Sydney Royal Easter Show!

[Gazza]

Hey Huss, How hard do you think it is to take apart / put up the Mega Drop, Is it worth the effort to bring to Shows other than the ones in the Captial cities? (Id love to see it at the Shepp show, but wether they bring it....) BTW, I know SC uses recirculated water, I thought the Issue would be filling it up in the first place. I mean, at one stage we couldnt even fill up a water feature, let alone a large flume ride.

[GoGoBoy]

I went to the easter show the other night and was very impressed with the rides. They would have to be the best we have in NSW at the moment. The spinning wild mouse coaster was lots of fun and you should definitely give it a go if you are visiting the show. One of the best things about it is that it looks quite modern, not old and crappy like the rides used to be. The Mega Drop (Space Fall) is also fantastic. It is surprisingly high for a portable ride and the view from the top is great. The music and sound effects that accompany the ride give it a great atmosphere and the drop itself is sooo fast. Very, very cool. Even the ghost train they have there this year is ultra modern compared to the rides of days gone by. Well done easter show... you have blown any of our existing NSW parks out of the water!

[Flea]

^ Yeah, Mega Drop was awesome - it's now my #1 drop ride! I have recorded the count-down sound from my video, listen to it here. I might aswell mention that I have written a review, edited a video & taken 20 or so photographs of the show that will be put up on roller-coaster.com.au soon.

[rappa]

Went to the show yesturday for the anual visit... Carnival rides just aren't my thing really and I don't go to the show for rides so I didn't go on anything but as the weird ride addict I am I went for a wander through the carnival section all the same. Its great to see such a variety of rides this year and the place was certainly packed, obviously a big hit. Of course the main attraction this year taking over from Sling Shot is the Mega Drop. I must say I certainly wasn't impressed at all with the visual appearance of this thing... I'd go as far to say it looks like a piece of crap. Its clearly a cheap ripoff of the Giant Drop (model not ride) ride. What I will say though is just how impressed I was at the attitude and enthusiasm of all the Carnies this year. They were all really into it and the loaders were as usual getting people on and off of those things so damn fast. As for the Ops they were certainly enjoying their job, most rides I saw were running in manual mode and the Ops were really getting into it, interacting with the riders and on the PA and all that. The best would have been on the Mega Drop who was all set up with his KAOS DJ Sampling Pad with all his sound effects and what have you. The best thing was the different lengths of time he was leaving people up the top for. At one stage I actualy wondered if the ride was stuck because it must have been the best part of a minute...FREAKY What took the cake for me this year was the Ops on the Wave Swinger down in the 10 Carnival section. These guys were actualy wearing TIES!!! OMG Of course best things at the show was the wood chop as always and the Shane St. James show was again a cack to watch.

[HussRainbow]

Hey Huss, How hard do you think it is to take apart / put up the Mega Drop, Is it worth the effort to bring to Shows other than the ones in the Captial cities? (Id love to see it at the Shepp show, but wether they bring it....) BTW, I know SC uses recirculated water, I thought the Issue would be filling it up in the first place. I mean, at one stage we couldnt even fill up a water feature, let alone a large flume ride.

Mega Drop is one massive ride, racking on to 3 trailers, just like a few other rides here (rainbow is 3 also), I have seen racked pictures and it looks like it takes a while to set up, and I doubt very much that it will do a regional show, because it just isnt long enough and isnt worth the few days plus, water isnt the issue of sc's absence its because of the owners

[Bussy]

Doesn't the actual structure have a nasty crack in it?

Not sure about the structure but I’m sure there are some cracks in the fibreglass shell of the ride. "The Bus is now stopping at Dragon's Flight Memorial Gardens, next stop Tasmanian Devil Memorial Gardens, Wonderland Sydney, NSW"

[mikrowave]

I went to the show today. I'll admit I am not much of a fan of carnival rides, but I went on a couple anyway. I would've gone on more but the queues were quite long plus my funds were a bit low hehe. So anyways I mainly wanted to try out the crazy mouse spinning coaster as I've never had the chance of trying out a spinning 1 before... however the queue was just too long for me to bother with, & it looked quite tame anyways... or maybe I'm wrong heh. I figured I'd leave it till another time. So I headed over to the Rainbow. I will say this now tho - I'd been on it before a few years ago & didn't really like it. But after reading all of Hussrainbow's posts praising it I thought I'd give it another go heh. I'm glad I did, cos I thoroughly enjoyed it, even tho it was so brief =( ...We did about 2 full rotations anti-clockwise but they brought it to a stop because 1 guy on it didnt have his seatbelt thingy on (i thought they were pretty unecessary anyway but they insisted we wear them)... so the op started it up again & gave us about another 2 rotations clockwise before stopping it... I felt somewhat ripped off, it was such a short ride (or is it usuaully this short?) So after that I headed over to the Taipan for a quick ride. Its the same as I always remembered - fun but a little short. The helix's are fun tho. But it would be better if it was longer... So yeah that was the extent of my ride activities at this years show. =)

[Daniel]

Next stop, Wonderland Sydney Memorial Gardens.

[Nightshifter]

After a day at the show on Tuesday night, the park was packed out with the biggest crowd at the show so fat this year announced by channel 10. The show was all right at the begging watching all the good shows, and then from a very calm crowd to a packed and very uncomfortable feeling came the ten carnivals. The place was swamped with people literally touching each other from elbow to elbow, to walk you had to go with the crowd and slowly move. We bought our tens x scream Tuesday night pass from 6-10 for only $30, but little did we know it was actually cheaper this year to buy the tickets separately. We spent the 4 hours queuing for 4 rides only. The crazy mouse took a good hour with a very long queue but always moving. Next was my absolute favourite the zipper. With a large crowd not even queuing up but all bunched up in a circle for the most eager people I have ever seen to go on a ride we pushed our way to the front of 2 queues that followed up both sides of the zipper. We slowly made it on the ride and had the time of our lives. This year there was 2 dragon flights both packed and not worth riding and a very long queue for the taipan galaxy roller coaster which was also boring to ride. We made second last ride on the break dance then the rainbow (which was really boring) The space fall drop wasn't high at all and very boring and the cliffhanger was also a drag. With 2 new rides there was 1 ride that didn’t show this yr and I was looking forward to riding the wild mouse, but it wasn’t at the show this yr. We were buggered with headaches hungry and dying to get home from Lidcombe all the way home on a train that came half and hour late with westie boggans everywhere trying to fit on 1 train, luckily we got a seat with people I don’t know and people arse in your face, it was the worst show ever. I’m not planning on going again, But one can only hope that my Luna park experience Friday and my final wonderland experience on Saturday will be good, I hope, Ciao

[HussRainbow]

Glad you enjoyed rainbow, I heard they werent giving long rides.... oh well I got a good 5 mins outta each ride so im happy. Also I can tell you are not a carnival ride fan, cos your standards are wayy too high, also the dragon flight is actually called WAVE SWINGER, so yeh call it its original name! one is owned by March Amusements and the other that was in the kiddy area is owned by O'Neill Amusements. Im kinda glad we don't have the unlimited passes at the Melbourne Show, because channel 10 don't sponsor it. Also the Mad mouse you are talking bout, is infact running perfect, I last rode it in January down at Rye, which is the longest running show in Australia! (Wittingslow own this ride, and after the crash they got things cleared up, and it will be running at our show in september) Also Luna Park isn't very good, don't bother going until it's completely finished. And I don't know why Luna Park even bothered doing the Ranger up, it doesn't even work properly, the day I went it was down because of technical difficulties, and a technician told me it was the second day in a row it hadn't been working........The whole point in refurbishing is to get Huss out here to service the ride!

[Nightshifter]

nno i love carnival rides, i have the best time last year, i was just annjoyed with the people and the queue. The rides i really wanted to go on were the rides that were the most buisiest. So i couldn't enjoy the show as much as last years where i managed over 15 rides with 2 hours left to spare. This year 4 rides is an insult.

[HussRainbow]

you shouldn't have gone for XSCREAM tuesday then......

[Nightshifter]

i wasnt going to pay 80 bucks for 10 rides

[Gazza]

Hey Huss, are they blocking the Mad Mouse correctly though, im not going on it again till they do? Also, how long has crazy mouse been on the circut for?

[HussRainbow]

Wittingslow's Wild Mouse (As it's now called lol) is running fine, but im not sure if they have taken new precautions to make sure this doesnt happen again, but I can assure you it's running perfect. I rode it during the beginning of the year bout 15 times lol, so yeah they are alot more cautious now. There wasn't anything wrong with the ride itself, it was the hat that got caught in the tracks, and Wittingslow are taking strict action to wearing hats..... or any other loose article! Im definetly going to ride it again! P.S Tpa Shows Crazy Mouse debuted on the travelling circuit in 2003 at the Royal Easter Show. Wittingslow's Wild Mouse debuted decades ago and has been running forever at the Melbourne (it's main home) and Easter Show

[Bussy]

What do you reckon Daniel, we get back into the "loose articles on rides are dangerous" argument? Richard, are you up for it again? "The Bus is now leaving for Argument Dam, Western Australia"

[Daniel]

I'm up for it if you are old son You know me all too well.

[Flea]

My review & photos are now up. Check them out here. My thanks go to Richard for taking the time to put them up

[Richard]

If you're that desperate to get in the last word on the whole loose articles debate then the topic's here. If it actually does need to be brought up, that's the place, but it seems to be coming out of no where. This thread is for the Sydney Easter Show.

[HussRainbow]

Iin Liam's review, edit MEGA DROP to 35 Meters not 37 and the caption for the Ferris wheel should be Durkin SkyMaster Wheel since you all know like nothing about carnival rides.

[Daniel]

Just crap stirring at the time Rich, but I'm giving it up. I'm going into retirement.

[rappa]

Good review but a couple points... I wouldn't say the carnival is the most exciting part of the show, that is really what ever you deem it to be. For me the show isn't about rides at all so the carnival interests me very little... Mega Drop can't "Really Yank You Down" because its a freefall, its just a drop ride so it really can't have much more or less force than any other drop ride. Again I didn't ride it so I can argue you're thoughts on the ride but just make sure you clear on how it works. I too was very impressed at the enthusiasm of the ride ops and thought that was great. It was also nice for a change to see some efficiency when it comes to loading in this country for a change. And yes Rainbow is getting a bit sad indeed...I think its time for a long overdue rehab period and some TLC. Thanks for the pics and info Liam. Oh and Huss, no it shouldn't you seld perclaimed 'expert.' Durkin operate it, not manufacture it. I didn't recall see Chance or Fabbri operating rides at the show, did you?

[HussRainbow]

oh you are a quick one, A.R.M actually manufactured it! and I think I know a bit more than you do, so shut your mouth!

[Daniel]

Shut your mouth? That's a little over the top and extreme Huss. Please reconsider your personal attack.

[Bussy]

If you're that desperate to get in the last word on the whole loose articles debate then the topic's here. If it actually does need to be brought up, that's the place, but it seems to be coming out of no where

It's not coming out of nowhere. I brought it up because of this comment:

There wasn't anything wrong with the ride itself, it was the hat that got caught in the tracks, and Wittingslow are taking strict action to wearing hats..... or any other loose article! Im definetly going to ride it again!

But as Daniel said I'm just stirring you up. "The Bus is now leaving for Stirrup Iron, Western Australia"