joz

The golden tickets are a way of selling advertising. They're interesting enough, but not really worth reading into at all. ❤️

That is a boom lift, but there is also a small crane on sire. Would have to assume it's for that

So you recognised as a parent that it wasn't something that should be climbed on, but decided because there wasn't a sign or because there wasn't other playgrounds that it was fine? I would never ever say this to you in real life, so feel free to dismiss this as gutless anonymous internet trolling (which in may ways it is), but that's not a brilliant display of parenting. I can almost garuentee that if you weren't there, you too would be denouncing the quality of parenting and posting eye roll reactions on Facebook. If your account is genuine, I'm sure you're actually a great mum, and a wonderful person, but I can't really get away from this being a parenting issue rather than a DW issue. Again, keep in mind that there is no way in hell I'd say any of this in person, and a good rule of thumb is to ignore people who talk shit on the internet. It's why I don't go on twitter 😊

I don't think you'd want to put a backwards spike on Superman though? The concept of Superman saving you by pushing the train is one of the more genius elements of the ride. If the launch needed to get replaced and new trains, LSMs, and curl them up the base of the top hat as needed.

Must be an RMC conversion

@New display nameI just checked the results, I'm really surprised that Thunderbolt is doing so poorly! Maybe it's been closed so long it's not even nostalgic for many?

Thunderbolt was rubbish. BUT! If I die and the afterlife is a theme park with those rides to choose from, Thunderbolt would be the first ride I would go on. That won't be what the afterlife is like for me though; I've been good 😇

Very strange to need QFS to evacuate Scooby. Wonder if a ride stop kicked in at EXACTLY the wrong moment to evac normal or if there just happens to be a wheelchair guest who needs extra assistance. Could also be a loose item on the track. Elevator is also a possibility but strange its 4 not 8. I've always been under the impression it's a case of take the cars off of the track for a stall.

@Cactus_Matt Showbag question; have they got shit or is it just that I have I gotten older or is it both? Went through the pavillion at the Ekka as and had a hard time imagining kid me wanting any of them?

I've never been on a Rainbow. I've been curious to know what all the hype is about for a very long time. Will absolutely give it ago if one comes out. No chance it will live up to the hype but man, curious as all hell

TIL! So they didn't design El Toro or the cross bars (which APPARANTLY is the issue with the Intamin Woodies) or anything else, they just built it the way Intamin told them too? Which would leave it in a limbo of if it's a design issue, manufacturing issue or maintenance issue. I doubt we'll ever know for sure but gee it's an interesting question.

Like I originally said, I wouldn't have mentioned it, but the willingness to drink the koolaid and gleefully accept something which wasn't true played into my reading of it. I did want to leave a comment that says 'He has a vision for the park and that's the first time anyone has said that for several decades which is encouraging', but the comment about how that little untruth put critism to bed was impossible not to answer with the truth. I actually agree with this.

Despite knowing it to be true, the only stuff that demonstrstes it and is also shareable, would be considered hearsay. There are times I'm speculating though, and times where I am not. I'm not speculating on this occasion. Also I'll move this part of the conversation to the right thread soon so this thread can be exclusively about the article without getting bogged down.

I wouldn't have mentioned it, but Future Labs was dead long before covid. So no, them lying about it here and blaming covid doesn't put the critisim to bed.

As much as I don't like ABC kids world, all I think it needs is a coat of paint, a refresh and an aesthetic that suits the surrounds better. Personally, I don't think it needs a dark ride. Also, the BCR building is tiny. You're not going to get a properly good ride in there. It was built as a fairly small venue for an amimatronic show, it would be a bit smaller than Roxy theatre. Air conned meet and greet space or a show of some kind would go alright in there though. I'm not mad if you disagree, but I don't agree. Also @Baconjack, when I say DW should go with a midsize coaster, I'm thinking something smaller and cheaper, but still thrilling. Something like a Raptor I think would be about the right level; thrilling midsize coaster. Easily fills Buzzsaws role in the park and improves it drastically, while still letting ST be the park's big coaster but filling the gap. Sort of fills the same role that GL does at MW.

As good as ST is, I think with the benifit of hindsight we can say they bought too much ride. $30million for a single ride is probably too much for DW right now. Again, just to clarify, I'm not saying that they should have known or I knew better or anything like that before anyone starts putting those words into my mouth. Having said that, they've got the 'big coaster' thing pretty licked now. Add a mid size coaster, a decent flat and a shoot the chutes (not a power splash) and you've got a pretty well rounded park that makes sense for ST to reside in. WWW is also open weekend for half the year, and like a month in Jan. If it's not worth opening it during the week, particualy in November for end of school excursion season, it's not worth sinking millions into a new tower.

This is very good news. Incidentally I'm off to my local bar this afternoon. They have happy hour 4-6 where drinks are $5. I don't think they make any money on that because normally they charge $9

What I'm suggesting is if it runs past 5, it doesn't matter. 'Run it to midnight for all I care' isn't an actual literal suggestion to do that. I mean far out dude I'm surprised you didn't mention the park has a 10pm curfew for rides. You'll also note the original post says 'if it's profitable', I make no claims to know for sure. I don't know how much each cycle costs, it would be an interesting number to have, but I do know that going off the event hire price and working backwards from there IS the weakest of weak cheese, and deep down I think you know that too.

I mean arguing its not profitable based on what they charge for events is some pretty weak cheese indeed. 'I've seen how much they charge for soft drink, they wouldn't make profit if they sold it for $1' Reality is that each cycle would cost something; power, train rebuild/maintenance cost spread out over each cycle, staffing etc. If after all those things are paid for, and you're still running at a profit, run it till midnight for all I care.

Nah, screw that. If it takes till midnight to clear the tailwhip queue and each cycle runs at a profit, who cares?

I think they should let others ride, back in the old days when I was a ride op if it turned out i had spare seats on a final cycle I'd see if anyone nearby wanted them. I think it creates extra memories and is a really nice peice of goodwill, and all that good shit. This works best if there are only a handful of people around, hordes of people you're going to potentially cause an issue. 'You can queue but you might not get to ride' will not work and is going to piss people off even more than 'It's after 5, it's closed'. So with that in mind if them running it empty for people who paid is what they decide to do, fair enough. 'Don't oversell it'. Why? Because seeing it empty hurts your feelings or makes you feel entitled to ride? At that point it's very much a 'you' issue, not a 'them' issue. Your ticket lets you ride till 5. You got that. If it takes them till midnight to clear the tailwhip queue, it would have exactly zero impact on you.

SW by nature, will always attract families. So how many rides should SW have with a height restriction of 140cm? 1. MAYBE 2? You really don't want many more than that as it will never be a ride heavy park, so you need to keep it accessible. You move Surfrider to SW, that's your 2, and in the context or a dry park, they're both shit. It's filler that excludes large chunks of the audience, so when down the line you say 'Next big coaster; B&M Dive Coaster' that's 3 and your attraction mix is up the shit. Surfrider and Vortex should both be at WnW where they work as big headliners/ a point of difference. Yeah they're dry rides but so what? They seem pretty wild which strikes me as being on brand.

'Through no fault of the parents' Dude you literally watched your kid climb on it. I get the feeling they were really banking on the parks reputation to give them a win in the court of public opinion. I'm normally cautious about using Facebook as a moral barometer, but I'm heartened to see the comments denouncing this pretty piss poor display of parenting.

Word on the street is that the castle isn't in the best of condition, which makes sense given it was built on a budget in the late 70s. As much as I'm nostalgic for it, I think it's ok to let it go. The room the castle and Flume station (and south of the Flume station too) is pretty big, but not absurdly so. It's also an awkward space. Even so, one thing I liked about that area as a kid, and something I like in general, is rides that go through each other. Skyway's station was built in the middle of the Flume, which itself went over the 3D theatre and under Bermuda. Was rather interconnected which for my taste made things more interesting. I'd like if they could tightly squeeze a couple of coasters in that area, including going through storm; something high end thrill and smaller like a mouse. I think the argument that SW is a family park and shouldn't have high end thrill rides is pretty silly. The thing about parks specialising and only doing one thing well is pretty new all things considered, and I think treating SW as a park only for families with small kids has been a big misstep. In the old days, these parks were for everyone, which means stuff the family can do together, but also a few proper thrill rides as well. If you balance out the attraction mix at SW with some more thrill rides, you would massively improve attendance. Don't neglect the families with small kids obviously, but don't ignore the older kids/adults too. FWIW though, Surfrider and Vortex are both not good fits for SW. The only rides at SW with 140cm height restrictions should be one or two super headliners. In the context of a dry park like SW, both those rides are filler. Adding them limits what your next rides can be, while also not gaining you anything in terms of drawcards. In the context of a park like WnW however, both those rides would be 'big' thrill rides and a point of difference between WnW, and all the other water parks out there. Not only should surfrider not go to SW, Vortex should go to WnW. Vortex should then be replaced with a super low impact, quiet, family ride to give an aerial view of the dolphin pools/ski lake. Observation Tower, floating Island or Ferris wheel, take your pick of which it should be.

It's worse than that too, aside from having to close more rides for longer, the windows for closures has shrunk. As well as school holidays there's now White Christmas and Fright Nights to contend with so that basically knocks out 2 months where you don't want to do maintenance on certain attractions.