DaptoFunlandGuy

Fair enough - I haven't seen serpent slayer (obviously), but I take issue with you saying the concept of fantasmic is somehow never properly explained... The original name of the show was 'Imagination'. The narration to the show starts with: "Welcome to Fantasmic! Tonight, your friend and host Mickey Mouse uses his vivid imagination to create magical imagery for all to enjoy. Nothing is more wonderful than the imagination. For, in a moment, you an experience a beautiful fantasy. Or, an exciting adventure! But beware -- nothing is more powerful than the imagination. For it can also expand your greatest fears into an overwhelming nightmare. Are the powers of Mickey's incredible imagination strong enough, and bright enough, to withstand the evil forces that invade Mickey's dreams? You are about to find out. For we now invite you to join Mickey, and experience Fantasmic! a journey beyond your wildest imagination." (which can be heard at 27 seconds here: http://youtu.be/8SQ1LHojUNQ?t=27s The theme song's chorus also goes: See it... in your mind, and you will find, in your imagination... mysteries and magic, visions fantastic, leading to strange and wondrous dreams. Dreams, of make believe, but will they all come true... I wouldn't say the cast aren't 'visually interesting' in their appearance, and while I agree they do spend a little too much time on the water screens, a lot of what they have can't be represented by actors in a meaningful way... except perhaps Ursula, but from what I understand, the Ursula float used to have too many problems to be reliable, and she played up so much they decided just to stick with the projection than to hinge the show each night on whether she would work that night or not.

I don't think the park hitting capacity in it's first month of operation - even consistently - is not an appropriate comparison to the success or failure of Wonderland. Theres a few other things to take into account - Wonderland wasn't JUST a waterpark operating 6 months of the year. Slides cost significantly less to maintain and operate Wonderland was almost 20 years old and the lustre had rubbed off the park... let's see how this park is in 19 years time. There were other factors contributing to Wonderland's closure that weren't directly attributable to 'the market not being there' also.

For you to say this, Joz.... I have to see the video!

How dare they put guest safety above guest happiness. They should run all their rides no matter what the weather. who cares if someone gets electrocuted - that was just bad luck for randomly being on it when it struck, right? No - the family would sue the park for recklessness, and they'd win, and then the park would be closed down. The old adage - it's better to be safe than sorry.

there was a storm in LTRR?

For those not using a mobile version of facebook, you'll find the regular site link here I will say, after taking on such a worthy cause, TPAGG is definitely worth every centimetre of that Mars Bar Wrapper... I might have to revise my own bid...

If this goes on much longer, we should probably split it into it's own thread... But dare I say - in the universal pictures above - variety, well executed, well suited to the area, and... MICROPHONES. At any rate - this thread is a sorely needed and long overdue discussion over the merits of the 'no entry' gate of nowhere. I must say i'm surprised noone has taken up my suggestion about creating a facebook page about it - but give it time, i'm sure it will.

I'm pretty sure I said the same thing about last year's parade compared to the year before... but checking photos from both years I was wrong. One tends to be more critical of recent events, whereas older memories are softer - seem to be less of an issue with them. If Rappa says the parade is the same, it's the same.

Naturally, we'll see many people booing the park for reaching capacity, whereas - like we saw with Las Vegas, reaching capacity on what is really it's first big day now that school holidays are in is a good sign, and proof that all those retards whinging about the cost of a season pass, and how they were going to 'boycott' the park were nothing to worry about. Despite whatever teething problems the park is having or will have - I think this image has 'success' written all over it.

Really? I saw a story on channel 7, and it seemed to imply that they were having difficulty in teaching the desired behaviours. That said it didn't look any different - so far they're teaching them the same behaviours the adults have been doing for years... climbing the pole, jumping between the two pillared stands (one of them refuses) and leaping into the air to catch a reward. They were using wrapped christmas present boxes as target spots - one of them kept taking them into the pool and sogging up the wrapping paper everywhere..

Remember to allow for the "buy 3, get one free promotion" which they introduced and made retrospective. Not everyone who bought one would have bought as part of a group of 4 (we buy ours as a couple so we don't benefit from those kinds of offers) but while it may not be 25% of the passes are freebies, I daresay around 10% would be. Still - around 15 million is still pretty good. I couldn't be bothered going back to check the proposed cost of the park, however with pass sales like this, return on investment won't take long and we should start to see expansions in 3-5 years.

I get why there's this 'hate' culture towards the skill games. They (in all the parks) have been executed poorly. They don't 'fit' within the parks. But I want to take you back to a park that opened 28 years ago... of course i'm talking about Australia's Wonderland Sydney. By my count around the time most of us remember (2000-2004), there were 20 skill games in that park. There used to be a couple more. Some of the 20 only opened in peak periods, so on a general trading day, it was likely closer to 15. These games were EXTREMELY profitable. Judging by the fact that most of the games in our GC parks are not open for a full day, or even at all suggests to me that they probably aren't. Having been involved in the training of the Wonderland crews from time to time, theres a couple of reasons why (in my opinion): Microphones. Each and every game at Wonderland had a microphone. Spieling was a big part of the cast member's job. We trained our people to go nutso-skitso excited when someone won a major prize. Making it exciting and fun. For the same reason (use of microphones and going crazy) being a winner was actually something fun, worthy of recognition. The game op would announce the winner loudly and proudly and wave the prize everywhere to show everyone how lucky the winner was (this of course also had the effect of enticing more players) Game Variance. Wonderland had one bushell ball game, and one 'shoot the water pistol at the target' game. I'm pretty sure that both SW and MW have both. If you play the game at one park, why would you play the same game at the other? They know that most people who visit one park will visit both because of the group-park pass deals, so why offer the same product everywhere? Prize Variance. Although some prizes found there way to multiple games - some easier to win than others, there were many different prizes at many different levels that you could win. Desirable Prizes. While the park had a lot of variety in both games and prizes, the biggest giant prizes (think of a 6 foot tall Pooh Bear) were the games that were hardest to win - get a $1 coin on a glass table. Get all 1's or all 5's in the laughing clowns. Lastly - the cast members were all a young, enthusiastic bunch who were motivated by their supervisors to try and hit revenue targets or sales records with rewards or other prizes... ones that the staff wanted to get (i don't know if the GC parks do this, but judging by the lack of motivation, probably not) In wonderland, you could walk around all day and see people everywhere carrying a 'stuffed toy'... and big ones too. School groups were big on playing them when they came to town as well... This is something you don't see at the GC parks very much... which implies one of two things - either nobody is playing them, or nobody is winning. If the park were smarter, they'd make the games easier to win - give away a few more prizes, and when people see them around the park, they'll see the games and think 'that 8 year old won that big teddy - surely I can'... And by letting more people win, less people will view them as 'nasty skill games' because if they win, it's something that they like. Given our recent discussion about the Holiday Club folk, chances are you guys probably don't want game spruikers on a microphone throughout the park, however, given Wonderland was modelled on successful american theme parks (and the games were profitable) perhaps the microphone is suitable? If it puts more revenue into the park, and doesn't cost you anything unless you choose to put your hand in your pocket, what's the problem? At least in SW and MW, the games are all clustered together and (at least in movie world) you can detour around them if you want to. Yes, i've gone very off topic from the train crossing. I think Joz is on the money here - they don't want to open the gate because they want people going past the shops, so why not move the games back and extend the plaza area. It wouldn't hurt to change up the games too. Considering the pathway to their newest attraction is (at one point) about 2 metres wide, it isn't exactly a broad thoroughfare for guest movement. It's time the gate was brought down... Perhaps (like with most things) someone needs to create a facebook page about it's removal - share it around a lot and get people to 'like' it and then use the 'like' power to show the park that something needs to be done... take it out of the 'enthusiast' community, and into the 'general' community. As soon as you tell the general 'facebooker' that the gate is only there to force people through the retail plaza, you'll have soccer mums sporting Uzi's just begging for a fight...

It's called population. we don't have enough to support a park with what you have described... One day maybe.

Sentosa* Yes it's hard to get off the island once you're on it - and i guess that was the point of building it!

It is a bit ridiculous (no it's not how I get there). It's the biggest and best 'reveal' approach to Storm - they absolutely ruin it by forcing people through the retail plaza. Along with Wild, I think Sea World need to completely rework the area around the old train track. They've obviously decided it's not coming back as they've covered over the tracks in several places, so it's time they filled in the gaps, concreted or laid bitumen over the top, lifted the fences as shown in this picture and also across the bridge, and make it usable walkway space. The area shown in this picture would potentially make a good 'drop tower' spot, or something similar - provided suitable clearance from the skyway, and of course, height restriction limitation or relaxation. Can I also add to the wishlist to do something with the 'info kiosk' hut as shown in the above picture also? Make it a retail outlet. Sell sno cones (anything is better than a gazillion trolley carts driven by kids without manners or customer service skills) - otherwise - give it to the holiday club people. let them sit inside the booth and spruik from there - that would surely be reason to then open the railway gates and let people once again use that pathway. Sea World can no longer pretend that these gates are in anyway necessary for anything - as they were once able to do for the train.

the good thing about Malaysia is in the scheme of things you can island hop to some blockbuster properties... Disney in Hong Kong Universal in Singapore Fox in Malaysia And then there's Sunway....

On the contrary - I've just reviewed the first two pages of the Wet N Wild Sydney Construction thread - "official" construction was commenced by the NSW premier in September 2012, and here we are, 14 months on with a fully functioning water park (albeit without a fully functioning website). In that thread (as quoted) Gazza also points out that White Water World only took 359 days to build... (All posts below are from the Wet 'n' Wild Sydney Construction thread at You yourself were watching this one... No ground had been broken by end of july according to this.... Yes, good call yet again Brad.... Precisely - and thats somewhat bigger than what is planned at Hervey Bay Groundwork commenced end of august... The media release quote didn't carry over from the other thread, but in short described the 'official commencement' of construction by the Premier at some point in early september.... So this 'World Class' water park was built in approx 14 months, and White Water World was built in 12 months.... So I'd say they could do this in 10 months. That still gives them a two month weather buffer to meet the '2014' claim... doesn't seem ambitious to me - just rather 'adequate'

I said it was harder to build one of these things a stone's throw from sea water that it was on solid foundation. Sand has a high LOAD CAPACITY, but when constantly eroded by wind, and ocean, over time you can make mountains disappear. The fact that it was already reclaimed (see early photos of SW where it was mostly isolated lagoons and not much land) does play. As Nitro said - the fact they had a pump running 24/7 during foundation works proves my statement - my statement was that it was HARDER TO BUILD. If you built this at Movie World, it wouldn't have required a pump running 24/7, which is therefore EASIER. And sand that is highly water concentrated can have a quick sand effect. Sloppy sand can cause bogginess and be overall difficult to work in - so no assumptions were made, although I didn't present the facts I based my statement on, the fact remains that building a structure on SAND is harder than building it on "general" earth. I acknowledge Clay has it's own problems, however I point out my comparison wasn't sand to clay, it was just sand to general soil.

Regardless of cross compatibility issues, it isn't hard for them to build a website for cross-compatibility. Why do web designers insist on including all the latest gadgets that only work on the latest browsers (and then only some of them) just because they are there? Whatever happened to Netscape? Let's go back to Netscape 3.0 and be done with it! End of the day - what is the point of having a website if you're going to exclude a vast majority of users by not having it compatible across the board? I've seen many websites where you're given the option of 'flash site' or 'no flash' - at least give people the option of a more bare bones but still functional site - the content was already there - it is just a matter of how it is displayed.

not to mention it's not the stablest of land out there on the spit - most of the land it sits on has already been reclaimed. footings, shallow ground water - it's harder to build one of these things a stone's throw from sea water than it is to build it on a solid foundation... Richard makes a very good point though - even though it wasn't really necessary at all - Journey to Atlantis at Sea World San Diego utilises the same style of vertical "tilt" lift that we see in Scooby Doo.

I wouldn't say 'mystifying'. The calls were made 'yesterday' - if we're in real time here - thats 17/12 - precisely one week before christmas eve. My wife works for a developer whose final office day for 2013 is tomorrow... and they have multiple projects currently underway - if this is the only project for them, what's to say they didn't knock off early for christmas? The "journalist" works for a local rag, and made 'multiple calls' to the developer on a single day. We don't know if they spoke to a receptionist, or an answering machine. We don't know if the answering machine said 'our office is closed for christmas' or if it said 'we'll call you back as soon as possible'. When I try to contact someone who isn't expecting my call for work, I am REQUIRED to call them on three separate days, at three separate times of day before I can close off the request without actioning them. The newspaper obviously had to go to print to make deadline, they made a few calls because the media is required to give any party to a news story a right of reply - but they only have to attempt to make the call, not make any serious effort. This is why you see stories like this saying 'we were unable to reach so-and-so for comment - because it acknowledges that they at least tried to do so. Let's wait and see what news comes out say - by the end of january, when businesses like this are back in full swing. Thankyou for posting the news article and the picture - I can't wait to see what they do after they've sat back and watched WnWS go up... should be interesting. (unrelated side note - Wyndham Resorts are a timeshare group)

I wonder whether the park will survive attaching itself to franchises like Night at the Museum, or even Rio. AvP and Planet of the Apes fair enough - they've got some staying power - but I hope they don't 'date' too quickly.

I've been thinking about this and while we all know they couldn't really make the ride bigger or longer, there is something they could do to improve the experience and extend the ride time a little... If the theme is storm - then imagine this: the flume section between the despatch station and lift hill is long enough for it to be segmented. The first section at the station is the dock where you board your coast guard vessel to escape the storm. If we divide that area from the next section (where we see the window with the video of the storm raging outside) with some doors (say - how Scooby or JL3D do), then the boat could enter the next block, the doors could close, and with the addition of some strobes and high powered fans, the prelude to the lift hill (hidden by another set of doors) could imply that, while we started in the eye of the storm, the storm has now come back full force, and things are about to get rough! Of course - the doors would come with a set of blocks also, where the boat would be held (similar to how other flumes are held) for each scene prior to the doors opening. It would require some major reprogramming to the ride systems, so is likely not to be feasible until the ride comes due for a refurb. At the very least, they could still install the fans and strobes, and just 'shield from view' those particular effects with a slightly longer wall than is there presently.

Leaving out of course the great detail we have in the JP rapids river rides in Universal... singapore... hollywood... florida?

Bermuda lives on... for those that haven't seen it - Movie Park Germany - virtually identical http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_loycrZ27A#t=249