Theme Park Girl

My Xbox 360 & PS2 game collection... although nowhere near complete, as I also have many downloaded on my 360 hard drive. Same with the PS4, the only hard copy game I have is Dragon Age Inquisition. The rest are digital copies I also have a big stack of PS1 games in storage Along with all the other older consoles and their games. Gamers unite :-D

Geez, extreme examples much. Not all of those are thrill rides, and not even relevant to the discussion at hand. Besides, I was only making a suggestion, not stating fact :/ If they were really concerned about running costs, they could very well just limit open/close times like they already have with some other rides. All I am saying is that it could be an incorrect assumption being made.

Perhaps Australia has different, stricter regulations than that of other countries when it comes to amusement park ride operation & safety? Dreamworld may not have a choice in the matter. Or perhaps they are proud of the fact they have a fairly clean record (minus the helicopter & chairlift incidents, in which there were no fatalities, just minor injuries afaik) and want to do absolutely everything they can to keep it that way... including running their thrill rides at well below safety minimums. From what I have seen and read, Dreamworld have always taken ride safety very seriously. By all means it could be for the reasons you've stated. But there might very well be more legit reasons other than just cost cutting alone.

Seems the TOTII has been experiencing a lot of launch issues lately... last Sunday morning there was a few false alarms at the entrance of the tunnel, followed by a couple of empty cart test runs. Went yesterday, and same thing again in both the morning AND afternoon. Especially around 2pm'ish, where the ride must have been closed for at least an hour whilst they did test run after test run. One thing I DID notice however was, during the morning test launches, how high the cart was launching whilst empty!! My jaw dropped seeing it actually get up to the 'ER' for one particular launch... and pretty much all of the rest reached well above the default 'OF' mark. Comes to show that the weight of the carts (and specifically, the number of people in them) plays a big part in how high the launches go. Not that anyone really suspected otherwise lol But it was still really cool to watch.

It's back!!!

Yay!!!!

If that's the one I think it is (near that convict jail house photo op thingy) then I think it's just sectioned off atm because it's all rotting and dangerous. Then again, I haven't been there since Sunday, so can only comment on what I saw the other day when it didn't appear to be under construction... just sectioned off with blue tarpaulin thingies.

Do we know this for sure? As according to DW's website, it's Zombie Evolution will be returning for the next Screamworld...

Thanks Alex... that worked Three photos I took randomly throughout the morning of TOTII launches... I observe it reaching the F in "OF" fairly regularly on most days I am in the park - I spend a lot of time lazing around in the wave pool at WWW on weekends I am not working, and observe a lot of the ride cycles (TOT, Giant Drop, Cyclone etc) from there Hey, I even worked out how to get the GD to drop "on cue" (counting backward from 35 seconds after it reaches the top) from there, hahaha ;p At the very least the TOTII almost always manages to clear the T in "Terror", although sometimes it doesn't - as demonstrated in Richard's video in the article. But it also occasionally overshoots and makes it up to the F as well But in general it climbs to the F, stops there, and then descends Oh, it is worth mentioning that the TOTII was apparently having some issues last Sunday morning. The alarm was sounding every few minutes at the end of the launch tunnel, but no actual launches followed. Happened a few times over about half an hour, then they finally did a successful test launch with an empty cart before it resumed normal cycles again. So maybe that explains why it may have been undershooting more often recently? Maybe due to technical issues?

Oh... the TOTII was having launch issues on Sunday morning as well lol... this happened quite a few times! trim.FC4B6F97-C752-43CC-A5B2-30C15DBDAB8D.MOV ETA: Dunno if that posted properly or not... first time I have attempted to upload/attach a video media file XD

I've noticed many of the outlets which are closed during weekdays sometimes open on weekends, but under limited trading hours - like the churro stand for example... opens for a couple of hours over lunchtime, but closes early afternoon. Same with the giant hot dog stand next to the Wipeout. Ones like the Tiger Island Cafe & Ocean Parade food outlet I've NEVER seen open... they are always closed, no matter what day or time it is :/ Do they at least open for school holidays? What's the go there??? I've seen quite a few complaints by visitors on the Dreamworld FB page of late about too many things (both rides and outlets) either opening late, closing early or being closed outright. I can only guess it's to save on wages & running costs during off-peak season, but yeah, it's getting a little rediculous lately. Seems there are closed roller doors wherever you go :/

I've gota few photos from today of the TOTII, but there's no option to upload them here?

It was going as per normal (ie. Up to the 'OF') all day last Sunday when I visited. So if it doesn't do that now, then something has only just been changed in the past few days. As that was the norm before then :/ Am going to DW tomorrow, so will let you know of my observations

Maybe he means the zombie evolution building? That's all I can think of, since it's nearby and under construction atm lol. Thanks for the info on the upcoming Tiger Island redevelopment... will be good to see what they do with it.

I'd say so. Buzzsaw is due to reopen at the end of this week

"It is the largest El Loco in existence, and the only one to feature eight-seat cars instead of four." As per the GL article on this website. So yeah, it's the only one. Even more reason why I'm inclined to believe it's an S&S design flaw.

Hey Richard, I just wanted to point out that the video of the TOTII in the article doesn't seem entirely accurate. As a frequent visitor of Dreamworld, I can vouch that it usually reaches the "OF" section of the tower on average, which it clearly didn't do for that particular launch. But it usually goes higher than that.

That's exactly why I used the word "arguably" Alex, because I know it can and will be argued... no doubt for many years to come

Don't have one, I dislike drop towers LOL. In saying that, I have been on GD at DW many years ago when it opened. Never again, though. The TOTII compensates quite nicely these days XD

Because VRTP become boring after a while lol. We had VIP passes for the past 2-3 years, but bought Dreamworld/WWW ones this year because we are sick of the other three parks. Plus Dreamworld is arguably the best park out of the lot of them, there is plenty more rides. So you'd probably still want to buy a pass for it anyway, even if you had lifetime entry to VRTP. I would

Totally agree. I remember seeing the initial reports about this popping up in my FB news feed that afternoon whilst I was at WWW, and my initial thought was "people get stuck on rides all the time, why is this such big news?" Then I read about the wheel breaking off and my heart just sank. Now I've read about how NOTHING was attaching the train to the track, and how lucky it was that it came to a grinding halt where it did by pure chance, or there could have been fatalities... omg O_o Reading about the details of this incident still leaves me gobsmacked. So undoubtedly the GL is gonna be shut for a long time now, but I question what will happen to it in best/worst case scenarios following the investigation results? If it's found to be a train design flaw (which I am still am convinced it is) S&S may provide completely new carts? Or they may completely modify the track to ensure the carts are more securely attached and have extra security measures? Worst case scenario I'm guessing is the GL being removed altogether, but probably highly unlikely, given the effort involved and money spent on it. Can only wonder what the outcome will be.... but obviously depends on went wrong with it to begin with. and if/how it can be fixed. Either way, it's freaking scary what happened the other day and I am glad I got to ride it at least once, given we don't know what's in it's future now.

You can get it on MAME these days

The old train has been next to the fire station for a couple of months now, and I don't think the Cyclone photos have been taken for a while. The work on Rivertown is new, however. I think they are finally removing all the old Paddlesteamer stuff, since it has gone to the chipper anyways. At least it can finally be written off as RIP instead of SBNO once the station has been removed.

I get what you mean, Alex. None of these newer coasters have been a worthy replacement for the Thunderbolt, which *was* Dreamworld's iconic coaster once apon a time. Especially when it comes to track length.... it feels like these current ones are a "blink and miss" experience compared to TB and many others out there

Thanks, Richard. Always appreciate your input!