cfc Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 ^I'll second that. I've never been a big fan of lamb, but the BBQued lamb steaks at the Merimbula Comfort Inn were excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul_Hollibone Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 I've always loved our parks, I have never understood why people seem to bitch about them so much. Real Question of the day though Robb, how does our McDonalds compare to the US McDonalds? Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SenseOFone Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 I haven't even been to Australia, and it seems like they have some good coasters. Not big, but still. Hell, I'm the guy saying Wildcat is better than Millennium Force, and all those coasters looked really fun! Â I gotta ask though, when did you get the opportunity to check out the new King's Island exhibit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therooboy Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 To be honest, just based on what I've seen, Australia > UAE in terms of coasters/parks. Maybe the gap closes if you throw the water parks into the mix, but still. Â Queenslands Wet N Wild is one of the best water parks in the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 ^That I would have to say is VERY wrong! Â The entire park seems very old and very run down. Dreamworld's water park completely blew away Wet n Wild in most of our opinions! Â And there are a ton of water parks around the world I'd put ahead of Wet n Wild Queensland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted April 7, 2011 Author Share Posted April 7, 2011 Queenslands Wet N Wild is one of the best water parks in the world. No. Not even close. It was totally average at best. Had the Aqua Loops, Tornado, and the Spas been open, they maybe it would have been "slightly" above average, but I've been to a lot of the world's water parks and this one is no where near "the best." Â --Robb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downunder Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 White Water World is very new, Wet and Wild has been around for ages - when I went there I thought some of the slides would tear me another body cavity, but at least it has a credit. I believe Wet and Wild is one of the most attended water parks in the world, I think it was number 4. Â What did you think of the Water Coaster at White Water World? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelD Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 ^I agree with R & E - Wet 'n' Wild is in serious need of attention. On paper it has some great attractions, but it just feels a bit "yukky" when visiting. I've personally always preferred Dreamworld's water park even though it has less rides because it feels nicer to be in. It's a shame that both the schedule and the weather conspired against a visit to White Water World. Â Interestingly, 2 years ago, Dreamworld looked and felt like Wet 'n' Wild does today - Dreamworld was old and tired, but they really have spruced it up. It was a very pleasant surprise to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted April 7, 2011 Author Share Posted April 7, 2011 ^ Didn't do any of the water park at Dreamworld. With the weather what it was, we were lucky enough to get all our credits in at Dreamworld, and that took most of the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downunder Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I haven't been to Dreamworld since 2003, so the memories of that visit have turned me off going again. Good to hear it has improved. Memories of my 2003 visit: Â *Cyclone is a very ordinary coaster, and the small line took forever. *Giant Drop is very good, but the small line was excuciatingly slow. *Tower of Terror 1 was good, it was running very fast, but not a big re-ride coaster. *Eureka Mine Ride (now closed) was a lot of fun. *The place was deserted and I got very bored very quickly. Â One weird thing, I was wandering around looking for something to do and I stumbled into the Big Brother stage area, and there was a fully grown tiger just lying there on a grass embankment at the back of the stage area (I wish they would have starved it and then let it loose in the Big Brother house). Later the trainer was walking it through the park on a leash. It must be very tame, I hope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 ^They must love their tigers! Â We saw them driving one around on a golf cart and they would stop and let you pet it randomly!!! Terrifying, but awesome! Â Even in the rain, I much preferred Dreamworld over Movie World. It just felt much more like a 'complete' park. With the animals and waterpark, plus a decent amount of flat rides, it was really awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downunder Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Movie World is a bit light on attractions, even though they have some high quality ones. The last time I went to Dreamworld Thunderbolt was still going too, that was better than Cyclone but still not that great. Â What did you think of the Shark Bay exhibit at Sea World? I'm very curious to check that out given it has Tiger and Bull Sharks, two of the biggest maneater species. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbottgen Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Another good and exciting trip update. Thank you for taking those of us who can not get away until summer, on your world travels. I know that it must be taxing on ya, but keep up the good work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djrappa Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Something went very wrong at Wet n Wild to be sure. I think the combination of the weather and the amount of closed attractions (very out of character) left a falsely sore taste in your mouths. Really the only run down part of the park is the defunct Terror Canyon slides. However I can easily see how the park would give a really bad impression if it was quiet, overcast and with parts closed. Â So weird, we all thought for certain you guys would LOVE WnW and be more down on the others. Very interested to hear you liked Dreamworld the most Elissa as we tend to think DW as more of an amusement than theme park. It's been a little off the radar lacking a decent capital investment since Giant Drop. However in the last few years new management has seen a big turnaround... SFMM anyone?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 (edited) ^It didn't help that the park's new Aqua Loop slides were closed--along with their Tornado. (One side of the park was pretty much shut down; the Tornado looked like it hadn't been running for some time). Kamikaze was fun, as were the other slides, just nothing special. Edited April 7, 2011 by cfc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djrappa Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Yeah I can imagine hope bad it must have looked. Funnily enough Tornado had been open so who knows there! WnW's thing has been a park packed with rides, rather than the most amazing slides. That is Dreamworlds thing. Â It's rare for WnW to have any attractions closed at all, and only 1 at the most. Real blow for us to see so many attractions down unexpectedly for you guys. The biggest blow was the 4 aqualoops which was even advertised on the trip flyer. Â On the plus side Movieworld had several rides down over the weekend but the guys did a great job working their buts off to get them all opened for your visit. Â Haha funny just saw a WnW ad on TV featuring both tornado and aqualoop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gav Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 It just felt much more like a 'complete' park. With the animals and waterpark, plus a decent amount of flat rides, it was really awesome. To be fair though, the water park isn't included in the admission (2nd gate)...It's as much a part of Dreamworld as Hurricane Harbour is a part of SFMM. Â Absolute bummer that both Tornado and Aqualoop were shut, since they are the parks #1 & #2 rides respectively. Â I was pleasantly surpirsed by the coasters in Australia: Jet Rescue was what KBF's Pony Express should've been, the Wild Mouse at Aussie World is completely insane, and Movie World has two very good coasters in Superman Escape and Scooby Doo (very nicely themed in addition to being solid rides). Motocoaster doesn't rate a mention Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Motocoaster doesn't rate a mention  Motocoaster is OK, but the restraints are uncomfortable; Jet Rescue is much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 ^^It isn't as big of an upcharge though as Hurricane Harbor, we had it included on our tickets for minimal extra cost. Â Plus I don't think any of us minded the Tornado being closed as there are a ton of them here. Even the Aqua Loop doesn't have the best reviews. We were more bummed about the random other rides being closed. There were no lines so that was great, but there also wasn't that much to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downunder Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 At least you got the credit at Wet and Wild, I'm sure there weren't any aqua loop or proslide tornado credit whores ruing a missed credit. Â It will intersting to see what Dreamworld adds this year, there is supposed to be a family ride added in June, and a thrill ride in September - though I doubt they are burning the midnight oil over these projects at Intamin or B & M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted April 7, 2011 Author Share Posted April 7, 2011 (edited) It just felt much more like a 'complete' park. With the animals and waterpark, plus a decent amount of flat rides, it was really awesome. To be fair though, the water park isn't included in the admission (2nd gate)...It's as much a part of Dreamworld as Hurricane Harbour is a part of SFMM. But like Elissa pointed out, we were able to add Wet N Wild at really no extra cost. In fact, it was cheaper for us to get the season pass for the three parks only visiting once each then it was for us to buy separate entries to them. So when you look at it like that, sure technically they are a separate admission, face value, but really if you were interested in doing multiple parks, and you were the slightest bit smart about buying tickets, it's really not any more expensive. Â And I think that was sort of Elissa's point about Dreamworld feeling more "complete" in that, even with the rain, and even with us not stepping foot onto one of the water ride in the water park, and having riding sessions on most of the major rides and backstage tours before the park opened, we ended up spending a full open to close day there, where as with Movie World we had left early as we were done by mid-afternoon. Â Now that's not really a slam on Movie World at all, as I really did like that park a lot, and it had my favorite coaster in Australia (Superman), but I really felt that park was one or two "major" attractions away from being "complete." Â Dreamworld at least had the animals section, and other stuff going on to keep you more occupied. Â The other problem with Movie World was the crowds and lack of a virtual queue option. If we had a Q-Bot at Movie World, I'm sure we all would have liked to have stayed longer to get a few more rides on Superman. But not many of us wanted to wait in that long line again, only running one train, when we had gotten a few rides in during ERT. Even though Dreamworld wasn't busy during our visit, we at least had the Q-Bot just in case the place was packed. Â --Robb Edited April 7, 2011 by robbalvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djrappa Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 And once again a pretty damn fair summary of the parks! Â Interesting to point out that management are listening to all your opinions I've been approached by several to ask what you guys thought of your visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted April 8, 2011 Author Share Posted April 8, 2011 ^ You should just email them the link to this thread! I think we've been pretty up front about our thoughts and there isn't anything we've said that's even that negative. In fact, I'd say the only people who have been kind of negative about the Australian parks are the Australians! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djrappa Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Yes the respective park managers asked for a link and I sent it to them just after you visited  You're absolutely correct Robb, it's the same on the Aussie parkz forums. Many posts about how management should listen and read etc, funny thing is they do without those posters even realising. Sometimes its tough to know the exact reasons behind negative things happening in the parks and not be able to tell people why, but it has been REALY refreshing to have an group of highly critical yet objective people like TPR come though the properties and give your impression. I don't think anyone has even slightly argued the views you guys have expressed. Of particular interest were the comments most of you had on the dinner show and it goes a long way to explain our current demographic of Audiences.  Whilst I think about it every year and never seem to manage, your trip here has certainly made me determined to get off my ass and get out and do another trip with you guys. ...although nothing is gonna top that BBQ that was put on for you guys! Well maybe beers and balder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downunder Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 (edited) For me, when I have any significant time off, Australian Parks are competing with parks all over the world for my business because I have the means to go anywhere I want, and I'm always looking for bigger, different thrill rides. Â Since I last went to the Gold Coast parks haven't added anything that personally interests me enough to go back. I understand parks in smaller markets can't do the kind of rides that are overseas, though I think Scooby Doo, Superman, Giant Drop, and Wild West Falls are world class. For instance Superman is a cool coaster, but I've ridden it more than enough, it's not a Superman Ride of Steel (SFNE) which keeps me going back to visit SFNE. Â I'll put it this way, if a park in Australia added an Expedition Ge Force/SROS quality steel and/or a Balder/El Toro woodie, it would become very unlikely I'd leave Australia to ride coasters. I know it's unlikely they would, but I'd be clocking up a lot less flying time if they did. Â Anyway did you have a Pavlova while you were in Australia? Your trip was a waste if you didn't - here's one we just had at work. That's not a cake, this is a pavlova. Edited April 8, 2011 by downunder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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