Baconjack

Did you see anything happening at the Ranger? As for what is happening theyve planned to pull these rides for a number of years now as the 25+ years worth of sea air has meant that they have been reaching the end of their service life. When they got rid of Flying Saucer a few years back it was obvious that the other rides were on the way out. I wouldn't be surprised if this was indeed the final knell for Tumble Bug and Ranger.

These products seem generally bland and uninspired. The Giga Splash seems like a modern take on the old Perilous Plunge concept Intamin did in the past, the Ultra Splash is basically identical to a Mack powersplash and the Hot Racer seems like their take on West Coast Racer. I like the idea of a powersplash at DW personally but a family water ride definitely needs to come first. I personally don’t mind the idea of a Joker themed RMC or one of the new Vekoma inverts that have the new gen track. A large coaster that has inversions is the gap in the park’s lineup when you take out AA. Not to mention you’d have a pretty stellar top 3 not just in Australia but in the entire world. I would have preferred something like Steel Curtain at MW but the likelihood Village deals with S&S again is slim to none.

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh... no. Let's have a think about it. WnW can be excluded for obvious reasons. As for SW, I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to build this, however they are going to be short on land after Leviathan is built. MW is a bit more tricky. I think its too close of an experience to Superman however the triple launch and inversions does provide at least some degree of differentiation. At the moment though, MW is landlocked so the only way it could go in is by ripping out a ride such as AA (which is definitely a likely possibility at this point). More likely than not if it is sold, its going overseas to a park in China, Vietnam or Thailand. Much less likely, one of our small local parks such as Adventure World or Aussie World buy it and put themselves on the map, but a ride like this I feel is outside of either park's financial resources especially after being strained by the pandemic.

From my visit last year its a mixed bag. Most of the major rides are in Japanese, many of which not having any subtitles. That includes Harry Potter, Despicable Me and Spider-Man. Didn't ride Jaws or Terminator on my visit so I can't comment on those. A few of the shows are mixed English/Japanese and they have subtitles in most of the shows that take place indoors such as the Sing one. However others dont have subtitles, such as the Backdraft walkthrough and Waterworld.

Manor closed last year so its been gone for a while now. It was always meant to be a temporary attraction from the start however its stay was extended because of its popularity. Unfortunately you can't just walk into the park at the moment and see what's going on these days. Ranger and Tumble Bug being deleted from the map pretty much confirms the end of their stay at the park, though. So much for a send off but anyone following LPS closely in recent years knew Ranger's days were numbered. Speaking of which.... There's an odd one missing. Rotor isn't mentioned on the map either. Site says its down for maintenance and unlike Tumble Bug or Ranger it still has the page on it up, so I don't think it gets axed. The thought of removing it is enough to generate some Mr Toad's vibes given its history and popularity with the public.

LPS have been looking to get rid of Ranger for at least the last three years so its removal doesnt surprise me at all. Matter of fact, a couple of years ago they nearly sold it to a showman until the deal fell through at the 11th hour. Tumble Bug is the real surprise here as I thought it would be the last of the Huss flats to be pulled. Nonetheless, both rides are showing their age now having operated nearly continuously for 30+ years originally coming from expo, and 25 years of sea air hasn't treated them nicely. I enjoyed these rides growing up too and have ridden them hundreds of times each, but it is a positive sign that the Park is removing these rides because this is part of their long term plan to update the park - LPS have been trying to get rid of their old Huss flats for the better part of a decade at this point.

I am also planning a trip to America for next year. Doing LA, Ohio, New York and Florida, anything in a nearby distance I've put into consideration to go to. The obvious ones are the Disney parks and Universal. Cedar Point and Six Flags Magic Mountain would probably be 2 day parks if you want to get the major rides in. I can't think of any of the other Six Flags or Cedar Fair chain parks needing 2 days unless you want to do absolutely everything. Maybe you could make the case for Great Adventure or Kings Island but I haven't allocated 2 days to do either. Walt Disney World I've chosen to spend 5 days at, 1 for Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Star Wars gets its own day because from what I've read the crowds are ridiculous for that area alone. Universal Studios is probably 2-3 days, 1 for the main park, another for Islands of Adventure, and another for just Harry Potter, again, the crowds I hear are ridiculous for the Harry Potter rides. If you do Disney parks, to save time I picked one park to go and do as much of, so 5 days for WDW. Having Disneyland added on is another 3 days minimum to do everything, even though I'll be in LA to go to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Similarly, I chose to go to Universal Orlando over Hollywood for the same reason, although Hollywood could be probably done in one day.

@docoaster is the guy who did Rivals rendering. VRTP picked him up after he posted a prediction POV based on the footers so Village looking at these forums is not new.

Honestly looking at some of the photos of the in progress painting, it reminds me of the old Big Dipper colours with the old yellow track and the repainted white supports. While I never rode it in Sydney, I'd imagine seeing that view of the bridge and Lavender Bay is a lot better than what you see at the current location - the DW parking lot and Buzzsaw to the right. Really added to the charm of the ride, as mediocre as the ride may be. In hindsight though its a wonder how they got away with building a coaster that tall and large.

It seems to me this clickbait shit was written in 2018 by some washed up journo, mothballed for a couple of years and then finally published in lockdown in a desperate click hungry cash grab. The complete absence of any of the three attractions Dreamworld closed in 2019 is very telling of this. The demographics that this kind of clickbait crap usually appeals to are very likely going to have no idea what Magic Mountain is or any of the opening day MW attractions.

Adding onto this point this is where I consider such a conversion to be marketable. Records are eye catching to the public and also to an extent overseas as well with the advent of social media and clickbait videos (see the Stratosphere rides as an example). There's a reason why for nearly 20 years, theme parks around the world were constantly trying to build the biggest, longest and fastest rides, something DW themselves participated in. DC Rivals was built up as the tallest, fastest and longest coaster in the Southern Hemisphere. While those stats mean jack shit for us who are well read on the industry, for the GP that don't know how many roller coasters are south of the equator, it makes it appear a lot bigger and impressive than it really is. So imagine Dreamworld having the world's tallest and fastest face first drop tower, as well as being the only ride of its type in Australia, the Southern Hemisphere, and just 1 of 3 in the entire world. If the conversion is found to be structurally and financially feasible, it honestly seems like a no-brainer to me, and along with a new thrill ride to replace Wipeout, makes Dreamworld's thrill ride collection almost comparable to what's on offer down the road.

Aussie World should consider a Larson-style drop tower like the model LPS has installed. I've always though it was the best ride at Luna Park in my opinion - that drop tower is tiny but it is a genuinely terrifying ride experience, even compared to GD which is over two times the height and other tall drop towers I've ridden overseas. Perfect fit for the park in my opinion, as it isnt an oversized frog hopper like the Zamperla offerings, and it probably is within their budget compared to the Intamin and S&S offerings. As for the face down gondola Falcon's Fury tech, a lot of people on these forums (myself included) have suggested Dreamworld look into whether or not the existing Dreamworld Tower can be converted to use the Falcon's Fury-style ride cars. In my opinion, I think this is how we will get such an experience in Australia.

Short answer no. Long answer, unless a park really wants to give the media an easy comparison of their new rapids ride to TRRR, a rapids ride is something parks on the Gold Coast are going to avoid with a ten foot pole, especially Dreamworld. It wouldn't take much to imagine the amount of bad publicity a park would get if another rapids ride was built on the Gold Coast. In my opinion, this publicity that I'd anticipate is far too great to warrant ever buying one of these. You'll see the news having a field day comparing the new ride to TRRR, the conjuring up of memories of the TRRR disaster, and thus, subsequent GP criticism of a park buying a ride that killed people only a few years ago. Unfortunately thats the way the media reports on theme parks today, even if the amusement industry (both parks and manufacturers) has worked hard to make sure guest safety is at the forefront of everything they do. Maybe a decade or so down the track when the TRRR disaster inevitably becomes another footnote in history, but as of right now, it would be in poor taste to build a new rapids ride and would probably leave a stain on the park's reputation. The stench of the TRRR disaster will still remain in the local industry for at least another 5 years, if not longer.

I remember making a Six Flags Australia park in RCT3 when I was like 14 or 15 years old. Too bad the hard drive I had that save on broke, because I'd happily look at what kid me thought was cool to put into a theme park. As for rides and attractions to add, pick any one of these Six Flags favourites. RMC Raptor S&S 4D Free Spin RMC Hybrid Ground Up Larson Super Loop (marketed as a 'coaster') Funtime Starflyer Zamperla Giant Discovery Insert Zamperla Flat Ride Here Justice League Dark Ride Clone Bonus points if any of these rides are named The Joker, Goliath, (Harley Quinn) Spinsanity, Skyscreamer or Wonder Woman. Good luck getting anything else. Six Flags is so hilariously cheap when it comes to their parks that you can literally guess what a park gets out of a list because they order a lot of clones.

On the topic of the kiddie coaster that was suggested, you dont necessarily have to buy a ride used. Its an SBF Visa model - a manufacturer LPS has worked with in the past and is at a price point LPS can definitely afford, however we have to take into consideration that the Park, as of 2017, was planning to invest $20 million into new attractions, some of which has assumedly already been spent on Volare, a new U-Drive and the refurbishment of the old Flying Saucer fixtures. I'm not sure if that figure has changed since then, but that's what I'm basing this off of. What my point is, is that LPS only have X amount of money to spend. I don't think they will have much capital left over when they are finished replacing the older rides (bear in mind, there are 4 of these rides to replace) and upgrading some of the other buildings in the park (eg, Big Top needs to be repainted, and the building that houses Dodgem City will probably need an upgrade as well). While such a ride is not going to cost much, $20 million is not a lot of money in theme park terms. Up the coast Village and Ardent are spending more than that for single rides. I think that amount of money will only be able to buy those 4 rides, plus those aforementioned building repaints/upgrades If the Government ever decides to develop the Lavender Bay storage tracks, it'll most likely be redeveloped into green space (as noted in the above proposal). I don't see any of it going to LPS because the resident uproar would be exorbitant, considering the recent opposition to the Lavender Green development as an 'expansion', imagine the outrage if LPS did actually get more land.

In my opinion they'll either try to renew the license or give it an IP-less retheme. A revival of the Kenny character would be a good idea for the latter. If DW try to renew it, I believe it falls through because in what universe is Comcast going to license one of their properties to a competitor. I do not think the area will get a new IP, because there aren't many relevant and major family oriented IP's to choose from these days that don't have the theme park rights to them clawed up by Disney, Village or Universal. In fact, I can't think of any IP's off the top of my head that could take over the Dreamworks space.

Blue Fire (the original) was designed with the MCBR in mind as part of its many block sections so it could operate with 5 trains to handle the crowds Europa Park gets (this is the 2nd most attended park in Europe after Disney, mind you). To my knowledge its clones dont operate anywhere near as many trains, the ones in China all operate with 2 trains and the one in Dubai operates with 3. My brain tells me that 2 trains will be ordered, the same amount as what Village ordered with DCR. It should be enough capacity for DW to get through crowds in peak summer period. It'll be a people eater for a signature ride especially when compared to the piss poor capacity TOT had. I recall reading somewhere a while back about when DW was discussing the spinning cars, it was said they were ordering 2 trains for this ride, something that seems to be confirmed by a search on the coaster's RCDB page.

As great of an idea as it sounds, no way the whole process of removing rides, groundwork, footers, and vertical construction for a roller coaster all happens in a month. This is probably going to be the usual temporary ride or a Mystery Manor type experience. Maybe a flat ride, but if it was, construction on it would have started at least two weeks ago, with a ride being picked and removed from the park (the markings on the concrete near Ranger might be telling something in relation to this). I haven't been there for a while so I'm not sure if the Manor building is still on site. If it is, it is definitely plausible something will take residence in that building.

I completely agree that Superman is a reliable ride and Village are doing a good job keeping it up. But in general the accelerator (and its launch technology) isn't a reliable ride from what I've read on installations overseas. I hear that Knotts Berry Farm's installation is a maintenance nightmare that's constantly down. Similarly, Top Thrill Dragster also has significant downtime from what I've read, and Kingda Ka has had its fair share of issues when in operation. That's where I draw such a conclusion. Either way, in spite of its reliability, Intamin have discontinued building hydraulic launch coasters in favour of the more reliable LSM models and I believe that it is only a matter of time before other models of its type are closed and parts are discontinued entirely.

Before I get started, Wipeout and TOT closed because of these three reasons. a) both ride types are no longer supported by their manufacturers, making parts extremely hard to come by and manufacturer support limited. b) These two rides had very complex ride systems involving a lot of different parts and in the case of Wipeout, have been historically very unreliable ride types (most vekoma top spins shut in the early 2000's) c) Dreamworld running both rides into the ground over the course of many years worsened their overall condition, increasing the need for new parts, parts which their manufacturers are no longer producing or are extremely expensive. These are things I like to keep in mind when applying to these aging attractions. AA hasn't operated at all this year and has had its maintenance reopening date removed before Covid-19 was a thing. If that's not telling that this thing isnt reopening, I don't know what is. Giant Drop, Claw and Superman are all Intamin products which have a notorious reputation for not aging well. For MW, the hydraulic coaster is out of production (and an unreliable ride type in general) and it is only a matter of time until Intamin stops making parts for the hydraulic coaster, and therefore it is only a matter of time until MW throw in the towel and rip the thing down. When this will be is unclear, but I'm estimating about 12-13 years at most. The ride may be very popular and maintained well by MW, but no ride is too popular to kill as we saw with TOT and soon to be AA. The Gyro Swing and Giant Drop, comparably, should theoretically be easier to maintain, but let's not also forget that the lack of care DW have given their Intamin rides, especially in the post-Macquarie period, have very likely limited their lifespans in some way. I'll give 10 years for Claw and 5 years for GD before either ride shuts or is in requirement of a serious refurbishment. Sidewinder shouldn't have any problems as its simplistic engineering and design allows the ride to be low maintenance and minimal downtime. Track problems shouldn't be an issue at this point in time as the ride's low forces aren't going to be putting much stress on the track, compared to something like Vortex for example (although it did go almost 20 years with the same coat of paint that wasn't designed to last that long). It should last as long as DW want it to, as parts are either so simple they can be reproduced by a local welder, or supplied by S&S for the more complex parts. As I mentioned before, though, Dreamworld didn't give this ride a lot of care for a number of years, which means its lifespan is definitely limited so I say its gone in the next 10 years. Road Runner and the Vintage Cars are similar to Sidewinder, its mechanics are very simple as far as rides go so it won't be going anywhere anytime soon. Only thing that kills this ride is any structural issues with the track or supports.

If I recall correctly, Taft offered Wonderland to Paramount with all their other parks, but Paramount wasn't interested in buying out Wonderland so the deal was made without the park hence the investment group bought it which then went onto Sunway. Even then, at the time Taft wasn't investing all that much into Wonderland apart from the water park. Other than that, pretty much every ride they got was second hand from one of the american parks (see the Zodiac which originally ran at Kings Island). And while their American parks were all getting brand spanking new big rides, Wonderland got the Titan second hand from the Expo. But let's say Paramount somehow were interested (I mean, they did pass on Wonderland then say they wanted to spend half a billion dollars to build a theme park from the ground up in Melbourne only a few years later). Anything could happen here. Given Paramount relatively evenly spread its capex across the parks to make sure no park wasn't too neglected. I'd guess they would also do that for Wonderland, so you'd have a good number of new rides and attractions added and maybe some of the older rides axed. Nothing too spectacular but given Paramount invested heavily in prototypes in all their parks there could have been a world's first kind of attraction in the mix. Now if Wonderland did somehow fall under Cedar Fair ownership (which I highly doubt would have occurred and will explain later), it wouldn't be an invitation for one to get hyped out of their mind. There would be no big B&M hyper. I would argue that Wonderland would be on the low end of the chain in terms of how much capex they were prepared to spend, around about the scale of where Worlds of Fun or Valleyfair is if you want a reference. A low catchment area of only around 5-6 million people (compared to the American parks which have catchment areas of tens of millions of people) and very little in terms of local competition outside of LPS (which is effectively a landlocked park with its hands tied in planning rules preventing expansion and/or ride replacement) essentially could allow Cedar Fair to build maybe a few flat rides but nothing huge. I simply wouldn't see Cedar Fair bet big on tourists and put massive ambitious projects in to draw them in but I definitely could be wrong. Bear in mind the Cedar Fair scenario is dependent on if Wonderland ended up making it financially to that stage. Post 2006 the park would have been much more likely to fall into the hands of a local company. Whether this would be Village (that were looking to invest in Sydney a few years later) or someone who was more interested in the land the park was built on is anyone's guess and this could result in a multitude of scenarios I don't have the time or energy to explain out.

Why are you babbling on about shit that is irrelevant to the point of discussion? Closing our theme parks that house thousands of people a day is a complete no-brainer especially with the event restrictions now in place. WDW, Disneyland and nearly all major amusement parks in America have shut by now. Locally the virus has entered pandemic phase with cases increasing at an alarmingly high rate. Surely from a business standpoint it would be better justified that Village closes WnW and MW rather than running them at a loss in a period where the tourists aren't there and locals arent going to go to the parks? Also Covid19 is no joke... its very dangerous for those with a weaker immune system (such as babies and seniors) or conditions such as kidney failure (for example I have a family member with kidney failure who is at very high risk of death if he gets the virus)

The current Vekoma rolling stock is under 5 years old, in good shape and runs perfectly fine. Why even bother unless DW suddenly want to spend the money buying new Arrow style trains from Sunkid with lap bars (picture below), an upgrade that is totally unnecessary. I don't have many problems with the vest restraints though. I'd take them over the old trains any day.

Well no, this rename/rebranding is occurring because the contract with Mattel has assumedly expired (the coaster was simply called sidewinder in recent announcements alluding to this fact) and DW are trying to wash their hands of the Motorsports area. Given the HWSW retheme was done at a time when DW didn't care about their park appearance and parks weren't legally obligated to repaint their rides every ten years, presumably to save a few bucks they didn't bother to repaint the coaster track and supports, and the old Cyclone colours kind of look like Hot Wheels playsets so I guess its fine.

Light blue track and white supports. Looks so much better than Cyclone's old colours ever was even when new.