Spotty

I think the theme parks will be open by September at the latest (Unless shit really hits the fan) but as far as Fright Nights etc goes, I would say it's unlikely due to the way things are going. Not that it upsets me in any way, but I'm sure there will be people that will complain and demand compensation with their passes because they aren't getting as much "value" because White Christmas etc gets cancelled and it's an inclusion in their pass so it will be interesting to see if Village offers any compensation or something IF that happens. White Christmas I can see as a "maybe" for going ahead this year, but I think the timing etc for Fright Night's just may be a bit off for this year. Happy to be proven wrong, but right now it's capex that they would be having to spend on mazes etc that they probably don't have to spare right now unless they re-use all the old mazes from previous years. I will admit though, I'm glad to see that the parks appear to still be going ahead with their expansion plans (Dreamworld and Sea World) as I really think having these new attractions opening still will really help get people back once things calm down.

May as well just keep Vortex closed until December now (if they are still building Leviathan) and open the pair of rides up for Xmas holidays together. Double whammy if you ask me. With the park fully closed to guests, it would be easier if you ask me to get a heap of construction done I guess. Here's hoping

Funny thing is, I don't actually think Superman has ever had a cable snap. Back to Scooby though, i've never seen a ride fault so many times (often over the tiniest little things) in a day compared to any other ride when I worked there. It was very hit and miss, and was often a running joke that if Scooby didn't fault at least once a day, it was a good day. However 9 out of 10 times the fault could often be reset or fixed without having to do a full shutdown or evacuation. There was always certain block zones that liked to detect "ghost cars" more than others... but I know shortly after I left there apparently they did some pretty extensive work on the control systems so it's probably a bit more reliable now than it used to be. I still believe it was having a mid-life crisis As far as rides go that NEED to leave, those bloody Speedy Gonzales taxi's! I got so many bruises from that and Taz Cars! In fact... just get rid of the whole kids area basically apart from Road Runner, Pounce and Bounce, Carousel and Driving School and start again would be great I'm sure many ride operators will be thankful.

Funny you should say that about Superman, from having operating it and many of the MW rides it honestly is one of the more reliable rides in the park. It wasn't very common to have ride shutdowns, Scooby and Green Lantern I would say are the 2 least reliable rides in the park (well they were when I worked there) I can't speak too much for Arkham, but when it was Lethal it was a very reliable ride and was very rare to ever see that ride go down. I really hope that whatever is wrong with Arkham is able to be fixed and it has another few years (5) until they can work on what's going to replace it. I'd say the Giant Drop maybe has another few years at the most in it's current incarnation as it's had it's fair share of downtime over the last few years. I would say an upgrade would be more likely though. The Claw would probably have another 10 years in it's lifetime before it would need to look at being replaced. Hot Wheels Sidewinder (or whatever it's going to be called) honestly will likely have a fair amount of time left in it. It's a fairly simple ride as far as mechanics go, and it's not insanely forceful so it wouldn't have too much stress put on it. And for many of it's early years it didn't really operate. I'd say it's got another 10 or so years left in it, and honestly I think it might even outlast the MotoCoaster and not for reliability but because it's a better ride IMO. I even think it MAY outlast BuzzSaw as that thing is a problem child from what I hear. So for Dreamworld, I think the next major rides to go will be: Giant Drop (3-5 years - For a new ride experience) Motocoaster (5-10 years) BuzzSaw (5-10 years) Hot Wheels Sidewinder (10 years or so) Movie World: Arkham Asylum (2-3 years at most, unless they fix all the issues) Scooby Doo (5-10 Years) Superman (10 years - Maybe longer) These are just my predictions, but could be wrong. But I don't think the Sidewinder will be the next Dreamworld ride to go personally, especially if it's getting an overhaul and the way it weaves in with WhiteWater World.

They never listened to me in the past...so not sure if that will change lol

Ride operators (not supervisors) start 15 mins before park opening to do the pre-opening checks. Maintenance does the majority of everything and the ride supervisor starts 45 mins early to make sure everything is okay (For Scooby, one staff member also starts at this time to do a track walk). Obviously things can happen to cause delays, example a fault occurs during these opening checks or whatever. So they won't have cut back the start time on staff. If we really want to talk about village efficiency... all I'm going to say is Superman with no unloader... Running that thing with 3 staff (4 if you include the supervisor) was just a nightmare... Even with crew on their A Game you were lucky to get 10 trains launched in a hour. In the end it didn't save much money cause even on a quiet day we were often there till nearly 5:45pm! Glad they scrapped that horrible procedure, but based on what your saying it could be coming back with a vengeance! May as well cut one of the loaders as well and have the staff member cross the train to check the second half of the harnesses! (In all seriousness, that would never happen thank god...)

Which manager was previously a Supervisor at Movie World? I know in the past few years quite a few very senior staff have left VRTP and moved over to Dreamworld (Greg Yong and several other high up people).

Not going to lie, I think where the TOT station is would be a great spot for a Ferris Wheel, right between the two family areas. One of the wheels like the one in Brisbane as AlexB suggested, or even a smaller 50m version would be a great fit. You could landscape the area nicely around it, and would open up the area between Dreamworks, Tiger Island and ABC Kids World. I think placing it there, and doing up the front area as others have suggested with a DECENT fountain display. One that springs to mind honestly is the main fountains that Kings Island has. This behind the Dreamworld Globe and maybe a few nice shady Palm Trees in Main Street would work really nice. I also agree move the fairy shop to the Dreamworks / ABC Kids area. I mean honestly, you could even retheme it to trolls (which I know has been done, but is still relevant and could tie in well with Dreamworks) and then you would open that spot up for BuzzSaw access and the new coaster. Repaint the Candy Shop to make it not quite as bright like what they did with the ice cream parlour and I think Main Street would be a very nice area to relax in. Once this is done, then look at fixing up the Giant Drop's theming / queue area and open up the moto coaster area. I think the biggest issue I have with the motocoasters appearance is the huge bulky shop that is at the entrance. If you moved the shop to where the old food outlet was (which lets face it, is unlikely to ever reopen again as a food outlet) and knocked down that area you could really open the space up and even redo the entry (or retheme the ride) and it would make a huge difference to that whole area I feel. Especially once the Tower of Terror's launch track is gone. Give the ride a repaint and you honestly have the whole front of the park looking spick and span again. I can wish haha!

*Cared I think given a bit of time, with some of the current changes and the management they have things will work out better long term. I will 110% agree that at the time of the incident and a few years after this was still much the same IMO but I really do hope that the current management keep going on the path they are going on and turn the place around.

I've thought that for a while honestly. Quite a few of WnW's rides are getting on in the years, and it's very spread out with lots of empty spaces. I feel WWW overall just flows better, and the overall guest experience is better, down to locker placement and having the conveyors for the cloverleaf tubes (those are NOT fun to carry when a huge gust of wind hits!) I also feel that almost every ride they have is a one up on WnW (Tornado, Body Slides, Racer etc) except for the AquaLoop which is superior. I just think honestly WWW needs a Lazy River and maybe a Mammoth Falls style ride and it would crap over WnW even more than it does now. Biggest is not always the best.

The one at the bottom of lift 2 is new. Has always been an attendant at the top of lift 1 at the turntable.

The left half of the ride is used for Maintenance on the ride, a small portion of the upper left side is the old Cinema which is occasionally used for small functions and the rest is the queue. Basically up until the gate where the Superman building ends is being used by the queue and the small bit of the building that isn't flush with the old outside switch backs are required (Where the tower mural matches up) the rest could be knocked down and not impact on Arkham in the slightest.

I used to go there often when I was younger living in Canberra. A very nice little place and i'm glad to see it improving.

AMEN! The only ride that I think was worse was either Taz Cars or Sam Train (those damn ropes gave you rope burn... and it was a cow to park when it was fully loaded and the extra carriage on it)

Green Lantern can have backpacks and other items left on the platform, and Superman is free for 1 hour. If you exceed the hour they -may- charge you $9 to open the locker, however I have never actually seen this happen.

And removed the Arkham lift climb as well...

The majority of the staff could be redeployed to Dreamworld in the cooler months (food and bev, retail etc) so it wouldn't be as big of an issue. As far as the rides and slides staff, they could be multi-trained to know how to operate the rides at Dreamworld. Most of the procedures would be pretty similar across the board, with obviously some different procedures depending on the individual ride.

Every 10 or so years though, they are required to do a full track inspection just to make sure. Can't remember exactly how many years, but it is certainly a thing.

I didn't notice any broken load doors when I was there on Sunday? Scooby however just a joke... but that's a whole different story.

I really hope they were running 2 trains on all rides. It looked like in the video that Rivals was running 1 train, and same with Road Runner. Was also interesting to see the Wild West Roadhouse food outlet actually open as well.

Scooby Doo when it first opened IMO was very unique given all the theming and elements that it had. Wipeout was also very unique at the time of opening. One that also stood out to me was Supersonic Oddessy in Malaysia, a full size Intamin looper inside a shopping mall. Was a great ride too.

The lockers were enforced for the first 2-3 months of Green Lanterns operations, it used to confuse guests as they could see the loose items boxes on the platform but were made to put them in the lockers. I think it was around Feb / March when they changed it. This was also when they were trialing running 6 cars on the track (and lets just say, the ride did NOT like that one bit) and it didn't make the capacity of the ride any better, just resulted in people sitting on the brake run for ages.

Hell, a lot of Australian carnival rides are over 30 years old and still run great.

Correction: Blue = Wardrobe Green = Kitchen (Above that is the staff canteen) Red = Admin Pink = Staff Toilets / Locker Room + other misc park operations Purple = Show's Rehearsal room Orange = Maintenence Brown = Parade storage Teal = Training room (Although most training is in the old gremlins theatres these days)

VRTP's training is very thorough for their ride operators, speaking from experience. Mind you this was nearly 7 years ago now but even then it was a very full on day (or 2 - 3 depending on the ride). And if you didn't feel comfortable after your training, they would give you more until you did. I'm not sure what their training is like now, but i'd only assume it's been improved even further than what it was back then. I can't comment on Dreamworld's training as I never worked in attractions there so I can't compare. But I have no issue trusting VRTP's training procedures at all.