Luna Park

Visited: June 10, 2023

Attending: Just Brian

In April of 2023, I took a new job with UpGuard, a company headquartered in Australia, and my department asked the American employees to come down there in early June. I didn’t have much vacation time saved up, but I took three days of PTO after our official week in the office. Carole came down to join me, and we did a lot of touristy stuff in Sydney, but decided not to go beyond that this time. So no Dreamworld for me on this trip, but Luna Park Sydney is right there, right next to the Harbour Bridge, in an absolutely fabulous location, so I had to make an effort to snag some Australian credits. Luna Park Sydney is tiny, and the rides are kinda packed in there, but the atmosphere is strong. It’s very carnival-like for an amusement park. The park is free to walk around in, and therefore has multiple entrances and exits. Rides require the purchase of a wristband. The park is also home to a wooden wild mouse, one of the only ones in the world. It’s also built in a spot where you get great views of the harbor. And it’s supposed to be unbearably rough. However, it was closed for retracking while I was there, which is kind of a shame. Still, the end result should be smoother.

Big Dipper

Luna Park has had three coasters called Big Dipper. The first was a traditional wooden coaster that was damaged by fire in 1979. The second was an Arrow looper that only ran from 1996 to 2001, because the park had an on-and-off history during that time. The current Big Dipper is a first-of-its-kind Intamin single-rail “Hot Racer” model, at the moment the only one in the world. So that was a good reason to check out the park. The park is on a tiny plot, and the coaster is really squeezed in, such that it’s hard to see from just about anywhere. It’s also not too large, by Intamin standards. Part of the problem with the previous Big Dipper was that it was too big and too noisy. There are apartments nearby, and office buildings right up to the edge of the park – the coaster flies right past several balconies, which I would think has to be very distracting. The ride itself has a couple of rolling launches – tire-driven, not LSMs that you would expect, but they’ve still got a decent kick. It’s got a non-inverting loop, which is always a fun element, but then it’s got a dive loop and a corkscrew, so it’s not like they’re afraid of inversions. It’s short, which is to be expected, but it’s good fun. I got a couple of rides, once from the middle and once from the front car. I’m not sure if the back provides a better experience, but the front car was quite good. Like other single-rails, it’s got one-across seating, so when you’re in the front, it feels like it’s just you and the track, which is pretty cool. Unfortunately, it went down for a while when I was in line for the second lap, so rather than going around again, I moved on.

Boomerang

Of all the coasters named “Boomerang” in the world, this one must be the most authentic. It’s not a Vekoma Boomerang model, though: even though those are popular with small parks because of their compact footprint, it would be way too large to fit in Luna Park. The park is just that small. This is still a shuttle coaster, though, but a much smaller Gerstlauer model. It starts with a backwards chain lift, like a Vekoma, drops back through the station, and then there’s a curve, a low helix, and another spike. Then it does the whole thing backwards. One odd thing about this model, though, is that the initial backwards lift hill levels off at the top. I went for the last car because I suspected that the back of the train might get a pop of air going from the level section to the drop. I was right about that, but that was pretty much the only moment of interest on this ride. At 40 feet, it’s barely above kiddie ride status, to be honest. I might have dismissed it, except there was an actual kiddie coaster right next door, and I had to ride something other than Big Dipper to make the trip worth it. The operations were abysmal, and when you combine that with a shuttle coaster, the queue takes forever. So I basically used up the rest of my available time on this thing, and the sun was going down, so I left. That’s about as low-key of a park visit as I’ve ever made, but I wasn’t going to pass up the chance for roller coasters Down Under. Hopefully I can visit one of the major parks in the future.