Gav

When I was at IOA in January I was told there was no single rider line for Hulk...Where do you go for that? Also, I completely missed the single rider line for Spiderman, where is it? It frustrates me now in hindsight considering I could have used my limited time there better. I did however sucessfully use the single rider lines for MIB, Mummy and Fearfall.

Sure you can't convince them to go to Busch? its only an hour or so away (And you can get a shuttle from Universal or Sea World so things are even easier) so its not terribly difficult, but it is completely worth the trip over. I mean, if you are travelling all the way down to Orlando from wherever it seems odd to then complain about Busch being too far away

1) DD Ice 2) DD Fire 3) Montu 4) Silver Bullet 5) Batman

Aww man you should have gone to WWW, there is some pretty awesome stuff you missed like the BRO and the Rip, I mean you had done the main DW stuff hadn't you? Geez Hurricane, you're misleading the poor kid Or was the weather cold?

Mission Tortilla Factory?

Personally I would be giving first priority to building the wheel assemblies, they are the thing that is going to make or break this thing, the seats really dont matter till later since the train will roll with or without seats hanging off the side if you get what I mean. I mean, I don't even see why it needs to be painted yet, since paint doesn't make it go.

They get around the pre drop issue these days by speeding up the chain as the train goes over the apex.

Wild West Falls (Hopkins) at MW opened in 1998, and Rio Bravo (Intamin) at Parque Warner opened in 2002, so the Parque Warner one is the clone. You can compare the two, but the original has the better theming. The airtime hill on WWF is smaller than the one on Rio Bravo, which means more air) Rio Bravo Wild West Falls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp9F832MB3Y (You cant see, but at the top of the first lift, but there is an encounter with a couple of bandits that are projected onto a glass screen) Bandits

Bingo, when I was at USH I did see quite a few similarities, though the Universal version has somewhat better effects (Fire, sparks, the truck). I have always had this lingering feeling that they were indeed borrowing ideas. Interestingly, Shrek 4D opened a few months ahead of Superman, and I wonder if during all the dealings to get Shrek, they saw what Universal had done with earthquake and decided to use some of that too.

What sort of a silly statement is that? It's not even a roller coaster so why would it be a credit?

The day you went to Australia Zoo you shoulda gone to MW since Superman was open back then, sorry to rub it in...i thought i had warned you about the maintenance back when you did that thread in the Ask Alvey forum entitled "JZ goes downunder to Brisbane" Anyway, I might as well just say what happens. You go into the indoor queue and it is themed like a subway station, with posters and passenger announcements (One paticular one goes "The city engineers have reported tremors in various parts of the city, there is however no cause for alarm at this stage, have a great trip on the MRT". Then you get assigned a door, they open and you load in. There are plastic curtains that hide the fake superman model on the back of the train. As you depart the station you hear via the trains radio "Attention! The tremors are increasing, move the train to Metropolis square station without delay" You make a left out of the station through a themed subway tunnel, gas mains on the roof break and smoke pours out, then you make another turn to the left and slow down to stop at a subway station (Metropolis square) but the trains radio says "Do not stop at metropolis square" In the subway station posters are shaking on the walls, and lockers are shaking, columns are breaking, and a wall on the other side falls towards you. You then make a left u-turn, past a set of stairs that water rushes down, you then make a right u-turn around a pair of cars that have crashed through from the road above. You then come to a stop at the launch and can see daylight, you see a blue flash and then superman speaks to you "There is only one way out of this mess, heads back, ill get you out, fast, Superman fast!" and then you launch into the layout, going through fog as you exit the building. The three airtime points give strong ejector air, and the g-force turns are forceful. I guess it wont help me saying that it is more awesome than Scooby Doo. Looking backwards from the launch towards where the car crash scene is.

^Ahhhgh what a ball breaker, guess its too late now (Im guessing you didn't have time for parks at the start of your visit)...i thought you still had a couple of weeks more here?...I suppose it wont matter as much for you given you have launched coasters like Maverick nearby anyway. Still, SoobyDoo is there for you, have fun!

Dude, DON'T go to MW, Superman is having its annual rehab at the moment: http://movieworld.myfun.com.au/Attractions-Maintenance.htm Wait until after the 17th of Feburary to vist!

To answer a couple of points. -Wipeout did once have water underneath, and fountains, but again tough water restrictions have seen them turned off. -The Eureka Mountain Mine Ride (The mouse) ain't coming back, it's been SBNO for over a year, and the queue line rails have been ripped out and the queue house is being used for an eating area. Of DWs recent actions this has annoyed a lot of people because it was a fun little ride that was one of the classic older rides at the park. -No, he is right in disliking the Cyclone queue, personally I have always thought it looked crap thematically, and DW maintenance record hasn't helped. Its supposed to be some sort of Cyclone research center. You used to queue up on the inside of the building, and go around the outside on the way out (and shortcut down the emergency exit stairs if you were smart But they switched the arrangement, presumably so people queuing on the outside would have plenty of time to admire the water park next door. -The reason TOT is between 2 kids areas is because it was built before the two kids areas. And the entrance skull was on the other side of the building. -There ARE queue switchbacks for the rides that need them, they never over flow though, they fit everyone fine, its just that you move stupidly slow through them. When you go to MW you can see they have proper switchbacks there. Oh, and I forgot to ask, did you check out the back half of the park with the animal exhibits?

Cool, sounds like you got plenty done. What did you think of the park itself though? Whats up next? Movie World....The best is yet to come Though hold off till after the 17th of Feb when Superman finishes its rehab, that is one coaster you dont wanna miss. Oh, and what did you think of the motocoaster? Apparently a lot of people dislike that one.

^Not really, a launch track only has the vertical force of the weight of the train at 1g and nothing else, horizontal and linear forces are negligible. Again, it would be equivalent to just a flat section of track with a train rolling along it at high speed....think about it in terms of a brake run, its really the same thing but in reverse...a train entering in fast and coming to a stop rather than a train starting from a stop and exiting fast. I was thinking of a steel structure in terms of keeping critical launch hardware in alignment, not because the structure isn't strong enough.

Why? The hills and turns of a wooden coaster would be designed to tolerate the forces exerted on it at the speed the train is travelling at. Simple example: On El Toro, the train hits the base of the first hill going at 112km/h. A train going at 112 is a train going at 122. How would the hill 'know' if a train is being launched at it, or whether it is going at that speed because it got its energy from a first drop? How a train gets its kinetic energy doesn't change anything. The layout would be designed just like any other woodie, the only difference is instead of a lift hill you would just put a launch in before the first element. To be honest, im suprised Intamin havent tried marketing this, it would be quite a simple system to implement, though it would probably be better maintenance wise to use steel for the launch section, to avoid the effects of the structure settling or moving, which could move LIMs or whatever out of allignment. Yeah, I'd put money on it being Vekoma myself.... http://www.coastersandmore.com/pic/eas06/FlyingDutchmanLaunchg.gif

Yeah, thunder001 speaks the truth. -GD pretty much has to be done first to avoid frustrating queues. -Next I'd do Cyclone (also low capacity) get here by heading back past the fountain at the entrance, then past the Claw and Wipeout (these have short queues all day, resist the urge to ride them) till you reach the entrance which is near the flowrider. -After Cyclone, go through to the Tower of Terror, do this by heading through Nickelodeon Central, and then through Tiger Island -From the Tower of Terror, head under the train tracks and go through nick central to get to the Motocoaster. -From here, do whatever, you should be fine to get the Reptar credit, then hit Wipeout and the Claw -If its getting warm, head over to Goldrush and try out the rapids, and then to Rocky Hollow to try the log ride. -From here, head towards the back of the park, have a go at the Vintage Cars, then keep heading around through the wildlife area. http://www.interchangepark.com.au Its basically a big freight logistics center. I never realized our urinal design was so interesting, or unique for that matter, but come to think of it, when I was in America I never saw any like it. But yeah, water just flows down the steel like a waterfall (but its only a thin layer of water) I cant believe I did one, but I did, no waste products, but I did make a little "toilet paper turd" for demonstration purposes. But I present Australian Toilets 101 -Common slang terms used here are a "loo" or a "dunny" -You may notice in the vid, but in basically ALL houses in Australia the toilet is in its own little room near the bathroom, but not actually in the bathroom -Hence we say "I need to go to the toilet", not "I need to go to the bathroom" -Rather than flushing with a lever, there are two buttons you press down on, the half flush, or the full flush. Half is for liquids, full is for solids. -They work more by dumping water in which forces everything out, rather than sucking stuff down using a siphoning action like American toilets. -There is less water in the bottom of the bowl. American toilets were freaky, it was like sitting over a swimming pool. MVI_4617.AVI Aussie Dunny.

I have actually seen this show in the flesh, it was called the "Speed Slide Stunt Show" and was at Wet'n'Wild in Australia. Basically they would close the slide down for a period, and then do a bunch of cool and dangerous stunts. It ran for a number of years until the Speed Slide was replaced with an enclosed raft ride similar to Downhill Double Dipper at Blizzard Beach. Attached is a photo my dad took ages ago on our first visit there. Taken around 1994

Whats going on with that first DD shot? Do they commonly run only one side?

^Who knows, the state government is apparently in support of it, and it has been considered as recently as 4 months ago. I'm expecting an opening post 2009, given the Hippopotamus exhibit is what is in line next. You can see more about it here: http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/forums/index.php?showtopic=3924 As for my thoughts on water coasters, they are pretty good actually, I'd think of it as a more intense version of a shoot the chute since they have those high speed turns. They do what they do well, and aren't excessively wet. They lend themselves to being themed well, and appear to be a crowd favourite.

I'm honestly wondering about the realisim of this place/model though, it looks awesome, but it seems that they have just built this huge model and filled it up with as many rides and fun looking things as they could think of: I mean, would I be led to believe that one of the parks they are building will only have a Dueling Dragons rip-off and 4 carousels for it's attractions? .

There was a Sega World ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_World_Sydney ) that operated in Sydney from March 1997 and closed 3 and a half years later. It had an indoor coaster that was apparently well themed, simulators, an interactive dark ride, free arcade machines, kids play areas, a dodgem cars/tanks type thing where you would shoot tennis balls at each other. I would imagine the Sega World in Reno would have similar attractions. Its archived offical site can be found here http://gaming.chronomagister.com/fanums/sws/archived/segaworld/index.html

^A lot of coasters have lines of harder wearing paint put on the rails where the wheels will be running. I guess this paint only comes in white.

I'm in the US at the moment and rode this a couple of days back...nice little ride. Anyway, its not quite as you described, the vehicles dont really lock onto a tubular track like a normal coaster, the closest thing it could be likened to could be the brake run on a boblsed coaster...in other words the track is more like a trough. The road wheels run on 2 rails below the boat, but the guide and upstop wheels follow tracks of their own, so really the ride has 6 rails instead of two....this pic shows it well: http://www.rcdb.com/ig3106.htm?picture=6 Now, as Hyyper said, coming off the track is easy, everything just comes to an end: http://www.rcdb.com/ig1891.htm?picture=2 But to get the boat back on the track firstly the boat runs onto a conveyor belt which runs down the center, which makes it so that the road wheels are running on the two rails, and at the same time the two guide rails either side funnel in and then run parallel to stop side to side movement The upstop rails just start whenever they are needed (ie the fast parts of the ride) They aren't there in the station or whatever since obviously there is no need, and they would just get in the way of boarding: http://www.rcdb.com/ig1891.htm?picture=11 As for the lift, yes you roll and lock in, a bunch of sensors make sure the boats are in properly, and stop others from entering whilst it is out and about. When you go up you feel it tip side to side, this is like a vertical version of a passing loop on a railway. 2 lift cabins are operating in the one shaft, and S bend around each other at the halfway point, so one cabin is going up whilst the other is going down. Another mack ride, scooby doo spooky coaster uses a similar system: http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/gallery.php?gid=84&image=15 http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/gallery.php?gid=84&image=8