Spotty

When I went to Movie World a few weeks ago they had the train that was in operation on the track (obviously) and a whole set of wheel bogies long enough for a whole train sitting on the transfer track. As my phone was in the all day locker I wasn't able to get a photo of it but for people that know who I am would know that i'm not exactly someone who's going to make this stuff up. I'd say they likely were waiting on a SLC to shut down to buy the old trains to refit them like they did with the current Arkham train. T2 at SFKK anyone? That originally had 3 trains and it's now only reported to have 1x 7 car train so perhaps they brought the other 2 off them at a cheap price to make a 2nd carriage?

The DIY machines were not able to be used for memberships when I got mine processed, only for the season passes etc. Annoying but what can you do, they are set up to print out the paper tickets but not the plastic ones. Also ToTII had it's line to the skull multiple times throughout the day and Giant Drop was seeming to be running 1 side only for most of the day. I shudder to think what the line was for that (was at the 45 minute sign going into the big switchbacks, and considering that sign is for 2 gondola operation...) Also good to see BuzzSaw running with 2 operators, at least for a little while anyway enabling full loading. I think the park as a whole was incredibly understaffed today, with the Grid burger outlet having a line back to the Tiger Cub kindy at lunch time with only 1 register open. Resulting in about a 35 minute wait to order + 20 minutes on food. Luckily the food was great quality but not really a good image having the line that long with 1 register running at peak time. Overall though, the park was looking great today.

Not to mention the WipeOut version of the Waikiki Wave features the dual locking restraints (Lap bar and OTSR) and the normal version only has the OTSR.

I don't wanna hear your excuses! The roller coaster has to be at least... three times bigger than this!

Also, Arkham's audio has been removed permanently from the ride as far as I am aware. Something about it not really adding much to the attraction (BS if you ask me, but whatever) and not being able to hear it very well over the lift hill (Also BS because Lethal / Arkham's lift hill is one of the quieter ones if you ask me). Green Lantern on the other hand since reopening i've ridden probably 20 or so times and only 1 of them didn't have the audio on it.

Seems as though Dreamworld will be doing membership's starting in March 2016. This was just in their ASX Report "Membership payment plans will be launched in March 2016 including tiered pricing model and benefits to drive per capita yield" Rather interesting to see what they do considering VRTP are ending theirs...

Yeah... it's a bit of a change to normal McDonalds The burger bar is a great concept too where you can actually see all the ingredients and watch them make your burgers.

The Menu's on the tables for CYT were used for the first 6 months or so of the roll out so that people who might not have ordered it would see it and have a look and decide "Hey, this looks good I might try this next year". Every store I have been to except Annerley in Brisbane (which is a flagship store complete with a burger bar and CYT Breakfast) the buzzers have never worked from day one. The longest I have ever waited for a CYT burger was 20 minutes but that's because they had about 6 orders before mine to be made and they use a dedicated grill that is different to the others. I don't see the issue with them not having a dedicated crew member for CYT handing out the food as a lot of the time they might not have orders so if they are designated to that role only it doesn't leave them much to do. As part of that role they were also in charge of the dining room making sure that it is clean. But every time i've been to a store as soon as I have left my table after ordering they pretty much straight away clean up the table. As far as the chips not being served in the metal baskets it's not really a big loss. In fact my local store and a few others that I have been to lately have actually been serving the fries (and sauces if you order them) in white ceramic bowls. In particular the loaded fries when ordered with CYT have actually had real bits of bacon chopped up instead of the fake bacon they came with when first launched. I guess when there was all the hype they thought they needed dedicated staff just for delivering food, and whilst it has been very successful I don't think it was really needed except maybe in peak times. Clearly McDonalds have realised this and deployed the dedicated CYT staff into other areas of the store to assist in between delivering orders. Anyway, back onto the topic of theme park food instead of McDonalds

If you want a good burger on the Gold Coast, try Brooklyn Depot at the coach terminal. Amazing food at a great price. I went to Dreamworld yesterday and tried the fried chicken from "The Grid", it wasn't bad but overall it wasn't the best i've had and honestly KFC is better. However, I had the loaded fries from them and they were WELL worth the $9.50 I paid for them. I got a boat sized serving of chips like they serve the meals in with a heap of cheese, salsa and pulled pork in it. Easily enough to be considered a meal. Much better than the McDonalds offering, and about the same price too! Wouldn't mind trying one of the burgers from them one day.

No... I didn't mean every half hour sadly. With 1 train and full staff they will dispatch approx 6 - 7 trains every 30 minutes. When they cut the unloader it drops down to about 4 maybe 5 every 30 minutes. This is because the 2nd loader has to wait until the train has gone around the first corner into the dark ride before leaving the load dock, then has to go straight to unload (if they are on the ball they CAN sort the groups in the line before moving to unload, but needs to be done quickly - 30 seconds or so). Then they have to go to unload, wait for the train to come back in and wait for everyone to leave the train. Send it through to the load dock, then wait for the doors at the shop to fully close before heading back to sort the next group. It's a painful process and trust me, the staff hated it as much as the guests did. Loading would take approx 2 minutes including sorting, unloading about the same depending on guests. Waiting for the train to run the ride is another 2 minutes so it's very easy to see how it can take 7 - 10 minutes to do a full cycle. Horrible, horrible procedures that I hope never see the light of day again.

The 5 staff setup would normally only be used if they have had sick calls and have had to move the 6th staff member to another attraction to cover breaks or something else. Generally it's not done but sometimes it's required. Just hope you never see them cut the unloader with 1 train operation... you will maybe see them dispatch 8 trains a hour, 9 if your really lucky.

Not to mention the ride requires extra staff as well to run a 2nd train... not something that can be added at the drop of a hat. Superman requires an extra 2 staff to run a 2nd train compared to 1 train. 1 train requires: Load 1, Load 2 - Unload, Entry, Supervisor 2 trains requires: Load 1, Load 2, Sorter, Unload, Entry, Supervisor. It's not as easy as just deciding to add on the 2nd train. It's determined on previous years attendance, weather forecasts and other things as well and rosters are often done 2 - 3 weeks in advance for a ride.

Not to mention the staff required to run it... Arkham can run with 2 staff (Supervisor + Loader) Whereas Superman requires a entry host, 2 loaders, unloader and a supervisor at bare minimum (or if they really wanna mess with capacity in a horrendous way they can run with no unloader and have the 2nd loader unloading as well, which results in a staggering 5 trains sent every 30 minutes with 1 train running...)

Superman has got quite a long maintenance period. Heres hoping they repaint the track this year as they repainted the supports recently.

Seatbelt's have been removed

What, every 15 minutes?

Batwing SpaceShot did the same thing too... opened for a few weeks. Then shut down again to be commissioned if i'm not mistaken. That ride had quite a few issues when it first opened though... I'm sure there is a thread somewhere burred in the forums about it.

I wouldn't have any idea what kind of modifications or changes were made to the ride. I'm an ex employee who still knows many staff that work within the park. Even if I did know anything else I wouldn't be saying anything as I wouldn't want to risk anyones jobs. However as far as my own personal opinion goes there will likely be no noticeable changes to the way the ride runs. It might run a bit slower or faster at first until the new wheels wear in. And a few operational procedures might be changed but I doubt it is anything too drastic.

Could just be bad timing on your part. I have been made aware that staff training has indeed begun on the attraction leading up to it's opening. I would say by now it's likely just waiting to be re-commissioned and training finished before being able to open.

That's a new sign, it used to be a a-frame but it seems they have installed permanent signage.

Given I know who this person is, I will say I'm a lot less skeptical now. I'll still believe it when I see it but at least there is some credibility behind the person who's running this.

It would be training for staff as every operator who was signed off to run the attraction would have to be retrained. Unless it's changed from when I worked in attractions if you had not worked on a ride for 3 months you would have to be "recapped" before you could operate it again (spend a day with a buddy). I would say if they are training staff it will be a matter of days until the ride operates again. Green Lantern's training was only 2 buddy days in total per batch of staff (4-5 staff each batch) and they would ideally want several batches of staff trained up before peak season really kicks in.

And your not so big... ...Life is unfair

Or on even rarer occurrences they will run 4... 11:00am, 12:00pm 1:50pm and 4:15pm...

If DjRappa himself is blown away by it, then i'm going to assume it's going to be something extraordinary. Village Roadshow have proven in the past that they can produce world class attractions (Superman, Scooby Doo and Wild West Falls and even Bermuda Triangle in the past). I would also trust him as a source, and I will honestly say I am very excited to see just what they do. The park's in general in Australia right now are going the right way for improvements, even with a few things being taken out I'm fairly sure the parks all have a grand scheme for the next few years and it will be interesting to see what happens. I know you couldn't say what it is for obvious reasons, but are you able to at least tell us if they have an ETA on when they might be making the announcement at least, provided of course you have that information and it's not going to cause you issues in your workplace.