Levithian

No you cant. Height restrictions are becoming a problem now too. They need to update the average person, the size used is just not an accurate representation of today. It probably needs to be shifted another 2-3 inches and 10-15kg heavier to something like 180cm and 80-85kg. That way ride designs will survive the next couple of generations. When teenagers are 6ft+ tall and 90kg without an ounce of fat, you know the population has gotten larger through the last couple of generations. My 13 year old is 175cm and 78kg already for example. Hasnt really had a growth spurt, so if he does he will probably be in the 190's. Right on the limit of heaps of rides and difficult fits in rides like scooby doo.

I used to like the return visit scheme dreamworld did when I was a teenager. You paid full price for the ticket entry, and on exit you could buy a return ticket for $5 or $10 (think it was both of these prices at one stage). Really felt like offsetting the cost of a single day purchase because yearly passes were so expensive. So we came back for a second visit and spent more money in the park for a second days fun. I just can't remember how long you had to use them? I keep thinking 3 months, but I don't think that's memory talking, just guessing. Remember visiting wet n wild when even younger and they used to do a similar scheme too.

But it won't lock (and dispatch) if the restraint doesn't reach minimum close. The belt is a secondary restraint requested by village and the ride is designed to run without them.

The walls were there from the maze werent they?

The standard we come to expect from disney, due to the quality of the theming and immersion, I honestly don't think that sort of investment can ever make sense in Australia given the population/return on investment. I guess it comes down to if disney is prepared to lower their standards and make some sacrifices. You're talking maybe 10th the budgets they would normally spend. I don't ever see this happening, and I just don't see a billion dollar startup investment ever being considered good business while the visitor numbers have a long way to go to even approach 10 million combined. I think the biggest factor would be just how much the overseas market contributes to yearly totals at our parks. Population is not going to suddenly expand ten fold overnight in Australia to drive up the numbers, and if the overseas market is only contributing, say 20% of the visits to our parks, especially if the majority of those visitors are coming from Asia, how do you double or triple tourist visitations? Especially if you have other disney offerings in more centralised/connected locations. Australia is a MASSIVE investment for tourists, both in cost and time to even make it to our shores. It's considered an expensive country to visit and lots of people aren't prepared to spend 20+hrs to travel to a country on the edge of the pacific ocean when they have similar offerings closer to home. Those that really want to visit Australia for our unique experiences rarely make it a routine visit, returning each year, which is not what companies want to hear. I second what was said above, it would be nice if our local sector would consider more investment into their own product. There's a lot of focus on the rides and everything else has slipped. The service, the look/feel, the entertainment. A lot of us have greatest memories of the shows, the in park entertainment and just what it felt and looked like to visit our parks when younger. The rides are still there, but we've lost a lot of the supporting cast and nothing seems to change while the accountants are running the show. There's honestly just not as much excitement around visiting our parks as there used to be. I don't know if its just attitudes or standards that have changed, or if the bureaucrat's have stripped us of all that made us "australian", but things certainly feel a lot less "perky" than they used to be.

Must need more time....

Health and safety means lots of things just cant happen anymore. Its also jacked up the price of alternatives, as a lot of things were probably done that way because this was all they had to spend, so you had to make it work by producing it all yourself. Just about everything these days seems to be about minimising risk, so i imagine that kills invention/adaptability. Nobody wants to be responsible for a product, they want to be able to point to a supplier or manufacturer in the event something goes wrong. That and the people signing the cheques seem to be even further out of touch with reality. We frequently quote for the spec given on the job, then get knocked down on price 3 or 4 times before its approved by the owners. Each time something is being sacrificed. Its usually material quality and finishing that suffers first. Seems the majority of people only care about something passing a casual glance test, not caring about longevity. Its like things are being built to the day, nobody cares after its built and what itll be like in 5 years time even when you warn them about it being a false economy. We've pulled out of a few tenders recently because the budget has been slashed so many times the quality of the work cant be delivered. The amount of return work is too risky to make the job worth while. Youll be back on site trying to keep the client happy even though you warned them about cutting costs. I can imagine something similar happens in theme parks. Only difference is it probably doesnt get done/approved at all. Why do a good job once when you can cheap out and spend 4 times the amount repairing and patching it up before cutting your losses and being forced to do it properly (or not at all) in the end.

Jump ahead to 26:30. Whole thing is worth a watch though for some old park footage.

I didnt say bring them back as in 1995. Besides, much the same could be said for most of the rides mentioned, time isnt kind to a lot of old animatronics and effects. But youre also selling them short by saying they are the same as you get at timezone though. They arent even in the same ball park, the batman ones were fully fledged hydraulic motion bases used in flight simulators. Learning to fly planes, space shuttles, etc. They were barely being utilised in the ride. Theres footage of them from underneath and in use in the promotional film on the parks from the early 2000's.

Spend money on decent video/animation and leave the projectors. They arent the issue. Miss the batman ride. Even just the library was cool. Those simulators were great. Wonder where they ended up after they were removed.

It would be checked daily? Youd already know it was due for a replacement leading up to the shutdown is my point. Suggesting something came up during the shutdown and needed replacing like you said.

Didnt the ride close before covid? If they are waiting for chain id say they found something that wasnt planned for, given it was 6 months ago. If you had annual manintenance planned for a chain replacement, youd think they would have it before you went down for maintenance. Not be ordering/waiting for it now.

And if nobody is prepared to put their name to your in house built ride... what happens? Thats what im getting at. Its a big responsibility, unless you mean completely gut the ride and rebuild everything with newly supplied components? At a guess, that also means insurance companies not willing to give you coverage given what happened at dreamworld too. Just a guess but it goes into the too hard/costly/impossible basket and the ride gets removed.

That's not how it works though. Who do you buy all the replacement components from? Forget about the boats, what about the control system and the conveyors? You don't get them from local suppliers, you go back to whoever built the ride and they take all the responsibility for supplying you with the correct goods. They guarantee the parts are fit for service, park has no responsibility if they fit things in accordance with the manufacturers guidelines and something happens. It's a lot of responsibility, and I reckon its a big reason why these type of rides are being phased out.

Id guess it has to be produced, not just off the shelf. And no doubt you don't replace chain without doing sprockets either.

Who built the ride though? Rides built in house or from manufacturers who are defunct seem to be on the outer and being phased out post dreamworld accident.

They can give her money but that leaves them open to still being sued unless its all settled legally. Nobody does that. They go on legal advice and dont admit to anything unless they were told to. This is nothing new though honestly. It all becomes a numbers game and the whole situation stinks. They literally want a report that says this girl will have a diagnosis for the rest of her life so they can calculate what the impact on her earning ability will be, maybe throw a little in for anguish and suffering, then try to beat that figure down to the lowest point an agreement could be reached. Ardent said they would provide support for the recovery process and it honestly reads like they are, but that its not being utilised. Health assessments are fluid and can change rapidly, even if it wasnt an insurance company making you jump through even more hoops. If the other family members have settled with the company already, the best advice would seem to be to take some of the settlement money and engage a law firm on behalf of the girl and serve ardent and their insurers an notice of intent and have their whole team of PR staff run a negative publicity campaign that will make them wish they had of settled years ago for pretty much anything the family demanded. The law firm handles everything and ardent and the insurers are left to pickup their fees and associated costs in the judgement or any settlement. Playing devils advocate here a little... i would not be surprised if thats whats already happening. Surely there would have been plenty of offers to represent the family so they didnt have to go it alone legally.

She can get help whenever she wants, but if you dont co-operate with the requests for assessments, which requires you to engage with the health professionals they want to send you to, then this is what happens. They just let it drag along, doing the absolute minimum they should be doing so they can turn around in court and make it look like they have been doing all they can and the other party isnt responding or meeting all their requests. Anyone who has had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with an injury claim through workcover will tell you how terrible it is to deal with. Its entirely heartless with very little care for continuing damage caused by the process. People need to stop saying ardent ardent ardent and start by finding out who their insurance underwriter is for the public liability insurance which will be controlling everything.

Village always play everything close to the chest, they pretty much never announce anything that keeps the public informed about long term plans until its already in progress. On top of that, its usually not until they have something more to go on other than only reporting a negative. They always want to put an upward spin on any bad news. So I wouldnt be surprised if its just a matter of wanting to plan future new attractions to announce the bad news of ride closures. Could literally just need more time to work out what they are doing after the closures before they make any announcements.

Have to remember too, its insurance companies and lawyers who will be dictating whats going on. Maybe not specifically ardent. I imagine the stalemate could be the lack of any resolution or progress with the psychologists etc. Legal people deal in absolutes and they want definition. If theres no discussion happening and no support being utilised, may struggle to have doctors put their names to any diagnosis and form any opinion on her welbeing which wont sit well with insurance companies.

Have a read through this (in particular the first bulleted paragraph) and look at rides that are going through extended maintenance and rides that are old and sbno. https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/laws-and-compliance/workplace-health-and-safety-laws/laws-and-legislation/work-health-and-safety-amusement-devices-public-safety-amendment-regulation-2019

I thought thats the reason why it sat closed for a long period of time.

The free events and the area kinda being locked down to other people is the attraction though. Especially if you can't have more than 10 people in a public place together. Might as well stay somewhere closer to home and avoid the restrictions that don't apply to the rest of the state (if victoria and nsw can even enter qld by then anyway).

Didn't a lot of the trouble with buzzsaw start because someone in maintenance ran the car through the station with the station gates closed and caused a bunch of damage?

From pimpama. Now the gold coast comes under the same 10 people limits like the rest of the greater brisbane region. They cancelled schoolies for this year too which will probably hurt the coast a lot as it's usually a good lead in to the christmas holiday period for tourism and accommodation, etc. Having 2 weeks of high occupancy before the holidays would have been a nice lift I imagine, with events cancelled and restrictions on how many people can be out in public together, might turn people away from even going?