GoGoBoy

There are a couple of pictures but they are from a distance and not too clear. You are right about it looking similar to a Galaxi. The strange thing about it is that the upright supports look quite minimal and there don't seem to be many supports between the rails. It almost looks like it could fall down easily. I would highly recommend my Luna Park book to anyone who is interested as it contains the full history and tons of old photographs from the beginning right through to the 80's. I spoke to the Luna Park retail shop a little a while ago and apparantley an updated version is currently being worked on and should be available by the end of the year. You can phone them up to check up when it actually arrives. So tell us a little bit about what it was like working at Luna Park in the 80's. That is the park I vaguely remember from my childhood. I know that it wasn't a great attempt as I think they had other ideas in mind for redevlopment rather than a fun park. The one thing I remember liking is the cinema 360 thing. I also have a photo from when I was about 4 on a little boat flume ride for kids

I have an extract from my Luna Park history book (Just for Fun, Sam Marshall) about the installation of the Wild Cat. It then talks about it's removal and the addition of the Geronimo when the park re-opened under new owners in the early 80's - 'In 1970, under Ted Hopkins' supervision, the Wild Cat was built by Girvan Bros to replace the Wild Mouse because of its greater capacity. Plans and specifications for the Wild Cat were bought in Germany. Its construction was complex as the size of the ride had to be reduced to fit on the Wild Mouse slab and because of Australian steel, being in imperial dimensions, was used for a ride of German metric specifications. Extensive brakes had to be added to pull the cars up... On 3 June 1981 Col Goldstein entered the site and began deomolition. The Wild Cat and Carousel were dismantled and removed... Ten million dollars bought a second-hand roller coaster called the Geronimo (underneath which were dodgems, games and a shooting gallery)'

What is with the 'jungle' painted wall? There's nothing I hate more in a theme park than a 2D painted wall. That sort of thing should be reserved for vacant shop hoardings in shopping centres, not theme parks. It surprises me even more when the wall is probably going to be permanent. Overall I like the idea of jungle theming but how on earth is it going to work stuck in the middle of Ocean Parade and Main Street? Is it going to be a whole new (tiny) themed area? It doesn't make sense

Great gallery Rich but what I'd really love to see is some more Australian park photos for Roller-Coaster.com.au. I've noticed that many of our own Aussie rides don't have any pics at all. It'd be great to see a full database at some stage, with pics of even the smaller various flat rides etc.

Tomb Raider was a big success? What's wrong with the Australian public when a theme park WALK-THRU attraction turns out to be so popular? The success of The Claw better be even bigger otherwise I just don't get it

Can I just add to my last post by saying that if Dreamworld was to add any type of decent new coaster I'd be happy overall. I always like to have a bit of a whinge if I can, but if Dreamworld does dive straight into the coaster variations and goes with a B&M flyer next up... I can't say I'd be too upset

I think before Dreamworld gets a crappy looking flying coaster (like Paramount has just done... and made it even worse with unrelated theming), they first need to get a REAL roller coaster. Something simple and something very large. We need a mammoth lift hill. After they install this they can then look at various alternative coaster options such as flyers. This would definitely reduce the need to add 2 trains to Cyclone as it would become more of a filler attraction

I just finished reading an article in today's Herald which mentioned the rather large increase in Dreamworld's attendance and therefore profit. They mainly attributed this to Big Brother (as no new rides were added last financial year). I just hope that attendance increases even more this year with The Claw which will in turn encourage them to add more rides. Otrherwise, they might try to focus more on Big Brother and similar attractions rather than thrill rides

Some of the ideas being thrown around here are a bit questionable. Particularly the one about turning the ToT skull back around and having it as part of Nick Central. I don't think ToT suits a kiddies area. But I think overall you guys have the right idea and that is that Dreamworld needs to focus more on theming. Just about everyone agrees on this point. No one wants a mish mash of attractions scattered everywhere. It's time they made some clear boundaries and really picked the theming up a notch or two. It doesn't look like they are heading in this direction though by plonking 'The Claw' in the middle of Main Street/Ocean Parade

I guess the simple truth is that some employees are just idiots. Even in a safety critical position like theme park operations they let their total and utter laziness get the better of them. Hey, I'm also a lazy person but when it comes down to being responsible for peoples lives I know I'd do the right thing. I'm talking about a small minority of staff here

Apparantley the operator on Cyclone did not check the lap bars. That is unacceptable! It is one thing to have bad capacity but it is another to let safety standards drop. That staff member needs to be fired. I also can't believe they only have 1 staff member on their major roller coaster... even if it is only in off peak

Wonderbus I don't really understand your point. You said "When families go to the Gold Coast they spend more time on the beach then they do anywhere else. The same goes for Sydney". So if it works for the Gold Coast then it should work for Sydney, right? The Gold Coast does have great beaches but families are still able to drag themselves to the theme parks. I will say it again - the only reason theme parks don't do well in Sydney is because none of them have been good enough. None of them have had the kind of carefully controlled finanical investment that the GC parks have received

Exactly. And show everybody that the only reason why theme/amusement parks have failed in Sydney in the past is because they have all been totally CRAP. Build something decent of a real world class standard and watch it thrive

There are many reasons why an umbrella isn't good enough and if you read over this thread again you will see some of them. I will briefly list the reasons again anyway in point form - 1. Not enough protection from the elements for the operators - The rain still gets in, the sun still hits them at different times of the day, the wind still roars in straight off the ocean, boiling hot in summer and freezing cold in winter 2. Rain on electrical control panels - This is an obvious problem which is why they bring out the glad wrap to desperately try and protect the panels 3. Distractions from various sources (mainly the general public trying ask the operators questions) - This means an operator can't focus 100% on the ride A simple umbrella does nothing or very little to alleviate any of the above problems

Great - ruin a perfectly decent (and new!) multi million dollar attraction by sticking a 1970's carnival ride (that's the Enterprise) on the end of it. No thanks

Do you ever go to school Slick? Yesterday was a school day wasn't it? Can I just remind everyone again that this is the Luna Park forum and is a post specifically about LPS ride issues. So no more talk about Wonderland/Dreamworld ride ops who think they are comedians

Do you ever go to school Slick? Yesterday was a school day wasn't it?

Wonderland was crap. Let's not forget that. It could have been cool but it wasn't. Now can we please move back to Luna Park Sydney ride issues...

It was another poor attempt at a theme park story. Everybody loves theme parks so if they covered them well the stories would be very popular but they are never any good. The Tower of Terror they showed was actually from Disney's California Adventure and not Disneyland. Apparantley due to poor attendance, California Adventure has been trying to 'Disney' up its park a bit more. The Tower of Terror is the latest attraction there which will help with this cause even though it is a replica of the same ride from the other Disney parks. Unfortunately most of the on-ride footage throughout the story was obviously taken from promo videos supplied by the parks. Nothing worthwhile at all

At the exit of Luna Park Sydney's Flying Saucer (a rather average 1980's portable UFO ride): "That was the best ride EVER!". I have also heard this same phrase spoken at the exit of most of Luna Park's rides. Some people are easily pleased

It's bad enough for the ride ops that Luna Park Sydney only has umbrellas instead of booths on (most) of its rides... but it's even worse for the poor attendants. I noticed that they don't even have the luxury of an umbrella. I've seen the poor guys either standing in direct sunlight or in pooring rain with nothing but the sky above them. What makes it even worse is LPS's exposed location. If they want to keep their staff happy they should invest a very small amount of money in a few pieces of plywood and create booths, even if very basic, for each ride. I would imagine providing the operators with a chair or stool would also be a nice touch. From what I can remember, staff at Wonderland were allowed to sit down while operating weren't they? When you are working on a ride all day and need to focus 100% for safety reasons, a little comfort goes a long way

Don't you get bored and/or sick after 15 rides on the same ride? Even when I was your age Slick a maximum of 2-3 repeat rides on my favourites was all I could handle... and 3 was definitely rare

So is the park popular? Does it get busy? Considering it is the only theme park in New Zealand I would imagine it would. People tend to flock to an attraction if it's the only one of its kind in the area, seemingly regardless of quality

That last point is very true. I think that has to be one of the ugliest permanent rides I've ever seen. Even the surrounding area looks really plain. I have never liked any of Dreamworld's ads. Especially the 'So many worlds in one' campaign. With Dreamworld mucking up all their themes and sticking rides in odd places it will soon be just one big world anyway. I also don't like the fact that the ad has such emphasis on old attractions like the log ride. It needs to be a bit more balanced. Everyone in the country already knows that Dreamworld has a log ride and the feature it gets eats up heaps of airtime in the commercial. I actually didn't mind the ad for The Claw though. The shredded bus stop at the end is a nice touch. I would say the only footage they could get hold of was of the Mondial version. Hopefully this will change when their own ride is finished

The colours are great. The chairs/restraints look nice and modern too. I still don't understand why the 'control room' building is so large. I have never seen a building that big for a flat ride... especially when you consider the main motor is at the top of the ride