All Activity

I was referencing Superman, it opened in 2005! I don’t think they necessarily need to do a new indoor section. I personally think they just need to the queue/loading refurb they announced a few years ago and either do a major refurb to the launch system to either retain the hydraulic or the more likely option replace it was a more reliable launch system.

If referencing MDMC, I’m not a fan of the idea. The only thing going for it is that it will be an entirely new experience in that it will be different trains, indoor sections. Proof will be in the final delivered product a new launch only for SE doesn’t give them anything “new” to market. If they do the launch with a refresh to the internal dark ride section of then I think that could be a credible investment strategy. Hey I wanna stress I don’t want SE gone. It’s in my top 3 in the country and I love it - I just am not sure management will do right by it

What about spending that on a 21 year old coaster? No, but it will keep one of the parks most important coasters running for another few decades. And if it goes, nothing is replacing it.

Private equity park owners do like to pump $$$$ in capex while cutting costs on day-to-day operations though. If their asset has lots of shiny new toys it looks good for a sale down the track (might be better at proving a case for a ground up replacement tbf) Pre-2016 Macquarie/Ardent were still adding new rides to dreamworld on a regular basis despite day-to-day operations being allocated pennies. I see a lot of that in village You could say exactly the same thing about Motocoaster, a ride that is nowhere near as much of a crowd favourite as Superman, but Dreamworld still did their due diligence and thought spending 18 months renovating it was a good idea. Renovating the station, the dark ride section and replacing the launch is still a lot cheaper than a new ride

Spending $10-$15m on a 25 year old coaster doesn’t seem to fit with VTP’s cut-cost, lower overhead model. To get an upswing in visitation to justify that they’d need to do more then just upgrade the launch and make the station better - that’s not getting interstate visitors to book another trip.

The ride itself is mostly fine. There's no real issues with the track or the trains. The issues are with the launch system, and there are two replacement options that can be done by various manufacturers. A LSM conversion could be done by Intamin, Zamperla, or Premier Rides, or S&S could replace the hydraulic system with a pneumatic system. S&S have already done a retrofit with Powderkeg at Silver Dollar City, and they have designed a faster launch on a shorter track with MaxxForce. So it could be done, if VRTP are willing to work with them again after GL. Both options are more simple, have fewer moving parts and less maintenance than a hydraulic launch system. A pneumatic launch is clearly the spiritual successor and the better ride experience option, but the LSM option is likely cheaper to install and maintain. A pneumatic launch gives the ride a clear point of difference to ST at Dreamworld, and could be considered an 'upgrade' with more punchy acceleration. It would, however, be very loud and two pneumatic launch rides in the same plaza might be overwhelming - the solution would be to move batwing to a different area of the park but this adds additional cost. An LSM conversion would therefore be the most likely option. Even if it cost $10M and they did a station upgrade at the same time, it would still cost less than the $30M+ they would need to spend on a brand new custom designed coaster to replace it in that space.

Zero faith in current management and their ability to operate the theme park effectively. I very well may be wrong, but I just don’t see them outlaying substantial capital to essentially replace the launch on a near 25 year old ride that realistically wouldn’t have a decade left in it without track replacement. The promised queue changes were not forthcoming. I believe they are operating it with the idea of running it until it stops running or they get through the summer holidays, whichever comes first

Curious how you can be so confident?

My expectations are pretty low for what Village will do with SE, especially with my opinion that they’re turning Sea World Resort into a caravan park.

As I have said ad nauseum on this forum there is a strong case for LSM conversion over removal (and it is possible engineering wise), but I don't know Village's thinking and what they want to do. Fwiw there is quite a bit of land for a replacement if you remove the dark ride section building. Also would necessitate removing Flash, but that ride was added in as an afterthought when they needed capacity

I have not heard anything about SE being removed; what I have heard is that it will be retrofitted with LSM (much like TT2, or ThunderVolt at PNE Playland no mention of a specific manufacturer). If they did end up choosing Zamperla maybe we will see a replacement to DDD as part of a deal. SE plot of land is very constrained so I can’t see them opting for an outright removal.

Seems SE will go the way SDSC went. Patch fixes until it become apparent patches won’t work, and then one day it will go into maintenance and never return (yes SDSC returned eventually but SE won’t)

Definitely going to drive up north in december given there's been signs supermans been on its last legs for a while. Movie World could have pulled the plug when it went down for months last year. Whether a retrofit or removal if you're interstate its worth making the trip irrespective of the state movie world is in on that alone as it could go down anyday and never come back up

I suspect whatever they're doing in the next downtime is designed to keep it alive over summer.

I have heard that it will be closing for a major refurbishment in February much in the same way Mick Dohans Moto coaster did it’s sad to see it close for more then a month just prior to this. This is pure rumours and speculation at this point as it was not a primary source I heard it from.

The slow death of SE is hard to watch. ☹️

Flying in on the 10th and arriving around 12:30, going to Sea World that day thankfully. Hoping it's not delayed and Superman opens on the 11th as that's when I'm planning to go to MW

This totally doesn't screw over those that got their tickets in the early bird sale Like my brother and I have made it a thing to go to Fright Nights on his birthday, unfortunately he's strapped for cash and can't afford the pass. This would've been a great thing to get if it were available during the early sales that way we can fit in rides during the day and do the mazes at night

@Baconjack I didn’t think Intamin were supplying the trains, so I wouldn’t take their specs as gospel.

If that’s the case, that’ll be a downgrade from Motocoaster as I believe it was 110cm for the side cars.

Alright, but you started it. Road Runner Rollercoaster is listed on the park's website as a 'kids ride' and is located in the children's section of the park, is marketed as 'perfect for young kids' with 'thrill level - mild' and has a minimum 110cm height requirement. Kansas Twister is listed on the park's website as a 'thrill ride', is located in WOZ land, is marketed as 'thrilling' with 'thrill level - moderate' with a minimum 95cm rider height. Flight of the Wicked Witch is listed on the park's website as a 'family ride', is located in WOZ land, is marketed as 'wickedly fast' with 'thrill level - moderate' and has a minimum 105cm height requirement. Height requirement has nothing to do with marketability. The lowest height requirement on the three rides above is actually categorised and listed as the most thrilling, and the ride with the highest requirement is marketed as the 'lowest thrill' tier for kids.

Going to nitpick like crazy here but you can't market Lost Mine Mayhem as a ride between KFF and jungle rush when every ride with the intamin quad bike trains has a 120cm minimum height restriction (and 130 without an adult) which will mean there's kids that can go on jungle rush but not Lost Mine Mayhem That said, yes, it does increase access to the ride. However i do think it will still sit in that gap between jungle rush and the bigger coasters (again, something clean slate would have been better). As i said before I am remaining open-minded on what theming they add to the layout, as others have said, adding indoor sections, near misses and rockwork would improve the sense of speed greatly

So, if i'm to understand you correctly - a park should reduce hours or not open during periods where visitation is low? #whataconcept

Is that because BRB Coaster has theming elements that the train interacts with? :sigh: