carolinebee

Of the parks I've been to, favourites were Alton Towers (England) and Legoland Deutschland. I absolutely have to go to Six Flags Magic Mountain but haven't made it yet.

I like both Scooby and Eureka Mountain for different reasons, but I think Scooby has the advantage of being fairly unique in Australia and in general as a ride. It's the only coaster I've been on with an elevator and a turntable (and for the record, I think the lift is the best part, too, along with the backwards drop, especially the first time and if like I did you have no idea it's coming- we thought we were riding a ghost train so it came as a real shock!). While I'm not one for theming as a rule, Scooby's theming is fun and effectively complements the ride, the only letdown for me was the wild mouse track (I have this paranoia about sharp unbanked turns). I've been on a few mine trains, and they can always be relied upon for some good thrills, dark bits and drops without too much bone shaking which suits my 12 year old just fine. We always have fun on Eureka and try to get on it more than once. As for me, I'm happy riding both of them and we're having trouble deciding whether to do Dreamworld in June coz we've never been on Cyclone or Reptar, or whether to do Movie World and Superman (very tempting). Wish we could afford both. Maybe.... That second day deal Dreamworld do is also a big drawcard, Hmmm....

Can someone tell me please. I went on Indy at Paris and it is just a pretty ordinary backwards coaster, quite fun but I was disappointed coz I thought Indy had 2 or 3 different tracks and you might get a different ride each time. Is the one at Anaheim like that, or did I make it all up in my mind? The whole theming looks better at Anaheim, from what I've seen.

I didn't vote is is my fav as I have a tie for favourite- SDSC, TOT and Lethal Weapon tie for 1st in Australia.

here! here! Big Thunder was great, five (or was it six) times over! Same for me! I've also only been to Paris. So fav for me are: 1. Big Thunder Mountain 2. Dumbo Ride (I had to wait 35 years to go on that!) 3. Teacups (they are fun) 4. Phantom Manor 9better than your average ghost house)

I've been on a looping coaster indoors in Las Vegas (Canyon Blaster) which was pretty cool, but not really an indoor coaster, just a coaster indoors. I've been on: Space Mountain (Paris Disneyland) Black Hole (Alton Towers) Scooby Doo (WBMW) and a selection of mine rides (Eureka, Big Thunder etc) which all have a dark part My overall favourtie would be SDSC coz of the surprises (vertical lift and turntable) though I'm not fussed on unbanked tracks. I'm always a sucker for a mine ride too, Big Thunder Mountain is tops. Caroline

I rode it at the Brisbane Ekka many many years ago (circa 1979-1981). Used to think it would come off the tracks!!! I remember very little about it, I'm afraid, not even the cone nosed cars.

At the risk of being flamed, seriously flamed... I would like to express my own opinion on this Disney thing, I suppose to some extent in support of those who are claiming we have some "Disney-standard theming" here in Australia. I went to Disneyland Paris last year and I was generally unimpressed. It was the only theme park we went to on ouir travels that we (kids age 11 and 14 and myself) were pretty much indifferent about. At the risk of sounding like I'm whinging (which I suppose I am), I'll now launch into a diatribe of explanation as to why this was so.... While typing this I have had to refer to the website as the majority of the rides were pretty much unmemorable. The customer service was pretty ordinary, I have never been treated in an Australian theme park with the indifference that we got there. For example, most of the staff spoke only a nominal amount of English, some tried hard to help and be understood, some didn't. The intro to Honey I shrank the Audience" was in French, no explanation on how to use the headphones so I missed 5 minutes while sorting out all 3 of us. The French soundtrack was so loud we could hardly hear our english sountrack. Theming: even the 11yo said it was "gay", it was really silly but I thought it was good 3D. I don't think the 360 degree theatre had English in the headphones, though we wasted another 5 minutes trying to work out if it did. Good movie though, despite being in French. Theming: what theming? Star Tours was OK, much like Batman we thought. Space Mountain was OK, but we found it rough and also were disappointed that no-one would tell us what the ride was like and 11yo hated it as I'd have predicted if anyone had told us it had so many inversions and Gs. Theming: don't really remember. Pirates of the Caribbean was OK but in our opinion not as interesting a ride as Bermuda Triangle (though those aliens are pretty dated and lame). We're no experts on animatronics, though, just 3 ordinary people who like rides (and we don't usually do 6 theme parks a year, either, usually just one). Orbitron is low-themed flat ride, thumbs up. Peter Pan was a very cute family suspended ride with nice effects but nothing extraordinary, don't think there was a story apart from flying. There were LOTS of rides aimed only at the littlies which we resorted to when we ran out of biggies rides and had done Big Th Mtn 5 or 6 times. Theming on these was mild to average, nothing worth mentioning. Big Thunder Mtn was similar in theming to Dreamworld's Eureka Mine but a much better coaster. Theming of all the above rides was, IN MY OPINION, no better than a similar selection in Australia. However the following few stand out: Nautilus was an excellent walk-through, awesome squid. Better than Harry Potter. Phantom Manor was of exceptional standard and one of the few rides I thought was themed really well, though we were told off for trying to open the door as no signs said "wait here" and we were really confused as to where the ride was. Robinsons House was very good, theming simple but top notch. Indiana Jones- disappointing (see my previous post) though not a bad ride and the set is very visually effective. As I've previously said, I'm not really one for theming, but I really can't see how you can say that the theming if Disneyland overall is better than Movieworld or DW. My experience is tainted by poor customer service, but trying to be objective, I still fail to see a vast deiiference except in the few cases mentioned. Maybe Disneyland Paris is letting the Disney side down? At least I can now say I've been, and riding Dumbo and the teacups (fulfilling a lifetime dream) was worth the visit, as was the multiple rides on Big Thunder Mountain (the best ride by far at DL Paris). OK, now I brace myself for the onslaught...

Oh oh oh!! Sob sob. I've always wanted to see it at least. Blow it. My head kept bashing the OTS, worse because I couldn't see where it was going. We were going to go on again to see if it was better second time around, but it wasn't running in the afternoon. I think it was 20 pounds, or 18, they day we went, but it was closing in 5 minutes so they wouldn't even let us in to have a look. :mad: Great talking to you. Thanks for the goss.

Been there, done that (Spinball Whizzer). My avatar is Spinball Whizzer, not a great photo but it wasn't a great day when we were there, grey all day, but at least it didn't actually rain. It was great fun, but I think I prefer Oblivion for a completely new experience. I wanna go baacckkkk!!!! What is this Rita? Surely Alton Towers doesn't have a new coaster? SW is only new. Actually, I've just done a search and found it- another coaster for Alton Towers, due to open 4/4/05. Wow! Now I've gotta go back. Soon.

I was sorely disappointed with Indy Paris- thought it was going to be like I'd read about the Indy ride in Anaheim, which I heard has 2 or 3 seperate tracks and you get a different ride depending on the track it chooses. Indy Paris is a backwards coaster which stays on the one track, not a bad ride but a long way short of the surprise-ride I was expecting. We did it a few times, the loop is pretty funky backwards, especially in the end carriage, but Big Thunder Mountain was the ride we ended up on for hours, longer and more interesting for repeated rides. BTW, I think this thread is funny coz I thought everyone thought like me about themed rides. I have always thought the theming was pretty lame, and I hear people around me making fun of it too. And REALLY annoying in off-peak times when you could just be riding instead of standing listening to some half-baked movie. The only one I actually can remember enjoying was some 4D movie at Universal Studios where the actors scripts were hilarious and beautifully delivered. Don't mind Scooby Doo where you can walk past the screens if there's no line, and of course it's nice to have something to listen to when there is a line. So it's been a good education for me to know that you guys all like the theming. For me- gimme the ride.

A coaster with something different. A good tophat, a lift and rotating station (like SDSC), face-first vertical drop, some good airtime, etc, and definitely a smooth ride and great first drop. The type doesn't really matter. Not really into boring old sit-down steelies. Scott, I didn't think much of Space Mountain- too rough. I got a headache (I'm kinda old for that sort of thing). I'm looking forward to trying a standup, and also a bobsled and floorless. BTW, what is a 4 dimension? Caroline

Not profitable. Apart from school hols there was hardly ever anyone there. I heard it shut because it was unprofitable, anyway. I liked that dragon coaster too, but much too high for me, and not fast enough. Wrong sort of adrenaline Caroline

I had a travelling year, too. Would also have Blackpool but they were closing as we got there at 6pm. I went on: Knotts: Xcelerator Montezuma's Revenge Jaguar Ghost Rider Disneyland Paris: Space Mountain (I hate rough coasters!) Big Thunder Mountain Indiana Jones Alton Towers: Air Oblivion Spinball Whizzer Runaway Mine Train Nemesis Black Hole Corkscrew Legoland Deutschland Dragon Coaster Mini Dragon Coaster Project X Seaworld Corkscrew Transportable Olympic Looping Crazy Mouse Other Canyon Blaster (Vegas) Have to resign myself to less coasters this year- the only new ones I'm likely to experience are Cyclone and Reptar (haven't been to DW in 2 or 3 years). Oh, and of course the Superman coaster at WBMW . hehe. Jobe, what was Pepsi Max like? I was so upset to miss it. Were any of the other Blackpool coasters good? Caroline

Pleeeaaase log on when you do the quizzes so your score gets saved. ZoggyNo1 is the only recorded 10 out of 10 for the Dreamworld quiz and the average score is still 6 out of 10 (I can't believe it either). Thanks guys for trying it out Caroline