jhunt2

It's about negligence charges as well. The RFID tags are a recordable, verifiable way of proving to a court that someone with approved training checked the restraint before any potential incident occurred. That's very important from that employee's point of view especially, because as long as they conducted safety checks correctly and in accordance with their training, they can be protected from criminal proceedings in case of any sort of accident. As an operator, I've been explicitly told this - if you do your job properly and in accordance with procedures, we can protect you if something does happen. The buck always stops with the operator when something happens on a ride, but if it can be proven they did everything in their power and within their training to prevent something from happening, then they can't be held personally liable. From an insurance company's standpoint, that physical evidence is also an important aspect of settling claims for compensation on grounds of negligence or injury. Things like recorded CCTV evidence of operators performing their checks, or in the case of ST, the logs of the RFID tags, would be used in these cases to rule out the possibility that the checks were simply not done, which means the investigation can pretty swiftly be moved on from outright negligence to other factors like guest behaviour, mechanical or technical failure, or any other factor, such as operator training being adequate at a higher level, that could have caused a potential accident.

What I have been told as an operator/attendant is that it's a redundancy measure on some rides to make sure ride attendants are forced to physically check every restraint. A lazy staff member may be tempted to just skip over a lapbar if a guest seems to have done it correctly by themselves, but it's easy for a restraint to visually appear correct while actually being not properly secured. Making it procedure that attendants must do at least one element of the restraint forces them to come into physical contact with every restraint, and makes them more likely to do a proper check while they're there, and less likely to miss something small. In my personal opinion, the same thing is accomplished by making it procedure to check every lapbar regardless of whether the rider did it correctly, but choose your poison really. It's all about making sure attendants aren't just conducting visual checks and are actually physically checking that restraints are secured correctly. Just to add, a secondary reason is actually efficiency. Riders can often cause delays by doing restraints incorrectly. It's often more efficient for the attendants, who do the same restraints thousands of times a day and know how to do them quickly and correctly, to do them all, rather than having to release and redo restraints that were done improperly.

Haven't ridden TNT itself yet but rode a clone overseas, and it's an easy win. KFF is by far the inferior layout, and the awful restraints and roughness are just nails in the coffin. TNT all the way!

RCDB has a tough time with the Wild Mouse because of the fact that it was a travelling coaster and also a permanent fixture of LPS and Fox Studios almost simultaneously. It's a pretty unique situation. From memory there even is a footnote at the bottom of the current listing saying that the situation is unique and that the simplest way to do it was to create multiple listings as it technically was relocated, sort of like BuzzSaw and Project Zero have two separate pages. As for the Wild Mouse, as previously mentioned, I believe the situation is very complex because of the heritage listing of the ride. Obviously on the one hand, it's an amusement ride, and needs to meet modern safety standards to operate. But its heritage listing means the park probably has to jump through a lot of hoops to tear it down if it's beyond repair. So it might be caught in a limbo state of standing there until the park can afford/work out how to maintain it in its current condition, whatever the problem may be.

I rode a newer Intamin Surfrider at VinWonders in Vietnam which had lap bar restraints. Kind of similar in design to the ones on TNT. Can't remember if it made any difference to the height restrictions, and the website is difficult to navigate to try and find out, but it drastically improved the ride experience.

I do hope that the theming gets an overhaul, but I'm most excited about the changes to the ride itself. It definitely got rough and uncomfortable, particularly in those drops. Magnetic brakes would be a great addition as well, the final brakes after the drops were like a car crash. Smoothing out the coaster again so that it's an enjoyable ride is the first priority, and anything they do to improve those awful new theming elements is an added bonus. Much-needed move from WBMW in my opinion, this was definitely the one ride that just wasn't up to scratch at the moment. The amount of time it's closed for is a definite blow, but hopefully that means it will be quite extensive works that will deliver a much better finished product than the last time the ride underwent major works.

It's a roller coaster. It satisfies the definition in every way and Intamin markets the model under the "Roller Coasters" section of their website. What the public "perceives" a ride as has nothing to do with what it actually is. It's literally a shuttle coaster, the only thing that makes it seem different to you is the unusual seating formation. If Mack Power Splashes are coasters, so is this. Semantics out of the way though, I don't really see the difference between sending it to WBMW or to SW. My only argument for the latter is that SW still has less overall attractions, particularly in the thrill department, so this could help them spread the thrill-seeker crowd away from Vortex and Leviathan a little bit on busier days. But honestly, if it goes to WBMW, it can't really be a bad thing. The worst thing that could happen is it doesn't draw and crowd and it's just there. The cost of moving it a few hundred metres is going to be negligible compared to building a new flat which could just as easily end up being unpopular as well. They're not going to build a coaster in Superman's helix, if anything's going there it's a flat or an ultra-compact coaster design like this, so it's not taking up space from any major projects. I say go for it. Maybe it'll reduce the other thrill rides' queues just a tiny bit during peak season. I do wonder why SurfRider's operations were so unusually sporadic though. I got the sense they were having serious maintenance issues with it over the last few years, so that makes me think perhaps they'll scrap it. Unless it was specifically because WNW weren't equipped to maintain a coaster, I'd be curious as to why VRTP would want to keep such an unreliable ride on their roster.

They’re also doing that on the screens at the entrance. We were in line to try our luck again today and the ride closures on the screen were looking promising until a staff member came and changed them about 10 minutes before gates opened. It feels misleading, because there are definitely people who would have reconsidered buying a ticket if they saw a definite closure. Staff in the park were also quite willing to inform us that an opening in the next few days is unlikely, which contradicts the behaviour on the maintenance pages which suggests it’s an issue that they feel could be resolved at a days notice.

Really sorry to hear that. You don't deserve that at all. Just want you to know that the staff have really made our days at the park excellent, even despite the frustration of not getting the ride we came for. You guys are excellent, and it sucks so much that you're in the firing line of people's anger at something you have no control over.

Vortex and Leviathan both down for the day again today. Trident was open on time, but has closed intermittently due to high winds. I’m sure it’s been mentioned, and I hate to add to the general negativity of this thread, but it seems an oversight to have a ride model with such a low operational wind speed threshold in the location that it is. Anyway, in response to the interstate travel thing, I’m from Sydney and it’s definitely frustrating that advertising even at the parks front gate is still suggesting that we “Ride It Now”. However, to add some positivity to the thread, the staff at the entrances to the closed attractions have been wonderful. Cheery, upbeat, helpful, and willing to have a chat while giving an update on as much information as they’re allowed to give. I really hope they’ve been spared the brunt of the backlash. It’s a thankless job to guest relate on a closed attraction, especially under these circumstances.

Different coaster, much older, different manufacturer. Apples and oranges. The point of morning cycles is to test for any warning signs that the ride could fail to operate normally during the day. There's no point running a test cycle with a loaded train when the weather conditions suggest that lighter trains' speed could be one of those points of concern. DCR doesn't have any minimum rider rule as far as we know, so if an empty train can't complete the circuit, then it can't be considered safe to open for the day. If the crowds are small and a cycle only has half a dozen riders, the train could very well behave quite similarly to an empty one. Operators need to know that - no point knowing that a full train is safe to run but not knowing exactly how many riders they need at minimum to prevent a valley.

I feel like you're implying that they should have used water dummies on the morning cycle that valleyed in the first place, but surely you see what an unnecessary waste of time and effort that would be for a regular morning cycle? It would actually be counter-intuitive for the exact reason demonstrated by this valley. There's no point in the operating team knowing that a full train will safely make the circuit if an empty one potentially won't.

Then say that.

What do you mean? The Sydney parks have invested quite a bit over the past 2 years by their standards, LPS especially.

Can anyone clarify what is meant by the SFC being the "Southern Hemisphere's first multi-type coaster"? Not sure if that has already been mentioned, you guys are clearly as excited as I am, and I can't keep up with the forum 😂

Green Lantern when it gets another carpark thrill coaster right next to it:

Hey guys! Just a bit of a more off-the-beaten-path trip report here from a roller coaster side quest! Long story short, my birthday fell in the middle of a holiday to Ho Chi Minh City, so I managed to convince my partner to cram a trip to the resort island of Phu Quoc into a day - don't recommend trying it by the way, but it was manageable in off-peak crowds. There are two major parks on Phu Quoc, but a whole lot else to see as well! This place is really otherworldly! Sun World Hon Thom Nature Park The first of the two parks is actually not located on Phu Quoc island, but on Hon Thom island, just south of the main island. You access the park via a cable car - a very big one. In fact, the longest in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records. This thing is huge, with spectacular views, but from here you can see exactly what makes Phu Quoc so strange - the resorts are huge new developments from large Vietnamese companies, sparked by increasing tourist interest in the island. The companies behind the resorts seem to have gone with the strategy of building big and building fast, so you'll buy your tickets from a villager in a small hut in what feels like a rural Vietnamese town, and then drive up a cobblestone street with beautiful European-inspired buildings either side, to the entrance of the cable car, which has a very impressive Roman ruins facade. It's absolutely bizarre. From the cable car itself, you'll see the majesty and beauty of the resorts and the surrounding islands, but also the huge and dense low-income parts of Phu Quoc, which still haven't really seen much benefit from the increased tourism. I'd be interested to hear what their thoughts are on the investments, and whether it's an invasion of their home or a potential for them to make money from tourists. We didn't know what to make of it honestly. The cable car itself ended up being maybe the highlight of Sun World, not because the park isn't great, but because the cable car is just so spectacular. It takes 15 minutes to get to the park on Hon Thom island, and there isn't a dull moment. Don't be daunted by the huge lineup when you arrive - it moves pretty quickly, and it's a bit of a bottleneck since every visitor to the park has to enter via the cable car. We had a rather large queue to enter, but basically no lines for the rest of the day. Sun World itself is a park that seems to be well on its way to being the full package, but it's clearly still in the construction phase. Currently, there's a very decent-sized water park, brilliant dining options, a beach, an observation tower which is very popular, and their GCI wooden coaster, Roaring Timbers. They also appear to be adding a drop tower, but it isn't open just yet, although it looks mostly constructed and even appears on the park map, so you might be lucky if you're planning a visit soon. Roaring Timbers, for starters, is immaculately themed and presented. Sea World could learn an awful lot from the way the entrance, lockers, theming and queue have been done. The queue building and entrance are stunning to look at, there are free lockers with facial recognition, the operations are great and the queue moves quickly. The ride itself is also a big thumbs up. It's smooth, there are some nice moments of airtime and it has fantastic speed from the beginning. It's not particularly intense at all but a lot of fun. My only critique is that it could maybe have used the terrain a little better. It's built on the side of a hill, and gets close to the ground at times, but doesn't ever really use that to its advantage. Still a great coaster. Dining options are also great here. There's a buffet option, some higher-end restaurants that serve beautiful meals and locally-brewed beers, pizza, and your typical theme park foods, as well as little drinks stalls. And with Vietnamese prices, it's super cheap and easy to eat well while you're here. We didn't try out any of the slides, but there are some good quality waterslides and attractions to try out, including a lazy river, a BRO-style racing slide, Tornado, a pair of Wedgie-style drop slides, and a whole bunch of others. It's quite a decent-sized water park. The only things to be aware of - there's not a lot of shade, and the UV will be high, so pack lots of protection. And tropical rain can hit fast, so be prepared to make a duck for a restaurant or the gift shop. It doesn't last long usually. The cable car closes for a short period around lunchtime, but reopens some time around 1:00-1:30pm. The line to get back on for the return trip to Phu Quoc is a lot shorter, and we left right after lunch. VinWonders Phu Quoc OK, so the first thing to say here is don't be fooled by the size of the island. I fell into this trap slightly, which was a rookie error and my own fault. I guess I'd been planning the logistics of cramming flights into one day so much that I overlooked the actual transport on the island. I looked at the island and thought, "Hey, sure, they're at opposite ends, but it can't be more than 30 minutes, right?" Wrong. Phu Quoc is well over 50km from end to end, and it took us about an hour by taxi. Not a huge loss, but be prepared that they're not exactly close together if you're travelling to both parks. When you factor in that the speed limit is never over 60, and Vietnamese traffic is insane, it can be quite a journey. Luckily, our taxi driver was an absolute legend and got us there 15 minutes ahead of the Google Maps estimate, with tickets in hand - even if he did give us a good fright with a few very wacky shortcuts! VinWonders is... well, it's just spectacular. This clearly Disney-inspired park looks absolutely immaculate. (Forgive the lack of photos, I really got caught up in the moment on this one). You'll spot it from the main road and just be blown away yet again. A towering Ferris wheel, castle at the centre, and massive entrance complex with Tudor facades all around and another castle-like building at the entrance gates... it's just a sight to behold. The inside is no different. 5 stars for theming, they really went all out. The park, again, clearly Disney-inspired, is split into different themed areas, including an adventure-themed area, a fantasy-themed area, Western-themed area, as well as a water park and an absolutely gigantic aquarium inside a building shaped like a giant sea turtle with a waterfall coming out of its mouth. Sounds made up, I know, but it's there, it's huge, and it's awesome. The main attraction for thrill seekers will be Wrath of Zeus, a Vekoma Firestorm in the adventure-themed area. This coaster is intense. The theming looks nice too. The launch is absolutely rapid, there's some insane airtime and great inversions, but also some absolutely breathtaking positives. I greyed out at the bottom of the drop off the top hat into the first inversion. It's F O R C E F U L. The ride seems to show its hand a little too early - you've got a great launch, fifty-metre top hat, intense drop into a corkscrew and then an amazing vertical loop, but after that it doesn't do much, and there's only one more inversion. You get a good head chopper into a tunnel and a couple of twisted airtime hills that would be soooo much better without the vest restraints, but it just feels like it's twisting around and wasting a bit of time in the latter half really. Also, operations were terrible. Let me emphasise how terrible. Each cycle consists of: - Operator and attendant checking every seat and restraint while they're empty - Only after the seats have been checked, an audio recording is played of every safety instruction, in both Vietnamese and English. - Only after the recording finishes, the gates are open and guests board, often forgetting to follow the instructions they just heard in painstaking detail and two different languages - Operator and attendant check all of the lap bars - Operator gives even more instructions - Train dispatches - Only after guests exit at the end, the process starts again That whole process can take 10-15 minutes at a time. It's brutal to wait in line for. RCDB says there are five other coasters at VinWonders, but I'm pretty sure one of them has closed during the construction of this new park. We couldn't find the Vekoma Junior coaster anywhere. As for the roller coasters that did still exist: - Ipanema Skate Ride is an Intamin Surfrider. Pretty fun, and features lap bars instead of over-the-shoulder restraints, which makes it a lot more fun than Wet'n'Wild's version. You get some good forces with a free upper body. - Spartan Race is a Vekoma Family Boomerang. It's clearly repurposed from the old park that was on this land, because the train doesn't fit the Greek theming - it's a dolphin for some reason. Fun little coaster, very similar to LPS's Boomerang, but it only has one booster lift and relies on gravity to turn the train around. That leaves the backwards leg being slower and a little disappointing. - Eagle Warrior was a pleasant surprise. My partner loved this one. It's a Vekoma SFC, but indoors in a dark ride themed to an Egyptian tomb. There are incredible lighting effects, great use of leg-choppers and trenches. The ride just really knows how to visually disorient you and make itself so much more thrilling. It also has lap bars, and the first drop is great in the back. It was definitely the surprise favourite of the trip. - Eagle Wingspan (that's the name on RCDB, but it has a bunch of different names in the park) is one of those single-seat suspended coasters. Unfortunately it was closed. I was really looking forward to this one, I've been curious what those coasters ride like. There's also a huuuuuuuge collection of flats, like the towering Ferris wheel, a small drop tower, Zamperla Disk-O Coaster, a Tango Train, and a bunch more. The water park has a great selection including one drop slide that rivals Wrath of Zeus for height. There's a very impressive-looking flume ride too, but it was also closed. Food and shopping options on the Main Street are really really impressive, there appears to be a water and lights show in front of the castle at night, and there is just so much to do. We would recommend dining at the restaurant inside the aquarium, where the food is immaculate and you eat in a cozy atmosphere in front of a huge aquarium wall. So impressive. VinWonders definitely made me wish we had visited on a longer trip, and I'll be keeping a close eye on both resorts, because both were breathtaking and surprising. Anyway, that's my rant. I can't recommend Phu Quoc enough really. Not sure what the prices are like at the resorts themselves, but it might be worth staying in Phu Quoc City, which has a distinctly Vietnamese feel and lots of little shops that are clearly keen to capitalise on the tourist traffic, so you can still experience that Vietnamese feel if you visit there as well. Don't miss the natural beauty of the island and the village life. Vietnam is just too beautiful to be missed. But keep an eye on these parks - they're quite impressive already and definitely feel like they're going to grow further. It looks like Phu Quoc is also starting to attract some international flight routes, so fingers crossed it'll become more affordable for Aussies to visit directly some time soon. Flights from mainland Vietnam are quick and cheap, I'd recommend Vietnam Airlines (it was way more comfortable than the budget option VietJet), and book your taxis with the Grab App, because the taxi drivers are waiting like seagulls outside the arrivals gate to snap you up and overcharge you. Grab is easy to use and means your fare is set in advance.

Unfortunately I'd say Gold Striker is most likely to be scrapped and the trains used for other Cedar Fair GCIs.

Very big difference in scale between these two projects. Unless you're being incredibly optimistic about how much effort VRTP are going to put into the "themed precinct" aspect of Atlantis.

Yeah looks like it's just not updated yet. I can confirm it is operating again as I've been at the park. Wild Mouse was also back in operation last night.

UPDATE: Big Dipper has reopened as of tonight

Can confirm it's closed, and has been for most of this week. Unclear whether it was scheduled, but I'd expect not given that it's already gone through Intamin's inspection. Anything scheduled that needed to be done would probably have been done at that time while the ride was down for those inspections. At the end of the day, it's an Intamin prototype. Teething issues were inevitable. Wild Mouse and Volare have also been quite extensively down recently.

Just had a look on SafeWork Australia and it's not required. The only sort of requirement specified is that at least part of the restraint's locking mechanism must be inaccessible to the rider to prevent them from tampering with it or undoing it accidentally or in a panic. Qld may be different, but by federal requirements anyway, it's not a necessity as far as I can see.

I'm wondering if we will see any improvements to the river or anything over the 'other side' for quite some time. With the exception of the Corroboree/animals/vintage cars section, nothing is really functional over there at the moment, and it's a long trek back there for really no reason at all, especially while the train is not operating. If I were in charge at DW, I think the priority would be rebuilding DW's reputation, not as the biggest theme park in Australia, but the best. High quality attractions like ST and SV will help, but it might even be healthy for DW to put the river on the back-burner for a while, and focus on running a slightly smaller park and running it well. It's a cliche, but quality over quantity any day. We're going to have a completely different DW emerge from this era in its existence, and I'd rather it be a smaller park but a better one than for them to stretch their resources just trying to fill unused space. That being said, if they aren't going to do anything on the river for a while, they could at least try their best to get the water circulating so that it's not visibly a filthy swamp.

Yep, back up and running, although don't be shocked and outraged if there are a few more stoppages if you visit in the coming days. It seems to be having a few little teething issues here and there. The good news is it's not completely down any more!