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Australia PTR - Part 4: Sydney & Luna Park

Gavin

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I had an overnight flight from Singapore to the Gold Coast, landing not long after 8 o’clock in the morning. I can never sleep on planes, so I was pretty knackered at this point. The airport at the Gold Coast was a bit of a faff. It’s only small, and was quick and easy to get through immigration, but I needed to sort a couple of things before I left, and since I’m sure they pump something through the ventilation systems at all airports that turns people into slobbering morons, it took **** ing ages.

First up, I wanted to get a Go card, which is basically like a London Oyster card and gives pretty hefty discounts on transport in the area. Stupidly, only one place at the airport sold them, some transport desk, and only one person was working that desk. Some stupid woman in front of me had missed her bus and was somehow trying to blame the girl behind the desk, who was nice enough to sort the vile woman out by making a few phone calls and getting her on another bus. Anyway, long story short, something which should have taken me 5 minutes ended up taking half an hour since apparently an incoming 737 only requires one person to be working the information desk.

Similarly, I wanted to quickly grab a SIM card, which again would have taken seconds since, you know, I can actually read instructions once I open the **** ing thing, but a guy in front was taking centuries trying to comprehend what he was supposed to do: open packet, insert SIM card, follow basic instructions. It wasn’t even a phone shop, just a convenience store, so why he expected the 90-year-old woman behind the till to know how the **** to use it was beyond me.

Idiots.

The bus which comes “every ten minutes” decided to take another half an hour to arrive, so I finally got to my hotel at around 11, when I really could’ve been there by about half nine.

Anyway, rant over. I was expecting to dump bags at reception and head straight out, but the hotel staff were great and let me check in early. The hotel room was lovely, looking directly out onto the Q1 Tower (the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere), which made navigation really easy.

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I just dropped my bags there and had a quick wash and brushed my teeth before heading back out to the bus stop I’d just got off at (literally a 1 minute walk from the hotel) to get a bus to my first Australian park. The buses were so easy; I just used the same bus stop every day to get direct, regular buses to and from the parks.

Warner Bros. Movie World and Wet ‘N’ Wild

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This is one of the parks that I’ve been wanting to get to for a pretty long time. I’d planned to arrive for opening, but ended up getting here at about 12. It really didn’t matter, as the park wasn’t very busy. There were enough people around to create an atmosphere, but not enough to make the queues very long.

First up was Superman Escape, an Intamin Accelerator. This had a 40 minute queue due to one-train operations, but went slightly down to about half an hour later in the day.

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It was **** ing brilliant. It’s nowhere near as tall and fast as some others, but there’s more airtime than on any of the others I’ve ridden. It’s also very cool that it starts off as a bit of a dark ride and actually has a slight story to it. I also managed to get front row for my very first ride which was a nice little bonus.

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So yeah, my new favourite Accelerator.

There’s a generic shot tower that I didn’t bother with at first, but had a go on later in the day since it was quiet and I’d done everything.

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Meh.

In the same area is Arkham Asylum, a Vekoma SLC.

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Again, this was on a one-train operation, and getting dispatched quite slowly. The station could’ve been improved with some music or something. As it was, people were just standing silently, waiting for the coaster; it was weird.

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It was pretty awful, but has a new Kumbak train which essentially is just a lap bar (realized I didn’t take a picture), meaning that there’s no headbanging. It would have been pretty brutal otherwise.

Green Lantern was closed, which was annoying. I wasn’t particularly bothered about missing an El Loco, as they’re crap, but this one has the newer trains with lapbars and speakers. Plus, a cred’s a cred at the end of the day.

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The “Main Street” kind of area (forgot the actual name), was decent, but felt like a bit of a cheap knock-off after Universal Singapore the day before. It’s all in the timing though I guess.

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I didn’t go in the 4D Cinema; I just seemed to miss the show times every time I went past and didn’t want to plan around it since I generally can’t stand the **** ing things.

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I also missed the stunt show, again due to crap timing really.

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I did, however manage a couple of rides on Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster, which was excellent for what is, essentially, a wild mouse. It starts as a dark ride though, and has also got a totally unique layout, including an elevator lift and backwards drop.

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Yep, new favourite (steel) wild mouse coaster.

The Wild West area (again forgotten the actual name) was ok, but very generic.

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The log flume type ride was here.

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I’ve ridden the same model at Discovery World in Taiwan, and a similar one at Parque Warner Madrid (different manufacturer) and they’re excellent.

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The last coaster here was Road Runner, a Vekoma Roller Skater. ‘Twas exactly as to be expected: a mere +1.

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The last ride I did here was the new Justice League 3D shooter.

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It was excellent as a shooter, with a combination of real sets (with targets) and 3D screens. It’s kind of a shame that the ride system is so basic, though.

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Overall I liked the park. The layout is a bit weird – the log fume is quite a walk away and stuck out at a dead end for example – but they’ve made a really good effort with their rides, with Superman being a massive standout.

Wet ‘N’ Wild was a 10 minute walk away, and was closing soon, so I headed over there just in time to get a ride in on the coaster, an Intamin Halfpipe called Surfrider.

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I’ve done a few of these now; apart from the POS at Chimelong Paradise, they’re ok really.

I got a bus back to the hotel, and somehow managed to stay awake to meet Gavin (Gazza on here) for a couple of drinks in the evening before crashing out relatively early.
 
Re: Australia PTR - Day 1: Warner Bros. Movie World

The 'theming' on that Arkham Asylum roof thing is dreadful. I guess they're trying to make it look like a comic but my god, looks like a child has made a cardboard cut-out, blergh. I guess I just find these parks really generic looking and bland? There's nothing really stand-out or different about them to make me want to travel all the way to visit them. I have always thought Superman looked good though so I'm glad you have confirmed that it is. And Scooby has always intrigued me.
 
Re: Australia PTR - Day 1: Warner Bros. Movie World

Looks like a pretty decent park...and if you enjoy some of the coasters they must be good :p

I've always wanted to do one of those half pipes, wasn't there one on the Finland live last year? Looks awesome.

I have also been meaning to ask, how many countries have you been to, Gavin?
 
Re: Australia PTR - Day 1: Warner Bros. Movie World

Dreamworld

The next morning I took the massive 30-second trek out to the bus stop and headed out to Dreamworld, which took about half an hour. I was glad that I’d taken the time to get the Go card previously, as people seemed to be paying ridiculous amounts for cash tickets. Considering they were all Australian, you’d have thought they’d have been more clued up with regards to local transport, but I saw barely anyone - other than locals who weren’t going to the parks - using the prepaid cards.

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The first thing you notice, even from pretty far away, is the Dreamworld Tower, which has an Intamin Freefall coaster and a massive drop tower.

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My first thought was to grab the drop tower first, figuring on low capacity, but it wasn’t due to open until about half an hour later. As it turned out the park was dead, so I didn’t bother rushing back for it either. Instead, I had a couple of goes on Mick Doohan’s Motocoaster.

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This was the first Intamin motorbike I’d tried (are there any others?), and it was crap. The layout wasn't awful, but it really rattled all the way around. Honestly, the Vekoma version is better.

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Next up was Tower of Terror II, the Intamin Freefall. Just like the one at Magic Mountain, the train has been reversed so that it now travels backwards up the tower and drops back down forwards.

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The queue was never more than a car long for any of the times I rode it.

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I was really looking forward to this as I’d missed the ones at Magic Mountain since they had been closed when I visited, but I was pretty disappointed really. I actually enjoyed the really long launch section, which is mostly indoors with lighting effects, but the car barely makes it past halfway up the tower. Seriously:

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I was under the impression that they’d done the same as the MM versions, and fixed the launch so that it actually went all the way up the tower again, but it seems that they’ve literally just turned the car around and left it at that.

Just around the corner was Tiger Island. I hadn’t planned on it, but a show was about to start so I stuck around for it. It was of those things where they pretend that they’re educating people by demonstrating “natural” behaviours, when it’s actually purely for entertainment purposes, otherwise why hand-rear all your tigers?

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The park’s Shrek/Madagascar/Dreamworks area had a generic Vekoma SFC: +1

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The area has some decent theming around it, including a nicely themed Air Race. This one had two different queue lines: one for the normal ride setting, and one for a tamer one that didn’t invert. I’m not sure if it was operating both or not, but I only ever saw it on the “full” setting. I rode it since it was walk-on and there, but I’ve got to be honest; I’m over these things now.

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I didn’t bother with the Disco:

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But I had a quick go on the Windshear thing. I’m really over Top Spins, and rarely bother with them, but I still quite like this variant as unlike the regular ones they’re not as widely spread as a $5 whore’s legs.

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I thought that this would be some kind of horror walkthrough, as there’s mention of zombies on the signage.

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It turns out that just a laser tag game, with one team taking the role of the zombies. I haven’t been in one of these since I was a teenager, and I actually really enjoyed it.

Lunch was the usual fast-food theme park option. This Ibis really needed to pick a better spot for begging. Idiot.

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The Arrow looper was, predictably, crap. I just did the one ride, as even though it was walk-on, the walk up to the station up some never-ending ramp takes forever.

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I’d always had it my head that The Claw was a large-scale Intamin Gyroswing, but it’s actually the smaller model. It’s basically Maelstrom. That’s no bad thing at all though; it’s a great ride.

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The typical Wild West area had the park’s rapids ride, which was pretty decent.

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There’s an SBNO indoor coaster somewhere in this area as well.

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The park’s latest coaster is Buzzsaw, a Maurer Sky Loop. People don’t seem to rate these very much, but I actually quite like them. Walk-on meant a quick reride as well.

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The log flume was weird, with a very long, straight drop.

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The park’s zoo section was small, but decent, focusing on Austrlalian wildlife. This dingo was very inactive, probably because it had just eaten a baby.

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I was geekily excited to see my first ever wombat. Apart from Kangaroos, Australian wildlife isn’t represented particularly well outside Australia.

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There was free-roaming kangaroo area.

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And my first ever koalas.

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I was expecting to get totally gang raped when it came to getting a picture with one, but decided that I’d just suck it up and pay it. It actually turned out to only be about £12. You get a printed photo and they took a couple with my own camera as well.

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I finished the day by circling back around to Giant Drop. Only one side was running, which was understandable given that it was a quiet day, which meant that there was a slight wait of around 2-3 cycles per ride.

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I was slightly annoyed that it’s now only the world’s second highest drop tower (soon to be third), but it was really good. You get held at the top for ages, longer than any other tower I’ve been on, and you really do seem to be falling for a ridiculously long time as well.

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I rerode a couple of times and then headed out. It’s a decent park overall, but it really lacks a decent coaster to be honest. Tower of Terror looks impressive until you realise that it barely makes it past halfway, and the other coasters are just very generic, and, apart from Buzzsaw, pretty **** really.
 
Re: Australia PTR - Part 2: Dreamworld

Normally wombats look a lot cuter than that...That one seems to have rolls of fat.

Your thoughts on the parks basically mirror my own. DW is "okay" but really does need a good coaster and not so many flat rides (When Buzzsaw opened, they put the Disko coaster in at the same time..Personally I reckon they would have been better off just putting the money towards making buzzsaw longer, like Abismo)

On Giant Drop, the long time at the top is reportedly due to the ride effing up too much at the top, so they just slowed it to a crawl right at the top.

Ibis can piss off. They stink and pick through rubbish bins and make a terrible mess.

Once upon a time Motocoaster ran really smoothly, and literally that was the only thing going for it. Now it just rattles, and is still slow and forceless.
 
Re: Australia PTR - Part 2: Dreamworld

Cool report (as always!).

Dreamworld has very fond memories for me; I recognise it as the place that rekindled my childhood like of these 'theme park' places (childhood experiences being limited to Alton Towers and Blackpool) ; I was off doing a round-the-world thingy (but I emphasise non of that grimy-backpacker-business, strictly hotels not hostels) and was in Brisbane in 2002 when I thought it would be nice to have a day out at a theme park since I had not been to one for years (and that would have only been Alton)... and I had such a good time (thoroughly terrified by the Giant Drop - my first drop ride) that I went off to WBMW a couple of days later (which was also good), then Wonderland in Sydney the next week, then Disneyx2 in Tokyo a couple of weeks later, then made my way through California after that - and by now I was navigating my itinerary by where the parks were - and an enthusiast was born! :goon:

Looking back a bit more objectively, I much preferred DW over WBMW but from your reports both parks have a lot of improvements done in the last few years - theres a lot more themeing at DW it seems now (barely any that I recall from back in 2002 - this was pre-Rugrats/Madagascar - Cyclone was newish and had a plastic cow in the queue line, think that was about it for themeing)!

Here is the 2002 map if you are interested in what has changed - the only pic I took of the place (had not developed goon-ness to take a camera to the park yet) - http://www.coasterforce.com/my-cf/3875- ... otoid=5206 - was the Big Brother house (bottom left in the map) still there - I did see one of that series' evicted housemates (sad that I was watching it at the time) wandering around the park that day.

WBMW was a bit "half-a-park" then, there wasn't that much there (the indoor mouse was under construction) and the place was pretty small. I remember really liking Lethal Weapon a lot (the SLC at the time) because it was "like" Nemesis - what a noob I was. There is clearly quite a bit more to do now there now as well.

Anyway, sorry for my reminiscing/digression, carry on now... (Sea World? - I didn't do that sadly)
 
Re: Australia PTR - Part 2: Dreamworld

Sea World

On my final day at the Gold Coast, I got the bus up to Sea World (not affiliated with the American chain).

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There’s a fairly big lake right in front of the entrance that seems to have some kind of stunt show, but I didn’t see it.

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I also didn’t ride this weird cable car; the park’s not very big, so it seemed more pointless than Susan Lucci showing up at the Emmys.

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The log flume was mediocre.

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The polar bear exhibit was decent; they had a birth there recently which they’ve made a big deal of.

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I caught the dolphin show since I was close to it as it was about to start; I wouldn’t have bothered otherwise. The pool looks pretty from a human perspective though, which means that they must be happy.

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See? They’re smiling; they love it!

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Yay for the Arrow looper?

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Or yay upon discovering it was closed?

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Since it’s Sea World, they have some other sea creatures to have a gawp at,

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including this pelagic T-Rex:

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No, it’s not a menu!

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The park’s newest coaster is Storm Coaster, a Mack water coaster which opened just a few months ago and is a clone of the one at Djurs Sommerland.

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I didn’t manage to get any pictures of the station or indoor section as you need to leave bags in lockers (paid for; bastards) before joining the queue. It’s very impressive though. The whole theme is of a giant warehouse/boathouse that has been hit by a storm; it’s very well done.

The drop here is also excellent. The boat drops into misty tunnel before hitting the airtime hill and going back inside the building for the splashdown.

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Since I ended up wetter than a retard's chin, I jumped straight back in the queue for a couple of more rides since I was soaked anyway. As you’re exiting the ride, you can watch as the boats hit the splashdown; there’s even an indoor splashzone which caught a few people unawares as they were heading out.

I really liked this ride. Sea World has turned what is usually a mediocre coaster into an excellent overall experience. I always forget that the main drops on these things are actually a lot of fun. The one here is made even better due to the mist and re-entering the building as you hit the splashdown; it’s actually really disorientating.

The other coaster here was Jet Rescue, an Intamin launch coaster which I’ve never really thought looked up to much.

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I was wrong; it’s actually really good for such a small coaster. The launches aren’t particularly strong, but there’s a real illusion of speed thanks to the terrain and the really tight turns.

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The seating position and restraints are basically identical to the Aquatrax model, which is sooooooooo much better than any other “motorbike” style seating since you’re not crammed into those awful restraints with less freedom of movement than Stephen Hawking.

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A few rerides on this were in order before I headed back to the hotel to collect my ****, meet a friend who was in town for the day for work and get the train together up to Brisbane for the weekend.
 
Re: Australia PTR - Part 3: Sea World

Ahaha I thought those jet ski things only existed in Roller Coaster Tycoon :p . Great report Gavin, I always enjoy reading them even though I nearly shat my pants looking at that drop tower. I'd probably actually shed tears on that thing! Those parks all look nicer than what I had imagined them to be though.
 
Re: Australia PTR - Part 3: Sea World

Nice report as always Gavin.

Great to hear about the Mack water cred being good and I had no idea the splash happened inside a building, that's an interesting touch.
 
Re: Australia PTR - Part 3: Sea World

Sounds like you had a better time than me at Sea World!

Sea Viper was also down for a "period of extended maintenance" when I visited a couple of years ago, so has it actually been open since?
 
Re: Australia PTR - Part 3: Sea World

^It has been open. I'm surprised it's still going TBH...It's now run longer than the corkscrew at Alton.

The soak zone on the exit path of Storm is a lot of fun because you can troll people. Basically the exit walkway splits in two, a dry route next to the wall and a wet route which goes further across.. My favourite activity when riding is to get ahead of the group I just rode with, walk over and pretend to be watching. Naturally when they catch up some will come across to the railings too. At that point I walk away and leave them there, and stand back before the next boat comes through and throws the wave :twisted:
 
Re: Australia PTR - Part 3: Sea World

Isn't Jet Rescue the same type as Juvelen at Djurs?

If so, then they are a good ride type...
 
Re: Australia PTR - Part 3: Sea World

Nemesis Inferno said:
Isn't Jet Rescue the same type as Juvelen at Djurs?

If so, then they are a good ride type...

Yes, it is.

^^But Corkscrew at Alton Towers didn't exist that long compared to some other coasters like Superwhirbel, which opened earlier and just closed last year.

Thanks for the reports Gavin! Gold Coast seems like a great place for coasters. How are the people over there? Did the city feel "safe"?
 
Re: Australia PTR - Part 3: Sea World

^Yeah definitely. Gold Coast seems to have a bit of a reputation as the "Blackpool" of Australia, but I didn't see it that way at all. Yeah, there's an element of tackiness, but I found it to be really nice, easy to get around (I stayed in Surfer's Paradise which was very convenient for everything) and the people are friendly. I went out to a bar/club by myself one night and it was really easy to chat to people.

I should have probably mentioned that in the report actually; the people at the parks - not talking about the staff, but it's true of them as well - were really nice. Loads of people just struck up random conversations in the queue lines or on the rides. For example, I'm not a fan of riding rapids on my own because there's an element of awkwardness being stuck with random strangers and you don't know where to look, but the Australians will just introduce themselves and have a chat; they're genuinely lovely people and really funny as well. I think it's probably because the sense of humour is very "British" really: very self-deprecating and sarcastic.

Anyway, any idea that the Gold Coast is "dangerous" is hugely exaggerated based on my own experiences of it.
 
Re: Australia PTR - Part 3: Sea World

I forgot I hadn't finished this yet. There are no parks in this quick update, but I'll include it anyway.

After Sea World, I met up with an old friend who's now living in Brisbane. He was at the Gold Coast for some business meeting, so I just met him at the hotel and we got the train up to Brisbane together. We met up with a couple more of his friends, went out for dinner and then just got trashed.

The next afternoon, we went for a bit of a wander around and vegged out on a free ferry that just runs up and down the river before going out again on the Saturday night.

Some pictures of Brisbane:

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I'll get Sydney and the final park up sometime this week. Probably.
 
Re: Australia PTR - Part 3: Sea World

I’ve been in a distinct can’t-be-arsed mood in getting this report finally finished, especially given that the only park left is a proper s**thole with only one coaster, but here goes anyway.

Because I’m an idiot and didn’t check my flight times properly, I missed my flight from Brisbane to Sydney. Luckily, I got put on a flight for a few hours later. I had to pay about £20, which I was fine with considering it was a budget airline and I fully expected to be bent over the check-in desk. If it had been Ryanair I would’ve had to promise the soul of my first-born child (like that’s ever happening) to get a flight changed so easily. Anyway, by the time I actually got to Sydney it was late, so I just headed straight to the hotel and got up early the next day.

The weather was gorgeous, so I decided to stay outside as much as possible and see as much as I could just in case the weather turned to s**t. It did for the next couple of days, so I made the right decision.

Sydney’s not too big, at least with regards to the main tourist sites, so it was all quite walkable, which is good because the public transport is positively Somalian. The next day I tried to save time when meeting a friend for lunch by taking the subway for two stations instead of walking. Not even joking: one train every ten minutes. Ludicrous.

I can’t be bothered to explain what anything is, but I’ll throw in a bunch of pictures here.

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The hideous tower is called the Sydney Eye (well, part of it), so you can guess who runs it.


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A traditional Australian home, otherwise known as a British prison:

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If you don’t know what these are, kill yourself:

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You can easily see Luna Park across the harbour at the other side of the bridge.

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I had planned to do this another day, but very luckily saw a sign for the park in the ferry terminal near the opera house with the park’s opening hours. It was open until 3pm that day (a Monday) and then not again until the Friday, after I’d have already left. At this point it was 2pm, so I pretty much legged it across the bridge after a bit of faffing about trying to find how to get onto the bastarding thing. You get a great view of the Opera House from it.

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I got to the park with about 20 minutes to spare, which was approximately 10 minutes longer than was necessary. I LOVE the old school entrance though. You can really see what Ocean Park have gone for with the Hair Raiser entrance and whole Thrill Mountain area. The difference is that Hong Kong’s version doesn’t come with the imminent threat of being stabbed.

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Coney Island is the only traditional 1930s fun house left in the world apparently. As an adult, by myself, I decided against it, but anyone who can remember Blackpool's version (RIP) will know how amazing these things are. Well, at least my memories from being 8 years old are that it was amazing; could've been s**te.

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I wasn’t going to buy an all-inclusive wristband since I only had twenty minutes, not to mention the fact that there’s basically f**k all there to be included anyway. I just wanted to ride the coaster, but the only way to do that was to buy a two-ride ticket. I can’t remember exactly now, but I think it cost around £8.

I had really been looking forward to the wooden wild mouse here since I love the one at Blackpool. While this one wasn’t as good, it was still an excellent little coaster. It’s really hard to get decent pictures of it though because of the way it’s stuck on top of a building.

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I decided that rather than use my ticket to reride, I’d give the park’s newest ride a go, which was a pretty short, but actually excellent drop tower, which was interestingly (if you find s**te like this interesting) called Hair Raiser.

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Anyway it was brilliant for such a small tower. I’ve just looked it up and it seems like it’s the same model as the one at Waldameer, which I also remember as being excellent, so that makes a lot of sense now.

There’s a small boardwalk area behind the Wild Mouse which gives some great views of the bridge.

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I get the importance of keeping these traditional amusement parks open, the Wild Mouse is excellent, and I guess that adding a new drop tower last year is a decent step, but it’s still a bit of a dump really. The location is pretty amazing though.

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After the park I walked back across the bridge and also went up one of the stone pylons near the end, which had a museum documenting the construction of the bridge and some amazing views. I had considered doing the bridge walk, but it was ridiculously expensive just to get a tacky picture for my Facebook profile, which is seemingly all it’s good for.

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The weather for the next couple of days was crap, which I didn’t mind as I’d got a lot done in the first day. I just spent the rest of the time catching up (ie drinking) with old friends, waking up late and having a lazy couple of afternoons at a couple of zoos and a Sea Life Centre.

Contrary to popular belief, and some Staffordshire primary school teachers, Tasmanian Devils are real animals.

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So that’s Australia done. I’ll look forward to Furie’s polite comment to acknowledge that he’s read it while everyone else goes back to being engrossed in the multiple reports of the same weekend at Thorpe Park, told from various people’s perspectives.
 
Nice report Gavin, it's unlikely i'll be able to get to Oz anytime soon, but WB looks a decent park, and the drop tower at Luna would keep me entertained for a good couple of hours.
Must say that the amount of photos you take is great, especially for these parks not often visited.
 
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