DaptoFunlandGuy

I'm assuming he meant Starro

https://youtu.be/pP5CdRiY8Ak

Yep. I think Scenic World is ripe for 'a coaster' but sadly I don't think Orphan's current track or structure is up to today's standards. Rip it out, and put something else in that wasn't built in a backyard.

^Whilst totally suitable to Aussie world - a park that by most accounts is 'rarely busy', the illusionarium having 'terrible capacity' would be an atrocious fit for SW.

Wow - so the 'garage' looks as though they've knocked out the front facade of the building and set up the inside of it to look like a mechanic type shop... interesting twist. Of course, it'd look better if the old 'jewellry display case' on the left wall wasn't still there, but cut in half... Then again it'd also look better (in line with the apparent 'brisbane' based smash repairer next door) if the entire set wasn't italian themed. Is it really that hard to hit the buildings with some cement render to do away with the now fatigued italian buildings and make them look more believeable? Heck - the 'bridge' in the middle could easily be themed to look like a local rail bridge instead of the current 'cobblestone' look they've got. I guess we have to be thankful the park is at least TRYING to make things look a bit better instead of those giant motorcycle jumps with the fake brick wall wraps.

Absolutely agree re: the night events. Originally - they were only available on the Gold pass which made it worth the upgrade... then they cheapened the gold pass and began giving it away. I share Richard's sentiments regarding their previous failed attempt at lockout days. As far as I was concerned, the lockout period was clearly spelled out for me when I purchased a pass that year. I couldn't believe it when they backflipped on it in the middle of peak season. Disney has 'tiered' lockouts - different days are available to you depending on what pass you purchase - pay more, get more - simple as that. I do... when an annual pass costs the same or less than a single day ticket, and they also give you a single day ticket when you renew, who in their right mind would buy a single day pass? (obvious tourist exceptions). If it's going to be a similar price to a day ticket, it needs to be restricted by postcode or something. I recently went to Ocean Park and inadvertently bought 'HK Resident' tickets from a 7/Eleven. I realised my mistake before I got to the gate and had the tickets exchanged at the ticket window - it only cost about HK$25 more (+/- A$5) and I was fine with it. I didn't attempt to use them at the gate so I have no idea whether I would have been asked to prove residency or not. The way I see it - Regular day ticket price remains the same Short term passes (the 14 day combo tickets etc) remain the same Standard VIP should be around $100, but limited to SE QLD postcodes and subject to lockout dates at Easter, Christmas and most of January The same ticket should be about $110-120 for people outside those postcodes (which is still excellent value) Gold should be up around $150 - with no lockout dates Night events (and they need to specify Carnivale, as well as WC and FN) should be an optional upgrade to your Gold pass for say another $50 Discovery Passport should sit at around $250, include everything the upgraded Gold ticket has, plus Food and Merch discounts, and special seasonal offers (eg: BOGOF at Rick's in March or BTGOF at AOS in August) I don't believe they should make the 'night upgrade' part of a wider deal - people may buy the upgrade for other things (such as no lockouts) which then entitles them to 3 night events which they may or may not attend - making it hard to account for attendance at those night events - ie: there may be 100,000 people entitled to attend Carnivale - but 30,000 of them may just decide 'not to go'. As mentioned - they'll probably take a hit in the first year as people rail against the steeper pricing, but then it becomes the norm. No longer will we wait with bated breath towards the end of the financial year to see what price point they're going with for next year... it'll be the same offer each year, with maybe a few extra sweeteners for those renewing an existing pass. We will. I'd like to say that they couldn't introduce it these days given how long we've had free parking - but Westfield has proven you can do it. People won't stop coming just because they have to pay for parking - although nearby businesses may get a little upset when half the guests park over the highway... If they DO go in that direction - they need to consider what other parks have done with their paid parking - and offer premium services as part of the deal - Valet or VIP parking that offers you a park closer to the gate for a little extra. In our time in the states we paid for that at Universal and it was worth it.

^was that pure construction cost, or was licensing a part of that? Did it include Pandamonium? I assume, since we're expecting SW to put in a new kidfamily coaster as part of the development, that the cost will definitely be 'up there'.

Not every day - only when they don't expect a big crowd. Holidays etc they'll run everything full cap. Dreamworld is always busy - yet they still manage to get away with having rides closed for half a day alternating runs.

LOLZ if the night events aren't an "upgrade to your pass" but merely just a cheaper price. We've all been screaming for the park not to give this stuff away - we can't very well get grumpy at them now that they've decided to make it tiered staggered premium pricing for the same stuff. I think they finally realised that people will buy a VIP pass without being given $70+ of extra stuff... oh - except the free ticket for a friend... whoops.

Rappa hit the nail on the head with what I was getting at. The better example of an unnecessary OTSR would be abyss... of course it does have inversions... and of course the exception to the rule in Buzzsaw... but what i meant was the unnecessary 'extra' systems employed on Aus rides that other countries show are unnecessary. Cue the response about the lower incident rate in Australia... but my point is we're very much nanny state when it comes to rides.

I do remember a train trip through the plantation... didn't think it was a monorail though... are we talking monorail as in Sydney Sea World Disneyland type monorail or just a ground based tracked tour through the bananas?

Fair point Richard, and as i've said a couple of times, i'd expect guest services to know these things. You rightly point out that an annual pass processing centre should know these answers too. My only issue with that part was that it came across as rude. As Joz said though - benefit of the doubt, and i'll take that one on board. The bulk of my discussion, however related to this: Do you expect a toilet cleaner, burger cook, security guard, flashy crap seller etc. to be able to tell guests whether the park will release a premium annual pass offering at some time in the future - especially before the spinning of the Marketing Departments Mystery Wheel?

They had a monorail???

^in a Park (and country) where rides like Verbolten have only lap restraints and no OTSRs though... I didn't mean whether they COULD do it, moreso whether our risk-averse safety regime would permit it.

It'd be a lot of work, and probably not worth it - but i'd like to see a hydraulic element installed on the bridge to have it 'partially' collapse as you approached... a la the old Universal collapsing bridge in LA. Don't know whether they could achieve that as it is 'overhead' the ride path and may have issues unless it could be made completely 'failsafe'. All we can hope for in such well themed rides in AUS is that they maintain the current theming and not let it deteriorate like Bermuda and LTRR.

As I said - i'd expect all staff to be able to tell me where to go to find "x". They should know the park they work in backwards and forwards. I wouldn't expect every cast member to know the admission cost of every adult, pensioner, child, group combo ticket, add on Outback Spectacular upgrade and future park ticketing offering. If every cast member was expected to know all this, then we could do away with guest relations and just let each and every cast member handle that role. They SHOULD know the CURRENT offering (which would include the current VIP renewal offer) but as at that time the Gold upgrade option hadn't been announced - why should any of them be REQUIRED to know. They might have received a cast newsletter suggesting it was coming, but as you said - if noone in marketing has spun the big wheel - how can all park staff be expected to know these things? I think you've misunderstood me, and for the first part of my response - see above what i've said to Joz. I expect all cast could tell you where to find "x" in the park, but when it comes to ticketing enquiries (and more importantly - ticketing not yet advertised) all i would expect any cast member to do would be to direct me to guest services, and whilst i'd expect guest services to be able to tell me, i would be totally understanding if a GROUP ticket option not yet advertised was as yet unknown to them - in which case directing people to the call centre is the next logical step which is precisely what was done. As for Big W - would you pick an item off a shelf, hand it to the nearest staff member, and tell them to put it on layby for you? Would you ask the guy working in sporting goods for a refund? Would you take the latest PS4 game to the girl in the fitting rooms and ask her to unlock the case? No. Because in that store there are certain people who do those things, and so long as those staff directed guided held your hand and walked you to the appropriate layby customer service desk entertainment counter, they'd have done their job. I'm not aware of the background of the 'pass renewals' staff, but i'm fairly certain they aren't your typical cast member. I would expect they're either casual staff hired on for the job, or admin staff temporarily assigned to processing passes. they'd be shown how to process the pass purchase, take the photo, enter the member info and print the pass out. I'd hope they'd be 'fully inducted' into the park, but if they're in desperate need of those staff quickly, they'll shortcut to get things sorted. So long as those guys know how to direct you to guest services (which they apparently do) i'd be (frustrated, but) happy with that.

I really hope you mean "Team Bonding" The ski slope, and the ice rink are in fact two different operations - set about 200 metres apart. The slope is built down the hillside whereas the ice rink has a nice flat spot with a large open carpark...

For someone who is constantly banging on about other people's rudeness, it sounds like you were quite rude to the guest services folk. I also find your expectation that ANY staff member in the park should be able to answer questions about ticketing offerings purely ABSURD. Ride operations cast members have a lot of things to remember to ensure your SAFETY... and you want them to be able to tell any guest that might ask what ticketing options are planned for two months away? You want cleaners (who are typically the bottom of the ladder in a park and paid the lowest too - note i'm not saying this is the case in MW, only generalising) to be able to do the job of guest relations? NEWSFLASH - Guest Relations staff are the only people who should know the answers to those questions... However there's something you've missed here - you were asking about a multi-park ticket... and this is where multi-park staff (such as the call centre, or the website) come in... because the staff at each park cannot possibly be expected to know everything about every park within the company. I would never expect a park photographer to be able to tell me (reliably) whether the park would offer a premium ticket commencing in 2 months time. I'd expect them to know the showtimes for the street and stage performances on the day... I'd expect them to have an idea of which characters were appearing when... and i'd expect them to be able to tell me where (and when) I could collect my photos, and roughly how much a single print would be. I'd expect most park staff to be able to point me to the nearest toilet, locker, and major attractions... I wouldn't expect anyone except guest relations to be able to talk to me about ticketing, and for group wide ticketing, i'd expect the local park guest relations to know, but totally understand if a yet-to-be-released product was as-yet unknown to park staff, and totally understand if they would suggest calling the call centre to find out further info. I'd also totally understand if the call centre wasn't able to answer these questions yet - the company may not WANT people to know that it was coming yet - perhaps because they're planning on NOT offering free VIP gold upgrades this time around, and hoping to get most of the 'budget-passholders' onto a regular VIP before upcharging for VIP Gold like they used to. All I can picture is a petulant enthusiast stomping his foot in the middle of guest relations about how THEY should be able to tell him what the company is planning to do about tickets BEFORE the company has decided to release that info to the public. What makes you so special?

It's a sorely needed revamp for that whole area... but i can't help but wonder what the park can actually offer right now to earn their single-day ticket price...

Day 2 - Disneyland (wednesday) Part 4 - Grizzly Gulch The three new lands in HKDL take little time to get through, so this part of the TR is likely to be quick (although verbose as I am it'll probably be just as long!). Grizzly Gulch is a merging of several concepts from Disney parks - Frontier Land and Critter Country, but the main theme being a little "big thunder mountain". Its main only attraction is the Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. The area is well themed as a western town, the concept being a mining community founded when they struck gold. It is pleasantly themed with rockery, and as you walk through the land (with the coaster weaving all around you) you really do feel 'westernised' (I'd like MW to take a look at this about how to do a western area properly - even if you only have one ride!). Even little touches - like horse-shoe prints embedded in the concrete, alongside wagon tracks. This land yet again struggled and showed the park expected low attendance, as demonstrated by a single food outlet being opened, again mainly offering Chinese fare and some snack food like corn on the cob. Several food carts were placed out and about, but obviously closed. The attraction listing for Grizzly Gulch also listed the Grizzly Gulch Welcome Wagon Show - sadly this wasn't on the showtimes today and was obviously a sign of low park attendance. Also listed on the 'attraction' list was 'Geyser Gulch' - yet another water play area for people to cool down in the Hong Kong heat. At a pleasant 27 degrees - this wasn't of much interest to most people - except the kids bashing away on the 'bellows' which had a water cannon attached aimed at another set of bellows across a pathway - surely a good place to have a water fight - if only the guns would actually reach. We passed several other outlets and carts, all shuttered and clearly HKDL wasn't interested in getting our money - at least in this land anyway. We headed into the Mine Cars, where an elaborately themed queue line took you on a journey past incredibly well done mining theming (if WWF is to get an upgrade - they should check this out). Quite genuine, with photos of "miners" here and there - taken in front of actual parts of the coaster course. My only complaint is that too many switchbacks were unavoidable. The ride clearly was a walk-on, and yet the queueline was easily a few hundred metres when it didn't need to be. The actual result of such a queueline was that the ride would hold waiting for people in the last 100 metres of the queueline to walk their way to the front. I like that Disney do their queues well, and one should always have the option to walk through it if one should wish, but there should be a shortcut line for riders who just want to keep riding to be able to queue back up without walking a half marathon. The storyline for the coaster (and herein lies the critter country connection) was that bears were wreaking havoc around the mine. You depart the station quite quickly into a downhill corner and ride up and down a few little hills before the first lift, where near the top you discover the first of the bears causing problems - this one scratching his butt up against a lever that switches the track from the 'green' track to the 'red' track marked with danger signs. Of course... we're going down the 'danger' track. What followed was a leisurely run through some more hills and valleys without much thrill except the occasional headchopper. Eventually you find yourself on a track up a hill where a chugging steam engine drives the wheels that run the lift hill until at the very last moment the cable visibly snaps, flying into the air and sending you backwards through more well themed canyons and valleys, past 'geyser gulch', unfortunately extremely sedately, slowly and smoothly. You slow down further as you back into a cave, where overhead more bears are playing with explosives. Naturally (after the necessary time for the switch track to lock in), the bears blow the dynamite, and a burst of compressed air, bright lights and smoke sends you launching out of the cave again, this time for a much more enjoyable, fast run through even more canyons, with more impressive headchoppers until very quickly (too soon) you arrive at the brake run back into the station - where you again see the bears who have crashed their own mine cart through a wall looking very happy with themselves, before rounding a corner back into the brake run. From a speedpace perspective - I'd say the launched section was similar in speed to Jet Rescue. The other sections were slower than that. The ride overall was enjoyable, but i feel it lacked some of the excitement that it's Big Thunder counterparts have. I cannot praise the theme of the ride enough, it was very well done - the coaster itself, whilst enjoyable, just seemed to be a bit of a let down compared to my expectations. I feel like the 'local touch' has played a part here, downplaying the ride experience for the sake of the local market and tastes.It could have been so much more than what it was, but considering the market it was targeted to, i'd say they've done a stellar job at making up for the lack of thrill with an incredibly well done theme - the whole area was akin to Radiator Springs Racers in terms of it's desolate theme and well suited queueline.... However RSR had more thrill to it. Next up - Mystic Manor

^Precisely - you refer to a court case almost 20 years ago. LPS in it's current form was born again around 2004 when Wonderland closed - a lot of WL park staff jumped ship over to them when they took up operations again. As Jobe says there has been far more action on the legal front since 1996, with most of it settled in the favour of the park. As I intimated in my last post - i'm sure LPS wants to do as much as they can to 'keep the peace' with whinging neighbours, whilst still developing the park... which they have every legal right to do provided they meet the necessary planning and development obligations (something they goofed with Hair Raiser)

I don't think he was serious, but then again - this is what VRTP have conditioned us to - giving away the gate - I wouldn't be surprised if they had a BOGOF promotion on them... it just doesn't make sense.

I think the courts have settled that issue though. I'm fairly confident if Leighton were to propose building a new coaster, provided the necessary consultations and considerations were made, they'd get the go ahead. I don't honestly think a few whinging residents would be able to stop it if thats what leighton wanted to do. They do need to built a decent coaster as a drawcard... but keeping peace with the neighbours is important...

Discovery Passport was released a year or two ago. I do consider it to be the 'new' gold VIP pass since they trashed the original gold... but that said i've not been a VRTP passholder for over a year now - they lost my business with several less than fabulous decisions and no new offerings to tempt me in, as well as devaluing what they did offer that i was interested in. After a year with no passes, i think i'll be buying DW passes - but mainly due to a particular event coming up in the next 6 months.

Day 2 - Disneyland (wednesday) Part 3 - Adventureland We decided to skip fantasyland for the moment and trek across to Adventureland. Compared to LA, Adventureland is a bit of a disappointment - It has all the hallmarks of a 'classic' adventureland layout, but lacks substance. Adventureland's only major attraction is the Jungle Cruise, however it takes the place of the 'Rivers of America' one would be familiar with in that region of Disneyland. The Jungle Cruise circles an island before delving into the animatronic zoo that is the cruise. Hong Kong offers the Jungle Cruise in 3 separate languages - English and (i presume) Cantonese and Mandarin. The three queues work well and the groupers do a fine job of keeping each line moving at roughly the same pace. As I've read on other blogs (and from my past experience at the park) the bi-lingual skippers sometimes leave a little bit lost in translation. Thankfully today's cruise had a skipper who appeared to have reasonably mastered English and the delivery was reasonable, and the humor was at least understandable. The finale of the cruise is definitely a step up from Disneyland's, and a nice addition - but i'll not spoil it for anyone who hasn't yet seen it. Adventureland is also home to 'tarzan's treehouse'. Unlike other treehouses with a 'swiss family conversion', HK's version was built as Tarzan right from the start. It has several nice little touches - a crib rocking up in the treetops, some nice animatronics of some major animal characters from the film. Throughout the tree tour there are little 'books' that tell part of the story of the film as you progress through the tour.The tree is quite realistic, and also affords a nice view over the Adventureland end of the park. The treehouse is built on what would be Tom Sawyer Island in California - this is the island that the jungle cruise circles, and unlike California, the treehouse is the only activity on the island. It requires a raft to cross the river, and to be quite honest it seems like a waste for them to have inserted the tree on the island - inaccessible except by raft. The tree does provide a great focal point to the land, but I can't help but think that a better use of the space might have been a Fantasmic-esque stage. Another Adventureland "attraction" is the Leaky Tikis. This is a small water play fountain type attraction that in most other parks wouldn't even rate a mention on the 'attraction guide' but this park somehow makes it an attraction on level with Jungle Cruise... showing the severe lacking of attractions in this area. Of course - HKDL have stayed true to form on 'local design elements' by installing another show in Adventureland - and what would be more fitting, than "Festival of the Lion King". It's been said on many Disney park blogs that HKDL's FotLK is a standout to the others as it remains true to the original film. Although I haven't seen any others, I have to say I was quite impressed with how the show was put on. The show features 4 large animatronic floats - featuring a Giraffe, an Elephant, a float for Timon and Pumbaa, and a Pride Rock float with a very impressive Simba animatronic atop. Actors then re-enact the entire Lion King film in costume from start to finish - an impressive and well rounded performance featuring many of the songs from the film... A multi-levelled stage morphs and changes from scene to scene and is well utilised for best effect during the show. Once again Adventureland hosted several different food outlets - however again - most were closed, and the only fare offered within was a sit-down Chinese affair. Adventureland is sorely missing something - another anchor attraction to tie it all up. What it has is quality - but it needs more. Next up - the three new lands - Grizzly Gulch, Mystic Manor and Toy Story Land.