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nev

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Everything posted by nev

  1. You know it must be good when I come out of the shadows to post... This is a cool little video a mate of mine found, very clever editing and ends up looking beautiful... http://vimeo.com/36874836
  2. If you think about it it actually makes a fair bit of sense... one would assume that it costs a certain amount to test, startup and run the park on any given day, and that this amount doesn't change hugely. If you open the park even 3hrs later than usual, that's almost half your daily income down the drain - lower attendance, lower consumption of food and beverages, fewer other purchases... while the costs to run the park haven't hugely decreased. While I'm not saying that I support it, from a business point of view it seems simple.
  3. You know Asia's not a country right? I think 3 theme parks in a region which houses over one fifth of the world's total population is more than ok actually!
  4. I think DJ might be accepting medals of honour and tending to singed hair at the moment... but I'm sure everyone will hear soon enough
  5. Conversation of the tours returning permanently aside, I think the fact that they've brought this tour in even temporarily is a good sign - it shows that they do actually look to run these tours and they certainly wouldn't have gone to the trouble of setting it up as an attraction if they weren't interested in doing so. To pick up one what some other people have - it's often just impossible to 'delay the bump out' of a set for any period of time. In every film, regardless of how much is custom built for the set, there are expensive rigging components, valuable real estate and often people required on site on a daily basis to make sure the set is operable and safe. Add to this the fact that most sets in theatre, movies, etc are simply built to last for a certain amount of time and all of a sudden you're up for a huge sum of money to make adjustments to keep the thing in place. Finally, there are differences in building restrictions and codes for structures that are classed as temporary, and those that are permanently installed. For example; an enclosed set on a stage is not usually required to have emergency sprinklers, fire detectors etc, installed as fire marshals are always present on film sets during any activity. If such a set was then opened to the public, the set would need to be extensively modified to accommodate permanent fire codes - this is just one example. There are also very serious implications regarding smoke and haze on sound stages - and I mean real sound stages, not tin sheds that have roller coasters in them. The soundproofing used on both the Movie World stages and the Fox Studios stages in Sydney is highly flammable, so any time smoke generating gear (from fog machines through to angle grinders, etc) the entire studio has to be isolated and fire marshals have to be present. I'm not trying to harp on about fire laws over anything else but this is just one area I've had to deal with recently particular when we've been working in Fox in Sydney. However, if anything, QLD fire laws are infinitely tighter than NSW for a number of reasons that I won't go into in this post. Of course one way to get around the restrictions would just be to fit the Scooby red LED eyes to all the sets, that'd fix it right up Only joking, so don't get fire up rich
  6. Ok just noticed this but it's majorly dodgy on the part of the Big Banana - So T-Bone mentioned the Space Race ride at BB by mentioning this PDF that is on the big banana web site - Now, look closely at the space ship in the pdf above. Then have a look at this image from the Virgin Galactic web site: Can anyone else see the world's most blatant copyright violation, not to mention possibly the worst Photoshopping job of all time?! Actually, I'm not going to even call this a Photoshop job, I'm going to call it an MS Paint job. Rich
  7. reanimated that just made me crack up.... that's gold!
  8. I spent last Saturday at Six Flags Great Adventure and the temperature didn't get above 5 degrees all day. It was freezing cold, miserable and Kingda Ka was bordering on ridiculously painful. If I wanted that experience, I would have got people to slap me in the face with bags of frozen peas while sitting in a supermarket freezer!
  9. I think the sooner Whitsy is banned the better....
  10. The simple answer is that all rants about park quality, prices of food, origin of bottled water and chemical composition of donuts aside, nothing at Movie World goes higher or faster than the rides at Dreamworld. If all you're after is big thrill rides, Dreamworld has more big ticket rides. That said, if all you are after is thrills, if you pick your day right, you can easily get around all of the big rides at both parks in one day. rich
  11. Miles above anything and everything else I've ever ridden.... Journey to the Centre of the Earth at Tokyo DisneySea. Built inside a mountain, amazing theming, a great story with tons of back history, good ride length and the most amazingly fast end to it all... brilliant!
  12. So presumably you're boycotting the whole Coles Myer Group because Myer are already out there, now Dick Smith? Following your logic you shouldn't be shopping at any Coles, Coles Express, Myer, Dick Smith, Target, Liquorland, Harris Technology, K-Mart, Officeworks or Bi-Lo right? Seems a little extreme lol rich
  13. Hey Nerdville Those are actually a bunch of very valid points the everyone should respect because it relfects the real situation at the moment. As much as some people won't accept it, we're seeing the standards of WVTP slip slowly but surely, so we now have to look at the competition as a 'best of the worst' - and when you compete at this low level, Dreamworld does have several advantages over the other parks. Things like long breakdowns, higher food prices and not opening rides until midday really do destroy the whole "better guest experience" argument that MW and SW had for years over Dreamworld. Nowadays, one train, slow operation of Lethal Weapon can be compared to the Psyclone's well-known bad reputation as just one example of how it's getting easier to compare the two different parks.
  14. Oh yeah, it totally reeks of homosexuality..... /sarcasm, and on behalf of the whole internet thanks for wasting those few kilobytes of space with that incredibly valuable contribution to the conversation. It's a shame they closed it when they could have just slapped a fresh paint on it and given it a more attractive dangerous name like its roller coaster neighbour.. the "Giant Squid Ski Show" or something like that would bring heaps more people through the doors I'm sure..! Apparently the new show is by the same producers who created the Pirates show at Treasure Island in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, without the sinking ships, gratuitous sex innudendo and masses of fireworks, that Las Vegas show would look ridiculous. Fingers crossed we get something decent. rich
  15. The trains are incredibly safe.... I probably feel safer on Tokyo's trains than anywhere else in the world. If you have young kids it is worth noting that Tokyo central station (where the line to Myhama (sp?) begins) can be ridiculously busy - like busier than you have ever seen in your life. Depending on which line you are transferring from, the platform for the Disney trains can be a very very long walk - up to 15mins with no exaggeration - and I wouldn't want to do this walk with very young kids.
  16. Oh Joz, there's so many more smart-a** calls to be made... How about... - I heard the park closed cause men were only in there for 2 minutes before they lost interest - I heard it never opened because the ticket booth was a tiny spot inside the entrance, and men could never find it rich
  17. Hey guys If you want the ultimate souvenir from Police Academy, all the cars from the show are about to go up for auction.... http://www.graysonline.com.au/sale.asp?SALE_ID=70819 rich
  18. There's an interesting thing in all this "economic crisis" talk. If you look across the rest of Australia and indeed the world, the entertainment industry is absolutely booming. Last week, a record number of shows began the new season on Broadway, and a record number of shows lasted the whole way through last season. Closer to home, there are currently more theatrical tours underway than there have been in the last ten years. Holiday makers are choosing to stay in Australia more and more, and while airlines like Qantas are reporting up to 20% declines in traffic to the USA and UK - especially in the upper classes - domestic seat sales are still just as popular with more people holidaying and traveling locally. There are an unusally high number of international bands touring at the moment - to have Kings of Leon, Coldplay and the Killers all in Australia at once is pretty unusual, but shows are selling out around the country in record times. I love how the parks are jumping on the economic crisis bandwagon - just like Dreamworld tried to pin a downturn in visitors on SARS a few years ago. I really fail to see how what is (currently) affecting the very highest tiers of employment (finance) and the very lowest tiers (manufacturing workers) can be used as an excuse to account for lack of spending. And in addition to this - we're not talking about new ride purchases here, which I can understand might be hard to justify this year with the value of the dollar - we're talking about day-to-day operational expenses which should be already budgeted and planned for on a long term basis and shouldn't just be affected by a six month turnaround in the global economy. If anything, surely the parks can expect higher visitor numbers as people choose to holiday within Australia and look for cheaper alternatives to going overseas. Cutting back a performer here and there, and budging shop opening times by an hour either way is a sign of management being frugal and trying to save pennies. How can they justify cutting shifts of people back by a few hours when they are at the same time planning to expand and redevelop other attractions? (not going to elaborate on that) What we have here in my opinion is exactly the same as Dreamworld - an excuse to cut back on staff to save a few dollars which can conveniently be blamed on the economic crisis. AlexB I really do agree with you; it's time to stop making excuses and looking for scapegoats to try and uphold the once superior position of WVTP over Dreamworld. It's going to be a long time before they sink to that level, but I think the beginnings of the roll downhill have already been visible for years....
  19. I know I'll probably get shot down for saying this... but I think SFMM is actually the better park when compared coaster-to-coaster. For me the vast majority of the rides at Cedar Point just didn't have a massively exciting vibe to them - excluding MF and TTD of course. For example, while Raptor was a fun ride it doesn't match the force of Batman running well. Mantis is fun but it lacks the huge scale and massive layout of Riddlers' at SFMM. Both parks have mine rides, and again I think SFMM's jolts you around a bit more and has a far more creative layout. I'd definitely rank Blue Streak above the Woodies at SFMM, but with the new Terminator coaster going up I think the woddie comparisons might change. In the 'big and unique' category - SFMM has Tatsu, Deja Vu and X, which on the whole I think are longer and more fun than CP's TTD, MF and their smaller Wicked Twister. While Dragster is definitely one of the most amazing rides I've been on, I think I discovered whole new feelings on Tatsu, and on the one occasion that X has actually worked for me, I think the unique experience of that far outweighs the "let's just go really tall and really fast" approach that CP seems to have. Another small factor is the history side of things - there's the experience and nostalgia of riding Revolution and Colossus at SFMM that you just can't get at Cedar Point. And aside from all of that, SFMM is definitely more accessible from Los Angeles as Cedar Point is from Cleveland (the closest airport). The staff and operations at both parks are diabolical, and neither have any amazing theming to write home about, so I think any comparisons really have to be made by just looking at the rides and in my opinion Magic Mountain comes up tops. rich
  20. I'm all about Final Cut, Motion and DVD Studio. For all you Sony fanboys, I think you need to watch the Onion's latest news release
  21. Yeah Everland is about 40mins on the bus. Lotte World is right on top of the Jamsil subway station which is only about 15mins on the subway from the centre of town. rich
  22. nev

    nl

    I'd assume he's asking if there's anywhere he can download it for free, in which case I'd suggest asking somewhere else where software piracy is encouraged. It's not expensive, just go buy it! rich
  23. Hi mate I've been there a few times; it's a great little park, lots to see and do. Atlantis is a very cool ride with a really surprising start. There are plenty of other well and truly screwed up rides there, including an underground spinning coaster and an absolutely stunning Indiana Jones-esque ride with a queue that is almost as good as the ride itself. Make sure you take the time to really explore the park - there is some awesome theming especially inside, and their night time parades (which are seasonal) are nothing short of spectacular. Huge production values, lighting rigs that descend from the ceiling... all that sort of stuff. The indoor balloon ride that meanders around the roof of the dome is well worth the trip just so you can look down on the place and take in the enormity of it all. That said, it's an incredibly popular park and the few times that I have been there (at different times of the year too) the park fills up incredibly quickly - I've waited in excess of 90 mins for Atlantis, and seen the queue close for the Indy ride. Make sure you're there for the opening and I'd suggest running to get to the Atlantis area. FYI there is a well hidden entrance to the outdoor part of the park which is directly across the road from the Charlotte Theatre that fewer people use - it's also much closer to Atlantis so you might want to consider using this. Hope you have fun, let me know if you need any more info! rich
  24. Well said qcboy, my thoughts exactly
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