Levithian

I've got a pretty good idea what flat ride is relatively new and to date, I don't think has ever been a permanent install in a park in the world. It would tick the marketing boxes of being a world first, world best, etc, and probably fit the budget guessing at the cost. Ill keep it to myself for awhile and see what happens with the site though unless someone wants to do a little digging to see what might fit the bill. Still not feeling the coaster idea at this point in time. Really think it's something planned for the near future, not necessarily going in this part of the park or at this point in time.

Is it track and supports though? Or something else like cars or gondolas?

If this is for a massive, worlds best roller coaster that is going to blow everyone's minds, where is the hype? Given the area is already being cleared, where are the deliveries arriving? It won't take long to level the area once they get machines in, where are the piles waiting to be driven to get the project started. It just seems delayed for such a big development, surely someone would have stumbled upon equipment being delivered already? There's only, what? Three points of site access to the park? The staff gate, the back gate behind the sheds and the one through studios? Could the one down green lantern even take trucks anymore to make it a 4th? Where are they going to place it all if it's being built in one of the areas they use for storage. When we saw the planning applications come out, they were doing a LOT of drilling in the very northern end of the car park, more closer to green lantern and a whole bunch more in the grass car park overflow area. This sounds a lot more like a large scale development being planned. Possibly the hotel, but it's also kind of weird being so north in the car park and across the road. we are just assuming this world best attraction to be a huge roller coaster and that it's going to be built now given this is the first area to show signs of development. You guys are putting two and two together and speculating amazing things which are a bit like day dreaming. Considerable earth works would be required and changes to the terrain would occur if the show stage is to be removed and land is made available next to Wild West. Where is the application for this? We've seen nothing of the sort and they are already tearing into the area. At best there is an application for demolition of existing structures, no operational works though. The dollar has been pretty average for some time now. If you were to put a conservative 20% on the cost because of the currency conversion, some of the proposals being thrown about would see budgets easily in excess of 30 million for one attraction. That would have to be a record wouldn't it? Especially considering the earth and drainage works that would end up being performed. i think that's a little unrealistic given the scope for development vrtp obviously has for the next 3-5 years. If it was their only planned development and they wanted to make a statement, it wouldn't be that outrageous, but it's not. It's a lot of cash to draw upon, looking back over previous end of year reports I'm not even sure they would have the available funds to pull off the kind of developments people are suddenly thinking. Think I remember seeing figures of around 200 million made available? Kind of limited as far as exclusion zones around the western area as people still need access to games and wild west. I just can't see track and fences greeting and shuffling them to a narrow corridor down past west burgers to get to west. The area proposed above also seems to house what looks like a plant building on top of the hill behind Scooby Doo. Given close proximity to the biggest power guzzlers in the park, and all the sheds at the back, It could be a substation. It's on the high ground of the park too actually, so it could be water and/or fire services now I think about it. It's also a big space used as a dumping ground for anything that can't be made to fit around the park. Call it a graveyard? Lol. i know we have seen applications mentioning a roller coaster. I'm just not so sure we are going to see it in this part of the park. I'm also not so sure it'll be the worlds best attraction talked about, well, not in the scale some people might be thinking. I'd say wait a bit and see what actually occurs in the area first, it doesn't look like the show stage is going anywhere yet. we would know a lot more about where funds have been funnelled when the next end of year report is due. too long? I'll shorten it. Not sure about budgets being thrown around. Kind of strange not to see deliveries arriving by now for such a massive development. wheres the application to support the earth works needed if this is the coaster? Not sure about position. think it's not for the coaster, maybe something more suited to only the area excluded now. Everything is still speculation until end of year report lets some information slip or we see some real developments occur (which ever comes first). At the moment we've just got a few daisies being disturbed and some people are already losing their minds at the possibilities of what could happen. ill wait a bit until I join the coaster bandwagon.

I think it has ended up in the kids village of all places.

i reckon none of it is going and you guys are getting way ahead of yourselves thinking of removing the stage or gutting it to be part of a new ride. It just looks like the fencing is back to the western facade of the show stage and towards the toilet block. Looks like the prayer room building, Boot Hill, the rotunda thing and the strongman hammer game thing are all going. Western games to stay, facade along Scooby to stay, and of course the toilet block to stay. Leaves the space in between which is fairly long, but kind of narrow. im still placing my bets on the show stage to get a bit of a make over, and a flat ride of maybe 800-1000 capacity to fill the void of the buildings being removed.

If its not raining, ill attempt to get a close up to confirm the presence of the rings tomorrow.

The photos look like they havent moved anything though, only pulled down the face of the wall and put in new stud work. You can partially see it in the photos, but I don't know if anyone has noticed lately, the courtyard is looking really dirty and pretty run down. The brick work is stained and the awnings over the bar and the dining room look especially bad. Most of the palm fronds had rotted away and left a whole bunch of this nasty looking black stuff (maybe mold?) behind. After spending money on the kitchens and dining room, probably due for renovations to bring the exterior up to standard. If it was actually cleaned up and utilised, its a good place to escape people and have a break at lunch as not a lot of people seem to know the courtyard is there. It might look like it, but I don't think there is any space in the area behind stars. The few small buildings along the park wall look like the type you house plant equipment in (concrete blocks, open ventilation, etc). If that is the case, it's a MAJOR pain in the arse to move and is usually a last case resort because wherever you move the building to requires new runs for services. You cant just switch it off, so you need to put other equipment in place to temporary service whatever its connected to, but it also means ripping up paved surfaces for new cable runs and pipes. Assuming you can even move them, because some things like substations have exclusion zones where things can't be built in/around them.

It hasn't, its just been moved closer to the menu board/ordering area.

The building behind it is roxy theatre isn't it? looks like one wall came down, new wall went up. I'm thinking maybe wood rot or white ants.

all chips, thick or thin, should be hot, crispy and lightly salted. It makes them perfect to mopping up burger juice. If they are soggy..... well.... what's the point? might as well be eating mash.

One of, if not the best, burger places on the gold coast is across from harbour town. https://www.zomato.com/gold-coast-qld/burger-bro-biggera-waters No pretentious bullshit, just really tasty, juicy burgers without fat and oil smearing your hands and mouth. If you can find a better burger under $14 that comes with a serve of proper chips, id invest in the store.

The problem with JDS is really one of capacity, it's not able to absorb large amounts of people. The whole licence process went a long way to make the process feel shorter as it was inclusive with the ride and was useful to keep kids entertained while waiting, but now it's gone. In place is just the usual, queue lines that extend outside without drawing people in to the experience. If it's busy you can see 1hr wait times here too. For everything else, it's pretty much designed for parents to take virtually unrestricted (by fencing, walls, etc) photos of their kids having fun driving a car in a pretty cool setting. The set looks pretty, the cars are neat and the majority of kids enjoy themselves. If you look at the cost of implementing a ride like that, vs a complete overhaul/upgrade of the existing ride, even with all the theme/set work which was probably done in house, I wouldn't be surprised if it cost significantly less than keeping LTRR open. Not just in implementation, but in maintenance over the years too. The other half of the building is used for storage, so I reckon it was a win/win situation all round as far as management were concerned and it got the axe. It sucks, but it feels like we are in a phase were the experience about visiting a theme park has been overlooked with more of a focus on profit over recent years.

Are we still working off the assumption there is only going to be a coaster, or have we seen enough information now to believe there is going to be another ride? If so, can we entertain the theory that something like the western games area is more suited to a flat ride and the coaster might go elsewhere? In which case, show stage might not need to be demolished, only the other buildings? Im not sure they could handle demolition of something as large as the show stage and still kept the area open for guests. All the heavy machinery required would have to go somewhere and I'm pretty sure Scooby has emergency exits between the buildings in the western area and the ride. Guess they could take it out the back, but it's all getting pretty close to Wild West isn't it? A couple of small buildings, Boot Hill and that rotunda thing are pretty easy to clear out when compared to the show stage. Besides, it's built into a hill which might influence development opportunities.

I can't remember how far down it went at the first aid end of the grandstand. The other end still has the entrance near the daily planet, which was the same with police academy wasn't it? I'm pretty sure I remember that court yard thing inside where they have drink carts and stuff as you come into the show.

New rides may mean increased total capacity for the park though. So it's more of a case of more people coming through the gates and not actually reducing demand much during the peak periods. i don't think we will ever see behind the scenes type stuff, too risky for people to leave the tour I reckon. If not personal safety, but also the potential for damage to park property. i think the only way to relieve pressure has already been mentioned. Something(s) that take 2000 people off the streets for more than an hour. As already said, rides used to contain pre shows which helped, along with stage shows it could draw a lot of people out of the park, especially if you planned show times around when its busiest. Even the existing stunt show is often full to capacity, so a better show here isn't going to make a lot of difference. They did remove the grand stand closest to the western games area of the arena though. That probably cost a hundred or more seats which makes a difference when people are lined up around the corner past Scooby.

They might be planning a trial (kind of late in the season though), but I heard from staff they are having an employee night this week. Staff and families can go see the Lego movie for free. Sounds like all the equipment had to be setup and installed again, most of it had been removed and wasn't just sitting idle.

No, I replied jokingly to AlexB with three states of "oldness" as I used it, kind of like you would use in conversation about the ride. Old, pretty old, and should have been decommissioned. Then I said it is currently heading towards the "should have been decommissioned" phase with a laugh . Meaning, it's old, tired, rusted and reaching the point when you shut the ride for annual maintenance and find problems in all the wrong places. I have no doubt the ride would have reached a point where it was starting to suffer corrosion and rust problems in structural areas due to water ingress. At some point, someone in maintenance working on it has probably scratched their head thinking something needs major repair. You know, like someone saying it should be decommissioned, not patched up for another year. Your post above about a ride being shut indefinitely while undergoing a major overhaul before being reopened is no doubt something movieworld will probably have to discuss sometime in the future. Extended maintenance periods could point to as much, the age of the ride starting to have an impact. Maybe they found some problems they need to address/fix during the next maintenance shut down and is responsible for closing for 2 1/2 months. Thinking back, I think wild west maintenance period is usually somewhere around 6-7 weeks? At no point did I say it was, or I think it should be removed. You drive capital purchases into the ground until the point it's no longer drawing a crowd and it's more expensive to maintain than replace. However, it is getting pretty old now...

Where did I say anything about it going anywhere? See the word "should"? Im talking age/condition of the ride, not if you like riding it or think it's popular. Think of what happens to steel when being exposed to 17 years worth of water and corrosion. Next time you ride, when you drop down the reverse section, look back up at the underside of the lift hill. There could be a pretty good reason why we are seeing extended maintenance periods for it lately. It's reached the "pretty old" portion of it's life and rust is like a cancer. There's only so much you can treat before you have to start cutting it out.

There's old, pretty old, and should have been decommissioned. Currently heading towards the decommissioned phase

Yeah, lots of little things go into the operation of a park that might seem trivial (or people don't realise), but sometimes get in the way of doing things efficiently or quickly. I reckon queue times would have a lot to do with it too. If queue times are blowing out on most of the bigger rides, they would add another train to help lessen the wait even if it means a bit of moving staff around. In this day and age, I reckon a lot of workforce planning goes into each day to try and limit staff (see, costs) to the minimum needed for operation on that day/week. There are usually staff that are just shift coverage and not assigned a ride, so if they couldn't use them or move a super/cover from shows or the kids area, they'd probably call someone in pretty quickly I guess.

Where does it say they can't? It's just not always a key turn, a couple of button presses and a few minutes of down time. They get, what? maybe 4,4.5hrs time to complete checks, any repairs and get everything open? If the train isn't expected to run, it might not have had time spent on it in the morning and not be a simple process, that's all.

Yes, and my point was, the second train doesn't sit ready to go on the transfer, it would be returned the maintenance area. Running the second train would normally be planned before the day can begin so checks on the train could be completed. If it wasn't being scheduled for running two trains that day, it might not have had the checks completed and/or it could be sitting in the maintenance area in various states of repair/service as it wasn't required to complete the checks. So it probably isn't just a case of send it across the transfer and on to the track straight away, it might require some service/time before it's sent out. A bit of an inconvenience at best and it could probably be added within 20-30 minutes if the checks need to be completed, but may also be impossible sometimes if it simply isn't ready to be run.

Wild west is usually closed for a big portion of the winter period though isn't it? You won't get a coaster built in 2 1/2 months. Sounds more like usual schedule + additional maintenance. They might have found something during the last down time that needs attention. Ride is getting pretty old now. Superman is pretty interesting though.

I imagine it's made more difficult if not already planned and the second train hasn't been checked to run or repaired if in service.

Restrictions and changes in coatings (well, what they contain) no doubt is an issue now days too. Something that provides corrosive resistance, rust protection, is UV stable and weatherproof, without containing something that can kill you or is banned, AND will last 10-15 years in our harsh climate is probably getting difficult to find.