Richard
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Posts posted by Richard
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No question that the last few years have seen a turnaround of sorts, but we're setting the bar pretty low when things like a standard 5 or 10 year paint job are top of the list. Credit where credit is due though: this newfound conscious effort at maintaining and repairing what they've got is a welcome change.
3 hours ago, Santa07 said:if they didn't want to look after it, HWSW wouldn't be a thing
That's probably more a case of needing a new train for operation/maintenance purposes so tying it in with a quick rebranding to justify the expense from an ROI perspective.
One thing that the Eureka Mountain ordeal demonstrated quite clearly is that they're very keen to mine old gold so to speak. Cost of keeping an old ride going -- even if it's an old clunker -- is cheaper than investing in something new.
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Firstly it's worth reiterating that this isn't a knee-jerk cut of all expenditure but rather an apparent renewed focus on ROI. It's also worth pointing out that despite the attendance hit they took this period, VRTP is performing OK in comparison to other divisions and the company suggests they have every confidence that the post-Thunder River Rapids pain will be short-lived.
A very simplistic way of looking at major theme park CapEx as it stands (or stood):
- FY17 - Doomsday
- FY18 - Coaster
- FY19 - Topgolf
- FY20 - Sea World attraction
Simplistic because some of these investments are clearly spread over several years, include expenses that would predate this timeline, and of course major attractions only form a piece of the CapEx at the theme parks.
The coaster is well underway to the point where it is inevitable. The company seems committed to Topgolf as it featured heavily in today's presentation and was referred to favourably in the context of this tightening of CapEx.
The 2019 Sea World attraction that has been hinted is likely be the next major attraction at the Gold Coast parks and would probably be structured to fall within the 2020 financial year. If there are major cuts to theme park investment then this would likely be the first casualty, but but there's a few things working in its favour:
- The annual renewal drive really does rely on there being something new at one of the Gold Coast parks.
- Sea World is next in line after a few Movie World-centric years, not to mention their dwindling attraction roster.
- The dearth of rides at Sea World notwithstanding, Sea World will be just short of seven years since their last major animal attraction by December 2019. If there's a way to do an interesting major animal exhibit with minimal capital outlay and activist controversy then that's what I'd be looking for as a cash-strapped theme park operator.
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That read to me like a subtle way of bumping it from CY17 as originally announced, to CY18.
Without having to concede that they fell short this year so can't afford it...
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Yeah it's clunky but it's also not a document that's intended for mainstream consumption. It gets across the point it needs to and serves as the backbone of the larger presentation and Q&A session for shareholders that has just wrapped up.
For that reason too there's no reason to go into great detail about what Movie World are building beyond what they said there and what they have already said. It's a FY18 attraction and has little bearing on the 2017 results beyond whatever role it plays in the membership/renewal pass campaign, which is far beyond the scope of this kind of meeting/presentation.
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Not a bad week for fake news between the coaster track, the Gold Coast Bulletin piece and now this.
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1 hour ago, AlexB said:
Storm has 3-way wheel assembly, does it not? Upstop, Side friction, running - yes?
Lack of upstops would rule out Melbourne's Scenic Railway as a roller coaster. At any rate I believe these Hopkins flumes do feature all three wheel types. You'll note that the drops feature an overhanging T on the track edges, which doesn't appear on the lifts.
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I realise I'm basically rehashing the same thoughts I had 2.5 years ago back on the first page of this thread, but it's still an interesting concept to me...
9 minutes ago, themagician said:I personally think a roller coaster is a track ride which uses gravity as it's main form of movement, and it doesn't matter how it moved from the station
Flume rides are track rides that use gravity and are moved from the station with gravity-fed water. What about that definition of a roller coaster -- or even a water coaster -- does a flume ride like Wild West Falls not meet. But Storm does?
If it's about how much of the ride is mounted on a track @YLFATEEKS, then what do we make of something like a bobsled roller coaster?
My only real point in this is that most people seem to fall back to textbook definitions to declare rides either a coaster or not, but the amount of grey areas means that even these don't hold up to scrutiny
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Based on that definition, @jake_hunt, Wild West Falls would be a roller coaster. It rolls on a dry, elevated track in the backwards section after all.
Not saying your definition is wrong... but there's no shortage of murky grey areas anytime this comes up.
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Summer season is winding down folks. If you want to discuss things like Corroboree expansion, Thunder River Rapids decommissioning etc., please start a new specific topic for each.
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Here's Intimidator 305's equivalent for reference: https://coasterbuzz.com/RollerCoasters/Photo/4064
Essentially picture a sparsely supported truss supporting the lift hill starting at that angled footing.
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A few quick piece of housekeeping for everyone:
- Posts to do with the fake track have been moved over to that thread. That's not an open invitation to post bogus photos/news/etc. but rather a single place that we can deal with it if/when we have to.
- There's a reason all the 'erection' posts have disappeared. They're really not as funny as you think they are.
- Likewise talking post after post about how many pages this topic has existed for really isn't interesting.
Not everything you post has to be serious or on-topic but almost everything posted here lately has just been filler. If there's nothing new to talk about then just don't post.
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Not sure I'd say that the tallest, fastest and longest roller coaster ever in Australia really needs an "icon". The experience itself will be plenty iconic. Bogging it down with gimmicks is the last thing it needs; maybe I'm too traditional, but I'd class inversions on a hyper(ish)coaster as a gimmick.
There's certainly a dearth of quality inverting coasters in Australia, but I'd sooner fill that void with a purpose-built inversion machine than throw in a token loop or zero-g-roll on this thing.
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No one else thinks the loop is the most uninspiring aspect of Flash? I wouldn't wish or hope for such a waste of an element on what's likely to be Australia's first and only ever hyper(ish)coaster.
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10 minutes ago, mission said:
How does the passenger carriage get pulled through the brake area on the way up if the magnetic brakes are already in place?
There's a whole physics lesson in this, but in the simplest terms, magnetic brakes can never fully stop motion, only slow it. The velocity that they can slow to is related to the strength of the magnetic field and the properties of the alloy fins. The faster the velocity, the greater the braking force applied. If the velocity is lower than this predefined maximum velocity then there is no braking force at all.
11 minutes ago, jake_hunt said:GD uses magnetic fins, which work similarly to fins on roller coaster track.
Just worth clarifying that the fins you see on the tower are the alloy (non-magnetic) component. The rare earth magnets are mounted on the gondola. Most other examples of magnetic brakes on roller coasters use this same setup (fins on track, magnets on vehicle) these days though earlier ones tended to have the magnets mounted on the track with fins on the trains (see those earlier Intamin hypercoasters). If I had to guess, I'd say that the change relates to dealing with the heat and current generated in the fins as a result of this braking process.
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-The 2015 results were published in August 2016 and are the most up-to-date.
-Brushed up the whole injuries section to make it a little less confusing.
-They define a serious injury as: "an injury resulting in immediate admission and hospitalization in excess of 24 hours for purposes other than medical observation". It's all in the linked report if you need some bedtime reading material.
-The stats are US based but by virtue of fairly consistent manufacturing, maintenance and operation practices I think are fairly easily carried across to Australia.
-Detail about sensors, blocks, components and operating/evacuation procedures are best dealt with in greater detail in another piece. Your points about the parks' immediate and long-term responses to these incidents are particularly interesting, and something that was culled from this article at the last minute.
-Magnetic brakes like any component have a serviceable lifespan. Routine maintenance would dictate when they reach that point; they're not something that is liable to spontaneously stop working.
-Clarified the 'how common are stoppages' section to hopefully address the question a bit better. But trying to quantify this meaningfully would be next to impossible; for instance do you count a harness reset and recheck that takes 30 seconds and most riders wouldn't notice?
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@AlexB, @reanimated35, @mission -- this article went through about 4-5 rewrites between October last year and being published today. The decision was made to omit overly specific detail and tech talk in the interests of making this article easily digestible.
A whole lot of material that covers block brakes, sensors, and incidents like Smiler, Green Lantern and others was left out and will possibly form the backbone of a handful pieces to address specifics. For this piece, we're just highlighting the fact that stoppages are safe and normal.
39 minutes ago, mission said:I took the point at rides are safe because of x,y and z. Without acknowledging that even with x,y and z - accidents still happen.
We put the stats on injuries and accidents right up front in the article. Accidents happen and at no point was that glossed over.
Beyond that we delve into stoppages because that's what the media is focusing on here. None of the last month or so of incidents show anything other than systems working as intended. Arkham Asylum's extended downtime probably indicates a component failure but the ride stopped on a safe section of the course and riders were escorted off. Was that worthy of days of coverage?
The elephant in the room is of course Thunder River Rapids. There's no point in discussing that until further information comes to light. The distinguishing fact remains: unlike every other major ride operating on the Gold Coast, it was developed in-house, which hasn't been the modus operandi of either operator for several decades.
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1 hour ago, AlexB said:
I take this point here with it's appropriate effect, but they'd have to be at least somewhat familiar with theme park 'types' to refer to it as 'backstage'. Nothing turns on this and their point is still appropriate and valid... just an observation.
I brushed up the terminology for this crowd. The exact phrasing was "it's like you're in the back of it looking out". The point was just that casual park-goers notice these things too.
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26 minutes ago, Bush Beast Forever said:
Either way they've failed to build in a buffer for unforeseen circumstances.
I think this is primarily it, and it's the thing that everyone seems to be in agreement on despite this debate going around in circles.
The problem faced by Sea World is some of its infrastructure is pushing 40 years now. No doubts that huge amounts of money are sunk each year into things that guests never see. Plenty more into things that guests see but don't get anything tangible from. No question it's a huge and thankless undertaking, because no one really cares about a replacement footbridge or a new kitchen.
Parts of Sea World that have been replaced, rejuvenated or well maintained are looking sharp. Other parts less-so, and right now there's a few too many conspicuous reminders of old attractions, dead ends and just tired or unused portions of the park. That's not saying anything of the convoluted mess of paths, tunnels and bridges that that entire middle section of the park has become. The most promising aspect of the closure of Viking's Revenge is fixing this finally.
A friend who's not a theme park type summed up Sea World perfectly on a recent visit: "Everywhere you go it looks like you're in a backstage area looking out into the park."
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28 minutes ago, YLFATEEKS said:
If this was true imaging how long a building would take to go up.
Noted and fixed!
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Publicly accessible is fair game for sure.
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3 hours ago, AlexB said:
but its not currently a separate price for that so its nice that they do anything at all.
Even if it's not separately ticketed event it's still heavily marketed towards Chinese tourists so the effort they currently put in is certainly revenue generating.
As to whether they should or could ramp it up into a standalone night event... would there be enough interest from the target audience; would it fit in with their largely prearranged travel plans? Would locals pay ~$20 or upgrade their pass for the entertainment and food offerings?
Both Brisbane and the Gold Coast have numerous free Chinese New Year events and just about every suburb and town in Australia has a decent Chinese restaurant. It's vastly different from Carnivale and its comparatively obscure/unique entertainment and culinary offerings.
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That's some sound reasoning/detective work there, Dreamworld! You sure the precinct isn't named after the ride?
"Why is an orange called an orange?"
"Because it's orange."
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No doubts that the future for Ardent is pretty bright. I think they've tapped into something pretty solid with Main Event in the US.
Dreamworld however will be a worry for the foreseeable future; I've not seen anyone out there saying otherwise right now.
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I started to write a reply here and it ended up as an article, but just to quickly clarify, that's revenue down 63%, not profits. Revenue of $3.66 million is certainly an overall loss for the month; recall that the November figure was around $4 million in operating costs while the park was closed.
DC Rivals HyperCoaster construction discussion
in Theme Park Discussion
Posted
The containers that the ride parts will eventually come in aren't owned by Mack, the construction company nor Movie World. They're owned by the freight/logistics company who will deliver the containers and take them back once they're unloaded. These containers here today would certainly be rented or purchased for this shelter.
Mack ships track/supports in open-top containers. When parts actually arrive it'll be pretty obvious.