DaptoFunlandGuy

If this is all managed under one umbrella now, why then does Sea World have two photo booths, and the old one couldn't provide ride photos but the other could? Shouldn't they all be the same now?

I think many people who stood waiting for 4.5 hours on day one would argue that day one wasn't managed, let alone a second. When it was supposed to have it's official opening day a week ago, but was closed due to high winds, this opening is more 'delayed' than 'soft'.

I mean, there's only so much you can do to advise people in advance... change your website, put out an A-frame, have a moose out front...

Just to clarify, these are in many places around the attraction. They're very clearly in parts you "might" be able to reach if you were outside "normal" dimensions. One of the banked turns deep within the structure (visible when you're sitting on the brake run) has these on all the angled overhead braces. It could just be out of an abundance of caution.

Is that duct tape though? What I can see are the pads attached to beams that are in proximity to the train, which are fastened on the back with fairly wide straps. That's what I can see here, not duct tape.

You sure about that?

This is VIP Gold all over again - all these amazing perks like early entry, and one ride open early exclusively for VIP gold holders... and then that slowly phased out... Dolphins are mammals, so probably not?

I was really worried how the transition between Levi and Jellyfish would look from the construction updates we got, but seeing it in person, i think it works really well, so I don't think theres a need for any sort of deep planting beyond what is there already...

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.