Gav

Are the two Vekoma family coasters still there? I could imagine those two being usable at the very least (Dragon Coaster?)

You have to wonder how an attraction like this managed to get the go-ahead to be built in the first place....I can't imagine it being the least bit popular or entertaining.

Don't forget that ranking includes all the B:TR clones (Great White, Goliath, Vampire etc) not just the one at your local Six Flags. Others might be better themed. Or perhaps people just ranked it higher because it has an awesome, forceful layout.

I thought that was weird too....I know PKIjizzman missed Superman on his visit but got everything else in, but what other enthusiast out there would ride everything on the Gold Coast except for Superman Escape. Still, not as bad as Jet Rescue, it only had 2 riders, and that's not even enough to calcuate the win percentage.

Remember, it works by mutual comparisons, and every coaster gets compared with every other. Basically, each coaster has a win/loss ratio to determine rankings. Its a long process, but in the case of Fireball, the program would go and say find the people who have ridden both Fireball and say El Toro. The program then discovers that the majority of people who have ridden both ranked El Toro higher, so that counts as a win for El Toro and a loss for Fireball. But then say the program goes through and finds the people who have ridden both Fireball and Grizzly. The program then discovers that the majority of people who have ridden both ranked Grizzly lower, so that counts as a win for Fireball and a loss for Grizzly. Now, the program has to go through and do this for each individual coaster. 184 on the ballot means up to 33 856 comparisons that need to be done. The final ranking is calculated by the win loss ratio for each coaster, so the reason why Voyage got #1 is because the majority of people ranked it above all their other coasters, so it never had any overall losses when compared with other coasters. So to answer the question originally posed, for a coaster to rank highly it doesn't need a lot of riders, it just needs the people who have ridden it to put it high on their ballots so it wins more than it loses. The placings are actually determined by the numerical ratio....Fireball 'won' 95.03% of the time, which put it ahead of Aska (Which only won 93.90% of the time) Clear as mud?

I'm sort of in the same boat as a few others in that coaster events aren't really run by parks here in Australia, so that aspect of membership has no real advantage for me. The perks with respect to trips don't have much advantage for me either....I wouldn't mind doing a TPR trip at some point, but it comes down to when they are run since there are only certain times of the year I can travel, so its a bit up the air whether a perk like that would be useful to me. I would agree with the concerns about establishing a special premium members forum, because it would lead to a situation where people are posting on there in preference to the main forums, which breaks up the community, denies non premium members access to discussions they might find interesting, and could sort of lead to too much of an enclave forming.

As previously mentioned, the three B&Ms at Alton all interact well with the crowds, with extensive viewing areas and paths that wrap all around. But I'll fly the flag for a local coaster, and say that Superman Escape has some great crowd interaction....At one point the track bursts out of a wall right above the main entrance and you can walk underneath: http://www.parkz.com.au/photo/AU/Gold_Coast/Warner_Bros_Movie_World/282-Superman_Escape/13,7,873-Superman_Escape.html And the top hat sits right in front of the main plaza at the front of the park, so crowds always gather to watch: http://www.rcdb.com/2999.htm?p=16316

^Agreed, obviously grouping XC 2000s like the ones at Seabreeze, Camelot and Lagoon makes sense because its just the basic standard layout. But grouping stuff like Dragons Fury, Spinball Whizzer, Tarántula and Salama makes no sense because they are completely different to each other.

Just throwing this out there, but Mitch has put Jet Rescue at Sea World into the poll (It was missed in the original ballot), so if you have ridden it you can use this editing period to include it...heres the line to copy in: Jet Rescue Sea World AU,y,y,*

I think the actual final part where you see the inside of the warehouse go up in flames was actually really well done, with some of the fire effects seeming close/strong enough to make you instinctively take a couple of steps back from the railing. But before you actually get to this part you have to sit through a couple of dead boring preshow rooms that are clearly only there to pad the attraction out.

For those of you playing at home, you might have spotted this in the EAS TR: These trains have turned up at the park (Same colour scheme, car pattern etc)

Doesn't have to be though; The parks here just use a whiteboard and some magnetic dots...Bargain!. On busier days they just have somebody with a radio who goes around and updates them:

The network diagram I posted shows the connected ones. So the slides where you have to get out are the Speed Slide, the slides in the kids area, and the two Family Blasters (Though the family blasters are paired in their own separate loop) The Tantrum Tornado and Bowling Alley are replacing the Family Blasters, so they won't be directly accessible, and you'll have to climb stairs. According to an article found here: http://www.proslide.com/newsroom.php (Wild Wadi is 10 Years Old and Still a 10) The family blasters can only do around 400pph, but the new Proslides will have much higher capacity, so that's why they are being replaced.

Hey Robb, you didn't happen to recall what park in Australia is getting an Aqualoop? The brochure is just managed to 'censor' that vital bit of info

It's funny, the strictness of Superman's loose item policy has been a point of contention since the ride first opened. I think this combined with the fact it was the first ride here to have a US park style loc ker policy did irk a few people.

Good to see you getting into the TRs Paul....I missed the San Fran parks, but It'll be interesting to hear/see another aussies take on the SoCal parks when you get around to them. One thing I haven't worked out though is why the trip didn't just start in San Fran to avoid the long northbound drive....Something I missed?

Name Gavin Seipelt Age 20 What is your roller coaster count? I don't believe in 'credits'. What is your home park? Warner Bros. Movie World Australia (Though the other Gold Coast region parks are my home ones) What is the nearest big city? Brisbane What is your occupation? Architecture Student / Retail About how many times a year do you visit a park (including your home park)? 20? About how many times a year do you travel to a park that is not your home park? One big overseas trip per year roughly. When you travel do you go primarily to amusement parks or do you also try and hit other sites? Definitley other sites too. When I travel theme parks take up about 1/3 to 1/2 of my time at most. What is the farthest you’ve traveled to go to an amusement park? To the UK, but it was part of a whole trip. Does roller coaster time get in the way of family time? (Do you choose to miss your children’s or family’s sporting events, holidays, birthdays, etc…) No Do you have any other major hobbies? Yes Do you get feelings of sadness in the offseason? Do you even have an offseason? Do you travel during the offseason? Parks are open all year here. Do you consider yourself friends with someone you met who works at an amusement park? (Or reverse it, if you work or worked and an amusement park have you made friends with enthusiasts?) Yes Would it bother you to go to an amusement park by yourself? Yes Have you gone to an amusement park by yourself? If so have you ever ran into another enthusiast and tagged along with them? No Do you find it easy to make friends with other enthusiasts? Yes How do you get your coaster news? Theme park sites. How many different forum sites do you regularly post on? TPR, Coasterforce, Parkz If there was a poll that asked a large pool of enthusiasts what their favorite roller coaster is, what do you think would be the top 3 responses be for wood? And for steel? Wood: -El Toro -Voyage -Balder Steel: Bizzarro Millenium Force X Same scenario but for amusement parks, what would be the top 3? Islands of Adventure Disneyland Cedar Point Have you ever “stole a kid” to get a credit on a kiddie coaster? No! Do you cut other categories out of your budget to make trips to parks? (Entertainment, fast food, holidays, tobacco or alcohol, etc…) I tend not to waste money to begin with, so I can afford to do the trips. Before you visit a new park do you research the park finding the best way to navigate the park, get the best deals, or what days to go? Yes, because visiting theme parks other than my home ones means a big outlay of money and long haul flights, so I want to get the most out of it I can. Do you feel the roller coaster enthusiast community is a warm and accepting community, or a negative and discouraging community? I think the community as a whole is pretty welcoming, but I think there can sometimes be a bit too much 'back slapping' amongst the 'old hands' in some cases, which can make things awkward for newcomers. Do you like to talk about your hobby with people who are not roller coaster enthusiasts? I comes up from time to time, but I won't go starting a conversation on it.

I remember Indy having a number of sections where the walls were just UV paint backdrops, which I would consider quite cheap and tacky looking.

Granted, there are plenty of distractions in a car, but I think texting sits in a category above everything else because of the amount of time it takes compared to other activities, and the fact you actually have to focus on a screen and hence not on the road, and do multiple keystrokes to complete a full message. It's a bit more involved then some of the other tasks you can just do by feel. Here the law is that if you want to use a handheld device you must pull over, and I think this is the most common sense approach.

^I guess due to religious beliefs, few local women actually seemed to be swimming (And they do have ladies nights as a result), I think I saw a few wearing 'burqinis', but yeah I guess it would mostly be tourists. Dubai isn't just a magnet for European tourists though, but the whole region, for a bit I was chatting to an Iranian bloke who was the one ahead of me on the slides....I don't blame locals for not going though, an annual pass works out to be $544 USD ! http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=25.139741,55.188985&spn=0.001712,0.002411&t=h&z=19 It's there. If you were interested, here is how the slides are laid out. Blue are master blasters, red are gravity slides... Layout of Wild Wadi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadi A wadi is basically a dry seasonal creek bed. I guess they become wild when it rains. Apparently, 'Wadi Bashing' is a popular pastime in the Emirates....basically you take your 4x4 for a drive up the creek beds.

I was recently in the UK, and on my flight home I had a 24 hour stop over in Dubai, and what better way to spend it then at one of the worlds best water parks, Wild Wadi. An early flight combined with a fast taxi ride meant I found myself at the park entrance 2 hours before opening time. Already at 8am it was 35 degrees. Finally opening time rolled around, and I got to experience one of the best water parks I have ever set foot in. I won't bother with a play by play trip report since I did everything several times, and the pictures and captions explain it well enough anyway..... And here is my closing shot...Hope you enjoyed it. Did I mention that the landscaping and theming was excellent. Kind of annoying that places this good don't rate a mention in those Golden Tickets. Another random shot of the family slide. The safety signs are wonderfully symmetrical in this park. Helix. Now choose another cliché. Choose your TPR cliché. They had a couple of flowriders, though the other one was having work done on it. This was my first go on one of these...I was sitting nicley in the flow for about 5 seconds, and then for no reason i drifted sidways/backwards and was washed out. Once was enough. They had a big water play structure, but it's no Cowabunga Bay now is it Though I cant help but think they could've toned down the colours a bit to fit in with the rest of the park. The dips have that parabolic shape...The result, awesome air at 80 km/h. Wheeeeearrrgghhblehhhuugghhcoughspluttergah (Well, not really, I have my own method on these slides that avoids the faceful of water) I like speed slides, and 'Jumeira Sceirah' didn't disappoint. And I was crossing my fingers that kid would fall out on the first turn. Eventually you land in a pool at the top, where you drift around to the downhill slide. Damn e stop ruining my photo. Overweight people causing rafts to become stuck is funny the first time, and frustrating the next 5. Its like a big watery conveyor belt. They also have a family raft slide that also uses water jets. The one on the right sucks you up, the one on the left spits you out. This is the last bit of the same slide, it really did go for ages. ...And going up some more. Flood River Flyer, crossing over the action river. There were two main entrances to the network of master blasters. My favourite was 'Flood River Flyer' because it would do the trip in one continuous upward run that lasted around a minute. (The other route, previously pictured has a few pools you'd stop off in on the way) The slides would all eventually dump you back into the lazy river, which you could ride around back to the start points of the master blasters. But what goes up must come down. The master blasters would take you to the upper part of the park, but there were 'normal' slides that would bring you down to ground level. Often, there were multiple routes you could take, so every time you did a run through the master blasters you could try something else. Its a great arrangement. Though as you can see from this pic, E-Stops sometimes happen and that holds up the flow of guests through every slide before it. You can see a bit of the last slide on the right...Anyhow, you land in elevated pool areas, where you just float around to the next slide. And you just keep going up and up, surrounded by Disney standard theming. And then you ride master blasters uphill to the top of the park! No stairs needed. And you do the rest of your queuing in the water (Perfect because it was the middle eastern Summer and 45 degrees Celsius!) So this is how the park works...You do a short bit of queuing and get your raft. ...Which quite frankly rocks. The main entrance...You sort of go in through this high walled canyon with some twists and turns, until you find yourself in the park... The place is next door to the Burj Al Arab. A water park and a world landmark in the one go, bonus! So this is the sight that first greets you...They've even put theming on the -outside- of the park.

I have seen that posted already, why does it matter which order they are in? Its sort of an unwritten rule with water rides that you save the biggest till last...sort of like a grand finale. I think every single water ride I have ridden follows this format. I think though they plan on spicing up the smaller drop by making it far more soaking than the first as it passes through the rocks.

Oblivion actually has a really unusual queue setup. The ride tandem loads (2 trains at once) and splits the queue very early on, and it's just two wide paths with a chain between going up a big spiralish ramp setup. Then each one splits and goes through a little cage jetway sort of elevated tunnel to the station, where things get even more unusual. Here's a pic if you were still interested Apolloman: http://www.parkz.com.au/photo/GB/Alton/Alton_Towers/904-Oblivion/2,1,3159-Station.html

$10.5 mil USD for this sounds about right. In 1998, Warner Bros Movie World in Australia opened Wild West Falls, and at that point they spent the equivalent of $16 Mil USD. Wild West Falls is a comparable ride in terms of height etc, but this one has less theming, so that would account for the lower cost of the CP version. As for HWs being cheaper, who knows, perhaps Intamin are willing to discount on the first installation of a particular design, just so they can have a working model to point to for potential future sales. Id also attribute some of the lower cost to the lack of theming on Pilgrims plunge, and less use of steel....The first lift hill on Shoot the Rapids is listed as being 85ft high at an angle of 25 degrees, which means you'd still need a lift 200ft long to get to that point (By comparison, Pilgrims plunges lift is only 135 ft when measured linearly) This is only rough, but you can begin to see, how even though the structure is shorter, it is having to span further, so it would begin to use more raw materials (And i haven't even calculated for the second lift, but that is still going to use a decent amount of steel too) What HW got was probably the simplest way to get boats up high and drop them, this is a bit more sprawing, so I think that explains the difference. As for the ride, I reckon it looks pretty cool, they cant always build big coasters, and there is no doubt that water rides are crowd pleasers no matter which park you visit. TBH I am surprised they didn't do their usual thing, and go for a world record, since that is sort of an easy one to get with water rides.