Gazza
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Posts posted by Gazza
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All I see is they put people on the existing Surf Rider train for a promo shot, there's nothing further that could be concluded from that.
There's a promo shot of Vortex floating around with Intamin restraints instead of Huss for example.
https://seaworld.com.au/attractions/rides-and-precincts/the-new-atlantis
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The CO2 tank is one of those stainless steel BOC / Air Liquide type ones, from memory its at ground level at the corner of the station.
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Firstly it is not a CO2 effect
You can see the CO2 tank from the final brakes 🤷
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I also reckon it's because its easier and cheaper to "slap something down".
Designing something that wraps around other rides takes a lot more effort and coordination, and sometimes even requires modifications to existing rides.
And lets face it SF barely want to spend more than chainlink fencing and sheds on their rides sometimes, let alone a bigger design budget...
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My interpretation was that the CO2 fog was there to provide something for the train to pass through (hence being at the opening in the wall), much like the pit of fog on storm coaster, or the now gone steam effects on the Superman tunnel.
Thus a door might not help if the train stirs it up each time.
If the intent was to make the whole room foggy, then the emitter would have been in the middle of the room in the first place?
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I reckon since they replaced the boats WWF is here to stay.
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3 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:
They are swing outward doors. So are Justice League. I excluded JL and WWF from my reply earlier as they're both designed as swing doors and the front of the car will bump them out of the way - they're hinged to move in the direction the ride vehicle moves (and moves slowly). Sliding doors are more likely to be broken through, unless they have a breakaway section attached in case of collision..
Does that mean it would be ok to have swing doors then on other rides?
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Are the doors on WWF going?
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I dunno why there is so much hyperventilation about the idea of a door across the track.
Heaps of rides use soft rubber doors, and lets be honest the station is a low speed environment.
Meanwhile you have coasters like Juvulen or Blue Fire with actual doors across the launch track the train could hit at high speed.
If its controlled by the ride system, and you verfiy with a sensor, how is the risk the door doesn't open any worse than the risk your transfer track on your multi pass launch isn't in position, or that your vertical elevator car isnt in position before the car rolls into it.
I do prefer the light lock idea.
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You can get "high speed self repairing doors" that are basically glorified vinyl blinds that roll up very quickly. If something like a forklift crashes into them they just flop out of the way so cant really injure anyone. I have seen these used on some attractions.
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That Shark Coaster will be appearing in Browns Plains 11th-20th August.
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But if its going down the roll at high speed why can't it go up at high speed?
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How come the heartline roll causes an issue?
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It should be called a coaster within a coaster because if it's a ride within a ride they've already got that at Luna Park Sydney with the kids rides in the middle of Boomerang.
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Hong Kong Disneyland
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/hong-kong-disneyland
The last park from my trip in April was Hong Kong Disneyland.
Im on mobile so it's a bit harder to do my usual formatting and add many pics, but of course all 300 are already uploaded here:
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/hong-kong-disneyland
Again I won't do a blow by blow of the day. Rather ill do each ride.
Space Mountain
Im still not big on the whole star wars overlay. The original music is much easier to follow and the theming doesn't make sense. You have classic space mountain with planets etc in the station, which is completely different to how a space ship interior looks in Star Wars.
And then on the ride yeah they have a few lights that represent laser fire which looks great, but there's no hiding that a lot of it is just backdrops with a small 2d projection of a star destroyer. Just all feels forced on the wrong type of ride.That said the coaster is still great. The station is much smaller than the other ones so you lose a bit of that buzz of looking down over the station and seeing trains pump through.
Iron Man Experience
Pleasant surprise!
I was expecting a reskinned star tours, but it felt so much more.
The queue is like a tech expo with lots of cool stuff to look at.The ride film is incredibly detailed, and your usual "on a tour but stuff goes wrong" sort of storyline.
My tip, have a walk around Hong Kong island and ride the tram east on a day before you visit the park. You'll get a lot more out of the ride film if you can spot real details.
Ant Man Vs the Wasp - Nano Battle
This was also better than expected.
It was previously themed as buzz lightyear, but of course the MCU rules at Disney now.
The ride was panned a bit in POVs for looking "boring" but it's fine and better than Buzz imo. Really bold visual design with you making your way through a high tech facility, before being shrunk down to fight the bad guys inside a computer. A nice touch was that the targets aren't just flat things with LEDs, instead they are actual screens built into the sets, with animations when hit."its a small world"
Yeah its fine, but probably the longest ive waited for it. It's hard to separate any of the versions of these in my mind.
This was the first to integrate Disney characters into it but to be honest it was fine. It wasn't in your face at all.
Winne the Pooh
The scenes seemed similar to the Tokyo version, just without the trackless cars.
You start in hundred acre woods in some gorgeous scenes that are all flats but have a real picture book feel.
Eventually you see pooh in bed, he falls asleep, and there is a great peppers ghost effect of his soul seemingly leaving his body.
You I've been transported into poohs dream, with a circus of "heffalumps"
Instead these ones were tracked, but could still bounce up and down at certain points.
Mickey and the Wondrous Book
I made an effort do some shows since I normally don't do many at parks.
Was great! There's a huge projection mapped book on stage, and as Goofy and Mickey turn through they release characters from various stories.
Elaborate song and dance numbers with quite a large cast, tied together with your usual cool Disney FX. Worth a look.RC Racer
So imagine Surfrider with the TOT2 car on it. Greater than the sum of its parts! It wierds you out for a moment since you keep mentally expecting to a bit of spin. But what makes it great is the multiple moments of floating airtime. Would have ridden twice but it's somewhat low capacity (was a one and done early in the day)
Oh and the theming is great. I liked the plastic car model parts on a frame in the station, and the queue paths themed like a scaletrix track (complete with the metal slots and the joiner pieces between track segments)Toy Soldier Parachute Drop
Eh was ok. Good if you want a view of back of house areas and very mild drops in a short ride cycle.
Again has a great themed queue, with lots of props looking like green plastic parts from an army playset.
Was able to bypass a 45 min wait with single rider.Mystic Manor
Did not disappoint.
You ride in a trackless ride vehicle through the antiques collection owned by an eccentric old man and his pet monkey (in fact 4 go at once and they dance around each other in each room)The antiques come to life as you go through each scene, and this is a ride where a few laps can help you spot all the great gags.
I quite liked the room with all the Mediterranean antiques. There's a Greek vase with the print on the outside coming to life and physically popping out the neck.
And the final room has a great effect of literally falling apart around you!
My only critique is that the ride looks like a cool old mansion from the outside, but you don't walk in the front door.
Instead you go into the "loading dock" down in the basement, which feels like a cop out.Dunno I reckon it would have been more dramatic if you went through the foyer of the house and a few rooms and THEN go downstairs to the basement with the treasures.
Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars
Great fun!
A mine train coaster that wraps around a whole themed area.What i loved is the number of times goes under pathways and itself, so you can't just glance at the whole layout and map it out in your head.
So it makes it feel like more of an Adventure since you don't know whats coming.
Starts with a regular lift hill.
At the top a grizzly bear pleasuring itself on a railway points lever causes your train go down "the wrong track" and a few turns follow.Then theres a dead end lifthill like a boomerang where you go up, then roll back down backwards
The reverse section is mostly straight with Gentle turns, so no risk of feeling sick for anyone.
Eventually you run backwards into a mine tunnel with a switch track. Some bears playing with dynamite cause an explosion, launching you forwards again.
The remainder of the ride is several quick turns back to the station.
It feels well orchestrated, with all these highlights on the way, a pace that gets faster as the ride goes on, and of course some good humour.
Festival of the Lion King
The other big show.
Its a circular theatre and they bring in floats of African animals to the middle.
There's acrobatics, fire twirling, bits of stage that rise up etc.It's done in a format where its a tribal retelling of the Lion King story, so Simba, Scar etc are guys in tribal dress, not actors in fursuits.
Jungle Cruise
I know its a classic but I just don't get it. Cruising past static sculpts of jungle animals just doesn't do it.
Yeah there is some fire and water at the end, but not enough to warrant a repeat imo.
Momentous.Really good and a genuine highlight.
Recently the park renovated the castle from something that was once the size of the one in California, to one that rivals the Magic Kingdom.
And after dark it becomes a giant projection mapping surface. Add some lasers, fountains and fireworks (Which HK is really good at for some reason) and of course a rousing soundtrack and the results are spectacular.
The content is often a bit touchy feely, with memorable moments from Disney movies put up on the film.
It was a particularly good sequence where they had all the villains and a song which I wish knew the name of.
If I ever get back I'll definitely try and get there for a front row seat... I ended up sbout halfway up main Street which was decent enough view but you couldn't really see the fountains that well.
Overall impressions... If nobody compared it to the other parks, it would be a fantastic place in its own right.There's always going to be certain Disney rides they could add, but as it stands now the lineup feels quite complete.
I stayed from open till close and there is still stuff I could have tried (Slinky Dog, Astro Orbiter, the Teacups)
Did repeat rides on Grizzly, Mystic, Iron Man, Ant Man, Space Mountain.
Lines weren't that bad, maybe 30 mins at worst.Some of the rides are scaled back from the originals but it doesn't meaningfully impact the experience.
Place is spotless, I loved the shady feel of Adventureland, the creative theming in Toy Story Land and the little thematic touches.
There's a chance ill be back in HK next year, so I'd definitely go back again, and check out the new Frozen stuff too.
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Ok time to get the last Malaysian park done,
SplashMania is a brand new water park that opened in Februrary.
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/splashmania-water-park
It's not far from Putrajaya, and on the main motorway from KL Airport. You cant miss the big pirate ship perched on a mountain.
Overall, it's a really good water park! In terms of land area, it felt similar in size to WWW, but it had all bases covered, with a very "complete" feeling lineup, with slides from both Polin and Proslide.
I rode virtually everything except for Monsta and Twista, the two big proslide multi person rides, which were days away from commissioning.
This will be another brief TR, so here are the rides.
Thrills and Spills
A cross beween a behemoth bowl and a boomerango.
Great drop into a sort of spiral shaped bowl, you hug the outside but lose speed as you reach the top, before stalling out and coming back down the helix.
Becomes a bit dull after the stall out as you sort of just cruise down this massive expanse of fibreglass.
Atlantis VR
This is supposed to be a family raft slide you ride with a VR headset, but wasnt operational.
I've done a VR slide before at Galaxy Erding, so wasn't particularly upset it wasnt working. Very gentle as family raft slides go, with very wide turns the raft barley banks up.
Maniac Racers
Good RallyRacer that starts off with a helix, then both sides split into 3v3 and cross over each other, before one last enclosed s bend.
Wouldnt have minded an extra final straight to the finish line though...
Twin Turbo
First encounter with a dueling pipeline. To be honest the europeans have been building raft slides like this for years. Reminded me a lot of Screamin Right handers with quick turns and small drops, alternating between open an enclosed.
Typhoon Terror
Despite the saucers being a total gimmick, the slide is great and you do pick up a heap of speed on those saucers. All over in 10 seconds.
The long one called Tiki Waka at Skara Sommerland reigns supreme.
Curl and Swirl
Proslide make a bowl that is even smaller than the type used on Little Rippers (WWW) / Typhoon (Funfields)
As a result its heaps more intense, especially if you go down backwards
Amazonia
So that giant ship on the mountain...You can actually go up and explore the decks of it. There's a staircase around the back, and you full expect to hit a gate at the top, but nope, you first head into the bowels of the ship, before emerging on the top deck. A great lookout over the park.
Theres also a controlled bungee from up here, as well as a zipline but neither was operating.
Hillariously, the park also describes something called "The titanic experience". Nope, this isnt a revival of Fox Studios, but rather a point on the bow of the ship where you can stand and stick your arms out and pretend to be "the king of the world".
Omba King Cove
Wave pool with a real sandy beach. I swam for a few minutes so I guess I can tick it off as "I've experienced this" on the Parkz database.
The pavilion at the side with swings you can sit on was a nice touch.
Rush Havoc / Loopa Woopa / Shaka Waka / Whacka Boom Boom
Cant be arsed remembering which was which. Two are raft slides with LED ring effects. One is supposed to also have interactive touch pads on the way down but this wasn't working.
The other two are enclosed body slides that have a timing system, so you can race.
I find Polin slides have way too many continous helices, and going around a long turn gets boring after a while IMO
The daylight ring effects does make them visually pleasing to ride.
Wild Rush
Short and sweet, these two slides have a drop at the end where you can bomg into the water. More parks should have these, great fun, and check out the spectator crowds they draw. Now that's what you call passive capacity!
Plunge & Sumaumeria Drop
Conventional old school freefall slide (Excellent of course!) and a superLOOP (like Wedgie). The helix was a little more drawn out, so it wasn't so brutal. Liked it, but it got long lines.
Ravage River
Lazy river encircling the park. Really liked this because there was a lot of "stuff" along the way, be it bubblers, waterfalls, a tunnel etc.
A nice touch was how one of the entrances had massage stones in the floor.
Treasure Tower.
Hot Take. Polin make the best water play structures. Everyone is allowed in this, and there was just SO much going on. Heaps of fountains, heaps of slides, you were constantly getting soaked, which was refreshing in the tropical heat.
They had a fun bowl slide, though instead of dropping out the middle there was an exit chute you sort of guided yourself into.
They also had another area for smaller kids with a few mini proslides including a totally cute mini tornado wave.
Overall impressions of the park is that it had a really nice atmosphere, a real resort vibe, and some quite impressive theming. Very wide variety of things to do, lines moved quickly, and already the landscaping looks lush so just imagine in a few years time when it is a proper jungle.
Even with 2 major slides closed I stayed for several hours.
More pics:
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/splashmania-water-park
And thats's Malaysia done.....
Jokes, one night I happened to go past a carnival in the car, so there was a whacky worm and a reverchon mouse I rode in my time there too.
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The queue now has a mesh floor and open windows where the theming in cages used to be, so it should get some better airflow.
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Running out of time to get these trip reports done so I'll do a rushed dot point one for Sunway Lagoon with some general points on the park.
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/sunway-lagoon
It's a park ive been interested in for years...I guess seeing it on Getaway / The Great Outdoors regularly sparked my interest in the place, but of course as I got older, certain bigger and better parks took priority.
As many of you would already be aware, Sunway was the company that owned Wonderland Sydney. A small piece lives on with Bountys Revenge having been relocated here as Pirates Revenge. Fun to relive some memories from when I was 14, but the ride seems so much smaller than I remember.
I had no idea until somone told me a couple of days before my visit, but the park is built in an old Quarry, so you have all these natural cliff faces, all planted with tropical vegetation, or used for waterfalls, or stepped temple theming, and of course used to run slides down, so its quite a dramatic setting and more parks could try converting old quarries IMO. The hotels, malls etc are around the edge, providing a natural view.
The only drawback is having to install escalators to get people down.
-The park says it's "6 theme parks in 1" but in reality these are just themed lands. They try and say one of them is "Sunway Scream Park" and this consisted of a single sharknado themed maze shoehorned into a corner.
-Sharknado, haven't seen the film. just "okay", the highlight was a flooded room, achieved by using haze and a flat scanning laser, much like what was on the last drop on scooby years ago.
-The rides area only opens at 6, with some rides opening earlier. A bit of a pain because it means the Lost City of Gold opens late in the day, right when the afternoon storms roll in, and it takes ages to re open after rain, so its a major pain to get a ride. First time on a Soquet coaster, was a bit bumpy in spots but had insane air on the 2nd hill. Reminded me of a mini Intimidator 305.
-Rest of the rides are ok, but not too many of them. Suprised they had a river rapids shoe horned in, which was quite wet.
-The main water park had the star attraction, the Surf Beach closed. Theres a 2nd wave pool, and a deceent selection of AWL built slides, including something like speed coaster, a super 6 racer called Congo Challenge, and some raft slides called African Pythons.
Dont know if anyone remembers the old old original Terror Canyon/River Rapids from WnW where they had foam brake strips glued to the slide to slow you down, and the raft would just bump across them like the lines on the road at the end of the Sydney to Newcastle Freeway.
Anyway, Sunway does, so again childhood memories of being shaken to bits by the slide came flooding back (excuse the pun)
-Vuvuzela is Whitewater Wests copy of a Tornado. Despite a different shape, it felt literally no different to the original.
-Waterplexx 5D was another novel attraction for me.
It's a 4D cinema (but only 2d was working) where you sit in a tiled room in fibreglass seats. The movie went for a few minutes and was a first person perspective a guy flying over the jungle, crash landing, and then being hunted by tribesman, and running for his life. Throughout the show, random water jets would erupt next to your seat, rain would come from above etc. It's a bit of a laugh being randomly doused for a few minutes, but didnt really bear any resemblance to the on screen action, it was more like "hey something dramatic is happening, lets crank the water!"
(so not like at MW where spiders = leg ticklers, or sneeze = mist)
-Sunway Wildlife Park was better than i expected, with very nice looking exhibits, everything from Racoon to Tigers.
-Theres another water park zone called Lost Lagoon. Jungle Fury was a family raft slide with heaps of wall to wall action on the turns. They also had an aqualoop and flatline loop called Monsoon 360, but only the flatline loop was open.
Kids stuff looked superb!
-Aside from the Wave Pool the other hero is the suspension bridge streching across the quarry.
Great views, and there is a random spinning tunnel at the start.
-Overall impressions. The original 1994 vision is great and the theming is still impressive. But over time bits and pieces have been added and the integrity has been lost, so some areas look cluttered.
Was a bit frustrating that they promote 90 attractions, but large numbers just aren't open. There's even that wild chase coaster that has never operated, yet it's still marked on the park map! They also do a bit of the old HK disney approach of counting things like fountains as separate attractions, like theres a separate set of tipping buckets, and a waterfall along the lazy river, and the buckets and waterfall are listed separately.
Much like Wonderland, new additions are sporadic, and they rely a bit on temporary events, but the water park expansion at the back by Whitewater was decent.
More pics
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/sunway-lagoon
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Double Push?
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Ocean Park - 23/04/2023
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/ocean-park
I didn’t just head to Malysia back in April, I headed to Ocean Park in Hong Kong as well. It’s a huge park split into two parts that are 1.6km apart, connected via cablecars or a funicular.
Ocean Park is located on Hong Kong Island, and very easy to reach via the MTR, a single stop away from Admiralty (literally minutes from downtown). Once you are there you literally walk 50m to the front gate.
First impressions as you come in are quite impressive, with whimsical ocean themed buildings around a lagoon used for fountain shows.
I was advised to head to Giant Panda Adventure first thing since you get to see them feeding, and I wasn’t disappointed, with one of them right up close and munching away.
The red pandas were pretty cute too.
Down this end they also had Little Meerkat and Giant Tortoise Adventure, a pretty small exhibit but again offered a good up close view.
Down here they had a few other smaller exhibits.
And a kids area, which to be honest looked a bit underwhelming on the rides front for a park this major. Guess Disney reigns supreme for families with kids here.
To their credit they did build a big indoor thing with giant interactive walls and so forth recently.
The cablecars can get quite busy in the morning so I opted to head up to the summit on the Ocean Express.
Probably the best themed transport ride I’ve seen. There was also a video playing in the roof of the cars, but it was nothing to write home about, just a mash of ocean related stock footage.
Arriving at the top of course I headed to Hair Raiser, the parks B&M floorless coaster, which looks rather awesome perched on the edge of a cliff.
The ride experience is a bit of a jackammer though, it was kind of like when you lean your head on a bus window and your head is vibrating so much your vision is blurred.
Starts off with a climb up the side of a naked cliff, before a large loop and a dive loop.
Next comes a high speed camel hump, a Zero g roll, and an immellmann right over the ride entrance.
The ride finishes off with a twisting hill and another turn into the brakes.
I still did about 7 laps given the lack of a queue, but it was with my head firmly planted against the backrest.
Arctic Blast is the other coaster, a mack powered coaster which was decent, with a dive into the trench under the entrance and a few helices for good measure. Only steadily paced though, so firmly for the families.
Theres also The Rapids, pretty decent with an animal exhibit in the middle full of rainforest creatures.
Note: dont do artificial rock like this!
Most of the wetness seemed to come from a multitude of fountains on the way.
Spotted the Ocean Park Tower nearby, spectacular views.
Sea Jelly Spectacular was supposedly the inspiration for Sea Jellies Illuminated at SW, and got multi hour queues once upon a time. Was expecting something huge, but in reality the one here in the GC is better imo.
Ferris Wheel offered views of the SBNO Dragon coaster. Pretty bad to have so many rides in plain view but not operational.
The funny thing is off by itself amongst the closed stuff they have Wild Twister, a very modern looking Top Scan. Haven't done one of these in years, and certainly not in the outside seat and they are great fun, with you tumbling about in all directions. Feels like it achieves much more randomness than say a tourbillon.
I think that sums up all the proper rides I did. (not one for spin and spews)
I opted to catch the Cable Car downhill to get some pics and then promptly caught it back uphill again. Really makes you appreciate how HK just clings to every flat bit of available land.
Around the bottom area is a nicley themed "Old Hong Kong" themed zone. Grabbed a drink before pressing on.
There are quite a significant number of other animal exhibits
Pacific Point contains all the seals, I got there right on feeding time but the underwater area was under rennovation.
Didn't stick around for the dolphin show.
Perhaps the most significant exhibit is Polar Adventure, which is divided into both north pole and south pole themed zones.
Amazing seeing a walrus up close, and they seemed to love the crowds, blowing bubbles.
The smelly, but cute arctic foxes.
And of course they have penguins, but the whole room was kept cold rather than an enclosed box like the ones at SW.
Shark Mystique is an all indoor version of shark bay, starting above ground at the rock pools and then leading down a spiral to a huge under ground tank. The sawtooth sharks were probably the highlight.
Catching the ocean express back downhill I saw the last two major exhibits.
Sichuan Treasures contains some long haired monkeys.
But perhaps one of the best was saved for last, the Grand Aquarium.
If this existed outside the park, they'd probably charge $40 for a ticket, but here its a standalone attraction. Several quite large displays, culminating in a massive picture window (since eclipsed by SeaWorld Abu Dhabi)
Could have done without the baby shark stickers getting in the way however.
Overall, its a good park, though disappointing to see so many closed rides in full view. These are not even ones they have boarded up etc, you have to walk right past several to get to some of the newer stuff.
You can tell they are trying to fill a niche not covered by Disney, with a renewed focus on thrill rides and animals, neither of which Disney have.
The rub with the place I feel is that it seems to have way too much in terms of facilities, attractions etc for the attendance that it gets, and they have built a lot of new stuff without getting rid of the old stuff, so the result is a place that is very spread out and empty feeling in parts and needs a lot of staff to actually run it. These comments more apply to the summit area. The bit down near the entrance is absolutely fine.
I do hope the parks financial woes are able to be solved because no other place in the world has a setting like Ocean Park, and their animal exhibits are excellent.
More photos are here:
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I still detest this temporary fence system as tacky.
I hope SW adds a conservation message saying that their decision to use re-usable fencing modules is a more sustainable choice, since those fence units can last for years and years and be used from project to project. 😎
(compared to cutting up, painting plywood etc, only to throw it in the skip at the end)
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When I saw the article about this I thought Google had decided to play up and give me article from 2018 about the previous fire.
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What about a parade in ocean parade?
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15 hours ago, Dean Barnett said:
So they can run rides at night!
Yes
Jungle Rush Coaster
in Theme Park Discussion
Posted
This thread.