Slick

It's just a joke mate, it's all good! No need to be evangelical. Wild Mouse was my first ever roller-coaster, and like me, clearly the joint means a fair bit to a lot of folks out there. I also reckon the joint has missed potential, and that has nothing to do with south-east Queensland. I'm quite taken back as to how stern and reactive folks are being to the equivalent of positive theme park fanfic. Like, fuck me for wanting to see a common interest be the best it can possibly be and not just a bunch of carnie rides. 😂

I have a rule in life - if the best thing about something is the car park it's probably shit.

I've yet to find anyone who can beat me at Mario Kart, just sayin'. 😎

Yeah, again, I stand by what I said above. When building the Florida Project now known as Walt Disney World, Walt Disney bought hectares of land under secret company names as to not tip anyone off as to who was really buying the land. Walt Disney didn't go "oh, there's some hurdles, let's not bother and just keep making the same stuff over and over" because that's not how remarkable innovators think about remarkable ideas. As such, I've yet to find a remarkable landmark/project/idea that wasn't wrought with difficulty that wasn't then solved by an intelligent pioneer/leader/innovator. Concerns about residents or folks meddling with rides are problems that need solutions, not excuses for averageness. If you want to see some great problem-solving, watch Ozarks.

Luna Park Sydney as a whole is brighter than the light package on one coaster on most nights of the year. That's also without mentioning Vivid, which dials it up to eleven. If you didn't click either link, the TLDR here is that a well lit roller-coaster would compliment what's already there.

They really want me to stop using my $9 a month membership, huh?

That story of Luna Park Sydney and noise complaints has changed dramatically since February last year. Granted, there's some hurdles regarding the use of the Lavender Green space and it's not all clear sailing for the park after they really screwed the pooch with their drop ride, but it's really a minor detail in the grand scheme of building a major project and isn't a good enough excuse to scrape in the kind of attractions you'd see at a school fete.

Post 2016 there's a zero chance any Australian park would take a risk on safety, so whatever is keeping it from opening is probably going to stay that way.

I dunno man, agree to disagree on that one. I'm all for preserving history and all that jazz, especially when it's as notable as Luna Park's, but appetites in the leisure industry have changed so significantly in the last five to ten years that it seems everywhere but Australia's amusement industry has risen to the challenge. Places like Eat Street Markets in Brisbane are great example of the revolution there's been in F&B locally (and how premium, specialty foods print money and drive gate) and every research paper suggests the uptick in consumer drive for new leisure products is in the billions, not millions, year over year. Internationally, many equivalent businesses to Luna Park Sydney have invested in the last 3-odd years with major capex (Hydrus at Casino Pier or Iron Shark at Pleasure Pier come to mind), hell even the "OG" Luna Park built a roller-coaster, though admittedly not on the pier itself (and also, arguably not that great). I think the point i'm driving home here is that against leisure trends and against global trends (COVID not withstanding) they're definitely, 100% dragging their feet on what could be an amazing opportunity to continue to innovate and add year over year. As you say, they've had major coasters previously, so I can only imagine the local market's appetite for the next "Big Dipper" to arrive, especially when there's zero competition in NSW. Furthermore, these kinds of capex projects always act as a halo for other products in a brand - their events business would thrive by having something well integrated, well executed and well marketed. Could you imagine if there was a coaster flying around Luna Park with an epic light package like Hangtime at Knott's? At night, it would be iconic.

As far as I know (and I don't know much about wooden coasters to be frank) the skill behind making a steel track smooth happens at the factory, whereas with a woodie that skill happens on-site. Therefore, if they're pushing ahead with construction, does that mean they're going to try and get as much done without the specialty skills required to finish the job? And then is the plan to hope borders open when they get to that bit?

They need to get through finishing off Sea World first, which will be a feat considering COVID-19. I actually wonder what the ramifications of a global pandemic will be post second wave and when vaccines start rolling out. Will there be a huge backlog? And if so, what does that do for timelines, especially when ride timelines are in the years, not months? If anything, now would be a great time to figure out the next few years of capex, figure out your projects and lock in some OEMs to build stuff before you get locked out by bigger buyers in the US/EU/China and you end up having a huge gap in your five-year rollout. TLDR; 3-5 years easy, but happy to be wrong.

When Dreamworld closed Wipeout, the bungling of the announcement caused such a major impact to Ardent's share price that the amount that Gary Weiss lost in a single day was more than the cost to replace Wipeout with a like for like model like a Zamperla Windshear. I have no doubt Village Roadshow want to avoid that kind of situation in the midst of a very large privatisation deal.

Just like Village, correlation doesn't equal causation. Ergo, my career-altering doxxing by someone we'd both call a mate is not the reason why you suddenly think I have an axe to grind with you, pal. My posts are more positive and up-beat than ever. Here's a great example of that. 🍻

Can I address the elephant in the room here... Why aren't they building a crazy-good compact coaster on site, building a few modern thrill rides that leverage the site's position really well (a Sky Roller would go bonza against the water's edge - https://www.gerstlauer-rides.de/produkte/rundfahrgeschaefte/sky-roller/ ) and just going ham with F&B? I just don't get it, they seem to be dragging their feet on some old, end of service life rides and squandering what would have to be Australia's most well-placed amusement park. It should print money every day of the year.

You implied that Village didn't see any value in a billboard, and I know first hand that wasn't the case. I used facts, you used emotions, and then doubled-down on the latter whilst ironically implying snark in a snarky reply. Irony, ammirite?

I still don't understand how this won an award though. I'm not trying to be negative or detract from the hard work of dozens of people, hell, I reckon it's the best ride in the park, and it's the best non-Disney flying theatre out there IMO, however: it was spectacularly delayed at a time that was pivotal to the park there was rumours on this forum of structural issues it destroyed the aesthetic of an entire precinct of the park the facade's cladding was too thin and suffered damaged after the first storm of the season it looks dull. Again, my favourite ride at Dreamworld, but don't know how this won a builder's award.

How are we feeling about how wildly different both Dreamworld & Sea World's announcement renders are compared to what we're getting at this point? I don't want to jump the gun too much as both projects aren't actually complete (hell, one hasn't technically broken ground yet) but it has been interesting to watch not just minor but major aesthetic changes to both projects transform basically overnight. Is it then a result of both brands making it up as they go or perhaps, like many major engineering projects (skyscrapers in particular come to mind), there's been a disconnect between expectation vs. reality?

It was an issue with council, plain and simple, but points for sticking with the VRTP is evil thing there. 😄

Going to revive this thread because I think it's the best fit for it that I could see. Arkham Asylum - at this point we're presuming it's dead yeah?

It's the better day experience by far IMO. Small creature comforts like lifts for all the heavier rafts really do make the day far more pleasant. When the crowds do return en-masse and a lazy river becomes viable it'd really be a stellar waterpark. I think it's also got some room for some better F&B there, too - Blue Lagoon was pretty well known for its Fish 'n' Chips (and had a nice area to chill out and eat) and I think a similar thing should apply here too. I think that's been a sore spot for Dreamworld lately too - Dreamworld as a whole was known for its specialty foods and it's where they should return to for both parks, especially when they're trying to get small wins on the board in the absence of having so much closed.

Holy cow that looks bright AF. Great stuff.

One of the few times a ride closure will actually increase ticket sales.

I wouldn't take it personally - more of a read of the room as of late. In regards to Arkham - both chains could do a lot better with being transparent, direct and consistent (see Log Ride, Bermuda Triangle, Looney Tunes, Wipeout etc. etc.) in announcing permanent closures. All in all it's great news - there's a lot of great people that work at Dreamworld and i'm glad that this closure saga is finally over for them.

Enthusiasts when Movie World had only two coasters open for a few days due to maintenance - how dare they, Village is evil. Enthusiasts when Dreamworld will open with two coasters - nah it's alright, they're trying. Something something not aimed at management something something pointing out enthusiasts are biased.

I think your opinion would definitely apply if they were all front of house staff - it's easy to make a schedule work when you've got plenty of casuals to bridge the gaps. To be frank though, it was 50 salaried positions that were made redundant, most of which were skilled positions which can't be as easily filled.