Spotty

As far as working for a theme park, honestly i'm not going to go into very much detail about it. Basically, I miss the people I worked with (well some of them), but I will say the management in both companies (VRTP and Ardent) have changed a truckload from when I first worked for them in 2006 compared to now... Basically, i've moved on to bigger and better things and I'm never looking back. I will always have the memories from the park, the good and the bad but I don't exactly hold them in the highest regard anymore sadly. I'm privy to some things as well that i'm not too happy about with the way things are done but really that's up to management how they want to run things. Most of the rides are pretty automated with minimal buttons to operate. Superman only has 2 buttons to dispatch (Seatbelt record / harnesses are checked) and then the 2 loaders AND the supervisor both have to hit a dispatch button at the same time to dispatch. There are station stop / emergency stop buttons as well and the 2nd loader also controls the doors. They also used to control the pre-show video as well, but it's now been put on a timer. The harnesses however can not be undone by staff but only supervisors. As far as a job as a ride operator goes... it can be pretty boring at times. But it's really what you make of it, and you can tell when visiting which staff are actually passionate about it and which are just doing it for the money (or lack thereof... minimum wage anyone?). If you go into the park each day with the mindset of doing your job safely and efficiently and wanting to make at least ONE person's day you will have a much better time. If your interacting with the guests, and showing that your having a good time at work they will as well. Heaps of people hated working in the children's area... and I will admit work wise it was crap. The only ride I thought that was more boring was Batwing... seriously 10 hour shifts on that ride... ugh never again... especially in the summer in an all black uniform under an umbrella that did nothing to protect you from the heat. Yes you had lots of little children that would infuriate you with their driving skills (Taz Cars and Speedy's... I'm looking at you!!!) but seeing them finally get the hang of it and the smiles they created. That's what made my job their worthwhile, it was even cuter when they would give you a hi5 or even say thank you when leaving. It was often enough to just make you smile and make what your doing worthwhile. Basically, my time at the parks was full of up's and downs and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I have people their that I owe my thanks to, and some that i'd rather not see again I'd love to see some major changes happen with management and how things are done... and to bring the magic back a little bit more, but we will see what happens.

Depends really on where the boats were when the ride stopped. Sometimes the ride can reset almost straight away (well... as long as it takes to evacuate / refill the water which is about 5 - 10 minutes) or sometimes it can be a right royal pain in the ass to reset... or it just simply will chuck a hissy fit and keep faulting for a few hours or worst case all day.

The water in the troughs drain in an emergency stop. The water fills the main lagoon / reservoir almost all the way up the retaining log walls. Will try and find a photo to show you if I can.

There is not an attendant upstairs at the final drop on Wild West Falls, but on the smaller drop. When you get into the mountain first look to your left and they are in a room. For obvious reasons I will not be posting about camera blind spots. The lift attendant has a camera facing the bottom of lift 1 and 2, turntable 2 and the reversing element after the drop. They also have to hold down a button as a boat comes into turntable 1 and hold it down until it goes down the reverse drop. If they let go it makes an obnoxiously loud beeping noise that will wake anyone up haha...not to mention alerting the supervisors... There is also a ride stop and emergency stop. Ride stop is used in a mechanical issue such as someone jumping out on a turntable as the ride can normally be restarted once the situation is resolved. An emergency stop drains the water straight away causing an instant evacuation.

Sounds like it could be something really good...I am actually kind of excited to see what they do as WipeOut is my favourite ride at Dreamworld

The ride does weigh each train before dispatch automatically along with wind speed to determine just how fast to actually launch the train. It ranges really from around 98kph to 103 - 104kph depending on various factors. Batwing also weigh's the gondola during the countdown to determine just how much air pressure is required to launch it for the optimum ride experience. The ride can not be launched at a speed set by the operator and i'm not 100% weather or not it can be changed in maintenance mode. There have been incidents that have happened, that the media have not got a hold of. But in saying that they would be reasonably minor incidents... I remember a boat load of asian tourists freaking the hell out on the turntable of Wild West Falls when I was in the lift room as they had a cane toad hopping about in their boat. One of them jumped out before it reversed haha... I've never hit a ride stop button that quickly in my life... ... and then there was the time I accidentally hit an emergency stop button when a giant huntsman dropped on my head in the lift of West as well. The supervisors said they had never seen anyone run that fast... I screamed, tried to swat it away and hit the e-stop accidentally... and then ran out my door and out of the mountain... I didn't work on Wild West Falls for a month or 2 after that one... needless to say, I don't like spiders...

To put it simply, when things break down they either aren't reported by staff or they are and they are not fixed. I know from doing many track walk's before park opening all the smoke machines are turned on and checked for fog juice. However if they have not been filled up by AV or they aren't working they simply aren't. The supervisors that I worked with would always get on the 2 way straight away to inform AV that they need filling... but the sad reality is, they are not essential to the attraction operating and once 10am (well 9:45am when they start doing test cycles once the ride has been handed over to operations) AV are unable to enter the ride envelope without a full ride shutdown. The lasers, I honestly couldn't give you an answer as to why they don't run anywhere near as good as they do anymore because I don't know. I do know that they do sometimes freeze up and produce a straight line instead of moving. Generally the supervisor in the Control Room can't see this as they are watching out for other things. However if you have someone who is in the lift room / high zone who is paying attention they would call the supervisor who could then reset the show control to get it to kick in again or call AV who can work wonders. Hope this answers your question. As for the red button, Scooby actually has multiple red buttons... the obvious emergency stop... the red flashing "fault" light / button which is my personal favourite. And on the main control panel in the control room (not on the load platform) there is a few "area stop" buttons that isolate the lift and turntable. There is also one at the top and the bottom of the lift and at the turntable which is used in evacuations to prevent those parts of the ride being accidentally started up again in the control room.

I know what I can and can't answer without being in breach of any contracts. If i'm unable to answer any questions that I am asked I will say so Funny thing is, when I was there I never actually signed a non disclosure agreement as part of any contracts etc. However I will still respect Village Roadshow Theme Parks and keep sensitive information to myself. Obviously anything relating to incidents etc that have happened I wouldn't be able to post but general operations stuff is fine.

Well... if anyone has any questions they would like answered fire away so to speak and I will do my best to answer them. If you have any questions about Wild West Falls, Batwing, Superman, Scooby Doo or WBK / RoadRunner Roller Coaster as well i'd be happy to answer them as I've had hands on experience with all of those attractions.

Yes, they are all synchronised as well as you can. But the ideal dispatch time is a set of cars every 30 seconds or so, but with larger guests or guests that don't take bags off etc quickly it's very easy for the cars to stack up at the load platform. If cars start to back up around the corner from the unload platform onwards (so 8 cars or more 2x at load, 2x behind load, 2x at unload, 2x behind unload) a "must send" light starts flashing to alert the operator that cars are starting to stack up behind. This is why you may often see the attendants sending a set or 2 of empty cars every now and then to try and clear the backlog of cars as quickly as possible to prevent the ride from shutting down. Once cars start to back up from the ring of fire scene... that's when the ride really starts to become temperamental. If i'm not mistaken the ride system is set up to actually have two blocks between each car. Where the turntable is for example is actually 3 blocks, there is one on the turntable, one directly in front (or behind it depending how you look at it) and a 3rd one immediately after the drop. So you will also find that a car will not dispatch from the turntable until it is at least 2 sets of hairpin turns in front of it in general operation. Basically it will allow cars to have block zone gap but if they are starting to get too close to each other the brakes will apply to start to slow them down a little bit to try and keep 2 zones between the cars. However when the ride is backed up cars will stop in each zone 1 after the other so potentially you could have 6 cars just between the lift and turntable (3 on each zone). In short, with 14 cars on the track you could have cars backed all the way up from the load platform to 1 zone after the turntable within a matter of 2 - 3 minutes if there is a major delay at the load platform. If the delay for some reason is at the unload platform (such as a disabled guest) it is possible to have a backup all the way to the lift. This is why with a disabled guest (in a wheelchair) they send 3 cars in front of it empty (put them in the back car of the 2nd set) and then send another 2 empty behind it to try and prevent a backlog and keep cars moving. If anyone has any other operational questions please feel free to PM me as I don't wanna clog up the forum any more with operational information so that the thread stays on topic. Cheers

It will also depend on how quickly cars are being dispatched from the load / unload station. The ride system is able to safely handle 18 cars on the track at any given time with several blocks to spare... but the ride normally runs with about 14 cars at a time... it just gives a little bit more time for the cars to be dispatched. If the cars are constantly backing up at Unload because they can't send them to the load platform the ride would crap out and go into an e-stop...

Which used to happen occasionally... I remember when they got the new / old machines from Fright Nights put in there... I was up in High Zone and there was a truckload of smoke pouring out of it... and I mean a truckload. I called the supervisor to let them know... and sure enough about a minute later after they shut them off... fire alarm went off as it went into the load dock... I think it was the one time they had too much smoke going... I can tell you though, every morning the smoke machines were turned on... and if they didn't work AV would be called... weather or not they were fixed that day was a different story... However the lasers had a tendency to freeze up, but that couldn't be reset unless one of the operators in either the lift room or high zone told the supervisor about it as they are watching millions of other things and don't often realise. Sadly though, most of the operators don't really notice or care about it. There are a few that do though. I really would love to see the ride brought back to the way it used to be, perhaps a overhaul of the system would be nice... but considering the ride is 12 years old now I don't know...

I can assure you that there were never any fire effects installed on Scooby Doo, the "Ring of Fire" is referring to the mouth that you enter before the final drop. If you have watched the original Scooby Doo movie you will recognise this particular set and it's referred to as the "Ring of Fire" in the movie as well. I can tell you this much, the original evacuation procedure for the ride has changed to make this room one of the first rooms to be evacuated by the unloader due to the sheer amount of fire alarms that were set off in the early days of the rides operation. Not to mention due to the amount of set pieces etc in the small area, in the event of a fire it's probably the most flammable area. The door order used to make sense (14, 15, 16, 17 and 18) but when this was changed it was changed to something like (16, 14, 15, 17 and 18) I can't remember the exact door numbers but yeah... Hope this answers your question about the "Ring of Fire"

PMSL

God damn it, now I want a Fundae from Wendys...

Ah yes... the fire eyes. See, when I worked for the parks I was very careful with what I would say to anyone. I wouldn't say anything that could get me in trouble. But I will admit that I did enjoy sometimes stirring up various people that I knew by saying things that were downright ridiculous. Not to mention it was very entertaining to see them later on post it on forums / Facebook as fact... Not to mention generally speaking attractions staff don't know that much information about new attractions until about the same time as Parkz members do. I think what was funny is I found out about Storm Coaster before it was even announced to staff within the company. It was hinted at but when I told my supervisor I got the "How on earth did you find out about this" from them haha. In short, attractions staff can be a very good source of information if it's someone you know. But the majority of staff that have been there a while know the main Parkz members and do like to tell you things that may or may not be the most accurate information. But I know personally that none of them would risk their jobs by saying something that could get them fired.

The area you posted in the second picture would never be used for an attraction. That road passes the main staff toilets, staff eating / smoking area and wardrobe etc as well as the back of Ricks cafe.

Yeah... that's a breach of operating procedure for certain. The only 2 attractions (not including children's rides) that you are allowed to have guests stay in the seats for a 2nd ride without disembarking is RoadRunner and Wild West Falls. Scooby Doo you shouldn't even be allowed through the fire exit door between the 2 platforms as it's very easy to hit someone as you open it as you don't always know who or what is on the other side. It's why operators / staff using that door always KNOCK before opening it to make sure people can hear it and move etc. Mickey, did you leave before the switch from LW to Arkham? As I know the harness unlocking procedure has changed since the refurb as individual seats can now be locked / unlocked from the OCC instead of a global harness unlock system that was on Lethal. Of course they can unlock them all at once though, but it's main advantage is if a single seat needs to be unlocked for whatever reason they can do it without having to re-check the whole train.

Ah okay, that actually does sound familiar now... I remember a lot of the Tech Services staff were a bit annoyed at them doing that and stating that the ride should not have been officially opened until all those bugs with the seats were fixed, which is something I agree with entirely.

I was fairly sure that the VIP gold early entry days finished before Arkham Asylum reopened if i'm not mistaken. I could be wrong but yeah, that isn't procedure to say the least but you likely had a supervisor that didn't seem to mind. Personally I don't see the problem with it, but some supervisors are very strict with every procedure no matter how silly it seems (but hey, that's their job I guess)

I never actually learnt Arkham Asylum as an operator, but I did learn Lethal Weapon as my first ride before the changeover. I don't see why the harness would have to be unlocked to send the train again but it would 100% have to be rechecked by the operator before dispatching for a 2nd time. Weather this is procedure or not is a different story. General rule with Village Roadshow, re-rides are not permitted on any of the attractions within the park. Technically even on Wild West Falls if there is no one in the queue you are meant to get out of the boat and go through the line again (or the red door leading to the old pre-show room) I know back in the Lethal days, and assuming it's the same with Arkham you had to disembark the train and either go around the queue or through the little gate at the front of the OCC. It really depends on the supervisor too as to weather they make you walk the whole way around as well.

I was thinking it likely wasn't Intamin's decision to only have the 1 launch on the track, they are merely the designer of the ride. The park would generally decide on the overall layout of the ride. Clearly Dreamworld didn't have the best execution but Motocoaster clearly is one of Intamin's biggest dud's that they have attached their name to either way.

IF Dreamworld was to go with a boomerang type coaster I would much prefer one of the Giant Inverted Boomerang's like DejaVu. Honestly they actually look like pretty decent rides that pack a decent punch in a small footprint. The invertigo model wouldn't be too bad either really... but I think a normal Vekoma boomerang is too dated for a park like Dreamworld now. Also the height of it would give a bit of a visual impact for the park if it's placed in a halfway decent place. I wouldn't really consider it a 1 trick pony either... it wouldn't be my first choice for a new attraction but it wouldn't be the worst idea.

Lockers are $10 for an all day locker or $2 a hour for the individual rides. Movie World's all day lockers are located next to the photo centre with $2 lockers at Superman and Green Lantern. Sea World has the all day lockers located to the right of the main entrance and near the dolphin nursery on the boardwalk behind dockside tavern and at castaway bay. $2 lockers are located at the shipping container between the Flume and Storm Coaster, and between Sea Viper and Jet Rescue. As far as i'm aware none of the theme parks sell bum bags, but there are many places on the gold coast that would sell them.

Log ride has been like that for a long time... the operator just getting over the microphone telling guests to go down the stairs when ready... calling out for single riders etc too when needed. If anyone has any questions about operating procedures etc about any of the WBMW rides I am more than happy to answer them to the best of my ability. However for obvious reasons I wouldn't disclose anything that might be sensitive to VRTP even as an ex employee I still have to be careful