King Claw - Larger Replacement Intamin Gyro Swing for Dreamworld

[Smol bean]

King Claw officially opens Friday December 12th

[Brad2912]

Been open basically all day today.

theming for a flat ride in Australia’s is top notch 

ride experience is fantastic, a major upgrade on claw especially with comfort with no over-shoulder restrains, speed and forces 

[Spotty]

18 hours ago, wikiverse said:

I think a lot of people want the same thing.  Gold Coaster is 30 years old and is no longer appropriate for the direction DW is headed.  It was first opened 2 years after Wipeout at LPS... 9 years before The Claw - which has just been replaced.

It's eventual removal will free up a lot of space for new slide towers.

Whatever happens to WWW also needs to factor in what is happening in DW at the end of Ocean parade and hopefully that end of the park finally gets the attention it desperately needs.  Who knows, perhaps they're holding back on WWW so they can fix that whole area at the same time.

I think it still has space and is appropriate for Dreamworld for the next 5-10 years at the most. I think they would expand WhiteWater world once more on the Thunderbolt land first, and then when it comes time for another expansion to WhiteWater World that's when it will be replaced. For the most part, it works as a coaster and would be a good stepping stone coaster between something like Jungle Rush and Steel Taipan.

My ideal timeline would be:

1-3 years: WhiteWater World Expansion on Thunderbolt / Trolls area

3-5 years: New major thrill coaster - Rocky Hollow space

5 - 7 years: Water Ride / Family Dark Ride - Rivertown stage 2 where Motocoaster is?

7 - 10 years: Replacement for Hot Wheels Sidewinder / new expansion for WhiteWater World

It's a fairly simple ride as far as mechanics go, and I actually suspect we might see Motocoaster go before this. So until they actually have a plan for the space, I'd like to see them keep it.

 

Edited Friday at 07:38 AM by Spotty
Double Posted

[themagician]

The park is opening at 9am this weekend for passholders to experience King Claw before park opens

[Ash]

What a great upgrade from the original Claw ride. The restraints are 100 times better with the air time feel being great to experience. The speed is on another level. Theming once again Dreamworld knocked it out of the park. 
 

As I’ve said previously, I’m excited for when they do a dark ride/water ride with the theming they can pull off. 

[Michelangelo]

KC was running pretty much all day today. (I wasn’t at the park open to close, but the 4-5 hours I was there it was running)

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I got on on Friday - Kudos to the opening crew - still ironing things out but the process was quite smooth. I'm not sure they're getting the full value out of the metal detector though - I walked through, beeped, pointed to my belt buckle and they just accepted my word on it. In a US park where metal detectors are used, they'd wand you to make sure.

The park is looking good again (my last visit it was showing some signs of neglect). The ride itself looks great, the theming work and queue house is top notch. I heard the ambient sounds in the queue but i'm not sure if they were playing the soundtrack during the ride as I didn't hear anything different when riding or observing.

It sure packs a punch though. I was absolutely once and done, my son went for a second round while I watched but even that was enough for him. He used to be able to do back to back cycles on The Claw - but two was enough for him... i'm hoping this ride isn't too polarising for guests - if it isn't repeatable, then the park has done their capacity a disservice. 

@Spotty I feel you on the restraints - Since 2016 I couldn't get the restraints over my shoulders either - but King Claw's restraint is a much nicer fit.

[Park Addict 93]

14 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

isn't repeatable, then the park has done their capacity a disservice. 

Everyone’s different of course but I had no issue doing 3 rides back to back and a total of 6 before I left the park around 1:00PM.

I incorrectly assumed the theming was largely complete but looking at Greg’s Instagram story they are still adding some more.

Heard a “paging Mr Longhurst” announcement during the que too, a nice little touch.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

3 hours ago, Park Addict 93 said:

Heard a “paging Mr Longhurst” announcement during the que too, a nice little touch.

Absolutely. Hurts nobody, costs nothing, ambient sounds were already part of the package so chucking it in there as a little nod is perfect.

3 hours ago, Park Addict 93 said:

Everyone’s different of course but I had no issue doing 3 rides back to back and a total of 6 before I left the park around 1:00PM.

Of course everyone is wired differently - i'm certainly not the yardstick (age does things to your inner ear) but when my son tapped out, it highlighted to me that there may be an issue there.

[Bailz]

Just did King Claw, it’s an insane ride and pretty high when you are on it. Very forceful aswell.

Theming is amazing, soundtrack was running and sounded great.

Overall, a 10/10 addition for the park and a great crowd filler. Just need a replacement for wipeout now 😛 

 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

6 minutes ago, Bailz said:

Just need a replacement for wipeout now

...and a water ride, and eureka mountain and probably half a dozen other things that were removed without replacement. 

 

they're still doing great - but there's still a lot of holes in the lineup.

[wikiverse]

This was a fun ride.  I found it to be a lot less nauseating than the old Claw.  The transition time between the weightless and positive G forces is spread out along a wider arc, so while you still feel both at a high level there isn't the change between then isn't as rapid and that made a big difference for me.  I mentioned this way earlier in this thread, but it really is a different ride experience - still thrilling, just in a slightly different way (when it comes to forces on your body).

The lack of OTS restraints is nice, but I did feel like I needed to hold on - partly because I didn't know what to do with my hands - but also partly because you do kind of fall forward a bit if going through the arc face-down.  I guess this was also true with the old Claw, but you used to just be able to flop onto the restraint which isn't there anymore.

This is the perfect ride for DW right now, high capacity, great theming, high thrill.  Now that it's open, I guess we wait for the next big announcement.

 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Something I forgot to add though is that the ride parks in the exact same spot every time. The numbered seats are always in the same position.

As far as I could tell from watching a few cycles, this isn't a jog setting at the end of the cycle - meaning that each seat  uniquely differs in its ride experience, while the same seat will generally give the same experience on every ride - for example, seat 1 always seemed to be at the apex of each swing \ seat 20 always seemed to be at the bottom, with 10\30 on the sides.

Not a scientific observation by any means, just my own observations - so could be totally wrong - interested if anyone else observes the same...

[wikiverse]

2 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

interested if anyone else observes the same...

I noticed this too, but I noticed that the rotation speed of the gondola is such that you will experience at least one 'face down' and one 'face up' moment at the top of the swing, but generally a seat favours one or the other.

In a seat that started facing main street, I spent most swings face down, only getting that 'inverted' feeling on the final swing.  And it was the inverse when I sat facing Tail Spin.

I generally found a sat facing main street was less disorienting/nauseating for this reason.

[Ash]

Yeah I returned to the same position as where I left which is good

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

2 hours ago, wikiverse said:

I noticed this too, but I noticed that the rotation speed of the gondola is such that you will experience at least one 'face down' and one 'face up' moment at the top of the swing, but generally a seat favours one or the other.

In a seat that started facing main street, I spent most swings face down, only getting that 'inverted' feeling on the final swing.  And it was the inverse when I sat facing Tail Spin.

I generally found a sat facing main street was less disorienting/nauseating for this reason.

That's really interesting. So to contextualise these references:

• Seat 1 faces the queueline
• Seat 10 faces Tailspin
• Seat 20 faces shockwave \ dreamland
• Seat 30 faces main street.

I'll have to try facing main street.

[Spotty]

10 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Something I forgot to add though is that the ride parks in the exact same spot every time. The numbered seats are always in the same position.

As far as I could tell from watching a few cycles, this isn't a jog setting at the end of the cycle - meaning that each seat  uniquely differs in its ride experience, while the same seat will generally give the same experience on every ride - for example, seat 1 always seemed to be at the apex of each swing \ seat 20 always seemed to be at the bottom, with 10\30 on the sides.

Not a scientific observation by any means, just my own observations - so could be totally wrong - interested if anyone else observes the same...

The original Claw always parked in the same spot as well, visible with a little black line that almost looked like plumbing tape on the motor and the gondola to align it.