DaptoFunlandGuy

Took me way too long to understand what Tim was talking about. can we have a thread title change to reflect this isn’t the LPS Ranger?

There were some unusual closures in the past 12 months and i'm pretty sure we discussed whether the additional time for the wet rides meant a reliagnment to wintertime. good to see that's happening as I believe West also had the same\similar change?

Maybe on one of the trains, you can ride it

Thread is BS - but just to answer this a little - the most problematic part of a drop ride is actually the safety systems. Cables can be inspected and replaced per manufacturer, and GD's gondolas have just had a refurb so by the sounds, pretty straightforward stuff, as long as the running gear, cable and magnets are all maintained well. All pretty basic stuff (then again most ride mechanisms are fairly simple in their operation, it's making them safe that gets complex) As for the safety systems, the PLC systems on Space Probe were fickle - launching all enabled gondolas occurred simultaneously, and if all gondolas didn't arrive at the top within a space of each other, the ride would fault. One of the modules (I believe it was module 2) suffered a fault at some stage and was repaired (badly) by an in house electrician. It never worked the same again, and this is why one gondola would rise slower than the rest. But this would cause the ride to fault as the first gondola to arrive would start the timer in the PLC and the last one wouldn't arrive in time due to the slower running winch. The maintenance team fixed this issue by patching a couple one-shot timers into the two faster units to delay their 'arrival' signal to the PLC a few seconds to give the last gondola a chance to catch up. It still happened occasionally, especially with weight differences, but although they consulted Intamin, they couldn't undo the damage done without replacing the entire module - (something that would have shut the ride down and required the station buildings to be partially dismantled). So the ride continued to operate on life support, and module 2 was taken out of service whenever things acted up too badly. --- I've told this story many times over the years, but this is the first time i've told this with the hindsight of the Dreamworld Inquest - and for the first time i've found myself thinking - gee those maintenance guys were a bit blase about things, weren't they?

I mean if you're going to count every closure in the last 7 years, you should probably count Sky Voyager alongside Taipan. It's not much of an improvement, but its factual. Agree with pretty much everything else you've said here - Dreamworld has a lot of fucking work to do. I'm hopeful they've got the right team and tools to try. Movieworld should have gone the SF route long ago. I also don't think they should be trying to compliment Green Lantern - from what I hear, that thing has been a dumpster fire of late.

Nice spot mate. Can confirm. im on mobile - so forgive the formatting - but here’s the latest Nearmap!

That’s what I meant by the MyGov image , it’s an official record so there should be no reason they dont accept it. the qld checkin app is easier because it shows checkin and vax status on the one screen.

Just for the record, I think comparing a new coaster with the exact coaster it replaced is a fair comparison IMO.

Places I’ve been have all asked. I saw one place that would only accept the QLD checkin “tick” or MyGov animated image. paper copies, screenshots etc were refused entry.

I’m surprised to see so many fountains in this thread. This is the first I’ve read on Parkz but I had heard this same information through an offline source. minor, no need for sensationalism, but legitimate fire occurred and I’ve heard it from enough reliable sources now to be satisfied that something small did occur. im yet to hear anyone confirm this exploded air tank at GL though.

Putting West out after Easter is smart. Probably one of the smartest maintenance decisions I’ve seen in years. wet rides closed in winter… such innovation!

I took a corporate group to TopGolf last week. we anticipated crazy busy times and wanted to book, but it was a “pay your own share” kind of thing, not the corporate card. we needed two bays minimum, were prepared to play for two hours, and everyone would be ordering lunch, and likely drinks. couldn’t book single bays. Events team told us they could take us if we booked a package but it required prepaid food and bev - basically $1000, with $500 food and bev credit, making it nigh on impossible for everyone to only pay their “share”. We got bays allocated very quickly on the bottom floor as we arrived at 11:30. Despite it not being packed half our group’s food hadn’t arrived at the 45 minute mark (the point where the game stops to ask if you want to extend). so our group decided to end the game at an hour and go elsewhere. they could have easily made their $1000 off us if they’d let us book and pay our way but they’re just so Inflexible. what I WILL say though is the catering / finding a server issue is fixed: QR code in every bay, order whatever you like, pay on phone, brought direct to your bay in minutes. Need a refill? Delivered in two minutes flat. Amazing system and I’m quite happy to use it over the servers. I will say though that Evie and Will were awesome service team for our group - it was the kitchen and events team that convinced us not to stay longer.

Regardless of where they came from, where they were, or how Long they’ve been there, take any random first-time visitor to both of those parks today, and dreamworld looks a fuck-tonne better. No bias, no rose coloured glasses. we’re 5 days away from their peak trading period - who looks more “ready”?

I'd honestly be ok if they ripped the foam off, and just hung a vinyl banner with a general yellow\black chevron image (pointing down) with the words 'giant drop' superimposed over the top. call it a 'transitional theme' while they work out what to do with it. That foam was getting on in years about ten years ago. Now its just a rotting embarassment.

is the thinking that individual lapbars are fitted to the individual rider and therefore make escape in the case of a flip over all but impossible? not that I would think a West boat could flip, but since these are new boats... who knows?

Are the OOS seats locked out in the system, or do staff still need to re-do the seatbelt on each one each time? What a shambles this soft opening has been! They should have waited until their staff were at 100% like the Rivals crew!

Like they did in Hong Kong?

Agree with this 100%

I hope you're not referring to Universal - who soft opened an entire theme park for 14 months. Can you imagine if they didn't advertise that? I also hope you're not referring to Disney - who ran 'passholder previews' in Galaxy's Edge and - *shock horror* allowed Smugglers Run to break down. Oh - and they also advertised it to their passholders too. We have no information as to why Taipan was down at any particular time during the 'soft open' for 'passholders' (you might say a passholder preview, eh?) so I think its a bit arrogant to suggest they were any less prepared than they should have been, or to invoke the big players (who also do soft opens to iron out the kinks and get their crew in shape for grand opening) to try to make your argument without at least some details as to what went wrong... If you DO know what happened to Taipan, and it WAS a case of the park pushing it open before they should have then please DO share it with the rest of us. 🤷‍♂️

Disagree. In my opinion, If passholders went to the soft open expecting zero issues or stoppages they need to reassess their expectations. In my opinion, If they didn't offer this opportunity to passholders, a lot of folk wouldn't be in the park when they needed those test audiences - then you end up having your stress test in front of all the cameras instead of a few days prior.

Are the reviews in this thread going to move over to the reviews thread or is it ok to post reviews in this one?

Honestly their pre-covid plans were a little yawn worthy at best and some of them were downright stupid. All that said, for an industry in recovery, i'm not sure a revamped kids land is going to be the big ticket they need to keep folks hyped. Another marquee is probably needed. That's as much theme park boiler plate as 'excuse our mess' and 'this attraction has been closed to make way for an exciting new attraction' See also "in the coming weeks" and "Coming Summer Easter Next Year Soon"

it's not on track and it doesn't work. It's no more 'returned' than it was 3 months ago. I guess this confirms that it was getting a paintjob when we saw pics of the cowlings and cab on a truck a while back.

Judging by the rankings of each launch, it sounds like the first launch doesn't impart all that much energy - I wonder how fast it could go if it just went backwards\forwards instead of the triple? (I acknowledge the first 'backwards' probably won't get all the launch track, i'm just curious how it would go if it did)

From what i've been hearing, folks at the front gate are telling people it's open.