Richard

Movie World requested that we remove a link to their non-public development site. Though they shouldn't have had it indexed in Google and probably should have had a password on it, I think it was a fair request and so we complied.

Does anyone think that an object falling out of a pocket has ever caused any notable injury or damage ever, anywhere, in the history of theme parks?

Just a quick post to say that today marks the 10th anniversary of these forums. Back then it was www.totalthrills.com, and we were talking about Dreamworld's addition of Cyclone and the soon-to-be-opened Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster. Thanks to everyone who's stuck around since then! And of course to everyone that's joined in since. I remember back then thinking it'd be good to have 100 members on the site...

Haha... looks about right.

Good to hear... it was a bit of a gamble at first as to what -- if any -- difference it made, but I think it was definitely the right move to make. There is still a bit more to do to optimise it, but it's been a good start and a welcome relief of the strain that the site sometimes feels. And I am around... don't post as much as I'd like to but try to keep up with the forums and say something whenever I get a chance!

It's Sally Corp. They have an affiliation with Italy's Ermes Technology, which is probably the easiest explanation for that comment.

The great thing about Sally is that they are as much a theming company as they are a ride system manufacturer. It's not too unreasonable to expect an end product that'll be the best themed attraction in the park -- or Australia. The capacity looks to be around 1,000 pph with 20 cars running. Would love to see it around 1,500-2,000 though; an attraction that soaks up crowds and offers a great family experience and repeat value with minimal queues is something our parks need more than anything.

Attachments are, avatars and other images aren't as yet.

I'm pretty happy to announce that media content on Parkz is now hosted in the cloud. As a bit of a brief background to where we are today, many elements of this site remain essentially unchanged in about 7-8 years, dating back to when Roller-Coaster.com.au launched. In this time both the amount of traffic and the amount of content on the site has grown hugely, and simply put some elements of the site have failed to keep up. Most of you will have probably seen periods of downtime in the past year or two; these were almost exclusively caused by parts of the site simply being overwhelmed. What this move basically means is that media content -- images mostly -- will be delivered to users via a Content Delivery Network that is spread across the globe. Our server here in Brisbane no longer has to work every time someone views an image. This move to the cloud should completely resolve most downtime issues as it'll take the strain off the Brisbane server, particularly at peak times. This change will vastly improve the overall efficiency of the site and result in faster load speeds and also make the site more internationally accessible as content will served to end users from a network closer to them. To that end, I do encourage everyone to go and have a dig around on the site, particularly in the Photos and Database section and post any feedback. Do pages seem to load quicker, are there any bugs etc? This is hopefully the start of many more functionality improvements to come to Parkz over the course of the next few months...

Arrow redesigned their trains in the early 90s and they appeared on a handful of rides including Big Dipper. Check out Canyon Blaster at Adventuredome and Drachen Fire at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. For whatever reason they went back to the original train design immediately after Big Dipper. See Tennessee Tornado at Dollywood.

I've moved your post over here given it's more to do with the issues we've had lately. The post counts is fixed. It was displaying an old post count, but I've just resynchronised it with the actual post count. As said, a lot of avatars were also lost -- just re-upload and you'll be fine. The number in your profile is the number of post likes you've had. If it's gone down since a few days ago then it's because a few likes were lost in the recent issues as well.

Just a quick note to everyone that a database error saw us lose some forum data. We were able to restore most of the content as it was, but a handful of newer members' accounts were lost (not posts though), as well as many avatars. If you lost your account, please feel free to re-register. If you sign up with the same username, simply send me a message after you register and I'll be able to link up your existing posts to your profile. As for avatars and profile photos, regrettably these are gone as our most recent backup didn't cover these files. Of course feel free to upload a new one!

The only thing worse than a bad idea is an unoriginal bad idea. All any of our parks need to do to improve guest flexibility on their day of visit is to invest in and operate their rides at a capacity appropriate for the number of people in the park. Once someone is in the gate, the only time a theme park can make money off them is when they aren't in a queue.

The Parkz Update: Movie World, October 18 2011 Click here to continue reading...

Logical solution would be free locker hire park-wide for all VIP Gold passholders and anyone with an all-day locker. Still limited to one hour for ride lockers. Activated by swiping your pass barcode (giving those stupid lanyards a meaningful purpose!), or a locker wristband. Might actually make those passes worth upgrading to...

The Parkz Update: Movie World, October 13 2011 Click here to continue reading...

I'm a bit unsure about what this app is or what it'll do, but sounds like a solution looking for a problem. An interesting novelty if nothing else... The average park-goer will hop in a queue -- any queue -- because the ride looks fun. If the queue appears too long then they won't join it. Looking at a map of the park online is probably more pre-planning than the vast majority do before visiting a park. Pass-holders or fans will know how long a queue is by looking at it.

Just a few points... Everyone is entitled to their opinions. Please... go nuts. But the flipside to that is that if your opinion is stupid, expect others to respond accordingly with their opinions. If we're talking about the leaders of this site, my concept of leadership is to do by example. Set a tone and those that appreciate that tone will follow. I think this is one of the more intelligent theme park sites out there, and I don't think it's a coincidence that we've unwaveringly been Australia's most popular theme park site.

The Parkz Update: Movie World, October 4 2011 Click here to continue reading...

As far as room between the supports and station track, here's a look at that: http://www.parkz.com.au/photo/AU/Gold_Coast/Warner_Bros_Movie_World/1478-Green_Lantern/0,1,5275-Green_Lantern_construction.html

The Parkz Update: Movie World, September 30 2011 Click here to continue reading...

As you'll notice the forums have been upgraded today and given a completely new look. A few things are still being tidied up but in case we've missed anything if you're having any issues with either the forums or main site then let us know!

Where did this idea that VIP passes result in our parks somehow barely scraping by stem from? That this is why we haven't seen these fabled $15+ million attractions in several years? Across the board our parks are financially performing on par or better than they were when they were dropping ~$16 million on rides every few years. That should be end of discussion right there; discounted annual passes aren't the reason we're not seeing these high-end pricetags on new attractions. Look at international trends. The 90s/00s were all about bigger, better, faster rides. Manufacturers were delivering these styles of rides and we even got our fair share. The cost of playing that game these days however is out of reach for all but a handful of parks around the world. Instead we're seeing most parks and manufacturers switch to smaller rides that are more about a gimmick (but then what isn't gimmicky about a roller coaster to begin with?). It's not our parks The Australian dollar up until a few years ago meant that any time an Australian park wanted just about anything significant, they had no choice but to pay $15+ million. Buying from a US manufacturer costs half what it did a decade ago (granted freight is significantly higher these days). If Movie World built Wild West Falls today they'd have enough change left over to actually finish the mountain -- even with inflation.

The Parkz Update: Movie World, September 22 2011 Click here to continue reading...

Movie World Facebook: (Cropped El Loco computer generated image) Oooooh another clue... WHAT could it be????????? Everyone: Umm... El Loco. Movie World: Oooooh... you'll never guess what it is! Stay tuned!! Everyone: Umm... El Loco. Movie World: Oooooh... another picture! What could it be????????