jake_hunt

I'd rather Gold Rush remain, but I can certainly understand the rapids closing. I would hope that Dreamworld are able to consider the future of the ride carefully. If it's for the best, it's for the best, especially given the tragic circumstances, but it's a classic family ride and would be sorely missed. No matter what, its reputation, and the park's, will always be marred by this unfortunately.

@www worker 2.0 Probably for safety inspection purposes. No park ever wants something like this to happen there, but the only possible thing that could be worse is something horrible happening when they had warning. @Jamberoo Fan I agree totally, and I'm sick of it. It was bad enough when they sensationalised non-event evacuations, but now that something real has happened, it's gone to whole new levels. It's hard to know what to believe any more, because any slight speculation or rumour will become news, and if there's no speculation, they'll make something up.

I'm particularly upset about them playing the blame game at Dreamworld and even the other parks. Claiming that all the rides there are unsafe, and the RHLR incident was somehow related. Some even managed to weave in the Storm Coaster stall a couple weeks back. What people don't seem to realise is that people, real people, were working at the rapids when this happened, and I'm sure they are just as deeply upset as anyone.

Let's leave this speculation for later. Like much, much later. And yes, the arrow is pointing down the lift.

It can't have, that's the top of the conveyor, despite what reports seem to say. It's right where the new unload platform is by the looks. I'd guess the two rafts collided at an awkward angle or something, but I'd rather not think about it right now. Sickening.

I am there in spirit, and thinking of everyone at this time. All involved are in my prayers.

Not at all mate, I'm as intrigued by this as you are. I've always thought that TRRR was Intamin-made, or at least Intamin-manufactured. A bit tragic that it takes such a horrible event for Intamin to ever deny that, considering it was credited as such here and on Wikipedia, and on every other site I know of.

From the Intamin Worldwide webpage. The plot thickens.

Fabbri, Hopkins and Prestion & Barbieri also make river rapids rides. Note that Hopkins are responsible for WWF at WBMW, though that was built about a decade later.

A really dark day for everyone involved. Just out of utter respect and, honestly, quite a bit of shock, I will just extend my sincere condolences to anyone affected by this, especially family members, witnesses and staff members involved. I have no words, this is just horrible.

I can actually see VR happening here. They said it's a world's best, and there's been comments in the past that it could just be a "world's best <insert coaster type here>". With VR being relatively new on the scene, maybe WBMW is jumping in for world's best virtual reality coaster. Honestly, I hope not. Having seen what VR does to the capacity of rides around the world, I can't imagine how much worse it would be if the coaster were actually DESIGNED to use the headsets... And as people have said, I think VR works better to breathe new life into tired attractions, so I can't imagine anyone other than a big park in the US trying to push the trend in a different direction. Here's hoping they stay away from VR on this one, at least until it's a little aged and needs some new life.

I think people are still misunderstanding me. Probably my bad, I've never been good at phrasing things. The reason I don't like rides that don't make an effort to, if not be immersive, be visually stimulating or interesting, is that it just doesn't appeal to me to just be on a roller coaster that's called, for example, Batwing, when it has nothing to do with it except for a bat painted on the side and the fact that it's black. I agree that, with it being a large roller coaster, any storyline etc will go out the window, but what I'm saying is that GL is too little on the theming side. It's just... there. With the GL logo on the side and a few pictures of some villains. The other thing I think people misunderstood was comparing to Disneyland. I never meant to suggest that MW was anywhere in the leagues of any of the Disney parks. What I meant was that, for me anyway, WBMW's strength is the immersiveness, attractiveness and overall theming of their attractions, particularly compared to DW, its main competitor. This is similar to Disneyland's advantage over, say, a Six Flags park. While the attractions aren't as thrilling or even as world-class in their construction, they're immersive and built with incredible attention to detail. Look at SE compared to TOT. AA compared to HWSW. SDSC compared to MDMC. Just DCVU has more theming, and much better theming, than almost every attraction in DW combined. I honestly would be a bit upset if that went out the window in favour of, like I said earlier, RCT3/fairground-style rides that are just there. Clearly I've ground a lot of people's gears with that comment. Sorry. Just an innocent opinion passing through.

I definitely agree that theming doesn't make the ride, it's just with WBMW's track record of theming, which ranges from decent to fantastic, an unthemed (or relatively unthemed) ride would be like an unthemed ride at Disneyland.

I actually hope it's not anything like GL's station or queue. To me, GL seems too temporary and out of place. It's almost like the ride is an afterthought, or even a travelling ride that's just been whacked in some empty space. I guess I prefer something with a little substance, theming etc. rather than just an RCT3-style station with a queue leading up and a path leading out, and that's about it. If this roller coaster really is going to be a world drawcard, I would like to see it well-themed and carefully thought over. To me, that's WBMW's strength compared to DW. The theming is always strong and makes sense, with the exception of GL and BWSS. I really hope there is at least some effort (eg. a show stage or a substantial sort of queue/entrance/surrounding area) put into this coaster.

I think someone mentioned wayyy earlier that Mack Rides tweeted they had at least two big new coasters coming in 2017-2018 or something... I can't be bothered to look for it and quote. Blackpool Pleasure Beach in the UK have just released plans for a Mack launched coaster over there. TPR have an animated POV on their site, and there are details below: https://forums.planetcoaster.com/showthread.php/8622-Blackpool-Pleasure-Beach-Project-2018 Do you think WBMW's could bear any similarity, given they're being manufactured almost simultaneously?

I'm really, really hoping for something similar to Flash (heck, if it was gonna be a DC coaster, they wouldn't even have to change the name!) A hypercoaster is something Australia really needs, plus it ticks that box of a world-class/trademark coaster for WBMW and the GC. If only DW were paying attention. Having said all this, a launched coaster from Mack would be awesome too. I just think another launched alongside SE is a bit of a lack of variety.

For all those complaining, TopGolf is not a golf driving range in the true sense of the words. TopGolf is more focused on all age groups, with minimal golfing experience required. The balls are microchipped, so I imagine a monitor similar to those in bowling alleys will tell you the power, speed, distance etc. of your drive. I believe I also read somewhere that it has a dartboard-like target form of a "game", with the aim being accuracy and power. Sort of like a massive bowling alley I guess. And for those complaining about "what a waste of park money", firstly the precinct will not be a part of either WBMW or WnW (well, as far as we've been lead to believe). This is an entirely separate precinct, with the aim of making the entire area around the parks an entertainment hub. Also, TopGolf is not targeted in the same way as a theme park is. You don't spend a whole day at a bowling alley like you would at a theme park. I imagine that this precinct will have a variety of other attractions in and around it, all of which will be things like bowling alleys, cinemas, gaming arcades - the kind of things where you spend an hour, not a day. I think this will be very beneficial overall for VRTP. Imagine it - on a holiday to the Gold Coast, you could stay in the new hotel, get your Super Pass, you're right next to WnW and WBMW. Plus it's not too far if you're keen for SW or DW. And then when you're not at the beach or the theme parks, there will be a precinct of fun things to waste an hour or two. I don't see what everyone's problem is. If you don't like golf, then don't go to TopGolf. Pretty simple.

Hey guys, so I'm only a teen and only went on this ride first in 2006. Just out of interest, what was different about the theming before the fire? Just trying to get a picture in my head to imagine how much better it could be

Woah woah woah hold the phone though. Didn't they say that VRTP announced this system? Is this just for WBMW, or will SW and WnW get in on the act too? I would assume so, in which case, that's 3 parks giving out free meals to every passholder every visit. I live a bit too far away to be a regular visitor, but if I did have a VIP Pass and lived on the GC, I would probably visit 1 or 2 a month. That could take it up to 24 meals a year, maybe 36 for the extreme park junkies who ignore Dreamworld totally... How are they profiting from this?

Any thoughts on a yes or a no to the "big circle" (I can't think of any other way to describe it)? I would have thought it would be put in place before the arms, so maybe they're going for a design without it?

Been on a Haunted Mansion breakdown too. Seems like they happen fairly regularly. We were stopped for a good 15 minutes on the one in Tokyo, staring at a snake popping out of a jack-in-the-box. Besides that, I can't think of any breakdowns I've been on the ride for. Wipeout broke down while I was in the queue, as did Storm Coaster. For the latter, the staff allowed us to stay in the queue to reserve our spots, because they promised it would be fixed before too long. The only other thing I can think of was (on the topic of carnival Hurricanes) on March's Amusements' Hurricane at my local show. The ride went through the whole build-up stage and then just stopped. They gave us 2 free tickets for that.