Whombex

While reading this thread I'd thought "WOW! Dreamworld for New Years!", but then considered that there'd have to be an incredible security/police presence. Cavill Mall/Surfers' Main beach for New Years' for example.. It'd be great, but not probable. Thanks wallacedom, nice post. I'd love to ride ToT by night... :eek:

At least Slick will be happy, by night the graffiti will be harder to see This sounds great. Having never been to DW past the 'usual' closing time, I'd be looking to go one of these nights.

The previous times I visited, the Skylink was only being used by families with kids aged 5-10 and asian tourists. IE People who seemingly hadn't been to the park before. Maybe it's to make room for the flying coaster over the island Sturt loops around? As for Repar, that's a surprise! Although on my last visit (Late Feb), they were sending it out about half full... maybe it's getting few if any riders?

I'm pretty sure most of you have heard of (or been on) High Roller , the Las Vegas Roller Coaster built on the Startosphere Tower. To me the concept of a Roller Coaster, or Thrill Ride, built outside of a Park, in an unusual location, is very interesting. I was wondering where in Australia, (no limits!) you'd like to see a Coaster/Thrill ride. A Giant Drop on top of Gold Coast's Q1? Sure! A coaster in an abandoned Opal/Coal mine in western Qld? Why not! So what/where would you put a ride/coaster, free of a theme park, in Australia??? Single person flying coaster over Sydney Harbour Bridge? Abusurd but worth imagining! Creative juices flowing please, people!

I too cannot see a Disney Park in Australia. Establishment cost for a whole new (DISNEY) Park are probably immense, even for a 'smaller' park. Recovering those costs would require a huge turnover, greater than what could be supplied from the greater Sydney area and Tourists. This is just an impression I have. Maybe they could do it cheaper, or have a huge attendace rate in its first few years... There is a great opportunity to grab the Greater Sydney theme park market. But I couldn't see Disney doing it. They would have other (ie greater populated/potential for greater visitor numbers) places to go before Australia. IMO My other thoughts, after reading Diannasaurus's post, would be that a Disney Park, even if located in another State, could be quite aggressive in its attempts at capturing a good slice of the market. WBMW/SW/W&W are backed by their foriegn owner. Dreamworld's owner, Maquarie, could find the fight too tough and sell DW, or even worse, be forced to close if their attempts at keeping guests (IE tens of millions of dollars in rides and most likley better THEMING) fail.

Fair enough Scott, but it's still better than arriving at the Booths out front and seeing the closures sign. Nice Pics tailsnosthings, did you have to go past a barrier to get to the ride entry? I like attachment 861 (last pic). I too had a look back down that tunnel. Strange seeing those logs like that!

Thanks, tailsnosthings! Having a nephew aged under 2, I have seen a few of the Wiggles DVDs. One of them is a Western themed one, and I guess it would fit in quite well with Gum Tree Gully. I'm surprised it's so far back in the Park, I'd have thought somewhere nearer Nick, but it's good to see they're trying to attract more people to that area of the Park. How many of you regulars actually go down that way (and around near the waterfall/cave) often apart from accessing ToT/Tiger Island?

...is it just me, or does every third thread Adam create have something to do with Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster? Please take no offense Adam, but you're focusing on that ride quite a lot here on R-C. :confused: Also, there's no option for "Haven't been on it...yet!"

Adam, having been on these forums for just over a month, I have learnt a few things about other members from their posts. Such as this recent post by Rabid, where he links to some pics of himself. FYI When I next visit SW/MW, I'll PM Rabid to see if he'll be there that day.

That's why it is imperative that you look at the website to check for closures, as macboy seems to have done. macboy, I couldn't see them opening it that much earlier I'm afraid. Enjoy Thunder River Rapids instead! There's still some other water elements in the park. There's a water jet part in the Nick area (near the Tower of Terror), and the Blue Lagoon (although someone posted a thread or two back that only one slide was running). But no flume ride I'd expect. Enjoy your visit! Post here when you get back...

Kenny, I went on the GD, even aware of the one-side only thing. This said, it was only one of my two expected trips to DW so I had to go on it I wasn't complaining in my post-visit report, just mentioning that the situation was still occuring. Yeah, it was the lowpoint of my visit, but I was aware that it would be before I went into the Park. Anyone got any more info on the Wiggles show? Paul? Slick?

...has anyone linked up their DS with someone else yet? I can imagine fun to be had when discovering other DSes nearby and playing with those people, but is that feature used much yet?

I think there's a drop element to it. A more intense Giant Drop sounds fine to me. Although at the moment I'm more interested in upcoming coasters...

It's no longer an issue, it's been fully trashed already... Seriously, would it cost that much to put another layer of paint down on the vandalisation every six months? Of course, actual damage to 'props' is a different issue, but three quarters of que vandalisation is paint damage and graffiti. IMO.

Last pics: 300mm Lens on the camera paid for itself!! Plus the "empty" Wipeout photo I love. Taken at the end of the day, all the people going or gone, yet the mighty Wipeout Prevails to fight another day. Shark swimming around just adds to the ride's menace.

...more pictures. These pics are of the Thunderbolt Site. The last piece of track is visible at the back of the image Tbolt feb05b by Glubbo.jpg. Also included are the pictures of the station/que area, as I referred to in my first post.

...some more pics. Included in this group are the area where I had imagined the Flying Coaster... imagine a single-person, bird-of-prey themed flying coaster high in those trees, and diving towards the water??? *Sigh* It'll never hapen, too close to the Park's animals, and I seriously couldn't see them getting rid of Captain Sturt. Also included is what I believe to be DW's cost-cutting measures... the Giant Drop Photographer... although it won't miss a photo...

...some pics. Claw, Cyclone.

First of all, I wasn't aware that theme Parks were visited so frequently by R-C members. That makes about 5 of us who have visited DW in Feb alone. Nice. I too felt that my wait for the GD was one of few the bad points in my visit, but I knew (from DW's website) that only one side was running. I made the decision to wait the 80+ minutes anyway. And I enjoyed it! I got to peek at the BB construction site, sitting on the northern most seat. As for general themeing, I think that the Cyclone is the worst. The post ride specifically. (Interesting though, I went on the Tuesday, Scott and Slick the Saturday, and the Thunderbolt's area had no crates at all.) The Giant Drop's holding room interior held a lot of my time (waiting in there for over 45 minutes) and it too is getting very tired. I'd rather see everyone wait in the 'arch' and have another operator running the que and the holding room, but I can perfectly see the realism in needing only one operator. Especially on "one side only" times like this week was. Every time I visit Dreamworld it's like returning to an old home. It's comforting. I don't know if anyone else gets that feeling or not. Because I'm "at home" in the Park, perhaps I don't pay that much attention to the problems Slick has with the Park. Ok, the ToT needs to be redesigned inside... and maybe the internal/external spirals inside Cyclone could be used for those getting on and off... Maybe I'm biased to DW that much I try not to look at the negatives...?

Hey all. I went on Tues Feb 22. The only attractions closed were the Log Ride and the Chair lift. Lara Croft has been closed for a while now apparently. The best thing about attending on a non-holiday season school day is the lack of crowds. I arrived smack bang on 10am, and had to wait under 5 minutes to get into the park (the outer booths were closed). I went with 2 of my younger brothers and their friends. First of all we hit the Claw, and to my surprise we were on the very next ride. Not much waiting, I can recall previous trips where we ran to the newest ride (Giant Drop, Cyclone) as the park opened and still had to wait a half hour. The 2 people operating the claw kept turnover high. 2 people checking restraints and controlling the entry of riders and the ride control is good. But that's to be expected at the newest attraction. The Claw is an awesome ride. I loved it, even after watching the "on ride" video available on the R-C videos page about thirty times . The usual 'swing' ride combined with the rotation on the gondola makes it great. I rode it 3 times over the day, never having to wait more than one ride in front of me. After The Claw, everyone jumped on Wipeout. I got some good 'happy snaps' of the people I was with, but I won't bore you with those. The pics I'll attach to this thread will be better than those, IMO... It was good to see the Wipeout looked its best in years. If that's because of Ocean Parade being a new focus area for the Park, or it's overhaul was just recent, I am not sure. Yes, as previously mentioned in Bigglesworth's visit thread, the Shark is operating, as is the fountain. My biggest surprise was that the wait for Wipeout was longer, even though it had 2 operators. Did it once have 3, or 4 people running it? There seemed to be more people throughout the day riding Wipeout over Claw. Not sure why. We went to the Cyclone next, and we had to wait about 20 minutes. The TVs added to the ride's theming, not too bad at all. 2 Operators. This was the first time I rode the Cyclone with a "front gate". It's a good ride, the Sidewinder and double loops obviously make the ride. There is a railing on the sidewinder (in case of a stall/malfunction?) that I swear looks too close as you pass it! The Cyclone, as I have always thought privately, has horrible post-ride 'theming' (?). You walk out of a door, down stairs, under the station, up stairs, alongside the rumble room, then spiral down the outside of the waiting spiral. As you walk down the spiral, you see an open field (Thunderbolt's site), then back-of-house behind the Wipeout, then the Thunderbolt field again. I spent some time in this area taking pictures of the Cyclone and the Thunderbolt field. Not my favourite part of the Park. I split up with my companions and stood on a garden bed at the exit of the Cyclone. I took a few pics of the old Thunderbolt lineup and station itself. The red gates are still there, as is the Kenny Koala warning above in the station. The track is long gone, only a little bit of it remains down the back near some workshops (dismantling the Thunderbolt?). RIP Thunderbolt. When I was a kid, I loved that ride. I spent the rest of the day in the Park by myself. I don't know if anyone else has spent almost a whole day in DW by themself, it's a very interesting experience. When in a group you don't look at the Park that closely. I paid a lot of attention. Next I went down into the old 'village' part of the Park, now the lower reaches of Nickelodeon. This is my first visit with the ToT entry on the other side, where Reptar's entry/the water jet part is, was where we used to wait for ToT. Reptar is a great little family coaster. It had zero people waiting, in fact, like The Claw, they seemed to be stalling just to get some more people to get on. This visit I spent the most time at Tiger Island than I had on my previous 3 visits. I ended up watching (mostly through my Digital SLR Camera's lens!) 2 shows there. Darn those cats are BIG. And they love milk. I got some very nice pics (300mm lens, I love you!). Next I went down through the Train tunnel near ToT. In the Bigglesworth visit thread, someone mentioned that the Claw was a choke point. I disagree. The chocke point is the area from Tiger Island/ToT entry through to Gum Tree Gully. Although it's nice and cool in the shade. To my surprise, only a wire fence was up at the Tomb Raider site. The area looked very tacky, the "sorry for the inconvenience" signs just make it look worse. I'm sure they could pull down the "rock" facade in the space of a night... Yes, the shooting Gallery was out of order. I began to look around this area Gum Tree Gully/Rivertown and picture my idea for a ride... which as mentioned in the "New attraction for Dreamworld" thread, is the same idea as scott's. A single-person flying coaster over the Island and "river". Scott's idea was a Jurassic themed one, which could work, you might be carried around by a Pterodactyl? My idea was for a bird-of-prey (Wedge-Tailed Eagle?) diving to the water from the trees in the Island, or Marsupial Glider themed one. However if a Ride of this type were to be built, it would have to focus on the Island and the front area of the "river", with the station whare Model T lane is currently. The back side of the "river" has the "Gum Tree Gully Farm" at the waterline, and an endangered animal exhibit (Paddymelon, Cassowary) and Kangaroo area too close for a coaster. As it is The Wombat and Dingoes must be sick of the sound of the ToT rattling up and down the Tower. Or deaf. After taking a few pics of the Rivertown area, I went over to the GD and took a few pics of the ToT from the GD bridges. That whole area bugs me (The Train line overpass linking the Big Brother Cafe/Blue Lagoon with Rocky Hollow, GD and Gold Rush. The maze of stairs/ramps/overpasses could surely be simplified??? I took a pic of the Camera tower for the Carpark side of the GD. Long gone is a photographer...nowdays a coaster (Thunderbolt?) camera sits in that tower (I will post a pic soon). The Giant Drop que was only half way out of the building back towards the arch queing area. Still, with only the COAST side open, I had the longest wait of the day, my estimation was 80-100 minutes. There was only one operator for the GD. The fans were working in the old "evacuation room" but no water from the sprays. The Skydiving Video, although fitting into the 'altitude' part of the ride, got boring rather quickly. Maybe this was due to me being by myself at this stage. The Carpark side Gondola was still there, just not in use (maintenance?). This was the worst part of my day (horrible landscaping/theming at the Cyclone included). After that I went down the back of the park, past the water-free log ride with the logs sitting in the tunnel. As I had only aquired my camera a few days' prior, I wanted to spend some time taking pics of the animals. Almost two hours later I emerged back at Gum Tree Gully. Oops. Highlight of that part was being the only person at the Bird enclosure presentation. Highlight? Not. The guy still had to do the presentation in case more people wandered in, and I just couldn't walk off now, could I? Anyway, I got a few nice bird pics. Yes, bird, as in the things with wings. It was after 3pm when I returned to Gum Tree Gully, and I returned to Tiger Island for the last show of the day. Few more pics, then I went back to ride the Tower of Terror. The que was to the bottom of the stairs, but seemed to be moving ok. Then, about half way up (last corner before the door), we seemed to wait for almost a half hour. I'm not sure if it was that (over-reverse) bug or just that they took 5-6 rides worth of people through the door at a time. At least I was under a TV monitor to see the Dragsters. I had thought that there were real Dragsters near the ToT entry, but it was only an episode of Speedweek (SBS/Fox) on thw aiting TVs. The 'speed' theme was my assumption for that choice. The ToT, after the wait, was as good as usual. I can't wait for a coaster to be propelled like this! Went on The Claw a few more times, and took a few more pics. Realising that I hadn't eaten, I did a silly thing: At 4:30pm I bought a Burger meal for $9.95. And it was terrible. I always take food into DW these days, and buy one item of food to make it "fair". Maybe I'll try the BB cafe next time, the menu looks a little healthier, but TEN DOLLARS for a small size burger, chips and drink? Pfffft! Especially for something that could have been made an hour before! I left at 5, having not made it anywhere near Gold Rush, Blue Lagoon, The Imax Having paid "Adults at Kids prices", I don't think I was eligible for the $15 re-entry within 14 days offer. I'd have taken it up if I thought I could.. there was more I wanted to see (and photograph - dang it my battery died at 4:30pm! Only 70 DW pics on a 300 pic 1GB card! :mad: ) Anyway, I loved Dreamworld. And the first time I went though the place by myself. Although I paid attention to the bad theming (re: the Movieworld thread) and bad queing (mainly on the GD only, it had 1 operator and only 1 side running). Comments? Questions? PICS to come later in the thread.

Scott, I agree completely with the flying coaster idea over the island/gum tree gully. My Dreamworld report thread goes into more detail about that. Personally, I don't know if Dreamworld building a high-speed coaster would be in their best interest right now. It could very well be seen as an attempt at making an 'alternative' to Superman. These parks may have similar rides, but I can't recall them opening competing types of rides within a year of each other. I am assuming that this new "attraction" would be build after the Dreamworld/Coomera Town Centre project? Maybe then it'd be long enough (a year? 18 months?) after Superman to have a big coaster. Maybe a better one once they could learn what Superman will entail. But I am unsure if these Parks should compete ride-for-ride at the same time. Maybe one releases a Coaster (ie MW), with the other releasing a family attraction. But hey, this is a great industry to speculate about and observe!

My $40 thoughts were based purely on their current price for photos. I couldn't see individual photos being stopped because of a DVD of Rides/Park/Shows/Attractions. So, repricing would obviously be required for the photos if a DVD were to be introduced. Great point Gazza. With entry to, say, Dreamworld, being $60, and with a $40 DVD, (that's excluding food and other souveniers), it's getting out of the price range of many visitors (who want a DVD, that is). I'm getting in on an "Adults at kids prices" offer. So I'll spend the $22 on something inside the park anyway. Although I have ride photos from all the rides already, unless they're doing it on The Claw? Would I have put the $22 I saved from the entry on a DVD? Definately.

Well, one more sleep to go. [chair dance] I'll be snapping like crazy with my camera, so I'll get a pic or 2 of the dragsters (near/part of ToT???). To be honest I'm surprised there's so many people here who really like Wipeout. Sure, it's a great ride, but I'd have thought all of it's breakdowns would have made people here more critical. Today I had a brainwave for a new ride for the park (don't we all get those!!), and I'll spare a few pics (300 at 3000x2000 on my 1Gb card) of the area I'd like to see it built. I'll explain a bit more after I've been to the park, after checking to see if there's enough room... (It involves the possible removal of Model T Lane and possibly replacing Captain Sturt with something a lot smaller). The area near Model T Lane and the Dreamworld Tower has a lot of TALL trees, right? I'll spare some time for that Imax movie. I miss the Brisbane Southbank Imax, but like seeing normal movies there these days!

This is a great thread! It's good to see people's creative juices flowing. Scott, it's good to see that there are some people who are nonplussed with the idea. I had to stop to consider reasons why it wouldn't be a good idea, and the few thoughts that came to my head were: - Acting up to the camera. - The feeling that the ride isn't as personal. Especially when you ride a new ride (or one you've never ridden before), the feeling you want (and get) is special. "Oh! A Twist!" "Look out for that tree!" "Look at the ride's view!". This said, these can also be good to review on a video, but there may be some people wanting that intimate "Just the ride and I" feeling. I can also see the negative in the "last minute rush" for videos as Alex mentioned. Self-serve might deal with that, or even additional services outside of the park may help (all recordings kept for 48 hrs?) Overall, it's a potential goldmine for parks. If they can charge $15 for a photo they can charge $40 for a DVD. (I voted $20-29.95 but didn't consider the photos' price. I'd revise it to the $40s. But want it at $19.95!! )

*sigh* 2004 for me (coasters): Corkscrew. 2004 was the first year since 1998 I hadn't been to DW on a yearly basis. I intend on going to MW at the end of this year, and Dreamworld in... 3 sleeps.