Gazza

Just wondering, does anyone know of any roller coasters operating at those random summer / foreshore carnivals at the moment. I know that Jurassic coaster is at Huskisson, and Nitro coaster failed to appear at Lakes Entrance this year. But i haven't heard anything about chants "Wild mouse", Crazy Spinning coaster, and the old Thrillseeker (who even owns that now?) @HussRainbow87 @Spotty what do you know at the moment?

I think a certain number of people will always pile on, much the same way people pile on whenever something goes wrong at Qantas.

I guess slides can have different layouts, and some are much better than others. Re Tornados for example, the ones at Jamberoo are a genuine step up from the one at WnW. With water parks, I'll make an effort if it's a slide type I haven't done before, or if the park has particularly nice theming or a unique setting. Within Australia, I'd go to most water parks "Because I can". Overseas, where I'm more limited for time, I'll pick and choose. Thinking back to the ones I've visited overseas. -Wild Wadi: Because of all the interconnected masterblasters -Wet n Wild Orlando: A few of the slides had some interesting theming, particularly Disco H2O -Typhoon Lagoon: Because it's Disney, and for the theming. -Aquatica: Wanted to try out the transparent slides through the dolphin tank, and they had just installed a Proslide Topsy Turvy. -Splashin Safari: At the time had one of the first TornadoWaves, and of course Wildebeest and Mammoth water coasters. -Carowinds: They have those really large threatening looking turbo tunnels, and I'd always wanted to do one. -Galaxy Erding: Heaps of unique Wiegand and Klarer slides, including the infamous Ski Jump slide. -Miramar: Had a double looping water slide, a rather savage drop slide, and a few quirky ones with special elements. -Kokpunkten: A very cool setting -Super Aqua Club: Had the worlds only rocket blast / flying saucer at the time. Otherwhise, a lot of the more generic SF Hurricane Harbour parks I wouldn't bother with since they have the same slides as within Australia. There are still a few I'd like to visit overseas, notably Atlantis, Siam Park and that one in Qatar and probably Soaky Mountain. Would go out of my way to try a Slidewheel too.

Photos: https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/jamberoo-action-park This summer I decided to do a road trip down the Princes Highway from Brisbane to Melbourne. I had not been to Jamberoo Action Park for about 10 years, but the addition of Perfect Storm and Velocity Falls made for a good excuse to make a pit stop. Dates and timings meant I had no choice but to visit on Boxing Day. Normally you’d avoid a park on a public holiday in the middle of summer, but my fears were unfounded and it turned out to be “busy” but not unbearable, helped a bit by the operations being good. I drove down from Taree that morning so didn’t get there till about 11. First impressions, wow the trees have certainly grown a bit. If there is an award for the nicest looking car park, Jamberoo gets it. In fact, the park as whole is well hidden. The boundary is surrounded by a line of trees, so you see none of it until the entrance to the car park. I headed in, avoided the crowds by getting the lockers near the mini golf / pizza place and actually started on Taipan. Last time i was here they only had left side running, so made sure I did the right with the helix instead. Similar comments as my last visit, its quite a fast slide and quite lengthy so it feels like a bit of a space warp. It doesn’t wash wildly onto the walls like Mammoth Falls. Due to its tucked away location it was a walk on. Right, time to take on Velocity Falls. At first I was wondering how they spent $10m on a mat racer and a couple of drop slides, but really it's an entire major new area with pathways everywhere, literal mountains moved for earthworks, several new bridges, and even 10 ‘luxe’ type cabanas that more resembled a proper caravan park type cabin than a picnic shelter. Yeah the plants need to grow in and yeah some minor things need to be finished, but judging by the rest of the park it'll look very lush in a couple of years. Heaps of rockwork, and even some waterfalls running underneath (The bridge for the bobsled also doubles as a footbridge) Stinger Twist is a skybox drop slide like wedgie, but it is followed by a few enclosed twists and turns down the hill, not unlike the River Rapids at WnW. Surprisingly less intense than i expected, after the initial helix, it actually peters out a bit and you do the rest of the turns at a steady pace. Not much water spraying in your face either so thats a plus. If you've ridden Wedgie you’ll know it can be quite full on with its forces, this one is more moderate. Stinger Bump is the other one and is more just a very drawn out speed slide. This one seemed to throw an absurd amount of spray up so ended up riding half squinting all the way down until eventually there was a bit more water around me, indicating i had reached the runout. Couldn’t really feel the drops because they were so gradual. Both slides had about a 20 min wait. They are popular with thrillseekers, though obviously capacity is limited. They did seem to have an issue with people getting in the wrong queue (and lifeguards would constantly make announcements to the queue to tell you to make sure you are in the right line), and having two similarly coloured slides doesn’t help. I’d suggest extra signs and stencils every few metres along the queue to help, to supplement the sign at the front of the queue. Octo Racer (Why did they pick sea creatures for the ride names in a waterfall themed area?) is a highlight. Excellent capacity, they were operating in a common sense manner starting one race as soon as the previous one had crossed the finish line (Plenty of time for people to clear out before others reached the bottom). The intermediate open air “rally points” sort of don't work since they are so short, so you seldom see other competitors, especially if they are more than a few body lengths ahead or behind. It’s not really until the final stretch where you see everyone at once. The enclosed sections are good. I preferred starting from the ‘middle’ lanes, because the helix on those lanes gets tighter towards the bottom so a sense of increasing force and speed and It gets even faster in the twister section. Also have to give credit for the little things. It has a good timing system, with beeps, not just lights, and it gives you your time in addition to your placing. The start tubs are nicely designed, positioned at waist height so you can lean into them instead of crashing onto your chest. Ended up doing 4 laps, trying each relative lane position from the middle to the edge. The last new slide I had to tackle was Perfect Storm. The line was huge, stretching a good 50m down the hill from the load area. Again, high capacity saves the day. The park had four staffers at the top. Two pulling rafts off the belt and two loaders, so they were more or less able to send people down as quickly as they would load, so the line moved quite fast and was probably only 20-30 mins. It helps too that the queue line is really nice, with trees on both side, so its very shady. As for the slide, it's surprisingly rapid fire. Normally these tornadoes with long lead ins can be a bit lumbering as you make your way around the turns an helices. On this, you drop almost immediately into the first funnel, a brief S bend leads into the next funnel, and from that its pretty much a straight away into the big drop, so it wastes no time at all really. My 2nd ride was in a fully loaded raft so crazy airtime, and almost a little scary since it felt like we were headed towards the pointy end with too much speed. In fact the final helix is very fast too, you can expecct to bank high. The main letdown is that the big funnel had none of the thunder and lighting SFX, and wasn't all that dark. Still a good ride, but I would have liked to have ridden it in its prime. At least the outside looks cool, and quite impressive how much stuff that structure could take. Also, was the school bus in the theming supposed to be a South Park reference? Surprisingly, the line for Perfect Storm was only slightly longer than Funnel Web. Yeah Perfect Storm is better, but not that much better would you believe. Jamberoo Express is a trackless train that does a lap around the park, even running steeply up the hill along a high road behind Taipan, Velocity falls and Perfect Storm. The driver commented they are getting a more powerful engine, since the current one struggles a bit with the hills. We had to stop a couple of times to make sure it didnt overheat. The park has evidently spent heaps on roads up here, since there are full on concrete bridges at a couple of points. Was hoping to get some shots of the rides, but the trees they have planted obscure most of them. A good problem to have I guess? I did one go on the Bobsled to reaquaint myself The main wait seemed to be for the chair lift, but the Advanced track itself was quite empty (Most seemed to be going on the beginner track and it was hilarious seeing the number of slow riders with 7 or 8 people backed up behind) It's good how the park actively discourages slow people from using it. It seemed the top area was a bit of a bottleneck. The line for the easy track seemed to block the hard track, which meant the capacity of the hard track wasn't being used that efficiently. Was good for me though since i could do a no brakes run to the bottom, and it's a pretty good run overall. The new tunnel under the walkway to top of Velocity falls is a real headchopper, but you lose a bit of speed on the new bridge. I'm not sure why I skipped Rapid River last time I was at the park, but I'm glad I did it this time! The park was enforcing a single lap policy, so it was only about 5 mins to line up and get a tube. It's the nicest lazy river in Australia, heavily shaded by mature trees, and a few elements on the way. From the entry point you drift past some low fountains that shoot across the channel. No avoiding these and plenty of giggles from everyone. On a long straight section you pass over some spa bubblers, which dont really generate much movement but do tickle your feet. The course is built up against a hillside, so the best part is a cave, which also features a wave generator. Holes in the ceiling have water trickling down through, much like rainwater seeping into sinkhole. Finally, you pass a set of cascades running into the channel, so drift towards these if you want to get wet. Went for a dip in Outback Bay, its rather quite shallow, even 2/3 of the way out you can touch the bottom. Credit to them for playing the Boxing Day test on the big screen! I decided to close out on the one freefall attraction I haven't ridden in Aus. The Rock. Slight nerves on this one, but hey, if little kids are jumping off so could I. I built up to the 5m jump by doing the little drop slide that's 2m up first. Anyhow, it's not too bad, over quicker than you expect, and very refreshing! Overall, Jamberoo is a great place. The whole day felt hassle free. In the space of 5 hours (had to leave at 4pm) i managed 13 attractions, which wasn't too bad considering I was just ambling along amongst the crowds. It's clear capacity is a huge focus, staff were good and the park feels nicely presented and easily the best landscaped in the country.

^You could have changed your avatar to this too.

Aussie World is up

It looks like you could def fit a mad house into the front of the show stage. As for a coaster in the grandstand part, scaling off another family coaster, i think you could fit about this much in there:

😂😂😂

You could do both in one year, sort of like how DW opened Buzzsaw and Shockwave in one year. If it were to move, you could do it here and as SF has demonstrated, virtually any super hero theme can be applied to anything. Aquaman PowerWave? Cyborg? Harley Quinn?

They wouldn't be a proximity rule beyond your typical clearance envelope requirements or else how would Luna Park Sydney exist with its rides so close together? I think the only proximity they are talking about is visual proximity since you had an older ride with low ridership blocking the view of the brand new ST.

So was Wicked Twister a roller coaster, or Tower of Terror. They both consist of an lsm launch and then running back and forth along a track. Why wouldn't this be too? And yeah parks do market it as a coaster anyhow.

Its on RCDB, it launches and freewheels along a track under its own momentum (eg not powered throughout)

In my head the only hyper which tries to have theming along the course is Shambala, but its just at a couple of points. The best you'll normally see is a themed queue, eg like on Flying Aces and Hyperion.

What'd id be concerned about too is the extra force on the curve up to vertical as well if it was that much faster.

How do you know? if they are here a few days and have a super pass they can always duck back.

Yeah but I think in general terms when a thoosie says "suspended coaster" they mean one with cars that swing from side to side, compared to an "inverted coaster" with mostly* fixed seats, even if that doesn't strictly align with what various manufacturers call their models. Eg I view Canopy Flyers or Ninja as a different experience to TNT or Escape from Madagascar. *The above is complicated by the fact there are some coasters where there is a small amount of side to side sway for force absorption, though nothing like the free swinging Arrow coasters.

Yeah its 50-50 but I don't think the standard of the family aspect is as good as the thrill aspect. Their family coasters, all of them are 90s or older, though they are getting that Zamperla spinner and even that is more something you'd expect from a mid tier park. The modern family coasters Dollywood have are more what i'd expect from Cedar Point. Aside from that, most of the family offering is flat rides, no dark rides etc. I do give them credit for the whole frontier town area with glass blowers etc, and the whole forbidden frontier and rafts.

Prior to Russias current warmongering, somewhere like Murmansk I'd have found fascinating to visit. It's not too bad, its a couple of extra hours on the plane compared to if you flew to the GC. Just keep an eye out for cheap flights, I've gone there for $300 return.

Probably because Sydney had the space to do a bigger one.

Adventure Park has the worlds southernmost roller coaster, proper thoosies should go for that alone 😆

The ECC tour starts next week so they'll be fine. The only misses for them look to be GD, Surfrider, and potentially GL depending on the nature of its fault. Auckland is on the way to LA. I've done rainbows end on a stopover.

Raging Waters had the LatiTube and my google indicates Whitewater west bought the tech. https://www.whitewaterwest.com/en/products/surf/surf-simulator/latitube/ The Raging Waters website / map suggests they only have the Skycoaster now. There was another Latitube in Port Hedland, which is also closed and in storage. https://www.porthedland.wa.gov.au/news/south-hedland-aquatic-centre-opening-update/3292

I was wondering about that. Do they do the red eye in the evening after being at AW, or do they leave early morning and just have the arvo at Adventure Park and the evening at Luna Park.

The European coaster club are doing an Australian tour, that's why so many are coming.

Arashi is definitely dialed up from other free spins and has extra brake fins on it causing extra flips. The other ones are fine. That said, Dragon Slayer offers different intensities, one side has 1 or 2 flips: The other side is very aggressive: