Theme Park Girl

I dare say the reason they have left the broken TS carriage on there is because last time round it took weeks for them to get replacement parts in from O/S, and they had it closed for that entire duration. And this was following 2 previous closures as well in which the ride had been malfunctioning. At least if they just strip the broken plane back, they can keep the ride running in the meanwhile (especially during the school holidays, when all Big9 are expected to be fully functional and operating) whilst they wait for the replacement parts to arrive. As tacky as it looks, I totally understand their reasoning!

The reason I'm going is the same reason I sit at home in the dark at night, volume cranked, playing Silent Hill & Resident Evil games lol. I love the thrill ??

http://frightnights.com.au/visitor-info/know-before-you-go.aspx "No masks or costumes allowed." Is this a new rule? As I have friends who have previously dressed up for Fright Nights and I swear I read contradictory official information just weeks ago saying you were allowed to dress up ? ETA: And yet here it says... http://movieworld.com.au/special-events/carnivale/faq.aspx "You are welcome to wear costumes and light facial make-up." Ok so I get you can't wear masks, but are costumes allowed or not??? ? (and yes I know the link url says 'carnivale' but if you go to it, it's actually info related to Fright Nights, so I have nfi ?)

Hopefully it's not just the Cyclone V8 retheme he is working on and it is Eureka being referred to? Not that I doubt they are reopening Eureka, I'm fairly convinced the ride has a future! But until we have official confirmation we can only continue to speculate on what's happening ?

There has indeed been a few worse cases, google the infamous 1986 Mindbender accident. That was also due to human error (wheels was not being maintained in accordance to its poorly translated german manual) and, after some restraint modifications and extra daily maintenance sessions scheduled, it was subsequently reopened. And that was after 3 fatalities! And guess what... perfect safety record for 30 years. I expect it to be a similar conclusion for the Smiler, AND the Green Lantern, which going by MW's recent activity on it also appears to be getting reopened sometime soon. Thank goodness theme parks run on logic, even if it is mainly driven by profit. I can understand concern if a ride caused an accident or death due to a design flaw or major fault, but it just doesn't seem logical to remove a coaster when it is due to mishandling during human safety protocols. The ride did everything correctly that it was programmed to do at the time. As I said in my FB opinion, cars are responsible for daily accidents and deaths and yet we don't stop using them. Life would be pretty boring if we overzealously got rid of every thing that caused an accident or death, especially if they were mishandled to begin with. Happy to report that a lot of people agreed with me in the end and the chick that unfoundedly labelled me "heartless" copped a lot of criticism and she ended up deleting her posts. Thank goodness some people can see common sense beyond their emotions.

Yeah... I posted my 2c on it about how the accident was due to human error (ie. Not a manufacturing fault or failure) and how I agree with the park's decision to reopen it, and I'm immediately labeled as heartless. Go figure.

Still closed. Could spot glass sheets up and wood panels on the verandah, so apparently not quite finished yet with the renos.

My final contributions on this topic lol... enjoy

Yeah the theming is great in the new area. I love the TMNT section in particular! They did really well doing it up, and it has life-sized statues of all 4 turtles surrounding it. My family and I simultaneously went on the kiddy coaster, that was as fun as could be expected for the 2 laps it goes for. Was over pretty fast. Not sure if this is permanent or maybe just a school holiday thing, since the queues are obviously quite long atm. My 5 year old loved it regardless, came off it telling the operator that it was the "best ride ever" lol. I particularly liked the new Spongebob orange submarine ride. It's also more intense than the Wiggles boat one at Dreamworld, it goes faster and also spins in circles as it sways from side to side, changing from anti-clockwise to clockwise halfway through. The jellyfish 'teacups' ride is kinda cool too, as they do a figure 8 path around each other instead of just the usual circle laps. As pushbutton mentioned, the TMNT cycle copter things are pretty cool as you have to pedal to go higher. Loved the TMNT show, even if it didn't go for very long (10 mins?) it was still entertaining and pulled a pretty impressive crowd. All in all I think Sea World should give themselves a big pat on the back for this one, even if they ran late opening it

Still same show :/ Oh and apparently the kids area is a "sneak peek" according to the sign. So much for Unlimited members getting in first lol. Oh well...

Some photos of the new kiddy area from today :) They also have a new TMNT mini show! New kiddy coaster

SDSC should have reopened now after nearly a month of maintenance. Anyone ridden it since? Hoping they fixed cosmetics as well as working on the ride itself.

So what happened to the Unlimited members 'sneak peek' event for the new kids area that they were advertising in an earlier email? Was it canned because of them running late with the original opening date?

Yeah I won't be going to that. I already have my ticket for Fright Nights on Halloween ? True that. Fright Nights isn't suitable for under 14's... they have evolved past that. I know my 11 year old was initially disappointed to not be able to attend it with me. At least Dreamworld is appealing to the audiences that Movieworld is now choosing to alienate. Not that it's a bad thing to have MA15+ rated events, but ykwim!

I think they would be silly not to use the "reopened old favourite" card, given how popular the ride was (is) and how many people would remember it, given how many years it was open. It would be a great headstart on their advertising campaign to only have to rekindle the interest of old fans as well as draw in new ones.

Well,that's different....

Just got the email too, has some delightful images to accompany the room descriptions lol...

The Mexican food truck is up and running too. We bought tacos (2 for $9.90, they also have nachos and bottled softdrinks on offer) which weren't bad. My only complaint is that they didn't have a huge amount of filling, and therefore weren't very filling - we were still hungry afterwards. So I guess you could only consider them to be snack food. If they upped the amount of filling though, they would be great :)

Icecream shop is open for Screamworld and it looks amazing!!

Just spotted this message in red on Dreamworld's website...

Wow. I had forgotten about this thread. I'd even forgotten that I had posted in it. Seems like it was a lifetime ago ??? ETA: Holy crap. Dec 2006? No wonder!!! That was nearly a decade ago ?

http://www.mygc.com.au/news/hunt-on-for-heartless-thief-after-sentimental-number-plate-stolen-from-gc-theme-park/ Geez there are some heartless people out there Thought this was worth posting on here in case anyone happened to spot anything unusual in the Sea World carpark last Thursday....

New article from 12/9 in regards to the Smiler incident... the firefighters involved in the rescue have had an awards ceremony held in their honour, with the 4 victims attending. There's a group photo where their post injuries (ie. leg amputations) are visual. Poor girls. But nice to see they are smiling again despite the obvious trauma they have endured. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/11/alton-towers-smiler-ride-victims-meet-amazing-rescuers-at-ceremony Oh, and also there is also speculation within another article saying that, despite the accident, the Smiler will be re-opening right in time for Halloween. Apparently "dedicated UK coaster forum fans" (Pommy versions of us? Hahaha ) openly believe so. Although it does mention that an Alton Towers source is denying the rumour and claiming that it's just further investigation testing: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/464144/Alton-Towers-Smiler-ride-re-opened-Halloween-new-tests ETA: Yet ANOTHER recent article (seems we were a bit behind on Smiler news/updates, hahaha) about the investigation into the incident... it's looking very likely to be due to human error. Two ride operators are under criminal investigation. There's also an interesting diagram which breaks down exactly what happened: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3207431/Two-workers-quizzed-human-error-Alton-Towers-horror-Engineer-turned-automatic-safety-lock-operator-let-truck-slam-stalled-carriage.html

Oooo I hadn't noticed that So it has I noticed a month or so ago too that the old broken Frog game thing (that had been sitting inside there for ages, despite them still using the sideshow during school holiday periods) had also been removed. They have two other target game things in there still, but they look like they are easily removable. Everything else that was in there has been removed.

New stage area (I would guess for Wiggles performances, and maybe they will start doing a new show or two?) and new 3D Dreamworld sign/logo, as per the previous photos I did spot a big fountain spout behind it today as well, so they might be working on getting the water effects going again At the moment they look like they are focused on maybe just restoring that covered sitting area, they have all the wooden boards pulled up and there were a couple of carpenters in there working on it. Was kinda hard to investigate without them thinking I was being a stickybeak, hahaha But yeah, was thinking the same thing with the dividers going all the way up to the front of the Eureka. Seemed a little overkill, unless they are fixing all the fence as well. Who knows? At the very least they seem to be working on the Gold Rush cosmetics and fixing all the worn out/rotten wooden stuff, so the ride itself could very well be on the cards sometime soon since the section is getting some TLC The Icecream parlour renos are coming along well too, the building has a nice new front wall. Has "Coney Island Ice Cream" signage (not sure if they are old or new, though? Unless they were under the ones they just removed) couldn't get a photo of it though due to all the workers in there at the time. Don't think any of them would appreciate becoming my unwilling photo subjects, hahaha XD