Slick

This should answer your question.

Still working on this behemoth video, in the interim - here's the teaser.

What irks me is the crazy "financial loss" figures lawyers put on cases like this - look, if she has an issue with her wrists caused by work, she should actually bring it up with her work as it's happening not after it's happened, her work should pay for her surgery or whatever she needs to have it corrected and if it's an invasive surgery which requires time off work, then for the company to compensate her for her lost time during that period. But hundreds of thousands of dollars? Come off it, mate. You signed up for that kind of work, no one forced you to push harnesses down all day every day.

(Edit - removed - photos aren't uploading correctly)

They got super lucky, by the time the parade happened it was down to a light drizzle at best but it's a good point - had it been raining they would've been sitting in the rain around the fountain for minutes at a time while the other floats get out of the way.

Was there this evening and had a really great evening despite the rain drowning out our filming. Thank god for the gigantic roof. Definitely went away impressed by the sheer abundance of entertainment and food. It was a sensory overload. For those who haven't been, the photos are nearly done, the video from tonight is in edit and you'll hopefully see something later in the day when tony abbott's nbn decides to upload the final cut.

Couldn't agree with you more. I thought the roof was a horrid, awful looking thing when they were building it that was going to destroy the atmosphere but much to my surprise they've taken a practically arbitrary fixture in the park and really harnessed it's potential. The simple fact that they can trap such a large amount of fog for so long really adds to the atmosphere and offers a pretty huge potential for creative visual & lighting possibilities.

I believe Dreamworld traded like that for quite some time in the 80's. I think it's a pretty solid idea, except it'd never happen - could you imagine the amount of negative publicity a park would get if they closed for a few days and the others didn't? The only to way ensure it being a success would be to do what Knott's and Disney did many decades ago and strategically plan closures with the parks so that all the parks were never closed at the same time. It'd be a case of everyone on the gold coast doing it or no one, and given the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games and how ingrained 363-364 day operation is for the local/interstate population (which is where the majority of the money is) I doubt it ever happening in the foreseeable future.

Yeah I can see how that might not make sense. I was inferring that Rainbow's End is a closer competitor to our gold coast parks specifically, not Adventure World. What i'm saying is that a Gyro Swing would be a great addition to their line-up regardless of the fact that a park on the other side of the country (Dreamworld) has one. Last time I checked, both Fuji-Q and Nagashima Spa Land both have Giant Frisbees (albeit both are different sizes), both are geographically close and yet none of the general public bats and eyelid.

Hypothetically speaking, I think moving forward if Adventure World wanted to continue investing in the teen/adult market, a small Huss Giant Frisbee or Intamin Gyro Swing would pad out their flat-ride line-up perfectly. Alternatively, something like Intamin's family launch coaster (Jet Rescue) would be brilliant. I'm sure some people would make the case of "originality" when you stack those options up against the eastern theme parks, but honestly, when Rainbow's End in Auckland, New Zealand is a closer competitor geographically, I don't think i'd be too worried.

Very. They're renowned for their space shot towers like Batwing and have extensive ride design, parts and manufacturing experience thanks to their CCI and Arrow acquisitions and their partnership with Sansei.

How'd you get those photos? Do you work for the park?

For the vast majority, B&M's are great because for the extra money a park would spend they get the very best in capacity and the ability to handle intense seasonal crowds, a problem none of our parks will never run into. If I were Dreamworld, i'd gut Blue Lagoon and throw in one of Intamin's Accelerator (inverting) coasters or Vertical Lift coasters. It's definitely a great, marketable investment when you consider that Superman Escape's only missing (atleast in the public eyes') is that it doesn't go upside down.

Cheers for the heads up. That's looking really promising.

You're totally on the money for the majority of that last paragraph. I'm sure they're all things Dreamworld are very interested in and i'm sure will be making sure of, no doubt. And you're right, when you don't have a culture of open communication when it comes to OH&S, things like Fukushima happen. This is why CASA are so open about faults and issues with aircraft, you can only be as good as the mistakes you learn from, absolutely. What I take great issue with is hyperbole when so little is known which leads to an outlet like Courier Mail and causing a PR nightmare when realistically there shouldn't really be one. I really do think this isn't newsworthy, much in the same light when I hear a plane had to abort a landing because of something rudimentary like a cross-wind. This 100%.

You are mightily misinformed, which is why those in the know, myself included, are downplaying this. I'd even go as far as to say it's naive and arrogant to think that any park in Australia would put anyone at any point in any actual real danger. The idea of fear is critical in an attraction being a hit with the public but the reality is (statistically speaking) you are in a practically incomprehensibly small amount of danger, to the point where making your breakfast and having a shower are literally more dangerous in Australia then going on the Buzzsaw, let alone any of our country's thrill rides. Let me start by saying Australia has the most strictest guidelines for safety (particularly when it comes to the amusement industry) compared to virtually anywhere else in the world. I know this not only from "the internets", but from experience from working in the industry as an operator in this country AND from first hand experiences working with dozens of parks here and overseas through capturing media in theme parks. Operators in parks joke about the fact that their international counterparts will let you ride with sunnies but in Australia we won't even let people with velcro pockets to have a wallet stashed away. Rides in this country are not as grossly over-simplified as you put it in your "lighting and chain" analogy, ditto for the restraints and the ridiculously large amount of dual redundancies in place. People forget that these attractions do hundreds, if not thousands of cycles every week of almost every month of every year over many decades without a single injury. To make a point really clear: the entire industry is based around pro-active maintenance and safety at any and all cost because the impact of someone falling out of a ride and sustaining a fatal injury is enough in this day and age to close a business permanantly and significantly impact others GLOBALLY. No park, no business, no share-holder and no person, from maintenance to operation to management want that situation ever, which is why there are multiple systems in place to discover and prevent such a thing before having to rely on a redundant safety feature at all, which is what has happened. In the decades in which i've been i've been on this board, never have I felt more passionately, and by extension, never have I felt someone has gotten something so wrong than you have. That attitude is why it's made its way now to the Courier Mail, which has the potential to have profound impact on those casual ride-goers and create more of a frenzy of misinformation. Furthermore, and I have no knowledge on this specific situation beyond what's been said officially by the park and what's been rumoured here, but there's a bloody huge difference between faults and failures found randomly or unpredictably because of a lack of care, maintenance or design (which this is most definitely not) versus having exceptionally great preventative systems in place that find a fixable fault well before it becomes a failure.

The guy who looks after safety probably takes a page out of Dwight's book for effectiveness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut8QlWfTGwc

That and there was recession during that time. Longhurst got out at the absolute perfect time.

The title irks me and gives me a "clickbait" kinda vibe. I'd hate for people who don't have a great understanding on how rides work to read a title like that and immediately jump to a conclusion like "that ride is unsafe" or "Dreamworld don't maintain their rides" especially when neither of which is the case. If anything, and this is speculative, but judging by the downtime something totally unforeseen by the manufacturer has occurred and the redundant failsafe worked exactly as designed.

Not to nitpick per-say but your perspective on additions is awfully subjective and leaves out some massive new experiences that Movie World has like Fright Nights, White Christmas and Carnivale, which, in their own right, are incredible seasonal additions to the park. To spin a similar bias, one might say from a thrillseeker perspective that both parks really have been quite equal in major NEW additions in recent times, with both parks adding both a coaster and a flat-ride to their line-ups (TailSpin and Buzzsaw & Green Lantern and Batwing.) That's just a thrillseeker's perspective though, and totally disregarding all the additional experiences that parks add that actually make a day great (and don't forget, everyone here always complains when the parks don't have actors out interacting with guests).

The section that you face before you launch are all earth magnets - the very same that are underneath the carriage. When there's an e-stop, they essentially "bog" the pod in its place. This is in contrast to the white blocks down the track, which are essentially insulated electromagnets that switch polarity at high-speed to push/pull the pod down the end of the track.

These might be of interest to this thread - taken 22/10/2005.

Ditto that thought. I always felt like that last little twist before you exit the disco room was like everything nearly all linked up between the custom and standard parts of the layout and they just sort of made it work in the same way you would in RollerCoaster Tycoon by clicking that auto-connect button (don't lie, we've all been there.)

If there's one ride i've been stuck on the most it's the original Tower of Terror. Mainly just something causing the computers to trip for whatever reason which usually meant either racing into the e-brake section at full speed or slowly dawdling down the track at a few k's an hour. This was nearly a decade ago now, back during a time when I was there a lot (i'll say too much but whatever) and as a result would ride more rides and inevitably experience something like an e-stop. Will never forget my first time I e-stopped on that ride though. It was a quick moment of "...the hell? We were supposed to stop right about no..." transformmed into "HOLY CRPJLKFSD ..... well that was intense" - going from 150 clicks to nothing in the space of two dozen metres is a crazy amount of unexpected g-force. One ride i'd hate to get stuck on though would be Buzzsaw. Something about reclined seats, just a lap-bar, that height and no immediate catwalk still makes me faintly nervous.

Definitely was a Pirates show back in the early 90's for a season. I have a photo on one of my old archive drives. Not enough detail to tell where it was though. At a guess I think it was out just next to Avalanche?