mba2012

ABC article from this morning was reporting that all thrill rides should be open by the end of the month. They're also reporting that profit is down 63% during the period from December 10 (reopening) to the end of the year compared to the same period last year. Financial reports from the period once all rides are open should be interesting to see. Link to the article

Alton Towers was still reporting visitor numbers being down over a year after their accident. It was never going to be a quick recovery. Hopefully once all rides are open it'll start recovering a bit more. But they'd be stupid to use visitor numbers from any point during the next year or so to warrant a reconsideration regarding the parks future.

^ To be honest, I'd much rather catch a tram than a bus. I don't know what it is, but they're so much nicer than buses, and I'm sure many others would agree. In regards to getting the wrong service, I think people would be much more likely to get the wrong bus (even with a dedicated one existing) than to get the wrong tram, just purely given the larger volume of potential buses to get on. As for frequency of the light rail, I don't think it needs any more services than it does now. It never gets particularly full, only really through surfers paradise. I'd suspect the best way to do it would be increase the frequency of the light rail from main beach south, and then split them either way to the spit or to helensvale. Plus the occasional service from the spit to helensvale during peak time for people coming form brisbane.

Given that they were constantly extending the maintenance period, I wouldn't be surprised is this were the case.

If there were a splashdown or something of the like, it'd likely have been built by now.

The bridge in the picture comes from Queen street, which continues to run along the south side of the old hospital site. The only thing you'd be skipping is the current bridge.

Jesus, these quotes are annoying... Replying to above, there's not really anywhere to hide track pieces, so I assume they haven't arrived yet. Given the opening date though, I wouldn't be surprised if they began to arrive shortly. Probably very early in the new year.

I wouldn't consider myself an environmental activist, but I'm not a huge fan of the idea of development on the spit and I can see where they are coming from. It has created a unique environment, where all comparable areas have been developed. It's also a really nice area for locals and tourists to go, its absolutely my first choice over every other beach on the coast. To be fair though, this current development doesn't appear to do much in the way of developing this environment. Especially considering most of the land is just a grass field at the moment. The previous proposals on wavebreak island were atrocious though.

The spit as exists now is mostly man made. Wavebreak island is entirely man made, as is the seaway. Before the seaway was built, the original bar moved around, less than 100 years ago it was about where the southport yacht club is now. At some point they decided to build the seaway and Wavebreak island. As MickeyD said, this stabilised the sea entrance and allowed the spit and the southern end of south stradbroke to form. I do believe that there has been significant reclamation of land to make the spit more useful as well. I know there are pictures on these forums that show the significant amount of broadwater that sea world has taken over. But Alex, you are right when you said it was entirely natural until the seaway was built.

It hasn't been approved. This is the first concept, chances are it'll look quite different if it gets built.

For what is probably going to be the parks flagship ride, I don't think a villain theme would be quite appropriate. And yeah, it would probably be a bit out of place.

I was able to see the footings themagician was referring to briefly the other day. There's a line of them following roughly the red line I've drawn onto this image. Looks very much like that's where the station will be. The direction may be a bit off, I think it goes more towards the bottom of the image.

I know right, I can't see many free spaces either.

Yes, I've noticed that too. The treatment of new members on this site certainly has gone downhill in the 9 days since you joined.

I don't think anyone was anticipating huge crowds. The park has been closed for six weeks, after a tragic accident, and not everything is open. Once the park has been open for a few weeks, and everything returns to normal, it will return to normal levels. I wouldn't be surprised if the park struggles to surpass previous years attendance, but give it a few years, a few new attractions, and it will be back to where it was previously. And look at Alton Towers; it's still reporting reduced attendance, but it's nothing dire. It will and is recovering. Dreamworld will likely do just the same. The only place that I've seen a huge drama made of the park's reopening, and about its future attendance is here. There isn't a huge fuss being made in the media as far as I can see, which would only be good for DW.

As long as you can keep the same colour on the track and supports and any other elements that you've ordered already.

I don't think the context there is entirely accurate. The police may have concluded their onsite investigation, but a final investigation will take months to complete. The wording in that statement is also fairly vague, it states that they couldn't recreate the "freak conditions" but not necessarily the outcome itself (however it can probably be assumed as such). I don't think you can dispute the fact that it was a freak accident, but I also don't think this is entirely accurate reporting.

^ Since there's only one footer in the car park, I don't think it'll become a car park coaster. In other news, I was at MW the other day and from the top of superman you can see a straight section of footers running diagonally from the direction of the service road, towards the studios. I'd assume this is for the station. There's also some work going on behind the JL building, which may be for an access point from the superman/AA area.

I was over in Southport yesterday and noticed what looked like shipping containers in the sea world car park. Has anyone been there recently/going soon that may be able to shed more light on what they are/are doing there?

But thrill seekers probably don't make up the majority of park guests. DW is much more geared towards families and people looking for a good day out. MW on the other hand is significantly more geared towards thrill seekers, as most of their recent attractions will attest.

I'd assume it's probably better to under promise and over deliver. Natural variations in the construction of the ride, and the conditions of the ground and foundations could affect the overall height of the ride. Remember when GL first opened, the published angle of the drop changed a number of times before being finally determined as what it is now. I think it will be over 200 feet, but in the case that it doesn't make it in the end, they won't have advertised it as being a hyper coaster.

Seven news tweeted a video that seemed to show a carriage stuck just over the top of the lift hill.

^^ Given how long the footings have taken to go in, I'm assuming when they say construction, they're referring to vertical construction. If we're looking at a September opening then given a four month construction timeline, I wouldn't think it would start until February or March. You also have to consider that the peak Christmas period is almost here and that the best place to store parts would be the carpark. I'd think you'd want as much of the carpark available during this period. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if they held off delivering parts for as long as possible.

I'm pretty sure that scaffolding goes up pretty much anytime that there's maintenance on the flume.

Marina Bay Sands in Singapore is right next to a major motorway and it's a five star hotel. Noise can't be too much of a problem.