DaptoFunlandGuy

Your GST free analogy (on fresh food for example) is flawed, as providing the merchant service is in itself a taxable supply, so they can charge you GST on the surcharge, but a reading of the GSTR I referred to above suggested the GST should be included in the quoted surcharge price \ percentage - ie: it should be 1.6% inclusive, not 1.6% PLUS tax. I have no problems with merchants charging surcharges for accepting premium (credit) cards over debit cards as it obviously costs more to accept that card, and if they didn't charge a surcharge, they would have to cover the costs through other means - which would generally include increasing th eprice of products to all patrons - including those not paying on credit. I don't want to subsidise somebody else's choice thankyou... and if i choose to use a credit card, then i'm happy to pay the surcharge (as a matter of fact i'll do a quick calculation to determine how much extra it will cost me to use AMEX over VISA, as I earn more FF points with Amex.)

This is perfect, and I must admit, on face value, it seems you might be right. It is a little perplexing though. My first thought is that rounding issues may be at play here, considering the GST on $20.37 would be $1.851818, and the GST on $20.35 would be $1.8500. But that still doesn't explain how they get to $20.37 in the first place. It still seems to indicate at the bottom of the receipt that GST included in the order is only $1.82 I've had a look at the ruling for GST applicability on Credit Card surcharges (GSTR 2014/2) and can't seem to see anything in there that would suggest why it's happened. Your two cents may come about depending on which way you work it too. The GST on $20 is $1.82, but $1.82 x 11 = $20.02 - this is because of rounding. This doesn't explain it though, as the extra 2 cents on your receipt seems to be part of GST on the surcharge rather than on the base price, but I guess it depends on how their system is set up. Something does seem wrong, but i'm not 100% confident as to where the problem lies. It'd be interesting if someone else has a similar example on a different receipt... Although as you say it's only 2 cents, but it'd be something i'd be asking about in case it were a wider problem. I should think though that bigger purchases might not have the same issue as there is less issues with rounding. Hopefully village identifies and fixes the problem before someone complains to the ATO though. The above is my own personal opinion and does not constitute financial or tax agent advice. I have received no remuneration for this opinion and it is only my own personal view based on the facts available. I do not purport to represent myself as an official representative of my employer, agent or otherwise in making the above personal comments.

You take an out-of-town friend to the park for the day, you get the photo. (Actually you probably get two) You don't get a drink with the meal, you buy a drink. Park shops have season clearance on merchandise and clear t-shirts for $10. Looks like a bargain despite still being way above cost - you buy a t-shirt. You're in the park so often and looking for something 'new', so eventually you spend on premium upcharge experiences like HWSDX or Animal Encounters - once or twice. Compared to people who may have only one or two days in the park a year - they want to make the most of their money so premium experiences are usually not an option You smell the popcorn as you queue for stunt driver. you buy popcorn The park introduces some other bulk buying upcharge - you do the math and figure if you can make it to the park 4 times a day for a year it will be worth it, so you buy that too. This was my first thought - I don't think they do presently (for the most part) so this is also a way to get more out of you because you're wanting a drink to wash down the 3 day old burger bun. I disagree - googles definition says "any of the regular occasions in a day when a reasonably large amount of food is eaten." - Says nothing about a drink. It may be your opinion if that is the case, but I attribute that to the fast food burger chains of the world that introduced the "McValue Meals" or the upcharge "Would you like to make it a meal today?" By considering the addition of fries and coke to be a 'meal'. Your statement - "meal without drink isn't meal, it's food" - so that means if I have a cookie with a glass of milk (a cookie is food) that counts as a meal? If I have a bar of chocolate, and a popper, that counts as a meal? No. Go fine dining, and listen to the sommelier recommend a wine to go "with your meal". No - the only places that consider a drink is required to make it a meal are fast food joints who just want to upsell you to a combo that includes a cup of soda that costs them 9 cents. Wash your mouth @joz , you heretic. On the photo pass idea... I've used this at Disneyland California and Hong Kong. I found them to be spectacular value, so long as you were proactive in seeking out the locations. What VRTP need to do with this though is precisely what Disney do - stage photographers at key locations - such as the fountain \ superman at MW, and then MARK IT on the map. Do it daily (or at least use one of the many A-frames to advise if the photographer is not there, or when they will be there). If I'm going to buy a photopass at village, I don't just want ride photos and character photos - Nice scene shots of the park, with everyone in my group IN the photo is important to me (as the usual photographer, its usually me that isn't in them), and having a professional means you're more likely to get a great shot, rather than one taken by a passerby who probably thinks their iPhone takes the best shots in the world. As for character photos, I like the idea, but every time i see a character on Main Street, the queue snakes across the street and back again, so I pass on it every time. This may be an unpopular suggestion, but if you're going to have photopass-like access at characters, then you need to actually ensure that the passholder actually gets to use it, which for me means that the Photopass needs a separate queue, or a separate 'holder only' meeting place \ time. I'm sure VRTP won't do it, and they'll expect their existing operations to cover off these new upcharges without spending any more money on them, which for me means they might get someone's money the first visit, but once they realise how much value they DIDN'T get out of it, they'll never buy it again, losing the repeat customer for something that really doesn't cost that much to provide, and makes a shit-tonne of profit when done right. Welcome to the forums @RossL - as you're new, I just want to mention (not in any armchair moderation perspective, but just a friendly member-to-member chat) that bold statements, especially where you're claiming the park is doing something illegal, generally need to be supported with a little more (any) evidence. Can you explain to me how you believe they aren't accounting correctly for GST? Have you reported this fraud to the ATO? Do you have copies of receipts you can show us? The reason I ask is that: GST has been around for 16 years now, and we've known about it for longer than that Point of Sale systems are generally programmed and set, so it's hard for them to screw around with that sort of thing (unless of course they've just moved to a new system) If a very large company like this is not obeying the law, there could be very serious consequences, so they usually have people who check things like this, and i'd be very surprised if this had somehow been missed. Not everything you purchase attracts GST (although most things in-park do) so there may be certain things on your receipt that don't attract GST and this is why the GST doesn't equal 1/11 of the total bill - look for things like asterix's or other symbols against each item or price and then look for an explanation and the bottom where that symbol is displayed with comments such as "@denotes GST applicable item". I look forward to seeing further evidence of this... (in my own personal capacity and in no way related to anything else I do.)

I guess they'd have the average attendance stats for these passes to know they'd make money on it, but realistically I would imagine most people would do that simple math and work it out - if you're like TPG for example, sure you will, but I can imagine there would be many who wouldn't get this for the simple reason it needs you to go more. I guess even those who do go 12 times in 12 months - they're likely to make more money off you by the simple reason that even if you are a regular visitor, you're likely to buy SOMETHING else whilst you're there at least once or twice...

I'm pretty certain there were mentioned of some disability even on this thread not long after the accident, although clearly the searches done by several indicate otherwise... QAS speaking on scene wouldn't necessarily identify fractures - they don't have Xray vision. Fractures may have been identified once he went to hospital and had proper scans of the relevantly injured areas. Neck and head injuries = facial grazes Acute respiratory failure can occur if a person aspirates water. It's why the Bondi Rescue guys tell people to go and see a doctor if they've swallowed sea water. I'm not saying it doesn't sound ridiculous, because it does, but medical language sounds way more serious than plain-speak. The QAS officer naturally will speak plainly to media who will commonly mis-quote when technical jargon is used (I'm looking at you GCB). The lawyer may be exaggerating a little, but essentially what the QAS officer said and what the lawyer claimed are pretty much the same thing (minus the fractures which of course can't always be determined on scene). Try this one: "The victim suffered contusions to his arm and lacerations to his legs. Rhinorrhea was identified, while paramedics also had to assist with removal of cerumen from the ear. Epistaxis followed lachrymation, whilst the victim complained of paraesthesia to his fingers."

I did SFMM on a saturday in 2013. The park was quite busy - so busy in fact that even with a platinum flash pass we still missed some rides we wanted to do. We were still able to join a (single) queue for food with +/- about 5 people in front of us. Contrast that to my visits to MW, where Gotham Burgers - arguably the most popular (and sometimes only) quick service food outlet in the park - where multiple queues were sometimes 15-20 deep... and I'd say with their current operations model, this is something that is necessary. How good would it be to collect your phone from the locker at GL, take a leisurely stroll down main street, and arrive at Gotham Burgers, walk down the red carpet and collect your food? I'm in favour.

Other than parkz, my allegiance is to Theme-Parks-A-Go-Go.

I'm not down with the intricacies of planning, but isn't the whole of MW\WnW\AOS\Studio\PC etc all amalgamated into one lot? So wouldn't any approval just show up as the same thing no matter where it was on the property?

I'm leaning towards Magician's theory here. There's no need to record the CCTV - it is for live monitoring purposes only. They could hook a recorder up fairly easily, and these days with litigation, they probably should, but I know that for example - Snowy River Rampage had several cameras and monitors, but nothing was recorded. Maybe they do now with the advent of digital recording... and maybe if they don't, they should...

To be fair though, @Slick had a couple of false starts on that. I think he's found a harmonious balance now, and produces some really... erm... "slick" content. He started it a while back, and constantly posted with updates "see XXXX on my facebook page here" - i believe it was one of the main causes for Richard to review the policies on linking to fan\news pages on these things that the content had to be relevant etc. It was also a reason why hotlinking images etc was frowned upon etc etc. What TPG does - where she has her own page, but posts updates, images, and news separately to the forum is what is preferred - as images and links dont get lost if the host site goes down - pictures uploaded here are stored here, so we can see them many years later when someone starts talking about a 'new' mural at LPS that has been there for months \ years...

Maybe it is.

Although the guy is an absolute idiot, he'll probably get a settlement out of them. The fact of the matter is that there isn't anything preventing him from doing what he did, and in today's society, that's sometimes enough. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

cue update from TPSN in about 12 hours time spruiking their 'exclusive first look at the carriages' Side note of no relevance - for this style of ride, I prefer 'Gondola' to 'Carriage'

In less than an hour, how did you get from "they must be" (an assumption) to "MW utilising" (a statement of fact) ? Which is it?

I'll admit - I hadn't seen the mount points indicated in the above picture when I said that, and after recognising the mounts for what they were, I totally agree with you.

I've received additional word that the park has always had two sets of bogeys, so the second set being visible isn't an indication of a new train coming. Apparently they still only have one set of hangers (the piece that connects to the joint in the middle of the "axle" seen in the centre of the photo above), so looks like a second train is off the cards.

DD is due in September, yes? So long as they don't have any delays, that area opening up and hosting a DC themed scare zone or maze would be ideal.

I know. that's why I said it.

The circle looks purely decorative, and I'd imagine if the circle didn't fit with the theme for doomsday, MW would have elected simply to not have it as part of the ride. It doesn't appear to serve any purposes, other than to represent the circular nature of themes (like a clock for instance) so unless MW has come up with a clever way to integrate it into the ride theme, i'd sooner they left it off.

$109.99 for 13 months isn't outside the realm of 'usual pricing'. They've also now got to ensure the pricing is relevant to the Membership - they don't want to be seen to be offering the same or more for a lower price on a VIP pass when members are still paying per month, otherwise they may lose membership back to the VIP program. I doubt we'll see much in the way of a price drop until closer to Christmas, when the validity is ~6 months.

I've had a TOT2 overshoot. I'm sure they were fun when it was TOT, but TOT2 - going headfirst towards the end of the tunnel whilst juddering to a screeching stop was a bit concerning. I've also been on TailSpin where it malfunctioned - pretty sure it was at least 4 times, during a night event. Several others here were there too. Can't think of any other times, although i've been the cause of a few stoppages on Disneyland attractions - which they do to allow a wheelchair guest board. Haunted Mansion would probably be my favourite of these. In other news, I caught on the news last night there was an accident on a highway in Queensland where a trailer mounted hurricane ride killed a man travelling in the opposite direction. I've looked for an online link and can't find anything, but from what I saw on the news, the ride was folded for transport, and one of the ride arms flung out sideways from the trailer, essentially clotheslining the oncoming car. The driver was killed by the impact.

The thing with houses is that some builders employ monkeys who do the same thing every time, so when something is out of the ordinary, they don't actually check the plans - they're doing a number 4 house, so thats how number 4 houses are done. I've seen it happen a lot. Its up to a good site supervisor to make sure the contractors know when there is something different or unusual to be added As for the manufacturing in a foreign country though, the thing is that all the bits are built by one company, working together. The only thing that isn't done by them is the site foundations - so you're more likely to have everything fit together properly, as the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.

The ride may be dead silent, but it's not the machine noise that has upset the residents in the past - it was the screams from the riders. The difference with the residents now is that there is established case law on the site. Future litigation is likely to fall in favour of the park.

He's reaching. I think this might be a more realistic suggestion of what it is (right side of picture). I would suggest the insulators are wrapped as they are generally ceramic, and they don't want to break them before they arrive on site...: