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  1. Today
  2. Fabricators are booked out with regular QR replacement rails and the new Caloundra line.
  3. The mills have their own navvy teams, who keep everything running during cutting season, then do heavy maintenance during the off season (bridges etc). Cross River Rail plus general QR maintenance is pretty much constant too, some massive works coming up around Christmas. So labour is stretched and also probably out of the parks budget with the current demands elsewhere.
  4. Yeah, the track behind Rivertown is completely gone and the section near Jane’s Restaurant has been paved over.
  5. How much would need fabrication though? Did they destroy the track completely during construction of Rivertown? It looked to me like they protected it fairly well.
  6. I get that there are probably few fabricators, but this isn't really a niche theme-park thing. Queensland has nineteen 2ft gauge sugar cane railways covering over 3000kms (a longer distance than Melbourne to Cairns). There is absolutely infrastructure in QLD to build/maintain/service them.
  7. Yesterday
  8. It’s ridiculous to think it won’t come back or an issue is a hurdle . All fixable in time. Be patient. The only thing big I think is coming now is the claw .
  9. I spoke with the CEO, Greg a couple weeks ago about this. He indicated that the train will still be returning to a full loop circuit. There have been delays in rebuilding the track as fabricators/installer are harder to come by than you might think for train tracks. When this might happen, I don’t know, but Greg has expressed to be in the past how important the train is for the park and I get the impressed getting rid of it entirely isn’t an option.
  10. Yeah, I have to say, I’m really starting to worry this is turning into a Sea World monorail situation (where it was “definitely coming back”….until it wasn’t). On my last visit, I noticed the sign in the Main Street station that said the train “will return to the full loop soon” wasn’t there and the announcement on the train itself about the loop returning didn’t seem to play. Plus the remaining track and infrastructure between Jane’s and the Wildlife station has been completely let go and is gradually becoming more and more dilapidated. I’ve also received a bunch of mixed responses from staff when asked about it coming back, with some suggesting it won’t ever return. Either way, it’s pretty clear things haven’t gone to plan and I really hope the park can figure out a way to get the full loop back, as it definitely needs to come back. It would be such a shame to lose yet another classic transport ride (or at least major part of it) in our parks.
  11. Perhaps they are reconsidering it due to “BIG” announcement they have coming which whatever it is could hamper the completion of the full circuit track?
  12. Visited dreamworld a few days ago, and asked a few team members about the delays to the railway returning and no one would give a real response. One staff member jokingly rolled her eyes and said “yea don’t ask” which doesn’t fill me with confidence. I also emailed dreamworld again to enquire on its return to full circuit as the website had been updated and the wording about ‘will return to full circuit soon’ has been removed. They did not respond to the question about the railway. Is there a possibility that something went wrong during Rivertown construction, and now they simply can’t bring the train back? Surely there is something more to this than just a standard delay? Originally it was due to return to full circuit as a priority ‘shortly after Rivertown opening’, then it was ‘aiming for May’, and now months later all suggestions of its return have been removed from the website and we’re in the second half of the year. Keen to hear some thoughts? Personally I think it’s such a shame, you regularly hear comments of disappointment regarding its short shuttle style experience. Something feels so incomplete without a full circuit. I also find the lack of regular kinetic energy around the park very noticeable.
  13. Last week
  14. Just ballparking, but roughly how high was the photo taken, or is the fence up close?
  15. Movie World has reopened the area around WWF despite the ride still being closed. Here’s what the new fence looks like up close. I noticed they’ve cut down a bunch of trees around the ride meaning you can now easily see into the back of house maintenance areas.
  16. There was no glossing over, and I didn't say disclaimers cover all. What part of didn't you understand?
  17. Makes sense. A lawyer goes to a theme park with their family. The kids are having a great time on the roller coaster, but the lawyer is looking increasingly distressed. Finally, the lawyer yells, "This is outrageous! I'm going to sue! There are too many twists and turns, and I can't keep track of the evidence!
  18. @DaptoFunlandGuy You glossed over it way, WAY, WAY too simply by saying disclaimers cover all though. They simply don't. As far as discrimination goes, they also have a duty of care to identify that you are greater risk of injury or further injury if you were to ride, especially in the case where it goes against the manufacturer's rules or regulation for their ride. They are not required to make expect medical decisions based on what they can visualise or what (lies) told to them, and likewise, they cannot allow you to place yourself in a dangerous position even if you feel it is discriminating. You can twist it to mean anything you want, and it frequently is, but the intention of the act does not overwrite the potential to do harm. So it becomes a case of do what is reasonable and argue the fine points in court. The groundwork for what people can ride comes direct from manufacturers, then external risk assessments are done in relation with SOP's and that draws a very clear line in the sand before it's even handed over to operations to manage. What is and isn't an acceptable risk is ENTIRELY down to how much responsibility you wish to take in addition to these controls. Pro tip, it's usually very little. You are significantly increasing your exposure, and, even in the event that you did everything right, or you felt you did everything appropriately, you can still be sued for injuries. Post early 2000's public liability insurance crisis, there isn't a company in the country that won't ALWAYS err on the side of caution, even if that means becoming more risk aversive and excluding more people. Then, when you throw in it's a potentially dangerous, risk filled environment combined with the operational style of village, clearly evident/demonstrated through years of people questioning why/how they do things (when nobody else seems to), you get what you get. The problem is the world has changed, and stupid people's expectations are completely screwed. Nobody owes you anything. You pay money to enter their world, they tell you what you can and can't do, end of discussion. Unfortunately, it's flipped, and the opposite is true in the minds of a lot of people these days. It's like businesses should bend to the will or the demands of their customer/guests just because they promise to offer a token (paltry) gesture of good will that is so meager in comparison it wouldn't even cover the initial filing fee of application to sue for injury or damages. The more stupid the general public becomes, the more generalised restrictions and controls will be found because it's evident people cannot be held accountable for their own actions anymore, so you have to try to limit your exposure instead.
  19. Each one of those "bulbs" are a 3 in 1 SMD. Both displays are custom Vuepix LED screens developed for ULA. The joker head is a custom GM series LED screen. It's still made up of a bunch of modules that connect together, but it was designed with greater LED pitch as it's purely signage, there's no infill panel it's completely open. Obviously more a bespoke design/shape, but they had a lot of problems with the GL panels over the years too, including water damage. Even if you don't lose a panel, you can lose a signal or power module that will take out an entire group and you're just left with a big portion of your sign missing. Wanted to get away from these sorts of issues. Not sure if cost comes into it a lot when you are building a custom 130sqm sign. Thats coverage about half the size of an average house. When you think of it that way, it starts to really drive home how large the sign is.
  20. You're absolutely right, it's a minefield. there are ramifications for having blanket bans and the GS\FA-RN assessment routes are the best options all round. This is why I said they can assess, they can recommend, and they can absolutely prevent someone riding where safety is a factor. However, they can't pretend that some fanciful suggestion that you "might aggravate a pre-existing injury" is reason enough to discriminate. It is more a matter of degree and a balance of all the factors at play - considering the likelihood of it happening, as well as the consequences (or severity) of what could happen. (or to put it another way - if we stopped people from riding rides because there was the mere possibility they could be hurt - nobody would ever ride anything again!) In the current example, being in a brace that is custom fitted, strapped on with numerous velcro straps and\or press studs - the person is less likely to be injured in it than out of it, and it's highly unlikely to come off and injure anyone else. The assessment at that point likely boils down to whether they have hand grip strength capable for evacuations and\or whether the loss of the use of one hand is an excluding factor. Typically this wouldn't exclude people from all but the most extreme rides. I'm being very simplistic, and this is in no way formal advice or suggesting the parks are or are not doing the right thing based on their alignment with what i've suggested - i'm simply making a very long-winded point that they can't just say "no casts, braces or slings" as this would not meet their obligations under the DDA.
  21. Trouble is, the ride at your own risk thing doesn't really work anymore. Why? 1) Because it doesn't stop people attempting to drag you through courts, which ultimately costs money even if they lose or drop the lawsuit. 2) It all impacts your insurance premiums. Underwriters are increasingly setting the tone for what they will consider acceptable and what they won't. The more claims you have to make, the more notice they take, premiums increase, greater restrictions are applied. 3) In Australia, disclaimers are basically not worth the paper they are written on. Basically, from a legal standpoint, you cannot knowingly allow or permit something you know could have a detrimental or have a negative impact, either physically, mentally or monetarily.How they are served makes one hell of a difference too, especially when things like tickets for entry are concerned. When you are sued the courts look at if you were actively notifying the persons of the disclaimers, when and where, and if you were just relying on a printed document or statement somewhere. It's not good enough to just basically sit back and rely on the document anymore. You can write all kinds of things in disclaimers and even have people sign them, but there are so many laws and acts that basically override them. And that's without the whole issue of negligence being able to be established which makes you culpable regardless of what is written. Village used to go one further and send some guests to first aid where the RN/EN could actually look at the type of injury and make a more educated judgement than guest services staff. I'd hate to think they stopped doing this because, aside from being a legal minefield for the parks, nothing ruins an entire family's day at a theme park like arriving and being told one of your kids is a complete bystander for the day. If that's going to happen, you'd at least like someone with some sort of medical training to be making judgement calls that will completely ruin your day.
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