Flea

The Sling Shot does get quite busy at night, but the operators do a great job to get everyone on as quickly as possible. It's odd that you didn't see either ride operating. When I was there, they were launching Sling Shot about every three minutes! When I went in April, they didn't combine the price for the two rides. I got the package for Sling Shot (one ride, video, certificate and t-shirt) all for about $45. All I have to do now is show them my video and I'll get on it again for only $15. ~Liam

Hi everyone, I finally got around to editing some videos of mine. I'm having troubles uploading the rest of my videos (Sea World, Wonderland, Dreamworld, Wet 'n' Wild and Movie World). The upload keeps restarting after it reaches a certain point (70%), please PM me if you know what is wrong. The video is quite dark due to lack of lighting at the location. Anyway, without further adue, I present to you my first theme park video! Sling Shot and Fly Coaster Size: 5.96mb Length: 1:46 Song: Power - Warp Brothers Enjoy, ~Liam

Ditto that Slick. I'm 90% sure I'm getting one. This is a great idea Richard, I just hope everybody supports this! ~Liam

Yeah, I saw it. It was great! I love how you focused more on the other attractions (dolphins, polar bears) rather than the rides, Simon and yourself really captured what Sea World is all about. Well done! ~Liam

While I'm extremely happy to hear that Bush Beast is being pulled down, I'm not 100% convinced that it is. I haven't seen the red train in operation ever since it re-opened, maybe because that it may be shutting down they decided to stop operating the red train? I can imagine that it was too costly to repair. I heard that at a last resort, maintenance crews were using parts off The Beastie trains for the BB trains. Anyway, being the new coaster similar to Lethal Weapon doesn't mean it's a Vekoma. There are many other manufacturers out there that make inverted coasters (B&M, Intamin), all of which are extremely good quality coasters. It's about time that thing went down, ~Liam

I'm guessing you watched Rove Live last night! I was there on Sunday, and it wasn't closed. However, the ride is in a terrible state. It was the roughest ride I've ever had on BB, and I was at the front! No, they didn't replace all of the wood. Only the last banked turn around of the track. It is possible to retrack woodies without taking the whole structure down, I believe it has been done countless times in the US. While I'm on the subject of retracking, I really think it will do the ride good. After people come back from the ride, especially when sitting at the back of the train, they are injured. Probally because they didn't brace themselves for the roughness. I have seen countless injury reports filled out at the BB. Anyway, I have to go to school now.. ~Liam

I don't think that's the tumble bug ride everyone is talking about. The pictures you have there look similar to "Troika" at Cedar Point. Here is a link to a page all about the Tumble Bug. http://www.ridezone.com/oprides/tumblebug/.../tumblebugs.htm ~Liam

I must agree with the majority of the voters here. You may all be thinking that I would be voting for Demon because I'm "the biggest Wonderland fan-boy" out there, but Cyclone, IMO, wins by far. I took my first and only ride on Cyclone back in April in the front seat, and it was all a blur. It was fast paced, smooth and full of g's. The best moment of Cyclone has to be the helix. Having ridden Demon well over 600 times, it practically delivers absolutely no thrill for me anymore. If I was to get any type of thrill out of Demon, then it would to be on a miscatch and valley in the boomerang. All I seem to say "Ow, ow" and "ouch!" through the elements, especially when going backwards and pulling out from the loop.. that is extremely painful. The only cool part about Demon is the ride operators themselves.. they can say some spiels that are much more enjoyable than the ride itself. Cyclone on the other hand was amazing for me. Having never gone on Big Dipper at Luna Park, I can't make a comparason to what it was. The sidewinder did a lot for me, it kinda felt like the train was sinking into the track. Any coaster with air time, loops and g's quenches my fix, so Cyclone is the winner. ~Liam

Well, the first show of the week was just on. It was good, but not great. I still hate the bit were they take you on the ride with some screaming idiots that know nothing about the ride. It literally sounds like they are having an "intamate time" with the ride, eg "Oh SWAT! SWAT! SWAT!". I just hope that the rest of the shows this week are not repeats of tonight's show.. ~Flea

Well, as much as I love Space Probe, I'm going to have to join the "bag Space Probe team". I'm totally agreeing with Daniel here, Space Probe has so much potential. I'll target each point of the ride one by one... The queue line is in an extremely poor state. They did clean underneath the queue line floor a few months ago, but a once-a-year cleaning is not enough. In only one week after the queue line was cleaned, the rubbish returned. It would be great if the queue line was cleaned every week, hopefully every day. Strobe lighting is still used in the queue line to this day, but what about low flying fog? The name speaks for itself, this is not the type of fog that creeps up your noses and makes you choke.. it's low flying (ankle high). This would create an amazing effect in the queue. The beacon lights in the queue still work, but the casing on the beacons are broken. The top of the tower is just... disgusting. The TV's do not work, I haven't seen them work for the past 4 months. The TV's are filled with cobwebs and gunky stuff on the screen, it's disgusting. There is only one TV that displays some kind of image, and that's one flickering line on Cabin one's side. Unfortunately, the only thing that guests remember about Space Probe is the shoe in the dome. It's disgusts me that Wonderland hasn't been bothered to go up there and clean the screens, plus remove that shoe. Instead of the countdown at the top, why not have some kind of movie involving Aliens? After all, aren't the riders volunteers to inspect the "probe"? The station is where the low flying fog comes back into play. A green laser that would sweep the stations floor would also be great. I'd also like to see a more dramatic effect when the cabins leave the station.. Possibly more lighting effects (Scanners, moving head light's etc.) Now who doesn't miss the operators dressed in black Space Probe suits? I'd love to see this again. It was a great feeling to be told to literally run through the tunnel, the operators were really into the ride a few years back. Now unfortunately it just consists of lazy operators, not even saying a spiel (excluding Billy, Mathew and Michelle and the ex-operator Daniel.. they rock!). Operators now come into the subject. What if the staff didn't rotate rides like they did a few years back? You'd have one in the pre-loading room, two in station (one for control panel and other for checking restraints) and one just outside the tunnel, telling people to run through the tunnel once the op in the station has screamed "evacuate" over the microphone. The ops would rotate positions every 30 minutes so they don't get bored. That is what I'd like to see of Space Probe, ~Liam

Oh puh-lease don't remind me of that thing! I think everybody knows my vote.. it's just basically a better atmosphere. Sure, Giant Drop has the huge drop, but what else does it really offer? One minute at the top of Giant Drop surprisingly got boring.. I'd rather see it spend 10 or so seconds at the top so the 90 minute lines disappear. If Giant Drop had the theming of Space Probe (with the addition of the waterfall), then Giant Drop would get my vote. "This is an emergency. Please prepare to evacuate. Alien life form is attacking Sydney", ~Liam

Thunder001 has asked me to reply to this post for him as he is having troubles accessing Total Thrills.. OWHS is something that is the persons responcability to perform on site. If the master builder on site gives him the ppe and he does not use it, then there is a loop hole that states the company has done it's duty to the law. The other thing to think about is wether or not the person was a apprentice or just a Labourer. There is a lot of things to consider.

I think my photos have gone a bit un-recognised here.. so here are some of my photos in which I posted in a few topics ( here, here and here) on the Wonderland board.. I *think* the reason for the platform on top the catch car for GD is for maintenance crews to either check or paint the ride. One of them. ~Liam

That's not true. The theming is in the station, it's not just an empty box. The walls are "space like", and theres special effect lighting. Not to mention the alarms sounding and the beacons flashing when dispatched. At the top of the tower, there are tv's which count down from 5 to 0 (unfortunately they are no longer working.. they should be fixed soon though), and sometimes additional beacons would flash at the top. It is true that the theming is being slowly killed, and some day there will no longer be any theming. Wonderland's maintenance has already killed many effects, such as the opening/closing roof of the station. (creating a very dark effect in the station, in which the special effect lighting would kick in) It would open up when cars are dispatched, and close again when the car and catch car have returned to the station. Fog was also used in the station. A few years back, the ops were dressed in black SP suits with guns. You would queue in the path leading up to the tunnel, and when a voice screamed "alien attack!", 12 people would run through queue. According to Daniel, an ex-operator at Wonderland, the dressing up in black SP suits with guns is not used anymore because of staff rotating rides. You see, 3 ops were operating Space Probe the whole day, therefore allowing them the time to dress up. ~Flea

Thanks for that! The show is called Extreme Rides 2003, which apparently aired a couple of months ago in the states. The show features Delerium, Swat, Superman: Ultimate Flight, Xcellerator, Top Thrill Dragster and much more. The show also shows of what's to come in 2004, and will show a preview of Hershey Park's new Intamin rocket coaster. If you didn't post, I wouldn't have known! (And I would have cried...) ~Liam

I went to Saturday Session on Saturday. It's actually from 5-10pm, which does give you a bit more value for money. The atmosphere sure is great, and the rides rule at night (I got stuck on Bush Beast for the very first time on Saturday night), but for Wonderpass holders, it might not be the best way to go. You are not allowed to use your Wonderpass after 5pm, you must pay the $16.50. However, if you come a little bit before 5pm (say, 4:45pm), you will be allowed to use your Wonderpasss. To me, it doesn't make sense at all. To my understanding, Wonderland do not advertise this rule, therefore causing themselves a huge angry mob of people at guest relations. ~Liam

Sorry mate, since my computer is currently in repair, I won't be able to re-size them until Saturday (possibly tonight, depends on how fast the guy fixes my computer). In the mean time, try to open the photos in a spearate window. Sorry! ~Liam

I don't know what the problem was with the ride, I'm suspecting that they just couldn't be bothered to open it up or they had problems with the water pump (they did on the re-opening day of Mountain Cascades). The apparent reason for the recent temporary closure of Mountain Cascades is lack of staff. On Monday, there wasn't enough staff to run the ride, so I'm guessing that still is the case. Billy is "the boss" of The Beach (he can sack staff!). He walks around the place a lot, checking to see if staff are doing their job, and the usual paperwork in the Beach staffroom. While it's off-season for The Beach, Billy is on the Demon/SP crew. ~Liam

Hi everyone, This photo update is like no other. While the photos are still pretty much photos on new things at Wonderland, I have included a few "funny" shots (some got Andrew in tears!). I hope you enjoy the update! ------ The Bush Beast re-opens after a winter long rehab! A fresh new coat of paint for the yellow train (red train was non existant today) Bush Beast brake run Was the ride smoother? No. Check out that bruise on my leg! Billy is a show-off "A 1:9000 chance of winning!" Mountain Cascade finally re-opens after 2 years of being SBNO! Unfortunately, the ride was closed due to the lack of staff at the park that day Tasmanian Devil in it's annual rehab The evil "Mardi-Gras" painters from Transylvania hit Goldrush! I really love this picture. Thanks to Andrew for pointing it out! I hope you enjoyed my photo update guys. Please let me know if the photos are a little too big, I don't have time to re-size them at this time. Thanks, ~Liam

Scooby without a doubt. As stated above, I didn't think Scooby would be that great of a coaster, but rather, a coaster with a few small dips (I thought the ride was over after the swinging axes). Beastie would be my other favourite coaster, due to the air on the pull out of the second hill (and no seat dividers!). It's a real shame that the coaster is no longer open, it's so much better than it's father. ~Liam

Super Hero Headquarter's is located in the main plaza. It was built as an expansion to the already existing plaza, it's nothing major, but it certainly doesn't look "*****" as Nightshifter said. If you can't appreciate the ceiling of SHH, then you seriously have some major problems. The main plaza is located just ahead of the ticket booths. ~Flea

Due to our school having an excursion to Wonderland today as part of our school's 20th birthday, I went along. The park was packed, our school alone had around 1,000 students there, along with an estimate of about 4 or 5 thousand other people. Demon and Space Probe both had one hour lines, so I only rode those once. As I was walking down to Goldrush (or running in that case, spent 2 hours looking for this girl), I noticed that there was the yellow train sitting on the crest of the second hill. As we were leaving Wonderland, a crane erected out of no-where. It seemed as if it was taking apart the yellow train, but I couldn't really see what they were exactly doing. At first glance, it appeared that there were two yellow trains... ~Liam

North, I was also at the park today. You may have seen me, I was carrying a camera bag (was it just me, or did it seem like every person I walked by, they laughed?). I have to agree with what you said about the upgrade to The Beach. Aqua Tube looks disgusting, it looks like someone vomited on certain areas of the tube. Maybe they will paint it before the official opening date (the 27th of September). ~Flea

The Bush Beast is currently closed, but should be open for when you go (apparently opening on the 27th September). Snowy River Rampage was closed when I went on Wednesday, but I suspect it would have to do with the water pumps again, no biggie. Everything should be open for when you go. Hope this helped, ~Liam

It could be the new wheel thing, although I didn't really notice any new wheels on Demon. All Vekoma's are pretty rough, no matter how much you maintain them. My theory to why they are rough is because of the minimal contact the upstops, and side wheels have. When they do get used (through loops etc), the train jolts, therefore creating headbanging. I could be wrong, but that's just my opinion. As for Space Probe, all sides operate at the same speed (Gravity is the "motor"). It all depends how much weight you have on the car. ~Flea