Gazza

Here are my photos of it: https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/steel-taipan

I checked this out on Saturday morning. Pics here: https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/wetnwild-gold-coast The Area All clean and modern looking. Resort style meets modern local pool I guess. The entrance signs in particular look nice, with bold 3D logos on white battens. Kaboom I did this one first, and still had a bit of a wait. The blue side was intermittently shutting down due to teething problems, so it was maybe running at 60% capacity. It seemed they would get 3 or so dispatches before it would fault and need restarting. The slide is great, was suprised by the abruptness of the drops, but you lose a bit of speed towards the top of the blaster sections. The Blasters are well tuned, so you dont get the "fire hose in the back" sensation, the water seems to stick to the slide surface. The whole turnaround part is good you pick up speed in the tailspin section, and the following turns and helices are enclosed and pitch black. The final helix is actually very transparent, and you can see through it easily. I think being a larger diameter tunnel and lack of water in the face helps compared to Aqualoop (Which you cant really see well out of) The line moved quite slow, so I think dreams of 30 second dispatches are exactly that. The staff members have fall arrest thingys attached to an overhead cable on the start platform, since it would be fairly easy to fall down into the slide. The funny thing is guests are of course unprotected. You board at deck level onto the raft sitting on the conveyor belt, so it was funny seeing staff freak out when the front passenger went to sit down but got a bit close to the front. I think eventually they'll install gates like on River Rapids to remove this risk. Double Barrel Now, the absolute silly thing I cannot fathom is that both rides have a shared queue, so if you are wanting to just do the double barrel presumably you have to line up with everyone else waiting for Kaboom. Now in practice that doesn't happen because the greeter asks you what you want to ride, and then sends you down the Fast Track queue. But whhhhhhy even have to do that? Why not have a 3rd queue just for Double Barrel riders and avoid any confusion. All this brand queue railing that might have to be changed. The slide is as gentle as you would expect, but it actually seemed popular with parents with younger kids, and it was using all its rafts, so it's doing its job of adding capacity. Boarding is a bit awkward. The queue finishes at the opposite end of the platform, the operator puts the raft into the start tub for you. the start tub is both narrow and with high edges, so its squeezy to get in. As for the slide, pretty gentle, just a sense of coming into land and gradually descending. The most forceful part is the splashdown. Super Ripper Yayyyy this one is the best. Capacity is too low for demand, (And the same thing happens over at River Rapids) WnW needs more classic body slides IMO. I had a heap of sunscreen on, which turned a bit greasy when wet, which meant sliding was ridiculously fast. The great thing was the turns were smooth, as were the joints, so no back pain, nor any fear of being thrown around violently on the turns, so you could really blitz it on the way down. The rainbow colour daylight rings on the enclosed section looked nice and crisp. I'd happily go on this over and over on a quiet day. General Notes Every ride has scales at the bottom and top with a red and green light system. The old changerooms have had a tart up match the style of the new area. There is artificial turf but its literally hotter than the concrete, went to walk on it because i thought the path was too hot but quickly noped out. The staircases are pretty wide for Kaboom which is nice. None of the problems WnW Sydney had. I thought it was funny that they have wrapped the start of Super Ripper in padding, because the staircase passes closely underneath, so it is plausible that guests would have scraped their rafts on it if carried too high. Minor bugbear, but at the bottom of the staircases, the overhead signs are generic text instead of using the ride logos. Why? Overall, good additions that will keep WnW ticking along, with literally something for everyone.

@Im Hungry @TomiJ get the honorary second place or getting the soft opening date

Supertubes has a 40 second ride time. Breakers at Raging Waters has a 20 second ride time. Master Blasters can run with blocks but im not sure how conservatively they will run it. So a 40 second dispatch interval = 90 dispatches per hour. 90*4= 360 per hour. if they can dispatch before the other one reaches the end, say every 30 seconds, then they'll get 480 per hour.

Will Kaboom do that poorly capacity wise? 4 people per dispatch, and it will be a rather fast ride...

Why would they not serve Tiger beer???

Yes, I noticed a few days ago they had changed the wording from 9 to 8, and it seemed like a red flag. Ah well, Big Dipper Jan 2022 I hope!

The old Buzzsaw building feels like it should be a microbrewery or something.

I really wanted them to go under one of the corkscrews though.

It really is White Christmas

It depends how you define it. They really should be separate terminology for something with multiple passes like Steel Taipan, versus something with multiple launch segments. This ride is taller and faster than Jet Rescue so LPS is being truthful.

Wait did I just do a mic drop a week ago? @Brad2912didn't have anything to say on the above.

So which mood is everyone today?

Is there a pic missing. I can see the graphics on the fence. Where is the theming?

Current progress: In light of staff testing seen today, now I'm thinking they might open it on Sunday after the fun run, as a sort of "reward" for people that finish it?

Bees:

Yeah but once the green wall grows in front of it, it will look better than having white show through.

If you were doing vertical gardens, wonder why you wouldnt do the shed in "Pale Eucalpyt"

Good point but I dunno if they are counting overall slide height or the height of the actual start tower, since Gravity Wave is on a hill

It's patently not though. Beach Park Brazil is in the Southern Hemisphere, Insano is 41m high https://www.beachpark.com.br/en/parque-aquatico#!atracoes On the WnW website, Double Barrel is described as being 12m high, so i would estimate Kaboom being about 24m high.

Intamin normally use wheels to stop trains anyway (Given mag brakes cant hold them) You'll note none of our Intamins have pinch brakes.

Having mag brakes (or even friction brakes) that raise and lower is pretty routine. Im surprised they didnt have brake fins to the side like on the old school Intamin hypers or premier. https://rcdb.com/541.htm#p=127284

I take exception to this one. In any country, a certain number of deaths is expected from all causes (accident, illness, old age, homicide, suicide) and this remains reasonably stable from year to year (same as the birth rate remains reasonably stable from year to year) https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm But in places where the pandemic was bad, way more people were dying than usual, so clearly a new dangerous illness was the new kid on the block picking people off. A handful of deaths possibly being misatribued is really irrevant if hundreds of thousands of people of extra people are dying overall.

And now the station is coming down.

That's hauling. Also, I never fully appreciated the exit bridge would be right next to the corkscrew at eye level.