Travel Wires

Big MACK at Dreamworld

Dreamworld, Australia’s biggest theme park, has closed Tower of Terror II. The 23-year-old roller coaster, which reached 160km/h, was shut down last week as part of a $50 million overhaul. New attractions will include a water complex with six slides, due to open over summer, and the $30m MACK roller coaster that will reach 100km/h. With stunning sensitivity, Dreamworld made the announcement on the eve of the anniversary of the 2016 Thunder River Rapids tragedy where four people were killed. That ride was closed following a 31-day inquest; its findings have not been released. In England, Alton Towers park has a a 250km/h rollercoaster due to open in 2023.

Not a ghost of a chance

A haunted tour experience that spans two US states and lasts up to 10 hours requires participants to clear a background check, pass physical and mental exams and sign a 40-page waiver. Russ McKamey, owner of The McKamey Manor Experience, across the Tennessee-Alabama border, offers $31,500 to anyone who completes the tour but says no one has. He records each attempt and posts videos online, showing participants quitting in humiliation. Kris Smith, 37, said: “You have to pull out your own teeth, there’s a chance of getting a tattoo, a chance of your fingernails getting pulled out.” He tried three times but quit before signing the waiver, after being buried alive in a coffin and after hypnosis that gave him a “complete panic attack”.

Take a room at Versailles

To something more sedate: the first hotel in the grounds of France’s magnificent Chateau de Versailles will open next year. Le Grand Controle transforms historic buildings not far from the Hall of Mirrors into 14 luxury suites, an Alain Ducasse restaurant, a wellness centre and indoor swimming pool. Expect views over the parterre of the Orangery, a building that houses orange, lemon, oleander, palm and pomegranate trees in winter, and a vast ornamental pool excavated by Swiss Guards in the 1600s. Bookings open in December.

. . . or fly to Dagobah

Coming soon to an airport not far away — a Star Wars- themed plane where passengers board to the movie soundtrack and watch R2D2 and C3PO in the safety video. The United Airlines Boeing 737’s livery will feature spacecraft from the movie franchise and lightsabers on the tail. On board,

Star Wars- themed amenity kits and headrests with emblems of the Resistance and the First Order. Yeah, it’s a tie-in: the plane’s launch coincides with release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

— travel@nzherald.co.nz