Spotty

Go with a cheaper manufacturer.. have lots of issues. Or pay a little bit more... and have a ride that more than likely wouldn't have as many issues. Hmmm... I know what I would have picked. Such a shame as the StarFlyer was a perfect fit, even the travelling model they had as a temp attraction is a better ride than this one.

No worries, glad to be able to clear it up and give you bit more of an idea

The swamp outside the park

Yes it is still the procedure. Generally you won't hear about a ride stop unless it results in an evacuation. A ride stop simply stops the ride and can often be reset vs an e-stop which cuts all power to the ride and needs to re-do all opening checks again before guests can continue riding.

The ride was designed that way for theming, hence the unload station having the cracked walls (from after the earthquake). The no loose items policy also helps speed up the loading process, well was meant to anyway. But once the doors open and guests board a train can be dispatched generally within 30 seconds with 2 loaders that are on the ball. The ride however is not efficient at all with 1 train, and I'd say was designed to run pretty much all the time with 2 trains in mind. IMO what would have made sense is having 3 trains so that the ride can always run with 2 trains as required and only drop down to 1 train in the very quiet months (End of Jan > End of March periods). Superman with 2 trains and a dedicated sorter can easily dispatch between 25 and 30 trains a hour giving a capacity of 500 - 600 per hour which puts it not that far below Scooby Doo on a good day (which is about 700 a hour). Hardly a bad design, just not utilised in the best way at all. When the ride first opened I'd say it was actually getting closer to 35 trains a hour with 4 loaders, a sorter, entry host and 2 unloaders and ran very efficiently. However I think the 4 loaders and 2 unloaders was overkill and clearly the park did because after opening year it was cut back to 2 loaders, entry, sort and unload for 2 train ops. I swear though... if they ever cut that ride down to 3 staff again (Load 1, Entry, Load 2 / sort / unload)... that was the worst decision they ever made and lucky it only ran for a few months like that when they realised 8 trains a HOUR was absolutely horrible.

If I'm not mistaken The Claw was a giant monster that came out from the sea and terrorised the town of "Ocean Parade". I remember the notice board also had some funny little posters back in the day. I'll also let you think about this... but The Claw was 100% a male... 4 legs, what are you swinging on in the middle?!

Just a FYI, not every time there is a ride stop will it require an evacuation of the ride. Generally speaking most of the rides when a fault is detected the supervisor will first try to clear the fault. An evacuation is generally a last resort if the fault can not be fixed. Depending on the exact cause of the fault will determine if an evacuation is required. Example being, Movie World has 2 distinct voiceovers for guests when a ride stops. A female VoiceOver that basically states that the ride has stopped and will restart shortly. This would be cycled for several minutes while a supervisor scrambles to fix the fault (Scooby Doo was a particular culprit for this in the early 2010's). If after a certain amount of time of the ride being stopped, the procedure was to go into a forced evacuation. I think this was around 10 minutes or so but I could be wrong. This is when a male VoiceOver would play giving instructions on what to do etc. However if an emergency stop was triggered (not a ride stop) it would automatically be an instant evacuation. In regards to making people exit the ride, it makes sense for dual loading stations like Superman etc. And I know back in the days of Lethal and even at times with Arkham it would depend on the supervisor if they would allow re-rides. However you would have to exit the seat, and wait to the side of the load platform for guests in the line to choose the row they wanted and then they could choose. There was no set procedure saying you couldn't do it, but there wasn't one saying you could either. But of course all harnesses had to be opened and closed (cycled). You could also sometimes do a re-ride on Wild West Falls depending on the operator without getting out of the boat. But harnesses would still have to be cycled and get verbal confirmation from the loader and the supervisor.

I'd love to see it get new Vekoma trains. It's turning 20 this year, Road Runner got new trains for its 20th as well. One can dream

I mean, they could always retheme the dragon to something like a sea snake and repaint the ride... I guess to try and fit in with the Serpent Theme... but I really hope not. As far as the dodgems go, when the Dreamworks experience was brought to the park a whole new dodgem cars system was brought into the park. They were changed from the traditional pick up system to the floor pick up similar to the Movie World dodgems. The Dreamworld dodgems were actually relocated to Aussie World for a few years before they replaced their cars too. So they would need to either retheme the current shells or replace the cars with new ones.

I'd love to see it in number 7, although number 5 would be alright too. Wild West would be good to give that area of the park another attraction as well, but no idea what they could retheme it to. I really think though it's going to Movie World, and will likely be Aquaman themed just because it's easy and the park needs any extra capacity it can get right now.

I'll call it Runaway Reptar!

We can pray.

Ah yes... the good old ride checks. Best ride to do that on would be Wild West Falls in the middle of summer. Normally done once all the breaks were done or if there was an extra staff member around. Wait until there was a group of 6 and then just jump in the empty row. In regards to the empty cars one of the most likely scenarios would be a guest with a disability. Generally they send a full set of empty cars, then the first car of the 2nd set empty and load the passenger in the back car (the air gate actually has a removable bit that can lift up to allow extra room for the wheelchair) and then send the set behind empty as well. This is done so that the spotter (who's in the control room watching the monitors) can easily figure out where on the ride they are in the event of an evacuation so they can go straight to the guests as they will likely require extra time. Wild West Falls was the same, except it was 1 boat empty either side of the guest. They did also sometimes put a member of staff on the boat / car in front of the guest to also make it visually easier to spot so this is likely what happened.

I do not miss the xmas holidays... 8:45am - 6:15pm Batwing... -shudders- honestly the absolute worst shift in the whole operations team. AFAIK for the major rides with multiple positions they rotate much the same as they did when I was there. You do still have some good staff that will actually try and pump through the crowds (as much as the over-the-top procedures allow them to). But most of those staff have sadly come and gone over the years.

Sounds about right, I used the test seat on Opening day and I got the green light no issues. Went to board, denied. Even the operators were confused as they did a staff changeover and the person on the platform even saw the green light at the entry and had apparently had much larger people than me riding. So that does make sense

Hopefully without the static shocks to the ride operators lmao! That was a thing way back when haha. Good times. Wasn't what I was expecting but kinda makes sense with Pounce and Bounce gone.

I'm just honestly impressed with ALL the parks lately spending so much money not just on new attractions but fixing up the place in general. Dreamworld has been making leaps and bounds over the last few years in this regard. Village has also been slowly going through all of their stuff and fixing it up (Road Runner, West, Justice League and now this). I really hope that after WOO is done that they shut down the kids area and do a full overhaul. I feel they could justify this as there will be more family attractions with Oz open. It's really good to see though

Looks like Scooby is about to get a massive overhaul. Glad to see the park investing so much money. New trains, new track sections, new control system and entrance. Magnetic braking added as well. Ride is closed until 2024 now. https://themeparks.com.au/blog/whats-new-with-scooby-doo?fbclid=IwAR3Q_hQ0e3UK3I8KYrAaI2a9LCZbVln3QkZOSd--SZdo8b9F5awet3ravb8

AFAIK most of them don't tend to operate at the Summer Carnival's. Not sure what FJF / TPA does with Crazy Coaster over the xmas period. Joylands have got a new "Wild Mouse" coaster that is basically the same as the Galaxy Coaster but this wasn't set up at their Huskisson carnival. The Go Gator and Jurrasic Coaster (kiddie ones) were set up. As far as I'm aware Lauries still owns the Taipan but I haven't seen it operating in a while. I think the "Wild Mouse" has taken its spot at the easter show and it's basically retired.

I actually don't think the Gold Coaster is a bad ride TBH. Especially now that it has the new Vekoma trains. It's forceful, a unique layout and honestly it's no where near as rough as it used to be. It's not the best ride in the world, but it's certainly not bad by any means.

As an ex operator at Movie World, it was actually fairly common for staff to be rostered earlier for media filming etc. So this is certainly something that they do offer. They did it for Theme Park Review, as well as a multitude of local media channels as well. Generally speaking, except for a few positions cast sign on time as a ride operator (not a supervisor) would be 9:45am clock on time. This allows 15 mins for the operations opening checks to be done (estop, sending with harness up, gates open etc). as well as completing 2x full cycles of the ride. This is easily able to be done in the 15 mins before rides open at 10am. Certain positions would require a earlier start, such as Superman rostering 1x cast member to start at 9:25am to act as the entry host and Scooby having a 9:15am start to dot track walk with the supervisor. So yes, paying guests would not have been impacted general operation of the park at all. They would have likely gone through the gate, straight to DC rivals and done their filming before 9:30am. The staff instead of starting at say 9:15 AM (due to extended hours) they would have started at 9:00am so they can do the opening checks until 9:15, then 15 mins for filming and then open at 9:30am. Worst case scenario, the ride -MAY- have been delayed by 5 mins or so but nothing major at all.

It's why I suggested a combo tower... the Larson one could be seen as the same as the Giant Drop. A S+S Combo does the space-shot mode and the drop tower in one. They also already have a swinging ship, although it's a pretty crappy one that used to be at Tops in Brisbane

I personally think a Raptor would be an amazing fit for Aussie World, that way you've got a kiddie coaster, a family coaster and a thrill coaster. This would round it out pretty nicely tbh. Maybe then add one or 2 more flat rides that are thrilling as most of the flat rides are more family thrill (Dark Rebel, Redback, Mozzie Musta etc). If Sea World hadn't built Vortex, a Top Spin would have actually been pretty high on my list of rides that would suit the park but probably a smaller one built by Moser or similar as I don't think Aussie World would fill up a 40 seater ride very often. As far as Flat Rides go, I'd put in a proper drop tower (Maybe a S+S Combo drop to differentiate from Batwing or one of the Sky Jumps from Intamin). For a flat ride I'd go maybe one of the park model Mondial Top Scan's like Knotts has. However I'd have it run a halfway decent cycle at least. Could be themed to an Aussie Windmill or something lol.

http://www.parkz.com.au/article/1970/01/01/373-Green_Lantern_reopens_after_nine_month_downtime.html There was a heap of info about the derailment in this article here. It wasn't a fault on Movie World's part, it was a manufacturing defect as the wheel bogie was under engineered.

If only we could give an answer to this. I know that when Green Lantern first opened, the opening crew and other staff in Attractions would call it the "Green Lemon". The first year or so it was very unreliable but then it had a few good years until it had its derailment. And then after that was resolved it was actually pretty reliable for the most part for several years.