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We're not trying to bore you with constant updates, or anyone on this forum. The constant updates I have been making lately mainly reflect the fact that rides, which are not being advertised on the Dreamworld website as closed, are closed. We're also trying to spark discussion on what could be going on with these rides. We're currently experiencing the unexpected closure of 2 major attractions (Wipeout, MDMC), which Dreamworld continues to fail to advertise, most likely because it might "look bad" on their website. The fact of the matter is, we have had 5 out of 9 big thrill rides closed for the past 4 and a half days. This is not acceptable coming from any theme park, and it's interesting that it hasn't been talked about more. At the end of the day, we're dealing with mass closures across the board for this theme park, and not all of these closures are being advertised. I do find it annoying when date changes, which are for rides not scheduled to open in months anyway, are posted on this forum. However, when attractions which are expected to open the next day get pushed back by an extra month, that's the stuff we should be posting. Like Wet'N'Wild's Surfrider, scheduled to open the next day, then boom, pushed all the way to 31st December. That sort of shit isn't cool, just like the falsely advertised Dreamworld closures. That's the stuff I want to know about before my planned visit to a theme park.

Undulating waves are created with air pressure or water paddles. High pressure air, or a moving paddle displaces water at the deep end forming a wave. In simple terms, the air model is a giant fan that creates a depression in the water, and the water displaced from that depression has to go elsewhere - creating a ripple. So in simple terms the mechanics, and cost to operate is fairly simple. In terms of construction, these displacement style pools really only require the pool itself, and connected filtration, with the fans or paddles placed at one end. A water dump pool uses a lot more energy to operate. I'll use Thunder Bay as an example - since it was what I could find some stats for online - it uses a 100, 200 & 300 horsepower pump to move water through 3 metres vertical, along a length of 9 metres of pipe, into the dump reservoirs. On the numbers - it dumps 341,000 litres into the 7.6 million litre pool to cause the waves. To generate waves of a reasonable frequency, these pumps have to move that water constantly - achieving approximately 150,000 litres per minute at normal speed. You're then running a hydraulic system to open and close the reservoirs (there are eight chambers at Thunder Bay, so 8 separate hydraulic doors), although the hydraulic pump is a small part of the system energy wise, it's another moving part requiring maintenance etc (and in the Tbay example, they use vegetable oil rather than regular hydraulic fluids due to the risk of the oil entering the pool water. Finally, rather than a standard 'pool' construction, to ensure the water dumped flows to the 'shore', the system can't pump water from the deep end, or else those pumps would be countering the effect - so the pool needs a water return, so that excess water at the shoreline can return back to the pumphouse. I found this little graphic online that represents it well, and as you can see - large volumes of water return in a specially constructed channel, rather than just pipes like a pneumatic wavepool filtration system, to move large volumes. These channels, with their steel and concrete, naturally cost more to construct as well. TL:DR - yeah, what @djrappa said.

Part of the reason for contacting Intamin in 2016 was due to rafts taking on water and the ride having to shut down for 30 minutes each day to drain the water from the rafts. In June 2016, Dreamworld got in contact with another company “dynamic attractions” about replacing the rafts. They quoted $12k per raft for 10 new rafts. It appears as though the contract with Dynamic Attractions was in its final stages before the incident happened. The Intamin communications were just emails back and forward. A company named “PFi” was contracted to undertake the PLC upgrades in 2015-16. There was also discussions in August 2016 about having a compressor replaced on the ride too. This was brought up recently and discussed heavily. I believe @AlexB(?) figured out that old arrow trains had this ability but the new Kumbak trains couldn’t, which was part of the reason for the upgrade. I think it was mentioned in a news piece on ABC or Channel 7, when they obtained documents from Dreamworld and that was the first time it had come out that sidewinder had that issue. Mr Watkins has just finished giving evidence and we have adjourned for lunch. I unfortunately have to depart again but rest assured I’ll be back tomorrow morning.

In October 2004, a guest was being unloaded from their raft in the station when another raft collided with it causing the guest to fall in the water and go under a raft. In 2014, within a week of the the raft collision on TRR, there was an incident on the Hotwheels Sidewinder where a train was dispatched from the station with a guests restraint not being locked down. Both ride operators were terminated. JAK, a ride audit company, recommended in 2014 that the TRR controls be simplified as it relies on far too much manual operation from the ride op. Today was the first time that Mr Watkins had seen the 2014 cctv footage from TRR. Mr Watkins agreed that it would have been helpful if he had seen that footage previously or if that footage reviewed during the 2015-16 time where the ride was upgraded. In 2014, an email was circulated around Dreamworld Staff about theme park incident overseas on a roller coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas where a woman died as a result of a failed safety harness. In that email, the 2001 TRR incident was also brought up and included photos of the rafts that had stacked in the unload station. It literally looks like someone has dumped 5 rafts from the sky into the unload station and conveyor area. There are rafts literally sitting on top of each other. One of the recommendations in 2015 was a $10000 upgrade to the controls Included in this recommendation: “The existing operator controls have been adapted and added to over many years and are in a poor state. This scope (of work being completed) should be expanded to include the upgrade of the operator co from panel. This would include: the addition of a 7inch touch screen, it would monitor all alarms, water levels and pump loads. This will also control all of the arrival and exit gates.” “This would future proof the ride for years to come” Dreamworld opted to not implement these upgrades, just the anti-rollback gates and conveyor chainbreak upgrade.

Firstly, sorry about missing yesterday, I was super sick and couldn’t leave the house, wasn’t fun but I’m back up and rubbing today... except the delays on the motorway that got me here slightly late. So let’s begin today. Mark Watkins - engineering and maintenance supervisor. Mr Watkins has never seen a risk assessment document for TRR. If there was a fault or issue with a ride, Mr Watkins was the person in charge of making the call whether to reopen a ride or not. Mr Watkins confirmed that the rapids alarms were sounded to alert all available staff to come assist as guests may need to be retrieved from rafts on the course or in the reservoir. Mr Watkins states that both the north and south pumps had faults in the past but can’t recall a number of times. If there was a pump failure, the maintenance staff would attempt to reset and then restart the pump and run rafts around the course to make sure it’s working. Mr Watkins discussed with attractions supervisors as to whether the ride should re-open after the pump trip on the day of the incident. After numerous tests rafts were sent around without an issue, Mr Watkins made the decision to re-open the ride. Mr Watkins mentioned that rafts bottoming out from pulp failures was a common and not a cause for concern. Mr Watkins states that if there is an electrical issue, only the electricians are allowed to assess the situation. Mr Watkins advised other staff members to not try and rectify electrical issues and instead to escalate it to the electricians. Mr Watkins states that every breakdown he has attended on TRR, the conveyor has been stopped. They have just shown the CAPEX application form for the control systems upgrade to TRR, these included new controls to prevent rafts slipping down the conveyor and potentially flipping. Mr Watkins cannot remember that ever happening to warrant the change. Mr Watkins states that it was just preventative updates. Also included on the form was the chainbreak and anti-rollback gates for the TRR conveyor. New safety controls weren’t added, just the chain break and anti-rollback gates. There was an email that went from Mr Watkins in mid 2016 about issues with the temperatures of the south pump being higher than the north pump. Mr Watkins reached out to Intamin in 2016 about obtaining replacement rafts as intamin had similar rafts and ride types. Intamin was confused as they hadn’t designed the ride but after looking at videos and photos online, they would be able to deliver rafts that would fit the Dreamworld TRRR requirements. Intamin suggested sending out a single raft to be used on the ride as testing to ensure it would fit and be appropriate before getting more. Intamin also offered a discount for buying a whole new set of rafts. Presumably because they didn’t want their rafts mixed in with in-house designed rafts. The engineering team never received any OEM’s or ride updates about TRR as it was built in-house and there was no system in place to ensure it was up to date with all other rides of similar types around the world. All other rides would regularly receive updates from the manufacturer but as TRR didn’t have an original manufacturer, it was mostly just common sense and past experience that was used by engineering staff. Mr Watkins believes the upgrades to the ride in early 2016 weren’t made because there was an incident that happened, they were just proactive maintenance and safety features. Mr Watkins cannot recall if there was a specific person who sought out ride updates or procedures as they always assumed the ride was safe. Mr Watkins was also never made aware of the 2001, 2004 or 2014 incidents that occurred on TRR.

Yeah, and? Hundreds of zoos don't have rides and seem to do great, just as much as there's other "SeaWorlds" that have a ton more rides and seem to do great, too. There's no rule for what exactly to do here - not all hotels need to have pools to be successful just as much as not all cars need four doors to sell well. But keeping with the car analogy - if i'm going to build a 4WD, I expect it to have a 4WD engine, not something out of a Corolla that's underpowered and not what I expected or paid for. That's Sea World's problem - from the perspective of either a day ticket (where you're paying the same as Dreamworld or Movie World) or as a season pass holder wanting to get a full day's worth of fun, it doesn't stack up compared to the other parks anymore, and it's compounded by the fact that for the longest time it did. So many things have been pulled out and either not replaced or have been filled in with cheap alternatives that hyper-focusses the product to such a specific age group that it alienates others. Continuing on that thought, the mentality of "competing against your own product" is so, so fundamentally flawed that it's a big contributor to why Village are so far in the hole, in my mind. It's like saying you don't need Paradise Country because you have animals at Sea World, or you don't need AOS because there's a stunt show at Movie World, or Movie World's kids area is okay to be left half-arsed and shitty because Sea World's is a bit better so they should just go there. If your products can't stand on their own feet, they're probably shit. It's how Dreamworld have managed to stay competitive - they've got a great full day product whilst every other park is still, at best, a solid half day product. It's not a hard thing to fix either - Village just needed to maintain what they had in the first place (cough, Skyway, cough Vikings). If their products can't stand on their own two feet as diverse & quality day experiences worth revisiting then as a park owner you're going to fail on driving revenue because there's no reason for guests to come back, and that's where the money is. Funny... other theme park chains have figured this out and they seem to be do fine.

Can vouch for MDMC and Wipeout operating on Sunday

The show is remaining, but until November 30 it will only be showing 3 times a day (12, 2:30 and 3:30)

It's really no better or worse than a lot of other discussions here. In some ways I find the dumpster fire (and picturing the meetings going on behind it) rather interesting.

is it just me, or is this daily update of date changes just becoming tiresome? I'm out. Can someone just create a thread when the damn ride reopens?

Pretty damning TBH.... https://outline.com/PMxCxj TWO Dreamworld workers have told the inquest into the October 2016 tragedy of the moment they slowed to a walk after realising guests might worry if they saw employees sprinting through the theme park. Dreamworld engineering supervisor Wayne Cox previously told the inquest he was unaware there had been a number of breakdowns on the ride the day of the tragedy and first headed to the raft ride in the afternoon. In his statement to police on October 25, 2016, Mr Cox told officers it was just after 2pm that he heard there was a Code 6 on the Thunder River Rapids and a technician was required. A Code 6 was typically used to describe a breakdown or ride malfunction. But minutes later, they were radioed again, this time signalling there was a “Code 222 Blue” at the ride. “Code 222 Blue” typically means there is a medical emergency at the ride. After hearing that, Mr Cox and Scott Ritchie, the theme park’s engineering supervisor, immediately left the rides workshop, located on the other side of Dreamworld and closer to White Water World. In his statement, Mr Cox said the two men ran about two thirds of the way through the park before slowing to a walk “so as to not draw too much attention to ourselves and alarm the park guests”. In the few minutes it took the two to arrive at the Thunder River Rapids, the code had been upgraded to a “Code 222 Grey”, a medical emergency involving mechanics and one that required all staff to attend. Dreamworld’s first responders were already at the ride, wading into the water to try and save the four adults but it was too late. The raft had already crushed four people to death. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE inquest into the Dreamworld disaster has heard claims staff were so scared of management they wouldn’t go to the bathroom. An email from a union representative was produced at the inquest that said there was a culture of fear among staff. Four visitors died when the 30-year-old ride malfunctioned on October 25, 2016, their raft colliding with another before flipping on its side. An inquest into the deaths of Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozi Araghi is being held at the Southport Coroners Court. The email described how some staff members were so fearful of leaving their rides, they would allegedly urinate at them rather than going to the bathroom, reported 9 News. “It has been brought up... about staff having to pee at their rides, leaving their rides unattended and even being hospitalised with a kidney infection,” the email from union representative Jarard Drysdale said. “The point I am trying to make is that staff say, ‘supervisors don’t care - they are just out to get you’.”

The Mack Tango Train was indeed called the Disco Train when it operated at Darling Harbour throughout the late 1980's and early 90's. Previously to being put in Darling Harbour, the ride travelled the show circuit with Wittinsglows, who also owned most rides at that were on the site. The picture shows the original ride during its stay in Darling Harbour. Was the Love express a Mack Music Express? There IS a Music Express style ride called the Love Express owned by OCS Fun (same company that owns the Rainbow) that toured around Sydney during the early 2000's, and also made a rare appearance at the 2012 Fishers Ghost Festival in Campbelltown, however it isn't manufactured by Mack. The ride hasn't been seen for many years now , and is probably sitting out in someones paddock rusting away.

Sorry mate forgot to answer your question! Yeah it came up on a Facebook post but there is certainly nothing untoward about it- @19Michael96 mentioned your name in regards to your post and I just replied to it as you saw was posted here. They certainly appear to still function- please visit https://www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/Home Yeah fair point and I understand where you are coming from. If this was another operator then I would most certainly be apprehensive but the fact that the current managing director Peter Hearne , is on record as saying that this is something they would not do, this does alleviate those concerns somewhat. Plus, as has been shown, the legislation protecting the historical aspects of the park ( buildings, rides and amusements) are separate to any new developments and , in my understanding,take precedent over these. Interesting considering now that the NSW State government is looking to amend their interpretation of this process- 200 temporary rides and attractions over 12 years does demonstrate a fairly large precedent. Agree 100% here. Perhaps although I feel that it is reasonable to think that once the general public at large have read an article on the issue that would then be enough to educate them to form a reasonable opinion on the matter. Thanks for the excellent discussion AlexB, as always good value! What a particularly negative and absurd statement!! Just an observation- every post you submit on Luna Park seems to be very negative or overly criticising- it certainly appears that you have a unhealthy bias or ulterior motive against the park. Discussion and constructive criticism are certainly welcome. However, in my mind, blatant negativity and a particular bias are really not. Just my opinion. " Kinda glad to be honest..." Wow!!! Its like you just want to see the park fail- that statement certainly does nothing to detract from anyone gathering that opinion! Could not agree more mate..... The SBF Tango Train , in my opinion, is a well presented and well themed ride. It has an excellent lighting suite and it looks brilliant in its place along the midway. I certainly concede that it does not present as great a ride as the Mack model but lets give Luna Park a little kudos here. They replaced an old ride that was maintenance heavy and was likely costing money with extensive downtime. Instead of just ripping it out, they gave the ride its due and turned its leaving into a positive and then replaced it with a BRAND NEW ride that replicates the ride it replaces. It is this commitment to new investment in the park that should be celebrated here.

A video of the i-Ride structure inside the building found on instagram, looking like most of the main framework for where the gondolas sit is complete. This also pretty much confirms the ride will have a 60 seat capacity over 6 seperate gondolas, over 2 levels, facing the same orientation as the original dreamworld cinema. The caption of the post also states that the gondola installation will be happening very shortly.

TO be fair - he gets the news 3 hours before we do...

Well all the advices put there are already very good so I don't have much to add. Been living in Paris all my life, and in fact, Disney Paris opened the year I was born I rarely ever visit due to high prices and not being very much into Disneyland stuff - so I'm not the most familiar with the place despite it being one of my home parks. Even though the resort is most generally quite busy, I believe both parks are manageable in a single day too. Agree with the plan to start with the Studios (it's a somewhat lacklustre park in comparison imo..) and you should be done with this park by 13:00 at the very most. Agree too that Crush's Coaster should be done first or at least towards the very beginning of the day. It's a generic (layout-wise) Maurer SC2000 which capacity doesn't suit best the crowds of a Disney park, so it often gets 1hr+ lines. Big Thunder Mountain's track has been refurbished a few years back. Nothing too mind-blowing of course, but it does deliver an exciting wild ride - and the setting inside an island mountain is truly impressive. Indiana Jones has good theming and a compact layout, however I find it very uncomfortable sadly. It is an Intamin/Giovanola imitation of the Pinfari Zyklon Looping coaster. Being from 1993, it predates by a long while the amazing Intamin designs of the 00s and it shows. Nonetheless the lone vertical loop is quite intense, which makes me think the ride would much benefit from updated restraints just like Hyperspace Mountain did last year. Speaking of which, Disney Paris' flagship ride is a very ambitious creative effort which, in my opinion, doesn't live up to its full potential unfortunately. Part of it is the 1995 Vekoma hardware which didn't aged so well (secretly I wish current Vekoma would completely redo the ride layout in line with their recent very daring designs, but that would be prohibitively expensive!), part of it is also the many rebrandings of the theming. Defunctland put it in a better way that I will, but originally Space Mountain Paris used to have a unique Jules Vernes steampunk storyline, which was an inspiring blend of French and US influences. This appeal is now mostly gone and replaced with the Star Wars theme we all know. But enough ranting here. Have a nice visit at Disney Paris! Even for a non-Disney fan, it is an enjoyable experience that I would recomment Bon voyage !

Ill write a post as big as i want. If people dont read it, their choice. If people post something i already mentioned, ill call them on it. In saying that, im not directing it specifically at the poster here, i went back to try and add that in to clarify but it said i couldnt edit it. Im talking about plenty of people coming out of the woodwork and commenting about if these people deserve it. Not this one specific post. Its not an overreaction when people are saying things like they are just seeking money, looking for an easy score, etc and using that same sentiment "its part of their job" as the reasoning. Look through the news stories and look at these complete arsehats coming out with vile posts like this. My partner is an rn and has come home from a shift so drained and mentally ruined by what happened at work that day that im amazed she even made it home without killing someone. Completely shut off from the outside world, she just had a quick shower and climbed into bed. Thats what id consider a common occurence. Worse are the few times she has called from work so upset and doesnt want to be alone let alone feel up to driving home. She somehow manages to deal with it, rarely needing a personal day, and makes it in for her next shift, mostly without a hint of what happened the day before. So, is it an overreaction to have the view that people are less entitled, or not entitled at all to seek damages from an employer who completely and utterly let them down, just because they are responders? But if you want to talk about the expectations, positions at a theme park would generally consist of first aid and making safe before ambulance officers can arrive. Is there a thought of death? Yes, in as much as you are the first medical person on scene. But it would be outside the norm when compared to other medical positions dealing with severe trauma daily. It would be so far down the list of occurences they would have rushed to the scene without even thinking they needed to prepare for what they witnessed. Does that place them on the same level of expectation? Because everything these days is graded or compared to what is expected as normal duties as part of their position. Would you say it's normal duties to expect them to go through something so graphic it cannot be made public in a court of law? That wouldnt have been a normal, daily thought that goes through your mind when called upon at the park. Without being too blunt, even the worst call for river rapids would have had drowing as an expectation of the worst, not the horrific trauma the victims experienced. So the scene is made even more confronting because you cant/arent prepared for it, because its not even thought of as a possible incident. Thats very evident in their testimony and is not something even trained, experienced, medical personel may have experienced before. Even without the criminal negligence hanging over the situation, these people would probably have been entitled to compensation for what they have witnessed and experienced, and the impact it has had on their lives, both work and personal. Know what insurance companies do in issues of negligence? They pass the buck and youre left to fight for your rights yourself. Too long? Heres the short(er) version No training given creates psychopaths with a lack of feeling or association for those around them. You can suffer a traumatic episode or breakdown in the course of your duties as a medical professional, in reaction to something you have witnessed or seen while working in this capacity. Your employer is legally required to maintain a safe working environment that does not expose you to additional or uncontrolled risk. Your entitlements at work are the same as everybody else and if you are injured, you are entitled to seek damages either personally or through the workcover system, which ever applies. Its not expected that youll suffer a breakdown or mental illness and not be able to return to your job or any further work because you are a medical professional. This does not absolve you of any compensation you should receive. Some people are utterly heartless and give no thought for the realities of what they are saying. Good luck to all staff still dealing with the tragedy. Seek help and advice or counselling if you need it, ignore the terrible people saying you shouldnt deserve it or youre just money hungry/money seeking. Fight for your dues and entitlements and hopefully begin to move on with your lives.

It's ok - if you drive badly enough - you can still drive the old course!