Whombex

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.

As I'm heading down to Dreamworld on Tuesday, I might head a few more minutes down the road to have a look at MW (from the outside). Will I be able to see any of the area where the Superman Ride will be, from the carpark? I might snap a few pics before I go to DW, but only if there's some sign of Superman under construction, and visible from outside of the park.

Ahh... Now your post makes sense...

So I guess a 270° Vertical Spiral after the top hat (read: Top Thrill Dragster) is too much to hope for?

I'm going on Tuesday, and I'd been building the Park visit up in my head, but I will be keeping these issue in mind when I visit. Maybe I'll think "it's not that bad", or maybe I'll think: "Perhaps it's Movie World from now on". Either way I'll be wasting a Gig of photos with my new Digital SLR camera (in preparation for my first Formula One attendance). I'll be looking forward to the Claw, Giant Drop, ToT (Dang it I hope these "too far back" bugs are fixed by then!!), and Cyclone. Even with the previously mentioned problems, maybe I need to ride it again to reinforce how good Superman will be (whenever it is I get to ride it - 2006?). The Log ride, Bigglesworth, is indeed nothing in comparison to MW's WWF. But note that there is seventeen years between the construction of Rocky Hollow (1981!!) and WWF (1998). I guess I'll spare some time to pay respects to the Thunderbolt Graveyard. Bigglesworth, do you know what IMAX movie is screening atm?

I'm all for it! Good point Gazza. On-Ride camera linked back to the que. I recall seeing a VERY PRIMITIVE version in a video game arcade. There was a 2 person simulator with an "inside" camera there for, I guess, stopping people doing naughty things inside, but it was always watched by the riders' friends/family. Imagine a family visits a park, but some members are too old, or unable to ride. They usually stand around and watch the ride, but they could be watching a camera shot of their family on the ride! As I said, I'd like it, but as long as a "forwards" shot was included. For example, if it was sold to the rider post-ride on a DVD, one "camera" could be the riders, the other from the "front" or "nose" of the ride. That could be a generic, pre-recorded video they drop into all the buyers' DVDs. *rubs chin* This seems to be mentioned in the article, so cool! I'm going to Dreamworld in a few days, dammit I want a DVD of me on the Claw/TOT/Cyclone/Drop. My Park visit on one DVD. Awesome. I would take the reference numbers (as is currently done on rides) from all my rides to a shop and have a DVD burnt "one hour photo" like (or mailed to a home address).

Hey... Not everyone hates Wooden Coasters... Thread in General Thrills. Richard?

Adam: A few weeks back rabid posted the "I got to meet Robert Patrick" thingy, which linked back to OzCoaster. People might have known before then, but that's where I learnt it (having only just signed up to Roller-Coaster.com.au at the time).

Curious... Have any of the "big 3" Parks used any Aboriginal references? I can't recall seeing any...maybe some souveniers in their shops but that's it. Um, how about Wonderland?

Brutally honest about the Aussie Parks/Rides I noticed. Oh, and I'd forgotten about the Fabio thing, too! Nice photos, where did they leech them from?

Ick, having been offline a few days it's almost 2 pages since Bus replied to me! Bus wrote: How many times do you go to theme parks? Dreamworld every year, and one other (Qld) park every second year. You made a good point regarding Space Probe Seven. The "regular" visitors may have to accept the same pre-ride stuff, but aren't these parks partially relying on the people with "year-round" passes? Joz, thanks for the pre-Drop video reminder. I remember it now! Hence them only letting 8-16 people into that area at a time. Last time I was there, there was no staff on the que, so the line started there and went back into the "arch" along the ramp. The "video/computer" room had almost 30 people in it. :mad: I hope that's not something that happens with Batman/Lethal Weapon. With regard to Space Probe Seven, I think something that made it (pre-ride) "enough" on my first/only visit was that the line was so long we saw the same stuff about 3 times over. The pre-ride stuff may have been lengthened since I went on it (mid-late 90s). Adam wrote: The question is not whether Disney continues to do what they do; it’s whether Australian parks will continue to grow and strive to reach world-class expectations. I believe it's possible. I agree Adam, however there needs to be a mentality in the parks that they may have to tear old stuff down to put better theming in in future upgrades. It seems Movie World has reached that point, if them removing the Sound/Effects tour for the Superman Coaster is anything to go by. Seaworld has too, regarding the Shark Bay (and north of) area. I note, over many posts above, that money is the biggest problem. I sadly agree. I seriously wouldn't believe it to be a case if unimaginative designers.