nev

Everyone's sort of half right... a lot of buildings that have 'themed' environments (theatres, theme parks) and other places have smoke vents in the ceiling which I think people might be getting confused with. The vents are held closed by a spring released cable that, when released, instantly causes the vents to open across the roof. I've been in venues that have dozens of these across a roof, that instantly open and when combined with some exhaust fans, can suck all the smoke out in a very limited amount of time. The key thing here is that they are spring released, and therefore don't rely on tons of automation (ie electrical) motors or sophisticated processes to open a roof like what is being proposed in the posts above. SDSC and indeed all of the other rides at MW are glorified sheds. Nothing more, nothing less. They're just vents people, just like the eyes in the cars are LEDs.... I'm gonna keep running with this metaphor cause it's just so nostalgic for me

The auditoriums are left over from the Gremlins adventure that used to be in that building. Just to quash this rumour before people start suggesting more about Scooby and fire regulations (sensor eyes, anyone?!) Heat sensitive fire systems are able to work in smoky environments - just like any theatre, nightclub or venue does when they have smoke during concerts and parties. The oil residue from theatrical smoke built up on the tracks over time, which made them replace it with the half-arsed mist system. It would actually be a good idea for them to revisit the smoke / haze concept now. Things have come a long way from the old G300 machines that used to do the haze in SDSC. I know for a fact there are products out there that have a much lower environmental impact than those older machines that are designed to be used in sensitive environments.

Hey guys Not sure if everyone already knows this, but Disney released a pretty exciting piece of news about a few weeks ago. If you update Google Earth to the new version and locate Disney World in Florida (just type "Disney World" into the search bar) you can now look at all the parks and resorts in 3D which includes some pretty well textured buildings, rides and landmarks. It's awesome to look at and if you've never been will probably give you a really good idea at the size and scale of the place, not to mention the detail that goes in to every Disney property. Make sure you check it out cause it really is a pretty stunning piece of work. Attached is a screenshot I took of MGM studios - complete with giant Mickey hat and Indy's stunt show! Cheers rich

Hahaha, quite ironic that I posted something so recently after someone else posted something similar isn't it?! Maybe I'm just twice as satirical.... or twice the idiot

Established precedent? Care to elaborate on what that actually means?

Can I have some pictures of inside Batman too? Actually, does anybody have any pics of inside Batman?! Just checking again, can I have some pictures of Batman?

Yep, it's almost as boring as during non-holiday times Sad fact is that LPS is now closed every day on Tuesday and Wednesdays due to lack of interest... not sure how long that will continue for

Pretty much just a random collection of rides... there was a fairly permanent "Australian Supermaze" which was more of an exercise in colorbond fencing than anything really amazing. There was the standard carny rollercoaster there for a while as well as a few other bits of Easter Show style rides, but everything came and went seasonally and it was never hugely popular.

Hey Gazza.... well spotted! In terms of scale LMA definitely does make Police Academy look like a shopping centre car park - the arena is huge, the crowds are massive and the scale of every effect is infinitely bigger than anything in Police Academy. It's a cool show that's not without its flaws like you, myself and others have mentioned. Perhaps I should add the thought that a car racing around a shopping centre carpark is always going to be more intense than one driving around an arena

What Movie World has just done is the Australian equivalent of closing down Sea World's Shamu Show, or closing Disney's Small World Ride. Put plain and simply, they've closed an iconic attraction which has been with the park from day one. Regardless of what individuals may think of the show, its lines and seating was always full during school holidays and always well attended outside holidays. It always raised laughs, always got roars of approval following the final fireball and always seemed to be a hit with audiences of all ages. Everyone knew the Police Academy movies, and I can only echo what AlexB has said about the series. Sure, it's not the most amazing piece of cinematic art ever created, but the resulting PASS show has drawn crowds every day for years. In many ways, its just as successful - if not more so - than any other attraction at Movie World. And even if you didn't like the show, consider the fact that the PASS showtimes meant you could enjoy lesser waiting times on all the rides around the park while a couple thousand people packed into the PASS arena. The Disney version of the upcoming show doesn't compare to PASS. I've seen it in Florida and rate it well below Police Academy - like others have said it doesn't flow, lacks the audience involvement and communication and will be very difficult to make work in such a small space at Movie World regardless of whatever expansion takes place. To dismiss PASS as an "expired attraction" or as something which should have been replaced long ago is to take a very simpleton, childish view of the theme parks we love. Here is an attraction which - completely unchanged - has attracted massive crowds from Day 1 of WBMV - and people on these boards are willing to criticize that and demote the value of it purely because it isn't shiny, new and doesn't have an Intamin badge on the side of it. Wake up people - realise that a park doesn't always have to have the best rides to make it the best park. And if you're going to suggest that PASS should have been replaced with something else, I challenge you to come up with a concept that would draw crowds continuously for the best part of 15 years that would remain funny, entertaining and spectacular for all ages for that whole time. And apologies in advance for any bad grammar - I'm writing this after 6 beers!

Has anyone thought that as the weather cools down the ride changes operation to suit? Don't they drop the splash track or water level already when its cooler? Isn't the timing of the geyser in the switchback also changed? Perhaps the jets are just whacked on a few seconds earlier on non-ridiculously hot days so that people don't get cold and wet?

The other thing to consider is that this is just a number with no more credibility than any other part of the article. If you consider any major infrastructure investment, the number rarely ends up being what it was estimated at the start. It's an estimate, or could even just be a number thrown out there for nothing more than a bit of public relations to make people go "whoa, that's a lotta money" I think the big thing to consider here is that they're a) hallmarking it against parks that we already know are fantastic, have a big ambition for what they want to do c) have a public vision for what they are planning. Rather than debating the credibility of a 220m park, perhaps its worth considering that they're aiming the bar really high and that we should be looking at that more than the estimated dollar figure. Just compare it to the recent Australia Zoo article. They said they want to make it "like Disney", gave us no hard plans or other information, and therefore our expectations of the park's future growth are pretty low. On the other hand, you have another animal park who are saying "this IS going ahead, here's a picture of what it's going to look like" and also come out with plans to say that they want to replicate the success of other parks with world-class coasters, etc. What we've been given is a really good outlook. Let's run wth that instead of debating the cost of construction hey?

Are you kidding me? Dreamworld as one of Australia's largest money makers? In comparison to what exactly? Any large entertainment venue (such as a stadium, big theatre, etc) in the country would have an income of comparable size, not to mention places of similar land size (mines, office blocks, etC) making potentially millions more each day. The bottom line is that Dreamworld won't be closed unless a fire breaks out... and this is where large companies like Macquarie come into the picture. If a park can be cleared in a short period of time at the end of a day for regular closing, then an evacuation is going to be child's play. These places are built to handle masses of people as part of their normal operation. If a fire broke out in surrounding bushland, chances are there'd be more than enough time to get everyone out. No public company is going to close down an operation because, and I maintain, it is hot and windy - which is ALL the warning you get before a fire breaks out. And besides all this, risk management studies are done and maintained out of choice and out of nessessity for insurance and OH&S requirements. If the threat was that big, there'd be measures in place to work with / around / best manage any threat that existed, which I'm sure Dreamworld has in place. Ever think it might be more than just coincidence that there's a bloody enormous lake on the site?

Businesses don't have to cease trading - even during a fire the authorities can't force anybody to leave their premises or business. Obviously in the event of a real fire one would hope that common sense prevails and Dreamworld would evacuate, but to shut down businesses and evacuate people simply because it's hot, windy and dry? Nobody would ever get any work done! In most of Australia, most places run total fire bans and promote extreme levels of risk throughout summer. Unless a fire breaks out that actually poses a credible threat to Dreamworld, it's not going to close. Simple as that.

Wow, to think I could be in a slow-as queue for TOT every year for the rest of my life.... what an incentive

A whole lotta nothing really The entire thing was an exercise of standing in different rooms - so if you could call Titanic thing a "ride", then by that logic the old sound stage tour at Movie World was also a ride! You started by queueing in a preshow room which featured a bunch of props from the movie - the only real thing worth noting was a scale model of the ship that they used to film the exterior sequences with. After your first dose of Leo and Kate videos, curtains were pulled aside and you were called to board the ship by a bunch of "extras". They'd lead you up a ramp over a bed of fog onto the "ship" which was only about 10m wide, and made to look bigger by placing mirrors at each end of the set. You walked through a few corridors and ended up in a large room which was apparently the third class quarters. There were four portholes with video screens behind them at one end of the room that showed a daytime scene outside with a dock visible in the foreground. The lights dimmed, the ship 'pulled away' with a slight movement in the floor and over the next two mins you're treated to the irish dancing sounds from the movie as the view out the porthole fades to night. Suddenly the iceberg is visible, the floor shakes a bit, a pipe breaks at one end of the room and some water comes in, and the room is emptied in two halves - one half went one way, the others the other way. One group got led up through a series of staircases, through the first class gym and out onto the bow of the ship where you boarded small life rafts. The raft rotated out in 6 inch deep water, a 10 second video of the ship's propellor crashing into the water upon sinking was played, then a guy would appear, yell "Cut" and it'd all be over. If you were in this group, you survived. The other group was lead down through the engine rooms with some pretty cool pyro effects, but then you died just before "Cut" was yelled. Whichever way you went, it was a pretty underwhelming, unsatisfying experience, especially if like me you went a few weeks after the studios opened and you waited two hours to be a part of it. If you'd like to experience Titanic The Ride for yourself, lock yourself in a dark room, put a copy of "My Heart Will Go On" on full bolt, sit on a chair and get someone to knock you round a few times. Oh, and then get your mum to come in and yell "Cut" and you'll get the full effect.

Maybe the next step is enclosing all the WWF boats with perspex a-la-japanese style to make sure we don't get wet there either? Oh and yeah, a Freemont Street roof would rock... but the Scooby show is bad enough on the current video screen, let alone down an entire street

If you look at the MDMC page now, next to the "18 Extreme Turns" it says "need client input here" in brackets. Perhaps this was a generic description put in by the web designer and the idea was to check with DW what the real figures actually were before the site went live?

The Sydney Morning Herald has just reported that Disney has apparently 'eyed off' the Sydney White Bay site as a potential for a park or something... In true dreamworld_rulz style, here's a cut and paste of the article

Definitely Disney and SFMM. Universal is cool but it's definitely a poor cousin to Disneyland, and in my opinion the only thing really worth trekking out there for is Jurassic Park, which still isn't that amazing. Knotts is cool as well, but there's nothing special there... Silver Bullet isn't fantastic, Accelerator is good but not hugely more impressive than Superman, and Perilous Plunge has a cool splash but that's about it. SFMM may be dirty, full of Latino gangsters and a bit sleazy, but the rides are unique and pretty damn awesome. And Disney, well, it's just Disneyland, and you don't need any more reason that that

One of the big things that roof doesn't convey is the heat. The few days we spent there last October were not especially hot, but after a few hours of sunlight the heat under the roof at Tokyo Disney gets almost unbearable - it's muggy, stuffy and uncomfortable to the point where people tend to congregate inside the shops as opposed to on the street. Now magnify this to Movie World, where its on average hotter more of the time and I think you'd get a pretty horrible structure. On top of that, I reckon it looks damn ugly.

Totally agree with you on DisneySea - it's nothing short of the best theme park I've ever been to. Likewise, I think rides like Pooh totally beat their LA counterparts. However, there's still that sense of nostalgia and something unique about the California park that can't be replicated. I think that Disneyland (not DCA) has an amazing feel - it's packed in, every square inch is ridiculously themed and every attraction, store and piece of theming fit perfectly like an incredibly tight jigsaw. While Tokyo Disneyland is awesome, the extra-wide streets and more spaced out planning really do make it lose some of that original character. A lot of the queuelines haven't been hidden as well, and you certainly don't feel the intimacy as much. Ask me to compare Florida with Tokyo and Tokyo wins handsdown. But there's always going to be that originality, sentimentality and amazing design that will keep me going back to California.

Methinks someone discovered how to create Polls and went on a bit of a spree...

After riding a bunch of pipeline coasters I can pretty safely say they're one of the most assaulting rides I've ever been on - and if any ride out there is a one trick pony - it's a pipeline coaster with it's heartline roll. The cars, seats and harnesses are ridiculously constrictive and over-protective because of the close proximity of the side rails to the sides of the car. Not only do they make sure you can't stick your hands out, but I'm pretty sure Togo didn't event want people looking at the rails, or anywhere else other than dead ahead for that matter - a concept which is fine if you're sitting in the front row, but if you're in the back, you're in for a thrilling ride looking at the back of someone else's harness! You get lifted up vertically whilst simultaneously get dripped on by oil and blinded by the sun. The vertical drop is cool but shortlived, and when you hit the stop in the reversing section you hit the brakes so hard you have to check to see whether all your teeth are still in place. The rolls are fun but disorientating, slow and predictable and then you get back to the station with an anticlimax bigger than a fireworks display in Brisbane. The Spiderman-type ride would be nothing short of awesome - the ones at the universal parks are some of my favourite attractions. Amazing effects, completley unique to anything else we have in Australia, and a really great ride for the whole family.

Not wanting to encroach on Tony's unique brand of sarcasm that he's slapped around over the last 24hrs... (lol) this topic really has been discussed to death, including your idea which was also brought up.... (All 1.5Mb of it) Let's let this thread die a peaceful death hey.