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The old Big Brother cafe bulldozed today.

Well Vikings revenge has been waiting a long time.... But remember a world class attraction will replace Vikings Revenge in 2019! Oh wait..... At least Vortex will open in December 2019.... well Trident will open in April 2020...... oh wait.... maybe Leviathan might meet its deadline?

I think it might have been @Slick that finally discovered the BB Cafe was the original Hollywood House, albeit modified from it's original form. I can't confirm that though so ultimately, he would be the best person to ask/confirm I'm only tagging him again because it's fun to summon him.

Bruh, I shouldn’t be having to defend myself for a simple question hey, this is some toxic responses and I’m not retarded. Queues were open yes... rides were not taking guests... in my opinion at least if signage says rides open at 10am, I would assume that means guest can generally ride at 10? As I said previously I haven’t been to a rope drop at our parks in a long time, so who knows. -Yes I joined the queue for WWF at probably 5 past 10 after a leisurely stroll and trip to toilet after rope drop. There was about 10 guests in line with empty boats stacked up in load, I heard one of the guests complaining to the Op because they were only going to be at the park for an hour before going to WNW, I bailed because I myself was only really there for an hour or so max and just wanted to ride something. -Walked down to Doomsday with no intention of riding but could see guests waiting with no one on ride or signs of anyone being on the ride, fairly sure the shop was still closed here too. -SDSC shop exit was closed so didn’t bother entering that queue because it clearly wasn’t running guests without an exit, this is maybe 10 past now. -Walk leisurely down main street eyeing DCR lift hill and Supes to see any trains cresting overtop - nothing. -Then I go sit in the Superman courtyard and wait for the first cycle which was as I said about 10.15. -Then I walk over DCR and jump in queue there, and got talking to that bloke who’s trying ride DCR 1000 time’s. Rode DCR and then went home. Did I talk to every ride op individually and ask what was going on, no? But there’s a ‘friendly’ forum that exists that sometimes has some insight into the parks because it’s users frequent them a lot. I wonder if that forum can tell me if the delayed openings have been frequent as of late out of curiosity...

As I said above they don't use the lift hill as a section, the only time I've ever seen them stop the train on the lift hill is either when the chain lift has had electrical issues and it randomly stops mid hill (not seen it happen since the year it launched but no saying it hasn't happened since) or the last ride of the day when they've got two trains, they cut the power to the lift hill for like 30 seconds dunno why but maybe some shut down check.

Just half an hour off for each Park opens at 9:30am and rides start operating at 10am

I know theres obvious reasons behind one train operations during the school period, however I find that visiting on weekends is often worse than in the holidays because of the crowds and one train operations. Ended up waiting 50mins for rivals on Saturday with one train... just my opinion that they should run two trains on weekends too, but yes I do understand logistics behind it

15 years what have we been doing with our lives

It’s normally the kiss of death for a trip report if you post it at time when bigger news is happening, so after waiting it out, it’s time for the next instalment from Japan. Parue Espana – Shima Spain Village https://www.parkz.com.au/parks/JP/Shima/Parque_Espana_-_Shima_Spain_Village/ (over 200 pics published in the Parkz gallery) This place is in a bit of a pain in the butt location at the bottom of a peninsular on Ise bay about 90km South of Nagoya as the crow flies. However it’s over a 2 hour train ride because its so mountainous. I got to the town of Ugata (the station used to reach the park) the night before after my day at Nagashima Spaland. I did this by getting a bus from Nagashima to Kuwana, then using a Kintetsu limited express train to Ugata. The train is a bit pricey because you have to purchase both the base point to point ticket, plus an additional surcharge ticket to cover the fact its limited express. A word of warning. If rain is forecast, you’re probably better off rescheduling if you can. Neither Pyrenees nor Gran Montserrat run in any sort of rain or spitting, so you’ll end up doing a lot of waiting around if the weather isn’t good. In hindsight, if I was planning on doing this again, I probably would have based myself in Nagoya and daytripped rather than trying to work in a loop through destinations / parks and had a spare day. Would have meant the option to shift things around, plus return to Nagashima for re-rides (A subject for a future trip report) The park is quite good, and if you are going here, there’s really no need to visit Lagunasia. The main reason for Parque Espana is of course to ride Pyrenees, a superb B&M inverted coaster. There was a brief break in the rain earlier in the morning so it was testing when I arrived. However it started raining again so no dice. The day started on Iron Bull , an indoor coaster with some over the top restraints and a couple of lift hills. Moderate drops and helices abound. At the midpoint you come to a stop in a boiler room themed environment where there are a few special effects and flashing lights. Kiddy Montserrat was my 600th coaster since still no Pyrneees. I did like the Gaudi theming. The park did seem to make an effort to stay on point. The section it was in was probably the emptiest feeling. Batalla Del Alcazar Adelante was nearby. Like that magic powder ride at Lagunaisa, its a revolving dark ride, except the vehicles always stay facing towards the middle, where there is a big diorama in the middle of the ride where you shoot killer centipedes. What set this apart was the way the vehicles could slide back and forth on the spot, bringing you closer to the middle of the turntable. There was also an Alice in Wonderland walkthrough where you were given a magic wand to interact with some rudimentary effects. Credit to the girl running it for reading out a full english instruction card for me! Illumination Ride Nutcracker was also up this end of the park. The classical ballet soundtrack gives this ride illusions of grandeur, in reality its a detuned version of its a small world, with 2D sets and lots of fairy lights. Had a chicken katsu curry here for lunch: With no signs of the rain abating, I made my way down to the lower section of the park. The place is quite impressively themed, and carries that mid 90s vibe when theme parks seemed to be at their peak. One hidden gem everyone bangs on about is the Escalator ride. Flashing lights meets spanish pop music. It was ok, and yes probably unexpected for most guests. Down the bottom is slow boat ride called Feliz Cruise. It used to lead into a full on dark ride, but they chopped it short and now it's just outside. As well as big sets it had some funny dioramas too. There was a ship you could have a wander around in. There was a low key funhouse called Choquy's Mystery House. Not much in terms of physical obstacles, but plenty of optical illusions. One i thought was cool was a false hallway that actually turned out to be a prisim type shape pointed towards you when you got a bit closer. The main attraction at the lower end of the park turned out to be Don Quixotes Magical Flight A peter pan rip off, and probably of similar length, with some good production values. I decided to hoof back up the hill, where you pass through a Spanish Village. If i had been smarter i probably would have gone downhill through the village and come back up via the escalator. One of the buildings had a trick art exhibition. Back at the top of the park and still no sign of Pyrenees opening, so I delved further into the park. Grabbed some Pizza in the main street. Japanese style with Teriyaki chicken, seaweed flakes and mayo, This section was an entire indoor kids area. More Gaudi stuff I saw there was a 360 cinema, and here I got a proper dose of Japanese eccentricity, being treated to the most surreal kids 3d movie i have ever seen. I had no idea what was going on. It was a couple of kids wandering around in a spooky forest with seemingly random wierd stuff going on. It was all in Japanese of course, so even more baffling. I thought perhaps that would be the end of it, but a couple of weeks ago, I found who produced the film, and there's an english dub! https://www.thejuice.com/#https://www.thejuice.com/portfolio/hansel_gretel/ The linking seems to be wierd, but its the 45th movie in the portfolio: Skip to about the 4 min mark to see how im not lying about the wierdness. Hmmm, what else to do in the park. I was gonna wait till the very end to make sure i got on Pyrneees. At one point it seemed like the rain had stopped and they had commenced testing, but nope they got a few laps in before halting again. Arrrrgh. I had a good look around the Spanish museum in the park. The highlight was a cinema showing 80s stock footage from Spain that had evidently been produced just prior to park opening and never updated since. I did a re-ride on Don Quixotes Magical flight.... (Photo not good enough for database, but at one point you went under the sea) I also took a wander through the Fairytale village they had. I had been keeping a keen eye on the rain radar all day, and it looked like the last of the rain bands had passed over the area, and right on cue Pyrenees commenced testing, so I parked myself at the entrance...If i was gonna get a ride, i wanted to snare the front. After around 45 mins of testing, and with about 90 mins of park opening time to go, Pyrenees opened, to some high fives with a couple of locals and the attendant who had seen this funny foreigner waiting out to ride this thing. In the end I got 3 laps (front row, a back row, and then another near the back) until i had to leave, would have happily done more, but beggars cant be choosers, and i was thankful to have not missed it, the memories of missing both Eejanaika and Ultra Twister still there. As for the ride? It's mental, and lives up to the hype of being one of the best inverted coasters. Steel first drop, a loop that whips you around, a good zero g, another tall, but tight loop with plenty of force. The ride then really shines when it takes a downhill left turn at full speed into a trench and does a cobra roll with plenty of kick. From there it does a forceful helix, almost like a horizontal loop. The latter part of the course is a bit more drawn out, but still fast, doing a corkscrew along the way. For good measure theres actually a bunny hop right at the end that gives a good bit of air....enough to elicit a few screams on the train anyway. So there you have it, i came, i saw, i conquered. Last but not least i got a single lap on Gran Montserrat. Again, would have liked to ride more, but i had also been closed all day, and with the time till i had to get my bus it was either another go on this or a 3rd go on Pyrenees. Normally mine trains are slow and crap, this one isn't. It was built by mack, and just blitzes through the course at high speed, with heaps of helices. The only other that comes close is Mine Train Ulven at Bakken. I skipped the flume that runs through it due to the cold wet weather. As the sun set rapidly i got a night ride on Pyrenees before heading to the exit. So yes, definitley try to get here. Its worth the trip. Pyrenees is one of the best coasters in Japan, and the rest of the park is good quality (Abeit a little stained, though in better nick than Lagunasia) In normal circumstances, i think you'd be done here in 4 to 5 hours if its quiet, though with my bad luck with the weather i stuck around all day and spent a bit of time sitting around.

That's what I originally thought and used to think until I read @Slick's interview with John Longhurst and this was in it: Please correct me if I am wrong because this topic does really interest me The interview as well: http://roache.co/2018/03/28/john-longhurst-dreamworld-origins/

In my experience Movie World do start admitting guests to rides at 10:00AM. Have to agree with @Spotty on the inefficiency of running SE without a dedicated unload although not as bad as the short period they tried running without an entry host. During February most of my weekday visits had the load operator stop assigning gates to unload the train, then return to reassign gates.

Moving forward isn't, but the loss of the cafe does have some nostalgia attached to it. I'm fairly certain that at least part of this structure was the original 'hollywood house' on property when Longhurst bought the land, wasn't it? So its a fairly significant, and pretty much one of the last remnants of original Dreamworld. I'm not against progress, and moving forward, but it's still a sad day for those who remember it and know its history.

This sounds very similar to what I was experiencing. It felt like the whole park was just running at half or less speed, and was behind on everything for the day. It was EXTREMELY packed. As soon as everything opened (which mind you was at least 5-10 minutes before expected) The lines were straight away at 60 minutes and didn't show any signs of fluctuating for the rest of the day. I know their operations aren't great but like come on! They shouldn't have been understaffed because this was early Jan, I just really hope they can up their game. The only ride I was able to get on multiple times was GL but even that was running 4 trains but not the most efficient way I could tell.

However, we have two possible causes here - virus, or inquest. The stocks dropped mostly since the inquest findings were handed down, with virus impacts being felt in some way for the past month. It's at least arguable its unrelated No, however, from what I have read about Corona, it is more easily transmitted, which fudges the numbers of mortality. If 1 in 10 dies of corona, and 1 in 5 dies of the flu, the flu seems worse - but if 1 person gives the flu to 1.5 people on average, and one person gives corona to 2.5 people, then you end up with patient zero infecting more people, leading to more dead. ***Disclaimer - I don't have official numbers, and didn't have time to find them, so this is all just to demonstrate the difference between mortality rate and transmission rates, using the above *completely made up* infection rates. Based on those *completely made up rates* the first person to die is in the third transmission step of corona, but the fourth transmission step of the flu. By the 10th transmission step, almost 1500 would die by corona, and only 35 by the flu. This is also assisted by the fact that we have strains of the flu every year, usually with only minor changes, so many of them have vaccinations ready, or that can be rapidly adjusted to suit. We know when the flu arrives - usually winter time, and we all get jabs and have posters and ads and signs reminding people to practice good hygiene. We also have governments that report health scares quickly, and listen to doctors, and act quickly and proactively to implement controls...

Perhaps they stop the train on the lift so that they can park the other train into the maintenance bay, which requires switching etc. Having the first train out of station would prevent 'ooopses' happening if the second train was released from the brake run and the track switch was in the wrong position. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but taking additional precautions is how you prevent injury and collisions. All rides? you witnessed every single ride in the park, some spaced quite some distance apart, open at precisely 10:15? If we didn't know already, the inquest findings revealed that a ride can't open if the opening check signoff sheet is missing a signature. Perhaps the ride or two you were near were missing that? I'd rather rides open late, with a thorough maintenance signoff, than be opened on time without it.

Still not as deadly as influenza. Mortality rate is lower too so far. Media will (and are) ride this into the ground using fear to make money. Everyone else will suffer and they will have an active hand in sending some businesses to the wall. So that means we havent reached anywhere near peak yet. The stock market is the greatest risk. If things keep falling, retirement/super savings are the least of our worries. Super funds are some of the largest private financers of infrastructure projects in the country. They have billions of dollars at their disposal and even the federal government go to them for loans. If we see another round of "corrections", what does it start to do if their own investments are being impacted and the economy is going backwards. Will they be so interested in making a couple hundred billion dollar investment in federal plans over the next 5 years?

Should we start taking bets on how long Arkham will be SBNO before being demolished? My guess is 412 days.

Can’t be to long now till the structure starts going up. Unwrapping more of the ride component today. Also appears someone’s put the boot in as workers now there on Sunday and still there at 5:10 today.

Or walking in and out of the gate a lot of times

Chris Deaves @Spotty. Often said to be the guy who killed some of villages most popular and iconic rides/ attractions.

Dreamworld’s senior management team is appointed by and reports to Ardent. They negotiate and accept remuneration and bonuses tied to the performance of Dreamworld and in many cases share-based incentives that put their motives directly in line with that of the parent company. There were no evil corporate overlords forcing decisions upon a hapless Dreamworld team. Just systemic and cultural failings at every possible level of the organisation. You can perhaps argue that Dreamworld as a brand (or some other intangible concept) was a victim of its owners’ shortcomings but to suggest that Dreamworld as an organisation is a victim takes away a lot of blame that falls to them for many, many short-sighted, naïve and demonstrably reckless decisions in the years both before and since Ardent took ownership.

I know what you mean...I joined in January 2003......17 years ago!!! Time does sure fly when your having fun!!

It was several years ago, before any of these members were here. TLDR there was a member who believed that the LED eyes on the scooby doo cars were fire sensors, and the cars had the ability to reverse backwards through the dark ride section if a fire was detected.

needs to cover all angles because they're in a fixed position, whereas the ones on scooby doo, being mounted on the front of the ride vehicles, are capable of moving around the entire ride envelope...

Seems like we might be nearing the end of our only full sized inverted coaster. I’m actually a big fan of Arkham, just needs a second train to improve the terrible capacity.

Well if they do decide to tear it down, they better replace it with a B&M