Slick

@Tricoartif you could upload those images as JPG's that'd be brilliant.

To be fair, they certainly attempted to learn and adapt by being open and transparent about Atlantis before ground was even broken (which in turn has netted them the same result thanks to an entirely different set of unforeseen circumstances).

I took a photo of the sign, will have to find it - not sure if it was that specific about its return, but I do hope it makes a return. Ideally if the steam train made a return and ran during peak periods and weekends and they used the diesel to augment operations (and the costs) for off-peak that’d be a bloody brilliant outcome.

100% - I'd take the way that it is now over more shaded seating areas. And their effort shouldn't be discounted either - the stations are looking the best they've been in several decades. The new carriages are great and the fact that both carriages and stations are proactively disability friendly is the kind of thing that makes Dreamworld Dreamworld. The chagrin comes from the perspective that for most of Dreamworld's history, that level four detail (steam engines) was a noticeable part of the Dreamworld experience. That detail (the steam train) now sits out of the front of the main station, practically taunting guests about a unique feature that's no longer part of the ticket price.

The success of Disneyland (and by extension, Dreamworld's initial years of success) was because immersion was taken seriously when no one else cared (and to a deep extent was actually contemptuous of the guest experience e.g. "they're in a theme park, it's all fake, who cares."). Those who have watched The Imagineering Story on Disney+ will be super familiar with the four levels of details that unlock that difference - here's it paraphrased from this blog: With that in mind, folks care about the difference between steam and not steam because it removes a pretty critical component of the magic of that attraction that contributes to the greater atmosphere and immersion of the park. Sure, switching from steam to diesel in isolation is one small cut (and Disney did this in Hong Kong) but combined with dozens of other cuts in aggregate (Sky Voyager's facade, replacing Main St Emporium's doors with automatic sliding doors, flattening the Ice Cream Parlour's facade etc. etc. etc.) results in the "feel of the place" to change in a quantifiable way. With all that said, Dreamworld is a totally different place to what it was in the 80's, and as you pointed out, the train's going to fly past a bunch of gravel, a black tin shed, and some yellow track. Having a steam train back is one of many layers they'd need to consider in restoring Dreamworld to a previously high level of immersion and detail.

To be frank, if I was anymore transparent about it they’d start calling me Casper instead of Slick.

No stress mate. In future, if you feel like anyone's rubbishing your opinion (myself included) send me a DM. 🍻

Suggesting that I'm "rubbishing everyone else's opinion" when I've predominantly just quoted you a few times to engage in pretty typical, normal, robust discussion is a pretty good indicator of who's trying to rubbish who. Rubbishing opinions implies that I'm treating your opinion as worthless, the reality is that I've quoted sections and added to thoughtful discussion. Having said that, I'm sorry to hear you feel your opinion is rubbished. If it were on the west side of the tower, they'd have direct, physical access to the lighting fixtures via The Giant Drop's cable catch car platform. That would lower operational expenditure and improve customer experience, as they wouldn't have to isolate neighbouring rides because of the need to create a custom rig like they've done for the Tower of Terror track removal. Again, if the goal is to be visible from as far away as possible, then having letters down the side of the tower that you can only see in its entirety from a fairly immediate distance is probably not the most effective solution, and as you say, lighting it up to be more clearly visible via some architectural lighting fixtures is probably a better use of coin.

I haven't personally seen this, but it'd be a huge mistake if so. Having said that, i'd imagine it isn't an intentional deception either. Feel free to post the errors here so, like Dreamworld has done with the Giant Drop thread, they can fix it up. 🍻

Exactly - the LED lights on the top of the tower, as in, the top few metres. If the intent is to light up the tower to be visible at night from far away then you just need to light up the top. Problem solved. If the solution is to have your brand (or word) visible in its entirety to the most amount of people for the longest duration possible, it's the west side of the tower (which is why it's been that way for decades). Because it was going to cost a fair bit of money to remove. Also, artworks are always subjective and public art generally always has detractors. Having said that, I think there's a pretty unanimous opinion out there that this piece of art is poorly executed.

Isn't the whole purpose to build awareness to folks driving by? And by popping it on the south-side of the tower, only 50% of their audience see it. (And in before anyone says "everyone driving by knows what Dreamworld is" - if that were the case then Apple, Samsung, Nike, Microsoft etc. etc. wouldn't spend a dollar on advertising.)

Define FIRM - is that when the project's earned value exceeds a particular milestone? Or is it when every single risk is eliminated? Or is it just some risks that can be easily mitigated? (And in the case of Aussie World, is WorkSafe requests defined as an unforeseen risk? Or should they have budgeted those delays into the slack of their project and have a FIRM date built upon that?) What if a shipping container goes missing that was 100% FIRM to arrive six months in in to the project and would take 18 months to re-deliver because of global supply shortages? Do you account for that potential risk? What if that shipping container had arrived and it had the train in it, and because every single part was here and looked to be in order you felt as though it was FIRM enough in the project timeline to announce a date, but then there was an unforeseen issue with the train and it would take six months to remedy because of the speed of shipping from the US to AU? I think what i'm trying to demonstrate is that there's no such thing as FIRM for any engineering project, especially with our current mix of global influences constraining supply as @Naazon touched on.

Cheers for the post - had no idea he had a second long-form channel.

I've been thinking about this a bit this morning - let's say you wanted to design a queue that did away with the need for a sorter/loader like Rivals/Taipan. How would you incorporate a fastpass ticket into that flow automatically? The only way I can think of doing it is to have the fast-pass tickets come in a dedicated queue and have a station operator stop several air-gates from opening to allow the FastPass people into those seats (not ideal).

Cheers. 🍻 What side do we think the new "DREAMWORLD" letters will go on the tower?

I can appreciate the want for it to be a black and white issue, and I think from a comms background perspective the reality is the situation is much more nuanced/shades of grey. Hypothetically, let's say the Easter to September delay was caused by shipping. When looking at the project's new timeline, how much slack in the timeline do you decide is enough slack to negate the potential fallout risk from the date being pushed back further by the potential of further shipping delays? At what % of risk do you maybe consider that the likelihood of further delays means you keep the updated communications to a minimum to avoid continued brand damage because perceptually it might look like your brand is incompetent? And adding to that, what's the actual objective from a comms perspective - is it to be as honest and transparent as possible because on a personal level that's the moral thing to do, or is it actually to sell tickets? And if the latter is the guiding star, doesn't being honest above all else become misaligned with the group's greater goals if there are unavoidable, external factors you can't mitigate that are causing brand damage?

Not if they're only allowed to run them from dawn to dusk. (Perhaps they meant from dusk to dawn aka night time?)

I totally missed that, good catch. Considering the investment costs to make it work I think you'd just be better off painting the letters white and calling it a day. For 90% the visual impact and at 10% the cost, you could light it from the bottom of the tower with proper fixtures and probably be able to run the lights at night, too. Also, from all directions of the Gold Coast? It's on one side of the tower, there's at least 180 degrees of direction that isn't visible. 😆

It's not an ideal situation to be in - on one hand, folks might be more understandable if there was a degree of transparency whenever they push the date back. On the other hand, you might frustrate more people by bringing the topic up at this point. It's a bit of a PR catch 22. The enthusiast part of me says to bench on a summer opening.

Not sure why they spent resources on developing a new logo for a refurbishment when the previous logo was far, far better. 🤷🏼‍♂️ The glowing logo is a nice touch - might’ve made more sense to illuminate the engine room too given that it’s the thing you can see from furtherest away (maybe they’ll do both?) PS: Dreamworld Marketing team, the link doesn’t work. You're welcome.

FYI, Dreamworld’s site has changed after @Retardentmade their post. This morning This arvo

What is that based upon? 🤔

You'd hope not, it's a got giant rip down the side.

Good to see both sides of the highway making good use of these forums to leverage their fan’s insights to improve their parks. 🍻

"BP Coomera Refurbishment 2022" Thread: - "Preparations are underway at BP for the refurb of the petrol pumps. Machinery has started to arrive and they have poured an extra slab to assist with the works." - "This is why plain white concrete has no place at a BP. Stencil it. colour it. Paint it. Do exposed aggregate wash. Or use bitumen... ugh." - "Some snaps of BP today!" Riveting. 😄