DaptoFunlandGuy

Earlier this year, the Baldwin was parked out front of Main Street Station with signage that it was undergoing refurbishment and would return. Is that signage still there? could this be why the spur track on the other side of the crossing was built? so one loco could park while the other operated, etc? Are we completely writing off any attempt at a steam locomotive (and has the park done so too) ?

Yeah nah. Regardless of the delivery method there shouldn't really be an expectation of privacy for a person in his position sharing details like that unless he's specifically asked the person to keep it private. And the issue of veracity is very much a valid reason to share the screenshot as mentioned above. A lot of folk call bullshit on this sort of discussion without proof so I can't fault the guy for sharing the evidence, especially where nothing specifically restricted him from doing so.

Here's the thing - a person in that position, giving information about a large tourist attraction to a person who is clearly a fan\enthusiast (and self describes as a "random") - if he didn't want that information made public, he probably shouldn't have shared it with them. As far as i'm concerned if any employee or official in the park shares information with me - unless they specifically ask me to keep it to myself - that's permission by default. As for the info - fright nights returning, the paint job taking less time, and "a big announcement is coming" seems like a lot of nothing to me. We've heard of 'big announcements coming soon' before and they've been fairly mediocre. That said - given the demolition of Arkham is well underway, if the big announcement isn't the official replacement for Arkham then it's a beat up as usual.

Don't forget the collapse of Ansett.

In the original (reverse) direction of travel, Billabong was a downhill stop. My guess is that with the new direction of travel (to deal with the grade on the shortened track) that stopping on the uphill would have made re-starting difficult. Because the parks are very diligent at keeping every part of their maps up to date! Actually they all do - but they are still steam powered engines. The two original Retlaw locos were designed to burn diesel oil to heat the boiler, and the baldwins they acquired later had their fireboxes converted to burn diesel oil before entering service. Between 2007-2009, they converted them all over to B98 biodiesel. The Baldwin at Dreamworld operated similarly, if i'm not mistaken. The reason people regard the current loco as a 'tractor' (and with such disdain) is because there is no steam element in the current unit - the diesel internal combustion engine directly drives the loco, and I believe from memory the engine is manufactured by John Deere, although I might have imagined that. As the Dreamworld Express Wiki mentions, the current locomotive "masquerades" as a steam engine - it was made to resemble one without having a boiler or any other steam elements.

The website had september 3 for both attractions since early june. If you check the Leviathan (Sea World) - Wikipedia article you can see that the opening dates listed for both attractions have changed numerous times, and even the wiki says two different opening dates on the same page.

I think the key here is that this tree provides almost 100% shade all day round - and having been a character photographer and seeing some full-suit characters coming off stage after just 20 minutes of literally sitting down in full sun, you don't want a stage facing generally west that is going to cop full sun for almost the entire operating day. Fun fact - the original looney tunes performance stage, which used to be on the current Road Runner Rollercoaster site faced the same western direction (although it had a roof) - by mid-afternoon, the sun was far enough west that it hit the stage, making it incredibly hot to perform on. There's a really good reason why Disney has moved many of their character appearance\photos to indoor setups in Florida. As for the actual stage - there is zero effort to make this fit. plain red sheeting, dull grey hard wearing outdoor marine carpeting by the looks - this befits a school fete or county carnival stage and not a whimsical kids land in a theme park. Even digitally printed "red velvet curtains" or the looney tunes rings... something generic that suits the land better than 'plain red sheet' Who is old enough to remember what this used to look like?

Welcome. CGA is currently owned by Cedar Fair but was previously a Paramount Park, and prior to that, a Kings Entertainment Company (KECO)*. This isn't the first (former) KECO park to to be sold to developers essentially for the land value - KECO was a partner in constructing Australia's Wonderland (And Canada's Wonderland for that matter) though the Australian park was excluded from the Paramount purchase due to the long distance management required. Australia's Wonderland pretty much was the 'areas only amusement park' with the 'other parks' of any standing being well over 10 hours' drive away on the Gold Coast. Smaller regional parks were nearer but did not compete on any similar level (including Luna Park Sydney which re-opened the same month Wonderland closed). Where did the kids go? I don't know - somewhere else? There was no mass loitering event where teenagers sat in the gutter outside their homes with nothing else to do - they just found something else to do (or moved to Queensland 🤣) As for Cedar giving people the middle finger - you seem be to overlooking the fact that this is a business. If you read the wiki on the park, it was profitable from day one, just not profitable enough. The stories of Walt Disney are wonderful - hearing how he put care and attention and detail into his parks, attractions and movies because people appreciated these touches, and that would keep people coming back is a thing of the past. Walt let his brother Roy worry about the finances, and it was up to Roy to try to make the dream financially viable. These days, capital expenditure, investment, long term profitability - these are all decisions made in a boardroom, by directors whose remuneration is tied to the profits, and overall direction is voted on by shareholders, who are all in it for a return. When something isn't profitable, something has to change... and they don't give a shit about giving the finger to the public. Go check out channels like BrightSunFilms or TheProperPeople on YouTube - there are dozens of abandoned theme parks around America and the world - all of them "gave the finger" to the local park-going public simply because staying open wasn't financially viable. And with the exception of a few urban explorers with nothing better to do, most of the kids just went somewhere else. *(Today I Learned - KECO didn't build CGA, but bought it off the city of Santa Clara after operating it on their behalf for several years. The park was originally built by Marriott Hotel group - who also built another Great America in Chicago, now a Six Flags.)

😮 Not Wonder World!

The matter of visibility and the direction this faces is not yet confirmed. They've had a light package on this tower for years - this is just an upgrade. The effectiveness of the Joker, The Green Lantern Symbol and the Topgolf logo has probably not been lost on Ardent either. The whole ride is getting upgraded, old TOT track removed, so the actual cost of installing something like this when they already have equipment up there is minor, and it's an opportunity to refresh a 20 year old attraction for the future. I'm sure they work. But they were also designed for the attraction, and not retrofitted almost 20 years later. What won't people understand about an LED signboard with some numbers on it? I don't know - Maybe its the number of days since the last fatal accident? maybe it's how many minutes until the next village dispatch? Maybe my order of 300 grams of sliced honey ham and half a kilo of bacon is ready at the deli? There is no context surrounding this sign to give any indication of what it might be for. As for discrediting a guests ability, you seem very passionate about park improvements which suggests to me you've never worked in one. We used to have a saying at my park (and i'm sure many other parks have similar) - Guests check their brains at the gate. Thanks Dr Barnett. The CDC have their own research paper on surface transmission and while they say it is a low risk for surface transmission, low risk is not no risk. If surface transmission was impossible, we wouldn't have spent the past 30 months dowsing our hands in alcohol sanitisers and singing happy birthday to ourselves in front of the mirror. In fact - we were hand washing and sanitising well before masks were considered necessary because surface transmission was thought to be higher than airborne transmission, which is probably the very reason why we have such few cases of surface transmission. But this isn't a covid thread, so i'll move on - You're insane. You're jumping up and down about parks not using efficiency methods you've observed overseas because you're frustrated that our local methods are so slow, and in the same breath you want to do everything you can to make a ride cycle take longer. Yes, it is.

And like your other suggestions, such a plugin would also be completely useless in our park(z)

I did see the story last night but can't paste it now - short story - newspaper makes up headline to sell subscriptions. Ardent leisure were quoted saying they were not in any discussion with private equity firms. So you want to speed up the grouping process by using a turnstile nobody would understand how to use as they aren't prevalent here, and then use the time you've saved not to speed up your operations, but instead to slow it back down by giving everyone VR goggles in a post-covid environment. Yeah... You're not going to last long around here.

I did notice the crew they had over the weekend were absolutely on top of their game. Superman can run very efficiently but as Spotty has mentioned it takes a crack team working the attraction, fully staffed with both trains running and everyone busting their ass to ensure efficiency while staying safe. Your observation proves the park can run it efficiently with the right crew... So what is the problem? Do management just not roster the right staff numbers to maintain efficiency? Are management fostering a culture that inspires crews to work hard, but safe? Are some cast just disengaged, and why are they still employed? (and is that caused by the answer to the second question?) Kudos to the weekend crew for obviously doing such a standout noticeable job during school holidays.

Items lost within the ride envelope should be noted on the ops log and located overnight to be returned to lost property. The guest should be told to come back tomorrow to claim it. The issue with a phone is it's a bit more important to get back than a hat or sunglasses, and if it isn't located immediately while the person who lost it is there, what's to say it'll be found after hours \ in the dark?. It's lose\lose for the park no matter what they do. And yes, the guest should get what they deserve, but it's not in the interests of the park's guest relations to give them the finger. ETA: After posting, I was reminded of the landing pad below the station on the SFMM Green lantern (I think it was a Zacspin \ 4D?). Anyhow the final hairpin before the station was so forceful, violent, and with such a sudden stop, it was clear loose items didn't stand a chance - there were at least a dozen devices in various states of disintegration (all of them fresh though), a couple wallets and some glasses. Ops didn't stop for them... and such is life.

Yeah you're looking at this wrong. You're comparing something that requires constant skill, training, effort and ongoing commitment to excellence, to something that cost the same as it did when it was new, and costs no more to maintain than the rest of the available product, which is free. And yes, because there are less lettuces, and the demand hasn't changed. When Supply is lower than normal, its reasonable for the price to go up to manage demand. But in this case, supply is stable. Demand is reducing because of the increased price, and by all accounts it isn't selling. Disney put their AP pricing up, and up, and up again, and people kept paying it. no matter what the price, people paid it, so the increased price didn't reduce the demand, and the park stayed full, but the increased price let them invest in things like technology to improve the guest experience while they waited. If MW were offering an improvement to the experience for the increased cost, it would be understandable, but since the seats are empty half the time - do you want $30 a seat half the time, or $20 a seat all the time? I know which one makes me more money...

Hey... aren't you the guy that wants to install turnstiles to speed up loading operations? /s

Dude, we get it. We've heard your turnstile suggestions among other things and we've all discussed our thoughts on whether it would work or not. Every ride you're pointing at is in a foreign jurisdiction with different cultures, laws and safety requirements for OH&S. Any one of these things will kill most of your suggestions, and what's left is written off by the fact that the ride is built, approaching 20 years old, and can't accommodate your suggestions (or requires a large labour cost to implement). If you're gonna keep re-agitating the same thing every couple weeks, it's gonna get real tiresome real quick. You've made your suggestion. If the parks see it and want to do it... great. If they don't, oh well.

I try to keep my eye out for those shining stars amongst all the garbage. Much as I complain about the parks, I feel many of my complaints are cultural and policy rather than any individual effort on behalf of the individual cast members involved. If i've had a particularly good interaction with a cast member who has done what I consider a top job, I try to stop off at guest relations on the way out to fill out a compliment for them. The number of times GR staff have looked tired after dealing with a day full of complaints they're always really enthusiastic to have someone coming in to offer a kudos. I do hope they treat compliments as seriously (or more so) than whinging karens who think their short kid unable to ride big coaster is the worst thing imaginable...

Load and Unload are two separate blocks. It is possible for a train to be at each station at the same time. Much of the pre-show section of the track are driven by kicker wheels, and judging by Spotty's comments above, could most likely have a train on it with another at the launch, because it seems possible for a train to arrive at launch before the 60 second cooldown. A train can be stopped within the pre-show section by simply stopping or reversing the tyre drives. The launch itself is another block section as it can stop a train from rolling back beyond the launch point - but between launch and brake zone there is no other brake, so launch cannot fire until unload is clear. That said, it is load that takes the longest. And you only end up with a train waiting at launch if you have a crack team on a record breaking day as mentioned above. So the unload is USUALLY not the hold up. BUT - the cooldown is still a real thing - even as mentioned by spotty. The only thing I mentioned was that it seemed to be taking longer to cooldown than it used to - which is normal for aging plant and equipment with duty cycles...

My completely layperson's understanding of it is that the launch won't fire until the system is ready - so if there's a cooldown period it won't go until it reaches the target, but the theming and effects wouldn't be interlinked with the launch and would just be triggered by proxy \ IR beam or similar, so when the train arrives, the effects fire as timed, but if the launch isn't ready, it doesn't fire until it is. As for operators, short of an E-stop, I imagine the launch would be fully automated once the train leaves the station and requires no further input from the operator to launch once the launch system is ready to do so.

by hand as opposed to what? flying robot drones?

You're a wealth of knowledge as always Spotty but I think here, it's a case of she's getting on in years. As I mentioned above, I've overheard talk that it's taking longer to cool down between cycles, so they're holding longer at the station for that reason. Those record launch numbers sound amazing - and it proves that fast operations are possible in Australian parks... so I wonder what has changed - is it just the risk averse nature post-TRRR? Or is there just a lack of motivation to hit those high capacities anymore?

If they did that from year 1, yes. The trouble is - we can see how bad it has gone since it opened in September 2017. The ride has stood for 5 years and looks this bad. If it takes them 6 years to do the entire thing, the stuff they did this year will be one year worse than what it all looks like now... And given what else we've seen - superman, lethal, green lantern, etc over the years.... they can't paint them all that regularly.... so not sure what the long game is...

This is genuinely a good suggestion. I'd support this going in provided they had robust connectivity and a fallback option if the eftpos unit goes down. This also removes operators from performing the role of ticket taker and lets them focus on the actual task of grouping and loading. Some modifications required to avoid abuse and fraud but overall I see this as a winner. Nobody is picking on you. When you make good suggestions we'll recognise that and back it 100%. Just because you've seen something work elsewhere, it doesn't mean it will work here. Disney had to re-do all their beautiful gardens in Shanghai after parents let their kids piss and shit in the gardens instead of using the toilet. The self-deprecating 'everyone hates everything I say' whinge is old. it's been done before. and the woe is me attitude won't get you any sympathy. On this occasion, you were on the money, IMO.