Guest 239

Noise is an on-going battle between residents and attractions in Sydney. The Hills Tree Tops has been fighting a legal battle with residents because of noise since 2017. https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/hills-shire-times/adventure-with-less-noise/news-story/e288cd6fbc43ae24a86c9627826a2aaf People are entitled to peace, but honestly you can't expect that all the time in a city. When you shove millions of people into a small space you're going to get noise. The city also has a massive housing problem because of astronomical house prices which forces people into smaller, affordable housing so people are going to look for things to do outside of their homes. My general lack of sympathy towards the complaints comes from the fact that a lot of people making them are well-to-do. They have the luxury of space in their apartments/homes to enjoy and entertain which a vast majority of the city can't afford.

I want to be more human for a moment - I had a healthy dose of skepticism towards the vaccine when I got it back in August. I was one of the first people in my age bracket to get it and I was worried about what happens down the line? I felt we didn't have enough time to know and there was a lot of misinformation floating about that made me feel uncomfortable. But I went in and got the jab. Even afterwards I was scared, but in these situations I need to have an element of trust that the people in charge of these things know what they're doing. We place the similar trust into a lot of things. We trust that pilots can fly us overseas, that ride operators can safely get us from point A to point B, that the food we eat is not contaminated, that the cars we drive are built correctly, that the decisions made by our doctors are right for us, and that the buildings we work/live in are built soundly for us. I could have every research paper on the COVID vaccines under the sun and spend my life reading them, but I am not doctor. I am not a research scientist. Everything would be incomprehensible to me because it's not what I've dedicated my life to researching, so I place my trust in the people that have dedicated their lives into doing just that. It's scary because it's unknown. This is a healthy, human reaction. People get it on roller coasters. They cry, scream, faint and freak out because there is a part of them that is telling them they're in legitimate danger... but I'd imagine that almost every person here is passed this stage for theme park rides. We have researched them, we understand the physics and we know that rollercoasters and theme park attractions are fundamentally safe which no longer makes them scary. When our friends/family freak out we encourage them that the parks and rides are not only safe, but enjoyable! We can't all be experts in vaccines, but I implore everybody here to please listen to those experts. It's okay to be scared and afraid of this thing we may not understand, just as before you knew so much about theme park rides you were likely the same, but trust that the experts have it right here because no respectable scientist would dedicate their lives to producing something dangerous just as no respectable engineer would dedicate their career to building dangerous roller coasters.

There is a difference between being told not to get a certain vaccine under health advice, and not any vaccine regardless of health advice.

You agree to the terms of condition for the duration of your pass, not just when you purchased it. Don't open pandoras box because the same thing you're arguing for could be used against you. Imagine if the parks turned around and forced you to pay $25 more whenever they added a new attraction because you signed up to the pass when they had 20 attractions, but now they have 21 and it's unfair for them.

But they're not closing the parks due to COVID, they are being required to ensure that their patrons are vaccinated. The resources involved in extending passes solely for those who can't come because they aren't double-vaxxed just wouldn't be worth it. You'd need to allocate customer service agents, IT resources, and WebDev. You would also need to figure out a way to ensure that those coming into the park aren't those with extensions as that would directly impact revenue from pass renewals. There are also too many variables. What do you do if somebody extends their pass because they're not vaxxed but then they get vaxxed? It's too messy. Anything that they do would be in good faith, but it's not required.

You keep saying this but I'm sorry mate, it's a paper thin argument. You agree to the following when you purchase a pass.

Isn't making the choice to not get vaccinated bad faith towards the business though? Seems unfair for them to have to accommodate for people who have decided not to meet the entry requirements.

Spicy opinion incoming but I would imagine that there is no reason why they have to give refunds. People who have medical exemptions are given the same options as those who are vaccinated so that rules out discrimination. There is a freedom of choice, but Theme parks don't need to accommodate to your refunds if you move to a different state, so why should they provide a refund if you choose not to get vaccinated?

Village, Dreamworld and Luna Park are all doing a huge amount of hiring at the moment. I'd imagine it's got nothing to do with non-vax lay-offs, but that their accountants have given the greenlight to allocate more funds to resources now that there is more confidence in the tourism sector with international travel reopening, vaccine rates rising and national borders being relaxed.

I'm not saying add them at the exact same time because that would be silly. What I suggest is that if they want a cycle of sort than at least make sure that there are things in the works whilst their other properties are just kind of existing. When Movie World got it's additions of Doomsday and DC Rivals, Sea World remained largely untouched. It got minor additions, the sort that is expected in the industry to maintain the standard, but from 2015 the park wouldn't see anything to make up for the closures of Sea Viper and Vikings Revenge until 2020. We know that something is coming for Movie World to replace Arkham but with no solid announcements or plans I wouldn't be surprised if it takes a long time for this to come to fruition. I just think they need to squeeze the gap between announcements and additions a bit because it's all lagging a bit. I never mentioned that they weren't maintaining the parks so I'm confused as to where this came from. I know about the WWF Boat and Road Runner projects and I appreciate that they cost money but praising a business for maintenance is like getting a round of applause for taking your car in for a service. It's not a novelty. It's expected. As you mentioned a lot of what they are doing is long overdue and I'm just saying that they really need to squeeze that gap. As I said I'm more than happy for them to increase the price exponentially but I wont buy it year after year if they continue to rest on their laurels.

I'd be happy for them to dramatically increase their annual pass prices if they stopped treating their theme parks like a single entity. The 'one at a time' mentality behind how they improve their theme parks really leaves more to be desired especially now that the Gold Coast basically has a net-loss of theme park attractions because we can't build rides quick enough to counter the early days where most parks were adding new big additions annually. Now that they've got the private investment firm behind them they really need to make sure that all of their parks are constantly being improved otherwise it's going to 6-8 years before Sea World gets touched after New Atlantis.

Sorry folks - No announcement to get excited about but I thought it's been a while since we've had a good hypothetical! Let's say tomorrow Australia and Disney announce that they're opening up an Australian Pavilion at Epcot; what would be your blue sky scenario? A couple of things to start: The 'Weenie' for the land can remain like the original concept with the Opera House. It's an icon that many people recognize as distinctly Australian and would serve as a nice waterfront restaurant around World Showcase Lagoon. This way we can draw people to the Pavilion. In my eyes the land would be split in two by a river. - One side would be dedicated to the bush and Indigenous culture with the other one reflecting rural Australian towns. For the bush side you could have it as a combination between the nature trails at Animal Kingdom and Corroboree at Dreamworld. Wandering through 'the bush' you can learn about and see native wildlife, Indigenous culture and the natural disasters like bush fires, drought, etc. Disney could organize the animal care in collaboration with an organization like Australia Zoo to ensure that the native animals are adequately cared for but it also provides a cross-promotional opportunity. In terms of Indigenous representation as a young white dude I'm probably not the best person to touch on this but I'd imagine they'd assemble a 'council' of sorts to ensure that Indigenous culture as a whole is fairly represented. - I feel across the river it'd be great to have a rural Australian town. It is essential that it has a pub. This is my mood board for the area: The lands ride - A slow moving boat ride. The idea I have for this attraction is that you enter a cave at the back of the land. It's dark and quiet but in the distance through the cue you can hear sounds reflecting native Australian wildlife and the sounds of traditional Indigenous instruments. Then you board a boat which takes you through a dark cave. A voice over guides you towards the roof where it's illuminated showing cave paintings. The voice over continues telling the story of early Australia until it the cave paintings come alive and begin to move. You then exit the cave into a dark show building simulating night time. The river is surrounded by bush and through the trees you can see a Corroboree happening which is where the sounds from the cave where coming from. As you continue down the river you can see animatronics of Australia's diverse night wild life until you hear a crack of lightning and using projections and effects the forest begins to burst into flame showing the devasting effects of bushfires. The light ramps up until you are now outside and the river separating the two parts of the land is actually the track which the boat ride follows. You get a unique view of the land before you re-enter the cave and more things happen before departing back into the land. These are just my rough ideas to get the discussion going. What would you like to see in a land representing Australia overseas?

Just as god intended. Isn't this because of the new certification rules? From what I know the certification is only valid for 12 months and then the ride needs to be re-certified after that. I could be wrong though.

Sorry, I wasn't factoring in ride closures at this stage because I was more making the argument for people travelling interstate/intrastate to visit the parks over December/January. Plus how dare you call Shockwave decent. Shockwave is awful. For a fair comparison right now at Movie World Road Runner, Justice League, Scooby-Doo and Wild West falls are closed. Down at Sea World Jet Rescue is closed with Vortex tailing behind its reopening for closure. Also at Wet'n'Wild Surfrider is closed. However it's normal for a lot of parks to have rides down before the peak season because checking the schedule nearly everything is opened come mid-December.

Whilst I agree that increased ticket prices are the way to go to secure a more quality experience, this is some strange strategic timing especially considering the New Atlantis delay and the Steel Taipan opening right around the corner. For a family of four locals to visit the Village parks with annual passes it'll cost them $756 for entry with no discounts, and for non locals its $996. For a family of four to visit the Dreamworld + White Water World with annual passes it'll cost them $476 for entry with no discounts. I guess it really depends on what you're after, but at Dreamworld you can get animals, a water park, decent rides and Steel Taipan with an additional $250-500 to play with. A family could easily eat like a king, grab souvenirs or add some extra nights to their accommodation with that money. I know that some will argue that the value proposition is still in Village's hand, but it's going to be really hard to drag people away from the theme park with a brand new launched roller coaster which is cheaper, has animals, and a water park connected to it. I'm interested to see how this holiday season pans out!

https://www.instagram.com/stories/lunaparksydney/2694226524437815870/?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&utm_medium=copy_link Sledgehammer is now up and running! Looks like a really fun ride!

A lot of theme parks are going down this route and I hate it. My biggest gripe is that it seems to eliminate the human factor of navigation using landmarks to get around. Most people will plot a mental path in their mind and use prominent features on the map to determine whether they're going the right way but with this 3D blob and some of the other parks hyper-real isometric monstrosities it makes it really hard for the lay person to get around. Its why if you look at Disney park maps they're not accurate to scale, but they have large exaggerated features that you would naturally use as a point of reference when navigating the park and there is a lot of contrast between what is a walkway and what is not. This may not be a problem in smaller parks as eventually you'll get to where you need to go, but once you to scale up it becomes a nightmare especially with Australian park hours being very limited. I just feel a lot of parks have fixed something that ain't broke, and broken it in the process.

Beyond special events I agree that Luna Park almost never needs overflow lines. I've been there multiple times on a weekend and almost everything is a one or two cycle wait. Maybe the new rides will change that, but I think they can be cut some slack for not accommodating for something that has never been a necessity in the past.

Cheers for the update Richard! A lot of that is really good to hear and I'm excited that the big vertical garden is going ahead. I agree that it would be fantastic if it was real as I don't think a fake garden would age well in the GC sun but we will wait and see. Thanks for keeping us in the loop mate. Look forward to more updates in the future.

Sorry, I didn't mean to set the impression that I'm tearing it to shreds and I hope the language I use doesn't come across a 'bitchy' because that's not my intention, just voicing some concerns. Expanding on what I wrote I still think that cream is an odd choice against other options like green, blue or even brown, but I think the rigging on the front gives way to options for theming. In the original designs there was a GIANT hedge wall with fountains, etc. but we haven't seen an updated angle of that area so it could be anybody's guess as to how they hide this. Anything in the green area should be completely fine. It seems that the current intention for the queue is that you'll enter further to the right in that image, skirt the outside of the coaster and then enter it which shouldn't not present any problems with sight lines. However, if they make the entrance straight on to that opening in the framing then I can see some problems with trying to hide the shed. Similarly it may be awkward to disguise it when you transition from Nick Jr. into New Atlantis because it seems like the entrance to the land is that portion of concrete in the bottom left but really we will need to wait and see. Now this is what I want to hear! This is the sort of stuff I'd love to see some focus on from VRTP. Considering the time frame I'm sure they're pretty much finalized so I'd love to see some concepts to really get me hyped about this coaster. I'm excited to see how this progress because I was really concerned that the load would merely be generic.

Look, hold on, that's not really fair. It's actually pretty on point for its original concept.

I hope they got plenty of these bad boys.

Cream is an interesting choice. I know a lot of people are going to argue that they'll hide this foliage or something, but it's going to be very hard to hide the giant cream coloured shed when the entrance is like 10 metres away and it'll be an eye sore from areas like the Nick Jr. precinct. There is hope that the metal frame work will hold some sort of theming but considering that angle you're still going to see a vast majority of that shed. I would have much preferred to see something similar to Sea Viper but for those playing Aussie coaster bingo you can tick off Colourbond shed.

I'm not a fan of the rocks here and it feels like it might be a liability without a fence especially considering the strange movement of the paths. Steel Taipan is going to draw your attention upwards and if you're walking towards the giant drop queue then I can picture a lot rolled ankles. Might be worth adding some sort of barrier or obstacle to ensure that people aren't cutting through the rocks. Also kids are going to adopt these rocks and transport them all over the park like a side quest mission.

None of this is supported by evidence but I feel like LPS' main objective this year was to get the rides in and then use the money generated from the hype/crowds so that they can continue to develop the area. Considering that the park was meant to be open in July I can imagine that Luna Park were hoping to have cashflow to support Big Dipper as well but very little this year has gone to plan. Still I think it's impressive that for a park literally in the epicentre of what was one of Australia's worst COVID outbreaks that they still managed to pull this off. I'll hold off judgement to see how Luna Park Sydney develops over the next few years because I'm sure that the new rides will pull in some good cash for the park and draw back lucrative patrons like families.