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Better to leave it and put in a well thought out and solid attraction than fast track a quick simple replacement though.

Would make sense for the train or lift motor to arrive before track foundations are in place would it. I'd be betting it's something for the start of construction. That or a fresh shipment of retail product

Dont forget 2012 would be financial year 2012

I think this will be GREAT for the park! From what I hear Todd is a great guy and his last two jobs have been long term, which is what that place needs.

Perhaps WWF is being altered and the boats will now be launched from the top of the mountain to a splash down finale

Why is this point so hard to grasp? This is my last attempt and then I'm going to leave it, because it's frustrating to watch. I have a car, there is nothing wrong with it, it's far from old but it's a bit over 4 years old now. I now need to replace it's timing belt because 'it's getting on in years' and it's time to do that. That takes longer than the usual annual service my car has been getting for the last 4 years... The concept is no different with an amusement ride. In fact some rides (like cable cars for example) only get downtime every several years. That's all I'm saying.

Well in terms of "old and busted" and ready to retire no, but in terms of needing thorough maintenance yes. You have to remember Amusement Rides are extremely complex pieces of machinery with sophisticated control an safety systems and thousands of mechanical components all under high stress. Making them as safe as possible takes a lot of work.

Surfrider whilst very small is just like any other coaster and demands the same maintenance. The attraction is getting on in years and is most likely due for some MAJOR maintenance. That's not to say anything is broke, just that there are periodical preventative inspections and refurbs that must be carried out and they vary in how involved they are. The problem with many rides, like those from Intamin is that most of the parks they are sold into close for nearly half the year. It's easy to do all this maintenance, unfortunately our year round parks still need to do the maintenance so that means rides must close.

That site has some terrible bandwidth!

Different planned opening dates so...

Yup Blocks are designed so trains don't crash into each other, not that the train will coast and stop there no matter what. Id say the item tripped a proxy sensor causing the stop. The sensor wouldn't be specifically for loose articles.

It would be hard. You'd have to invest 100s of millions to build what you're talking straight up rather than over years and years. The interest on those loans would be killer and may prove the whole thing not profitable. Look at Hard Rock/Freestyle Music Park. After all the maximum they could charge would be $100 for a year long pass as that price point has been set by our current parks.

Very interesting to see what the new Cedar Fair CEO does, after all he was probably the best Disneyland has seen in decades...

I see your point, hell I agree with it. But in the case of our Theme Parks people vote with their feet. The parks are enjoying some of the best attendance levels ever, so clearly the customer IS happy with the product. To be fair I feel the quality of the product that is being built/offered is on the increase, it's just the scale of the attractions that are getting smaller, if that makes sense. We're also seeing a change of focus. A park can spend say half a million on something like Halloween (not saying that is the figure, just pulling numbers from the air) and have a direct increase on revenue and attendance, an immediate return. You can do that 12 times a year and still have not spent as much as on a major attraction. If we want to see the parks capex spending change, it's the mass market audience you have to change, not the companies.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I understand it but much smarter people than I are in charge of these decisions. Clearly they see that less capex is required for greater return, which appears to be true. Obviously 15 years ago the companies found they needed to spend more money to bring the revenue in. Now obviously not. At the end of the day these parks at just businesses with share holders to answer to and they aren't going to spend a cent more than they have to bring a return. Same goes for Disney, etc So clearly it is the market at play here.

I feel some LOLs are in order here!

But Gazza, even now they are kind of in the same boat as it would seem they are spending similar money to Dreamworld compared to money spend on rides like WWF back in the day. Would certainly seem the Aussie market has changed.

I'm not saying that any particular attraction is "the point" of the parks. I dunno, maybe it's just me but both your reviews came off as kinda 'meh' when I was reading them which I just don't understand from two parks with such great attractions. And to be honest, if I had that much time there, and I had travelled so far to the parks, I wouldn't be passing up attractions just because I had ridden them before, but hey, that's just me.

Wow I'm really surprised to hear your thoughts on T2. For me it's still my favorite 4D attraction. The Super thing is hilarious, you got that it is a put on right? Well judging by your comments I guess not, her backwards insults to the guests are tops and they are clearly having a piss take at all generic 4d pre show hosts. It's meant to be hokey and dated. Surprising that you didn't like the feature, only using the seats once has impact for me rather than being gymicy, add to that the actors coming out of the screen, the in theatre animatronics and the insane co2 cloud and it's a real winner for me. You said you've seen waterworld so you know you missed out, that would have been a priority for me. Everyone can have their own opinions but from reading your reports it seems to me you kinda missed the point of much of universal and Disney.

AGREED, and that's why I say a standup would have the most impact with the australian audience. But a flyer would kick but as well. I agree Gazza, that would be another great coaster, and their recent installation shows they can have a great layout too.

The Aussie market is just BEGGING for someone to build a BIG full circuit coaster. Whether it be a hyper, invert, Dive Machine or Flyer. A Tatsu clone would smash the thrill market wide open in this country. Just needs the financial commitment from one park. I still say standup but that won't happen I feel

The problem is all these drop in CEO types using the park as a stepping stone in their career. For a long time the CEO at WVTP was the guy who built the park, was a lifer and had a vested interest. He is still there as Chairman. Now WVTP have a new CEO and General Manager who both have a long history in the theme park business. This is the business they know and care about an it shows. Dreamworld desperately needs someone who's in it for the long haul.

Yeah the Tenure of these guys is really low.

The presentation of the Disko looks AWESOME! Interesting to see what Shockwave comes out like because it's not like what Aussieworld did took much $$s or effort but the results are great. To me this illustrates the differences between themeing and presentation perfectly and shows that great presentation beats crap theming any day!

Some nice false information there, keep workin hard on that Standing by for internal memos informing staff not to share company info with Matt.