Luna Park Sydney 2022/01/17

[Gazza]

Until 1am Saturday, you needed a negative test result to cross the border into Queensland, which was too much faff for returning a weekend away, so I’ve stayed put in Queensland since mid last year. But On Thursday this happened:



So with that requirement gone, I made a snap decision to head to Sydney for the weekend to go to Luna Park.

I guess it was driven by cred anxiety, Intamins have a habit of having teething issues, and if omicron keeps spreading, there’s a good chance many staff members would be off sick and the park would be running with closed rides.

Normally I’d fly, but I figured it might be less risky to drive down, so the only time I was out and about was in the park, wearing a mask (And the park was pretty quiet actually)

I set off after work in Friday and drove about 5.5h to Taree, arrived late and stayed the night there.



The next morning was a fairly straightforward 3.5h run to Sydney, getting me to the park around 11.



As far as I know, individual ride tickets are no longer offered, so the only option is a wristband. Pricing varies depending on how early you book and the time of your visit, so booking the day before for a Summer Saturday meant I was stung $67.

Given I had driven (Normally I wouldn’t since its right next to Milsons Point station and a ferry terminal) that was another $36, making it a somewhat expensive day out!




Naturally, I headed straight to Big Dipper, and I’ll re quote my post here for my review. Follow the link for bonus photos.

Luna Park Sydney | New Area & Park Overhaul | 2021

New POV; coaster is running miles faster with people on-board:- Video by CoasterLife. Love the dreadful shuffle it already has

coasterforce.com

I would rate it about 6 or 7 out of 10.

The main Downer is because the trains are so lightweight they rattle all the way through, and get particularly shaky at the bottom of the loops. You feel it and hear it.

In terms of intensity it's about on par with a standard model eurofighter, but there is a good bit of force in the loops, and a good pop of ejector airtime on the hill. The non-inverting loop doesn't attempt to yeet you out of the train like on DC Rivals.

But the layout of course has a nice bit of flair. And because it's only a 1 seat wide train, it's true heart lining, so when you go through the twists, you feel your butt swinging out and your head going the other way, cool!

It sounds crazy but the track looks smaller in real life, it would be no more than 30 cm or 1ft. You could cover it with a dinner plate

In terms of loading it is very efficient actually, the operator can stroll up the train very quickly and check everyone, so I don't think capacity will be a problem.
It has hydraulic restraints, but when they unlock them at the end of the ride they get every guest to cross their arms across their chest.....why? Because the things flick open in a fraction of a second, and you could probably give yourself a good blood nose if you were struck by the opening harness. Are other new gen intamins like this? (Eg Hyperion)

But getting back to the trains, comfortable seats and harnesses, but because they are so light you can literally shift your weight in your seat, and get your whole car to jiggle.

When it leaves the station you feel the car get lifted slightly by every friction tyre, and likewise you feel bump bump bump bump bump down each launch.

The first launch starts steady but has a rapid kick at the end into the turn, you then go down a bit of a trick track section that reminds me of the pre lifts on many rmc coasters.

The second launch is nice and quick, a forceful non inverted loop and sidewinder, all with nice transitions.

Then comes a fun little ejector hill, and then a series of downward s bends, where you feel that interesting heart lining.

You dive under the entrance bridge, then curve over the entrance to the station (I am amazed there are no nets because it's very close)

The corkscrew is flat and drawn out with a moment of hang time at the top.

This leads into a final turn with an insane head chopper.

It's not the wildest ride out there, its firmly family thrill. I was worried some of the transitions would be too sharp and uncomfortable giving the tightness of the layout, but no such problems, the actual track design is top-class.

But man, they need to fix that rattle, which is present in every seat except for the front row, it just makes the whole thing feel cheap, and not as comfortable as it could be.

The coaster was built on the roof of the dodgems building, which previously had a tumble bug flat ride on it.


The first half of the coaster is slapped on the roof with a base frame, and looks pretty basic in terms of presentation sadly.



The main launch, loop and airtime hill are built elevated over a back of house area, wedged between the Coney Island funhouse, and a cliff / office building.



A nice touch is the old big dipper car (mk 1.) on display at the entrance.



With that ticked off I headed to the Maloneys Corner / Luna Land section where the other 8 new rides are located.


Most of them are kiddy flats, but there are a couple of new coasters too, and a 360 degree Zamperla discovery (Which for some reason is only running partial swinging just beyond vertical)



The first “one and done” was Little Nipper, but in my head I kept calling it “Baby Shark Coaster”. A Basic little oval helix design like the Russian kiddy coaster at Hansa Park. Im not that tall and even so it was a tight squeeze.




They’ve also installed a Gerstlauer family shuttle called Boomerang, which was actually really nice. Perfectly smooth, no lurching when changing direction etc, a total contrast to Big Dipper.


It even had a decent bit of force in the helix on the backwards trip.



I skipped over the Sledgehammer discovery ride since that style of ride is a bit hit and miss in terms of making you feel sick so I erred on the side of caution.



Someone had mentioned that the Loopy Lighthouse little drop tower thing was pretty fun, and surprisingly it was, with some decent stomach lurching on the drops.



A public staircase runs up the back of the park, where you can get some great pics of Big Dipper.






Up here I discovered there is a public park that is a tribute to late Austrian/Australian architect Harry Seidler, whos offices overlooked the park.




Given I had sunk $67 I reacquainted myself with some old favourites, starting off with Wild Mouse (Which had a longer queue than big dipper)



This raises an important question for credit counters, there is a separate loop of track for car storage, if you ride that is it another cred


Anyway, a classic as always, and this one is heritage listed so it cant just be trashed like the one at BPB (Which has the superior layout ill admit)
The ride has brand new control system, so looks like its here to stay.

 

[Gazza]

They’ve also recently put in a wave swinger.



And a drop ride, which despite being small packs a punch!



There was also a bit of a wait for the ferris wheel, still worth a ride to see the new additions from above.







Coney Island is fantastic, its an old school funhouse, but it’s a bit more loose in its setup.




To get in you go through a bit of a walkthrough, with moving floors, and an air blower in front of a frosted window, (so at night its backlit and you see dresses being blown upwards), turntables and a few other obstacles.


This opens out into a large hall area with a few other amusement scattered around.







There’s a set of spinning tunnels



A mirror maze.



Some giant slides which are great fun, and slightly terrifying if you start turning sideways unintentionally



The turkey trot, a series of bridges that move in an orbital motion.



And of course the joy wheel, where you sit on a turntable till you are eventually flung off and land on the padding at the perimeter.



On paper, it’s a fairly balanced lineup and a fair bit to do, despite the park being tiny. Could do with a water ride and a dark ride to really balance it out.



For lulz I did the bumper cars, and spotted a woman texting while driving (A bit hard to get away with normally due to the presence of mobile phone detection cameras these days!)




Among all those other rides, I was popping back up to Big Dipper, managing 8 laps total. If it wasn’t so shaky, you could ride it all afternoon likely.





As I write this, I realised I totally forgot to re ride Rotor, which is a classic centrifuge ride, and one of the best in the park. On this one the floor actually drops away, and as the ride comes to a stop you slide back down the wall, which AFAIK very few versions actually do this still.



Anyway, if you were a first time visitor, you could easily take your time, I was there 4 hours and still didn’t ride every single thing.





Overall, the new additions are fine, but the presentation is pretty cheap, I dunno whether they had to cut costs due to covid impacting attendance last year, but hopefully they come back and tidy things up.

 

[davidm]

9hr drive each way ; excellent work there.

The area around the new dipper does look a bit of a mess tho' ; hope they can tidy-it up a bit in their otherwise fitting retro-kitsch style.

 

[TilenB]

Nice report! The park does look better now compared to how it was 4,5 years ago and the new area with the two family coasters looks much nicer than the sad fairground-ish mess that was there before. Good to see that, considering the park is in a pretty nice location just next to the harbour bridge.

 

[Rob Coasters]

Very nice! This is a very interesting park for me, I especially can't wait to do a wooden wild mouse and get back on a Rotor; those things are really fun.

Little comment on the pendulum not going 360 - early in opening the counterweight messed up and decided to hang riders upside down for several minutes and they haven't done a single 360 rotation since. No problem for me since I prefer the ones that don't invert anyway.

 

[Gazza]

9hr drive each way ; excellent work there.

The area around the new dipper does look a bit of a mess tho' ; hope they can tidy-it up a bit in their otherwise fitting retro-kitsch style.

Hah its not so bad. Though wouldn't normally do this.

Had I flown I would have just gone after work and gotten into SYD late

In this case it was just an easy motorway cruise at night with pretty much just overtaking the odd truck on the road.

The return trip you can somewhat make a day of, stop every couple of hours, go to the beach somewhere and have a dip (since there are many just a short distance off the highway) Have dinner in Coffs Harbour and then do the final push home, go straight to bed

 

[cocoa]

yo gaz, how were the crowds/ queues? I'm trying to plan a visit in the next couple weeks, but tossing up whether to go on a friday/monday and avoid lines but miss a day of work, vs. just copping it on a weekend.

 

[Gazza]

It was a Saturday from about 10:30 till 2:30 and it was pretty quiet (No more than a 1 or 2 train wait for BD, Boomerang was going out 1/3 full or less most of the time) I don't know if people are opting to stay home on purpose at the moment.

The opening hours are long, even if it is a weekend. Im the wrong one to ask lol because I try and use annual leave in multi day blocks.

Have a look at their pricing schedule and see what days a cheaper.