Spotty

Yet we coped with revolving platforms for 15 years on Bermuda... and a rolling platform on Wild West Falls for 20 years so that argument is totally invalid. The RFID is a way to physically confirm that the staff have checked it and to keep a record which is most likely an insurance thing as we all know insurance has gone crazy since TRRR.

Wrong. 100% wrong. At the most they would only ever want to have 2 majors at a time closed unless something ever went wrong. The general schedule was: Lethal Weapon / Arkham (After Aust day till early March) > Superman / Batwing (Early march till Easter holidays) > Scooby and RoadRunner after easter holidays > Wild West Falls from June till around August in prep for holidays. Then it would be Tunes / Batride between September and November. After November they would try to have all rides open and getting ready for the xmas holidays. Obviously with more rides sometimes a weekend (or maybe a single week with 3 rides closed) did happen but it was really avoided as much as possible. Only in the last 4-5 years have we really seen this many closures happening on a regular and it's 100% not acceptable. I really think at this stage, the park would be better running weekends and holidays only until they can catch up on things as it's absolutely pathetic the way the place is being ran.

Well, if you went on the timeline that I proposed... that's close to 10 years since SV opened. Which is when most rides have a major overhaul anyway. Could potentially do a retheme at the same time as the new facade and re-launch it I guess.

It wouldn't surprise me given current management if it's on the very large "to do" list for the park. It might not be the highest priority right now, but I'd say it will be on the list. I think for the list of priorities it would be for me (obviously after Rivertown is open) 1) Add a new attraction to where the trolls / AVPX arena is (1-3 years) 2) Re-theme or replace Motocoaster (3-5 years) 3) Replace the sky voyager facades (5 years) I think those first 2 are much more important IMO. Once those 3 major things are done, I'd say it would be time for a new major thrill coaster to probably take the place of Gold Coaster as I reckon it's probably got maybe 10 years left in it's life. As much as I'd love to see the facades updated, I don't think it's the highest priority right now.

Brb changing inspection time to every 60 minutes...

They might be able to re-jig Batwing's maintenance a little bit potentially, maybe have it close early feb (Just after Aust Day) and re-open early march and then have Superman / Flash close. That would make the most sense.

I'm only interested if the Unknown is the villain (I mean... Jonathan Jacobo)

I don’t think they are gonna do a full dark ride just for fright nights

Winnie the Pooh, Blood and Honey for Fright Nights?

To be completely honest... the CONCEPT behind Doomsday was a good idea, a decently themed flat ride. If the ride actually worked properly, and wasn't a total potato it would have for the most part been alright. It was just a shame that the ride was so unreliable and was down so often because from what I gather that's the biggest complaint with the ride (apart from the B mode it's now running in). I really don't think they would have chosen the model if they knew it was going to be so unreliable. Honestly if it had been me though, I would have moved SurfRider to Movie World at that point in time and put it where doomsday was and chosen something different for Flash but that's a whole different story. Scooby is much the same, the idea was good (refurbishing and bringing it up to new standards) but the execution kinda failed. Although from what I heard, what Movie World got vs what they paid for was not quite right. I will give them props for bringing back the theming standard for the ghost train to the original for the most part (we do not talk about the screens though...) and getting the light show running properly. So IMO it wasn't a complete failure, just some things didn't go quite right.

"Boot Hill 2.0 - Electric Boogaloo"

I can confirm that Greg and most of the upper management in the park were very good leaders and some of them actually personally trained me when I worked for Movie World. Basically when Greg left, he took the good ones with him and left some of the others behind haha. I do remember one day when I was working, getting a bit of a shock when I looked up at the Superman control room to see Greg in the operators seat haha. And I know people that currently work for Dreamworld, and that same culture from what I have heard is very much alive in the park. Honestly from an employee standpoint, 2006 - 2014 really was some of the peak years for staff in regards to how they were treated.

If it was designed poorly (and given this ride, wouldn't surprise me) and they are wanting to trial a different weight size. It has happened on other rides in the past. I personally know of a Kamikaze ride (similar to doomsday) that had a different counterweight size put on it as the earlier ones had a different design. If they are, and they are paying for it I'd say it's a total waste of money. But if Intamin / ABC Rides are doing it for free as a goodwill gesture for providing a lemon and it somehow fixes the issues then good on them. But I wouldn't be spending any excess money at this stage to get it running.

Thank you for the PTSD haha. Many a day of reciting that script, along with the one for Journey in my memories... For that you shall be punished with the following: A hour on the rack, 12 days in the brink, a fortnight in the iron maiden, 30 days of non stop reality television and... another flogging.

Real progress would be seeing the park sold to a company that knows how to run a theme park, and actually cares about the place. I know there are still some people who work there that are actually passionate about the industry, but I feel like they are probably being cut off at the knees by people higher up.

Funny you should say that... I worked at the park for several years, and Wild West Falls was one of the rides that I operated the most (along with Scooby) and not once did I ever have to stop the ride or witness a ride stop due to someone jumping the fence. It really doesn't happen often at all, people standing up on West was much more frequent but with the new harnesses it would be pretty much impossible to do that now.

Won't happen now. Greg not only took himself over to Dreamworld, but he also took the majority of the operations and managers that really supported him at Village with him. The sheer amount of talented people that village lost when Greg left is astounding. I had honestly lost faith for the most part in Dreamworld until a few years ago, but knowing how much passion that Greg and the current team have well I think the results are starting to show for itself tbh. They still have a long way to go, but I strongly believe once Rivertown is open Dreamworld will be the best park on the Gold Coast. All they need now is a decent water ride and maybe one more thrill ride / coaster and they will really have Movie World beat by a decent margin.

Oh god... that's a catchphrase I haven't heard in a while "So many worlds in one" and now the bloody theme music from the early 2000's is stuck in my head again haha

And I think with current management, this will happen. It's certainly not going to happen overnight, but for the most part the decisions they are making seem to be the right ones. I really think the parks are missing a good sit down venue for lunches, and if they can make it an experience it would not only bring in more money for the park but something unique. Make it interactive, have something like the bushrangers interrupting the lunch with a show or something. One of my best memories of theme park dining was back in the day at Movie World when they had lunch with the legends. Things like that really do elevate the experience.

The announcements are normally manually triggered by the supervisor. If an e-stop is pressed it automatically goes into an evacuation so the male voice would be used. The female one is used when the ride has faulted or been "ride stopped" and they are trying to rectify the fault before resorting to an evacuation. GL used to have automatic announcements, because you would hear it nearly every 10 minutes during its opening run. It had the nickname with opening crew of "Green Lemon" for a reason.

"I like wedgies..." All I need to say, good old Dreamworld Insiders.

Not sure if they are still in use but they do have automatic announcements for West, Superman, Scooby, JL and Green Lantern that I am aware of (not sure about the others). The female voice is used when the ride has stopped, but has not gone into full evacuation mode. This is also when you will see the ride operators looking around at the area, and getting ready for a ride evacuation. In the case of Scooby, the staff in the lift and high zone areas will put on the harnesses and be ready to go. The entry host at the attractions will also stop admitting guests into the queue until given the all clear. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are experiencing a temporary delay. Please remain seated, and the ride will resume shortly. We apologise for the delay, and thank you for your patience" Generally if the ride can not be restarted within 5 mins, or the ride goes into an e-stop a male VoiceOver will be heard and the staff will start the unloading process. It's still seared in my brain after all these years... "May I have your attention please, it is necessary for us to stop the ride. Please remain seated and an attendant be with you shortly to assist you from the ride. When exiting please exit via the doors marked with exit lights, follow the yellow directional lines to the marshalling area at the entrance to the ride. Once again, an attendant will be on hand shortly. Thank you" Not sure if they are still used, but these rides certainly had this system in place.

Thank goodness they are doing something with the eyesore. I was fairly sure they would, but this looks great. I'd love to see something along the lines of the enchanted tiki room but either way this whole side of the park is going to look great and I think it will blend in really well with Tiger Island. Just wish they had a way to open up the area and almost combine it a bit more, but with the train line and the tower of terror building in the way it might be hard. Although, if planned well they could always expand Rivertown with a Phase 2 expansion and really link the area up as the theming of both lands really co-exists well.

If they did a show based on Dune... they could sell the dune buckets of popcorn

The monorail system that Sydney used was different to the one that Sea World used. Even though they were built by the same company, Sea World's were Mk2 and Sydney's were Mk3 models so potentially the parts were not compatible. I couldn't say for sure, but at the same time when Sydney's monorail was demolished the Sea World one was running fine and they couldn't predict what parts they may have needed in the future. However Von Roll's monorail division was actually sold off to Adtranz / Bombardier who were apparently still making parts to keep these rides in service. So I'm not actually sure I buy the "lack of parts" story that Village are sprouting... Dreamworld were able to source parts for WipeOut long after Vekoma stopped supporting the ride and making the parts, so it's able to be done but it has come down to the fact they don't want to more than likely.