DaptoFunlandGuy

*Train enthusiasts have entered the chat*

Reading your later replies, I now understand that you're referring to "Parkz" the Entity, and not "Parkz" the community - which is where my comments were directed. I clearly misinterpreted which 'Parkz' you think Dreamworld can't live with\without. To respond to that, Dreamworld most assuredly can live without Parkz (the Entity). Like minded fans would gather and share opinions in whatever outlet there happened to be - and while Parkz happens to be the longest running and most comprehensive one around, I think its foolish (and quite egotistical) to think that Dreamworld somehow 'needs' Parkz (the Entity) to survive. To explain my intent (which, again, was directed at Parkz the community) - Because I think its very important that Park operators listen to their most fervent fans, especially when they are pointing out things that they could be doing much better for essentially no cost at all, but at the same time, they shouldn't be kow-towing and crawling up their asses (I'm looking at you Disney APs of the early 2000's) because it generates entitlement amongst the community and the park is so busy pleasing the superfans that the general guests get left behind.

Honestly thats the way most theme parks should be with their respective enthusiast communities.

Most coaster enthusiasts I know don't get out of bed until about 10 (you all know who you are)... so I don't see the problem?

In the wonderland example, only Demon is the exception (especially towards the end) as Probe and Bounty are both 'flat' thrill rides - and you can sub them out for Claw, Shockwave, Tailspin etc. Agree having no coasters is a bit poor, but again, it's for 90 minutes - only a bit longer than the Goldrush wait time on a day when Demon was down for maintenance. It's not like it's closed all day for no apparent reason - they're still opening it when they could have easily said 'impacted by Giant Drop Maintenance - closed weekdays until X. I'll give them one thing - that's responsive to feedback. "Someone made a suggestion about how we could better communicate our circumstances to the guest so that they can understand why we're doing a thing that inconveniences them!" DW: "Let's fix that". Other operators: "crickets for 3 days"

"12pm-4pm" sounds like a "minimum casual staff call time" (it is for Casual staff in my current field) so if that is the case, the staff probably aren't "on the clock" until then and still have to do their normal checks, so the half hour delay makes sense but you're absolutely right, it should be advertised as 12:30. Wonderland used to do the same thing too - "you need to be at your rostered position by 10am" but also "you're only rostered from 10am so you don't get paid for all the things you MUST do prior to your shift start (like collecting keys or cash control or getting a radio, or god forbid walking halfway across the park to be in postiion, or performing startup checks and running test cycles). Closing was similar. You didn't get paid past 5pm, but you couldn't clear the park until security had swept your area \ emptied the queue (though even 20 years ago that wasn't something I stood for and regularly argued with supervisors that my finish time should be the time I completed my duties). Even in my current organisation they allow an extra 15 minutes for staff who are 'rostered' to get set up for the day and get up to date with changes and news, and even then, it isn't always enough.

Unplanned maintenance and delays to planned maintenance taking out multiple major attractions for the entire day are one thing, but closing a ride out of peak season for a part of the day isn't the end of the world. Luna Park currently doesn't staff every ride. They have a sign up at some attractions directing would-be riders to another ride to request the attendant come and operate the one you want to ride. Wonderland used to tag-team attractions one hour on \ one hour off in off peak periods. Heck - they used to open the entire land of Goldrush an hour later than the rest of the park - Bush Beast, Snowy, Vintage Cars, Tassie Devil, Endeavour, Skyhawk and Skyrider - and sure - it saved a buck - but sensibly so - the park was so large and the other lands kept everyone occupied for the first hour (and Goldrush was practically a ghost town the first hour after it opened too) - it just made sense to delay the opening until later - more guests ended up in Goldrush for the middle of the day before gravitating back towards the centre of the park at the end of the day (leaving the ghost town once again from 4-5pm). At a time when we're all well aware of how much in dire straits they are - requiring minimum ridership on goldcoaster to reduce the number of almost-empty cycles it did (and wipeout too), I'm going to view this loss of 90 minutes operating time as a prudent and necessary action to reduce cost blowout. It's an intelligent decision, no matter how many enthusiasts whine about it. Should this sort of thing fly at 'Australia's best theme park chain' ? Part of me says no - they're not in difficulties - but I suppose to prevent difficulties, maybe they should too? Operating a ride for part of the day in off-peak time is still better than having them all down for maintenance though.

Mate - it's literally a "fountain of improbability" and the backstory was based on reporting by bloggers that landscaping at Sea World would be turned into a fountain. Pretty sure TPSN among others reported the story as factual, and the fountain of improbability was born. That is literally the perfect react to the news you posted. It's not doubting YOU, it's doubting the STORY.

"It appears the pool was only designed for one slide" "not true, you can easily make it bigger". In summation - the pool was only designed for one slide.

No I don't believe so (and I think a few jokers might have some fun if they knew which day it would be) but I have alerts set up so I get an email when they update the maps - usually 2-6 weeks after the flight. They did email earlier in the year though to tell users that flood-specific maps would be uploaded, but as that was a special circumstance, it's a bit different to the normal flyovers.

I mean if we're going off the Wiegand Style alpine toboggan and throwing in any old thing then you have to count the toboggan at Big Buzz Forster - which back in the 90s was a fibreglass waterslide channel that you went down on something akin to a Wiegand toboggan with a pink fibreglass shell mildly resembling an 80's corvette (and coming off on that at speed did some damage!), but now appears to be a giant tricycle with 15 inch bike wheels that runs on a centre guide rail. Toboggan on the Mid North Coast, NSW | The Big Buzz Fun Park

I've only ever been to Corin forest when it was winter - and the snow on the hillside just capped off a superb toboggan. I've done Coffs and Jamberoo and Corin is still my favourite. With the up hill tow, i'm wondering whether, because the entire track is a circuit - do they count the lift hill as part of the track length? If that's the case, You kind of have to give Jamberoo the win on longest length by default, right?

blink twice if you're being held against your will.

Nearmap hasn't done much on the gold coast this year - a few of their planned flights were changed to cover the flooded areas in February, then down in NSW, and then back up in SEQ, but they did have a day to cover Dreamworld. Dated 20 April 2022. Not much different, but the boneyard has a few things of interest: Looks like some log flume boats, the diesel shunting locomotive on some tracks, and a few other things on tracks that I don't think are the original carriages. I suspect the rest of the gold coast will update shortly so will update here as they come available.

Wow, missed that completely!

Hey @themagician did you happen to notice the maintenance bay at all? The word is the entire maintenance spur track is gone...

Pretty sure Jamberoo had one on the cards at some point too, although it hasn't been part of their latest works.

Cue colour debate. The original publicly stated colour was 'Fuschia' with the official colour scheme RAL4006 "Traffic Purple". The new paint looks a bit darker, but not much - i'd hazard a guess it's RAL4008 "Signal Violet"

Good on you for sharing your experience. I agree with pretty much everything here although i've never bothered to ride Pandamonium. Taipan is very accommodating and rivals much less so. Claw used to be quite generous but safety audits shortened the seatbelt a while back (I don't think they adjusted the test seat at the same time) and I now consider it to be one of the most restrictive on the coast. Another recent modification was Motocoaster - although this targets the legs more than the torso.

Now that the railway doesn't go around it, that sounds smart - vendors could access the studio driveway during the day without causing pedestrian issues in-park. Assuming that that area has direct access from the theme park it sounds like a good idea. Perhaps do it on main street to ensure viability, and wait for it to grow enough that it's worth maintaining the additional facilities?

get your arse down there then. Seriously though - chicken and egg - you have to build it first.

I don't think they're trying to entice the Eat Street crowd to come to Coomera - rather they're targeting those already in the area, and those visiting the theme park to encourage them to hang around. We've actually had threads on here suggesting MW do a similar thing - offer something that encourages day-guests to stick around at Oxenford post-5pm, potentially have dinner on-site before heading back to the hotel a little later, once the traffic is gone. This targets that market, and I think it will do it quite well...

FIXED. Also, puffery, no returns.

It's almost zero cost - the food trucks should be fairly self sufficient (or just requiring a little 'shore power') and would have the opportunity to make a buck. No doubt the park would receive a share of sales, so charging $2 at the gate is just to discourage 'having a look-ers' who don't spend any money. Provided they can keep up the numbers required to attract the good food trucks this should do well. I'd like to see them do more than just food in a market environment, but how much they can do when it literally switches from theme park to market at 5pm, i'm not sure.