azza29

The shortest wait I've ever had on that ride is 25 minutes (midweek, schools in, park very quiet). It is a capacity nightmare. Even when the ride ops are working quickly throughput is only ~400 riders per hour. Great ride though, and even better since they turned it backwards. Picking the right day to visit is almost always the best way to minimise waits, as well as some knowledge of which rides get busy early or late in the day. Of course these days having plenty of money to buy express passess isn't a bad strategy either...

^Awesome, thanks!

Great to see these operating calendars popping up around the place - makes trip planning much easier. So looks like the place will be open from 10:30-8 on the day I'm visiting. It's a Friday (June 7), anyone able to comment on whether this will be enough time to do all the rides (will skip the waterpark), or should we budget for Fast Lane as well? Or are we better off going earlier in the week even though opening hours are shorter?

Just finished watching RAW 3 HD - great work once again Robb! Consistently excellent videos - always showing off the best parts of each coaster (I was watching 'Divertical' and thinking, I hope there's some shots of the lift, and suddenly there it was). It's been fun to sit through all three RAW HD discs with my brother, previewing the coasters we'll ride on our next trip. He's a bit nervous about i305 but excited for the rest (had to skip past Revenge of the Mummy, didn't want to ruin the surprise!).

Great to see the park putting plenty of effort into the theming - wonder if they'll do anything with the bare concrete? Dreamworld is definitely onto a winner with the Dreamworks licensing - if there's one thing that company knows how to do, it's sequels!

Finally got around to watching my Dark Knight Rises blu-ray, thought it was OK at the cinema but actually liked it a lot more the second time around. At least as good as Dark Knight, and definitely a better third act.

This app has become my current go-to game for when I'm bored/waiting. Definitely made me realise there's a lot to know about coasters, so I'm learning plenty. It's almost like one of those educational "games" teachers give kids to teach them spelling or math!

^ Wow that's a lot of rides for one day - did you use Fast Lane?

Thanks for the great update, Robb - so much more entertaining than the Disney park fansites! Now just to figure out when I can fit in a trip to Orlando... 2015 maybe?

Buzzsaw at Dreamworld gives some awesome hangtime, especially since it has side-hinged (?) lapbars and not OTSRs. I never feel like I'm going to fall out but there is definitely some air between my backside and the seat.

^ Does that matter much though? At $20-30 a pop do these rides still pull a lengthy queue?

According to the tracking my gift arrived at LAX at 10:13am on Wednesday (local time) so hopefully it's not too far from being delivered! Either that or Customs got stuck into the snacks...

I have a visit planned for just after Memorial Day, so fingers crossed it'll be open by then!

Mr Toad's Wild Ride - seriously, in what other Disney dark ride do you end up in HELL? (OK, apart from Small World...) Looney Tunes River Run - wish they'd refurbed this instead of scrapping it, really unique ride with some cool effects.

^ Thanks to those who posted the screenshots. Unless I get up at 5am I usually can only make out the floodlights. Stupid time difference.

Reading through that, I feel like we may have found a winner for the 'most notable' prize. Park was a deathtrap!

This. Another 600ft of track with a nice overbank and some camel humps would make a world of difference. Of all the new coasters that I might get a chance to ride next year, this is the only one I won't be too upset if it's not ready in time for my trip. Still would love to try it but no biggie if I miss out.

because

Thanks for the TR! GateKeeper is definitely coming together nicely.

^The trapdoor slides make me nervous too, but I plan to try an aqualoop next time I have the chance.

They've certainly improved in the past few years, and the new additions/refurbs have helped to spread the crowds better. Here's hoping the next step is a "people-eating" dark ride to replace Looney Tunes.

Gift posted, and making its way across the Pacific via zeppelin/pirate ship/sea turtle, should arrive sometime in the next fortnight. Can't wait to see if they like it! (Or just say they do because it's polite...)

Looks like I'll be able to squeeze in a weekend in Auckland to see my rugby team play an away game with a visit to Rainbow's End. Hooray for both of New Zealand's coasters! And looking at getting to Universal Singapore/Legoland Malaysia at some point, although that may not be until early 2014.

Top 10 games that I've played (only including one game from any given franchise): 10. The Sims 9. Company of Heroes 8. Ghostbusters 7. Saints Row: The Third 6. Portal 2 5. Burnout Paradise 4. SimCity 4 3. Assassin's Creed 2 2. Batman: Arkham Asylum 1. Civilisation IV

DC/Skechers for casual mostly, Nikes for anything athletic (not a brand fanboy, they just seem to last longer). But shoes are expensive here in Oz, close to double what they cost in the US. My last visit was a year ago, I brought back 8 new pairs with me and have only worn 5 of them so far! I also have my eye on a nice pair of RM Williams dress boots for work, but at $400-700 that's probably a bit of a way off.