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Macquarie Bank effectively owns Dreamworld and are responsible for easily the most capital expenditure ever put into that park in its history. Talk about the faceless corporation royally screwing us all. To reiterate Flea, ING have done absolutely nothing wrong. Even when they've ripped everything out and Wonderland is nothing but a pile of dirt, ING have done absolutely no wrong in aquiring the property and proceeding to develop it. Sunway are the only party in this all that any sane-minded person could hold responsible for what happened. I wouldn't even think there'd be any doubt about that, but evidently there is. Your arguments seem to be fundamentally flawed, by assuming ING is at all at fault in any of this. Also, your first quote wasn't Walt Disney, it was Albert Einstein. Please use appropriate punctuation and grammar when posting at Roller-Coaster.com.au. If you are unsure, consult the Community Guidelines, or ask myself.

What they've said is that there will be greater emphasis on low-capital attractions in future. This is not at the cost of major attractions coming every few years. They've also made it quite clear that they will still keep their title as a "thrill park". Don't be worried, but at the same time don't expect rides ever year. One major ride ever three or four years is sensible from both the park's perspective and our own. As for Rocky Hollow Log Ride being removed, I'd have to disagree. It's a very different ride from Thunder River Rapids in terms of how it acts. Most parks have multple water rides - Movie World has Wild West Falls and Looney Tunes, Sea World has Viking's Revenge and Bermuda Triangle, and I can't think of any major parks elsewhere that don't have multiple water rides, aside from Disney parks (no Disney parks have more than one true water ride for some reason). The log flume/river rapids combo is so common around the world, clearly some people out there believe that the two rides are different enough. The fact is, Rocky Hollow is a reasonably high capacity ride and needs minimal staff (it can be operated at full capacity with one person). It remains popular year-round and isn't a half bad ride.

No it's not, it's the look of Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. It's a stolen design and totally unoriginal. As much nostalgia or childhood memories it evokes for anyone, the fact is it's stolen. That to me is enough to warrant a completely new, original entrance. I'd love to see the Main Street area redone to be original. It's also largely stolen from Disney, but it's been Dreamworldised over the past 20+ years enough to make it relatively unique, so to me it's not as much of an issue.

Almost, Wipeout was made by Vekoma and i think rampage was made by either Zamperla or Fabbari. Gee, 3/4 of the budget on themeing at Disney. Other than themeing of the station DW wouldnt really bother would they, oh well we can still dream.

It's certainly not impossible, but it's pratically impossible if it's an afterthough and isn't given a proper budget. Dreamworld have never been big spenders when it comes to theming. That's fine, but please don't try to theme a ride if you're not going to do it properly. I can tell you that Disney or Universal rides don't cost what they do because of the actual ride components - that's normally only a quarter or less of the total cost - most goes to theming.

yeah they only go up to 5 richard. but last year when we went, they had a promo with air newzeland holidays, it was called an australian vac pass. you paid for a standard 3 or 4 day pass(i cant remeber what one it was,) then you got upgraded so that you could use the hopper pass for up to 14 days. ( we didnt go to disney and use it 14 days, we did other stuff within are 17 days, but when we got back from places we had been, we went to disneyland at night , as you know they trade late till midnight on weekends and 8-00 weeknights. we spent propably 6-7 full days at the two parks, then it was just night time or early morning visits b4 we went out. The 14 day pass was really good cause it gave u something to do for a few hours in the morning or night.

Tomb Raider is a very interesting attraction, but wouldn't fit anywhere in Dreamworld. The thing I'm wondering is what happens in a few weeks when it finishes? Tomb Raider's architecture doesn't fit in Gum Tree Gully in the least bit (true it probably wouldn't fit anywhere) nor does it fit with Farmyard Friends. Its Dreamworld, its mismatched. Heck, I wouldn't even mind if they turned Gum Tree Gully into an 'Adventureland' style area (Everything else is stolen from Disney, so why not the good stuff?) but the park is just continuing to call it Gum Tree Gully to prove there is no real plan for the area.

^reason being copyrights anything that goes into WBMW must have something to do with Warner Bros or partner movies. I Know the Melbourne office of WVTP talk with the Hollywood owners. and I would say we may select a ride but the copyrights must be approved ect. Thats where say DW or SW have it alot easy with ride names like wipeout ect but WBMW is like Disney it must be themed to a product eg Batman.

Ive been to california, two years running now, I took a friend so that it was cheaper twin share. we had return air-fare qantas, 17 nights accom villager lodge, airport transfers, 14 day disney hopper, knotts berry+transfers,universal+transfers, sixflags+transfers,LA city tour 7 hours, it cost $2467,per person form qld. Then we did extra while we were there. but i didnt manage to spend my $1000 usd either, and i didnt miss out on anything i wanted to buy.

Hi guys, well, we're back from the States and we had an awesome time! We stayed at the Annabella hotel at Anaheim, which was a short walk from Disneyland. We went to DL for 2 days, then went to Knotts via shuttle. Then we moved to Hollywood and took the Metro to Universal, and hired a car and drove out to SFMM for 2 days. Let me tell you, driving on those freeways with no real map and bad directions used almost as much adrenaline as the coasters did!! Our first day at DL was overcast. This was the best thing that could happen because we walked onto practically every ride without a wait. I love the Matterhorn at night! Knotts was ok, but Xcelerator was shut, and I was pretty annoyed at that. Actually, half of the park seemed to be shut. The outstanding rides here were 'Perilous Plunge' - an insane boat ride with a serious drop; and 'Le Reveloution' - a pendulous, spinning ride with 4 g's. Very cool. USH was better than I expected. The Jurrasic Park ride was very cool. SFMM was very very cool. The first ride we did was 'Riddlers Revenge'. This was my first time in a stand-up coaster, and it was fun! We waiting about 1.5 hours for 'X' and it was worth the wait. Man, that is an awesome ride. Freaked me out when we did that first back-flip!! 'Goliath' was about a 3 hour wait, and we couldnt be bothered with that, so we did everything else. We came back the next day and did Goliath twice first thing in the morning before most people were in the park. It was a good ride, but not worth a 3 hour wait. At Las Vegas we had done so many rides, and we had so little time, that we didnt feel the need to do the coasters there. They did look good, but when they were open you had to wait a long time to get on them, and we just didnt have the time.... Anyway, I wanted to thank you guys for all the info you provided me with. You really helped me out. If anyone is going to Anaheim I can definitely recommend the Annabella Hotel. It's across the road from DCA, and only a 10min walk from Downtown Disney. The hotel room we had was huge and really nice. Anyway, thanks again. I hope you all get over there soon! Cheers JB

You pick up enough in threads to get a vague idea about who does and who did work there. Maybe everyone's lying about everything, but I'm not responding to Daniel Whoever, I'm responding to the registered user Daniel. What you are or aren't in real life isn't what I'm concerned about, it's what you're saying here. I know most people are very different from who they are on the internet. Take me - about the most in-depth debate I'll ever have is whether Friends or Frasier is better (the answer is Frasier, by the way). Leaving the petty argument of "I might not be what I'm saying I am" behind, the fact that remains is you're pretty well disgruntled. Look up any good dictionary, and you'll find that it means you're not happy or discontented. When it comes to Wonderland, I wouldn't exactly call you happy or contented. You expect people to believe you, yet you've only made general comments. I've never heard so much as a single story that confirms what you're saying - even from yourself. If I recall, all this concern came from me suggesting that Wonderland is a well-run park. It wasn't about how their employee benefits or work conditions stack up against other employers. Perhaps you didn't believe my earlier comment about Disney parks probably being even worse in terms of behind-the-scenes conditions. I'm talking backstabbing, supervisors spying, serious over-working (a good story from Universal Studios - not Disney, but same league - where they hire people casual over the summer period under the impression that by law if they work 60 hour weeks for three months they are made full-time, and fire them when the big three comes around), attrocious hours and unrealisic expectations given the circumstances. I assure you that what Cast Members go through is ten times what any Wonderland employee experiences. It's worthwhile pointing out that those views and stories come not from dodgy websites but real people I encountered in my five days in Anaheim and twelve days in Orlando. I've already said that my view on operating a park comes from guest impressions and has nothing to do with whatever goes on behind the scenes. Ask anyone that came with us to Wonderland on March 7. Sure, the place is a tad light-on in the thrill ride deparment, but we had a blast. The place looked great, rides were running about as well as they possible can, staff were friendly (with the exception of our friend on Snowy River Rampage during the incident) and far more efficient than some of their Gold Coast counterparts, and all with the full knowledge that the place would be gone in under two months. How about this. A Hungry Jacks store is judged by the quality of the food it provides, the friendliness of staff to customers and the cleanliness of the store. It's a good store if all three are covered well. I also know from personal experience that behind that heat-chute there are half a dozen or so people yelling, stressing, copping it from managers who want a Whopper made 2.3s faster, all for hopeless pay. Does it change your opinion of that store knowing what goes on back there, especially given that it happens at most other fast food stores. Running a store like that well means answering to those three criteria, and absolutely no others (obviously within the confines of the laws or ethical business practice). As for employees, some can take it easily, while some can't. Those that can't won't stick around and there's other jobs out there. The longer my posts get, the more waffle they are. Read the first and last paragraphs and you should be right.

Wonderland's management team starts with Stephen Galbraith and goes down from there. Sunway's board of directors is a group of eight gentlemen whose names I wouldn't want to try and pronounce. They oversee all of Sunway's involvements. There's a bit of a distinction between the two. Wonderland's management team's purpose was to operate the park. The Board of Directors have the interests of the corporation or shareholders as their sole interests. Some time ago, or perhaps even before the park was bought by Sunway, studies would have been done into the profitability, return on investment and the overall feasibility of operating the site as a theme park. Undoubtedly Wonderland's management team was involved with this, but I'd say that would be about where their involvement ended. Clearly the result of this was that shutting the park and selling the land was of most benefit to the company. Throughout the six years that they operated the theme park, I don't think you can argue that the park was operated in any way other than to maintain (or increase) the attendance and revenue of the park. If you want to try and argue against that point, look at the Marvel deal, fresh paint left right and centre, The Beach rehab, Saturday night trading. The fact is, though they might well have known that the park was closing, their brief all along was to keep the park going as a popular attraction. Many (namely employees) would say that the Disney parks are some of the most horrible and badly organized places behind the scenes. Meanwhile, on the surface they're easily the best run parks in the world. It's a guest-oriented business. How well it is run is based on how it operates out and about where the customers are concerned. If I took all the (biased?) behind-the-scenes stories about Wonderland, that really wouldn't change the fact that on the surface, it's a pretty well run park. You know, I knew from when I posted that I'd get caught up on that point... some of you people are too predictable.

In todays (29-2-04) Herald Sun in the travel section there was a feature on 10 of the best fun parks in the world (Just a note- It is Melbournes Herald Sun I am talking about, not Sydneys Sun Herald. It just had a brief description of each park. The parks were: 1- Mystery Park (Switzerland) 2-Moominworld (Finland) 3-Knotts Berry Farm (USA) 4-Park Asterix (France) 5-Movie World (Australia) 6-Alton Towers (UK) 7-Veega Land (India) 8-Port Aventura (Spain) 9-Bakken (Denmark) 10-Disney World (USA) The article also had some nice pics including ones of Trace Du Hourra, Pelirious Plunge and Lethal Weapon. Good to see Disney, Port Aventura, Movie World, Alton Towers and KBF made it in, But where is Islands of Adventure, Cedar Point and Busch gardens?

The ride starts out as a tour of the Looney Tunes studios in Hollywood, including the filming of their latest movie, but it is discovered along the way that Bugs Bunny has tunneled down to Australia, and we're recruited to help track him down. Thankfully there's an set from an old movie set on the moon, with a large drill that we put into use to tunnel after Bugs. Guests then board boats and go along a gentle stream in search of him, with all the other Looney Tunes causing havoc all around. All ends well with a pretty unique elevator and splashdown. Yeah, it's essentially a Pirates of the Carribean style ride, though not nearly as grand in terms of theming or storyline. It is technically speaking a flume ride, meaning it is powered by a flowing channel of water, but I'm with rabid in that I wouldn't call it a flume ride, because that's not really the focus of the ride. GoBoi, it's true that they're designed to look like the studios, but to my knowledge, the Warner Bros. Studios at the Gold Coast are the only studios out there to use this particular studio design, which is definitely one of the cheaper out there. I've personally experienced Universal, Warner Bros. and CBS in Hollywood, which are all nice rendered and painted buildings. Paramount is also the same. Fox Studios in Sydney is also a nicer looking place, as are Fox's Hollywood studios. Sure, when you're making a movie on the inside, it matters to nobody, but when it comes to transfering the design toa theme park, which is supposed to wow and excite people with its appearance, it's a different matter. I never really liked the design, and I think it's pretty bad that they are so extensively used, unaltered, throughout the park. I love the rides and their theming is fantastic within the rides, but in terms of general appearance I it think leaves a lot to be desired. Take Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World, a park with the exact same concept as Warner Bros. Movie World. Rock 'n Rollercoaster uses a similar studio building (though, again, like most, it is nicely rendered and painted). However, this ride is themed this way. You know what'd work great in this particular situation? If they covered up the exposed white aluminium walls with some nice building fronts. I've never thought of it like this, but for what is supposed to be the Looney Tunes' home, there isn't much in the way of housing for the actual characters, or funky little shops selling all sorts of Acme goods and whatnot. Obviously just the façades, because there's no room to build actual shops or walkthrough houses there, but it just makes it that little bit more complete. This is how Disney and Warner Bros. parks differ - and I'm not saying that I don't like Movie World at all. Sure, there's not the budgets here like at any Disney park, but we're not really talking that much. I'd have to say that in terms of expenditure to attendance increase ratio, Movie World would have to be the park in Australia with the least spent on it.

The leaks on the towers at the front (Super 8, Speed Coaster and Twister) are just the best example of a lack of maintenance. Though, to be fair, even Disney's Blizzard Beach had some leaks on their tube slides out the back, but the park was due for an extended maintenance period shortly after my visit - I'd be very surprised if the same leaks still exist. But it's not as if it's a small drip or anything - it is almost constant streams of water. I'd say that Double Screamer's done it'd duty full stop. It's a good ride, but it really shows its age, and ain't much in the capacity department. As for Whirlpool's peeling rubber, the summber it debuted (as a bunch of motel spas in the ground) it was the same. I was thinking this was just a "new ride" thing, but at the attraction's media launch at Easter last year (a great function by the way, complete with buffet full breakfast, live music and the highlight - Blair McDonough ), the rubber was still peeling. When it's Whirlpool Springs, because you're walking on the floor of Whirlpool, you're picking this stuff up on your feet, and so the bottom of the spas is pretty much loose "blue stuff" and when you leave, you take it with you on your feet. For those wondering what the heck the stuff is, it's essentially tiny rubber shavings that they stick down with glue, essentially the same as athletics track tartan. It's still a fun place to spend the day, but I'm with you in that they really need to do some work on the place.

I flew ten times on that trip, all economy, and there's no getting used to it, for me, anyway. I'll gladly fly anywhere under three hours or so in economy, but I'll gladly cough up the extra money in future for business class. Did I also mention that the current plan also has me staying at the Grand Californian at Disneyland, Fort Wilderness at Walt Disney World and within both the Paris and Toyko resorts? Let's watch the luxury of this trip go down over the next 18 months as reality sets in.

Well, reports generally say Vekoma's Dutchman is a rough ride, but it's also the more forceful of the two, but this is because neither of the B&M versions were designed really with extreme forces in mind. If they were given a brief to design something like Six Flags' Batman - the Ride, I have no doubt that, as their track record has proven time and time again, they would be perfectly capable of making the most intense yet smooth ride possible. Vekoma have tried so many different things to try and make their coasters smoother, but there hasn't been too much success in it all, so I don't give them much hope to create a new ride that isn't at least somewhat rough. Being fair, the smoothest coaster I've ever ridden (Disney-MGM's Rock'n Rollercoaster) was a Vekoma, but I'd have to say almost entirely thanks to Disney's efforts.

Sorry, I perhaps didn't elaborate enough. When I say train, I'm referring to something that runs on two parallel rails, not a modified golf buggy parading patrons around the park in tiny cages. It's a bit late now for that sort of action - my point was that when they were faced with concerns about the size of the park, they had the choice of either making it possible to get around the park easily without walking or making the place smaller. They chose, and Hanna-Babera Land (Little Wonders Land) went. I read a bit about the changes while I was gone and saw the positive effect they were having. Disneyland was before they made the change, and it was nothing short of a joke. Walt Disney World was after and it was really quite an improvement. It's still far from perfect, but it's certainly better now. I'm with you in making one member of the party queue while the others wait, in some designated waiting area.

Try looking up some of the old articles on miceage.com (Al Lutz's column is one of the better Disney related ones I've seen out there) which deal with the changes, certainly worth the read. For those who are not that bright (or sarcastic, I can't really tell) my sigs are satire / sarcasm. The point of that last news flash was to make the point that the Industrial area around Wonderland is one of the least appropriate things to be placed near a theme park.

Just out of interest Richard (and I totaly agree about people abusing the system at DLR) don't know if you've been following westcoaster, but Disney has just started the first of radical changes to the special access passes. What they are doing is great and should really improve the situation. Aim is to cut the daily passes from thousands to only a few hundred a day! For those of you who don't know the old system was anyone with a pass could take another 6 people (able bodied) and simply board the ride with no wait from the exit que. My solution would be to have someone else take a pass through the standard line and have the special person 'virtualy que' for the ride. The pass is supposed to bring them on equal terms with the GP, not give them an unfair advantage, and this is what Disney is now doing.

You know, Busch Gardens and SeaWorlds in America don't serve drink tops or straws because of the animals, but we learnt after San Diego and brought our own "equipment" in Florida. It's always good to plan ahead. Now, onto Hanna-Babera Land's closure. Wonderland Sydney is a big park, huge in fact, especially when the rides are as spread out as they are. I don't doubt for one second that 79% of the guests they surveyed commented that it was too big. But their solution, to simply shut off a large section of the park (one which had a very high proportion of the park's attractions) is just weak to say the least. The park has, from day one lacked a nice high-capacity people mover. Chairlifts/cable cars don't cut it because they're far from high capacity (no one wants to wait 15 minutes in line to get to the other end of the park). Any park that had any pride in what they were doing would have had a train system at the least - even something simple that just does a loop around the back of the park with stops in the three key locations would have done the park wonders, rather than shutting off the key area that brings in the families and citing the 79% as the reason. Don't mention wheelchairs. It went just plain crazy at Disney parks. Because anyone in one and their party gets front-of-line access, it's become like a premium FastPass that never runs out. You actually see families, where the kids are fighting over who gets the "next go".

I wonder what the old guy was expecting to get around SW? Walking is to be expected on a day out and people still complain. I wonder if the old guy complains if he goes to a shopping center, where there is no monorail etc. WL is pretty big, but they could have easily solved the problem by building a park transit system, and if that was too much trouble the could just have a bunch of those tractor train things like the one they already have. Those people who complained are party poopers and Id hate to know what would hapen if they visited disney or something, Would they ask for disney land to be smaller? As for the guy who complained about the drink, He would have been totaly screwed if it were a bottle.

OH no!! What a shame you missed out on its a small World!!!! Hehehehe.... Not much apart from the lame song. AND dont get me started on the que line! Whilst standing in the que, there is this annoying moon/sun thing tilting from side to side. And on every tick it does this loud click. Mix that with the que line music!!!!!!!! Aahhhh. At Euro Disney there is this little Cicrus Mine Train Ride. (can't remember what its called). And on the ride itself is speakers that play annoying music. You can't get away from it! Disney Village was Nice Though! Can't say much about the Studio Area though...... Screammachine

The ships sound very similar, with the robot at the front driving and R2D2, but there's obviously a very different story. That's pretty common with Disney - usually, even "clone" rides at different Disney parks are completely redesigned from the ground up so as to suit the specific park. The story behind the American Star Tours is as you'd guess an intergalactic trip gone wrong, because it's the pilot robot's first time.

The ride's called Star Tours, it's in Tomorrow Land at Disneyland, and at the Disney-MGM park at Walt Disney World. Truly some of the best theming ever, and incredibly faithful to Star Wars. I thought it could do with a bit of a clean up (parts were just getting a bit dusty and whatnot), but it was a great ride. As far as simulators go though, Back to the Future is the most thrilling I've been on.