Baconjack

My money's on a refit of the launch system to LSMs + a retheme. Perhaps a switch track and backwards spike for a swing LSM launch would be an out-there guess but unlikely. Logistically this is possible, Red Force's track is much shorter and launches to a similar speed to dragster, plus LSM's can be put on angled track. It's more less a question if Cedar Fair has the money to do the refit - but they build at Cedar Point as if money isn't an object. If this is what's done, then it's a slam dunk for MW to do the same to Superman to keep it going as parts for these hydraulic coasters get harder to come by in the next 10 years.

I miss tower, sure in its last years it could barely crack halfway up the tower but there is really nothing like it here anymore. Sure you have your steel taipans and supermans but they aren’t comparable imo. Riding it in its opening year when it ran at max power must have been incredible. I’ll add Gold Coaster while it was in Sydney to the list too. The setting alone improves the ride so much, it’s unfortunate that I never got to experience it when it was there. It feels like that ride was built specially for Sydney - at Dreamworld it doesn’t feel like it belongs there even as WWW has been built around it.

The old Huss rides at Luna Park lasted for 30 years (and 25 for flying saucer). Ex DW stingray lasted for 35. Ex SW pirate ship has clocked close to 40 years. Black Widow and Rampage are each over 20 years old and are still going. They can last if parks want it to but obviously costs are going to be prohibitive at some point as parts get harder to come by (see wipeout). Fwiw our parks do well at this, wipeout was lucky to run for as long as it did when so many of the other installs couldn’t even get half the mileage. The Malaysia install closed after it ran for about 10 years so who knows how long Doomsday has left. I’d say it will either get rethemed to fit the Wild West area or removed in a few years time though.

Sledgehammer is garbage. You’re going to have a hard time fitting into the restraints if you’re above 6 foot or are bigger, which is a problem for more people than you’d think. Spend the cash and get the new gen Intamin version like what’s at Adventure World.

Is this owned by the same bloke who bought the LPS ranger as a parts donor? Heard this yarn a while back

A Gerstlauer Bobsled would be different enough from Scooby, and arguably better than what Scooby is now. Alternatively, get a good spinner. It's puzzling to me how no major park in this country has one yet.

Motocoaster is easily worse than Boating School Blast and Roadrunner. If it wasn't built so high off the ground it might have been a little more redeemable, but it loses so much of its steam during the 2nd lap and is just a slow, boring mess. Even the family coasters offer better pacing. Madagascar is garbage. Reminds me a lot of the later years of Lethal Weapon but with a boring layout, the worst of both worlds. Some new trains/restraints would make it slightly more bearable. Motocoaster and Gold Coaster are pretty much family thrill coasters when compared to ST, so not sure if this point is accurate.

Wild really would have been a bad expansion if Village went ahead with it, it never made much sense. Glad that Leviathan/Trident takes up that land now. Wizard of Oz was meant to be a Joker's Madhouse themed Raptor - custom layout, etc, before they went with the family coasters. Doomsday was originally planned as a very tall condor (144m, taller than the dreamworld tower) sitting in the middle of Superman's helix - before they decided to chuck a different ride in Boot Hill. An ampitheatre in Gold Rush and a themed lazy river in the old boneyard/thunderbolt spot were weird choices and weren't going to achieve the same effect ST could. Just a few I can tick off the list, most are public knowledge but always good to recap.

Village came very close to getting a Raptor for Movie World. So an Australian company could easily work with them. To my knowledge most of the mechanical problems on their early stuff have been ironed out by now. If you were to build a hybrid at Dreamworld you wouldn't be dealing with re-using a pre-existing structure and footings which aren't suitable for an aggressive ride. But a raptor is clearly the winner here - build it in the lazy river plot and reuse the old Thunderbolt station, reuse the name and you have free good publicity and free gate, an excellent replacement for Gold Coaster, which sits on prime real estate for WWW expansion down the track.

Lol Dreamworld just dropped $32 million on a big coaster. The problem with a B&M family coaster is that you are getting too little ride for what you pay for. B&M is very expensive, and there's a reason why only cashed up Chinese parks and the equally cashed up Merlin chain have bought their family coasters. There are an array of cheaper options that parks here are already investing into. Why not a family woodie, or a spinning coaster, or one of those drop track coasters that will probably cost nearly the same amount? At that point you're delving into stuff that's got a real all-ages appeal.

Some people seem to be experts at taking quotes completely out of context when I literally said "buy a thrill ride after ABC Kids and flume yada yada". Don't lump me in with the rest of this mob

If this is true, this is a huge mistake on Dreamworld's part. Bluey is the best IP Dreamworld could secure to drive gate and given the pre-existing relationship with the license, why wouldn't they take it a step further into a dark ride? Does the Wiggles still have that same impact it did in the mid 2000's when the Wiggles area first opened up? I'd say the Wiggles will be a component of the refresh, like it has been for the last few years, with a Bluey component as well. I'd say what we are getting is the ABC Kids refresh that's taking over the TOT queue area and a family water ride at Rocky Hollow, probably a modern flume or a shoot-the-chutes. $60m is enough to execute those two concepts well.

Respectfully disagree with this. Dreamworld still need to replace the gap Buzzsaw left in the lineup. You could say ST replaced both TOT & Buzzsaw, and I'm happy with that assessment, but Dreamworld having an extra anchor thrill ride is handy and there's plenty of compact options that could be placed in the park that don't break the bank (a certain plot of land cleared for a lazy river comes to mind) that covers all bases when the time comes to remove Gold Coaster. Obviously Dreamworld needs the above mentioned first + a good dark ride & refresh for ABC kids and I assume this will be what is announced later on in the year, but this should come after in the next 10 years IMO

$50-60m isn't a lot when you really think about it, Steel Taipan was quoted at $30m. You'd be getting closer to a good flume (or equivalent at the Rocky Hollow site), a thrill flat (replacing Wipeout) and the ABC Kids World refresh (if you're going to put another dark ride in the Big Red Car building you're looking at a new ride system + theming, which will cost good money if done properly). The latter two were planned along with Steel Taipan before covid happened, Ardent is just playing catch-up replacing their many attractions that they ran into the ground.

Sea World already has their Corkscrew replacement lined up in Leviathan - they don't need really anything else in the thrill bracket considering they already have Vortex/Leviathan in that category. Anything higher in intensity than those two just isn't going to be popular with the type of guest Sea World attracts and would be a better suited investment for MW, and Vortex is pushing that threshold a little. Their next attraction needs to be a direct replacement for Vikings - either a dark ride, modern flume or a shoot-the-chutes. Sell Surfrider out of the chain, it doesn't belong at either wet n wild or sea world. A few parks I can think of would show interest in buying it.

Is Crash even an IP worth diving into these days? A couple of games have come out in the last few years, yes, but this would have been a far better fit 20 years ago. Speaking of game related IP’s I’m totally baffled that no company has bought into Sonic. An IP that has appeal with both kids and adults, which is super popular at the moment because of the movies, plus it’s one of very few family IP’s these days with the theme park rights up for grabs. The best Ardent can do is to negotiate a deal with Merlin to replace ABC Kids with Lego. Like Wizard of Oz it is a timeless IP that never goes out of favour (cough Nickelodeon Central). Bluey makes sense now but if ABC Kids was rethemed to Bluey, will that area remain popular in 5-10 years? Dreamworks will be a challenge once that contract approaches its conclusion, has Universal ever licensed out one of its IP’s to a competitor?

The unreliability jokes write themselves

Sadly Gumbuya World will cop this with their own investment. "Why is this exactly the same ride as the wizard of oz ride at movie world????1!1"

LPS just sank $20m into rejuvenating its ride lineup. Not a trivial amount of money, and somewhat comparable to what is being spent up north. It’s certainly not perfect, it has its flaws, and isn’t complete in terms of presentation but it’s the biggest investment in the sector down here since Wet N Wild was built.

I don’t see how this is even an issue to be honest. DW have sat in the journo’s hot seat for the last six years so inevitably if something comes up about DW they’ll make every effort they can to make it outrageous. $2.7m is nothing compared to other misuses of public money that I can think of (certain sports rorts come to mind) DW needed money for ST to bolster patronage, so that’s why they asked the government - and they said yes - because it’s in the public’s best interest for this to happen over a koala exhibit considering how the theme parks make up such a big chunk of the Gold Coast economy.

Haven't ridden Road Runner with the new trains but have the restraints changed from the upgrade? That could be part of the reason given height restrictions are based on manufacturer advice (see: 196cm max height restriction for most intamin coasters in australia)

Doesn't WB own the rights to Oz (the film), so any licensing fees would be paid to them? At a glance it seems MGM doesn't own the rights to Oz. I have NFI how the licenses for WB/DC/Scooby/Looney Tunes work at MW, but I'd assume it would work in the same way as those given that Oz is a WB IP?

This is the seriously most laughable and desperate marketing spin I've ever seen. I'd love to see the spin doctors at village come up with a definition for a "multi type coaster", it's not even Australia's first coaster with the same layout

The big three areas of improvement that have stuck out for the last few years: 1. Arkham/Lethal Weapon area. Already dealt with. My only complaint is that another entry path should be made to the Oz area from Gotham City Cafe area so there's two entrances rather than just the one in front of Superman considering the transition from DC to Oz will be a little jarring. 2. WB Kids. The extra flat coming next year is a nice bonus, as are all the little updates/refurbishments done recently, but more needs to be done for the area to be really complete. Get rid of Junior Driving School and replace it with a nice family dark ride that has some heart and detail put into it. Apples and oranges comparison. Road Runner's new trains weren't experimental designs from a 2nd rate manufacturer and probably won't rip apart the track. Road Runner will run as long as MW want it to - no doubt about that. People knew Arkham's fate was sealed the minute Corkscrew was ripped out- it was just a matter of when, not if. 3. Wild West precinct. Not a precinct but it definitely is capable of it. WWF got the new boats this year but who knows where this thing will be in 10 years time... haven't been on the ride in about 3 years but the state of the theming was quite poor last time so some work needs to be done in this department. The area occupied by the Studio Showcase building beside WWF is ripe for a new major coaster project - the base model Raptor would fit comfortably in the space without creating too much noise for the neighbouring studios. Rip out the nonsense that is DC Super-Villains and re-theme Doomsday and its surrounds to the Western theme. In a decade's time, the bulk of DC will be in need of a redo. Justice League has needed to be gutted and re-done for years, Green Lantern's reliability is less than desirable now let alone in 10 years, and whether Superman will experience the same problems as its cousins overseas as it gets older is still yet to be seen. Scooby based on its current trajectory is a big question mark in my book as well.

I am simply asking for a Mad Max RMC hybrid next to WWF, thanks