KingdaKa
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Posts posted by KingdaKa
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Just a small trip report from my day at Dreamworld last week
I was very very happy with the day and pleasantly surprised with the length of the Queues given it was Peak Period. The staff were exceptionally helpful and very pleasant, even towards the end of the day when some had been working the same ride for almost 12 hours! Here are a few observations.
First, something that makes a day at Dreamworld better than at Movie World is they have so many really great sponge attractions. The Claw, Wipeout and Pandamonium move Queues along very quickly and are really great rides to break up your day, and their general proximity to the other sections of the park give you a great opportunity to physically and mentally "reset", so to speak. It also helped keep the Queues of the Coasters relatively short (the longest was BuzzSaw at the beginning of the Day whicb was probably 30 minutes).
Perhaps it was just the fact that I am not particularly co-ordinated and I am inexperienced with the ride, but I think TailSpin was a massive waste of money. The Queue was the longest of any flat ride and very very few people were able to spin the planes. In the 6 circuits that went before me, only 1 man was able to and most people left the ride deflated and annoyed. Perhaps they should have a clear demnostration video or somehow make them easier to spin?
My final comment is that the lack of capacity on Dreamworld's coasters/big rides is very noticable. The Giant Drop, Tower of Terror II, Buzzsaw and HWSW had very short queues but they moved insanely slowly. Buzzsaw in particular seemed to take forever to load and seemed to take about 6 minutes for one ride. I am not sure if it is an efficiency issue or just the reality of small capacity rides, but I was disappointed with this aspect. Luckily the queues weren't long enough for it to be a major issue.
Overall, a great day at a park which has improved a lot IMO
P.S. Just a query that maybe an employee of the Park or someone who knows in more detail might be able to answer: Often me and my friend would ask the ride operator to wait to go in the Front of the ride, to which they always said yes. On 3 different rides (and 3 different operators), after waiting to ride to go in the front, some Ride Express users arrived. One operator let them on first and asked us to wait what ended up being 4 rides as more Ride Express people arrived every time. Another asked the Ride Express people if we could sit in the front to which they said yes, and as a result let us on first. The final operator let us two go through first, them put the ride express people on, and then put the other main queue riders on. Is there an official policy for this or is it just a "play it by ear" situation for ride ops?
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If they do reopen it surely they need to change it in some way or another... For it to just reopen as the same ride after 10 years would be really weird in my opinion.
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Yeah I get that.
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I really like GL. Much better than Arkham which now destroys my thighs instead of my head.
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I've never ridden this coaster so I was wondering what was so special about it that has led to it to be so loved by not only forum members but also the general public?
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I feel like it's going to have to be a very special RMC for it to be "World Best". Launch? More inversions than the rest? Dueling? Anyway, very exciting! Hopefully it 1) is built soon and 2) has large capacity so the queues aren't too bad
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I personally think what the park needs the most is a RMC, but a B&M or an Intamin would also be great. A RMC would easily fit into the Wild West Theme, which might be where they're building it since there's a bit of room back there.
Agree. They could use the Wild West Theme a bit more too
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OMG if we got something like BlueFire I'd day. If Movie World puts in another thrilling coaster I think they would move A LOT of peeps over from Dreamworld. Even though Dreamworld is better for filling a day, having 4 super intense roller coasters is just too good to miss.
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Knowing Dreamworld, it will be a shuttle. With low capacity. That lasts for 30 seconds. Perhaps a boomerang but only with the Vertical loop. Cheaper that way.
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Giant Drop I agree is polarising. I was shocked last time I visited Dreamworld how short the queue for it was verses the other rides. Of course I think that also to do with how isolated it is. If you built another thrill ride near it (say in that grassy area next to Eureka) I suspect it'd get busier, but still, for one of the best thrill rides in the world (yeah I said it, sue me) it's short queue is very strange for me.
You'd be shocked to hear if I were in charge of the parks most of what I'd spend the money on is on capacity things.
At DW, 2 new trains for MDMC with Jet Rescue style seating and a re theme. 2 Trains for Cyclone with non earbashing restraints, and some cash to either reopen Eureka, or to gut the mountain and put a flat ride in there.
MW - a second train for Arkham and a 3rd for Superman (so there is always 2 trains avalible). What ever is left over goes on developing the infrastructure in the land behind Scooby as a 'swing land' that can be repurposed as needed to house extra stuff for the night time events (so more Mazes for Halloween or the North Pole for Christmas). Though you would have to reopen Lethal Alley for that to have any chance of succeeding and joining onto the back of Western Town. So maybe a bit big a project.
SW - All that money into fixing the monorail. Have a chat to someone about designing and building 3 new trains for it. $9million might not be enough but I think its worth looking into.
Absolutely right about capacity. If I controlled a theme park priority 1 would definitely be queue times. Nothing brings people back to a park like short queues on good rides.
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OMG OMG OMG OMG
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Arkham is too violent for me. I say Black Mamba at Phantasialand or Raptor at Gardaland. Superman front seat is also epic
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OTS restraints are very limited IMO. And I don't see how having sophisticated lap bar restraints don't look just as much like a racecar theme. Perhaps have a lap bar that comes from over the shoulder like Green Lantern for a compromise
Cyclone can't actually accomodate 2 trains can it?
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Pretty sure cyclone's curves aren't overbanked.
If kumbak gives it sea viper trains... *shudder*
I know, but I couldn't think of a better word. Anyway, I think lapbars would be great for those banked hills.
I will be very annoyed if they recycle Viper's trains.
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Little thing called the Commonwealth Games will be on the Coast.
Of course didn't think of that.
I hope the Cyclone update works well. It seems like it's becoming unpleasant. Lap bar restraints would be great for those nice overbanked curves and the inversions.
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If Australia gets a larger population, we could totally have a disneyland. We have a very strong disney culture, are a wealthy country and have a strong tourism industry. Glad it wasn't done on GC though and hope if it is done in the future it won't be there. Would kill the other parks.
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So passive aggressive
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Dreamworld should get a lynx.
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I've said it before an I'll say it again. I think 2018 will be a big year.
Why?
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What large spaces does MW have?
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Wet 'n' Wild Sydney has done so many things wrong and is still a seel out every summer day. Sydney will have 5.5 Million people by 2025. If there was to be a B&M in the next 10 years, it would have to go to a park that had control over a big enough market that they would be confident they could get a big benefit out of it. A park would have to take on a decent amount of debt to fund such a massive project as a good B&M, and with Gold Coast Parks, where they are splitting overall attendence at least 2 ways, you could argue me, I don't think Dreamworld (surely the only Park in a position to get a B&M) would take that on.
The relationship between Ardent and VRTP in some ways is very similar to Woolies and Coles. They know they can't really outbid on Price so they try and add other small things to sway the market. I know building a coaster is not the same as dropping prices, but it would be a project so large and foreign I would be astonished if a GC park had a go at it.
Sydney is definitely ready for another land park. Access to the west is growing FOR SURE and there are also a lot more people living in Western Sydney than when Wonderland was operated.
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It will happen one day. Just not soon. I think if it does happen it will be when Sydney/Melbourne get a park. There's too much competition on Gold Coast for them to take the risk and fork out the $.
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By necessity.
When you regularly see millions of people attend your park, you've got to be able to work them through quickly.
Our parks don't see anywhere near the attendance figures of the US parks, so the obviously don't need 4x 4x8 trains. The only thing you'll achieve by doing that is running trains half empty, or leaving trains stack in the brake runs whilst you wait for the one in the station to finish loading\get full.
Two trains is enough here at the moment (although they have to run them!)
Of course. I wasn't saying we should have that many, was just highlighting that Australia is WAY behind. Running two trains is a necessity in my opinion. And although America has a lot more visitors, I don't think they have that many more that their wait times are equal given their biggest parks have more coasters with higher capacity. I haven't been to these parks myself so I can't give first hand experience, but a friend went to Kings Island and said that on a Weekend in Autumn the longest wait times were around 30-40 mins. Not something we would ever see at Movie World on a weekend. I think Americans just have less tolerance for waiting. I remember waiting for Arkham Asylum for around 1:20
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If it is a coaster, please make it high capacity. Given it is by fair the best Park for coasters, it is pretty embarassing how low capacity their rides are. Some they can't really fix, but I would hope they have a bit of foresight for future coasters. Many Inverteds in America are 4/row * 8 rows/train * 4 trains.
Sea World future attraction ideas
in Theme Park Discussion
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I feel like it almost wouldn't be worth it because it would be too intimidating for most of the park's visitors. The last two times I visited Dreamworld in peak season the queues for Giant Drop haven't been more than 10 minutes, once with only one gondola in use. A lot of people I know love thrills but just won't do it because of the height and it makes them sick, so doing it face down would only appeal to a tiny proportion of the park in my opinion.