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Nothing beats Splash Mountain's very cool medley. For me, that was one of the best songs to get stuck in the head. Walt Disney World's Carousel of Progress (originally from Disneyland - it was in the rotating building that Innoventions calls home) also had a very catchy song... "It's a great big beautiful tomorrow...". Star Tours discussion here.

Sounds like a very nice trip you've got planned. I was planning a similar trip for the middle of this year, but funds are a bit low after my recent voyage, so I'm putting that off and I'm going to do a world Disney trip probably the year after. That'll give me the extra time I need to save for business class, since I recently vowed never to return to economy (domestic is fine, but international flights are way too much in those cramped seats). Greyhounds are pretty awful. If you can, take Amtrak over buses, otherwise I'd probably go for a car, because it's a lot quicker (it'll be 3/4 or even 2/3 of the amount of time to go by car over bus) and there aren't any "questionable" people around you the whole time.

Maybe not Toy Story or Nemo as the characters are owned by Disney. The only hope for that is if Warner Brothers team up with Pixar for future films (after 'The Incredibles' and 'Cars') which is looking surprisingly likely. If they team up, then you might start seeing Pixar characters around the park, although it wouldn't be any that you already know.

I've split this thread, because the whole Disney and theming discussion wasn't exactly sticking to this topic. I've moved it to General Thrills, and you can see the thread here. Let's see if we can bring this topic back to the original topic, and anything to do with the since-moved topic should be posted there.

Granted, all I've seen of DisneySea are photos (rabid's) and models (Disney-MGM has some fantasticly detailed Imagineering scale models in their Walt Disney tribute walk-through), but it's easily the crème de la crème of Disney, which really puts it at number one in the world. You might want to check out rabid's cool pics over at Westcoaster (I was just looking to refresh myself, so I might as well share it). I've pretty well decided that my next theme park voyage will be centering around Disney parks, with Japan, Florida (probably not California, but it depends on money of course) and France being the main locations. Walt Disney World turned me into a Disney fanatic (the sort that now has several hard-cover books on topics as detailed as the architecture of Disney theme parks), and in all honesty, it's just a lot more interesting than seeking out what Walt would call "cheap thrills". Of course I'm still a fan of the big rides (otherwise I wouldn't be spending money on this site, or time and money developing an entirely new site), but it's just not the same. Don't get me wrong, you're fully entitle to your opinion, and Ratanga Junction looks like a seriously sweet park, based on what you've posted and what you've put on RCDB. Each to their own, and I know there are more than a few people that aren't too fond of Disney theming. I think I'm going to split this theming sub-topic we've got going here. Let's not kid anyone - no one in this thread for the last several replies has had Wonderland at all on their minds.

I think the "once in a lifetime" Disney trip is really a thing of the past. Maybe back when it cost a fortune to fly, back in the 70's and 80's. These days, you'd be crazy to drive for any more than a day to get there with domestic flights from anywhere to anywhere under $200 per person. I'm not saying they do the trip on a regular basis, I mean, it is a holiday, and people who go on holidays generally don't want to visit a place they've been to within the past five or so years. The reason you only go once is because if you're spending money on a holiday (or vacation if you will), you're not going to do the same holiday. Disney holidays aren't really the holiday dream they once were, because you can fly there in three hours, and you can buy a simple package straight from Disney that has your week set out for you. Unless you're doing it on the cheap, you're not going to have to go anywhere past disney.go.com or your local Disney store for your holiday. The Disney parks are destination parks. They're not the Six Flags or the Paramounts where you go to them every other year or more, which are the regional parks. You plan a trip around a destination park - it's the reason for your going, but a regional park you'd go to as another attraction on a trip to the area. For instance, a family will plan a trip to Disneyland and they'll see an ad for Knott's and then pay it a visit. Families plan a trip to the Gold Coast solely to see the theme parks. They're more destination parks than regional (but they're not so inaccessible that they're not also an easy way for a Brisbane or Gold Coast family to spend a day every few years). Wonderland comes in as a strictly regional park, with the exception of the wildlife park. You're not attracting people solely to see the park - they'll come to Sydney and spend a day there towards the end of the trip, which is what my family did on our family holiday in Sydney back in about 1992. I think it's exactly right that parks need to spend money to get more people through the door. A million guests a year is a lot, but you're kidding no one if you don't think that could double over the next ten years. Dreamworld's on the right track, with serious investments every few years, but I think Warner Village need to stop doing things "on the cheap" and really expand Movie World in particular. The park still has the same number of attractions that they started with! Of the Gold Coast parks, Movie World gets the most bloated when it's packed. Think about it, it has the same attendance as the others, but it's about half the capacity. There's no denying the quality of most of the attractions - that's why their attendance is so high, but while they keep replacing old (but still perfectly valid attractions) with new, that park is only going to go downhill.

Now I totally agree with Mx5boy on what he is sayin and I know we have great parks, and I know we wont have 16 coaster like sfmm has. But as for Queensland parks we still need to spend money to make money which we have stoped doing over the past few years. Disney does that so did seaworld san deigo with JTA this year, and im sayin this for a big attraction for the parks every couple to five years not each year like the states as we dont have the numbers at the moment, as a employee I know this is one of the big complaints from staff on the inside is we are not spending the money to make the money. Now as for Wonderland if that park was redesign by a new company and lots of money put into it, it could do so well with the 4 million population in Sydney and the national population of Australia and New Zealand. because Sydney is just as big as any Usa Theme Park city with the exception of Anaheim and Orlando. well there my thoughts anyway

Okay I may be wrong here because I know nothing about you Dinosaur but that sounds like a pretty immature comment to me. MX5 is actually pretty spot on with the whole 'big America Disney trip' thing. Families do indeed pack up the kids and make a big journey over to Disney. They'd easilly stay 5 days there at least...look at the DLR 5 day pass man. I know when I was a kid we would go as a family to the GC and easily blow 5 grand on a 2 week holiday so why is it so hard to believe yanks would spend 3? Just because you wouldn't do it doesn't mean its totally wrong... And as for a Big park in Sydney if your talking about the Six Flags style of park with a heap of coasters costing millions upon millions each all being something of decent quality... that's just not going to happen, we just don't have the market for it here. I'm not saying that WL is the best we can have (because its ****) but don't expect too much.

this is in response to mx5_boy Quote I have American friends who pack up the wife and kids and spend upwards of $3000 USD dollars just to visit Disney and they drive themselves in Winnebago's or something worse for the trip of a lifetime. Well then your friends must be staying either a hell of a long time at Disney or are staying at Disney resorts to blow that kind of money ESPECIALLY if they are driving. Most off site hotels can be had for $48.00 a night upwards with special rates for families available...I would also suggest that who ever you spoken to in the USA were quite wrong about going to Disney as a once in a lifetime experience. Who ARE these people your talking about...Do they live in trailers???? Yes we may not have the population that the USA does & quite frankly, I'm thankful for that. Nor do we get searched by security guards when we go thru the turnstiles at WL or DW or MW as you do at Disneyland, Six Flags etc...another thing I'm thankful for. However, this doesn't mean we should have to settle for second best regardless of our population. Wonderland has NOT added a new ride in eight (8 ) years. Regardless of the demographics this is deplorable & there's no excuse for such lack of imagination & vision. BTW...Paramount was considering a park in Melbourne a few years ago as Disney was considering building in Queensland, but our government wouldn't come to the table with costs for land improvements so...they went to China instead. Also...People MIGHT think about coming to Sydney to visit WL....IF it was worth visiting in the first place to begin with.

Guys, I'm glad some of you see the irony that we have here. Whilst we'd like monster coasters and fantastic rides built every year it's just not feasibly possible. Although, all our major theme parks have done tremendously in providing what they have. That's not to say they should sit on their heels and do bugger all. And I don't think they have, but in this day and age no-one throws money into the wind and we just have to accept that. However, when you look at the demographics of say Sydney and the local and connurbation population there does seem to be more than enough people to support an American style *big* theme park. That is if your an American style city. And I don't think anyone here would agree that Sydney is anything like an American city. Why do you think there isn't monster theme parks in the state of New York? Or not on the per capita basis that we might well think for. LA has big theme parks as it's a huge city plus it has an enormous amount of tourists that visit the place to see them. How many people would come to the GC from overseas to visit the theme parks? Or for that matter who on earth would visit Sydney to see WLS? Most o's tourists would visit Sydney to see the city. Ride a ferry. Visit Sydney Tower and maybe a few wildlife parks. Taronga etc etc. Unlike most American cities Sydney is blessed with 100's and 100's of things to do for tourists. WLS wouldn't rate very highly on that list. Which is probably why no major US or World Theme Park company has ever bothered to take advantage of our weak dollar and set up shop somewhere here. And another thing to remember a trip to a theme park for the majority of Australians is not necessarily a once in a lifetime trip. For far more Americans a trip to a theme park or Disneyland for example is often considered a *once in a lifetime* event. It might no look like that is the case with what we hear, but once you have travelled extensively in the USA (and meet different people) you certainly realise that we have it made here in Oz. You'd not be hard pressed to travel the short distances on the east coast of Australia to the GC and be able to buy a $90.00 return flight to the GC from Sydney or Melbourne, pay an entrance fee and return in the same day without spending more than $200 in total to visit one of them. I have American friends who pack up the wife and kids and spend upwards of $3000 USD dollars just to visit Disney and they drive themselves in Winnebago's or something worse for the trip of a lifetime. And what would we basically pay for a Disney trip? Not much and even far less for a GC trip. Yes the grass is always greener. **steps off soapbox** mb

I think you've got it spot on there. The grass is always greener on the other side, and that certainly goes here. The Six Flags and whatnot might be very alluring when you're over here, that's human nature. After all, what could be better than 16 coasters in a single park. The rides are good, but the atmosphere is terrible or non-existant and the staff are uninterested or rude and things are just shabby in places, bordering plain disgusting. Honestly, you'll be hard-pressed finding parks as good as ours, including Wonderland, anywhere else in the world. Disney have about the only parks that left me truly amazed. Even Universal have a hard time matching our parks in terms of the overall quality - the sum total of rides, theming/scenery, cleanliness and friendliness. And you'd be surprised, it's really the last two that make most of the difference.

Yeah, they've clearly insulated them differently or something so that they can cool them quicker to allow the Disney-style dispatch times. They're clearly corrosion-resistant too, given the state of that stretch of track (DisneyWater™ isn't too kind to steel). Unless it's something different about the LSM system that causes electrical risk or whatever in rain which isn't a factor with LIMs, I'm pretty well stumped on this one.

^thanks slick Djrappa everything you said is true and you are making alot of sense to me. Nightshifter you are probably a nice guy and I have nothing against you yes dreamworld has more rides and after last weeks visits the park is improving, but thats it, as for MW top 3 rides they all have great elements that other rides dont offer eg backwards drops ect, but the one thing MW has is atmosphere. I know if I enjoy a park I cant do it in a day. Try to do all of MW Rides and Shows in a day to see what I mean. batman, lt music review, movie magic, marvin the martian, bat attack show, Austin, marilyn, Bettlejuice and street thearte shows, Matrix stunt show, LT village and its rides, scooby doo, main st parade, matrix exibition, blazzing saddles, WWF. and photos with the characters and shopping. so in summing up yes Movieworld may not have alot of rides but neither does universal hollywood because last I heard work was a movie theme park not sfmm. and finally ask anyone on these boards who has been to america about Disney vs Sfmm and you will see what I mean **Note** the above post was posted by a theme park worker and fan of alll parks**Note**

You say this is your opinion but you are actually trying to say that this is everyone’s opinion. Do you just switch off and create your own fantasy when you read posts because clearly you take no notice of what is being said! I never said anything about who makes the rides or where they come from. IM SORRY BUT PEOPLE BLOODY WELL DO TAKE NOTICE OF PRODUCTION VALUES MATE <-and yes I am yelling Why the hell do you think that Disneyland is what it is and SFMM is what it is???? People don't go to DL for extreme thrills you dolt. Do you actually listen to the drivel your coming out with Where is this published as fact? There is a lot more to enjoyment of a ride than how fast it goes and how many Gs you pull mate. MW rides aren't supposed to be intense, they are highly themed attractions an entire experience not a one trick pony glorified carnival ride. There is a lot more to THEME parks than just Roller Coasters that's why SFMM is an AMUSEMENT park, its not trying to be Disney and that's why it will never have anything like the attendance of the joint up the road. I think its a bit sad that all you can see is your own interests and just can't accept that the greater public might think a bit different to you, and its just as well I might add! I think its about time you stop talking from your arse kid... ...sorry guys but he's ignorance has really pissed me off now.

You're talking about Dodonpa I'm guessing. It's at Fujikyu Highlands in Japan. It was the fastest in the world from 2001 until Top Thrill Dragster opened last year. 0-107mph (170km/hr) in 1.8s. Now, as for my dislike for S&S, it's more regarding the company than the rides they build. I've ridden most of their different varieties of rides, and they're pretty good, but the company and their dodgy ways of doing things is like a ticking time bomb for the company. Considering the smoothest coaster I've ever ridden (that's including about a dozen Intamins and B&Ms) is a Vekoma (Disney-MGM's Rockin' Rollercoaster), it just goes to show that you can't really judge anything that you haven't been on. That doesn't mean to say you can't make reasonable assumptions, based on reviews, photos, videos, Discovery documentaries and whatnot, as I often do.

Disneyland has no water park. You're presumably refering to one of Walt Disney World's two water parks. I've been to one (the other is closed right now), and it was the sweetest water park ever. I put up a really quick trip report in my Orlando thread. Gazza, I like it. It's a very small and tight design which makes great use of the land it's on.

Next on the agenda it to come home. We're leaving in four days for Brisbane via Sydney via Auckland via Los Angeles via Chicago (all in the name of cheaper tickets ). We've still got a few days to spend at parks. We've got two more days at Disney and another day at SeaWorld/IOA. Blizzard Beach, one of Disney's two water parks. Typhoon Lagoon happens to be shut for maintenance, but Blizzard Beach is considered the better of the two. They're home to Summit Plummit, the world's tallest, fastest and most painful body slide. It rocks, but you'd never do it more than once in a visit. They also have just about every other slide you could want, including a lazy river that circumnavigates the entire park, whcih has tubes with a bottom, so you never have to get wet. 8)

We haven't done Disney yet - that's starting tomorrow morning. It's freakin' hot over here, and those two water parks look seriously cool from all the Disney ads we've seen (actually, there's a dedicated Walt Disney World advertising channel which Simon's taken a liking to, or rather Krissa, the host 8)), and from reports I've heard over the years from relatives and friends. The five day passes come with an extra two tickets for some of the non-theme park things, and we're using them on the water parks, so that'll be cool.

good to hear you are enjoying florida rich You should have gone to Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon water parks at Disney way better then wet n wild orlando. I did ET at universal hollywood when it was open such a fun ride .

Well, not the real Jack, his head is much much bigger and whiter. But he was just a really nice guy who was joking around and was glad tohave a conversation with us (he's one of the very few who have traveled, let alone seen Australia), and even the bums that seem to loiter around outside the place, who aren't the nicest looking people. Yesterday we did Universal Studios Orlando. It's a much much prettier park, that's tried to be more than the Hollywood equivalent, but still lacks quite a lot. At least unlike Hollywood, it's not built on the side of a mountain, so you don't need to take 400m long escellators that go down the side of a mountain just to get to different rides, which is slow and pretty unintersting the after the first time. We just did things in the order that they appeared, starting with Twister. Compared to the USH equivalent, Backdraft, it's not nearly as good, and often just silly. You'll see photos soon, so I won't go into detail, but this is basically where all the theming ideas from Cyclone were "borrowed" from, right down to the ride shop name. Next was Earthquake, which starts of silly, becomes annoyingly silly, but ends with the subway ride that you've all seen. The cool thing about this part of the park , was it's San Francisco theme. As someone who's both been there, and absolutely loves the city, it's great to see something as Authentic feeling as this. You could be walking along and swear you're in Fisherman's Wharf, aside from the heat (it's Aussie-summer hot down here!!). We went to Men in Black next, the dark ride shoot-em-up thingy. The queue outside wasn't too bad, so we went in, but the majority of the queue was inside. At least it gave a great opportunity to soak in the theming, and it's great to watch it go from what are the best animatronics I've ever seen to some of the worst from one room to another. The actual ride is pretty cool once you're on. The idea is to shoot as many aliens as you can along the ride, getting bonus points for shooting another car and whatnot. Some would say the highlight is Will Smith's appearance at the very end, which seems to be for no other reason than to say "Look, we got Will Smith in our ride!". We had to compare Back to the Future to that back west, so on we went. It's absolutely identical, but the movements are way too rough and sudden. I prefer the other one much much better. E.T. was cool. It's basically a suspended dark ride, which starts off cool and by the end it's just It's a Small World with singing and bright colours and all that (not that it's not cool ). Woody Woodpecker was another Vekoma roller skater - it's the short model, the same as Disneyland's. One train makes it a pain for capacity, so we ended up waiting about 20 minutes for this thing. And that's Universal Studios Orlando. We had lunch over in San Francisco before heading to IOA to walk around frustrated by the disgusting crowds and incredibly plain stupid and ignorant people that that place had. Note to parents: a stroller is NOT something that gives you right of way and allows you to cut through and in front of anyone. Thankfully a foot in front of the wheel quickly stops them. We didn't actually ride anything in our five hours or so there, but got some photos and video. Today we went to Wet 'n' Wild Orlando. For a water park in the theme park capital of the world, it's hard to think you could find something so crap right in the middle of the tourist area. They have seven slides (I don't count a structure of three or four of the same basic thing, just with a slightly different order of turns, different) and a wave pool. It took some convincing to get Simon out of the place, even though he didn't like it either. We went back to IOA after lunch, as Universal's only a fairly quick walk away. Today as we entered a guy who was leaving had some nearly-expired Express Lane (that's the Universal's upcharge Fastpass equivalent) tickets for Spider-Man, so we took these and walked past the 75 minute queue into the 10 minute EL queue. You've all heard about this ride, a moving dark ride that combines just about everything into one. It's basically Disney's Indiana Jones, with the added element of 3D, and a slightly longer and more meaningful ride. It's damn hot, so we trusted the sign which said Ripsaw Falls had only a 45 minute queue. It ended up being an hour, and they seriously need to work out a way to make the EL system integrate better, because as it is it just punishes the non-EL people, unlike Fastpass. The ride's pretty good, but not worth the queue. It really soaks you, right down to some guards on the side which actually direct the splash right back into the boat, soaking you, which is cruel. The drop isn't that bad, but they've got these money making water cannons (a quarter a squirt), which are aimed straight at riders, are are really powerful. I came of head-to-toe wet, which was pretty nice in the weather. The sign out the front of Ripsaw said only a 10 minute wait for Dueling Dragons, which is on the other side of the park, around the lake. By the time we got there, it was up to 25 minutes, which we were willing to do, but their no-items policy insists you leave items with friends or get a free locker. All fair, but the queues for lockers alone were about 15 minutes thanks to a hopeless design on IOA's behalf and stupid people, so we called it quits and headed out of the park (we're coming back to really do the park once the vacationers head home). In Universal's CityWalk (that's Downtown Disney, only nicer), we decided to see a movie and had dinner at Hard Rock. Tomorrow's Busch, and I'm in the process of getting all the photos up until now online, which should be done tomorrow.

wonderbus, we're having this discussion because people think that even parks that don't have a no-items policy, i.e. Sea World, Disneyland or Universal Studios (who even have recordings suggesting you do it, but to be careful of the water, on Jurassic Park). The parks that do have such a policy in place, i.e. Dreamworld, Knott's Berry Farm, provide space for items to be stored. Okay, it's one thing to use different sides of the station to enter and exit the ride, but what about rides like Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster or practically every non-stationary ride at Disney parks, which have separate load and unload stations? This is about the only situation I can ever think of where storage space isn't practical. Wonderland has none of these sorts of rides, so that's not an excuse for them, and every ride I've ever been on like this allows the loose items on the ride. My real point in that is not really anything directly to do with the cameras on rides issue, it's that Wonderland enforces such a no-items policy, but doesn't really provide any suitable space for the items to go for the duration. All Sea World uses are a few store-bought plastic boxes, and that's all you need, or expect from a park. It's a bit unreasonable for them to expect you to not take them on, and instead to leave them lying around the station. I'm not necessarily saying they should change their policy and you should be allowed to take them on. I'm saying if they want the policy, they should give a safe alternative.

I didn't read between the lines. I told the truth. Disneyland Resort only has two attractions where space is provided and they insist, or even suggest you should not take items with you. We're talking about Disney here. They have what are probably the highest capacity rides in the world. The only rides where there is not multiple groups running are the small flat rides, for obvious reasons. Most rides also have different load and unload stations. Placing items randomly around the station isn't what I'd call safe. Let's say I've left a bag in the station of Demon. During the course of the ride an operator is moving around the station for one reason or another. His foot gets entangled in a strap and not only has he landed flat on the track, but there's a several tonne train heading at 75km/hr straight for him. If a park wants people to stow items, they should do what just about every other park out there does and put in some sort of proper storage system. I understand Flea's camera was damaged because a ride operator stepped on it, so obviously you can't say it wouldn't happen.

As I mentioned earlier in my trip thread, today was our video day at Disneyland/DCA. It's not just a few small Australian parks that choose to stupidly risk every human being on the face of the earth by allowing loose objects on rides, but the father and leader of the industry. Both Disneyland and California Adventure make you take all objects onto the ride with you, with the exception of Maliboomer which has the strict "absolutely nothing but yourself" rule. We got videos of Mulholland Madness, California Screamin', Matterhorn and a heap of others, which I'm sure will please some people. Operators were more than happy, and there is absolutely no written policy about loose objects. Just something that's been looked over for the past 48 years. Clearly something that they've never looked at and thought about. I tell you what, Roy Disney's campaign to highlight the problems with the corporate side of Disney is a wasted effort. He should be just get a season pass and open a can of whoopass on anyone he catches with any sort of loose item on any ride. That's where the problems lie.

Disneyland Resort (Disneyland and DCA) Quick report from day one of three at DLR. We covered both parks with ease today - including the notorious big-queue rides, Soarin' and Indiana Jones thanks to Fastpass, which is a great system. The best indicator of the quality of the coasters and rides in general is the amount we laughed in enjoyment during the ride. To give you an idea, at Dreamworld I don't think any rides have ever made me laugh. Not Cyclone, not TOT, not Giant Drop. Scooby-Doo got us going a bit when we first went on it. Mattorhorn had us wowing and giggling from start to finish. Same for Splash Mountain (a great ride which you can't judge at all until you're walking down the exit path) - the final drop is crazily steep. Same with California Screamin', which was the first true airtime I've ever experienced sadly. We're not talking about rides with the most ejector air or the tightest curves, but rides that are next to flawless in terms of enjoyment. Now, onto the bad stuff. Their food is nothing short of terrible, and also a ripoff. At least Dreamworld's food is relatively cheap for the crap you get. US$10 for a burger, chips and drink. The burger is tiny (even by Australian standards!) and made for looks, not taste. The chips were nothing special and you got barely any. For $2.50+tax, a cup of ice with a dash of Coke is a complete ripoff. Take this advice - head out the front gate when you're hungry and shoot straight down to McDonalds off the resort (onto the midway that divides the two parks, head away from Downtown Disney). Half the price, food you know you can at least pretend to like, bigger servings (food is huge here... don't go near large, let alone super/king sized) and free refills. We've got the next five meals booked with them.

seriously dude im only trying to tell you from my point of view as a insider at the parks, but if you dont want my opion then i will just take my thjoughts some where else and never ever call me rabies disney again