MickeyD

^spot on what you said here. i know myself and so many others have all expressed the same concerns. Unfortunately we are the voices of the Enthusiasts who no doubt make up less than 1% of the people going to the Parks. The loudest our voices can shout is through sites like this one but at the end of the day we are still only 1% and care about all the shit that most people out there don't even notice. I think they are now treading a little dangerously with the most recent decision to close batman though You know what? I bet all of these closures came about as a result of Guest feedback surveys.The closures only started happening after the VIP passes kicked off. I am sure the surveys would have asked multiple choice questions like "What types of rides or attractions would you like to see more of?" with everybody circling a roller-coaster over other options like dark, family or water rides. Remember about a year ago some individuals who worked at the Park were blabbing on here about something being planned to replace the Looney Tunes Ride for a Christmas 2011 opening? BTW this person hasn't been back here for nearly a year.. anyway it was probably announced at an awards night ages ago.. Anyway whatever ''it'' was had no place whatsoever themeing wise in the realm of the Looney Tunes.. Evidently some surveys were later put out to customers voting on for another rollercoaster and forcing it to be built at the front. They probably reviewed the customer reaction to the closure of Bermuda finding the level of complaints to be surprisingly few and thought ''fuck it, you reckon anyone will notice if we shutdown the Tune ride?" And perhaps 6 months on after the Tune ride's closure they again saw surprisingly few complaints and negative feedback. Seeing that both Batman Adventure and Tunes drew about the same average daily attendance figure and with marginal complaints coming through from one closure they would expect the same again, I'm probably so right on the money with what i just said that if MW management read this they'd probably go blaming known staff for talking out of line. I want to make it very clear that I have never discussed with or passed on any gossip, rumours or sensitive information from anyone here. In reality, I just know the Park like the back of my hand even after 10 years. I also know that if they can get away with shutting a couple of rides to save drastically under budget that end of year bonus cheque would be looking pretty tasty for somebody - especially with retirement surely just around the corner

actually just taking the piss out of em

Gazza I reckon you're right on the money with "Summer Phenomenally Shit" returning in December by 'popular' demand and to wrap up the 30th Birthday year-long Calender of Crap. So with no new ride to kick off the festivities, a brand new flat ride was rushed into Ocean Parade that feels just like a lame version of the Claw. If that doesn't get your heart racing then why not step back in time to the Gold Rush and spend a leisurely hour or two waiting to enjoy the Park's latest thrill. We caught up with an alleged Publicity & Promotions spokesperson, Ms Jane Smith who took a few moments to talk about the exciting new ride. "From the moment you step into our overflow queue you may be thinking is this really worth a 2 hour wait?? -but don't worry, you'll soon forget all of that once the sun stroke kicks in. We deliberately provided no shade for the comfort of our guests allowing them to better adjust to the 40 degree heat once inside our authentic Australian tin shed. We affectionately refer to it as the "Dreamworld Bakehouse" . Our Expert Craftsman have done a spectacular job creating an environment that accurately simulates the sensation of being slow cooked in an old fashioned cottage stove" "We understand that it will get a little stuffy during the Summer months so we decided to go with very little theming so not to distract our patrons from the important things like breathing. Our goal is to have most guests make it all the way to the ride safely and enjoy the highlight of this exciting and truly immersive experience. After all, Guest comfort and safety is our number one priority!! I asked Jane what she loves most about her role at DW? "Well Mikey it's got to be that sparkle of excitement you see in a child's face - only just before I watched a little girl skipping out of the ride exit back to her Parent's who had been patiently waiting over the last few hours... "WOW Mum that was so much fun, the ride wasn't scary at all but in the line there is this really scary part where you can't even breath and it was so Hot in there, I thought I was just going to die! Can I go again? please can I can I can I?"- "it's these special moments that make my job so rewarding" I asked Jane what else DW had in store as the special surprise for the end of the year, to which she obliged "our children friendly area of the Park is getting an exciting new theme! Whilst there will be no new additions to the area whatsoever we have invested generously in purchasing exactly 36 tins of paint for the project! We're all so excited about it because you just won't recognize the place after all that paint goes on. Our marketing guys are working on a fantastic advertising campaign featuring the new look that will hit your telly later in the year... stay tuned!! OK so maybe none of this probably didn't happen

not really. The fire safety features of scoob are there because it is a 'dark ride' style of coaster. The initial ghost train section is covered with electrical switches and other components that puts it in a higher risk category so must have ample emergency exit/stop points, heat and smoke sensors (ghost train section), sprinklers and chemical fire extinguishes. The rides at MW all have their own fire isolation panels that are linked to the Theme Park Administration building, security gatehouse and most importantly the Fire department. Both BATR & WWF were the main offenders for alerting the fire department. BATR had this really cool effect using basically fridge elements that ran along the pit floor, cooled the fog & kept it low. It looked great until the elements would over heat, blow a fuse and the smoke would rise up to the sensors. Sometimes the cave would get so smokey you could barely see your hand in front of your face! We'd open the back corridor fire doors and all show doors throughout the building to try and stop the fire alarm from triggering. Call outs are very expensive! The pit smoke effect was too problematic so eventually removed. The fire alarm sensors at WWF would sometimes be triggered by dust but mostly caused by the smoke / explosion effect up on turntable 2. Strangely, most call outs on WWF would actually happen within an hour or so after the ride was closed for the day. I noticed on monitors the foggers would sometimes discharge a continuous stream after the PLC was shut down. I had no idea why this would happen but it makes sense they removed all smoke effects after the fire.. Green Lantern looks like an all outdoors ride so there's no need for fancy fire proofing features - just some booster wheels for the 3 trim brakes to push the car forward once the coast is clear. All trim brakes, station and lift hill should have a long fin that will stop a car from ever rolling backward. 'Anti rollbacks' are found on all coasters at change points or blocks such as Stations/lift hill/switch points/turntable/trimstation/maintenance track switch. If your riding GL during an estop or fire alarm, the ride will switch from Automatic to Manual mode. All 3 Trimstations will switch to high pressure abruptly stopping the 3 speeding cars. It'll be a little uncomfortable but not jarring, just sudden. Riders locked up on trimbrakes1&2 will have to wait patiently until the problem is resolved. Before returning to normal (automatic) operation, the pressure from brake 3 is switched back to normal, releasing the car and clearing the block. The car on brake 2 is then released forward, clearing the block behind thus releasing the car off brake one. With all trim brakes clear the ride can return to normal Automatic operation. In normal mode the ride will automatically space the cars and set dispatch intervals based on the number of trains operating. The OCC for the Load/Unload attendants will probably have just 2 buttons - dispatch and estop. The control room will have lots of buttons and dials for each of the ride's manual drive functions. All manual functions are vigorously tested every day, firstly by the fitters and then again by operations. Whilst in Automatic there are no buttons for the Supervisor to touch. Basically they will sit there watching the Station and waiting for something to go wrong. Working most of the control rooms can be so dreadfully boring especially when there is nothing going wrong because there is literally nothing to do except watch If you share my Theme Park passion with a keen interest in Operations & Technical then hopefully I've shared something new with you today

didn't know we were including International Parks? If that's the case then Universal Singapore was my last Theme Park visit Absolutely love the place so much it deserved a 2nd visit:) If you're heading that way best to buy your ticket at the gate with a Master credit or debit card. It'll set you back a measly $50SGD or about $40AUD. They also throw in a swag of really decent retail and dining offers (ie 20%) It's just such a beautiful Park and so richly detailed that I bet they spent more money on aesthetics than they did on anything else. Rides included. Singapore is renowned for it's Park's and Gardens in Public areas so with Universal they had to raise the bar for it to really stand out. It's a photo feast for our snap happy pals and brimming with detail. Forget the rides, the biggest attraction at Universal Singapore is it's skin!

Last Park I visited was SW about a year ago. I'd organised a conference at the Resort for about 100 Travel Agents. Arguably this was simply the best local Staff conference (we do them once a year) the company had ever arranged. Not just for the local area but Australia wide. Having contacts within VTP's certainly helped sweeten deals but the overall professionalism and organisation of our function was top notch! The majority of our guys attended a day conference at the Resort and participated in the usual Myer Briggs program along with some motivational guest speakers. The lunch organised in the waterfall cafe was a mountain of food and morning /afternoon tea was also offered for anyone still hungry. At the end of the day, delegates checked into their rooms and got dressed up in their Halloween costumes to head into the Park for the evening's themed festivities. We had 1 hour private use of Jetski rescue (served with drinks) and the spread that was put on at the Dockside tavern was something like you'd expect from a Cruise ship buffet.. I was gobsmacked! Nothing like your typical Theme Park Fare that's for sure! We ate and drank the night away and again all those assisting our evening did a truly fantastic job.. It reminded me so much of the excellant customer service standards the park's were once renouned for. The next day we had special early entry to the Park and a Marine Biologist escorted us through the Shark Bay area for a bit of a vip morning presentation. Breakfast at the Hotel followed and all delegates were offered courtesy entry to the Park to wrap things up. I won't disclose the price tag of such an event but you may very well be surprised to hear it cost a lot less than you might think! The presence of the whole event was that of upmost professionalism and such word of mouth marketing is invaluable to such a business. Shame they can't seem to provide the same standard of excellance during normal trading hours huh?

The lockers for the coasters at Universal Singapore are free for the 1st hour and they charge for usage beyond that . An attendant assists in the locker area in case somebody goes over the hour and their wallet is in the locker, so they canover-ride it. The system works fine in a much busier park. I think having too many pay lockers in one day can leave a bad taste in people's mouths and the park should re-think their decision before adding another option like this where costs apply. Better still rethink such a decision all together. Scooby is hardly California Screamin and the ride has worked fine as is with people taking their bags etc on board for years

just having a bit of fun. besides wasn't that last essay I wrote enough to keep things going?!?

better?

When a line keeps moving at a steady foot shuffle pace your wait generally won't seem too painful. Operationally, these rides are called 'Continuous Loaders' and we love our Parks for building them! Green Lantern will have double the seating capacity as Scooby but with it's dual car dispatch I reckon they will be about the same. Depending on the number of cars in service, they can bank up in the station with each car occupying it's own block until the one in front has cleared allowing the next one to safely cycle forward. The restraint locking system on other versions plugs into the cars from behind, sending a charge to the restraint system to unlock and cut the power at Load to lock. This hydraulic locking system on other versions seems to be the cause of most problems when it fails to engage and trap riders till the problem is fixed. The countless number of proximity switches is a bit of a headache too - if just one switch fails the ride will shut down automatically until the switch is replaced. Lucky the modern systems tell Engineers where the faulty switch is so it can be replaced quickly! Lethal Weapon has just 5 blocks. It's a relatively simple design compared to the others and rarely breaks down. Scooby on the other hand has shit loads of switches/blocks,way more than every other coaster in Australia combined. Green Lantern will have lots too but mostly through the station area with a few on the lift hill and for the 2 other trimstation breaking points along the circuit. Ideally by the time a car reaches the first trim brake you want the next block to be clear or the ride will keep applying breaks when you want it to build momentum. For the one in France, either the dispatch intervals are not set right or they need to ease off on the trim brakes pressure. The car speed is too controlled and I think this is what will make the difference between our version turning out good or great! Sorry I went on a bit of a tangent there, just love these systems - kind of like a human conveyor-belt! Expect the greatest threat to Green Lantern's rider capacity is breakdowns - mainly in the station area. The new restraint system shoul overcome most issues and I hope it was designed in house. Back on topic.. the longest wait I have experienced for an Australian ride has always been at Dreamworld on one of their far too many Cycle rides where waiting in line is a chore because you move say 5 paces. Stop. Wait another 3 or 4 minutes, move another few paces. Stop and so on... UGH!! By the time you get to the end of a moderate crowd day you have spent more time in queues than anything else and how does that make you feel about your day at the Park? Walt Disney really didn't like having too many cycle rides in his Parks. Continuous loaders kept the patrons happy. Over 55 years their company has created an entire psychology around the way the guests enjoy the experience from the moment they step into line. Right now they are moving into a new era of virtual and no line queues and always offer some visual entertainment as you stream your way through the switchbacks. One of the few exceptions the finding nemo sub ride.. reckon i aged a whole year waiting for that one! My worse wait time ever was the Batman suspended coaster at Magic Mountain.They were only operating 1 train and it took over 3 hours and after nearly 2 hours waiting I nearly gave up

As much as we all love our coasters, plenty of variety and balance in any Theme Park will always keep most of the punters happy. With Superman closed today it's hardly good value for those visiting from overseas/interstate & paying full fare. I hope the Park can quickly get through this transition phase of heavy closures so they can get on with doing what they do best. Word of mouth is what it's all about so please MW, for your own good please try to keep the peeps happy and minimise your Maintenance schedule during Park hours!!! Looking at the picture above I can see MW Theme Park one day pushing a wrecking ball through that ugly Studio Admin building and shuffle the park boundary south. This has always been a pie in the sky plan for the Theme Park side of things but the Studios would never budge.. unless of course MW one day offered to relocate them with a shiny new Studio Admin on the other side of the sound stages? Sound stages 1 & 2 are just too small and make better storage sheds than filming there so I reckon the Studios could throw those in with the deal exchanging their land for MW's Investment. That way both sides win. Keep in mind this would be a last resort and only happen after they have no more room to move. Relocate the Studio commissary and carpentry sheds up on the hill and presto, plenty more room for another big ride or even 2! Maybe when this day comes MW could have the space for Australia's 1st B&M and how about that - just in time for the Park's 30th Anniversary haha

I liked Mystery lodge but it was very much a one time visit IMO. The show looked like a carbon copy of the Aboriginal Dreamtime show (for those ancient ones out there old enough to remember!) from World Expo 88 that was hosted in the Australian Pavillion. Both show's had a lot of oooh and arrrh moments but truthfully it's good for 1 visit only.. Movie Magic's biggest problem was it had little repeatability and the last thing MW needs is to go down the road of spending millions on a show that people are going to want to see once. If they are to build a new show I think it needs to be dynamic enough to captivate the audience for more than a few visits and have that true "WOW" factor. I loved what Disney did with Alien Encounter a few years ago, bringing elemental effects into the room and creating a new kind of thrill. Shame the screaming children and worried Parent's didn't agree because it truly was awesome!! I have said this over and over again, we need a type of "Soarin" over Australia attraction for Movieworld. The park is screaming out for such a repeatable family attraction and this ride system surely fits the bill. Vekoma have even designed their own version that's practical for a MW sized budget. It would fit perfectly at the site of the defunct western show stage and perhaps feature in the corner that would digrees into an Outback/Australiana theme. Just on attendance and growth. The park's were achiveing annual figures around the one million mark 20 years ago. I think you'll find that figure has grown to at around 1.5 million today and since the arrival of cheap annual passes but concurrently, per capita spending has also dropped in line with this. The parks will continue to grow but more importantly right now they have been evolving to meet the needs of a changing market

This has been in the pipe for some time. It's great to see the ride finally getting some much needed attention. Btw this will not be the only attention LW gets over the next 12 months infact don't expect it will even be "Lethal Weapon" for much longer.. Think total retheme and characters that tie in with the whole DC Universe.

I can assure you the scenes in both Looney Tunes and Bermuda were triggered by the riders on board. No point in running scenes over and over to no audience. Lassiters on the other hand featured many scenes that played on a continuous loop.

I enjoyed bringing up some fond memories of the Park's early years with a fellow original CM recently and would like to share a few stories and opinions with you. The Looney Tunes Studio Tour (original name) & the Batride (what the CM's called it) -two headliner rides of the 90's that helped shape a wonderful Movie park of International and perhaps even Disney standards. Looking back 20 years, MW's runaway success was a surprise to everyone including management and partner companies. It was after all a pretty big gamble but it was the demonstrated success and passion of John Menzies and the Sea World team that convinced Warner and Village to give MW the green light. You may only know this if you were there at the time but to keep the initial investment attractive, the Park was not built to last and relatively inexpensive materials were initially used in case it failed. I believe the original construction and development of the Park was only around 70 million. Add the land value, product placement, copyrights, indices, legal, marketing etc it was said to be around 110 million. SW property trust & Village fronted the vast majority with Warner providing their film rights and world class resources such as the services of the late Mr CV Wood who worked with Walt Disney creating the original Park On the 27th December 1991 MW gasped as a record 12000 visitors flocked to the Park. This was believed to be a new single day attendance record for any Australian Theme Park and an absolute NIGHTMARE for the CM's responsible for pushing the precious few attractions beyond the limit. Needless to say this was a big learning experience for everyone involved Working a busy day back then was exhausting but thrilling. You felt like you were truly a part of something big. It was a magical feeling walking down Main street and whilst only very much a half day visit at the time, the average visitor by and large loved everything they saw and they saw everything. From Attraction Presenters to Cleaners, the MW CM's were proud of their Park and it showed. The live entertainment was world class and overall the place was immaculate The unprecedented success paved ongoing commitment to bringing more world class attractions every few years widening the appeal and offering more for everyone. With impressive budgets as high as 18 million, quality was never compromised. MW had become Australia's "WOW" park and that's a credit to the passion of Menzies and the entire team of which I believe his drive and Leadership inspired. We knew we were the best Park on the Coast and that sense of pride fostered a wonderful workplace environment that was professional and creative. Come 1999, the original attractions were still getting the love and attention they needed to keep them looking great and staff were coached and mentored to be their best. I was one of those responsible for maintaining our proud standard and when this was happening the Park never looked better. Fast forward a few years and Management made their most dramatic reshuffle ever that resulted in the removal of many Supervisory and Performance standard positions. The Attraction Presenters and 'Preshows' have now all but gone and replaced by button pushes. Overall the Park has transformed from a giant Show Stage to just another Fun Park It was great to have ALL park attractions looking their best and I found it so sad to see my babies of Batman & Looney tunes left to rot for the last few years. It's like no body cares any more and small wonder after 5 or so years of practical neglect they decide these attractions no longer have a place in the "new movie world"? Give me the "old movie world" any day. The new one seems to be driven by Value & VIP passes which have all but destroyed the original experience, slashed operating costs to meet a lower spend market, causing capacity issues on fewer rides and subsequent long wait times for rides. All this adds up to discontent customer's who are less inclined to spend their $$$.. Just sharing a bit of 'shop talk' by some of the dinosaurs from the good old days that have reasonably valid concerns for the Park's future direction thanks for reading peeps! -Mikey

The front of the Park has now disconnected from the elegant Hollywood theme in exchange for a new DC universe land or whatever they wind up calling it. The Bat is almost as big as the Bunny when it comes to marketability and don't you think it's just a tad ironic that both of their own signature attractions have been shuttered? IMO the most practical solution for the space is to continue utilizing it's unique ride type. We only have 1 world class simulator attraction in Australia, they really must keep it. I'd like to see them gut the preshow bringing the queue right up to the main cave, add new audio visual technology to the motion bases with maybe even a few in cabin effects and redo the tracking module facades. The ride would be obviously themed around the current Batman and related themes. If done right it would be just the shot in the arm the Park needs to accompany it's Green brother across the way Either this or the building is indeed going to house a dark section of the new coaster (same as superman did)but i really can't see this happening. It's too far back

^ bit slow to the punch there mate? Being such a huge fan, I was half expecting you'd be all over this news by now?? haha granted it's only been a day or so I completely understand your frustration by this news but before you go jumping the gun, take clear note of the announcement: BATMAN Adventure - The Ride 2 will be closing permanently from Monday the 15th of October 2011 to make way for an exciting new attraction. Personally I never really liked the sequel. The animation & story line came across cheesy and cheap compared with the original and even the motion seemed lackluster. Not to mention the animatronic in the cave... sheesh! Regardless of the show building's future, surely it's life has to once again evolve to keep up with the times. They haven't said the building will not house a future Batman ride, just that the current show has to go

If they don't reopen the Batride for the Summer holidays then the total loss in hourly capacity would be pretty horrendous. Between Tunes, LW's 1 train, now this, it's a potential combined loss of up to 2000 rider per hour (assuming peak capacity is in operation) I reckon Green Lantern will be a people eater and potentially handle up to 1000 riders an hour. Still, with potentially record crowds and fewer rides, the lines will become long and move slowly and the streets will be crowded. Awesome I really hope they do a refresh and launch a Batride 3 as soon as possible

very interesting but I have to say i'm a little disappointed that they are closing yet another major attraction before another door opens? still too early to speculate My guess will be that (perhaps unlike the fate of the Toon ride) they will keep the existing infrastructure/layout, freshen it up and do another overlay with it. If this is to be the case then maybe it would be down for a relatively short time, reopening alongside Green Lantern later this year? thoughts?

^Valid point but shame his portfolio work only goes up to 2007 on the site. Been said many times before but it's a shame our Parks are so secretive about their plans till the last minute. I ran the video on the site frame by frame (yeah i'm a total theme park nerd i know) and from what i could see the ride's layout looks pretty standard. The only thing that I can think of that could be different is bringing the load/unload station south toward the Batride, keeping the boarding area within the main Park berm

CG video has now been released http://movieworld.myfun.com.au/Attractions/Rides/Green-Lantern.aspx Whilst it looks to be your standard El loco layout, the dimensions seem blown out to super size + the 8 seater cars (4 abreast) are now official I must say it looks pretty mad.. A real vertigo ride

awesome cheers for the scoop! Sounds pretty much what you would expect I guess.. not enough to get me racing to Coomera right away though, maybe after the holidays when crowds die down a bit

so does the queue tell a story at all? or is it just a tin shed with a bullpen?

yeah they take you into this room that appears to have no windows and no doors.... and then it begins to stretch.. wait a minute

oh my god!