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Cedar Point changed Mantis to become Rougarou. A clip about the painting:

The official business day is 10-6, so you'll find many shops won't be open if you're out and about before 10

The term used was World Class, not Worlds First. Silly me not paying enough attention before commenting. Sorry all.

Wasn't the reported term "World's Best", and not "World's First"?

My tips for Universal Studios Singapore: Get/Use a Mastercard - its their preferred payment method and you can pick up some good ticket deals by having one Once through the turnstiles, turn right and head for SciFi City and get into that Transformers queue. It should be no more than half hour if you arrive at opening. This queue can get up to 2hrs, so get at least one ride in early. After Transformers, hit up BSG. Cylon was my favourite. Free lockers for this one. Next ride around the ring is The Mummy. Awesome dark coaster. If you don't want to carry your stuff, leave it in the BSG lockers. The ones at Mummy aren't free. Jurassic Park comes next. You will get wet on the river ride, be warned. This ride typically has the longest line any of the times I've been. Waterworld is a good fun show. If you sit towards the front you can get wet. Far Far Away land is nicely put together. Puss n Boots wasn't open when I was last there. Donkey Live is a fairly fun show. Madagascar Crate Adventure is a nice way to relax for a while, but not worth lining up any more than 15 minutes for. I always go to Mel's Diner for lunch. If you time it right, sit outside and catch the performers on the stage. The walk from VivoCity to Universal doesn't take that long. You'll need a $1 coin or an EZLink card when you get to the island. The first time I went, I stayed at Hotel Ibis at Novena. It was a nice quiet part of town, about a 10min walk from the train station. The breakfast wasn't included in my price but I paid it for both mornings I was there. My next trip I stayed with a friend at Swisotel at Central - very business focused but comfortable enough, and would gladly stay there again. Last trip I stayed at Hard Rock Hotel at Sentosa, and probably would've preferred the Swissotel again. Most hotels in Singapore will have universal power points, but not all so be sure to take a travel adapter. If you need multiple devices then also pack a powerboard. Also, put a Pen in your carry-on - Singapore has an arrivals card to fill in, and you need to keep a piece of it to hand back in as you depart. Flights to Australia require your duty free alcohol purchases to be completed at least 90 minutes before departure, so if you have a 1am departure, be sure you've shopped before 11:30pm. If you see yourself doing a lot of public transport whilst in Singapore, grab a 2, 3 or 5 day Tourist Pass. They cost around $35, you can get them from the Ticket Counter at the train station at the airport (Counter only, not machines). If you hand your card back when you leave, they give you $20 of it back. All depends on how long you'll be there for and how much travel you plan to do. Cable Car is kinda cool, but IMO not worth the money they charge for it - particularly going up Mt Faber. I still haven't managed to see the crane show, but I really want to. You'll find most places in Singapore use Turkey Bacon. I found one place that did though, and it was a cafe run by some Aussies along Clark Quay - a good place to head if you're really keen on bacon and eggs for breakfast. I did enjoy heading up the Marina Bay Sands to the observation deck and getting a look at the city from up high. The Gardens by the Bay are quite nice to wander through as well. Raffles Hotel is near Central, once there head upstairs and look for the Long Bar I believe its called. Once you've had a traditional Singapore Sling you can definitely taste the difference when you get the alternative. Be warned that they're expensive, around $26 last time I went. Be sure your phone is not network locked before going over if you intend to grab a local SIM. Their plans are often quite cheap, but the initial SIM can be expensive. The last time I went I was on a Vodafone Post-paid plan, so I activated the $5 a day roaming plan and used my domestic inclusions whilst overseas. Biggest shock I had of Singapore was actually on my way out - when you get to Changi Check-In Desks, don't be alarmed if you see Army officers with machine guns on patrol. I flew with Scoot every time I've been. They have weekly specials on Tuesday mornings until around 11am. They fly from Gold Coast Airport around 9am, landing into Singapore around 3pm local time. The return flight departs around 1am Singapore time, landing into Gold Coast around 7am.

Matt Preston from Masterchef has said Brisbane is the one city where you arrive at the restaurant and have drinks at the bar, then get your table for your meal, then return to the bar after dinner. I find this is exactly what happens in places like this, or Strike. You'll arrange to meet your friends there at 6:00. Nobody will have thought to book ahead so it'll be 7:00 before you get your tee. There's an hour of drinks/snacks sales. You'll order finger food to arrive while you have the tee plus more drinks during the game. After you're done, some will leave but many will stay on and have more drinks. Building this at the Village Precinct seems like the best place to put it. If they either convince state government or chip in to have the G:Link continued from Helensvale station over through the precinct, I can see this area becoming a great place to be. Throw in a bar within the hotel then you've got a holiday destination in one location. Fly into Coolangatta and grab the bus or tram once they extend it that far, check in to the hotel and grab a drink at the bar, a round at TopGolf then hit the hay. Day two is all day at Movieworld with AOS afterwards, and a bar to go to for drinks after the show. Day three at Wet n Wild and then a quiet night in because that day is always draining. Day four at Sea World on your way out (SW might need luggage lockers or something)

So, had a thought about the top of the second lift hill. For those who've ridden Transformers at Universal, think about the wrap-around screens in the lifts. The projectors are mounted on the lift carriage, so the image moves with you as you move. Perhaps this technique could be utilised in conjunction with the sudden blast of air and heat from behind to better simulate an explosion. One other thing I'd love to see, although it's hard to say how feasible it would be, is to have the rocking effect during the chain lift in the same way Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland (Paris at least).

The last time I was here the doors atop the last hill were opening at different speeds, would be nice to see them sync that back up. It would be nice to see them put a roll effect on the final chain lift, just to have something else going on there. I'd also be keen to see a bit of a re-theme. At the moment it feels a lot like disparate parts tacked together. The first mention of explosives is at the bridge, with the first mining reference now at the entry to the chain lift tunnel. Perhaps a voice over playing in the different areas to provide a reason as to why you're in the boat and floating around.

When wrist bands were mentioned, my first thought was MagicBands. Perhaps we'll see Movieworld start introducing a similar concept, particularly with them building a hotel on site.

Its to allow the fill to settle. The Brisbane Airport put wick drains in theirs so it will settle faster. I know a fair chunk of the Pacific Highway in New South Wales took a long time to build because they were waiting on the fill to settle before they could pave on top of it. It sunk around 5m in the I'm guessing 2 years they had to wait for it.

Big Thunder Mountain at DLP is down all year. So is the Mark Twain. Basically anything that operated on the river. They're reworking the final drop of Big Thunder and that is located underneath the water level, so construction is going to be tricky for them. My pick for best ride there is Big Thunder, followed by Crush's Coaster over at Studios.

BSG is an excellent coaster. Not sure it's what Movieworld needs though. Im sure they would still have all the survey data from when they re-themed Arkham Assylum, maybe they could build another coaster which ducks and weaves it's way around this. Just something I noticed last time I was there, but if they extended the unload platform on Green Lantern back further they could operate Load/Unload in the same method as Scooby and Superman. The loose articles box is on the unload side anyway, it might speed things up. My biggest criticism of the park currently is their slow operations

Quick question to those who have been before: Looking at visiting Alton Towers. Currently in London. Considering travelling up and staying the night before in a hotel around 18 miles from the park. Best info I can find shows a 1hr bus ride from there to the park. Is there anything more direct that you've heard of or used? My plan is to travel up on Friday evening and stay the night, then get the train back after the park on Saturday night.

Ghostrider was down when I was over there in October. I believe they were redecking and retracking the entire ride.

When you go to Raffles, head upstairs to the Long Bar (I think it was called). You get the choice of pre-made or hand-made. The hand-made was around $36 if I recall. If you like sweet drinks, you'll love it. Tip for those staying at Swissotel or Fairmont hotel across the road, you can charge to your room from Raffles. If you're desperately homesick, there is a Hogs Breath Cafe in the same complex as Raffles (better waiting til you get home though). At USS, Transformers is typically the longest wait. I've tried to get that done first thing, and then continued around the park. The queue on Jurassic Park will be quite long most of the day. The poncho vending machines in the queue line I found quite amusing. Mel's Diner is my pick for food venues, but I'm a person of limited tastes. I haven't been back since BSG reopened, but Cylon was my pick of the two. I missed the Songs of the Sea show when I've been there. I caught the tail end of it once, and it looked intriguing enough to want to see it, just never managed to get there before show time. If you walk over to Sentosa, turn right once you get onto the island - the signage can be confusing in the caves under the waterfall there. They don't seem to check for tickets for the monorail heading back to Vivocity.

When I visited Knotts Berry Farm I headed for Johny Rockets for lunch because for me it was a known quantity - I'd eaten at one earlier in my trip, and I couldn't find anything appealing to me at any other restaurants in park (I wasn't feeling well so had very limited appetite). When I visited Disneyland Paris I mostly ate in the Disney Village rather than in park because I went for established brands again. It's mostly just a trust thing that the food will be of a certain quality or standard when you buy from that familiar brand. That said, I've also eaten from in-park restaurants and had no issue with the food there, other than the price vs quality balance not quite where it should be, even for a captive audience.

Is there a possibility of the exit path for Arkham to snake underneath the lift hill, do a 180 and come back towards the Superman plaza? That would free up the Chinatown courtyard from any other purposes, and it could be re-purposed to a food court. You could move Gotham Greasy Burgers around there, and it would let you rework that dining area into something useful, and it moves all the Batman theming closer together - having Gotham Cafe on Main Street doesn't really make sense thematically (to me anyway). Wild West area really shouldn't start until you get to about the point of the forced perspective wall. This frees up the show stage, Intencity and the games plus Boot Hill and surrounds to become a new themed land. It makes no sense to step out of Scooby into abandoned town land, before you either return to Main Street or continue down to Wild West Town. I'm not sure what sort of rides you could place in this new themed area, but the show stage plus the ghost town seems like a sizable parcel of land to do something with.

If you know what you're looking for you can find the elevators inside Transformers - they're the large wrap around screen stops. You'll notice the base not moving, but the car might tilt and spin a little. The section where you feel like you're falling is where you are actually descending. I've been to USS 3 times now, and gone on fewer things each time. BSG really is the star attraction there. Dejiki posted a glimpse of what they've done with the queue areas since the shutdown and they're looking better than they were the first time I got to ride them. My pick of the two is the Cylon side - I found it a great ride, while the Human side made me feel ill. Revenge of the Mummy is great, and they change the queue configuration throughout the day so every time I went it was different. Jurassic Park is just a rapids ride, but it gets some ridiculous queues.

If I were Village Roadshow or S&S I think I'd be calling the lawyers. Work Cover will do an investigation into how this happened undoubtedly, and I suspect that if it's found that the prescribed maintenance has been followed to the letter, then S&S will be hit up by Roadshow to cover costs to fix it - in a similar fashion to how Qantas sued Rolls Royce after the A380 incident in Singapore.

I was here earlier in the week, and the cars are running quite well. The entries are all boarded up with notices on the LED screens saying the improved experience is en route. The BSG shop where the ride exits through is also boarded up (I was hoping to shop there)

Corkscrew/Sea Viper Thunderbolt Eureka Beastie Demon

I rode Cylon first, and loved it. I rode Human and felt sick from it. The second time I went to the park (12 months later) it had closed. I'm excited that they'll be open again before I next visit. MickeyD - I believe the situation with heights and different seating positions was to do with clearances for the near misses. I'm 6ft and had no issue in any seat. I rode these rides fairly early in the day and they weren't duelling at that stage (not enough riders I guess)

Thanks for the tips guys It looks like at this stage we'll be visiting Thorpe Park on my second day on the ground over there, which is a Tuesday. Come Sunday we take the train to Disneyland Paris, staying for 2 nights at the Sequoia Lodge, heading back to London on Tuesday, another few days then I fly home on Sunday morning.

You're looking at adding another 2hrs+ travel time to get to Sunshine Coast from Gold Coast, 2hrs back again and probably peak traffic through Brisbane (starts around 3pm and finishes about 6:30pm). I'd be staying south myself.

Jabob - Disneyland Paris' website shows Disneyland Park, and Walt Disney Studios Park. Did you get through both in one day? Gazza - Thanks for that info lolman - Good to know