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MrLukeCarroll

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Posts posted by MrLukeCarroll

  1. Headed along yesterday for the reopening day and Halloscream event at night and was lucky enough to ride the 7 new attractions that were open (before Little Nipper broke while we were on it and Maintenance seemingly just gave up on it). It's a real shame they couldn't get Sledgehammer opened as I've seen videos with it testing whilst guests were on it, hopefully it's up ASAP because with it and Wild Mouse closed and Big Dipper not yet to open there isn't much on offer for even a moderate thrill-seeker.  A number of the rides are individually presented well but there isn't much tying the new area together, with temporary construction fences as queues and a number of smaller things such as the Boomerang station being unfinished truly making it seem like they ran out of money right near the end. 

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    The standouts of the newly opened rides have to be the Boomerang Coaster which packs a surprising punch for a family ride, especially on the backwards parts as well as Loopy Lighthouse the perfect stepping stone for those not quite confident enough to ride the Hair Raiser.

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    Halloscream itself was good but just missing some refinement to become truly great. They tied the entire event together with a "Sydney Witches" storyline which could have worked well if it was developed, but then had them just singing and dancing to pop songs as the main show of the event. 

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    While it was great to get some nights rides on the new attractions the real reason to attend the event was the three scare mazes. The first we tackled was "Rain Dead" and although this one had an interesting backstory where acidic rain essentially turns people back into a primitive state the sets and props didn't carry this theme through the maze. The actors within did the best they could with the material but it felt like there was nowhere near enough of them, with areas that clearly should have had actors left bare. An interesting concept but unfortunately a lacklustre maze to start the night. (Thanks to Will for the heads up in the thread it was the weakest so we got it out of the way first.

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    Next up we entered into DecayMart 365, a sequel to last years DecaryMart and just like last year this maze did not disappoint. This maze sees you step foot into an abandoned supermarket overtaken by bloody thirsty zombies. While this may sound cliche, the great mix of talented actors, detailed sets and unique scares all culminated in a maze that was the standout attraction for the event for everyone in my party. I walked out with a heart rate of 165bpm so that's as good of a review as you can give a scaremaze.

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    Our final maze for the night was Outback Slaughterhouse where you step foot into an Australian butchers barn where it turns out you might be the next thing hung up and turned into sausages. This maze's intense performers, confined corridors and special effects made this another don't miss attraction that's close to my heart as it's essentially a sequel to the maze I worked at the event a few years ago.

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    With a large number of guests let in it felt like 5 hours wasn't quite enough to do everything satisfyingly, with queues for each maze being around 40 minutes consistently throughout the night. Still, it was great to get back to the park after almost 9 months of downtime, get on seven brand new attractions and get some good scares.

    Ultimately was it a perfect reopening? No. Is there stuff that could be improved both easily and more difficultly? Of course. Am I glad the park is back welcoming guests with some long overdue new experiences? I sure am! Enjoy some other photos I took over the day that didn't quite fit elsewhere!

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    • Like 3
    • Love it! 1
  2. Looks like a good length maze with a great variety of effects should be a good event for anyone looking for a scare! Watching the performer without shoes on though was truly the most terrifying thing in there, she's gonna get her toes stepped on hundreds of times over the course of the event.

  3. Let's also not forget for some guests it's not physically easy for them to hold that perfect position while a restraint locks. I've got a close friend who hates stand-up coasters because he has a physical disability that makes it difficult for him to hold that dream position we're talking about with stand-up coasters.

    Let's be careful we aren't being ableist when saying how easy something is, or insulting people who can't do it.

  4. So it's looking like state borders to Queensland will be open right in time for the summer school holidays to start. It will be interesting to see where the crowds end up going. There's a lot of double-vaxxed NSW folk chomping at the bit to go on a holiday over summer and with Dreamworld having a big new coaster it would make sense for people to make that their go-to park of their trip.

  5. I thought Riddlers at Magic Mountain was a lot of fun, but yeah you have to get the restraint positioned right so theres that moment of worry in the station trying to stand in the right way when the restraint tightens. Thing is not everyone knows the best way to approach the restraints, especially if they aren't an Enthusiast and haven't read aboout/seen/ridden them before and know the best way.

  6. 39 minutes ago, Mc coaster said:To be honest I think at this point in time I'm more bothered with the New Atlantis project as it touted itself to be an immersive experience with huge rock work and waterfalls which have seemingly been cut whereas here all that was promised was a selection of rides. In saying that though I think they have done a decent job with boomerangs station and I think BD's will look nice when it is completed. 

    Yep, spot on the money. One is touting their expansion as “world class” yet will deliver something incredibly lackluster compared to the concept art for almost double the budget of LPS which is delivering theirs on time, on budget and exactly as suggested in the concept art.

     

    Yet as @Dom says most people here will still praise VRTP…

  7. 11 hours ago, Slick said:

    The point I'm making is that inside of that budget, there's still plenty of decision making that lands us in "generic modern corporate" and not at all in the realm of Luna Park Sydney. Take Sledgehammer's logo for example:

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    This ultra-modern "theme park" logo is such a juxtaposition to the brand that it almost looks out of place on the website. And it would've cost the exact same amount of money to design a more fitting logo, more fitting colour, more fitting trim etc. etc. 

    Yeah I'm not gonna sit here and say that the area/logos/signage look spectacular but I don't think it was a lack of effort as much as a bad decision made by probably someone higher up without a creative bone in their body and carried out by someone with no power to change it.

    The fact to me that Volare fits well with the classic Boardwalk theming and was their most recent attraction before these seems to point to them thinking the Maloney's Corner area doesn't need thematic consistency with the turn of the Century Board Walk theming the rest of the park at least attempts to emulate.

    I'm not gonna fully pass judgement on Big Dipper's queue and station until it's complete though, a few weeks back we would have thought there wasn't going to be a themed wall blocking the station but now that is coming in. As I said earlier it currently looks more like a scare maze then a queue but there's still a few months till opening. I would be interested to see the rules in regards to a queue being so close to and going over a ride envelope.

    • Like 1
  8. 1 hour ago, joz said:

    No where did I say stuff should be themed, but just be presented well. That's all I expect of Gold Coast parks too. But if you want to play the 'small amusement parks can't be well presented' card, then I would just say that Aussie World -a small amusement park with well presented rides- exists and kind of ruins your point.

     

    Just because it's not a theme park, doesn't mean you can't put effort into the rides. I also get budgets, I get realities of economics. I also understand that the headline '9 new rides' will be effective for them, and I'm sure it'll be a success. But even if you're looking forward to visiting (which you should be), you have to admit, it looks like crap and has zero charm.

    I haven't seen the finished package for all rides obviously, but they appear to be pretty spot on to the concept art in regards to "theming" if you want to call it that. Bug for example has what looked to be the painted flats behind and some 3D flowers etc sticking out. Even with the handful of attractions running today the one big thing the area has going for it is Kinetics, I almost feel they put too much focus on each attraction individually rather than trying to give an overarching "theme" to the area to tie everything together. From what I could see is it great? No. Is it crap? Also no.

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    1 hour ago, Slick said:

    I wanted more and I reckon the public deserved more. It's not a budget thing, I do believe it's just an effort thing. 

    See that was my initial thought with the Big Dipper trains being the generic ones until the owner came out and specifically said it was a budgetary thing. The fact that every smaller ride is straight up the base model and theme from Zamperla seems to point to something similar. 

    I honestly wonder if it was a classic board room "Well we can have 6 rides spaced out more with better thematic consistency, some themed bridges etc or we can have 9 rides crammed together for the same $30million". Of course as enthusiasts and theme park history buffs I know what we'd ideally love this expansion to be. Hell I'd be happy with just a new old school river caves back there taking up the whole space but that wasn't an option. We can see what choice was made, and it will be interesting to see how it pays off.

    • Like 2
  9. 13 minutes ago, joz said:

    I think it's fair to say that if any park on the Gold Coast presented their rides like that, we'd be tearing them a new arsehole. For a park that trades on its charm and history as much as it's rides, the new additions are pretty woeful in their presentation.

     

    Don't get me wrong, I think it'll be a great success, and I'm really happy to see them adding stuff, but that just all looks appalling.

    The rides out the back are as well presented as anything else that’s been in the space over the last 17 years since the 2004 reopening. 
     

    Ultimately the park refers to itself as an amusement park not a theme park like the GC parks, and with the lack of space available I think most of us would agree for their unique situation managing to squeeze so many rides into the space is still an amazing achievement even if it unfortunately limited the theming opportunities.

     

    If LPS had the same space available as the GC parks, and called itself a theme park then yeah I’d be slamming it too 

    • Like 3
  10. 1 minute ago, New display name said:

    Have I missed something?   I thought most of the rides opening up were for kids.

    Unlike a certain other park, there's no max limits on the new rides. Adults can ride any of the new attractions and the fact all of them are open during Halloscream an event reccomended for 15+ shows they are happy for them to do so.

    • Like 1
  11. 1 minute ago, rappa said:

    I'm not really sure what you're getting at?

    The project was halted during the middle of Covid as we well know, like everything else. 
    So of course people would have to have come here after the border was shut in March 2020.

    Are you implying that this isn't true and the article is making up reasons why the project is late?

    I'm saying if one of the big reasons behind the delays is getting people into the country how did they start construction and why did the stalls happen before that current wave of lockdowns, if the people were here to start construction why were they sent home before this current wave hit?

  12. 48 minutes ago, rappa said:

    I think its an absurd stretch to say VRTP lacked thinking by not predicting the country’s Covid response, travel restrictions and worldwide situation a hear in advance. Especially given our government didn’t even know. Come on. 

    I was pointing out you saying they needed specific people the whole way through construction yet those people would have had to have been in the country constructing it last year and then sent back home when things stalled way before Covid hit.

  13. 6 minutes ago, rappa said:

    But FWIW ST was meant to open last month so in the end both rides will open with the same delay. So maybe we can compare after all 😛

    Steel Taipan was originally meant to open late 2020 and will open late 2021 so about a one year delay. Trident will open two years late and Leviathan one year and four months late... there's your facts only comparison.

    16 minutes ago, rappa said:

    You also have to remember that Leviathan needed experts the whole way through. The other rides need some commissioning right at the end. 

    So they had them on-site last year in August when construction started and went vertical, then sent them back home stalling construction knowing that in a years time Covid would ramp up and they would delay the ride opening again? Very big brain of VRTP...

    • Like 1
  14. 4 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

    Watch mystery lodge.

    Sadly Mystery Lodge has been closed since mid-2019. We went to go see it in August of the same year and it was closed with no reopening date. Then of course the Pandemic happened...

    They are currently using the space for a Knott's Scary Farm show so hopefully it will reopen after the spooky season, it really is a great unique offering for the park.

  15. 2 minutes ago, Coasterjoe said:

    Its just time and money. I did not feel I will have enough time to fit all the parks in I wanted to. Universal and Disney are non negotiable and I liked Magic Mountains lineup better. Knott is on my 'if i have time list.' It looks like a great park, but at the end of the day I am only planning to spend about a week in LA and as an older bloke I need some downtime. 

    Biggest issue we had last time at Magic Mountain was that around 1/2 of the rides were just closed without any advertisement of such on the website or even at the gates. Meant that even though on paper MM looked better, Knotts was a much better day as everything was open.

    Of course we went in a relatively quiet period, so could be completely different depending on when you intend to go.

    • Like 1
  16. Getting to Magic Mountain can be a pain if you're in the Anaheim resort area thanks to the joys of LA traffic.

    Anytime I'm in California for Disneyland we always do a day over at Knotts, it's a great way to break up the trip. It's got some great rides, great entertainment and a really great atmosphere. If you have an extra day in the trip I would highly reccomend it.

  17. 28 minutes ago, New display name said:

    Justice League: Alien Invasion 3D

     

    You don't think DC is insisting how these rides are named?

    The name of the attraction at Movie World is officially now just "Justice League 3D - The Ride" so apparently not, or they don't mind the simplification of it years after opening. I highly doubt they insist it has "The Ride" in the title though unless they are also selling a 3D film to Theme Parks called that which I can't find any evidence of.

  18. 7 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

    How’s that compare with Taipan’s schedule?

    Taipan was originally meant to open in "Late 2020" I believe so a years delay... Trident's delay is double that and Leviathan's will be about 30% longer (If they all open as currently advertised)

    14 minutes ago, themagician said:

    Obviously Covid had a part in the majority of this, but it’s interesting to look at the long opening timeframes that these attractions have gone through.

     

    It's hard to say it was mostly Covid when one attraction originally should have opened before Covid hit our shores, and the second a couple of weeks after businesses closed down in Queensland, hardly enough time to construct the ride.

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