Spotty
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Posts posted by Spotty
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Nice to see lots of cosmetic upgrades happening across the park. It was looking very tired for a long time. I'd honestly be happy if the next few years are spent tidying up the parks and making them look great again.
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5 hours ago, rappa said:
Given I’ve hated every single thing about the event since it left Movie World (where it was awesome!) I’d be happy if they purely focussed on good food offering and the big laser show. Tailor it more to suit Sea World than shoehorn it in…
…food and drink trail through the whole park anyone? Caribbean cocktail party in Castaway bay?
I miss Carnivale at Movie World. I went both years that it was there and honestly it was one of my fave night time events. The food, and the atmosphere and the parade was just great. Did it at Sea World in it's first year and 2nd year and it was meh... Like it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't exactly good. I love the idea of a food and drink trail though!
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Looking really good, and yeah that's very quiet. I'd love to see Escape from Madagascar get the same trains as this possibly. Especially given Road Runner was just given new trains after 20 years, Madagascar isn't that far off. Would be perfect for the retheme. It's really good to see the smaller parks really ramping up over the last few years.
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Surprised they are doing the top given the whole tower doesn't appear to have been given a primer? Unless only certain parts needed it. But holy crap what a difference it makes. To think when it first opened that's the colour the tower was basically.
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22 minutes ago, joz said:
They're only headliners at your smaller 'lesser' parks (And anyone who says 'What about Wonderland', I'm sorry you had to find out what calibre of park Wonderland actually was this way).
See, Wonderland had potential. When Demon was added in 1992 the park was still fairly new. It just sadly was sold to bozo's that had no desire to run the park properly which is why it stayed as a "Lesser" park while at the time places like Dreamworld and Movie World were flourishing. At least Gumbuya world and these smaller parks are actually investing in attractions instead of leaving the place to die in a hole (Like Aussie World did honestly for quite a while, but has really turned around)
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2 hours ago, TBoy said:
I don't think so, look at White Water World where one is made by ProSlide while the other is by White Water.
Both the major water play structures at WnW and WWW were built by WhiteWater West. The expansion to Wet n Wild Jr (Previously Buccaneer Bay) was Proslide however.
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The only thing I still don't like with the front entrance is the temp looking airport style barriers. I remember back in the day that each booth had like the metal queue rails for each booth. I just think it made it look a bit more polished. I can see why from an operational standpoint they have done this but I'd love to just see something a bit more permanent set up. However, it's still 1000% better than how it used to look. Overall the park is really starting to look good again, just a few more touch ups and things (like removing the flume etc) and it will make an even bigger difference.
Here's hoping this is the start of VRTP turning the tides and really focusing on appearance like what Dreamworld has been focusing on lately. Makes a huge difference.
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2 hours ago, rappa said:
End of the day the ‘themed’ part is just some plastic bodies for the train.
It wouldn’t be completely unfeasible to change them out. Paint the track, bit of simple theming (think vintage motobike race) in the station and it fits.
Could be on the cards?
Honestly, bikes in the style of Hagrid's wouldn't be a bad changeover TBH. Give it a paint refresh, get rid of the store as it just blocks off so much area and it would really open up the space.
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Considering they just did a full refurbishment on the Western gondola in the last 2-3 years I seriously doubt that it's happening. Feel free to post your sources or prove me wrong, but all the information that I have heard is that it's just a cosmetic overhaul and some minor work done mechanically to motors etc.
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On 12/11/2022 at 1:15 PM, Baconjack said:
Zamperla coming in to retrofit Superman to LSM's and adding some new trains is a very viable alteration that could be made in the next 10-15 years to keep the ride going. Especially as parts start to run out for the hydraulic coasters. You could relaunch the ride and re-do the dark ride section as well, given how spotty that's been for some years.
It's easily one of the most popular rides at MW, and I don't see this changing for quite a while. I think it's a slam dunk really.
If superman was more unreliable I'd say maybe. But honestly as far as the Intamin accelerators go it seems the smaller ones are a lot more reliable. Superman has never had any major issues and realistically as long as maintenance is kept up I'd say it lasting 30 years is reasonable which would mean it's just past halfway through its service life. I feel after 30 years it being replaced with something else probably wouldn't be a terrible idea.
But if it's not broken don't fix it
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The top of the tower taken today. Looks so much nicer from the carpark. And it’s a lot more noticeable on the highway too
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13 hours ago, joz said:
I mean yeah, but also screw going down that ladder more than most things.
Yeah... I'm gonna pass on that one lmao
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On 20/10/2022 at 6:13 PM, STRAWS said:
@Spottyseeing you use to work at the first turn table did you ever figure out what the 2 bandits on the screen before the backwards drop say I've been on it so many times but never knew exactly what they said.
"We don't need to city guys... you don't belong here" before the bandits would laugh, pull the lever and back you go while the other bandit would shoot at you. There was speakers just above the doors as you enter the turntable that would play the audio. As far as audio goes and why it's maintained your guess is as good as mine. I know in the morning Scooby has a track walk done through the ride to check all the emergency exits, as well as making sure the effects are triggered. This was done with the ride in "show mode" so as you walked past you would trip a sensor to trigger the SFX. Anything not working was written down to be fixed the next day (weather this was actually fixed remained to be seen). However at times certain things can't just be fixed overnight so would be out of action until it can be done.
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Having worked on the ride in 2011 - 2013 and spending many shifts in the lift room at Turntable 1, I can assure you that sound effect has always been there and audible. The crane at the start of the ride was always moving (when it worked)
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35 minutes ago, Rivals said:
this is a bit random, what was the point?
By now, I don't expect anything less from him. Just embrace it lol
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Just now, joz said:
Oh it wouldn't have gone far up the top hat so fail!!!!!
My bad... I'll keep my mouth shut 🤣
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10 hours ago, themagician said:
Even Superman Escape at MW has had many rollbacks during its life
Surprisingly Superman has actually very rarely rolled back. AFAIK it's only had 2 or 3 rollbacks that I'm aware of with guests on board. It's had a few launch abortions though where the brake fins have popped up mid launch however but not many full on rollbacks.
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6000 is a lot less than previous years numbers. 2012 for example they would sell 10,000 a night. So that's a much smaller number. I still remember nearly being bowled over at the Supeman entry when we did the walkback from the little archway under the launch to open up Arkham and Superman. 4 staff vs like 1000 guests all desperate to get to the mazes and rides, not a good idea haha. Glad after the 1st one they moved the crowds back to the actual ride entrances.
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9 hours ago, Ashley said:
Thanks, again.
I’d love to shoot you a PM, however, I don’t want to be annoying or rude.
Being asked 101 questions can be annoying.
Feel free to
I may not answer all in one go but I will if possible. It's mostly I don't want to get Parkz in trouble as in the past when people have said things about certain behind the scenes things it caused friction, I'd rather not cause those kinds of issues for them haha.
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2 hours ago, Ashley said:
Thanks, @Spotty, I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions.
In all honesty you could talk to me for 10hrs straight about what it was like being a cast member, and I wouldn’t be bored.
And come to think of it I could probably ask 10hrs worth of questions, lol.Always happy for questions, and always happy to answer (where possible and not breaking NDA's etc). Feel free to shoot me a PM I guess
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On 24/9/2022 at 3:17 PM, Ashley said:
Hi @Spotty
You’d be the best one to ask to question to. Which ride in park is most reliable?
Also, which ride is, ( in your opinion) easiest to operate?
Cheers.
Scooby was actually a very easy ride to operate as a cast member. But it was one of the last rides staff learnt due to the complex evacuations. Wild West Falls was the most intensive due to the constant walking up and down the load platform. I was trained on Superman, Scooby, West, Batwing, Lethal Weapon / Arkham, Batman, Tunes Ride and Kids Rides / RoadRunner Roller Coaster before leaving in 2013.
At that point I'd say the most reliable major ride was honestly Wild West Falls, Batwing and Superman. Before the Arkham conversion it would have hands down been Lethal Weapon. As far as ease goes I was only an attendant (not the one sitting behind the main control panel) most of the time. So from that POV batwing was very easy (but also incredibly boring), followed by Superman, Scooby and Wild West Falls.
As a supervisor they were all very easy honestly until things go wrong, then each of them have their quirks. Scooby is the most full on by far for trying to reset faults to avoid an evacuation. Followed probably by West. If superman decides it's going to fault, generally we just let it do it's thing as it's not as intense to evacuate compared to Scooby / West.
Certainly had the most fun IMO working on Lethal and Superman (apart from Tunes and Bat Ride before closure)-
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On 24/9/2022 at 7:45 PM, Brad2912 said:
That system destroyed sizzler…
it’s not a health issue, it’s simply a cost v revenue issue as to its viability in non-peak times
Sizzler's closure was planned before COVID was a thing. It was just a convenient excuse. The eventual demise of the brand was planned as far back as 2015 when they started closing stores and announced that they wouldn't be investing further in the brand to focus on other ventures. Collins Food Group also briefly owned Snag stand as well, but within months of owning it entirely shut the entire business down.
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5 hours ago, Baconjack said:
Superman is reasonably reliable, I rarely hear it ever being shut outside of its annual maintenance period. It also helps that the ride is small in scale compared to the other installs so there's less things to work on.
West obviously faces the problem of being harder to maintain as it gets older - it's a very common problem with flumes. Concrete doesn't last forever.
Scooby has the one of a kind elevator, but otherwise it's a very simple ride system that should rarely be down. Perhaps the elevator is getting on in years?
From an ex operator POV. Superman is actually very reliable 99% of the time. West was also very reliable too but this was all prior to the refurbs. As far as Scooby goes, 90% of the time the faults causing a ride stop were not due to the lift. It was often either the turntable or a delay in the load or unload station causing a backup in the ride which would then cause a cascade stop. If a cascade is starting you will see a "must send" light start flashing on the load panel, and it's often why you may suddenly see staff send several empty cars around before loading guests again to try and clear the backlog before the ride has a meltdown.
9 out of 10 times a cascade is recoverable if operators act fast enough... otherwise it becomes leg day for the operators haha.
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3 hours ago, Ashley said:
At least something is going well for Movieworld, Doomsday has reopened.
What is Christmas Eve crowds like for theme parks?
in Theme Park Discussion
Posted
Scoob can run up to 18 cars at any given time on the track. It has not for several years however (not since fast track has been implemented) It would typically run 12 - 14 cars in an off peak day and 16 for a peak day (with a sorter and 2 loaders). When running the full 18 cars it was found that there was no room for any station delays at all and the slightest delay would cause the "must send" light to flash... and then 9/10 times cause a cascade stop resulting in an e-stop. I am not sure if this is still the case but 14 sounds about right
West used to be able to run with up to 15 boats back in the day too, but typically ran with 11.