Slick

Greg's reply in his news-pieces was about how difficult labour was to source and the risk factor. 1) The talent is readily available, Ardent just made the talent redundant. It's literally Ardent's strategic misdirection that has caused this. The rationale is literally a meme. 2) Handler/Wildlife interaction is one of the most single important keys to reducing risk. It's just plain facts. You can't exercise or enrich the animals to anywhere near the level you can when handlers have a relationship with the animal.

In the same way you never go to Disneyland for the authentic turn-of-the-century facades in Main Street, the integrity of the design choices, right down to the materials used in making something, emanate a feeling or experience that is greater than the sum of its parts and ultimately evokes the feeling of "magic". You can be patronising all you like but the reality is Dreamworld was successful in the 80's because it prided itself on the same design principles as Disney did, and despite regular guests not being able to articulate the specific reason why, they definitely experienced and felt the difference as a result of the accountability John Longhurst had in upholding a certain level of integrity in the way things were made and presented. That difference is what Disney has continued to uphold - the importance in materials, history, craftsmanship etc. etc. whilst other companies become contemptuous over time and feel that one tiny cut to the design isn't noticeable. Thing is, do a thousand of them and guess what.... death by a thousand cuts. And then folks like yourself lament the lack of steam trains or the quality of facades dipping and yet fail to articulate specifically why "it doesn't feel the same as it did way back then." This is why. It starts with a failure to recognise why people did things the way they did them in the past and that contempt only grows from there.

The only thing that makes it moving the vintage cars from A to B is the cars. I should add that they're built from genuine Model-T Ford parts that are worth tens of thousands of dollars. Getting rid of them is just another indicator of how little they understand or appreciate what they have right under their noses. Rivertown looks nice though. Love that they called the Dreamworks retheme "Dreamland", reminds me of the other Disney knockoff theme park Nara Dreamland that eventually closed and got turned into housing. Clearly they didn't consider what would happen when people typed in Dreamland into Google about as much as they considered it when they tried to name Sky Voyage Sky Ryder.

FYI a few degrees difference in standard operating temperatures can affect performance and wear and tear of heavy machinery over time, which is what I was curious about. It’s a tin drum in the sky that has direct sun hitting it most hours of the day. Anyway it looks cool right? 🤷🏼‍♂️

Thanks for the replies folks. I guess it was more the idea that I assumed the reason why the plant room at the top was white was to reduce heat and subsequent wear and tear on Giant Drop equipment.

Just going to put it out there - isn't painting a lot of tin and steel black kinda bad from a heat perspective?

Yeah looks like it was quickly swapped out. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Good on you @Park Addict 93 for getting the screen cap.

Checked Facebook inbetween uni exams and saw this - looks like Leviathan is opening 2nd December - promo is at the link: https://seaworld.com.au/attractions/rides-and-precincts/the-new-atlantis

It was a charcoal colour, with the tin of the service floors a matte silver colour with black lettering for “dreamworld tower.”

I believe the LED displays are inside the ride building.

You know, it’s like that for a reason that was caused by Dreamworld itself. Like, I can’t complain about having a limp if I cut my own leg off. I think the Taipan stans need to chill. It’s not bullying, they’re two theme parks - they’re an organisation that offers fun, they’re having fun and the enthusiasts are “getting their pitch forks out.“

So let me get this straight, enthusiasts love it when Universal and Disney trade playful jabs in Twitter or whatever, but when Village does a silly throwaway line for like 30 people (read: us) it’s a hate crime? Good looking train, and I really appreciate the efforts they’re taking to acknowledge things fans like us find interesting.

You don't have to be a tourist to become trapped in that hell-hole.

Given that Kinects are officially discontinued and any idea of vendor support is dwindling, when they reach end of life what would folks like to see go in their place?

The underlying assumption there is that there's a cost saving from Six Flags building the same thing over and over (and that the savings are in the theming), but the reality is the cost savings is with the deal brokered with the OEM (e.g. B&M building 4x inverted coasters).

I like this new Hotel V, but I do like the WB Hotel better. Not sure I can quite understand how there's an appetite for 600-rooms unless they're really banking on this as a full-time corporate conference hotel over being a theme park hotel.

Exactly, that's why I was quite specific around "iconic intergenerational rides" and have separate lists for that. All guests can tangibly articulate the ride difference, and feel the fact that it's been gutted at an intangible yet experiential level. At six years and one day, I think we can lay the incident to bed as the actual reason why attendance suffers now. If anything, the incident lay bare an unsustainable business strategy (low CAPEX yield, lack of master planning for ride replacement and procurement, unsustainable OPEX and systems practices) and the current strategy of contracting the offering and plussing through non-attraction initiatives simply isn't resonating. 1/2 FY '20 for Ardent clearly shows that had the pandemic not occurred that a return to profitability would've happened that fiscal year. By extension, literally the rest of the entire global industry is doing pre-pandemic attendance and 40%+ per cap spend at the minimum. The issue isn't the people, because they're spending practically everywhere else but at Dreamworld. And I don't know how Village are giving away the gate when their prices are the highest on record now. Furthermore, Fright Nights is the most expensive one they've run by design - they're making a move on supply and demand to bring the feeling of oversold events down. Is this a reference to Viking's and Storm? I'm not sure which rides you're talking about. This is the thing though - people are voting with their wallets, and they'd rather Village's offering over Ardent's, perhaps now more then ever. But to be honest that's always been the case - the purchase ratio has always been somewhere around 1:4-2:5 - now I wonder if it's more like 1:5 though.

That’s fine to justify from an enthusiast’s perspective, and the average guest sees that list wildly differently which is reflected in the different micro-economic circumstances between Village and Ardent. Simply put - rider capacity doesn’t matter - people see multiple, multiple major iconic intergenerational rides closing and they’ve been replaced by, at best, two rides. Over the other side of the road, the experience doesn’t “feel” gutted. And by extension, whatever rides or experiences that have closed have generally been either directly replaced or plussed elsewhere. Easy to see then why one park is struggling to meet capacity and why the other is constantly receiving “praise” for having such short queue lines.

This is my list: Closed Attractions & Experiences as of 25th October, 2016 Thunder River Rapids Eureka Mountain Mine Ride Wipeout Kevil Hill Flowrider Corroboree Woolshed Buzzsaw Tower of Terror Old Time Photos Big Red Car Wildlife Nocturnal House Rocky Hollow Log Ride Dreamworld Cinema Giggle & Hoot Kid’s Ride Dreamworld Parkway Bakery Boost Juice Big Brother Cafe Rivertown Restaurant Billabong Restaurant Parkway Cafe Sky Voyager Shop Peter Brock’s Garage V8 SuperCars Redline Big Brother House Dreamworld Amphitheatre Play School Art Room Trolls Village ———— Ride/Attractions Opened as of 25th October, 2016 Sky Voyager LEGO Store Play School Wheel Steel Taipan Fully6 Ride/Attractions Closed as of 25th October, 2016 Thunder River Rapids Mine Ride Dreamworld Cinema Wipeout Flowrider Buzzsaw Tower of Terror Log Flume Giggle & Hoot Hop Ride Big Red Car Ride

I reckon so.

Both technologies do that - you’re showing a video of a rollback which is an anomaly in regular operations. Arguably, if one emergency system can remove energy sooner than another, then by definition it is a safer system.

So because one ride technology fails more safely it’s a complete failure?

Top Thrill Dragster had roll backs, too. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Virtually exactly where Doomsday is today. Now it’s over to the left of Wild West Falls’ final turn into the station.

I'll back what others are saying - is high-end theming these days really a couple of rock waterfalls and a No-Limits generic station? Because that's not Disney-level theming or world-class by any stretch. If you were to take concept art that literally, you'd then assume that everyone on the star flyer is going to get a 5m tall enema every time the ride comes into the station. Concept art is generally always a bit ambitious, take the Skyneedle Apartment concept art in South Brisbane: Ambitious, iconic, stunning, really quite amazing. But in reality, it's just another apartment block. Point is, especially with the pandemic, things have changed. Vortex sucks, and I think even Village will admit that, and it looks like they've learnt from that and are now doing some really interesting stuff that's worthy of attention. It won't be Disney-level quality (and nor was it ever intended to be), but I reckon it'll be really solid.