Spotty

Funny thing is, Arkham was always one of the more popular rides in the park which is why they gave it a new lease on life when the refresh was done from Lethal to Arkham. It was tossed around at that point in time of actually decommissioning the coaster at that stage. They knew that upgrading the control system and the braking system to magnetic brakes would only give the ride another 10 or so years so. I think they were expecting it to last a few more years than it did, but we saw what Kumbak trains did to Sea Viper... so this was to be expected TBH. Even though they used the same Vekoma chassis, I have a sneaking feeling the new hangers etc were actually heavier causing excess wear and tear, which is exactly what happened with Sea Viper. Only difference is that Sea Viper was much older, and in a much harsher environment to Arkham. Honestly, I'm really going to miss it as it was one of my fave rides in the park and IMO the most intense coaster we had in Australia. Was also a great ride to work on back in the Lethal days, sadly I didn't get to work on it once it was retimed to Arkham.

I'm 6ft 1 and my shoulders say a big fat NOPE to Escape from Madagascar, same for the Giant Drop and The Claw... I can't do the seatbelt up due to my shoulders, the harness doesn't even end up touching my stomach! The old seatbelts they had a few years ago (Before the rapids incident) would do up just fine but now... not happening. Would love to see the Giant Drop get a refit down the track with the new gondola's and seats like Doomsday as the seatbelts on them are plenty long enough. The Claw would be a nice refit as well, but I don't ever see that one happening.

As an ex operator on Scooby I beg to differ, we always told larger guests and taller guests to sit in the back row as it actually does have more leg room than the front as your legs can slide under the seat in front of you. AFAIK they have actually lowered the tolerance on Scooby in the last few years as I know some people who are exactly the same size / build who could easily ride back around 2014 and now they suddenly can't ride at all. I also have a sneaking suspicion Rivals has also had their tolerances tweaked a little bit as well but not sure.

I mean... they could have used the Skyway cable like they used at Wonderland too

Just to clarify a bit further on this, the side panel where the hinge is actually can slide right off to allow a wider opening for a guest to slide in and out of the seat. Very handy.

That would explain it in Road Runner's case. They always try to have the blue train (the one with the disability door) cycling wherever possible and the red train as the second train. Honestly, I don't know why they didn't get the second train the same with the access for events like this happening.

Being an ex theme park ride operator for Village, I can confirm the training that we received is second to none when it comes to handling these situations. A good amount of training for each ride is actually spent going through the various disabilities and rider requirements to ensure things are done safely. This is on-top of regular training and refresher courses that they have provided. Please never be afraid or embarrassed to speak to Guest Services when arriving to discuss your needs and work out a game plan for how to enjoy your day the most. If your a regular as well they will often have your information on file so that when visiting you can just quickly pop in and grab a wristband that advises the ride operators what rides are suitable or not for your individual needs. The supervisors will do all the work so that the ride operators just have to have a quick look at the wristband to confirm things and just run through a few specific questions related to the individual ride instead of asking the many questions GS will ask. They are actually not meant to allow admission onto a ride without the wristband from Guest Services giving the all clear. And yes we are given the heads up most of the time so that we can make sure your day is as seamless as possible.

Superman with 1 train operations is lucky to dispatch 6 times every 30 mins, so fully loaded that's 240 a hour... totally within Village's capacity! If you have operators really on the ball and guests that actually listen you can maybe do 7 every half hour (very hard with 1 train and the crazy procedures village have)

Having operated a similar ride before (A Kamikaze) Looking at the video the E-Stop was hit within 1 swing and the ride immediately started to slow down so in this case the operator has done the right thing. From a full swing height an e-stop would take approx 3 swings to slow down to an almost stop in the home position. The brakes would be applied much harder during an e-stop than a simple ride stop or cycle abort. Also I heard someone allegedly saying they heard a ride operator state that they couldn't stop the ride as it was on a timer. Total BS as the ride is ran manually. I am curious to see what happened whether it was a mechanical failure, rider error or what has caused it. Here's hoping everyone involved ends up okay though.

They also brought POS trains that destroyed the track... Yes it required a bit more maintenance due to the sea air and the age of the ride, but I think if they hadn't replaced the trains with the Kumbak ones it would have lasted a while longer. I know the Python at Efteling got the same Kumbak trains in 2005 and then in 2011 were replaced with the Venom trains again like we currently see on Sidewinder. Interestingly most of the track was replaced and rebuilt by a different builder in 2018 as well. Wonder how much damage the Kumbak trains caused lol

Is it bad I can see them re-using some of the surfboard theming from the Wipeout if they still have them? Maybe have them on the roof of the station or something. I don't hate the name either, it's not my first choice but it's not bad. Heres hoping its presented well.

That coaster is a S.D.C Galaxy Coaster, and the color scheme looks oddly familiar to the Thrillseeker that was at Sea World, but that opened in 1982 at Sea World. It may actually have been the Metropolis that went to Luna Park Melbourne as that opened in 1990 and an early photo of the ride at Luna Park Sydney shows the same track color scheme https://rcdb.com/1134.htm#p=1494

Having operated a Break Dance before... I have seen many people get sick on it... One of the more nauseating flat rides out there TBH. That and the Mondial Top Scans, they tend to be a bit more common for motion sickness

Honestly... I agree with this. I much prefer the sidecar lol

The ultimate question still remains...is the video on Lift 2 back in sync or is that still out of whack. It was out of whack in 2012 when I worked there... and it was still out of whack when I rode it in 2019 lol. Looking forward to maybe checking it out in a few weeks though, glad to hear its mostly running properly.

Ah... back in the Ozcoaster days. I remember that very well!

I still find it fitting that it ended up in Canberra! One of the most boring waterslides I had ever been on. I do miss the Twister though...

For me it would be for the gold coast parks the following: Bermuda, Tunes, Corkscrew (not sea viper... those trains were nasty!) and Batride. I do miss the original incarnation of Scooby, but honestly what we have is not THAT bad. A few minor tweaks to it would make a world of difference, admittedly I have not been on it since they have updated the main show room but I rode in the early days of the "Next Generation". My only real gripe was the quality of the animation and how out of sync things were, and well the main show room but from all accounts that's basically been fixed now anyway. Overall it's not too bad though honestly. Outside of the GC parks, honestly I loved the Zodiac at Wonderland and the Space Probe. I would honestly love for Intamin to maybe revisit the old Sky Whirl concept again as they were unique and great for capacity as the line would basically always be moving as people were loaded in.

Funny thing about that is, the majority of VRTP staff are actually PPT especially for attractions. But yes, the retraining does take time. Not sure on WnW But I know that at Movie World it was at least 1 day of training (8am - 5pm) for each ride and training is only groups of 2 - 3 people at a time. Some rides did take 2 days of training (Superman, WBK / RoadRunner, Scooby off the top of my head) + 2x extra 4 hour evacuation training sessions for Scooby. So it would take a fair bit of time to re-train multiple groups of people, so you will likely see the same staff on the same rides for a little while until they can all be retrained on multiple rides.

Make sure your 1.5m away, or hug with your elbows!

Unless things have changed since I was there in 2012, any ride operators that have not worked on a ride in 3 months require full re-training on the ride. So if that is still the case, there is a lot of ride operators that need training on all rides again. I'd expect to see the same operators on the same rides for a while as they go through and retrain people. I feel sorry for them, as i'm getting flashbacks of being stuck in WBK for 4 months non stop haha. I will admit I am very curious to see how they manage it all, and I would have hoped that more rides would be open when the parks re-open but what can you do I guess?

As an ex employee of VRTP it's nice to see that there is still some passion from people high up in the business. Some of the best days of my life were spent working at Movie World. Am very curious to see what the next few years hold for the parks, and I will be there to support you guys when things go back to normal a little bit. I'm sure we all wish we had a magic wand to be able to work some wonders on things

Nah... thinking of the Ghetto theme park of my childhood haha. Gosh that place was seriously a dump...Should have been smart and had my birthday at Questacon that year haha.

I did have a stint back in 2006 working at Stars Cafe (before Ben and Jerrys, and the roof) and it was similar. I remember them actually doing 5x Police Academy shows in a day back then. I then went back from 2011 - 2013 and it certainly felt very different for many reasons (some good, some bad). I'd hate to be a visitor at the park with more than 12,000 people... I think that was around when Green Lemon* I mean Lantern first opened and they were trying so hard to run that thing with 6 cars on the track at a time... needless to say, there's a reason it only runs with 4 Same capacity basically, and runs much more reliable now. The amount of times I heard the ride stop spiel playing from that ride from the Batwing booth in those days... good times. Until everyone left the queue and bee-lined to batwing!

From past experience working there, a "normal" weekday attendance for Movie World was about 2,000 - 2,500. On a weekend was about 3,000 - 4,000. Any more than about 5,000 predicted they would be making sure to have 2 trains on rides where possible. Any more than 7,000 you'd be adding a third HSD show. This is back in 2012 days though before Rivals, Doomsday etc. I think the busiest day capacity wise that they had whilst I was there was something insane like 12,000. I was working Batwing and that was an incredibly long shift (8:45am start... 7:15pm finish, and we closed the queue at 6pm). Was certainly a strange day having Batwing run with 2 loaders and the supervisor. Not something that happens often except maybe on a very busy Fright Nights (which capacity I think was 8,000 a night - if i'm not mistaken). So really, a reduced capacity of 1,500 - 2,000 is not going to break the park as many days of the week that's pretty much normal operations.