GoGoBoy

Sad but true. Richard... can you add anything regarding the previous owners of wonderland? I would be interested to clear this up. It is very hard digging up info on wonderlands history

I am not sure that paramount ever owned wonderland in sydney. I know that before Sunway, wonderland was owned by james hardie (Australian company) so I am not sure where this whole paramount thing comes into it. I am just waiting for richard to investigate and clear it up. In any case I do not believe any of the previous owners have done it justice. What we need is for a huge american theme park company to come in and take over and inject ridiculous amount of much needed capital.

Of course it is only going to be a shop! I expected nothing more from wonderland. I think you guys are putting way too much faith into the park The reality is when it comes to new attractions... well its simple... wonderland just doesn't build them. Still I guess it's fun to dream as wonderland is the only local theme park for some of us. Even if a new attraction is built at wonderland in the next few years, it will be at least another 10 years before the next one after that (although look forward to an array of excitingly crappy shows, in-park promotions and expanded retail sections in the meantime). I think Sunway are just really cheap when it comes to their aussie theme park... only one of many assets in their massive investment portfolio. I can't wait 'till a real theme park is built in or near Sydney and will just blow the socks off Wonderland. Hear's hoping...

Very interesting Richard. There are obviously so many differrent rides now which are referred to as water coasters or something similar but they are all completely different types. So is the hydra fighter at wet n wild orlando basically the same as the soaker coaster at Paramount's Carowinds? The soaker coaster seems to me to be more like a traditional rollercoaster. Do you know of any actual waterparks with a soaker coaster? I get the feeling only dry parks have the soaker coasters (or something similar) whereas waterparks have the hydra fighters. Do you know of any other waterparks with this style of ride besides wet n wild?

I think you need to remember that we are talking about a WATERpark here not a themepark. When a waterpark talks about a watercoaster they are almost always referring to the master blaster style of slide. Do you know of any waterpark in the world which has an actual rollercoaster? For example, type the word 'watercoaster' into the www.google.com search engine and take a good look at the results it comes back with... a mixture of the actual soaker rollercoaster and also the slide style. You will notice that it depends on where the attraction is located - if it is a theme park they are referring to the soaker or if it is a waterpark or something related they are referring to the slide. It wouldn't really be logical for a waterpark to install an actual rollercoaster (even the soaker style) as they would require riders to put their clothes back on and would also require properly trained ride operators. I don't think wet n wild would want to train ride operators just for ONE ride in the park and I doubt they would want to mix their staff up with movieworld either. And another thing I just thought of... wet n wild currently has an attraction called speedcoaster and that is only a slide, definitely not a rollercoaster. I guess none of us know for sure though based on the rumours so I may be wrong but I can't wait to find out!

Guys I get the feeling you may have the wrong idea of what a waterpark watercoaster really is. It is not an actual rollercoaster that would require proper ride operators. It is a flume style water slide which has not only downwards slopes but also uphill sections (similar to the ups & downs of a normal coaster). Riders travel in small inflatable rafts (just like a lot of the slides now use at wet n wild) and on the upwards sections the rafts are propelled by strong torrents of water. This is a really popular style of waterslide in the US and looks like lots of fun. I was thinking (hoping) that wet n wild would eventually get one considering they are such a progressive park. Please visit http://www.schlitterbahn.com/attractions-m...sterblaster.asp for a great example. Congratulations wet n wild, you are a great role model to all other Aussie theme parks!

I would be so so surprised if wonderland actually built a major new attraction any time in the near future. For the last many years since space probe (way before this forum existed) there have been rumours that they would build a new ride. However they have never followed through with any plans. When sungei way first took over there were plans to completely upgrade the water park, add a huge wavepool and turn it into a seperate park in its own right (what a great idea... a really good waterpark in sydney would surely do well). This never happened. Then a few years later a friend of mine who worked at the park saw notices in the staff room advising of a new bungee style ride being built around the Botany Bay plaza/lake area. This also never happened. Just look at Sungei Ways other theme park in the company's home town of Malaysia... it never seems to get any new attractions. It is obvious Wonderland is doing everything in its power to retain attendances without having to spend the huge amount of capital required for a new ride. I gave up a long time ago. Get ready for another 'entertainment based' attraction (ie. show) is all i can say...

Hi there... As far as I was aware James Hardie (Australian company) actually owned Wonderland for the majority of the years before Sungei Way bought it. Can you explain this at all Richard? I'm sure there must be some catch but surely James Hardie is not linked with Paramount in any way? UPDATE (5 days after original post above) ..... Ok I guess no one else is going to come up with any answers so I have done my own research and found as much info as I can... Australia's Wonderland was originally built by Taft (as mentioned in earlier posts) after they built and managed a number of other theme parks such as Kings Island, Kings Dominion and Canada's Wonderland. Taft then became Kings Entertainment as Taft was getting rid of its theme parks. Kings sold its parks to a financier named Carl Linder who then on-sold the parks to Viacom's Paramount Studios. Paramount Parks sold Australia's Wonderland to James Hardie. Until Sungei Way (now Sunway) bought the park, James Hardie owned Wonderland. James Hardie was involved for quite a considerable length of time although I am still trying to find the exact date when JH took over.