentary, and quite honestly, it's a horrible way to do the shows. They essentially create about half a dozen sections, each of which could be considered an introduction, and simply play them in a line. There's no real content to the shows, and the conclusion is usually terrible. One thing I love is how obviously fake everything is. They get bystanders near Xcelerator and Dragster to do the stupid "swivel of the head", which looks stupid. The "extreme riders" are all people who've ridden the things way too many times to get anything much out of the rides (they're generally local enthusiasts), but they're still putting on the whole over-the-top excitement thing while giving the on-ride commentary. The remaining three shows are all different ones - which means I can waste another three hours this week.

And wouldn't our friends in the apartments above just adore the lovely roar of the steel wheels. Hey, I'd love that, but that's about as likely to happen as my proposed coaster atop the Sydney Opera House.

As I know it, they've been simply putting on an audio track of some nature for the ride. If that's what you'd call a show, then yeah, there is still a show. The last show they did was a comedy western stunt show, with real live performers and lots of gunfire. Now, the show before that was the real gem. It to me represents Dreamworld when it was truly at its peak (to me, it's all been downhill since about when Wipeout showed up). It might have been a bit before you, Slick, but they had their "Just for Fun!" campaign of the early 90's, with the TV ads had that classic footage of one guy jumping up with a firestick between his legs which was from the original show. The park's now got nothing more than the Nickelodeon shows left. If it were up to me, I'd at least go about bringing back (obviously in a new, revamped form) the old shows that have died. They've got the one from Captain Sturt, and an empty theatre in Gum Tree Gully. Shows add flavour to a park. As it is, Dreamworld is pretty well flavourless.

Though the emphasis has shifted from focusing nearly entirely on photographs as with this site to more of a general coaster site, the photographs will indeed by kept as interesting as possible. I'm looking at buying yet another new digital camera in the near future (it's time for me to go back to SLR after four years with compact digitals) and some decent lenses to try and boost the general quality and consistency of the photos. I want to start completely from scratch with all of that, so that you're not all seeing the same stuff as on this site and what you do see is truly high quality. The site won't focus on one particular thing like some sites do (for instance Westcoaster is really only about construction updates). What I've got coming will be equally strong in news/articles, photo galleries, construction updates, park/ride database, so as to please as many people as possible. One thing I would like to add is that the park/ride database is going to be fantastic and comprehensive. For instance, the coaster database is about half complete in terms of entering data, and there's currently more operating coasters in it than there are at RCDB for Australia.

It's all database driven - everything is stored in a database - all ride information, park details and even news articles is linked and cross-linked with everything, making it not only reasonably complex, but very neat and easy to manage at the same time, and making the pages all consistent in layout and dynamic (i.e. you change one thing and it changes them all). To give you an example, there are a series of parks, in the "parks table", with all the information on the given park, as well as a parkid column. Now, in a separate "coasters table", I store the coaster information and stats in there, as well as a parkid colum. So that now links the coaster to the park. News articles also have the parkid column as well, so each article knows what park it is about, and each park knows where to find any articles that are about it. At the end of the day there's no simple way of factoring in rides that periodically move (and I probably would include it if it were easy enough to do). It would be possible with another database setup, but that's certainly nothing that's on the list for the initial opening of the site. I could say (very doubtfully) that further down the track if there's sufficient interest, as well as adequate assistance (I know next to nothing about the travelling rides of Australia), it might be more feasable, but certainly not in the forseeable future.

I've thought about that, but at the end of the day, it's not something I'm interested in catering for. I'm not really a carnival fan, so in my mind, it wouldn't be a good use of my resources to cover something I'm not that keen on. Aside from that, it'd also be very difficult to implement given the current database structure - it'd essentially require a whole new system to what I've got now - which works perfectly for fixed rides and parks.

The paddleboat does still run, but there's no longer a show, which kind of defeats the purpose of the whole boat ride. I know I haven't ridden it since I think 1999, because of the lack of the show.

The new site's coming along nicely - still looking at the same early-2004 launch. Features of the new site: •Park database, including all roller coasters, and most other rides/attractions in Australia. •Frequently updated articles and content, including latest news from Australian parks, reviews, interviews, editorials/feature articles etc. •Park guides and strategies. •Photo galleries, both general park/ride/coaster shots, as well as construction updates. •High-quality videos of many rides and attractions (more details yet to be announced). •Forums - similar to the Total Thrills forums, though great improvements in terms of how it looks and ease-of-use. •Full-fledged staff. Details will be announced, and applications will be accepted shortly for a variety of different positions. As always, we're all out to have a good time, but professionalism will be of highest importance. Stay tuned on this one! Now, here's where you, the members come in. Are there any feature you'd be interested in, something/s that you think would benefit the site and the readers and general community? If so, then please don't hesitate to let me know. Post in this thread, email me or send me a PM. I'm open to pretty much anything that you think will help. I went somewhat blindly into Total Thrills. As there was no Australian community, I didn't know what to expect, or what people would want. Now that I've got the benefit of an established community and ever-useful hindsight, I can tune this new site to exactly what you, the users, will want. Thanks for helping to create a better future for all Australian thrill seekers! Richard

Great thought, that'd be a great ride, but Luna Park in Melbourne is a truly tiny park, and the ride would seriously not fit. Thunderbolt was a huge ride.

The story behind Thunder River makes the theming slightly more logical. I can't elaborate much more than this, simply because I don't remember the exact details, but essentially it's a journey down a magic river that was found by some drunk old fossickers or something along those lines. It's not supposed to be a journey through a mining town or anything, and frankly the rusty roofs and junk has been well and truly overdone. The track on Eureka Mountain is exactly the same as it was when it was first built, and I'm certain that the trains were always two rows of two passengers.

I'd imagine this is the style of ride: http://www.totalthrills.com/lpmgallery.php?page=misc01 It's very similar to Tasmanian Devil, but leaps and bounds above it in terms of intensity (it's one fast ride!).

Unless they're different dinosaurs (in the first cave, right?), they've been there for over a year now. What they did was stuck a few remaining figures from Creature Cruise in the cave to the sides, and it goes pretty well with the loud noises of growling and galeforce winds and thunder and everything, and strobe lights to add the lightning. Nonetheless, it's a pretty good way to add some more fun to an already pretty decent (and certainly popular) ride. The elephants still look worn out, and the old clunky photography equipment is still decaying over near the elephants (they went digital quite a while back, and now take the photos in the station). Cleaning and repairing I'd say are by all means maintenance. There's no way you can do this effectively (well there is, but we're talking old-school Disney budgets ). Now, pray that they're replacing the wheels on the train while they're at it, and Cyclone might be able to return to some of its former glory (saying that like it's a 20 year old ride that's no longer one of the central attractions). Gum Tree Gully and Rivertown, where the maintenance is going on would have to be my favourite section of the park. I'd love some life to be brought back to some of the old shops, many of which aren't used anymore, but let's hope they don't go overboard and ruin the pleasant feel of the area. There is a series of walkways connection the islands, which is what's seen on the old maps. I'm assuming that they're for staff access etc., as anyone that remembers the old Captain Sturt shows will remember the series of scenes, which would have required the same actors to move very quickly from place to place to keep ahead of the boat. Still, you're very correct in that there is quite a lot of room to spare, but the bridges you see aren't new, and there are some docks etc. that would be used for scenery more than anything. Walk around to the wildlife park some time via Gum Tree Gully (past the Billabong Restaurant), and you'll see the bridges you're talking about.

Let's get this back onto the topic at hand. There's a Wonderland Sydney forum for all these discussions. And please use the 'Edit" button if you wish to add something to a post Daniel - don't just post twice in a row.

In that case, my vote goes for Shock Drop at Luna Park in Melbourne. It provides the exact same thrill as the other two. The height adds two things. Firstly, you've got the added exhiliration of floating 120m above the ground (nearly twice as high as Space Probe). There's no such thing as not being afraid of heights - it's a hard-coded human instinct. It's just that some people are more able than others to cope with the inevitable fear. It's only after you become incredibly familiar with the environment (as many of our Wonderlanders are on Space Probe) that it becomes so familiar that it doesn't affect you. Then you've got the fact that you're falling for considerably longer, so there's more float time. You actually have a chance to soak in what's happening, which I don't believe happens on Space Probe. As far as I'm concerned, theming doesn't come into play here. If that's your reasoning, then I'd say that you'd be at home on a ride like Looney Tunes River Ride. The theming's about the quality of Space Probe's, so you've definitely got a better ride.

I think inspiration for the new Luna Park definitely came from what Fox Studios set up. They've also basically decided that there's a bunch of rides on-site that will help to boost popularity of the new park a little more. Coasters aren't everything there is to a park. I like djrappa's example with SFMM and Knotts (which I've not experienced... not for another 48 days anyway ), but bringing it closer to home, look at Dreamworld up against Sea World. Many of you may believe (and there's nothing wrong with that) that Dreamworld is the better park for its superior collection of coasters/thrill rides, whereas myself and at least a few others would see Sea World as the better for its fantastic atmosphere and excellent staff. As for these alleged "ars holes" at Luna Park. I think the right thing to do is build something that attracts people, and keeps everyone happy. Regardless of your opinions on the Northshore residents (and I'm with you on probably all of it), they do live there now, that's not changing, and Luna Park have to keep them happy enough to get them off their back for the park's own good. Now, I'd love to see the place set up like an RCT park with coaster upon coaster with other rides everywhere, but the fact is, that's not happening any time soon - or ever.

Dreamworld's just gotten their hands on another tiger, named Soraya, a 14-month old female Sumatran tiger, and it's set to debut October 30. For those that don't know, there are five remaining different subspecies of tigers. The odd thing is all of Dreamworld's other tigers are Bengal, and this one is a Sumatran. It's a great deal smaller than the Bengal tiger, so I'm not sure how it will affect the exposure to other tigers etc., if it does at all. They suggest that when breeding becomes a possibility (sexually mature at an age of three), they will get a male from another zoo in Australasia, so there's no cross-breeding going on obviously, and offspring are to be raised at Dreamworld until they're "required" overseas. There's a bunch more information in the press release. I'm not the sort who justs copy-pastes a whole press release, but if anyone's interested, I'll be happy to get some more specifics for them. Anyway, this is pretty interesting news, and I suppose these are the things that Dreamworld's counting on for a bit of extra attention over the next year.

In future, Chippy, please use the button which is found in the top right hand corner of every post, rather than posting twice in a row to fix up mistakes etc. -rich

The issue with Big Dipper wasn't the noise that the ride created. I mean, it's a relatively quiet ride (still pretty noisey as you'd imagine though), but the issue was with the noise that riders made from what I've gathered. As I see it, Luna Park won't go back to the true amusement park style park ever again. Though I certainly think there are ways that some of the most exciting rides available could be installed without disrupting the neighbours, it just won't happen.