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Interesting that major coasters (anyone notice how long Scooby is out for!) at all parks are down for a LONG time this year. I can only think we've hit the interval for major maintenance to happen and likely major NDT work to be carried out. I'd say that its a pretty good bet that Aquaracer is being moved and the Aqua Loops are going right at the front of the park there.

I have no responsibility for BT Alex, but as it's a bit of a passion for me that ride I may try to make some moves to go and get it fixed/fix it up myself. Would have to see what I can achieve. Should we have some success I'll be sure to let people know. Having said that I'm, already busier than full time in my actual job, so we'll just have to see what can be done.

This doesn't surprise me, when you think about it, there are a lot of factors that have to be 'just right' for that 2nd launch to work. It's not as simple as just having the train hit a bunch of tyres spinning really fast... It's a pretty clever system really. And besides, it's Intamin, just wouldn't be right if it worked all the time!

Hmmm, yes this ride is very sad at the moment indeed. I might get of my but in the next week or so and start getting motivated to try and fix it up again...

I regards to Eureka... didn't they already update the control systems sometime throughout it's life? I remember a time when all of the control panels were replaced...

As for copycats... Most of the time it's the other parks that knows what's coming well before the public or even us enthusiasts. The parks talk, particularly the maintenance departments which are commonly the first to be told of upcoming additions...

I don't think all of both trains has been seen since. If they had two trains they would be running on the busiest days of the year, and they weren't so... The trains for all rides are worked on back at the maintenance shop which is located out the back of admin, closer to road runner than lethal. The buildings indicated earlier are all part of the studios.

Funny the wonderland show is mentioned because the same company is responsible for both... wow they are really diverse in their creative aren't they

Haha Gazza if that's the day we were there I was on that ride of Stealth when we very much killed that bird.

Are you kidding me? I wasn't describing just Space Mountain's station operation, but the philosophy behind each and every disney attraction. Have you ever noticed how often E-tickets have you elevated above the loading platform in the que? You can put a million blocks on a ride with thousands of vehicles but if they all cram up in the station it still doesn't work. Disney can have so many blocks/vehicles because the rides are so long AND the station moves them through quick enough. Without that you have no chance. The tower doesn't get a say, its merely an observational position as with any ride supervisor. The attendants in the station dispatch the trains and the ride keeps them moving through in an orderly manner. I fail to see how arguing what contributes to the efficiency is either relevant or warranted in this thread. The fact that you're not really correct is redundant at this point.

I wouldn't go that far, but I'd say it's a pretty good bet. I used to not believe anything until I heard it come out of JSM's mouth, these days, even that's not a lock so...

Disney don't have a no loose articles policy on any ride. It's one of the many many reasons their rides run at such high capacity and are so 'leave your brain at the door' theme park goer friendly. You will also notice next to no disney rides have open air car designs, nor do their rides go directly over people. I also believe the liability from someone dropping something is felt to be outweighed by the ridiculous throughput they can achieve this way. The increase in park capacity and income offsets the increased insurance costs. Its one of the things that makes me laugh at why all parks don't follow disney models. Other key factors in capacity design include station designs that have you follow a natural path of progression... so you never think about which way to go to enter or exit. Boarding procedures setup so you either view several cycles loading ahead of you, or a very descriptive video of what to do. No lengthy restraint checking by operators, either a visual, quick tug as they race by, or a separate section for checking restraints (you'll never see Disney ops progress slowly in tandem, announcing "check" verbally after each restraint). And finally excellent pre-grouping of riders so no time is wasted needlessly filling ride vehicles. If you ever have the chance to watch operations at Disneylands Space Mountain station I urge you to do so, it's an amazing feat of efficiency to behold. Ride capacity is a bit of a passion of mine and nobody does it better than Disney. Most people fail to realise that the most amount of time lost in terms of capacity is the time it takes to get people on and off the ride and dispatch, typically much longer than the ride cycle itself in many cases.

I think that's the genius of the thing. An actual looping slide would be far too dangerous and impractical to have as a water slide. However this model creates the illusion of being a looping slide without actually doing so and bringing with it the associated problems. It's a bit like twister, you look like you go upside down but you don't. And as you're speeding down the tube with water rushing in your face I doubt you will notice that you don't really loop the loop. I think this slide is extremely marketable and will become one of the most talked about attractions our parks have ever introduced. I've always thought a stand up coaster would be the most marketable thrill ride in Australia and I think the same goes for the Aqualoop when it comes to waterslides.

Not a rumour, it will be coming. I've known about this for a while and for some reason I seem to have just plain forgotten about it of late. I believe Gazza they are in fact concreting over the path to allow the Segways to travel. I don't know if $100 is a fair price though. It was $100 to do it at Epcot and it was definitely a much better tour than anything they could do at Seaworld. Should be noted that this will be run by an outside contractor.

I do believe the Pirate ship to be running there close to the best it ever has. I can't see any reason why it was removed given there is obviously nothing wrong with it!

So myself and a couple others happened to be at Movie World yesterday and despite attendance being through the roof (it was over 12 000) I had some very positive things to day about the park. Scooby was running as good as anyone could ever ask for, looked brilliant so that made me very happy after waiting nearly 1.5 hours to ride it. I also saw HSD for the first time in ages and was very pleasantly surprised in how far the show has come. The pacing is better, the pre-show fun and effective and worked well into the show later on. The stunts are all more impressive with only 3 cars and the finale timing was excellent and spot on. Is this show a PA style must see, hilarious 1/2 hour, no, but is it re watchable and no longer an embarrassment yes. I would say that its a good show to see some stunt driving, nothing more, nothing less. I still don't think it's endless entertainment for the whole family, but it's definitely a lot more solid. The other big praise I have for the park is that a fourth show of HSD was scheduled for 5:15pm to cater to the extra crowds. That meant extra staff hours, greater expense, more wear and tear on the set and cars and all sorts of other things that cost money. Great to see the park doing things like this. My only negative comment for the day was to see Stars Cafe no longer serves real food with table service. Being it was the only place in the park you could order food restaurant style (other than nachos at Dirty Harry which is always crowded anyway) that was disappointing. Then again it's nothing new from the revenue department which makes more upsetting changes to the parks on an almost daily basis.

Hey Richard Nice to meet you today, pity time was so short and we were at MW on one of the busiest days in park history. Still, good to have Scooby and Superman running in top form Have a great new years in Sydney, let me know if you need any more tips. ***thread hijack over***

Funny thing is though I don't think those wrap arounds were on from the point of delivery. I'll check another photo tomorrow but I'm pretty sure they have been retrofitted later.

So given the kick panels at the front and the large wrap around metal plate at the rear completely destroy the concept of having a more open design, what exactly is the full story with these post design additions to the train? They look pretty ridiculous and 'stuck on.'

So does anyone actually have info on what the regulators were saying he needed to do in order to meet their requirements? Its all well and good to say it was rebuilt in 2003 but given the attraction had so many accidents in recent years its clear this argument isn't as one sided as the owner would like to make out.

I pretty much drove through the Narnia sets every other day it was being filmed in the studios, they took up the entire studios complex. The sets for this film were nothing short of impressive and certainly don't constitute 'some shitty set from a crappy movie.' I think it's a great addition.

Twister and Speed coaster will be removed and the new slides installed there. I do not believe there are plans to relocate the existing slides.

Bonnie and Clyde cars are back out now. They were put backstage for halloween.

That wheel is just a complete joke if you ask me... As for the cannon bowl, the WWW one seems a bit less crazy intense than the original pro slide version. The one at WnW in Orlando really wips you around and is damn fast. I don't recall any problems with the joins either... Still a damn fun slide

I am VERY against closing an attraction for a private booking during park hours. That is really bad PR for the park. Guests pay their admission to enjoy the park in the open hours. Closing the ride for a private group is no different (probably worse) than just opening it late to save money. It looks really bad and guests do notice this kind of thing. What I find crazy is the park will not hire out the ride, just the ride with no extras if that's what someone wants. I don't see how when you cover all the operating costs (including wear and tear) you can't hire the attraction after hours. This would create good PR. Crazy I would urge anyone wanting to organise such ERT to contact operations or the park manager directly and no go through the usual guest services or events department channels. They may be more open to the idea, especially given the new managers come from US parks where this kind of thing is commonplace.