Slick

I liked how they used B-Roll of Sea Viper. They should've just used footage of Thunderbolt and called it a day.

2012 called. So far everything that the current CEO has done, particularly in the last 12 months, has been anything but ruin the park.

Also very true. Then you have to consider that some coasters like say Storm at Sea World are designed to purposefully ignore the heartline to throw you out of your seat laterally much in the same case of the newer RMC coasters (Texas Giant being one of those) or even on a more basic level, every Wild Mouse since ever. Generally speaking it's not a one size fit all argument for why or how some coasters are smooth, rough or just plain suck. In the case of Cyclone, i've ridden it just recently and found it to be no different to when I rode it a few months back or even a year ago. It's certainly not the worst coaster i've been on, and they did a great job making a custom used ride fit in again with WhiteWater World's waterslides. It just needs aesthetic love. The train is a shadow of its former self - the original red fibreglass is really showing now in large scratched off chunks, the padding is old and worn and frankly the entire queue is just a fix ontop of a fix ontop of a fix. Frankly i've always wondered why they never bothered to install a vertical wind tunnel into the centre of that queue. It'd be the most fitting upsell attraction that Dreamworld have ever put in and would keep guests entertained for hours.

It's all been mentioned before, but just to summarise: Combined with a whole bunch of other innovations at the time (such as moving to wheel assemblies/bogeys hugging the outside of the track and better computer modelling) manufacturers in the 90's were able to deliver a more comfortable and enjoyable ride by focussing on the rider's heartline instead of the carriage's centre of gravity. Think Jet Rescue or Superman Escape compared to Cyclone and you'll see the difference immediately:

​Done.

Back in 2004-2005 the wire snapped and the cow fell into the turbine. AlexB is correct, streamers were added in later, and my guess is the fan eventually died a few years after that. The theming was not half bad, if anything they needed more budget to fulfil on the vision and to then maintain it. Anyone else remember the vibrating floor when you reached the end of the queue, the water misters and the new segments on the LCD screens up the queue?

I'd love to see something like Huss's Rodeo/Breakdance fill the space where the graveyard is: http://www.hussrides.com/family-rides/rodeobreakdance-4.html

Looks like it's going to be a great update to the current Wiggles World area. Here's some snaps from the media call-out:

I'm with Richard and djrappa, I rode the one at Nagashima spa land, Japan, late last year and felt like I was going to die. very mechanical. Plenty of unexpected noises and jerks that made the 30(?) metre drop way more scarier then something as tall as say the giant drop.

This should answer your question.

Still working on this behemoth video, in the interim - here's the teaser.

What irks me is the crazy "financial loss" figures lawyers put on cases like this - look, if she has an issue with her wrists caused by work, she should actually bring it up with her work as it's happening not after it's happened, her work should pay for her surgery or whatever she needs to have it corrected and if it's an invasive surgery which requires time off work, then for the company to compensate her for her lost time during that period. But hundreds of thousands of dollars? Come off it, mate. You signed up for that kind of work, no one forced you to push harnesses down all day every day.

(Edit - removed - photos aren't uploading correctly)

They got super lucky, by the time the parade happened it was down to a light drizzle at best but it's a good point - had it been raining they would've been sitting in the rain around the fountain for minutes at a time while the other floats get out of the way.

Was there this evening and had a really great evening despite the rain drowning out our filming. Thank god for the gigantic roof. Definitely went away impressed by the sheer abundance of entertainment and food. It was a sensory overload. For those who haven't been, the photos are nearly done, the video from tonight is in edit and you'll hopefully see something later in the day when tony abbott's nbn decides to upload the final cut.

Couldn't agree with you more. I thought the roof was a horrid, awful looking thing when they were building it that was going to destroy the atmosphere but much to my surprise they've taken a practically arbitrary fixture in the park and really harnessed it's potential. The simple fact that they can trap such a large amount of fog for so long really adds to the atmosphere and offers a pretty huge potential for creative visual & lighting possibilities.

I believe Dreamworld traded like that for quite some time in the 80's. I think it's a pretty solid idea, except it'd never happen - could you imagine the amount of negative publicity a park would get if they closed for a few days and the others didn't? The only to way ensure it being a success would be to do what Knott's and Disney did many decades ago and strategically plan closures with the parks so that all the parks were never closed at the same time. It'd be a case of everyone on the gold coast doing it or no one, and given the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games and how ingrained 363-364 day operation is for the local/interstate population (which is where the majority of the money is) I doubt it ever happening in the foreseeable future.

Yeah I can see how that might not make sense. I was inferring that Rainbow's End is a closer competitor to our gold coast parks specifically, not Adventure World. What i'm saying is that a Gyro Swing would be a great addition to their line-up regardless of the fact that a park on the other side of the country (Dreamworld) has one. Last time I checked, both Fuji-Q and Nagashima Spa Land both have Giant Frisbees (albeit both are different sizes), both are geographically close and yet none of the general public bats and eyelid.

Hypothetically speaking, I think moving forward if Adventure World wanted to continue investing in the teen/adult market, a small Huss Giant Frisbee or Intamin Gyro Swing would pad out their flat-ride line-up perfectly. Alternatively, something like Intamin's family launch coaster (Jet Rescue) would be brilliant. I'm sure some people would make the case of "originality" when you stack those options up against the eastern theme parks, but honestly, when Rainbow's End in Auckland, New Zealand is a closer competitor geographically, I don't think i'd be too worried.

Very. They're renowned for their space shot towers like Batwing and have extensive ride design, parts and manufacturing experience thanks to their CCI and Arrow acquisitions and their partnership with Sansei.

How'd you get those photos? Do you work for the park?

For the vast majority, B&M's are great because for the extra money a park would spend they get the very best in capacity and the ability to handle intense seasonal crowds, a problem none of our parks will never run into. If I were Dreamworld, i'd gut Blue Lagoon and throw in one of Intamin's Accelerator (inverting) coasters or Vertical Lift coasters. It's definitely a great, marketable investment when you consider that Superman Escape's only missing (atleast in the public eyes') is that it doesn't go upside down.

Cheers for the heads up. That's looking really promising.

You're totally on the money for the majority of that last paragraph. I'm sure they're all things Dreamworld are very interested in and i'm sure will be making sure of, no doubt. And you're right, when you don't have a culture of open communication when it comes to OH&S, things like Fukushima happen. This is why CASA are so open about faults and issues with aircraft, you can only be as good as the mistakes you learn from, absolutely. What I take great issue with is hyperbole when so little is known which leads to an outlet like Courier Mail and causing a PR nightmare when realistically there shouldn't really be one. I really do think this isn't newsworthy, much in the same light when I hear a plane had to abort a landing because of something rudimentary like a cross-wind. This 100%.

You are mightily misinformed, which is why those in the know, myself included, are downplaying this. I'd even go as far as to say it's naive and arrogant to think that any park in Australia would put anyone at any point in any actual real danger. The idea of fear is critical in an attraction being a hit with the public but the reality is (statistically speaking) you are in a practically incomprehensibly small amount of danger, to the point where making your breakfast and having a shower are literally more dangerous in Australia then going on the Buzzsaw, let alone any of our country's thrill rides. Let me start by saying Australia has the most strictest guidelines for safety (particularly when it comes to the amusement industry) compared to virtually anywhere else in the world. I know this not only from "the internets", but from experience from working in the industry as an operator in this country AND from first hand experiences working with dozens of parks here and overseas through capturing media in theme parks. Operators in parks joke about the fact that their international counterparts will let you ride with sunnies but in Australia we won't even let people with velcro pockets to have a wallet stashed away. Rides in this country are not as grossly over-simplified as you put it in your "lighting and chain" analogy, ditto for the restraints and the ridiculously large amount of dual redundancies in place. People forget that these attractions do hundreds, if not thousands of cycles every week of almost every month of every year over many decades without a single injury. To make a point really clear: the entire industry is based around pro-active maintenance and safety at any and all cost because the impact of someone falling out of a ride and sustaining a fatal injury is enough in this day and age to close a business permanantly and significantly impact others GLOBALLY. No park, no business, no share-holder and no person, from maintenance to operation to management want that situation ever, which is why there are multiple systems in place to discover and prevent such a thing before having to rely on a redundant safety feature at all, which is what has happened. In the decades in which i've been i've been on this board, never have I felt more passionately, and by extension, never have I felt someone has gotten something so wrong than you have. That attitude is why it's made its way now to the Courier Mail, which has the potential to have profound impact on those casual ride-goers and create more of a frenzy of misinformation. Furthermore, and I have no knowledge on this specific situation beyond what's been said officially by the park and what's been rumoured here, but there's a bloody huge difference between faults and failures found randomly or unpredictably because of a lack of care, maintenance or design (which this is most definitely not) versus having exceptionally great preventative systems in place that find a fixable fault well before it becomes a failure.