Baconjack

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.

Is it a re-coat or new colours?

AA appears to be following the longstanding Village tradition of bungled ride closures. Sea World Monorail, you're next.

Because, as you have said, this is a german container and Mack is a german company (with all of this ride's components being manufactured in Germany), it is safe to assume that its contents are relevant to the new coaster, most likely components for the footings although it could be supports or even track.

Bear in mind you should be taking into account the fact that steel has gone up in price since 2010 and the cost of shipping the track down here, plus labour costs etc would be far greater than it would be in America, so you'd be looking at a good $45 million at least which i dont see Village, let alone Ardent, being prepared to spend on a single ride.

A powersplash when Rocky Hollow is inevitably removed (or its bigger brother with a loop presented as a concept by Mack just recently)?

Cool TR. I have always wanted to go to a Joypolis - sounds like a very interesting place. Are the upsized Initial D games (where you drive in an actual car) still there? I've seen videos of it on Youtube and would love to try one of those.

So this will be the long rumoured Spinning Wild Mouse that will be going in the old Wild Mouse plot? Still is a crime they took that out as it was a fun ride very similar to its brother at LPS. Yes, 1988 had the three coasters that opened with the World Expo (Titan, Supernova, and Centrifuge). Also i believe Thunderbolt, the old SW galaxi, and the Jet Star that operated at LPS all opened in 1982. Neither of these lineups are particularly eye catching compared to what we will be getting but its something.

Was talking about the Indian Teepee (not really a fire effect but its smoke) From memory the smoke was a lot stronger but my theory is that the warm weather and ensuing fire restrictions prevents it from operating at full strength (unless that effect has been steam this entire time and I've been fooled into believing it was actual smoke)

Am at MW today. 2 trains are now running on DCR but only 1 train on SE as per the aforementioned train rebuild. WWF effects also partially running - still not at an an acceptable standard but better than it was last week. Sign not working and a few other things. The hot weather may restrict some of the fire effects from running but effects appear to be turned on only in peak season. Same goes for GL on board audio. AA still down today. Slightly concerning but not surprising considering its age. Couldn’t see any visible work done on it today.

Mach 5 was up to 10 years old when Village brought it over from Brazil which made it most most likely the oldest slide in the park. Considering the shorter lifespans of water slides when compared to normal amusement rides (even Proslide Tornado's are now being ripped down every now and then) needless to say I'm not too terribly surprised it was axed. On that logic, Black Hole doesn't have a lot of time left either. I think WnW has been on the backburner for Village ever since they upgraded the kids section. Maybe what DW is adding now will push Village an inch further to add something new in the future.

Was at MW just today and gave JL a go. Not much from what I could tell was broken as far as the effects were concerned.. Now, given, I've ridden it just three times since it opened, but everything seemed to be working. But I question: At what point does the ride become technologically obsolete? The ride technology is already becoming outdated despite being not even 8 years old. It has aged quite poorly. The animatronics are laughably archaic when compared to what is being built now. The guns have difficulty in registering targets (especially the physical theming targets), and the ride plot is dull. In ten years time, there will be discussion on this ride being replaced or reworked. A theming/effects overhaul, a fix up of the guns and targeting system, a new ride film and a re-worked plot to include villains that aren't tucked away in obscurity, whilst keeping the existing core ride system would be the best solution. I get it, this is one of the earliest shooting dark rides. But this attraction barely gets a line compared to the other rides in its area. Today, even, it had easily the shortest line in the DC corner of the park. In its current state, it feels like a filler attraction, something you do on a hot day to take advantage of the air conditioned building. It may be only 8 years old, but I hold great scepticism for its future as this ride is aging very poorly as of right now. Before MW thinks about replacing AA, this is definitely one of the big priorities for the park right now. Combined with the desperately needed update to the worn out, tired WB Kids' Zone, MW need to up their appeal with families. They already have what I'd consider to be the most elite thrill ride collection in the country by far, especially as of right now, so I'd think it's time to get the family rides in order, something which has been behind their competition for far too long.

If it's purple track, it might be Adrenaline Peak (small eurofighter at tiny park in America that has purple track): https://rcdb.com/15410.htm

LOOOOOOL WHAT N O On the topic of a 4d free spin, it definitely isnt a bad Cyclone replacement. But such a ride is still at least 5 years away. Also I have no fucking idea as to what Bluey is as I'm not the target demographic of ABC Kids, nor do i have young children in that demographic. Area should probably get a minor IP update though, Giggle and Hoot and Bananas in Pyjamas aren't exactly the most relevant IP's for 2020. With an ABC Kids update basically inevitable given the freeing up of the old TOT station's real estate, I expect newer more relevant IP's to be in place when this happens, while retaining Play School and Wiggles.

Given a significant number of the other park's major rides don't have much life left in them (HWSW and debatably GD) or have already been ripped out (TOT, Wipeout, TRRR), you may have to take direct replacements of all those attractions into consideration (given the plan for the old boneyard previously cleared for the lazy river will still be for WWW expansion). A large chunk of what Ardent is investing right now is directed towards replacing the old rides that arent in DW's best interest to maintain any longer. Assume the coaster will trade with TOT (an investment probably targeted as such). A potential thrill ride would trade with Wipeout, and a potential family ride of reasonable size could be a direct replacement for TRRR. Then you would have to consider replacements for the inevitably retired HWSW (new coaster or another WWW tower) and GD (new drop tower or a Sky Jump conversion). This current $50+ million investment package I expect to last until at least the end of next year, given there are still a number of announcements to be made. Regardless of time frames it should be made loud and clear to Ardent that this investment isn't a one off thing, it needs to be made on a consistent basis over time, otherwise the park will return to a situation which it was in only a year ago. So basically, what I am saying is that management need to think ahead and realise that they will soon have to invest in replacements for two of their major thrill rides that won't be around in 5 years' time.

Blaze orange. This is going to be Tradie Vest: The Ride, you heard it first folks

Ocean Park in 2014. Visit there pretty much every year since the old man lives over there.

A few years back the owner of Scenic World was pictured with a Premier Rides executive at an AALARA event years ago. This needless to say didnt imply anything. Neither will this I imagine. Anything could happen. MW won't be getting anything major until when the time comes to replace AA, which I don't think will be for another five years at least. Given Village has dropped a good $80+ million in the last three years or so in park investment, it should be reasonable to expect them to tone the spending down for the next few years. I wouldn't be surprised to hear if there was no plans at all for MW's next roller coaster given they dont look to replace Road Runner.

In the photos it looks similar to rail rider. Looks like an electric motor powers the cars though.

A monorail that went up to the top of the toboggan hill that is where Shotgun/aqua racers sit today. I'm not educated on the topic by any means but it looks very similar to the Rail Rider that is at the park at present.

I think the process is a bit more complicated. The Sky Jump runs on a totally different track system to the existing Giant Drop infrastructure. The new track would have to be installed around the tower which would necessitate the removal of not only the existing TOT track, but also the existing GD track as well. And the probability this happens depends on whether a structural assessment of the existing tower has found such a conversion is feasible, and whether or not Intamin are willing to convert the DW tower to Sky Jump technology considering no such conversion has ever been attempted.