Spotty

Thing is... the Mirrors actually work well, as it causes the lights to bounce off it and fill the room up more. Scooby opened with just a simple green and red laser set up, smoke machines and mirrors and it worked incredibly well.

I don't think it will be a simulator, purely because running a ride like that requires lots of staff... and that is something that Village really doesn't like spending money on. As far as timelines go, I'd say they will keep Doomsday till 2026 which is when it comes up to its 10 year strip down. If they decide to keep it after that, they are honestly incredibly stupid. As much as a Gyro Swing would be a good fit (size wise) for the area, I really hope they don't go down that route however another flat ride is really needed purely for the capacity and for something that isn't a roller coaster. I don't think Wild West Fall's days are numbered just yet as someone mentioned, but maybe when it's time for the next 10 year rebuild they may decide to go with something new in that space. Really, I think what Movie World needs to round out the park is another 2-3 flat rides, a decent family high capacity ride (Potentially a replacement for JL in 5-10 years), an overhaul of the kids rides and another thrill coaster to replace Green Lantern when the time comes. For coasters they have most of the categories filled (Thrill: DC Rivals, Superman, Green Lantern and Flash. Family: Scooby, Wizard of Oz coasters, Kids: Road Runner).

They wouldn't build another ride themed to a ride they just replaced. That would just be silly

I'd say Doomsday is on its last legs, given it can not operate the way it's meant to without being even more of a problem than it is. I'd say Green Lantern's days are numbered as well, but not to the extent of Doomsday. I'd say once Scooby, WOO and Flash opens, they will look at a replacement for Doomsday that will take up that space and the space that the Showcase takes up as that will be able to connect the western area to the Wizard of Oz / Superman area quite nicely. Once that is done, I'd say Green Lantern or maybe Superman will be the next ride to go. I only say Superman because the Hydraulic Launch coasters are harder to get parts. Really I'd say Doomsday has 2 - 3 years tops (maybe even less) and Green Lantern has 3-5 years left in her.

Doubt it very much so, S+S really left a sour taste in the park's mouth. I doubt Dreamworld will touch them either given that the current management team were at Movie World when those rides were brought.

I will also tell you right now Village will not work with S+S again after all the issues they have had with Green Lantern. Even Batwing had lots of issues when it first opened up. As much as I'd love a free spin and I think it would be a great replacement, I don't see it happening. The only way it "might" happen would be S+S giving them a very big discount due to all the issues it's had but I doubt it.

That would work in theory... if Intamin still supported the model. They basically don't really want anything to do with the Hydraulic launches anymore, as seen with TTD2 and the one going to Playland in Canada. It's a shame as the smaller ones are actually fairly reliable, with Superman not really having any major downtime issues in its lifetime. I don't see Village wanting to spend any major money on the ride system in its current incarnation. I'd say in the next 5-10 years (once it hits 20 years, like Scooby, West and Road Runner) if they decide to keep Superman around it may get a similar LSM conversion like the other Hydraulic's are having. it's one of the older hydraulic launches too, with only Xcelerator, Storm Runner, Rita, Kannoen (now in the US) and Kingda Ka being older than it. I'd say Superman likely would only have a few more years before Village has to decide what to do with it. I'd say after Wizard of Oz and Scooby re-open's, Superman will be the next ride they really look into its future with. Unless they finally decide to put Doomsday or GL out of its misery. At least Green Lantern is a good ride, when it works.

The ride can, as long as the seatbelts are undone as the ride detects if the seatbelts are open or not. If the train comes into the load platform with a seatbelt done up the seat can not be used as the system basically has a heart attack if it's opened up again. No idea why it does this, but yeah... really annoying if the unloader forgets to undo a empty seat and it comes into the load station locked... especially if the group is already sorted.

It wasn't too bad at Wet n Wild. It was just closed for half the year because the whole park was pretty much dead... although having water blasting at it constantly in its earlier years probably didn't help it too much. The SurfRider models in general don't seem to have many reliability issues, and anything's better than Doomsday.

Not sure if they still do it, but back in the 2000's Village Roadshow had what was called a "Shining star" program. If good feedback was received about a staff member, or a supervisor noticed something out of the ordinary you would be given one. You could accrue them over the year towards prizes and whoever got the most in a year actually got a pretty decent prize. One of the years the winner got a 7 night cruise for 2 people. One of the really good ones I received was a guest provided feedback about me on an attraction to guest services. A few days later I got the feedback in writing from the attractions supervisor as well as a thank you note from John Menzies (CEO at the time) as well as 2 of these "shining stars" and a $50 voucher for lunch in the staff cafe (meals were about $3.00 back then, so that was a decent amount of lunches). Little things like that really did boost morale, but I'm not sure if this is still done. Dreamworld used to have a similar thing called "dream dollars" which would randomly be given to guests coming into the park. They were encouraged to hand them to staff members who went above and beyond. Similar thing, you collect them to trade in for prizes.

If I had $1 for each time someone tried to do that when I worked at MW... I'd be rich. And if I got $1 for each time I spotted someone trying to do it... and then made them leave the line and put it in a locker and then re-join the line... I'd be even richer lol. Especially if I was at Superman entry and they tried to tell me they had nothing in their pockets... and then I got switched to load / sort and after they waited an hour and they ended up with something in their pockets... you can bet I wasn't letting them come back to the front of the line once they had given it to a non rider or in a locker. "I told you so..."

I can confirm there are procedures in place for sensitive topics such as this. For rides with an entry host, the entry host would generally explain to them the rules for each ride. Otherwise the operator would. The general rule of thumb is that it needs to be tucked in if non removable (hijab etc). However if it is unable to be tucked in and is deemed too long or too much of a risk they will be declined the option to ride. It's very uncommon for an operator to reject a rider for this, and I only personally had to do it twice as it was an exceptionally long one and the guest refused to even tuck it in or secure it in a way that wasn't a risk. The operators will do what they can to ensure guest comfort as well as safety is ensured but sometimes it's just not possible. If it's anything around the neck it's a no go, but for the most part Hijabs, turbans and burka's tend to be okay as they are around the head mores and less likely to get lodged in a wheel assembly. A scarf 100% shouldn't have been permitted on the ride though, but without actually knowing exactly what kind of scarf it was or the full circumstances it's hard to really say what happened. But at the end of the day, the operators are only human and sometimes things do get missed. At least in the end it was handled well and no one was hurt.

I can tell you right now 10 years ago a 2 hour line for Superman Escape during peak time was pretty much un-heard of. Unless the ride was running 1 train for whatever reason. When I was working there the line would maybe max out at 75 mins with a full queue building. However staffing was much better back then (2 loaders, 1 unloader, entry host and a sorter). It also helped having decent supervisors and staff to work with that actually encouraged and rewarded staff to increase efficiency (gift vouchers for the crew that could get the most numbers through a ride in a day, as well as other challenges). Oh how the times seem to have changed. I still remember I think the record that we got on Superman when I was working was on a fright nights with 2 trains was 32 dispatches in a hour and each train was fully loaded which is 640 a hour. You'd probably be lucky to get 20 - 25 dispatches a hour with 2 trains these days now. The rides are more than capable of the capacity, it's just the staff / management don't seem to have any sense of urgency. Ride reliability would play a -small- party in dispatch times but not much. I'm not even going think about the numbers that Wild West Falls could pump through with a good crew before the ride was butchered. (approx 800 a hour with 13 boats and a sorter). Scooby was similar too. I really hope that management wake up and realise how bad things are getting and do something about it sooner than later.

Some of the fairground models are alright (like the Zamperla one that is often seen at the major shows). The biggest issue was they went with SBF Visa... not exactly the best manufacturer around.

Given this was from 2019... fairly sure a lot of this stuff was actually cancelled.

That's really strange that there was no entry host at the entrance. They are meant to have one at all times unless they were behind the bench where the CCTV monitor was. Very odd.

Entry host didn't do their job then lol. Only thing that's meant to go through the unload station is mobility aids etc. Anything too big to sit in the car shouldn't be let past the entry host at all.

It didn't really reach the full 160kph much after the mid 2000's. It certainly was not going the full height for pretty much its whole life as Tower of Terror 2. It only ever really made it the full way up the tower if the car was only half filled, but even then it was very uncommon.

Damn it haha. Guess my time as a ride op made me too powerful lol

I have been a ride operator for both the major Gold Coast chains, as well as spent several years travelling at shows and carnivals as a ride operator. I can say right now it has its good and it's bad (just like any job). You can't really build a career out of being a ride operator, but you certainly can build a career in the theme park industry with it as a starting point. Several people I know personally have moved up quite high in the theme park and leisure industry, and some of them are even on these forums but I won't name them. I made some great friends, had some of the best experiences and the worst experiences of my life in the job. I'll mostly speak on my experiences at the theme parks moreso than the travelling side of things as they are both very similar but also very different at the same time. If you are wanting a fun job, and money isn't really an issue then I'd say apply for it. The pay isn't very good, but it's great for people who study and it can be very hard to get full time hours to pay the bills. When I was there I was on a PT30 contract (30 hours a fortnight minimum) and hours varied greatly. During peak times you would get 5 days a week, but in the off peak it could drop down to 2 - 3 days a week. Don't expect to be operating one of the major rides to start with as they are normally for the more experienced staff to learn. For example when I worked for Movie World back in the early 2000's they actually had an order for the rides you were trained in as an example. 1. Kids Zone, Batman Ride, Tunes Ride 2. Wild West Falls, Arkham Asylum, or Justice League 3. Batwing 4. Superman or Green Lantern 5. Scooby Doo I left before Doomsday etc opened, so I'm not sure where they would sit on the training or if it's even done like this anymore. Scooby was always left to the more senior staff, purely because evacuations are so tedious so they wanted more experienced staff. Once you learnt Scooby you actually got a $1 a hour pay rise as a "competency" bonus. However a general ride operator at Village parks won't actually be behind the main control panel (except for Scooby, as the loader is actually in charge of dispatching) you will just be loading, unloading etc. If you are good at your job, and management like you (Honestly, it was very much like High School when I was there. If one person didn't like you... good luck) you might get offered a relief supervisor position which are the people behind the main control panels who actually run the rides. Some of the management however in my time there were some of the most amazing, and passionate people and I'm glad that they have been recognised and built careers out of the place, and then there are some others that well karma got to them in the end! I'd say honestly, give it a go. It can be pretty easy for the most part, until it's not. And when it's not it can really test your patience and temper, you will see all kinds of stupid things that you never thought you would see. And some of the things that happened, I just shake my head and laugh about. Sadly some things I obviously can't talk about, but it's great to create memories and I say go for it!

Truer words have not been spoken... I'm half expecting Village to start marketing fire sensing eyes, that make the cars reverse back as one of the new experiences for "Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster Next Generation 2.0 - The worlds first wild mouse themed to a cartoon dog as part of the world class Spooky Island Precinct!" Coming soon to Village Roadshow Movie World. BRB applying for a marketing job with VRTP

Fairly sure it was extended to fit the ride in, but not certain. I wouldn't be surprised if after Rivertown is completed that Sky Voyager maybe gets a retheme. Honestly, once Rivertown opens the park as a whole would be pretty well rounded overall and I can't think of too much more they could really do (except for a decent water ride and maybe a dark ride depending on how Jungle Rush ends up). As a whole I really think Dreamworld is making the right moves, obviously there is still work to be done but overall the park is showing much more promise than it has in many years (and honestly since before the rapid's incident) and some clear direction as to where they want the park to go.

Sadly this is most likely the reason, remember the person that tried to sue Movie World for falling off a flower bed (despite signs saying do not climb in flower bed...) Yes, I think it could have been done a little bit nicer sure. But overall the whole area looks very clean, and I actually really like the way the 2 buildings either side of the globe seem to frame it. I really think this will change the whole front entry to the park once it's fully operational. All I can wish for is Sky Voyager's facade to be changed to match the rest of the area.

This will be after Christmas, so White Christmas will be early December, and Hooray for Hollywood will run from the 27th of December to the 21st of January.

"I wanna ride Flight of the Hippogriff" "We have Flight of the Hippogriff at home" The hippogriff we have at home...