DaptoFunlandGuy

I'm in. Let's go Dreamworld... bring back the steamers!!!

so...... thunderbolt?

Hong Kong Disneyland For me, regardless of whether it is busy or not, I recommend 2 days minimum at HKDL. I've been both during Chinese New Year - pre-expansions, and in May - Post expansions. Both times were solid two days. We had plenty of time to re-ride, especially the more intense rides as the locals tend to steer away from those, but it gave us the time to enjoy ourselves without having to stick rigidly to a schedule, whilst still catching all the shows. Don't miss Festival of the Lion King, and although it isn't in English, the Golden Mickeys is something worth catching at least once - its a musical stage show, and all the songs are in english, so it's still very good. Stitch Encounter is also quite amusing. There is nothing in HKDL that I could say 'it's ok to skip that' - do them all at least once - even the smaller kids rides in Toy Story Land are enjoyable. Space Mountain remains my favourite there, but Mystic Manor runs a close second, followed by Grizzly. Make sure you get a map and tick off things as you go - you don't want to miss anything, and the park layout may lead you astray. If you're into doing the full Disney experience - make your first stop the Plaza Inn and make reservations for the Star Fireworks Dinner. The meal is an 8 course degustation of traditional chinese dishes - and it was awesome to try their culture in a setting where you could be confident the food quality was there. In addition to the dinner, their staff will then escort you to reserved seating areas in the hub, prime position for the nightly fireworks. Here's the menu: (remember, the price is HKD) Even if you get the whole park done in one day - allow two - you never know if you might need it - but don't try to rush the park. A lot of HKDL was made with the chinese tourist (photographer) in mind, so there are very picturesque spots everywhere that are beautifully landscaped in every detail, so take some time and smell the roses... (On the topic of photos, they offer a photo pass deal - one price, all day, every photographer and ride photo in the park for no additional cost, with every one available as digital download for 2 weeks. We found it was well worth it to get some really good pro shots within the park too.) Ocean Park Ocean park is well worth the trip, but is always a disaster. Worst days to go to Ocean Park are Thursday through to Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday are the best options, although near Chinese New Year, they may not be good options either. Main reason for this is "Mainlanders" from China do day trips (or long weekends) to the park and generally cause havoc. Thursday is ok, if you get out by about 3pm. As per other advice - get in the gate ASAP and go straight to cable car or train. Train runs first, but cable car is less likely to have a lineup. Do the top of the mountain first. kill EVERYTHING up the top quickly, and work your way slowly down the mountain towards the older rides. Don't miss the mine train (its very unique), as well as Hair Raiser. Dragon should be done once - especially for credit chasers - but once only (and take some panadol). I recommend Dragon to be the last thing you do on the mountain if you can help it. Many of the run-of-the-mill rides like ferris wheel can be skipped if you've done them as they're no different - but the spaceshot has a very unique view. Grab the rapids and the flume to cool off, or visit the penguins for better effect. Polar express is a kiddie coaster, but quite an enjoyable one - so try and fit it in if you can - the capacity is awesome so don't worry too much about queues. Despite being a 'marine' park - i've found the marine animal shows to be at best disappointing and at worse alarming, when compared to the care, conservation and 'natural' look of our Sea World. You're not missing much if you choose to skip the dolphin or seal shows, but do try and catch the bird show. The other animal exhibits are quite interesting - especially the goldfish (who knew there were so many) and the pandas. The grand Aquarium WILL become a crush if the Mainlanders arrive before you get to it, and since it's near the exit, it'll be the last thing you hit up before leaving. It is still 'just an aquarium' at the end of the day, so you can skip it without missing much. Most people are done with OP by late afternoon. There is a dancing fountain show in the waterfront lagoon (outside the aquarium) after dark. I haven't seen it myself, so I can't say whether it's worth hanging around several more hours, but if you do find yourself there at the right time it'd be worth a look. All i read and saw before going suggested it wasn't a 'World of Color' show... That said, since you're doing Singapore as well - you won't miss much if you find time for 'Wings of Time' - the replacement to the ever popular 'Songs of the Sea', which in my opinion was a contender worthy of comparison to World of Color. Since WoT replaced SotS less than two months later... i assume WoT is equally impressive. Singapore As mentioned by others, USS tends to be a bit heavy on the 'right' hand side. I prefer to head left and go through Madagascar and Faire Faire away first. You'll be close to Waterworld for the first show of the day when it comes, and you'll get most of the afternoon sunshine whilst doing the outdoor rides (mid-morning tropical showers are likely, which is why Madagascar and Shrek are better for the morning being mostly indoors). I'm mixed on whether the fastpass is necessary - I went in September (around the time of the Singapore Grand Prix), and whilst we did spend some time queueing, and did see some people using them, they weren't really needed (although we did split up to single rider for the JP Rapids). Pay attention to showtimes, and head for LMA early, but USS is really easily done in a day. Allow another day, if you can, to spend time on Sentosa, catch Wings of Time (as mentioned above) do the zipline, the luge, ride a bike around if that's your thing - the whole island is worthy of your time. If you still have time, another day should be spent on doing the Singapore Zoo, and the Singapore Night Zoo (the bird sanctuary thing isn't really appealing for me). Other randomness in no particular order for both HK and Singapore: Singapore Merlion. There are several - one on Sentosa and one near Marina Bay Sands, but the real one is on the opposite side of the harbour. Marina Bay Sands in Singapore is worth the trip up if you have a night free Raffles hotel - the ONLY place to try a Singapore Sling The Peak (Hong Kong) A Symphony of Lights (Hong Kong) right on the harbour - I recommend the Kowloon side so you're facing HK Island - English narration is available Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Out of time to write this now... PHEW! if I think of more i'll come back and add later... In short you'll never be short of something to do in either place. Enjoy!

We follow the parks very closely. We pay attention to every sneeze and sign. Of course we know HWSW and Cyclone are the same ride. But when Joe public reads in the paper that dreamworld has an all new roller coaster called "HWSW" he's just going to take it at that value, and take the family to the park. Of course, once they realise they are the same, they're already in the park, so they'll enjoy their day, and probably won't complain either.... therefore - the marketing works.

Don't be sorry. All of Australia calls them chips... As does UK. Americans call them fries...

This project looks like it's hitting a few hurdles... http://www.commercialrealestate.com.au/news/chinese-disneyland-to-continue-despite-10m-payment-problem-says-council/

No Main Street USA No Space Mountain No Railroad No Haunted Mansion No Western area Generic castle As I said, a lot of things that are so typically 'Disney'Land (world) are missing from this park. There's a whole bunch of new stuff, which are quite unknown. It could be a very good (different) take on Disney parks - something different for them which could then branch out to the other parks too... but until it opens, i'll retain my mixed feelings.

Why? A very popular conversation here recently has been what Movieworld needs to do to fix it's issues with large crowds and long queues... Being the biggest summer attraction in Sydney, why shouldn't that issue be newsworthy? Certainly more newsworthy than some of the tripe the GC Bulletin comes out with....

Personally, i think Dirty Harry's needs more theming... and you need to be able to walk through the kitchen... they also need to blackout those windows. Drinks are always served at the time of ordering. that's so you finish it before your meal is served, and order another one to wash down the meal. it's called making money. It's why places like Lone Star serve you free peanuts, or free corn chips - they're salty, and they make you thirsty, so you drink more. Quite frankly, if you expected that your drink would be served at the same time as your meal, you should have gone to McDonald's.

Wait... @Ashley is a chick? LOL http://www.parkz.com.au/forums/profile/29898-ashley/

I'm so tempted to make that topic now...

This has been my point all along. We were judging pre-shows as a standalone. That was my interpretation of Push's post. I repeated that interpretation several times, but as I said a day or two ago - i think we were debating different things - this makes it clear that we were. I'm not holding BATR or LTRR on a pedestal. All three rides did die a slow death. I totally agree. Yes, BT's plot twist was awesome - the reveal was well thought out and well set up, but it didn't kill the ride if you didn't understand it - the rest of the ride was still very cool and very detailed... I guess the same could be said for BATR and LTRR - the only difference is there wasn't an easy way for the park to skip the pre-show scenes with both of those rides having elaborate sets across several rooms, whereas with BT it was easy enough to just leave the doors open and have the video on a loop - it didn't require an actor to take part in the show, whereas LTRR and BATR did - and I think that the continued pre-show usage for those two is what makes it appear (perhaps with rose coloured glasses) that they continued to remain 'original' for longer. Could the park realistically have thrown open the doors on LTRR, allowing guests to walk through to the dock without stopping? #Shudder - probably. As for BATR - I only have vague recollections of BATR1 from a 1994 visit, and by the time I came back it was BATR2. I'm sure those who remember both vividly have a passionate dislike for number 2, but anyone who never saw 1, or doesn't remember it would still view 2 as a solid attraction - nothing appeared out of place with the change to the storyline if you were ignorant to the first. All of that said, I 100% agree with you that a Mad Mike performance wins hands down. As a matter of fact - it doesn't even have to be a PASS pre-show to win. Any street performance of his will do.

LOL. My post was only in response to the comment ' they've closed a pile, but haven't opened a lot ' the statement is a bit of a stretch. The words aren't well defined, but in my mind, the word 'pile' in terms of quantity comes in somewhere just short of 'loads'. Saying the park has gone "a little over the top closing rides" as well as "closing a pile, but not opening a lot" isn't accurate - the park has hardly gone over the top closing rides when by your own post - almost everything closed has been replaced with something new. If we're going to count Pirate Ship and Thrillseeker, we're going to be here a while. I'm not saying the park hasn't declined, in fact my comment immediately after 'blinders' was that I agreed the park wasn't what it used to be, and needed more.

I have mixed feelings. Too much of what made a Disney park 'Disney' is missing. I get that China is a big market. its silly not to try and tap into it... but i'm not so sure that it will 'feel' the same... time will tell.

Not disagreeing with you - but do you not consider Buzz to be an E-ticket?

i may just be imagining real hard - but to me it looks like another ring under the 'D' - could just be the digital noise though...

Closed on 26 January? Big fuck you to anyone who is taking an extended holiday break at the resort over Australia Day... Couldn't they have chosen just one day later when kids all go back to school? Yes - over the top because they closed three rides, one of which has been closed for near on 10 years. (You also missed Bermuda and the old waterpark area). Ignore the fact that over that period they've also built: Jet Rescue Battle Boats Storm Coaster High Ropes Kids jungle gym thing Mammoth Falls Several modifications to the childrens area several animal exhibits I think you're wearing blinders Kiddo. Look - I agree the park isn't quite what it used to be, but the park has used a lot of it's available land to build very large immersive animal habitats. I believe the park needs a few more rides to round out the day (which by the sound of things a new one is planned), but I would not be disappointed for the park to be more zoo, less amusement park.

Perhaps then we could change the thread title to something a bit more accurate?

Yeah, and we don't take those sites seriously either. It's still just survey monkey. it's not Orima or Roy Morgan. If it's even a remotely serious company - they aren't gonna use Survey Monkey. I'll believe it when they're using a company that actually does market research for a living (and generally proof reads their shit before posting it) If this is just for a school project or something - just be honest about it - you're more likely to get people willing to help you out if they know the truth. edit: i'm also wondering if the mods can check out his IP against the other instigators. Also - And any truly serious proposal here would be specifying the mid north coast of what in the title. the internet is a bit bigger than just one coast...

Well it depends on what you consider heyday (as clearly per webslave's comment below) we've all got different opinions. What I can tell you is that all three descriptions i've given are all from around 2004 or later. Given BT was constructed several years AFTER BATR and LTRR, if it wasn't in it's heyday, but the others 'still were' it doesn't say a lot for the quality of the build does it? Yes, i've experienced the ride with uniforms, in character etc - probably would have been 2004 at the earliest Granted the ride at that stage was over 7 years old, so not sure. I found the attraction as a whole to be great. I'm not saying it was a BAD pre-show, and the story introduced was definitely necessary for the overall ride, BUT my point is simply that it wasn't THE BEST one on the coast. After you'd seen BT's video, nothing would change - there was no interaction with the guests, and the story imparted could just as easily have been done on the back of a business card that you could read in the queue. The others (as mentioned) couldn't be replaced as easily. Have to ask @webslave - do you mean the ride elevator in the middle of the waterfall, or are you talking about the 'Earth Drill' ? The earth drill never moved - it was just a bouncy floor with two doors. See - THIS - THIS is what is worth crying about. not the lack of a dark ride or the replacement of a ride that clearly by all accounts was no longer in it's heyday. #GettingOnInYears

I disagree with your interpretation of his point. the two sentences are clearly separate and stand alone. I absolutely agree the preshow contributed to the whole, but i wouldn't say contributed to the whole better than the others. That said, I have in fact (at least once) on quiet days been on BT when there was no pre-show attendant. The video ran on a loop, doors at both ends were open, and people just went up and over. I have to say i've never experienced that on either BATR or LTRR. I mean no disrespect to the ride. It was fantastic, and easily the closest we ever got to 'disney' quality in an attraction (until budget cuts and other development degraded it). For me it's a big thing about Sea World - the first time I went to SW, it was under construction, and I didn't return to the coast for many years - so I frequently wondered about what it would be like before I finally got a chance to ride... I just don't see that the pre-show was anything special. It set the scene and the theme, it did it succintly and it made its point. Yes it was a bit silly, a bit camp, but overall it was just a video, on a screen, in a dark room that was (thankfully air conditioned and) themed statically, but very well. The same video could have been played in an empty room and achieved the same result. However, you've made your point, and i'm pretty sure i've made mine. I'm pretty sure we're not actually debating the same issue... but there is no sense beating a dead horse, so i'll leave it at that.

wasn't too hard to find - that there is a Zierer ESC out of New Jersey called Crossbow. it's about 10 years old. http://rcdb.com/3510.htm http://www.rides4u.com/view/2041 http://www.coastergallery.com/2009/Bowcraft06.html

@skeetafly - i'm just mindful not everyone enjoys reading really long posts. those who want to - can. those who don't can scroll on by. @Richard I absolutely agree with you that Bermuda as a whole was the best story \ theme \ ride combo we had, as you say... my comments however were directed only at the pre-show itself. The statement was the pre-show was the best (he had seen). My statements were to ask if he had seen LTRR, which (granted IMO) had a much better preshow for the reasons i mentioned, and again, BATR, which, (granted IMO) was also a far better preshow than BT for the reasons mentioned. Overall BT as a package was far better than LTRR or BATR, but if you look at pre-show in isolation (which is what Push's comment referred to), I don't think anyone could say BT's pre-show was the best on the coast.

Seriously? They hustled you into a tin shed with extensive "crap screwed to the wall" (which admittedly was very well themed) and played a video to you on a screen... THAT is the best pre-show you've seen on the gold coast? :puke: You must have missed the elaborately themed pre-show for Looney Tunes River Ride... Ok, but surely if you missed LTRR, you didn't miss Batman Adventure - The Ride... No? Ok - well clearly you have seen the Shrek pre-show. I mean seriously - animatronic Pinocchio and 3 little pigs, with inbuilt video screens showing their faces, crowd participation ( "A Flogging! ooooOOOOOooooooo!"), well known characters both in voice and on screen (not to mention the effort of animation). Even this little pre-show to a 4D movie, in my opinion, is still better than the Bermuda preshow, which was literally just a couple of actors in costume on screen, with no automation, animatronic, interaction, participation... I mean - Bermuda could literally have been replaced with this: Although I must admit - your claim is just about on par with all the other statements and claims you make - so i'll just chalk it up to 'just another crazy wacky push statement to gloss over....'

Cheaper solution