Coasterjoe

Aussie World -Top tier thrill coaster, either a GS eurofighter or RMC raptor - Quality family coaster, I know theres already going to be 2 of them in Australia but the Vekoma SFC would be a good fit. -Leaky Logs upgrade, maybe a couple of small slides Any funds left to go into general improvements around the parks grounds and amenities

Yea I must admit visiting on an off season Friday I expected a dead park with nothing open but not one ride was down which is incredible! Gold Rush closed for about an hour and that was about it, and with rides and operations running as expected the lines were short and you really got your moneys worth, I was super impressed! Cant blame them for closing midweek, you just don't get the numbers needed to make the park profitable. They do operate 7 days over school holidays, for the size of the park the model makes a lot of sense.

Back visiting NZ and visited Rainbows End today for the first time since I was a kid and honestly not much has changed but I wanted to give some thoughts anyway. atmosphere and operations: Surprisingly good wait times, they have capped numbers to the park and it was never overly busy in any one area. Ride OPs did not muck about and checked harnesses very hastily, which made operations run well and some of the bigger rides feel a little more ominous. The park was severely lacking in performers and entertainers and the general theming around the park is tidy but pretty uninspiring. Rides: Some family favourites still hold up, like the Log Flume, they have put a lot of energy into this ride to keep it fresh and added animatronics to more sections of the ride making it more unique and enjoyable, its actually one of the better flume rides if you discount how uninspiring the final drop is. Gold Rush is also a fun little mine train ride that has aged well and just as enjoyable as I remember it as a kid. The corkscrew was actually running very well, miles better than Viper was in its final years at SW and for an old arrow Corkscrew it is running much better than expected. Outside of this they have a small drop tower (about 205ft), a Zamperla power surge, and a 360 pendulum disc similar to SX360 at Aussie World. The area I think Rainbows End really shines in is the kids area, which I rate better than all the kids areas at the GC Parks. They had upgraded the old screen ride with a new 4D dark ride which was pretty underwhelming but not bad for little old NZ. And of course Rainbows End has some unique family favourites like Bumper Boats which is a reason in itself to visit the park, with a very healthy run time of about 10 minutes. All in all a great little park and I was happy to see they are still attempting to keep things fresh despite having virtually no competition in NZ. Would really love to see them get one flagship ride to take the park to the next level but its pretty landlocked and good for what it is.

I want to know if a pull through is actually what was recommended

Interesting, do you feel the same way on all poll voted award systems or just this one? Because you could say that about any fan or poll voted system. The only difference with golden ticket awards is they select their voters based on the voters experience of riding several coasters around the world. Its true that coaster favourites are largely subjective but if I was a theme park owner or a manufacturer I would be pretty happy if one of my rides won a golden ticket. Sure its not the be all and end all but its still a great achievement. Besides reading the list it looks like the usual suspects are all there, and yep the majority is North america based but maybe its because it has the largest quantities of world class coasters? 🤷‍♂️

I am pretty sure Golden ticket awards is global as there are rides in the top 50 from around the world.

Park of the year: Kings Island Renaissance award: Kennywood Turnstile award: Six Flags fiesta Texas Best Steel coaster: Fury 325 at Carrowinds Best Woodie: Phoenix at Knoebels Here is the rest of the winners

This conversation has gone completely off topic. Why the hell are we justifying how people should spend their money? People spending to go on Disney cruises is no different to us spending on theme parks. It’s about investing in what fills your bucket of happiness and if your bucket filler is hanging out with Mickey and friends all power to you. I don’t believe in judging people for their preferences. Just let people live their life.

Incorrect post.

If all they change is the launch system I think I have less of an issue with that being the case and more of an issue in how they have created this level of speculation. Does it really need a ‘retiring as you know it’ status? Why not say something like TTD is being retired, however it will be back under a brand new theme and a new launch system which will improve operations? Why is all this RIP TTD even necessary? Its essentially going to be the same ride, and honestly the GP dont care what type of launch it is, they will look at the ride and go ‘ok so its TTD but they changed the name.’ 🤷‍♂️

Thats really interesting. I hear a lot of enthusiasts claim Xcelerator as the superior ride but I suspected there is a bit of favouritism at play. I haven’t ridden either personally but both are on my bucketlist

Well yes and no, twin shares for disney start at around $790AUD for 2 day cruise and your base fare for a short cruise on most other cruises would be around $500AUD. So an additional $290 is not really a huge hike in price considering you are paying for the Disney experience. And like you said, if you consider the price is all inclusive, thats a pretty budget holiday for a Disney themed holiday.

Personally I’ve always been not overly keen to go on a cruise and I fall in the camp of people that might be swayed to go on a Disney cruise and here is why. 1. I have small children 2. Disney have a certain standard of entertainment for all ages and I have never regretted spending the money to go to one of their shows/events. I just feel that a Disney cruise is not much different price wise to another cruise company, but you know Disney will do it well because its Disney. I expect a Disney cruise to be much more than just a cruise with Disney characters. It’s the whole experience that Disney bring, from the customer service, to the quality and detail in everything they do, so yes, I can relate to people who might be considering a Disney cruise when they wouldn’t consider a regular cruise. I think its unfair to assume that every adult who wants to go on a Disney cruise is a weirdo who wants a photo with Donald Duck.

Yeah I can respect that, Id prefer CP over Disneyland any time. I did really love Disneyland when I went there but yes, no denying how stupidly expensive it is. Personally I do think Disneyland is at least a one and done for any theme park enthusiast, but I can also see why you wouldn’t be enthusiastic paying what would be a season pass for the entire cedar fair chain for a single day in magic kingdom.

You know ive been doing some soul searching about my recent comments and looking back I think I was being a little silly. The sheer cost of doing anything to the current layout would be astronomical and taking a huge risk if they make dramatic changes to the layout. Removing the ride would also cost probably more than building a new coaster. So the most logical thing is to upgrade to LSM. I underestimated now how big of a job simply changing the launch system will actually be and when I consider that than its probably major enough to post what they posted. I still feel they will need to add something that the GP will notice, this could be as simple as a new more immersive station 🤷‍♂️

Yes I remember that article circulating but my feeling was it was driven more from the people here that are trying to make it happen as opposed to Disney actually being interested in building a park here. Perhaps the cruise coming here is a bit of a test for something bigger but I seriously doubt we have the capacity for a permanent Disney park especially in Adelaide. One thing ive always thought would work really well here is some sort of mini Disney attraction/park based on finding nemo at sydney harbour. But the cost of development and finding space at sydney harbour alone would be a turn off for Disney. Ive also thought that some sort of Disney roadshow that visits the showgrounds at all the major cities could be pretty cool.

And yet the crowds still come out in force, feeling sorry for floor staff at the moment dealing with disgruntled GP that don’t understand why so many rides are down. MW needs one or two more reliable capacity monsters in the park to soften the blow when some of these more unreliable rides go down. Something tried and true that has high capacity and low maintenance issues. The issue is less about DC rivals and more about the number of major attractions that are down both planned and unexpected at a given time.

Yeah I am pumped for this! This is probably the closest we will ever get to having a Disneyland in Australia.

This is the thing, you dont really feel like there is a sense of urgency from the park to rectify this. I appreciate its probably a much bigger job than we realise. If the last few years are anything to go by Movieworld is not fussed about having a number of attractions down because the crowds still come! I think as long as Superman is operating MW will drag their feet getting this fixed sadly.

I think that the fact that Gumbaya World is building the same coaster as MW is not really going to have a significant impact on the GP. The model looks quality and really fits the Gumbaya World demographic. I am so impressed with how progressive Gumbaya World has been, come a long way from the little Gumbaya Park I used to visit when I lived in Gippsland. As for LPS the expansion was definitely not small change and while it has its flaws its a pretty well rounded expansion. Personally I am really excited to see the direction of theme parks in Australia over the next two decades, its promising to see so much development outside of the Gold Coast.

Ok so maybe my last suggestion is a little far fetched but surely the plan isn't just simply to replace the launch with LSM and retheme, that would be really disappointing. This is Cedar Point we are talking about regarding one of their signature attractions. There needs to be something that makes people feel that they are getting a ‘better ride experience’ for me simply upgrading the launch is not enough, especially to announce the ride as we know it is retiring and for an inferior launch system imo. Heres some more realistic upgrades LSM+ add an extra 40 or so feet to reclaim tallest coaster. Add a roll back and backwards launch spike prior to main launch. Reverse the track so it launches backwards add a camel back to the post drop run similar to Kingda Ka.

Here is a thought, Gemini sits right behind TDD. Maybe Cedar Point plans to remove gemini and use the space to extend TTD to either create a steel launch coaster with a similar layout to Velocicoaster using the current top hat, or maybe the first stratacoaster with a lifthill? I still dont believe an LSM launch will provide the same quality launch you get from the current system but if there was a track extension for more ride then that would be a great compensation.

I wondered a change to LSM launch too but that would be a pretty disappointing outcome tbh. It would inevitably mean a less forceful launch and probably a lower height. I would love to see Cedar Fair really push the boundaries on this one and do something thats never been done before. TTD is a special ride for many enthusiasts and to see it essentially ‘downgraded’ to be honest would really suck. I would prefer if it they just scrapped it.

If its open when you visit lol

Hmm, if they were simply rebranding and upgrading the ride they wouldn’t have used the word ‘retiring’ The way it reads to me is that the ride experience is going to be quite different. This does not read to me like a renovations post. It is quite cryptic in suggesting elements of top thrill dragster will remain but that could mean a number of things.