DaptoFunlandGuy

Yeah the formal date calendar usually goes live when tickets do, but we've almost always known the dates prior to tickets going on sale - maybe this is just their idea of getting ahead of the supersleuths \ having literally 'something' to announce... Last year started with a casting call on 19 July which only revealed the dates of the event. The website was updated on 8 August, but the first pricing \ ticket sale post was august 14th. In 2023, dates were confirmed August 2nd - again from a casting call - with pricing available around then also. Tickets weren't available until a week later on August 9th... In 2022, they had a 'pre-announcement' with website updates around August 11th, and we had confirmation of dates on August 12th, with tickets not on sale until August 22nd.

Just as likely it isn't an announcement at all and it's just the website going live, with a bunch of things locked out for later reveals.

So per @Jobe's original - they can name this first car as B1 and the second car they get can be B2!

You know they're going to have more than one car on the track right?

It's probably a damn sight easier to winch back an El Loco than it was for Rivals. I doubt it'll be down too long

Possibly the worst option of the lot. going in later reduces any hope you have on getting through the whole park. You're guaranteed to miss something. They're not like our local parks. You've got to get there early. When we visited last year, the official gate time was 10am. our hotel told us 8am and we were in line at 7:30. We waited 15 minutes before they started scanning us into the park.

Village's current level of response when Dreamworld does anything reminds me of Miracle on 34th Street - where Coles has this awesome Santa Claus, so Macy's comes up with... Free Gum Guns.

Thankyou kind sir for doing the hard work. I've done the easy bit and shared the article in this thread So the 'new attraction' being teased by the headline is the 'zoom zone' replacement slides for Aqualoop. I will admit i'd forgotten about the hotel (and honestly thought they had too). they've hinted at a 'new entertainment offering' at MW, but let's be honest that could just be the next themed parade, or the upcoming fright nights offerings.

#FuckNewsCorpPayWalls

If you're staying in a Universal hotel, they'll tell you the actual planned park opening time the day prior - and yes it's always at least an hour before advertised.

Uhhh... I think he said that he leaves the Luna Park pendulum ride until the end of the day because once he's ridden it, he can't ride anything else. I mean, i think you guys are missing the distinction between powered 360 pendulum rides and unpowered swing rides like the looping starship, where the drive system is only at the bottom of the swing. I'm not advocating for an SX360 or Sledgehammer experience. I'm just saying there are SOME 360 attractions (most of which you guys are probably too young to have ridden) that DO deliver airtime float. I'm not saying King Claw isn't going to be as good, or better than that - i'm just saying not every 360 pendulum style attraction sucks.

a 360 swing under power, yes, but i'd still be happy with an unpowered 360 like the looping starships any day of the week over the pendulum. you still get airtime on the drops, and that upside down hangtime is *chefs kiss* - but like my earlier comment - very polarising to half your guests...

I think the idea that 'it goes upside down' is quite polarising, and is where a lot of people draw the line on riding. Claw was popular enough over 20 years, this is the upgrade they needed to keep it going. I don't think it needs 360 to sell it - the sheer size comparison to Claw will be enough I think.

I would have thought the motor would be in place before the swing arm was lifted?

...if you want to obstruct the nice view of the land you'd get. I can't imagine why anyone would want to do that...

I think it's safe to put to bed that this fencing was likely intended to be the envelope fencing, and they had to change to the black fencing for compliance reasons. There's nowhere left in rivertown where all this fencing would be practical, so probably safe to say this is excess (though hopefully in the future they can use it elsewhere)

Aren't they? how do we know? when was the last time something was updated \ changed?

I want to congratulate you for trawling back that far to find that. That's really impressive. While King Claw might have 'more theming' than Claw did - the construction comparisons we've seen posted here recently also show that when Claw went up, the site was greenfields, so they built all the structures after the ride was up - whereas we can already see the majority of the queue structure is already up and ready - so they've got a head start on the theming and while there is still more to do - September is definitely possible. That's a great comparison shot there, although the depth is a bit different, it's definitely bigger. It's an absolutely bollocks perspective, but the pines in ocean parade have grown too. Not sure the year on Magician's Claw pic above, but the pines on the extreme right were the height of Claw, and now are the height of king claw!

Claw came together similarly fast. When you think about it - it's four supports, the motor assembly and the swing arm\gondola. It kinda has to go up quick because each side of the supports relies on the other side to hold each other (which is why there are so many cranes holding everything as it goes up) Once it's up though you can expect to see visible progress slow a bit as the finer details are taken care of. Honestly though - if we keep getting good weather, we could see testing by September... fingers crossed for an earlier than boxing day open!

^Agree - that was the issue with the train in the former Rivertown\ABC Kids area - all those old shoptfronts with their worn AC and refrigeration units on display for all to see. The new rivertown has certainly made the trip far nicer through that section, it would be a shame if there weren't something nice to look at through that BOH area behind JR\ JRR

They removed the track entirely before Rivertown was constructed. It shouldn't need fabrication - it should be almost as simple as putting it back down. obviously they may need to consider any change to grade, and get it certified, but I can't imagine that they'd need entirely new rail for the whole section.

There was no glossing over, and I didn't say disclaimers cover all. What part of didn't you understand?

You're absolutely right, it's a minefield. there are ramifications for having blanket bans and the GS\FA-RN assessment routes are the best options all round. This is why I said they can assess, they can recommend, and they can absolutely prevent someone riding where safety is a factor. However, they can't pretend that some fanciful suggestion that you "might aggravate a pre-existing injury" is reason enough to discriminate. It is more a matter of degree and a balance of all the factors at play - considering the likelihood of it happening, as well as the consequences (or severity) of what could happen. (or to put it another way - if we stopped people from riding rides because there was the mere possibility they could be hurt - nobody would ever ride anything again!) In the current example, being in a brace that is custom fitted, strapped on with numerous velcro straps and\or press studs - the person is less likely to be injured in it than out of it, and it's highly unlikely to come off and injure anyone else. The assessment at that point likely boils down to whether they have hand grip strength capable for evacuations and\or whether the loss of the use of one hand is an excluding factor. Typically this wouldn't exclude people from all but the most extreme rides. I'm being very simplistic, and this is in no way formal advice or suggesting the parks are or are not doing the right thing based on their alignment with what i've suggested - i'm simply making a very long-winded point that they can't just say "no casts, braces or slings" as this would not meet their obligations under the DDA.

It's fun to fantasise and wonder what could be - but the reality of it all is quite simple - Village are pretty comfortable with the IP stable they have. They aren't going to acquire rights to other IPs from other production houses they don't have relationships with without a really good incentive to do so - something like an insanely popular new franchise that somehow hasn't been gobbled up by one of the majors... And acquiring rights to a franchise that is currently stupidly popular in overseas parks will be too expensive. Acquiring rights to a dusty old back catalog from a small independent film house that's been passed around production companies like a young actress at a Weinstein party probably isn't going to get them the bang (no pun intended) for their buck that they would need to make it worth it. Bottom line - your pie in the sky ideas are cool to think about, but there is no grounding in reality. it's never going to happen unless someone like Paramount comes along and buys the park - in which case you can expect the park to rebrand (and lose some of it's other IPs in the process) - but we all know how much Paramount thinks of the Australian Market so yet again, another pie in the sky pipe dream that is never going to happen.

I realise we've gotten an update just above where the staff in park were able to assess the situation and it was a different outcome to the park's online team - but just to add weight to this argument - the child's injury meets the legislated definition of a disability for the purposes of the disability discrimination act. This means that they cannot just have a blanket rule that says 'no casts, braces or slings'. This doesn't mean that they have to risk somebody's safety (the person with the disability or anyone else) - but they do have to review individual circumstances to determine what can be safely accommodated with reasonable adjustment. This can get very messy, and ultimately would need to involve doctors and medical assessments (and probably lawyers) if the abilities of the person were in dispute, so I would presume the park would err on the side of caution, but to simply say 'no, you can't ride anything while you have a brace on' doesn't meet the threshholds and responsibilities required by the legislation. This is a garbage argument This is also garbage. The park's T&Cs all state they ride at their own risk. They're also not medical professionals equipped to assess whether ride forces are going to aggravate an injury. How many people with head, neck and back problems do you think ride big thrill rides every day despite the signage saying not to? The park can assess. They can recommend she not ride certain things that may aggravate an injury and they can record such advice without specifically prohibiting a person from riding where it isn't a safety risk. Like everyone else at the park - they ride at their own risk. If she were to aggravate the injury for going beyond her own limits or abilities, that would be on her and wouldn't make the park liable.