aaronm

If they need to cut costs, I'd rather the parks closed midweek during the off-peak season rather than have these ridiculously long maintenance periods. VRTP could easily stagger its opening times so at least one park was available each day, for example: - Movie World open Thursday-Monday, closed Tue/Wed - Sea World open Friday-Tuesday, closed Wed/Thu - Wet'n'Wild open Wednesday-Sunday, closed Mon/Tue

It's a weak marketing point to begin with, VRTP probably focus test these things to death but I struggle to accept that that's the best line they came up with to promote the ride.

It's funny how half a dozen cable ties could make so much difference.

This must be the slowest ride install of all time. I assume they have one guy doing it, and he only works when the moon is in a waning gibbous phase.

One thing Disney in particular seem to be building into their rides is a "B mode" - a backup for when a primary effect isn't working. A notable example is the RoTR Kylo Ren animatronic being hidden behind a wall when it's broken, replaced by Kylo appearing "outside" (via some windows/screens) in his ship. So rather than an effect appearing obviously broken the ride still seems relatively complete. Given that VRTP have aspirations to be like Disney, hopefully they're paying attention and incorporate something similar in these new rides, where it makes sense.

Incredibly sad to hear this news last night. Liseberg is a wonderful park and Oceana was looking very impressive. I'd be curious to understand what caused the slides to explode like that (gas buildup perhaps?). Hopefully they can rebuild but it must be horrible for the team involved.

Concept art looks good but as often with VRTP projects I'm getting the impression that they're spending money where it won't matter. Projection mapping was cool a decade ago but I question how well it will work in a park that's mostly open in the daytime. Buying a pair of family boomerangs instead of a higher capacity family coaster is an odd choice as well, especially since they'll probably end up only running a single side outside of school holidays. Perhaps they just haven't announced it yet, but it seems a missed opportunity to not have a dining outlet in the area as well, or some sort of performance space. I wonder if this area will be like WWF, nicely themed but largely empty except for the queues.

Aqualoops seems to have fallen out of fashion for waterparks in general. They're a fairly intense ride and can be a 'one and done' for a lot of people. Personally I prefer the old-fashioned speed slides for thrills, less chance of accidentally waterboarding yourself. The structure itself is iconic and highly visible from outside the park - if the park wanted to add another big raft slide or two it would be a great spot.

All signs point to this upending SDSC as the #1 family coaster in the country. As an aside, I'd love to see them plus up Steel Taipan one day, plenty of space to add some theming/visual interest beyond the current "gravel carpark with some rocks".

I don’t often bother with HWSD2 but decided to give it a go on the weekend to see if it was as terrible as I remembered. It was worse. The plot never made much sense (Aussie race, Italian town, American cops?) but apart from a few pratfalls the show is now completely devoid of stunts. It has been reduced to five minutes of drifting to break up the cringeworthy script. The driving has been watered down to remove any perceived close calls. Your average Westfield carpark probably sees more thrills on a Tuesday morning. There are no “wow” moments that people will remember any more, just some hoons jumping around and almost doing burnouts. It’s not like other similar sized parks can’t offer anything better either - Mirabilandia has a fantastic Hotwheels-themed stunt show, featuring (gasp) more than two cars, explosions and a freaking loop stunt. If a regional Italian park can put on that kind of show, Movie World has zero excuse for the current mediocre effort.

I'd be going even further when they have these periods of substantial maintenance. "Buy a day, come back again for free later in 2024" would be an easy promo to run, acknowledges that the full park offering isn't available, and has the added bonus of guests likely spending more money again when they come back.

Went tonight, pretty much the same event as last year. Good for night rides on Leviathan and Jet Rescue, and the Aqua Light Show was decent. Apart from that there’s not a whole lot to recommend - if you’re after some interesting food options Dreamworld’s night market blows it out of the water. The entertainment and atmospherics were fine, I suppose it’s an environmental positive that Village have managed to keep reusing the old parade floats year after year? I certainly don’t think this event is worth the $69 entry price. As a pass inclusion it’s ok but it’s a shame that Sea World don’t seem to be aiming to improve Carnivale each year. If I had to sum up the experience in one word: stale.

A bit bleak at MW today, SE, WWF and DD all with unscheduled closures. Not much they can do about unexpected downtime once it happens but it seems to be a very regular occurrence these days, and a terrible guest experience when so many rides are impacted at once.

I’d be a little more forgiving of the extended maintenance windows if the parks acknowledged the impact it has on the guest experience. Their current attitude is basically “too bad, suck it up, something something safety” which is pretty poor when half a dozen attractions are down simultaneously (MW for most of March this year) plus whatever unexpected downtime happens. Anyone on a single or multi day ticket is going to feel royally ripped off when they see that maintenance A-frame on arrival.

A great opportunity to revisit some old faithful “only one in the southern hemisphere” marketing. A serious replacement might be a Zamperla NebulaZ, they are popping up everywhere and have the added benefit of being more of a family ride than Doomsday.

Probably a maintenance nightmare but a Huss Giant Jump (https://www.canadaswonderland.com/rides-experiences/sledge-hammer) would be a fantastic replacement for Doomsday. Quite possibly the most fun I've ever had on a flat ride, when it worked.

We used to head up mid-term to avoid crowds but in recent years I've found the week immediately after school holidays to be the last reasonable time to visit, given maintenance/shutdown windows are much lengthier than pre-covid.

I agree, however based on queues most people were skipping the po'boys and chowder bowls and picking up hot dogs and chips instead. They are catering to what their market wants, hence the current generic lineup.

That’s annoying. Visiting next weekend, didn’t expect it to be down for maintenance so soon, these sort of rides are usually pretty reliable.

No idea how you got that impression. My comment was about the park’s bad theming choices.

The broken mirror turntable makes zero sense in the context of the ride. Rides shouldn’t rely on people having seen a low-budget sequel to be coherent.

If by “around April” you mean sometime in the 2024 calendar year, then yes I would think that is possible.

I hope someone from VRTP has visited Prater and tried out Insider. The absolute gold standard of how to theme an indoor mouse, no unnecessary weird mirrors, broken screens, mistimed audio or other gimmicks, just a very well thought-out series of lights, plenty of fog, and a banging soundtrack. It really shouldn’t be too hard to get right.

Thing is, it's rarely the safety checks that slow things down. The Gold Coast ride ops seem to lack any sense of hustle when it's busy - everything is done at a very leisurely pace. I'm not blaming the park staff for this. At some point management have confused safety with just doing everything slowly, so there's no incentive or encouragement to reduce wait times. Add on non-safety related steps that lengthen load times further (such as waiting for the entire station to clear before allowing new riders to board) and it's no wonder operations are slow and wait times high. Agree paper maps are dead. A handful of printed map signs around the park, combined with digital wait/show time display boards would be helpful even when the app is working, and especially if it isn't.

Surely with the ride being out of action for so long a 3D sign would have been worth the investment? 😉