Gazza

You saw it, not seen it LOL, eg I saw TMNT last week.... Shrek 3 will be good, but if the Simpsons movie is anything like the sorts of episodes we have been seeing over the past couple of years or so then I wont be impressed. I sort of forgot about TMNT as a possible theme they could use for an attraction though, and for some reason I keep thinking of it this sewer themed playzone even though its a silly idea. I for one though think this will be that Australian Idol attraction as I don't see it being popular enough with crowds to warrant renovating the main show stage.

Just a tip, If you were going to be on the GC before the 30th of April then buy your SW and MW passes together as a fun pass which is $99 for adults and $66 for kids aged 4-13. The only catch is that you have to visit the second park within the next 2 days after visiting the first. Doing that should knock your bill back to $1141 (Assuming all your group members are 14 or older) If you are a member of RACV (you were from Melbourne right?) then that price comes down to $1036 (Since RACV membership is $22 then it is definitely worth getting membership purely for this transaction) $1036 is still a fair bit but that is still a week and a half of pay you get to hold on to compared to buying them the normal way. Even if you are travelling after april 30 then get RACV membership anyway, it would pay for itself twice over after buying DW tickets anyway.

Here we go again

Ah cool, you got some great shots of the park. What were your thoughts on the place? (It was pretty evident what you thought of Supertubes )

Even though this is an old topic, I made a little discovery that can help you get more out of these slides (and twister for that matter) not really worth starting a new topic, but i feel I should share it. Anyway, I'm sure a lot of people like these slides, but don't enjoy the water spraying into your face at high speed. But I found out (and I wish I knew this earlier) that if you simply lift your feet 10cm or so off the slide then there is basically no water in your face, so you are free to enjoy the visual effect of speeding down the chute and seeing the ground rushing up. Naturally though you will want to put your feet down just before the end to avoid a wedgie, but otherwise you are fine. I wound up re-riding Twister and the Jet Steams many times because of this new found enjoyment. Oh, and back to the topic, I ended up doing both of them several times each, they weren't that scary, though the outside ones were better because of the airtime.

Putting aside the fact we already know where the half pipe is going, how many members of the GP do you think will guess that the halfpipe is going to Dreamworld? I mean its a thrill ride with an ocean theme....DW has already got a couple.

I doubt it, anyone can edit wikipedia and make it look convincing, I'd wait for news from more solid sources.

I found this in an interview with Sandor Kernacs from Intamin AG in Park World magazine:

Why not have a go at Corkscrew at SW? it would actually be a good starting coaster, its not that scary or intense, very smooth and comfortable so you wont bang your head, and its short, so there isn't time to get sick or scared, nor is it very high, and of course like most rides (Especially since it is at a well run Australian park) it is safe. (LOL, the reason i didn't ride it on my first visit was because i was scared I could fall out, but naturally I know better now) Its not uncommon to see little kids on this thing (Im talking 6 or 7 year olds) Who knows, it could be the start of something great, and you will end up getting more out of your visits to the parks and really enjoy the biggest rides if you end up liking your first...GD, SE, TOT all await you. But if you don't end up liking it, well it was only 1 minute of not liking it, and Im sure you can put up with that. Oh, and back to Bermuda, all it is is just a boat ride past some nice effects and theming, with a drop at the start, and one at the end which are both tiny compared to WWF. You cant say you were scared of going on a boat ride, can you? More like, way less. Really? How long have you been living on the GC for? Not picking on you or anything...just seems odd that there are still some locals that have never checked the place out.

I meant to post this, but back when I was at WnW they only had the whirly wheels avaliable. I think perhaps the reason WnW has opted for these is simply because of the way the onride photo is calibrated. I noticed something in the sample shots on the wall at the photo centre. The graphics that frame the photo when it is printed fit around a whirly wheel as the subject, and show both riders properly, but cloverleafs wouldnt fit in the frame properly, nor show all riders. I guess then they use these rafts simply for the benefit of photos.

Yeah LOL, this thing is way tamer than WWF, its more about the special effects rather than height and speed, really a well done ride with virtually no "ugly bits", its just such a rounded experience. The first time i rode this was when i was 8 (didnt ride scary stuff back then) and I was fine. Everyone is right though, no prior knowledge will make it more interesting.

Well, that is pretty much what people had in mind, but Richo hit the nail on the head as to why it would be pointless.

Ok, another update, apparently we are at the "dirt and footers" stage so its definitely happening. An article from the Herald Sun about it is below, I didn't fold the paper straight so that's why the scanned image is off kilter.

Thanks andrewm, this is what i wanted to know, ta for being informative, it isnt often we get this sort of solid info about what they are doing. Firstly WnW_Rocks, The one in Japan was indeed 20m and with 2 six rider rings, but it wouldn't be that one simply because ours has the new type of track, but at least we know the model we are getting. I think everyone can stop complaining now, it sounds like a very unique water ride, and it is good that they have made an effort for it to fit in. All the names for it sound pretty bland though, I think the WWW style of naming could work better, its youthful and sticks in your head. But I think using the world "plowing" might sound a bit unappealing. But that sounds like a very interesting survey....is there a link you can send for those who don't get the newsletter (I changed my email so now i am unable to get it, really should sign up again...) as Im sure many want the parks to here our view. For SW, those choices all sound pretty good, Especially the Hippo Exhibit and the family high speed water ride (I'm guessing a water coaster from that description) The MW ones sound a bit less interesting, I guess because they are sort of generic ride types. But for question 2, WWW isn't a "ride", nor is it at one of the theme parks.

OK, its not like its a secret or anything though, but thanks for that. I'm guessing they wanted to know peoples opinion of the halfpipe so any chance of posting what they wanted to know about that, I mean even staff have been negative about its placement, so it would be interesting to know what they are coercing out of the GP. The family water ride and thrill ride questions sound interesting too, what did they want to know about those ones?

Well, obviously people are going to want to hear the details on the sorts of attractions they are asking about.

I'm surprised this new coaster seems to have been rejected already by so many....I guess unless it costs $20 million its just not good enough For starters we're getting an Intamin, and without being a brand suck-up, that alone should be a good indicator in terms of the quality of the ride we should see, I would be interested to see how many 'bad' Intamin's people can name from the past few years. Also, I think people seem to be missing the point of what a 'family' ride is, you might automatically think of something like Big Red Car as being a family ride, but thats a children's ride. To me a family ride is something everyone can get something out of, now that doesn't mean it has to be super gentle because then people wouldn't be having fun. Something like SDSC or WWF could be a better indication of the sort of intensity i would expect to see, not so intimidating that many won't want to ride, but something that is just a lot of fun. IMO how 'extreme' something is shouldn't be the only indicator of how good a ride is. But really, boycotting the place for not building a thrill ride? There's gotta be some merit to a new coaster and I wouldn't expect it to just be a typical kids coaster. All this negative talk reminds me of when "DWWP" was going up, and a lot of people were saying "oh its too small", "those towers aren't big enough", "wont be any better than WnW"....and then it turned out to be one of the best things that has happened in the Aussie theme park scene, something to think about. Promised? The park has never said anything. No, that is just with respect to the Vekoma motorbike coaster. An interesting point to note though, Cyclone travels at 85 km/h, while Velocity (A Vekoma motorbike in the UK) actually goes a tad faster at 86.9 km/h.

The brake fins would be calibrated to only knock of speed mostly towards the end.

Hmmm, I feel the motorbike coaster is very limiting in terms of theme; its pretty much going to be racing related (Though I guess a chase theme is another option, but to pull that off is a bit out of DWs reach) I was sort of just thinking of this old time motoring theme to it, sort of like with the vintage cars. When that eventually re-opens the two would share a common thread with their themes.

What do you mean for a concept drawing in this case? Anyway, it would be quite possible, but whether it is worth it is another matter. I have actually thought about them just ripping out the whole track and making it a standard accelerator (the rollback brakes on the launch would be designed to operate on every cycle) but ultimately it comes down to whether it is worth all the extra money when people are happy with the status quo. Also, I think also the rate of acceleration would be more useful than the torque of the motor in this case with regard to the calculations you want to do.

I was in Adelaide over the weekend so I got a chance to check this place out. But I didn't have much time so the only thing I ended up doing was the waterslides. I'll go back a bit. The whole place is sort of what you would get if you added rides to a Timezone arcade. There was an outdoor bumper boats pool, bumper cars on the floor directly above, the carousel from Magic Mountain running once again, an outdoor mini golf course with a sort of old mill theme, a soft play area and of course tons of arcade games. You are free to walk in, but if you want to ride or play anything you have to get this credit card type thing which you put money on, the stupid thing though is you have to pay $2 for a card...normally these things are free. There is a restrained modern look to the place, but the waterside tower looks terrible, just this metal paneled 'block' sticking up in the air. But anyway, on to the slides. You head up an escalator to the second floor where the landing zone is. It is all glassed in and rather compact. Lockers and change rooms are right beside too. Before you head up to the top you swipe your waterproof card through a turnstile which then takes one ride off (I didnt bother looking to see if unlimited passes were avaliable). From there it is a lengthy, but easy trip up ramps to the top. There were windows from which you could see out onto the beach, unfortunately the louvers were left open making it a bit chilly. When you reach the top there is actually a very smart system in place, basically there is a turnstile in front of each slide, and a button on it with a light, when the button lights up you can press it, and the turnstile lets you through, spacing out riders and making it impossible for people to make chains. There were 3 slides to choose from; the duel, the speed and the raft. The duel was a greenish/teal translucent colour, and was more of a gentle slide, but bigger so you can sit up or ride tandem. Unfortunately the ride had a couple of long helixes , which aren't terribly exciting because it feels similar to going down a long straight. Its directional changes that make a slide good. The speed appeared to be a turbo tunnel type thing (I hadn't gone around the back at that point to see the layout), with a blue, translucent,narrow tube (like on the BRO) which forced you to lie down. I could imagine people getting claustrophobic because of how narrow and long the slide was, but I didn't mind it. It wasn't that much faster than the white water mountain slides though, it turned out to have a steady gradient all the way through, with no drops....just a really long slide. There were a few turns along the way, but it felt a bit jarring with awkward straight sections in the middle of turns, and on top of that rough joins between segments. It sort of highlights how far behind AWL is compared to Proslide and the like. However, The Raft was a good one and the only one which needed a 2 man raft, better than terror canyon IMO. Heaps of twists and turns, a long run, good pacingand no lights or fibre optics at all so there was no sense of direction in the pitch black darkness, it was just plain fun. I guess overall the place is worth a look if you are in Adelaide, it would be something for a rainy day, though its nothing really new if you get me, if you like dodgems, slides and so forth then you'd have fun there.

Well, its more of an Observation Wheel (there is a distinction to a ferris wheel) I doubt it would fit at Luna Park though

Well, the fact is the London Eye has been highly sucessful, so I would imagine this would partially replicate that success. I too would have rather seen the park get built, but as ash111 said it is better than having nothing at all since the park proposal fell through. I mean its a bit harsh to call it "stupid" and "oversized", since when is things being big a bad thing? One other thing to consider is that this could be a "stepping stone" to more elaborate tourist attractions in the future. If a huge investment like the wheel does well, I think investors would see it as less risky to then go and build things like theme parks. You could draw comparisons to the way the GC has developed , once upon a time the closest thing to a park was a dolphin pool, and that was a precursor to SW, who then saw the potential for a second gate with MW which then.......

LOL, well building the thing would be a good start.

How did this this end up going?