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Taken when kids were the parents responsibility. Taken when it's your fault I wasn't watching my kids.

Big ugly fences are just as much of an Australian staple as big ugly sheds. Bonus points for if they have the 'you will die a painful death jumping over this fence' sign posted on them. And my favourite; the entrance to our theme parks premier resort!

Is this the right thread to drop in my love for the the queue rails for Bermuda/Log Ride/Rapids

Oooh, a challenge! It's a little harder, but I found some!

Legit. A woman on Reddit the other day asked who was to blame for a toddler getting bitten by a dog who was tied up to a pole by a playground - the dog owner or the parent of the toddler. She obscured which role she had in her question. Most folks answered honestly that the parent should have been watching her kid - at which point she revealed she was the parent, and had another child to look after and couldn't possibly have looked after two, and the toddler was very quick and that mean nasty dog owner (its a chihuahua) should have taken the dog to the dog park a block away instead of the children's park where the dog owner's own child was also currently playing. She also doubled down to excuse her behaviour because she was stoned at the time, but its ok because it's not like she was drunk. If I remember correctly, the last iteration of 'keep your kids away from my train line' fence that they had was themed 'rusty' corrugated sheets, bordered with old slabs of timber. This is a perfectly acceptable, themed fence (albeit blocking the view of little johnny), but since then we've re-aligned the rail line, and paved a new path at ground level to offer an alternative to spaghetti junction, and new fencing was needed. I see this as 'we need a fence, and for now it needs to be cheap and functional.' This is exactly what they built. They've come back from a bad place and right now they're achieving minimum safe levels on a shoestring. When the alternative is 'don't open it because it isn't safe', it's better for them to trade out looking below standard but safe, than closed because they can't afford gold plated wrought iron gates. The big test will be if they upgrade the fence to something nicer when they can afford to, or whether it will just be left as 'adequate' until it isn't anymore before they do anything. Their gardens look nice though.

This one always stuck out to me: FWIW I dont really have a problem with black chainlink depending on the context. It really depends if you want to make the fence a feature, or make it "go away"

I stopped in recently and... yeah. Not a great vibe there at all. I'm sure there's a million excuses ("the Covid"), but there weren't any excuses made for still charging the prices they do. For reference my wife (who does not at all stay up to date with the parks and isn't interested in doing so) came away saying the place "is looking very sad". Interestingly we went to Top Golf afterward and the bay attendant asked how the park was and when my wife said it was pretty sad she agreed and noted that several others had said the same thing this week. Justice League was a complete and utter shambles. There's no point operating the ride in that type of condition, except if you're trying to cover up for a lot of your other rides being down (which, really, isn't actually making that situation any better). The guns had a life of their own and bore no resemblance to what you did with them. A significant proportion of the usually-lit set pieces were not lit. The projection elements (where visible) were out of sync, non-interactive, and of very poor visual quality. Elements like the mist screen didn't have a hope in hell of working. Photo screens at the exit mostly did not work, and for those that did the quality of the photograph was abysmal. Superman was down, which is a lost drawcard. Batwing was down, which created a zone of the park right as you enter where your view is dominated right away by rides you can't ride (Batwing, Superman, Arkham). West was down, which creates an entire dead wing of the park, especially given Doomsday does not announce its presence well to passers-by, and frankly is pretty sucky and unpopular. The kids area is probably around two flat rides (and dare I say a play structure) short of being good. If you have a young kid you will probably miss the height for Speedy so you're going to be restricted solely to the carousel, JDS, Sylvester and Tweety Cages (if your kid is okay to ride alone), and railroad. Railroad is mighty uncomfortable for an adult and the rope-based restraint system ensures capacity is very low, so you're probably not going to want to do that many times. Not having more characters doing walk-arounds of this zone is a missed opportunity. I appreciate that they will do photos at times throughout the day at the entrance to the area (the backdrop to the photos is an odd-choice though), but it's not the same as a chance encounter with a character as you explore the area for the kids. I'm not sure if it's a new thing but it's a shame that staff won't also take a photo with your phone in addition to their professional one so that more families can get photos together. I'm sure there's a Covid excuse brewing there, but that doesn't feel like the motivation when you're in the park. On the topic of characters and photos though; setting Batman up with Robin and the batmobile at the head of the main drag behind a red rope next to a sandwich board that spruiks $80/photo with them is fucking gross. I lost count of how many kids I heard on the way past say they wanted to go and say hi to Batman only for them not to be able to. Fantastic guest experience. On the plus side the folks appearing as Shaggy/Scooby were really fantastic with the guests whenever we saw them, and I sincerely hope the park looks after them. I'm not sure what's so hard about getting wait time signs semi-accurate out the front of major rides (especially given there's far less to keep up to date with half the park seemingly down), but we never saw one that was even within a multiple of accuracy. It was frustrating watching Rivals advertise a 10 minute wait when it was a 45 minute wait, and all the more frustrating watching the load attendant on several occasions accidentally mis-count riders to be admitted and then rather than correcting the mistake when it was found instead just dispatching with empty seats. That type of thing is hard to hide from guests when they have 45 minutes to watch it happen over and over and think "that could have been me on there". The parade seems worse every time I see it. Now we are down to the point of the floats never stopping and characters staying on them which doesn't make it very interactive or memorable. Again, I'm sure excuses re: Covid, but jesus, fleeting contact and outside area. Doesn't even need to be contact, really. I also would avoid having the characters on the floats ignore the customers at either side of the road and play to the crewmember with the un-whitebalanced handycam for the big screens (that near-nobody is watching). The stunt show was also worse than I remembered. No fireball, no car jumping, little comedy, laughably poor quality LED screen. I'm not sure who it's aimed at entertaining, but I'm guessing it's Showtime FMX. Food and beverage is slightly better at Movie World, but generally abysmal across the VRTP parks. Rivals is still good once you get on it. Didn't bother with GL. Scooby still had broken and crappy effects in the first half, but the disco room was quite passable. Clearly the maintenance-related items are issues the park is choosing to have, because a short walk away at AOS they aren't choosing to have the same problems.

geez that is so sad to see when you look at what that area once was. The removal of all those trees has not helped, but just the simplicity of having some grass, simple gardens and timber fencing makes such a difference.

Yeah cheers - I was hoping someone would bring these fences up and inevitably lead me to the point everyone missed because they were too busy playing into the Village vs Dreamworld trope that's been done to death. Disneyland had crappy fences at the front when it first opened. Over time they've improved it and this is what they look like now: This is what that area looked like when it first opened: This is what it looks like now: You don't arrive from the first picture to the last picture in either scenario by one massive leap overnight. It's usually additive over time or subtractive over time (also known as death by a thousand cuts). Consider then that the fence is symbolically and literally another stake in the ground where the park has lost a just a tidbit of charm. Initially it's the retirement of one of the steam trains. "It's okay Slick, they've got another, don't be so hard on them." Then it's retirement of the steam trains altogether. "Slick don't be so petty by hyper-focussing!" Then Dreamworld pulls out the waterfall and lets the stations and their gardens fall into disarray. "Look it's just one bit here and there, don't worry about it." Then the next year a station gets removed. "Nothing was there anyway, who cares." Then the train line gets shortened, then there's gravel instead of grass, then ugly fences go up. "Bloody hell Slick, give them a break, Village put up an ugly fence once so why can't Dreamworld?" Do this a few more times and one day you'll find guests and enthusiasts alike walk around the park going "jeese, there's no charm left, I wonder what happened." And it won't be immediately obvious because it's not just one thing that makes the difference, it's a thousand things over many years, one of which is the chain-link fence. Reading my opinion and thinking i'm hyper-focussing on the fence in order to nit-pick and then pointing out a competitor's fence is just missing the point completely and doubling down in the aforementioned trope. Consider the bigger picture, is this an additive step or a subtractive step? Given what once was, it's a subtractive step. Granted, wider context, Village should also be held to the same standard. And thanks to Dreamworld, theme parks in Australia are a litigious nightmare and fences are a necessary evil. But c'mon, you've got rocks in your head if you think this looks good in isolation.

While a standard fence like this ain't super pretty or look great for the semi-professional photographer, it's great for one category. The small kids, they can now see the train through the fence. It will be some form of requirement for the fence also based on the safety and speed of the train. So, even tho this ain't pretty. I hope the kids enjoy it.

Dreamworld have recently increased Locals Pass pricing, Saver $99 (No change) Value $109 > $119 Locals $119 > $129 Renewals are going from $89 to $99 too, absolutely no issue with it in my opinion and think its smart to retain the $99 (sub $100) budget tier.

https://www.hussrides.com/en/classic-rides/top-spin-suspended I think you were looking at the wrong ride model. The TOP SPIN® CLASSIC has 40 seats. TOP SPIN® SUSPENDED has 38 as stated on the manufacturers website.

Stainless steel soothes the soul. Bermuda could do no wrong. Don't fight it. Why does DW have a fence around it? People are dying to get out. (still to early💁‍♂️)

Agree with all your points except this one. Can confirm that Queensland's biggest residential (detatched) dwelling builder frequently utilises river pebble\rock (pretty much Dreamworld's product in question) in place of grass as it is cheaper to acquire, install en-masse, and maintenance costs are practically zero. (The safety hazard is a good counter point however). No, but you can fix budgetary ones. If you put it this way - 'make the fence better quality, skip maintenance on 'x' ride for a week' - people would slaughter you. We don't know what the balance sheet looks like. What we do know is we're seeing their competitors tighten the belts and add plenty of upcharges, while letting maintenance lapse on non-essential items. If that's happening over at Village - we have to presume it is the same (or worse) at Dreamworld. We can only speculate as to why the decision was made as it was. We can agree it could look better. But - (and this isn't a village vs DW argument) - there's a big difference between fencing costs by the metre and a few bottles of zero weedspray. Oh Boy! Worn steel rails will never beat the hand-polished lengths of Kopper-Log rounds. I can still vividly feel every knot and bump in the timber rails surrounding HMS Endeavour at Wonderland many years ago, and I remember thinking about the many years and literal MILLIONS of hands that had slid along those logs, polishing each beam one stroke at a time (Shut up and get out of the gutter Skeet) This. Much the same as Wonderland, Sea World's old queues were made with a lot of Kopper logs and all were well worn and polished by years of queueing riders. Can't agree enough. Modern chains just don't cut it (and are too fricking noisy when kids bash them against the also-metal posts at each end.

After we have finished with fences we are moving onto queue handrails.

I agree that this is an actual point. There's a few degrees to this though. I think there is a case to be made for unthemed industrial fences around something like a roller coaster. A coaster fence should not only be a barrier to stop you accidentally getting in, it should be difficult to cross as well as mentally visible. A pretty fence that doesnt look like it means business is more tempting for someone to try and cross. A fence along a mini train line isn't the same as what's needed around a coaster though. A train is something you try and integrate to the scenery of the park. I don't think you can have the sort of fence as indicatedain the postcard above, but I think there is a spot where you can say 'functional fence above and beyond what's needed' and 'looks nice'. The chain link between the train and MDMC I don't have an issue with. Particualy if you were to put some plants in front of it. The train line though surely doesn't need much more than a waist high fence that you can't easily climb and some gardens in front of it. It's a long walk past not much to the back of the park, make it vaugely pleasant.

You hit the nail on the head.

i think the park down the road having half the rides down, the ones opened (scooby and JL) effects not even working and the park being presented horribly is a bigger issue then a fence at the back of a theme park no one is really going to pay attention to but hard core theme park fans.

@Slick If you were running DW you would send it broke in a week. Sometimes sacrifices must be made and a wire fence at the back of a park is one of them. I had no problem if SW went with a shed because of budget restraints but I had an issue with the colour smacking you in the face.

Capacity stats have pretty much always been fiction. The only way you're hitting that number is by ignoring loading and unloading and just sending it again as soon as the ride finishes

You must be Walt Disney reincarnated. Finally, somebody considering other people’s point of view. Why would a kid want to walk down a tunnel of fences that they can’t see over or have an obstructed view on what’s on the other side? You just created a nice looking ladder that isn't a fence.

Yeah, just on the staff shortages thing "because Covid" or whatever. To the paying customer when they can seem to find plenty enough staff to wheel around popcorn or churro wagons or operate cheap upcharge carny games but can't adequately staff the attractions people have paid for you tend to feel pretty ripped off. I appreciate these are differing skillsets, but we are talking about by-and-large unskilled labour here for both, and Covid ain't new.

^A long rant but very worthwhile of a read - especially for Village exec. Well said. In particular: You're god-damn right about that. And in my opinion I feel it comes across as contempt for the park-guest. Top-Golf has to deliver a certain standard, and it does (mostly). AOS is dinner and a show for ~$100 and you don't want Mr Dad coming out at the end of the show demanding a refund as that can be very bad for business. But somewhere along the line, it became acceptable to do that in the parks. Ride down? don't blame us, government safety regulations. Check the T&Cs, we're allowed to do this and you can't say shit about it. Come back next time. I've deleted number 3 because I think everyone has coasted about as far as they can on that excuse. If you're still blaming covid because your 2019-era business model hasn't been updated to account for covid, and the different strategies required to operate a business in this time, that's on you for not pivoting, and is no longer something that can be gotten away with with a "but covid". As mentioned, staffing issues are a possibility - but things like weeds, gardens, broken speakers... this isn't high-tech shit that requires much effort. A little weed spray here and there, generous application of rake and a few bags of woodchip et al... Heck, Wonderland ran a 7 zone audio system out of one room and the speakers and speaker housings were built IN HOUSE when they couldn't get the genuine dino's from the US by a total of 4 guys. It takes a level of knowledge, sure, but ultimately its about priority or giving a shit. If they can staff S&E with FOH operators, camera operators, etc - they could divert someone to work on these speakers for a few days - in the off season - mid-week - for a few days and you wouldn't notice. Don't run your camera down main street for a day. A lot of this comes down to caring and attention to detail. 'Reining in the spending' doesn't mean the 'weed killer' budget got cut. It just means nobody is paying enough attention to detail anymore, because they don't care as long as the one-shots, fast tracks, and all the other upcharges keep rolling in. I just had to repost this again - one, to say I agree with it - and two, because it needs to be noticed.