Australia's Dreamworld to Retire Tower of Terror II Intamin Reverse Freefall

© Dreamworld

Originally opened as one of the tallest thrill rides in the world, Dreamworld's Tower of Terror II will be permanently retired on November 3rd.  The park has made the announcement of the coaster's removal as they look ahead to a $70 million expansion that includes a thrilling new launched roller coaster, a huge water slide tower, improvements to their kids area and more.

© Dreamworld

The Tower of Terror II opened in 1997 and stands 377 feet tall.  Created by Intamin, the coaster features an LSM launch at 100 miles per hour to push the individual car up the tower.  Subsequent to the ride's opening a drop tower ride was placed on the back of the main tower, and at one point the ride turned the train around backward and added the "II" to the name.

The park has set up some frequently asked questions about the ride's removal on their website, and really no reason other than its time for it to retire were given.  They do confirm that the tower and attached free fall will remain once the coaster's tracks are removed.

© Dreamworld

While sad to see the removal of an iconic roller coaster, Dreamworld does have an exciting replacement up its sleeve.  The park is planning to open a near copy of Blue Fire at the end of 2020, which is a highly regarded launched Mack coaster.  It will change things up and use a reverse spike to feature multiple launches, and the last car on the train is said to spin freely.  The addition surely makes the loss of Tower of Terror II a bit easier for fans of the park.

Kung Fu Panda's New Land of Awesomeness

© Dreamworld

Australia's Dreamworld has opened their new themed area in time for their Summer season (how I miss Summer already), themed around Dreamwork's Kung Fu Panda.  In fact, the area is officially called Kung Fu Panda: Land of Awesomeness.  It is part of the park's Dreamworks Experience, which consists of several mini-lands with other themes such as Shrek and Madagascar.

The new area features a couple rides, one of which is a renovated bumper car attraction titled Skadoosh. 

© Dreamworld

The other new ride is much bigger and gives quite a thrill: a Zamperla Air Race named Pandamonium.  The ride has some neat theming, including cars that look like rickshaws from the side, and the front seats have nothing in front of them at all giving a wide open feeling of freedom.  According to this report from Parkz, the park is currently operating the ride in two modes, one where the cars invert and one where they do not.  The queue is divided, letting riders pick their intensity and the ride runs alternating cycles.  Not surprisingly, it sounds like the fully inverting cycle is far more popular!

Dreamworld Building Kung Fu Panda's Land of Awesomeness

Australia's Dreamworld has announced an expansion to their DreamWorks Experience themed area with the addition of Kung Fu Panda: Land of Awesomeness.  The area actually served as a meet and greet up until now, but will be fully expanded into a mini-land in the DreamWorks area, which already contains Madagascar and Shrek themed attractions.

The centerpiece of the land appears to be a new Zamperla Air Race, a ride which seems to be taking off quite a bit in 2013.  The park hasn't confirmed it yet, but did share a photo of a ride similar to theirs under construction, which gives it away a bit.

Dreamworld is also home to a fairly large Wiggles World, which will also be receiving a new ride themed to Captain Feathersword.  They're not saying much more at this point, other than it is a boating adventure. 

Finally for those of you who may be obsessed with the Australian version of Big Brother, the house the show is filmed in is on Dreamworld property and will now be able to be toured by visitors.  With filming completed park guests can try to relive some of the show's moments while checking out the house.

Dreamworld and DreamWorks Team Up in 2012

Australia's Dreamworld theme park, located on the Gold Coast, has announced that they will become the second theme park in the world to feature the full roster of DreamWorks Animation characters in 2012 with the addition of a new themed land.

"The most exciting and extensive development currently underway in any Australian theme park, Dreamworld’s new DreamWorks Animation-themed lands will welcome guests inside the very worlds of their favorite animated characters, inspired by the iconic DreamWorks Animation franchises. Well-loved characters including Shrek, Puss in Boots, Po from Kung Fu Panda, Alex the Lion from Madagascar, and many others will soon appear at Dreamworld all year round."

Part of a five year licensing deal, the DreamWorks gang will be added to the park in three different themed lands, making up one larger themed area in the center of Dreamword.  The characters will start to appear at the park this Christmas season, when the DreamWorks Holiday Shrektacular Show will debut.  For Easter 2012, the actual land will open, named the DreamWorks Experience, featuring rides and shows themed to the characters.

According to this news report, the rides will include a family coaster themed to Madagascar, along with a Shrek carousel.  The section of the park receiving the makeover was formerly themed to the Nickelodeon properties, until that contract expired at the start of 2011 and the area was generically known as Kid's World.  It is not known if any brand new attractions will be added, or if the area will consist of only rethemed rides.

In the Fall of 2012 the last section will open, themed to Kung Fu Panda, which will include dining and character photo locations.  Dreamworld recently added both a Zamperla Disk'O, as well as a Maurer Sohne SkyLoop coaster, named Buzzsaw.

The Tower of Terror II Opens

Australia's Dreamworld has reopened the Tower of Terror thrill attraction, but now it's technically the Tower of Terror II. The ride underwent a refurbishment and is now operating with the cars launching and traveling up the tower backwards. This means that riders are now face first as they hang briefly well over 300 ft. above the ground.

The ride originally opened in 1997 and was noted as the first coaster to reach 100 miles per hour. The recent upgrade and conversion is of importance to Six Flags Magic Mountain fans, where it is highly rumored that Superman will feature similar upgrades. That ride is currently closed with signs in front of it promising a reopening in 2011.

The new cars feature over-the-shoulder restraints, but with the new cars it is possible that the full speed launch could return to Superman, something I'm sure fans would absolutely love to see.

Weekly Rewind 8.14.10

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation has named a new CEO and President, James Reid-Anderson. Mr. Reid-Anderson previously worked in the Healthcare industry, leading a company out of bankruptcy and into profitability. Al Weber, who was the interim CEO, will stay on as the company's COO. Sounds like they'll have a CEO who knows how to lead a company after Chapter 11, and a COO with deep amusement industry experience. Best of luck to them!

Kings Island is raising funds for the Susan G. Komen For The Cure breast cancer awareness efforts. The park is selling pink ducks that will float in the park's signature entrance fountains. On August 21st one duck will be selected from the fountain and the winner will receive a car! You can read more and purchase a duck (the park will deposit it into the fountain for you) on Kings Island's webpage.

Disney is making modifications to the previously announced Fantasyland expansion at the Magic Kingdom in Florida. Seems it might have skewed too heavily to the Princess side of things, and now that's being taken into consideration. No news on what exactly will change, but with construction already underway I'm sure we will find out soon enough.

Holiday World is having a great season, this article points out that they are about 10% ahead of last year's attendance figures. In these times that's a massive increase! The park's new water coaster, Wildebeest, as well as the improved economy has helped create the gains.

Carowinds is dropping daily photo hints for their 2011 announcement on their Facebook page. So far the four images, one of which is above, haven't made much sense - but it's fun to guess! The announcement should be in about two weeks from now.

It is not very long, but Dollywood has released a fun teaser video for their new Barnstormer ride. The park promises more details soon, but for now we'll just have to wait.

The next chapter in the demise of Freestyle Music Park has started - foreclosure proceedings were recently filed against the park. As they proceed all assets the park has will be sold off in order to repay their debits. That B&M coaster should go like a hot cake - but I hope whoever buys it keeps the paint job! I love those colors.

Dreamworld, in Australia, has announced that the Tower of Terror - the sister ride to Superman at Six Flags Magic Mountain, will be running the trains backwards starting this September. Some people believe this change will be similar to what will be done with Superman at SFMM, but the park is not saying anything about that just yet.

Friday the 13th was celebrated by Halloween events everywhere as a way to help spread the word on their plans for this fall. Kings Dominion released a video showing a behind the scenes look at the preparations going on at the park for their Haunt event. All the Cedar Fair Haunts also had their websites launched this week, but there's too many to link here! Lots of new mazes and scare zones again this year!

Six Flags Great Adventure is still making quick work of removing the Great American Scream Machine from the park. At this point they are taking down the lift hill, with only the first drop and first loop still standing. Check out some recent photos here.

The Giant Drop

The Aerial Antics I published about Dreamworld in Australia got me thinking about the park's Giant Drop, a massive Intamin 390 ft. free fall on the side of the Tower of Terror.

I was watching YouTube clips of the ride and came across the one above - obviously from some sort of TV show but it features some amazing clips and views of the ride.

I want to go!

Aerial Antics: Dreamworld

The time has come for me to take Sabrina's suggestion to heart and make my ever present obsession with Live Local and Google's aerial photography a regular feature here on NewsPlusNotes.

And with that we'll call it Aerial Antics because I also enjoy alliteration. I'll try to publish one weekly and you can find them under the new Aerial Antics tag.

Dreamworld is located on the Gold Coast of Australia. I remember it obtaining most of it's notoriety by building the Tower of Terror back in 1997. The ToT is a clone of Superman at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Speaking of the Tower of Terror, here it is in the above photo. Technically it opened before Superman at Magic Mountain, making it the first coaster to hit 100 m.p.h. The park slapped a free fall, named Giant Drop, on the tower in 1998 and then also had the world's tallest free fall at 390 ft or so.

But also in the above photo is the park's latest coaster: Mick Doohan's Motocoaster. Opened in 2007, the launched motorcycle seating style ride was built by Intamin. We can see that the ride's layout is pretty much a double figure eight.

The park also has a Nickelodeon Central section of the park, which is extremely similar to what was built at several of the former Paramount parks in the early 2000s. They even have a Rugrats Runaway Reptar jr. inverted coaster by Vekoma!

They also created a Wiggles World years before Six Flags built them at their U.S. parks. Again the design is similar, even down to the entrance sign you can see and the brightly colored pavement. The rides and attractions are quite similar, too - Big Red Car Ride, Captain Feathersword's Ship, etc.

Whitewater World is the park's huge water park, opened in 2006. Talk about an awesome selection of water slides! They've got one of everything it seems, a Tornado, a water coaster, Flowrider, and more!

Also you can see how the water park slides wrap around the theme park's Cyclone roller coaster. The ride was relocated from Luna Park where it was called the Big Dipper.

Here's a link to Google's images.