Gav

To be honest, I think your definition of a theme park is a bit too narrow. I mean if IOA, one of the best themed parks in the world is supposedly not a theme park then that literally only leaves a few of the Disney parks, and surely they can't be the only ones that fit the definition? I mean, I get what you are saying about the ride portion of Hulk and DD being fairly unthemed, but they both have themed queues that establish a story. I'ts a bit much to use this definition though because it doesn't take the whole park into account. It's like you are saying that fully themed rides like Spiderman, Jurrassic Park, Dudley Do Rights, Popeye, Cat in the Hat, and the themed areas in general count for nothing because a couple of the coasters have bare sections, and therefore the whole park is demoted to the same level as a Six Flags park. What about Europa Park? The whole place has an overriding concept of having different European country themed zones. The whole place has exceptional theming, but again, according to your definition it is only an amusement park because of exposed coasters like Silver Star and Blue Fire. But hadn't you seen photos of the rest of the park?

One thing though is that when a thread gets locked, everyone who posted in it, or was intenting to post is sort of 'punished' too, not just the thread starter. I mean, I totally agree with you in dealing with incessantly annoying posters, but in this case the thread had sort of already 'got going' with a few decent replies. Maybe deal with the guy in some other way that lets everyone else get on with the discussion they were having? Just my $0.02.

I'd like to see coasters that go for a 50-50 balance with airtime and inversions. At the moment coasters tend to be all airtime (Eg hypers) or all inversions (Eg Multi Loopers), though sometimes of course you'll see loopers that perhaps include a single airtime hill: http://www.rcdb.com/ig4049.htm?picture=10 http://www.rcdb.com/ig1366.htm?picture=20 http://www.rcdb.com/ig2721.htm?picture=30 What I think they should do is follow a pattern of inversion-hill-inversion-hill etc , with perhaps 3 iversions 3 hills, or 4 inversions 4 hills all up. That way, the ride ends up being far more interesting, and ends up appealing to both types of riders (airtime fans and inversion fans) so each guest gets 'something' out of it. Something about the scale of a Mega Lite or a Eurofighter would be able to do this quite nicely.

Something cool for the DSi I only recently discovered, but it turns out there is a DSiWare game called Warioware: Snapped which makes use of the inbuilt camera to play the microgames: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-UZ4u0qcCE What makes it funny is that the interlude between the microgames is themed to being on a roller coaster, and when you fail at a game the coaster has a rollback (see 2:40)

^I understand mate, don't take it as me trying to tell you where to go. I was just surprised at first, since you guys have said you like water parks more than the average enthusiast: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=425 (I too fall into the group of water park lovers as you may have guessed)

I dunno if you'd want to go down the path of the solution being too technical, but maybe you could buy a bunch of cheap LCD monitors/TVs, put one at each ticket window, and just have in big text on the screen something like: Buy your 4 hour wristband now! You can enter the play structure at: XX:XX And stay until: XX:XX And throughout the day the screen would just refresh depending on the time period.

Lol, but to be fair a Zeirer junior coaster "isn't that special or unique that you can't find at other parks" Siam park is a place I have kept an eye on, granted a lot of the things are standard ProSlides, but there are some that have extra features that make them a bit better than the norm (Eg Tower of Power, Volcano, Mekong Rapids etc), plus its got the animals and the floating market. In some ways it is a lot like the Disney water parks...largely off the shelf slides, but with a couple of extra unique things, and of course beautiful theming to tie it all together, which puts it a step above the rest.

Aww, you couldn't get to Siam Park? Was it a bit out of the way for the time you had to stop over being on the other side of the island, or is really credit > amazing water park?

No, there is no "MAY be a possibility" in it at all. It was a Wikipedia edit (If you look at the edit history, you can see it was the same person who did the edits on the two pages), not an actual piece of news that is backed up by evidence. You mean, its very unlikely that it is true. I mean, anything is a 'possibility' to be built, doesn't mean its worth posting.

I think we can chalk up this Dreamworld B&M as utter bull, it was just some random edit on Wikipedia, most likely by some fanboy or whatever trying to live out his fantasy. I don't know why you would even bother re posting it.....If it was news from a reputable site then maybe, but wikipedia

You never watched Summer Heights High? It's a song from there, and not supposed to be serious.

Blue Fire Energy Co? Blue Fire Gas GmBH? Blue Fire Geothermal Ltd? I thought it was an odd logo too at first, but then it clicked that it is supposed to represent the fact the ride is themed around gas/geothermal power, something which Iceland is known for.

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=50108

According to Intamins website, the OTSRs can allow for a lower height limit, hence making it better for families: source: http://www.intaminworldwide.com/iag/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=61&Itemid=32

'Amerian' according to the picture

I was actually doing some random wiki-ing the other day, and I discovered that JAL actually have this feature, and it is in fact fairly common on Japanese airlines; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines#Aircraft_cameras

Surely you know how to pronounce ravine? Its a common noun (A Ravine being a small, deep valley).... "Ra Veen" is the pronunciation anyway. Geauaga Lake is prononced " 'G' Ah Ga " ( you can hear it here ) Bobbejaanland is pronounced "Bobby Yaan Larnd" ( You can hear it here ) Heide Park is predictably pronounced "Hye 'D' " ( You can hear it here )

Another question to add to the list...SCS Interactive and Proslide in partnership do water play structures (Including what was once the worlds largest) too...were they considered in the design stage, and if so, what made Whitewater West's offering the better choice?

But doesn't every SLC have the zero car at the back? A zero car doesn't necessarily have to be at the front.

I uploaded one, and it worked fine and quickly for me: [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=WWWvideoyt_w2zw[/coastertube] Edit: though the tag doesn't want to^

I remember reading out this a couple of weeks back, but it's really cool to hear this is coming from one of TPRs own. I think you've got a really good concept here...from the road It'll be an icon in itself...colourful, full of motion and with a confusing web of slides and ramps) , and of course the 'worlds largest' aspect is a great selling point. But there are a few things I am wondering about it: -Obvious one, but if it is a success, will we see you replicate this concept across the country (and the globe)? I know I'm sticking up for my own country here, but It's crazy to think a country as warm and sunny as Australia only has three proper water parks... In Melbourne and Sydney there have been days where the temperature has reached 116F, yet neither of these cities have water parks..... Build one here -And following on...obviously there is the provision to attach extra slides to the play structure, but if the park became particularly popular, would you then be able to add conventional water park attractions on standalone start towers and grow it into a full blown park, or would the park always remain true to the original, compact and value for money experience? -Was it sort of hard to draw the line in terms of what the park would and wouldn't contain? We have a water play structure and a lazy river as the staples, but was there a temptation to try and hang every slide type under the sun off the structure, or include other compacted versions of common water park attractions?

Some of my pics of Aussie World can be viewed here: http://www.parkz.com.au/parks/AU/Sunshine_Coast/Aussie_World/ A handful of pics of Magic Mountain are here, http://www.parkz.com.au/parks/AU/Sapphire_Coast/Merimbula_s_Magic_Mountain/ but I imagine Noxegon has a few more.

Thing is though, no matter which way you cut it, parks overseas will always have more on offer.....Our parks might have some extra developments, but at the same time parks overseas are going to have grown in the same period too, so you are back to square one....So people might as well come here, especially if they have already seen the major places, and are making a choice between seeing something new, or revisiting ones from before.

Well, there are a few airlines (Air New Zealand being the obvious one) that stop over in Auckland on the way over to Australia from the US West coast, so you could really just spend a day in Auckland. In reality it could just be done as a 'bonus' park. No way. I know from your report that it was a rainy and cold day, and hence you only spent enough time to get the Surfrider credit, but Wet 'n' Wild is definitely a full day park, even on moderate to quiet days (In the height of summer it becomes a 2 day park) Thing is, our 'dry' parks probably don't have as much to offer as ones in Europe and the US....but on the other hand our water parks are better, so anyone planning a trip down under should definitely put Wet 'n' Wild and Whitewater World on their itineraries (By the time TPR does a trip here W'nW Aussie World* will be open too) *Aussie World is dissapearing, no word yet on what is happening to the Wild Mouse ...WVTP have bought it and are turning it into a Wet 'n' Wild. If people were really that eager to visit ride a Galaxi, the best approach would be to start in Melbourne, drive to Merimbula, then continue north to Sydney. I think you are right on that one. Anyhow, the corkscrew at Rainbows End is a bit different to the one at CP, in reality the layout is just your standard Arrow Loop screw like these: http://www.rcdb.com/ig264.htm?picture=5 http://www.rcdb.com/ig447.htm?picture=6 http://www.rcdb.com/ig1137.htm?picture=2

So what about that red dive machine track that was produced there for the one at Happy Valley in China? Or the track for Crystal Wings that was produced there?