DaptoFunlandGuy

Didn't last one day - that was like that at 10:30 on friday.

Looks like you get 10% off F&B and Merch, but only once a month.

Wow. They should have gone with the tradition and had official opening on Boxing day. They should have opened when they did, had signs out the front like the rivals tech rehearsal signs to manage expectations if it didn't open or went down. The opening crew did a bang up job, and really hit their stride by the end of friday, but they were very green at the start of the day, and tech rehearsals \ soft open would have eliminated that without placing unfair expectations on the crew. If some guests would have ignored the clear signage stating tech rehearsals, and gotten angry anyway, then shame on them. But opening "officially" without that opportunity - it's shame on the park. No, I think they're mad that the park announced a ride as 'officially opened' that isn't, and another that is 'officially opened' that can't even operate a full day.

There's no need to automate anything. They already have a grouper. They just need to group trains 2 or 3 cycles earlier than they are currently.

I'd suggest the 30% is just due to the number of stoppages throughout the day, that necessitated them to cycle empties before loading guests again. Both trains cycled at least once before guests re-entered the load area.

The photo lab at the front of the park doesn't have on-ride photos - so if you want to get ride photos you need to go to dockside.

Right.... so it hasn't completed commissioning.

Did they have staff riding?

I got on a couple times yesterday. I will say - Wow. I'm so happy we finally have a decent woody down under and they've done a great job with most elements of the experience (those exit walls though). The station experience is really cool, I do wish there was more time to experience it as I feel a lot of the detail is lost due to the rush to get loaded while the second train bakes in the brake run. The opening day crew were struggling at the beginning, but by the afternoon (even with all the wind stoppages) they had hit their stride and found the right rhythm. My personal opinion - Backwards seats aren't worth it. You can't see the headchoppers, and the airtime elements aren't the same facing backwards. the thrill of a woodie is seeing all the nearmisses and going backwards I just felt like a ragdoll. Out of the three gimmick seats we have on the GC, i'd rank them Taipan first, Rivals second, Levi third. I want to discuss the show without giving too much in the way of spoilers. I also want to be clear that this is just my thoughts on what i'd prefer, and I have absolutely no direct knowledge of whether this is the case \ whether my suggestion is possible and\or how hard it would be to do - call it a wishlist item? I got the impression that dispatch wasn't possible until the show scene completed, and I think this is going to hurt in peak times. I like the idea of a loop of interaction scenes that repeat (but have more scenes than necessary for the time you'd spend on station) and then a method for ops to skip to the last scene on dispatch - so the show tailors to the Ops tempo, rather than Ops tempo being limited to the show. I think the speed of Ops would be greatly improved if they could have a second group on the station while the first group is being loaded, and I feel like the above is what you'd need to do so as not to ruin 'show'. Not seeing the loading procedure before you get there has always been a way to cause delays in load - as there is no monkey-see monkey-do. This isn't a criticism of the show as-implemented. Those elements are fantastically done - I just felt it could have been done differently to improve ops. Hopefully at a park like Sea World after the initial hubbub dies down, it won't impact nearly as much.

Seeing Trident yesterday, it doesn't look like they've finished commissioning. Winds or no, I doubt it would have opened yesterday regardless - have we even seen human testing or has it only been cycling empty?

I think the main reason to have the separated branding from launch is if it wasnt successful, or if they decided not to continue it it wasn't "Dreamworld's" markets that failed. Now its successful, integrate it into the banner...? Agree, claw is a no brainer at this stage if they're going to run rides, but the wave swinger has to open too. You can't have that sit in the middle of the markets and not open it.

One thing they could do to really speed up dispatches without risking anything from a safety perspective is to simply group more than one train onto the station. They've got the space to do at least 3 groups. Paint some dots on the floor and be done.

...but just like BiP, movies and holiday specials are still being re-run on the networks. Heck, Universal Singapore is getting rid of Madagascar, but are still keeping Far Far Away (which is honestly one of the overall best areas in the park right now...)

You can recreate them for the bargain price of $200US per pair (plus shipping) with a free roadcase! High End Systems Intellibeam (Black) | eBay ....And an hour later i've come out of that rabbit hole - holy crap these things were in use for the 1991 Dire Straits tour. (And I did find what I went down there for - the gobo wheel had "gobo spin" but I believe that was cycling the wheel from gobo 1-8, rather than the ability to rotate individual gobos... probably a bit too advanced for 1991!!!

Well this is awkward I wonder who owns the trademark on the name...

No, that was where Intencity is now, and many years on, not in the sound stages... also, the spaceship i'm referring to was present around 1994. There may well have been floor uplighting (though in a soundstage, they'd have had to raise the entire floor of the set to build them in underneath) but whether there was or wasn't uplighting on the set, the scanners existed, as I saw them in a lot sale Village held in the studios about 10 years ago or so. (I may have mis-remembered the gobo rotating as I recall many scanners weren't that advanced, but there were definitely scanners projecting the riddler's logo within the set.) ETA: looks like the lighting design was done by this guy: Architectural — Steven Young (syoungld.com) (bottom of the page)

You'd have been closer with Space Mountain (and Corkscrew didn't exist 6 years ago) but do stop stalking me old chap. ^He's right you know.

<sarcasm> nobody should go on friday because there's going to be horrible weather. it will be way too hot \ too cold \ too wet \ too windy to operate any of the rides at sea world and everyone should wait until Saturday when everything will be perfect </sarcasm> Here's hoping this isn't considered a 'soft' open and they're ready to go on park open, because i've got a feeling Atlantis is going to get slammed. I mean, Dreamworld didn't with MDMC after it opened and was revealed to not be a thrill coaster so....

I think the sound stage sets you're talking about didn't remain the same the whole time... I don't remember this mansion set, but I do remember an alien space ship type set (where they used polystyrene meat trays as panelling on the walls) and I also remember the Riddler's Lair set, which used a bunch of scanners (lighting) with Question Mark gobos on rotate - a bit like this IIRC That building is the exit shop, not the entry. Above the exit shop is the concrete ramps and queue rails leading to the entry which is just above and to the right. Can confirm though that the theatre building remained standing post demo of the coaster, (though it does look like they've removed most of the elevated concrete queue area outside). Whether it stays or not, can't say - this is current as at October 26th.

I had seen that update and wondered if it were the same fresh faced Parkz Member that went on to that role... What an enthusiast success story if so!

Kudos to them for the wood model - that's a relatively new thing even overseas and an awesome little take home keepsake for the budding building \ coaster fan. ... But does nobody do a decent quality polo shirt anymore?

You may have missed this part: It's a really good point that a splash pad would have been well suited to the former wipeout site. I can't say whether it was considered or not, but by 'bridging the gap' between the current ocean area and Pandamonium, they can integrate it, which IMO is probably a good enough reason to have put it there. (It also leaves that space for the next big Ocean themed flatride in good time). 100% rock solid safe bet. "Main Street Needs Kinetics" "Night Market needs something for the kids to do besides watch a movie" As the father of a six (almost 7) year old who has spent the best part of the last 5 years primarily in the kids lands at our parks, I can tell you that we are neither wiggles or ABC kids fans (Disney Junior, followed by Paw Patrol primarily), but when it comes to "CAN I GO ON THAT ONE?" He doesn't really care what IP is stickered on the side of the ride - it's the experience he enjoys, not whose cartoon face is painted on the side (side note though - "i'm not sitting in the pink car dad, that's for girls") Yes, I'm aware this means my son doesn't really care about themeing. Don't worry, i'll teach him. We're on page 5 now - please do take the time to have a read of the last 4 pages where this was all covered quite extensively. Whether or not Puss and Gingy are going, I don't agree with the sentiment 'no need for 2' - Movie World had Batwing and the Sylvester Pounce n Bounce. Having smaller versions that look less intimidating can sometimes be needed. A swing ride a metre off the ground? cool. That thing rises up several metres and tilts? WaveSwinger1 looks too intense for me.

Translation: "In the coming weeks"

That's a fair opinion to have based on the park's history, but one I must respectfully disagree with. I personally see a lot of thought and vision in the announced plans. Ocean Parade is actually going to get some 'ocean' injected back into it, and they've directly included the attractions left orphaned by the loss of Dreamworks by including Panda (because it definitely didn't fit into the dreamland concept they had for the rest of it). The Dreamland plans (as has been mentioned already) give cohesiveness to the area, integrates the orphaned wiggles attractions which (absent BRC) no longer support an entire land dedicated to them. This, in turn clears the space by the river to return RiverTown in some form and all announced with it. Ok, they haven't said what they're doing with MDMC. Cool. Maybe they don't know yet, maybe they're not ready yet. This park got trashed over decades and it isn't going to come back overnight. I'll judge these announcements on what is announced and how it turns out, not what they didn't include. Blue Lagoon and BB Studios still sit partially demolished and disused, but I'm not going to assume it'll stay that way forever just because it's not included in the current announcement. When Westfield opens a new extension, the older wings tend to look a bit... dated by comparison. But Westfield can't close the entire centre just to make the old area look as good as the new area. It'll go on the list and be slated for a refresh or a repaint at some point in the future when finances allow and depreciation has run its course.

100% this. Arguing the loss of the fountain over things like temporary seasonal activations for fire machine and the like, over the permanent introduction of a new, year-round attraction is weak at best. Main street needs a kinetic energy. We need to give up the 'preservation' of Longhurst's Disneyland Main Street - Because even Disneyland has kinetics down main street with trolleys, carriages and the like. DL's Main Street also has the castle weenie to draw people in. The current arrangement does none of this. Why can't a parade happen? Does it need to cut off the ride like an island? I absolutely applaud the installation of this attraction, and i'm intelligent enough to recognise its the first step in a very long journey - Just because they haven't mentioned plans for MDMC, it doesn't mean it isn't on the whiteboard for stage 3\4 once this initial $50-60M is done and dusted. There's only so much money - you can't expect them to completely renew the entire park in one foul swoop. Get the new rides in to take the pressures off the current ones so you can shut them down for a rework without leaving the park desolate. the next 5 years are going to be an exciting time on the gold coast.