DaptoFunlandGuy

I think that's a short-sighted and narrow-minded view. The ride has always been lambasted as unsuitable. Ride experience, ridiculous dispatch times and uncomfortable and restrictive harnesses, themeing and location, none of it worked and it was a poor decision from management whom we now know should never have operated a theme park. Current leadership have shown that they are willing to go the extra mile to deliver an immersive and cohesive experience, albeit within budgetary constraints. MDMC stuck out like a sore thumb against the backdrop of their flagship Rivertown, and management made it very clear that while they couldn't fix it during the construction of Rivertown, they would move to change that as soon as they were able. The retheme will fix the issues of theme and location, the new trains will fix the harnessing issues, while simultaneously improving the ride experience - which - based on what the park has said - will also be enhanced by additional themeing elements too. While we don't yet have information on whether this will speed up operations, I feel confident that anything has to be better than those trains, so thats a plus also. Everything they've announced goes directly to fixing the inherent issues with the ride since day 1 while focussing on improving the park as a whole, bit by bit. There's very little in terms of direction and capex at Dreamworld in recent times that I could complain about. I was never really a fan of MDMC - but i'm keen to see what they can do with it - rather than shit on it before it's even started.

agreed. the station will remain single sided. Hopefully Dreamworld commit to operating with two stations and staffing it accordingly.

i've no idea what part it played in this tragedy - but i'm always comforted by Australian standards requiring a seatbelt. Sure it takes longer to load and dispatch, but that little extra safeguard gives a lot of peace of mind.

given the shop goes practically up to the rail line, it seems reasonable to assume that any opposite side exit would lead back under the brake run and into the shop. Not sure there's room under the brake run for it though.

Yeah, Dreamworld's marketing staff have produced some really cringe promo videos in the past, but being in house, and not needing multiple layers of approval for every step does pay off at a grass roots level for those very reasons.

it's not just the hours either. I've seen two separate unrelated instances of their absolute contempt for the guest experience in recent months: An annual pass, sold with a '12 month' photo pass. T&Cs said if the annual pass wasn't activated within 3 months it would start at the end of the 3 month period. The photo pass which was included with the annual pass stated it had to be activated within 3 months or it was void. An error on the passholder's part, but it's not an unreasonable assumption that inclusions sold with an annual pass would have similar validity rules. Guest services in park and over the phone had zero interest or empathy for the situation and were not empowered by the organisation to do anything to try to salvage the guest experience when they visited for the first time after the 3 month cut off. Both In-park guest services and the call centre provided an email address (but not the SAME email address) and one email address responded pretty much 'rules are rules' and closed the ticket. The other, after over a month, eventually came to the party and provided the guest with a photo pass that would last the remainder of the annual pass validity. A family holidaying on the GC purchased 3-day tickets to Village (which requires the 3 days to be consecutive visits) and after visiting on day 1, two of the kids tested positive for Influenza-A. The mum tried reaching out to guest services to see if there was anything they could do with the tickets so that they could use them once the kids were feeling better \ not contagious and just got a flat out no. Again this came across as guest services were just not given any flexibility to try to plus the guest experience, and 'rules are rules' was the general vibe. This has only just happened so i'm not sure of the outcome of any email escalation the family may have done, but I did see this morning that Dreamworld has actually commented on the mum's social media post offering them two-day tickets to Dreamworld when the kids are feeling better. Like i'm all for the park reducing hours if it isn't profitable to operate - especially in the off season. Dreamworld as been doing this for a while and almost nobody has had a problem with it. But you have to care about the guest experience, and that's the main difference here. At this stage they're just making it so easy for Dreamworld to ride in like the white knight and save the day. Cutting back on events, removing entertainment, reducing hours and reducing the ability for guest services to... provide services to guests... - it's clear VR are slashing everything they can to save a buck. The tables have absolutely turned on the GC, and Dreamworld is fast becoming the new top dog.

I'm sure they have years of data on visitation over the period. if the additional hours don't make them more money, why spend it? People come to the GC, they visit the parks regardless of the opening hours. This is just going to tank wait times and guest experience, but BGH will already have their ticket money. I don't agree with this philosophy... but if its the most profitable angle, I can see why they're doing it. I said all this when Skeet was banging on about Dreamworld's trading hours - seems kinda relevant now

Say the line, @New display name !

it's certainly unusual. I'm quite sure there's a good reason.

They need to get this shit sorted and behind them as quickly as possible so they can move on with good news stories in the lead up to the summer holiday peak period. I'm very surprised they aren't reporting the matter to the police. Theft is a criminal act and to me - it seems as though this sends a message that this type of behaviour is ok at Village

I hate the use of the phrase 'GA tickets' as well. Industry folk or thoosies and probably other event type people know what that means, but it's not plain english and you're going to confuse some potential buyers. Just spell it out!

I don't think we need to go about binning an entire ride just because one main spar and maybe a few supports are buckled. This isn't like a rollercoaster where every piece of track is customised - the spars and supports are all standard pieces, and engineers have literally dozens of identical pieces from which to replicate parts from. It appears as though the damage was accidental, and most likely this will be covered by insurance. It'll return, but if it's insurance it will take time to assess and payout the claim as well as identify a suitable company to provide the new parts.

It looks like they were dismantling it, but the top tension (the straps attached to the arm up in the air) at some point went slack, putting all the weight on the lower tension (seen in the load station) without the top tension, the wheel, missing over a quarter of its circumference, rotated, but the bottom tension didn't allow the lower arm to move, and the weight of the rest of the wheel caused it to buckle as the hub turned.

GCB has published another article today on the identity suppression of “Mr ABC” but it’s behind a paywall https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/business/village-roadshow-exec-accused-in-lawsuit-of-stealing-aquaman-truck-shielded-from-public-scrutiny/news-story/a197806c273e4ea0ad5730b0c7b2cbb9

Jesus Christ. Makes me sick to think while the company was crying poor, these executives were living the high life on fancy food, hotels, cars and home improvements, and all the while making decisions to shit on the guest experience and upcharging everything they could. Interesting the contractors who were alleged to have provided false invoices got named. I wonder if they're still being used by village and\or if they're still trading or whether they're going to go bust on the back of being alleged as fraudsters... A quick google of each company named in the article - DNA builders website is up, but loads poorly. It displays images of the Sea World admin building and the MW WB Kids Arcade in their projects page and they list Aquaman showcase, spooky nights, fright nights and white christmas on their about page under 'events' Paradise Plumbing and gas appears to be 'temporarily closed' on google, and the website link takes you to a cloudflare error plumbergc.com.au | 502: Bad gateway ICP Electrical's website is down WordPress › Error but the two company directors still show up on LinkedIN

Not sure if it's been mentioned in another thread but since it isn't mentioned here, Mark Petrie has a nice little track people might be familiar with called Where We Are.

Nope. +1 for ditching the arcade. it died the day the prawn disappeared.

Free-spin 4D coasters need to burn in the pits of hell. Hard pass. The ride has operated for 24 years, with millions of riders. There's been a few recent incidents but i'd like to hear the outcome of investigations before I treat any incident as justification to close the ride. By all means don't operate it until the outcomes are known, of course.

This piece of string is exactly 34 centimetres long after I precisely measured and cut it to that length. None of the events have 'sold out' - just the pre-sale. manufactured hype and urgency means nothing. They've struggled to sell out these events for years - ever since they stopped including entry as part of annual passes.

How do you figure?

MDMC was a $10M attraction. As a benchmark i'm pretty sure that roughly half that cost is the ride and systems, and the other half is shipping and construction. Pulling all the pieces apart, resurfacing and putting them all back together is probably not leaving any change out of $5M, and a train is almost definitely around $1M each. Upgrading the launch systems and likely all new PLC is probably at least another $1M, so you've got around $12M remaining to transform the building, theming and 'other elements'.

it's probably been built in a former executive's backyard somewhere 🤣

The ride is 22 years old, and it is still getting one of the biggest wait times in the park on the regular. I'd say it's worth a minor investment to kick another decade or two worth of life into it.