Gazza

I'd like to see more theming and realisim, in its current form it seems just like something you would build in the course of finishing a scenario.

That wasn't really the point I was making....

Now that its pretty much confirmed and non secret we are getting a halfpipe coaster I thought it was interesting revisiting this topic, In paticular to this members quote: The results in the Poll also reflect this line of thought. Now, just looking back over the past few years I am starting to think about the sorts of rides we have; we've got both a normal freefall ride, and a spaceshot (one of them the worlds tallest), we have themed dark rides like SDSC and themed outdoor rides like WWF, we have an intamin rapids ride, and a couple of flumes too, we have all the major flat rides, from gyro swings to topspin style rides like WO, and our carnival scene covers us for things like topscans and boosters, we still have one of the worlds tallest and fastest rides (even if it is a bit dated, but it was groundbreaking when it opened). We've got all sorts of interesting cinema type attractions, from Imax to shrek 3D, we're just like everyone else in having an SLC, we have one of the hottest rides of today, an Accelerator with a second one on the way, a halfpipe is coming, down in Vic a 120m observation wheel is going up, and adelaide has a single arm version in glenelg. In the water park scene we have it all, from one of the worlds biggest waterparks, and all the modern proslides (tornado, bowl, rocket, octopus) I guess the point im getting at is that our situation in terms of rides isn't as dire as people make it out to be, and on the world scale our lineup is quite good in both relative and absolute terms, and in some cases we have some stuff that other theme parky countries dont have. I'd even go so far as to say that the only major stuff Australa lacks is a hyper coaster, a B&M and a modern woodie, and even then things such as a B&M arent that common (the Netherlands or France have no B&Ms for example) My question is, are we really still in a situation where we have to "accept what we are given" and "be thankful Australia has some new rides"? I mean we are pretty much right so is it unreasonable to expect bonuses such as good theming etc on newer rides? That is probably why a few people arent convinced when people say "its a new ride, that all that matters", I mean I think our theme park industry is sufficiently mature that our worries can move beyond getting the rides in the first place, to wether they are of a high standard etc. I suppose I feel that the fact we are getting a ride isn't important, nor do I see it as good because "Its Australia's first/only _____" I feel that other aspects of the ride are more important.

Yeah, I suppose, but I mean even if WWW admission was $50 i would still give it a try because I enjoy theme parks a lot. But there are a number of reasonable reasons (lol) for why people would still pick it. -More rides for less -Reasonably new additions -Trusted brand -Biggest -Stigma surrounding the fact WWW is associated with DW (people might not like DW in its current state) -Strength of Super Pass etc, means people wont visit since 3 parks might be enough for them, flow on effects from SW and MW additions could help. Nightmares is the only new ride at DW that could cause flow on effects/ world pass purchasing. -Lack of knowledge about rides WWW, we here no the details, but the GP might not so might not know how good it is. -Lack of knowledge about park itself, eg interstate visitors might not make time for the park due to not knowing about it. Now Im not saying I'd pick for those reasons, but I can understand why people still would. But this is a bit off topic.

I wont in future, I posted before I knew you had a heart condition, but It is quite safe to assume people generally dont endanger themselves by riding if they have certain medical condtions. Maybe YOU shoudlnt jump down my throat just because I dont know the ins and outs of your condition. I mean you did say "(I) get half way up the stairs and I'm already over the slide", to me and without prior knowledge being "over" something suggests you have gotten sick of it, cant be bothered etc, which suggests laziness. In other words it is something concious rather than a condition out of your control. If you wanted to avoid giving the wrong impression so people could know the truth then say something like "I get halfway up the stairs, but it gets unpleasant for me since i have a condition that causes shortness of breath" But the point im trying to make is that your personal reasons such as health conditions and max action pass ownership and dislike of larger parks arent really relevant to the person who made this thread. How is you getting puffed out from walking a reason for someone else not to visit? I mean if the topic was "Which park do you enjoy more" then those are relevant reasons for you, but the topic is about what park someone should pick when they travel here in October. In this case i think the main factors for them would be. -Sorts of rides avaliable -Quality of park -Costs associated with visiting/value for money Or in other words a viewpoint that centers around the park itself, not unrelated factors unique to each visitor. To be fair though, the last time I was at WnW was a couple of weeks before extreme H20 zone opened, so Im inexperienced with both. When I return from the GC I will update my opinions, and depending on my experience I am fully prepared to eat my words.

See here: http://www.wetnwild.com.au/tickets/tickets.cfm#8 Afternoon rates were there when I was on the GC in 1999, and could have been around before that.

Well, It is a fair assumption. Rides/Waterslides have safety restrictions, and one of the most common ones you see is "Do not ride if you have a heart condition", as well as many other rules that basically make it you should only ride if you are in good health, therfore it would be safe to assume that since you regularly visit theme parks and ride everything you would be free of these conditions. Yes, but at WnW you have the choice of floating and getting sunburned in a wavepool too, and a whirlpool and a lazy river. If WnW has these things WWW doesnt then it is merley a case point in WnWs favour. I know, and I think it is really good WWW has hit the mark so quickly without teething problems. But unfortunatley the person who made this thread wont be visiting at a stage where WWW will be better than it is now (to the best of our knowledge) .... Recently I have seen a lot of posts that say something like "why the hell are people going to WnW, there is a brand new waterpark down the road". My aim was to sort of debunk a few of these arguments with reasoning. I guess for me personally the 3 unique rides WWW has isnt quite enough to counter the greater number of enjoyable attractions at WnW you get for the same price, and really the person i was giving this information to was Lanaa XO. She is coming on holiday, so what you want is value for money, and since WnW is more of an all day thing I felt it was the best thing for her. I was also aiming to give the other side of the argument since a lot of people had given the pros of WWW (Unique high quality rides) so to help her make an informed decision I gave reasons why you might pick WnW. I dont feel factors such as park size are an issue to most visitors. But to put it simply, this is an advice thread, not a battle of the parks type thread. For the record I will be visiting both parks in 2 weeks, and if had the chance to only visit one then I would be going to WWW since I have never been before. But like I said my advice wasn't for me, it was for Lanaa. First of all, quote me on when I bagged WWW. The only things I came close to "attacking" is what I felt were stupid arguments such as "the park is too big" amd "you spend more time walking than riding". You are paying the same amount at both parks so size shoudln't be a concern. There is no unwritten rule saying you are obliged to ride everything at a park, you are still getting good value if you decide to ride a few of the attractions, and if makes you more comfortable, do what Richo suggested and stay at one end of the park. I mean if WnW was proportionally more expensive because of its size, or was laid out in a way like Alton Towers or Efteling where there are huge gaps between rides then I could see a reason for this argument, but since neither of these are the case it holds no weight to me. And for the more time spent walking than riding argument, i used evidence to back myself up , if the evidence is true than how is it attacking? All you do by putting across an image of miles of walking is misinform Lanaa. One other thing I feel like saying though, the walk up to some slides at WnW is bigger, but you end up getting quite a long ride down (Mammoth goes for a length that even surprised me, and to ride all of the White Water Mountain flumes just once would mean your butt has traveled over half a kilometer) So its not really a good reason IMO. I think people have to re-read my first post, I gave what I felt was the best adivice for a variety of situations (GC first timer, traveling with kids etc) Edit: Look people dont like my reasoned/detailed posts for some reason, so I'll make it simple. If you haven't been to either go to WnW If you have been to WnW since say Mammoth falls opened then go to WWW If you are interested soley in unique rides go to WWW If you are interested soley in having lots to do go to WnW Visit both if you can!

Maybe they are offering afternoon entry because WnW has been doing so since the year dot and they wanted to have an equivalent offer.

Perhaps using the word bandwagon wasn't the best choice of words, but i think a lot of people like it simply because it has the latest rides. A couple of years down the track things will settle a bit. I mean when TOT opened for example it was the coolest thing ever, but now its not so much. Its a similar thing here. What can I say I have, its quite easy to do at night or in off peak, and this is the time when you visited WWW. When i was at WnW i rode everything a few times in the four hours I was there (double the rides in double the time) Mammoth stuck in my head, i lost count on that thing, and I often found myself having a "spa" waiting in the starting tub while more people decided to come up. No GC parks have hills, except for going up the white water mountain slides, but you only go up when you decide to ride. And anyway you have to climb up something to get to the top of the slide, the only difference here is there is land and pavers underneath you and not supports and marine carpet. I prefer a nice ramp to the flights of stairs on every slide at WWW (Just on that, whats the difference, you make it sound as if you dont have to climb stairs at WWW) OK WnW is about twice the size of WWW. So what you do is stay on one half of the park for half the day, then cross to the other half for the rest of the day. This would only add about 200m of equivalent extra walking to a day at WWW. Just a question, how did you cope before WWW opened, was the size an issue then? Also, why dont you just not go to all areas of WnW? Then its like being in a small park. Either that or you need to rethink your stratergy of riding Mammoth, and then deciding to Go on super 8, and then deciding to go on mammoth again, and then going on terror canyon, and then back to.... Also, with this walking all day versus riding thing, remember a ride on a slide is often less than a minute, so to use Lisa s figures. 5 rides on the green room at 30 secs each (Thanks youtube) makes 2.5 minutes 3 on the rip at 1 minute each (Very generous guess) makes 3 minutes 2 on the bro at 45 secs each (again generous considering its 50km/h) makes 1.5 minutes 3 on the hydro coaster at 2 mins each (it would have to be less than that) makes 6 mins so total riding time is 14 mins, plus half hour in pipline plunge gives us basically 3/4 hr (and I was being generous) That is less than half your time at the park, if that. BUT, at WnW for example, you can spend a huge portion of your time riding (as my mum did) by just floating in Calypso beach, try doing THAT at WnW. Haha, all these complaints about size reminds me of WL closing Hana Babera land because of complaints the park was too big. But Im with Richo on this one, if you have a problem with walking around HARDEN THE HELL UP!!!

You know, I dont think the distinction between both parks is as clear cut as people make it out to be, and I think it stems from the fact that a lot of the members here have been to WnW many times before, have sort of grown tired of it, and now WWW is open have jumped on the bandwagon simply because its new and has some innovative rides. There is no doubt both of them are great parks, and if you are on the GC you should try to visit both if you can, but if you can only go to one consider everything. I mean, on the surface for example it might appear that WWW is better for families, since it has Wiggle Bay and Nick Pipeline plunge compared to WnWs Bucaneer bay, but you need to remember WnW has mammoth falls, calypso beach (which has that lagoon area), whirlpool and whitewater mountain which are also very family friendly, and not boring for adults. I'd even be inclined to say the large number of two person raft slides are more suitable at WnW because they have trough exits and not a pool you can potentialy flip off in. The fact movies are included in admission makes it even better for kids too. WWW does have The rip, BRO and Supertubes (IMO the extra 90° on The green room is not enough of a distinguishing factor compared to Tornado) And these are all good reasons to visit WWW (if you have already been to WnW recently then you might as well go) But what you need to consider is if worth forgoeing some of the other really good rides at WnW that perhaps might not be so modern but are still very fun. Think of things such as the Jet Streams and Mammoth Falls (Lets face it, those who have been on these have pretty much only said good about them) Even things like the White Water Mountain slides are a ton of fun despite the fact they are the simplest type of slide. Theres something about weaving down the hillside crossing over and under slides in a confusing layout, whilst getting tossed side to side that is just enjoyable no matter what. A couple of people have mentioned the size factor of WnW compared to WWW, but the fact is WnW is smaller than MW and I have never heard complaints about the size of that place. While it does take longer to walk to slides at WnW, you generally hit a wait (even if it is only a couple of cycles) at the top anyway so it doesnt make a difference because its the wait time that is the limiting factor in the number of times you can ride, not the time it takes to get to the top. And anyway, a longer walk means a higher slide People have gotta be less lazy IMO, or prehaps rethink the way they are going around the park. Its just 200m from one end of WnW to the other anyway so you can cover that quickly. But i guess If you havent been to WnW recently then WWW is the way to go. If you havent been to either then WnW is the way to go, its unbeatable value and still a great park (10,000 visitors on some days cant be wrong)

So what sort of layout is it? I have seen these slides in travel guides before, but I had always thought they were just straight down slides, or is there sort of more of the slide hidden in the temple?

Oh, I thought it was behind Whirpool and hence it would just be empty space like in the extreme H20 zone. You could always rejig it to make it fit though. Could someone post something from google aerial photos or the park map with the location on it so we know what we are dealing with here? Yeah, I got into Archi at UQ but im taking a year off at the moment.

I was feeling bored so I decided to sketch up an idea for the theming/landscaping of this ride. I decided to go for this idea that basically you are a beach bum heading out of your shack and down for a surf. The entrance for the ride is through a small, rundown single room beach shack made to look like it was built in the 50s. A couple of surfboards would lean up against the front wall. Inside the run down look would continue and the interior would be designed to look like it was inhabited by a stereotypical surfer. A brown berber couch would sit in the middle of the room forming a sort of switchback people have to walk around. Other things in the shack would be one of those old rounded fridges you have to lock shut, surfing posters/charts and a bench adorned by things such as a cheese encrusted sandwich toaster, tins of baked beans, centerlink letters etc. The good thing is any damage to the theming would enhance the image being portrayed. 2nd hand goods would be used. You would then head out the back door onto a verandah. A hammock would hang between the posts and a dreamcatcher would hang from the roof. You would then head out into a grassed backyard. and in it there would be things such as a barbeque and a washing line with a wetsuit drying on it. From the backyard the main bit of the queue would follow, it would be like one of those fenced boardwalks that takes you over the dunes to the beach. Signs such as "No Dogs" and "Beach Access" would be at the start of this section. Surrounding the boardwalk would be actual hills of sand with native grasses growing on them. At the end of the boarwalk you would find yourself on a beach, with coastal scrub growing on one side and the actual ride on the other. You walk past things such as surfboards stuck in the sand, and deck chairs with eskys between them. The rides loading platform would be reached by a set of stairs, and it would sort of have artifical rock forming the sides (like on whitewater mountain) The loading area would be covered by a wave shaped shade struture. The track and supports of the ride would be blue and beneath the ride there would be a shallow rockpool to sort of convey that you are in the water at that point (Well, the best you can considering it is a roller coaster you are on :/ ) One other little thing I thought of (but it was too late to add it) was a refreshment stand inside a Kombi Van as there arent really enough food outlets in that part of the park. And hey I know Im dreaming here, but I think it would be cool if they made the effort to do something like this.

I'D be looking toward expanding into more viable areas of the park before something as drastic as that. Plus looking at the space behind police academy, you can see that it is a back of house area, and the space avaliable is smaller than looney tunes village, so making it fit would be difficult (And hence a coaster wouldn't fit too well either) But, if you really did want to put a ride behind police academy, it could always be an indoor one, or a non scream inducing one. see http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-27.908014,...p;t=k&hl=en

True, but reviving a quiz show is a bit easier because the set up costs are lower, and should the show fail then finding a replacement is easier and its not so much of a loss. It would be a bit of a gamble trying to revive BB after its demise as it is such an expensive show to establish, and if it did flop then they are stuck with a whole series they somehow have to play out, as well as a white elephant house.

Out of the blue a bizzare new channel was sent to us unnanounced, the Everybody Votes channel. Basically it is just a collection of local polls as well as a few worldwide ones, with the choice of two answers. It seems a little weak for a single channel and nothing paticularly revolutionary considering web polls have existed for ages, but i suppose its features make it interesting enough, and gives people another exuse to turn on the console and check on it every day. Basically you can register 6 Miis in the channel as voters, and as every poll appears you just go into it and drag and drop your mii to the side of the screen corresponding to your response. What makes it interesting is the fact you can then guess how everyone else will vote after casting yours. I guess this is where the game element comes in because in the long term it tracks how good you are at guessing. Also in the long term it tells you how often your voting matches the majority. A couple of other little things is the ability to submit your own polls, as well as the channel having some very catchy music. So far they are pretty politicaly correct questions (boiled or fried eggs?, cats or dogs?) but it will be interesting to see if they ask the sorts of questions that you see in newspolls, or market research questions to do with Nintendo.

Thats a fair point there, and to be honest I'd agree in saying that calling many of the attractions at WWW 'themed' would be a bit of a stretch since as you said the landscaping doesnt add to the rides concept. I'm sort of coining a phrase here, but I'd say WWW has an australian beach flavour, but not really a theme. (It was also for this reason i felt Batwing wasn't really "themed" since a couple of bat vehicles on display and graphics on the ride vehicle dont really give that immersive feeling) BUT, I do feel that for ordinary ride presentation then there are different degrees of effort that can be used. Using WnW as an example, the dense plantings and extensive rockwork around the Whitewater mountain attractions, or the numerous carribean style structures and tropical gardens in calypso beach look quite a bit better than the fairly bland extreme H20 zone with sparse plantings. In both these cases they are both properly presented (Eg all finished and tidy) and neither have immersive theming, , but clearly the first two areas I mentioned are a bit more inviting and enjoyable to be in. I guess its a bit like your garden at home, your garden could be a neatly trimmed lawn with a couple of trees with timber borders around them...or you could go for a timber deck, with a water feature running past, dense tropical plantings, a nice outdoor setting, perhaps with one of those thatched gazebos in the corner. Clearly in both these cases your garden is nicely presented with no ugly bits, however the later option is a lot better.

Well Auge, if you were after some pics, there are some of Crazy Coaster in this thread: http://www.parkz.com.au/forums/in...?showtopic=2783 And if you were after pics of the Tiapan coaster, there were some in this gallery: http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/gallery.php?gid=20

How? Its the first installation of this type of ride. But IMO, the presentation will probably be "acceptable", but nothing really impressive. I think the days of places like Calypso Beach are behind us sadly.

A few points with regard to this suggestion -Overseas parks close in winter, heck even at Disneyworld for a period in the cooler months one of the water parks closes for a period while the other one is open, and then they switch and the one that was closed opens and the one that was open closes. Its not such a stupid suggestion -Full/Part time employees would be able to have annual leave during the refurb, and many would still be in a job (maintenance dept in paticular) as their job might require them to undertake some of the works. -Casual employees would be in a similar situation to what happens at the end of the holidays, as many of them wouldnt be permanent anyway. While a complete closure could help get stuff done quicker, it would be quite possible to do it stage by stage as suggested. IMO the most important part to redo would be the main path that runs along the front of the park from mammoth to white water mountain. It wouldnt be hard to rip up half the pavers and redo it, and then do the other half.

Yes, but both Aidan and Tony are listed as living on the Gold Coast, hence if Tony can get it, there is a good chance Aidan could too

Then maybe at the end of your contract you should switch to the Foxtel service if you see it as superior.

Perhaps WnW hasn't suffered an attendance reduction simply because Steven Gregg wasn't lying when he said that the waterpark would attract new vistors. If anyone hyped up this big "battle of the waterparks" where one would fail and the other would flourish, is was us here on this webiste , I guess it turned out to be a bit of a non event and both parks are just plodding along nicley. And while WWW is all new, people still need to remeber that WnW still has Tornado as a 'new' attraction, and has had its first full summer with the extreme H20 zone finished so the attendance boost from this may have been a delayed onset. (If i remember correctly Mach 5 was the only part of extreme H20 opened in the summer holidays -5 days before they ended- ) And at the end of the day, people are going to go for the cheaper, bigger park even if it means having to forego a toilet bowl and an uphill slide.

When the Bombers and Lions last met in a grand final who won? But LOL for making Johnathon Brown arc up. Just a couple of things, did you take any photos of the waterslides at the place you stayed (If you didn't, what was the name of the hotel so I can suss the place out) An Geeze, going to the GC again in four months , I swear you have the worlds best annual leave arrangements.

LOL yeah, no need to apoligise, i was just debunking a few of the things that came up, nobody would have been offended or confused or anything.