Flea

Amazing pictures Richard! It's great to see so many pictures of Australia's most beautiful theme park. This is my favourite picture of the Corkscrew collection, it's wonderful! Well done, ~Liam

(Jaegar, his little brother and I spoke to Tony yesterday about him leaving - so we know this is true ) It's a real shame to see them go. It really was Wonderland's greatest show. Despite watching it over and over, it still entertained. Congratulations Tony and Juleen (and the fill in for Juleen, Kasey Laura) and good luck! While we're on the subject of them, Juleen is pregnant ~Liam

According to the signs in the park, the cubs will be at the area where the little show used to be (right next to Taz). I *think* it involved dog tricks or something. The area has been fenced off. ~Liam

Well, it's better than nothing. I'm very interested to see where the new street parade will take place. There's no real "straight" section in the park (think Main Street USA at Disneyland). I wonder if it will include floats, bands etc? I think this will be great for Wonderland, I'm really looking forward to it! As for the new cubs, it will certainly draw a crowd (the crowd that are in the park already). I'm suprised to see that the cubs won't be in the wildlife park though. ~Liam

Thank you for that Richard. I've had past experiences where my camera would get stepped on by ride operators and guests. I feel much safer to have the camera in my hands than to have it on the platform. I'm not that stupid to let go of the camera midcourse the ride. It's actually quite easy to hold onto the camera on a ride - you just have to get used to the ride first. Recently at Wonderland I have been asking the ride operators to place the camera in the operating booth to avoid it being stepped on (which has happened a few times). I'm sure if you had a camera which you saved up for six months (putting a dollar in the box everyday), you'd want to take special care of it. ~Liam

Your trip sounds a lot like my upcoming US trip in late February/March! We'll be doing SFMM, KBF, The DLR and DCA. I'd say don't bother doing USH since it's apparently a lot like Movie World.. just without the coasters (according to my dad). In Las Vegas, the stratosphere just added the new "X-Scream" ride.. a must ride! Enjoy your trip.. maybe I'll seeyou there! ~Liam

I picked Dreamworld. The information that Richard has given us in the past obviously means something big is coming from Dreamworld. He stated that that the new ride for 2004 would be something we've all been waiting for. ~Liam

The majority of ride operators there are very enthusiastic. Most staff use the microphone to interact with the ride (a lot say "muhahaha" before the train/car drops). My favourite ride at Wonderland would obviously be Space Probe. Although the themeing on Space Probe has slowly rotted away (Wonderland is currently fixing that up!), the ride itself still gives a great thrill. I've ridden the ride 477 times, yet I'm still not tired of the thrill it delivers. ~Liam

No, it wasn't a load of crap. There weren't more than 50 cars in the parking lot.. keep in mind most of them were staff's cars. A few buses here and there, but the majority of them were filled with tourists going to the wildlife park. ~Liam

You'll be happy to know that they are also replacing the monitors at the top of the tower very soon! Regarding what I said - I know it was harsh. I over-reacted simply because it did mess up some plans we had for the night (not just going to Wonderland for the night..). I apologise for what I said. ~Liam

At the time, I was filming Space Probe for a few cycles. The spinning bottle caught my eye (in the river opposite Space Probe), so I filmed it. In most of my videos you'll see a few funny segments, the spinning coke bottle being an example for the Wonderland video. ~Liam

The decision to close the park early was made at 12pm. All staff in the park were told immediately to pass onto guests. ~Liam

Yes, I just emailed to a person in the upper management of Wonderland regarding the ride's changes. I asked them what changes have been made. Apparently last week the ride was down for 2 days or so, I'm guessing during that time they rehabbed the yellow train (red train no longer exists!). ~Liam

Wonderland 23/11 Just came back from another trip to Wonderland because of last night's failed visit. I took a few rides on Bush Beast, and it has changed.. a lot. The ride is now incredibly smooth. I sat at the back on my rides, which is known as the worst car to sit in. The extremely rough pull out of the first drop is now the smoothest part of the ride. Also, the trim brake no longer completely stops the train. It still does slow the train down, but doesn't stop! Thankyou Wonderland! ~Liam

I just got back from my 20 minute long trip to Wonderland. I managed to get in one ride on Space Probe, which proved to be the most interesting ride ever. It seems that Wonderland has listened to our complaints regarding Space Probe's disgusting state. Orange strobes in the queue line have replaced the 8 year old police beacons. They add a nice "emergency" effect to the queue. Here is a picture I took today of the new strobes. http://ourworld.cs.com/Flea110/Probefx.PNG In the pre-ride room, neon orange tubes have been added along the walls and on the roof. They look great, adds a great effect to the room. Also, the top of Space Probe has been cleaned up! Most of the countdown tv's are now completely cleaned (spider web free!) and functional. As previously mentioned by Daniel, Zodiac's cars have been removed. Here are some pictures that I took today. http://ourworld.cs.com/Flea110/Zodaic.PNG http://ourworld.cs.com/Flea110/zodiacars.PNG ~Liam

You're viewing attendance by what they get on weekends. Sure, the park gets a little busy on weekends, but nothing compared to the 30 - 90 minute lines major attractions were getting a few years ago. Sydney is a working city? So is every other city out there mate. If no one has the time to go to Wonderland anymore, then why did people come a few years back? Correct. But I'll swear on the holy bible that the attendance in the christmas holidays won't nearly be as good as the park was getting (once again) a few years back. Unfortunately, Wonderland is deteriotating SFMM style. The reason for low attendance is simply because nothing new has been added. People aren't going to come back for newly painted shops, a new bin, and a variation of chicken wings. ~Liam

I speak to staff at Wonderland reguarly, wether it be at the park or on the internet. From what I've heard, they are sick and tired of the way management treats them. Apparently, certain members of management at Wonderland cuss at ride operators, for no particular reason. Recently, one of Wonderland's best lifeguards at The Beach was sacked for minor irrelavent issues - it's disgusting. Don't get me started on the issue of a ride operator being sacked for an issue irrelavent to the theme park and their performance as an operator. I speak to a lot of staff at Wonderland, yet I can't recall someone that is 100% happy with their job. Most staff already have plans to leave Wonderland as a ride operator due to management's abuse and the little respect they are shown. As for getting people back to the park, not even a new ride is needed. All the need is improvements to the already existing rides. Bush Beast could get an entire retrack, with new PTC trains. Space Probe could have floorless stand-up cars added to the tower. Demon could get the new Vekoma Boomerang trains added. Many improvements to existing rides are available on the market today, I think this would be Wonderland's best option considering the "tight" budget they seem to be on. ~Liam

Snowy was down a few weeks ago for a bout a month, don't know what caused it. Anyway, Snowy was open for about a week, then broke again on Sunday (one of the pumps bursted. Wonderland's solution - duct tape). Tazmanian Devil is still down, rumour is that it won't come back at all. Now Zodiac is down, 3 attractions that are closed.. that's great going Wonderland! ~Liam

Because this video has two parks in the video, I decided to put it in the general thrills section. I'm not too proud of this video, but it's something. I had limited Dreamworld footage to work with, so don't expect this big four minute video on Dreamworld alone. There's more Wet 'n' Wild footage than there is of Dreamworld, I'm terribly sorry for that! Dreamworld and Wet 'n' Wild Size: 14mb Time: 3:58 Song: No Such Thing - John Mayor Enjoy, ~Liam

This is my favourite video that I have created. Once again, I know my on ride footage of Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster and Road Runner Roller Coaster sucks! Warner Brothers Movie World Size: 15mb Time: 3:57 Song: Heaven - DJ Sammy Enjoy, ~Liam

Next up in the video collection - Sea World. Now before you bash me at how I suck at on-ride videos, I'd just like to remind you that my camera has no hand strap thing on the side. I also have no experience with on ride videos what-so-ever! Sea World Size: 12mb Time: 3:17 Song: Take me away - 4 Strings *NOTE* When clicking on the link, there will be a 404 error. Please add a space between "Sea" and "World" to make the video work. Enjoy, ~Liam

The past two days have been the most stressful. Never have I had so much problems uploading files. We had to pay an extra $30 to get these videos up due to space problems, anyway.. Here it is guys. The long awaited Wonderland Sydney video is finally here! I edited this some 2 months ago. Andrew, Ian, Jaegar and Richard got the first previews of the video before I uploaded it to give the all clear. I really, really hope you like this video as I put tonnes of effort into capturing the footage, then editing it. Wonderland Sydney Size: 12mb Time: 3:19 Song: Castles In The Sky Comments are appreciated! Enjoy, ~Liam

Juleen left the show a few months back, leaving Tony by himself with the rare assistance of a flimsy girl that practically does nothing. I guess it was for the better that she left, Tony was the more enthusiastic magician, as Juleen seemed very tired and worn out. I used to watch the show every week, but it became so repetitive and lame I just couldn't watch it anymore. There was one trick where Juleen sat on a stool and had a piece of paper, which she tore up, then restored it back to it's original state. Sure, it was clever, but the way she presented it was embarrassing. ~Liam

Ask Richard about the Vomatron for more deatils, I'm sure he can give you a more descriptive post about the ride than I can. Just a little information regarding the rest of the videos - they won't be up until tommorow. Unfortunately we have had to raise our upload limit to accomadate the size of the videos, which'll cost around $30 to do (Dad is making me pay!). Dad's ISP said they won't be able to make the change until tommorow. For those that can't wait any longer to see the videos, please add me on MSN (liamschembri@hotmail.com) or AIM (liamschembri). Thanks, ~Liam

Yeah, they have the bungee jump thing. According to Richard, a new ride has been installed similar to SWAT called "Vomatron". The Sling Shot is definately worth the $45 (I think it's $29 without all the extras). The launch is incredible, and the air time is insane despite the restricting OTSR's. If you have some spare cash in your wallet, then I say go ride it. ~Liam