rosscoe Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 (edited) In Johannesburg with work, so spent the morning at Gold Reef City theme park. The park is around 8kms from downtown JoBurg. The park was built in 1986 to celebrate JoBurgs 100th Anniversay, on the site of the old Gold Reef Mine, which was a working gold mine till 1977. The park still offers gold mine tours ( 225 metres underground ) as an add on to the entrance price! All up for both the park and gold mine tour was 230 rand ( around 32.00 aussie dollars ) The park is beautiful, up there with Dollywood in theming, sadly the same can not be said for the ride ops and staff. I understand that South Africa has a very laid back way of doing things ( I am aussie, I know laid back! ), But really, come on, the main coaster Anaconda failed to open for the day cause the ride staff went for lunch after the first test run in the morning and at 1.30 pm had still yet to come back! The first ride of the day for me, after the gold mine tour was the drop coaster "Tower of Terror", where I waited over 20 minutes for two other people to arrive, cause the ride could not run with less than four people and rerides where not allowed, cause the park made you wait ten minutes after riding! Sadly a lot of the coaster shots, are without trains - due to the parks policy of holding trains till more than four riders are on board More to Come, I have a flight to Melbourne Australia to catch Park Map Wrist Band, Gold Mine Tour Tickets, Let's Go Part of the track for Tower Of Terror Edited January 30, 2011 by rosscoe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noxegon Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 The first ride of the day for me, after the gold mine tour was the drop coaster "Tower of Terror", where I waited over 20 minutes for two other people to arrive, cause the ride could not run with less than four people and rerides where not allowed, cause the park made you wait ten minutes after riding! Unless there's been a drastic change to Tower of Terror since I was there, nobody in their right mind would want to ride more than once... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montezooma Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Photos of Golden Loop PLEASE!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noxegon Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 As requested. These are from 2008. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downunder Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Nice, looking forward to seeing more. Do we have a challenger to Fuji-Q in the operations department? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCI Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 It's good to see that White lightnin' is being treated well in it's new home. Looking forward to more photo's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaWhippet Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 I'm glad Gold Reef City is preserving and operating Golden Loop aka White Lightnin'. Of course, I''d rather have this Schwarzkopf back at my home park where it belongs ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noxegon Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I was there in '05 and '08, so not at the same time as the original poster - but I can't say I noticed any problems with the operations on either visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosscoe Posted January 28, 2011 Author Share Posted January 28, 2011 Just got back in from Jo Burg, left Thursday night at 8.00pm and arrived Melbourne Friday 5.30pm. The park had a nice collection of coasters, the powered Runaway Mine Train with it's nearly 90 degree helix of death was unquie to say the least! Sorry folks was hoping to post more, but bed is calling! More to come in the morning. 10.00am Thursday Morning, when I left 4 hours later it still looked like this: Empty 225 metres below this tower is the mine tour What I like about the ride was at the top you started straight, but less than say 5 feet into the drop, one side of the track tilted for the rest of the drop into the tunnel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratdogg68 Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Looking forward to more pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samisthabomb Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Tower of Terror has always struck me as strange. Well, it is strange! The tower is from an actual gold mine, the drop is tilted... it's just weird. How's the ride itself? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgeT Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 (edited) M.O.S.T...S.T.I.N.G.Y...T.P.R...E.V.E.R (at least photowise...) Come on...WE WANT MORE PICTURES... Greeds...GeorgeT Edited January 29, 2011 by GeorgeT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noxegon Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Tower of Terror has always struck me as strange. Well, it is strange! The tower is from an actual gold mine, the drop is tilted... it's just weird. How's the ride itself? Very rough. Bring your advil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebl Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I noticed that a car was removed from the train on the shuttle. (Normally there are seven to a train on those.) Also, is this the same park with the Giovanola inverted coaster? This is a nice report about a park that few in the U.S. have been to. Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montezooma Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Thanks for posting those pictures of Golden Loop. I really like its new color scheme. If you have more pictures of the ride (i.e. station, launch area, back spike) I would love to see them. This coaster seems to have very few pictures available on the internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBru Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 I've always been fascinated with this park and its two major coasters. Very cool-looking place. Thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Farmer Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Yeah, Anaconda is something I'd like to try out. I hear so much about positive-g's on Titan and Goliath, I'd think a Batman-esque inverter by Giovanola could trump that in spades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noxegon Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Anaconda is a superb ride, worth the trip to the park; for a while it was my number one coaster. Highly recommended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosscoe Posted January 29, 2011 Author Share Posted January 29, 2011 Tower of Terror has always struck me as strange. Well, it is strange! The tower is from an actual gold mine, the drop is tilted... it's just weird. How's the ride itself? I really liked the ride, the lift , the drop, the tunnel, the 80 degree banked turn, the only really weird thing was when the car hit the brake run, it took nearly two minutes to pass the brakes into the station. The train Going Up View from the top Coming back into the station Giant Wheel It took forever to get past this brake Part of the parks entertainment A really rare photo for this park, I waited twenty minutes for this shot On ride Runaway Mine Train - Inside the mountain leading into the nearly 90 degree helix River Rapids - a really great ride, had a pitch black tunnel that lasted about 90 seconds On Ride - Runaway Mine Train.. The park was themed beautifully Jozi Express One of my all time favorite rides...love this The parks train, the sign said it run every 15 minutes. I waited twice for about 40 minutes and never got to ride. This was the only time I saw it...near the Golden Loop The parks's log flume was being rebuilt, from what I heard from others in the park...it was one hell of a ride Jozi Express station Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosscoe Posted January 29, 2011 Author Share Posted January 29, 2011 This is taking a little longer than I thought to post all these photos, at least another 40 or more to come in the next day or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Cow Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Good stuff, thanks for sharing! The park looks almost Disney quality in decor, or at least Busch quality. Too bad the operations blow, the rides look awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odene497 Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Awesome pictures Ross! I've always wanted to go here, but unfortunately Africa isn't on my upcoming itinerary. Maybe in a few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosscoe Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 I think this is the only park in the world that has it's onsite hotel, inside the park. The hotels 46 rooms are in the original goldrush buildings, in the centre of the park. Anaconda the parks main coaster stayed closed for the five hours I was there, the ride crew did a test run in the morning and than went to lunch and never returned! This photo was taken around midday, most of the park looked this empty for the time that I was there The parks fountain, leading up to the hotel Part of the hotel, all the other rooms where in buildays, along the parks main goldrush street Peacocks everywhere Taken from the river rapids Looking across to the turbines on the river rapids The ride themeing is wonderful, around mountains, over lakes and into jungles Just before the rain hits, the park runs there coasters in all weather, only closing for thunderstorms and staff who take five hour lunches! The tracks wraps itself around a mountain or two I so wanted to ride this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosscoe Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 The entrance to the ride was under the mountain, just off to the side was at any given time at least ten staff, who stood around telling people that the ride was closed... Um here's a novel idea, multi task, because it onlt yook two people to run each coaster in the park! On ride Jozi Express Tower of Terror heading to the mine lift take the tunnel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyuk200523 Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Great Trip Report, did you successfully ride Anaconda? You don't hear much about this one, I believe it was made by Giovanola if I am not mistaken, I remember reading a construction report about it in First Drop years ago. Lovely looking park, I kinda regret not visiting it when I was in SA 2 years ago (but then again, I was only in J'burg for about 1 hour! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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