dukeofwhales

Ardent Leisure are a publicly owned company, it's their duty to shareholders to sell the land to the highest bidder.

Looks like it's being demolished now https://www.facebook.com/NewsTalk6PR/posts/1894806233868216

Oh yeah? My mistake. I haven't been since they were painted so I hadn't seen them up close. They were pretty rough when I was riding them 15 years ago so I guess I just assumed they'd been replaced. Does this mean the formerly translucent slides (three of the four) are now pitch black?

The GRP itself isn't even that old. When I was going as a little tacker they were all green. I coudn't put an exact date on it but a complete replacement of the slides was done maybe 10 years ago? Maybe a little less?

if you ride any waterslide with a staircase all day long i can guarantee it will make you skinnier

I am 194cm and have ridden all rides without issue or query from staff.

Not saying it hasn't changed but in August last year Mark said that a Windseeker was too expensive "at this moment in time and for the forseeable future"

Cheers Mark, I appreciate you keeping on top of things. I was there on a weekend in November (the 22nd) and queued from about 10.30am - so it was probably a combination of people visiting just for the new ride, the "longest queue first" rush (we hoped we'd beat the crowds but we obviously didn't) and staff still getting familiar with loading the ride efficiently.

If I've learned anything from simulation video games, it's that what appears to be a small adjustment can have a massive effect on wait times. Even though there is essentially no line with the 1:1 regular/fastpass queue system, increasing it to 2:1 (never mind 5:1) could easily make a big difference on the queue sizes and make those who paid for the fastpass feel poorly treated - I think the two rides is a better solution. I don't blame the kids who ride it over and over with a fastpass - they paid for it (and when I was a kid at AW you better believe I ran between the attractions for the entire day, exhausing myself and my parents) - but the ride experience in the regular queue made me feel something needed to be changed. Perhaps I just got unlucky and picked a peak queue time on a busy day because my wait genuinely was 80 minutes.

The fact that the queue operated 1 raft from regular line/1 raft from fast pass made queuing without the fast pass super slow. I queued 80 minutes for one ride back in November on what wasn't even really a particualrly busy day (Abyss was <5 minutes all day), while I watched the same kids with a fast pass ride it 5 or 6 times as they'd jump on as soon as they got to the top of the hill. I understand that's the point of a fast pass but it didn't leave the most positive impression.

For those without season tickets, Shopadocket has a deal for buy-1-get-1-free passes, or $29/adult. The voucher should say "equal or greater value" though! http://www.shopadocket.com.au/coupon/viewdeal/368183

Do they send a second raft down before the first one has completely cleared out of the pool? Otherwise the downside of the longer ride would be a lower hourly capacity than a stock Tornado.

That looks great. Wasn't it a fairly filthy pond before?

AW's Facebook has a picture of the slide operating - not too far away from opening day

Though it is worth noting that quoted ride costs at other parks are likely the full project cost, but the "ride cost is half project cost" doesn't necessarily hold true in other countries - due to lower shipping/labour/regulatory/etc costs. So a Windseeker which cost $5M at another park wouldn't be as cheap as US$5M here, but it probably wouldn't cost US$10M either (anyone who knows better feel free to correct me, of course) A lot of cash, but it would be worth thinking about for a possible Mi3 - it would look amazing on top of the hill and would probably appeal to those who like Bounty's Revenge and water slides but nothing as extreme as the Rampage or Abyss.

A windseeker on top of the hill would definitely be rad. I'm all for more thrill rides but that would strike a nice balance and would be a great fit for the park.

I imagine it was simply different design parameters - chairlifts at ski resorts are designed (cable thickness, number and frequency of supports, number of chairs, motor power/torque) under the assumption that they'll be empty on the way down. Adventure world's was built under the assumption that a roughly equal number of people would be heading down as up, which was probably correct at the time.

I'm pretty sure it's just that the photos are oversaturated making everything look a bit brigher.

The only option is a Lonely Theme Park Enthusiast Perth meetup in October. As I recall they do allow rafts of 2 and 3 riders at GC WnW & White Water World. But I do think a subbing a single rider into a group of three would be uncomfortable. Do you have an idea what the maximum for, say the Shotgun slides would be? They also do four riders at a time but the queues can get pretty long - typically I'll only ride it once because the queue is too long.

By and large, the marginal cost of one more person in the park is zero1. So in that sense the season pass is free money for the park - they still have to open, still have to have staff, still pay rent and insurance - so having people in the park is good. There's no way they're making a loss, unless you consider a "loss" to be the difference between what they would have earned if full price had been paid for every visit - which is unrealistic because people with season passes may not go as frequently at full price. Plus, as others have mentioned, people spend money within the park, bring their friends who pay full price, etc. 1 Obviously this is simplified a bit - more people in the park means more staff required, greater park upkeep costs. If the park is at capacity and you have to turn down full price customers then that's a small loss too.

If you're relying on the chairlift to get you up the hill you'll only get one or two rides in all day!

It's quite an intimate sitting position for a stranger to be placed with 3 friends though. I imagine the weight limit would be related to ensuring that the tube doesn't get too high on the funnel and flip over by gaining too much speed, rather than the strength of the tube.

Thanks for the render, Mark - looks great. Viewing platform would be nice to have but the angle of the funnel means people will be able to see it easily from the hill.

Was hoping for a render of the full slide - the one shown looks just like a stock model with two 90 degree bends and a drop into the funnel. But I imagine for most people footage of the Tornado in action is more exciting! It sounds great - the Tornado is probably my favourite water ride.

Yeah it's a Tornado 60 from 6 Flags Great America - taken straight off the Proslide website. No guarantee that that's the model though since the ad was no doubt put together by Channel 7.