DaptoFunlandGuy

FTFM.

Thats literally what rollercoasters do!

...Just for the record for anyone keen to exercise around LPS - the new restrictions say you cannot exercise more than 10km from where you live, OR outside of your own LGA. So just to help folks out who might not be sure - here is 10km from LPS: And here is the North Sydney Council LGA - noting that (unsurprisingly) it does not extend south of the Harbour Bridge. With a new record breaking 44 cases announced today and the increasing of restrictions - please - we do not need likes and views and coaster updates right now. It will still be there in a few weeks when Sydney comes out of this - but Sydney will not come out of this in a few weeks if people keep bending the rules to suit their own selfish needs.

I still remember going to Wonderland one day and seeing black vekoma track laid out on the top of the hill from the Zodiac, and that was the first thing I remember of the Demon arriving at the park. About a month later they started vertical construction and advertising. I think Joz's idea is probably the closest to the right spot FOR OUR MARKET. Our parks are 7/364 parks, and we frequently see construction delays for various reasons. Parks overseas tend to have a flurry of announcements all at once in the off season - this builds hype, and its a competition amongst literal DOZENS of major park locations - especially in the USA - to try and convince you to plan a trip to their park next season. There is also less risk of construction delays as they don't have to work around an open park schedule - delays are less noticeable when they've got an entire offseason to test and resolve problems. Our parks don't need to do that. If you're in Australia, and you're planning a 'theme park' holiday - the gold coast is where you typically go. You don't need to pick which park franchise gets your business until you literally arrive on the GC. So there is no need to try and beat the competitor to the presses. There's nothing to be gained by revealing your hand too early and if you do put it out too early you have the potential to either: mislead your guests, making them think the new ride is already open (Like Joz mentioned about ST being in last christmas' ads) or to put guests OFF visiting because they figure they'll wait another year until the new one opens... and then when it doesn't open, they keep putting it off, and then guests end up not visiting for 2 or more years because they're waiting for the new ride, whereas if you'd said nothing, they potentially would have just gone anyway.

Ah Touche!

I can attest to the safety systems - when opened, the Wonderland rapids ride (an intamin model) had guard towers installed all around the course, fitted with loudspeakers and staffed by ride operators who could tell riders to sit down, and to contact the control room if an incident occurred. Later, and with improvements in technology, the ride was retrofitted with surveillance cameras that covered every inch of the ride, and could be monitored by one operator, while other staff assisted with loading and unloading. On quiet days, the operator manning the control panel could also control load and unload. the automation built into the ride by then was huge. The control logic that operated the conveyor belt and loading gates was failsafe. Sensors were mounted along the conveyor to track the location of the rafts, and more sensors in the unload and load area ensured raft separation. The conveyor stopped and started based on the ride control logic, rather than running full speed all day. So - the absence of lifeguards around the course does not mean it was unsafe, although I don't know enough about this specific installation to guarantee the camera and logic systems were adequate, i'm just offering the fact that there may have been a very reasonable explanation for the absence of physical lifeguards. It's ok - it was made private because they sold it to news outlets so you can now view it on any of a number of news outlets websites and social pages. It was a little disturbing with audio, without it, there isn't much graphic about it except for an upturned raft - so if you want to see for yourself how it looked post-flip, but don't want to be disturbed, turn off the sound. After reading all i've read on this incident and now seeing the footage, it's down to one of two causes (IN MY OPINION) - either the bladder was underinflated, and caused it to snag and somehow flip, OR someone was playing silly buggers in the raft, potentially stood up and overbalanced the raft at a key tipping point on the ride. I'm not casting blame on the park or the riders, i'm just saying in my opinion these are the two possibilities. Given the ride had been closed for months, and it had only just had an inspection the day prior, and just reopened, if it was down to inflation, my guess is the rafts were all pressured up, the inspection checked, and a slow leak lead to the deflation post-inspection. It's unlikely a slow leak would have been detected that quickly. I do recall in the dreamworld inquest that leaking tubes were discussed, and it was a case of reinflating each day to correct pressures to keep them 'normal' - but that takes daily inspections to know which ones need to be watched - and since this was the first day reopening, maintenance probably hadn't yet identified rafts were leaking... I feel its a lot about reopening parks that haven't operated for some time, without rigorously and thoroughly ensuring that everything is in A1 condition because (at least in some areas) nobody has ever shut down the parks for this long before

Yeah - the youtube comments section doesn't help his case either. I was prepared to give the benefit of the doubt for the photos like the other guy who lives local, but the video crossing the bridge, the gerstlauer hat, the braggadocio... This is a pretty blatant case of 'fuck it, i'll do what I want'. I know the rules haven't changed, only extended, so if you couldn't go 4 days ago, and you couldn't go 1 day ago, what changed to make today any different? Not to mention that the harbour bridge post was taken from the passenger seat of a car, meaning there's a second person potentially breaching the rules too (and at least one responsible adult who should know better). And worst of all, given the social channels with a presence on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube under the same name as your Parkz username, in my opinion this comes across as shameless promotion of your own brand than purely enthusiast-motivated construction updates... but thats opinion, and i'm no Mod so i'll leave it up to the relevant authorities...

I can see the head!

I mean, the guy was there on a regular basis pre-SAHO, so i'm happy to give the guy the benefit of the doubt that he is being sensible and is entirely within the rules on this one, rather than assuming he's doing the wrong thing. Could well be that he actually parks in that carpark on his way to essential employment... ...and that he's really fast at framing and composing photos whilst moving.

I'm not sure if it's currently in use due to covid restrictions - and they may have to change it in the future for a 'covid normal' so we might not actually see it again in park. I'm sure we'd see a copy surface online one day if that were the case though. They are entitled to their own opinion, but they should also be willing to elaborate to explain their position and help others understand why they have that opinion. For example: (in your opinion) what better 'in house' produced video have they done? what do you mean - "what was there" - do you mean the original SV briefing video? or the iMAX film? The video is obviously a very cheeky take on the original Patrick Warburton "Soarin'" brief, and I personally think it hits the right balance between an imitation, a parody, and a piss-take with a little larrikinism thrown in. It is MEANT to be just a tad on the cringe side, and that's what makes it funny. Safety briefings are important parts of amusement rides, just like flying on an aircraft - but you can get a serious message across to more people (and have more of them paying attention) if you make it quirky, amusing, or anything other than boring drawl, or spiels spoken by ride attendants too fast for anyone to actually hear it. Go check out 'southwest airlines safety briefing' as a search term on Youtube for an idea of how much engagement briefings like this get. (And off topic - but if Sky Voyager's briefing is akin to Southwest Airlines, then Superman Escape's video is akin to Qantas. Serious. Even if you are a frequent traveller.)

yep. Track relocation has been well discussed here already, and the re-routing alongside MDMC up to central station is on the plans. Some track was removed for construction but some was left in place and covered in dirt.

I'm not sure how things have changed but I know a while back, theme parks fell into the same category as state fairs and were the jurisdiction of state fair \ labor \ agricultural bodies rather than any sort of workplace safety inspection agency. The original laws surrounding compliance were intended for state fair \ farm machinery etc, and never really changed over the years as parks established permanent locations and rides became more complex. ETA: here's the Iowa department of labor guide on amusement ride safety rules and as you can see, much of the language here is around safety for temporary attractions such as locating power supply lines, and safety guy-wires and the like... 875.62.pdf (iowa.gov)

They should continue to plan to reopen at the first available opportunity. Even if they have to keep postponing, sitting on their hands waiting for the govt to say 'this time we really really mean it' is not the right way to approach it - they might as well close for good if that's the outlook they want to take (which it isn't, for good reason).

Forgive me for being unaware, but what is a block section?

well... I won't gush over it - it's not an astounding piece of production, but the CEO has taken time out of what is imaginably a busy day to shoot a few pieces to camera, and it's been knocked together by someone without the aid of a marketing team or budget. It's not the gushing quality described originally but neither is it hot garbage. its a message, and it (somewhat clumsily) achieves it's aim. (I had to lol that they used the Blue Fire spinner footage to say ST was just like BF, and then reused the same footage to say the spinner was a world first. The average Joe public is going to go 'wtf?' because they're literally seeing a spinning gondola on blue fire, and they don't explain it was just for testing... (because that isn't the point of this video) I think he meant a better production BY Dreamworld, not a fansite. For mine, go take a look at the SkyVoyager briefing video. Probably one of the best i've seen done by the park - and not exactly expensive to do either. Jingiri. You mean about the thing where two senior staff sit out of the front of the ride whilst its still being built using the world's smallest microphone to talk, tease and build up the ride prior to opening? Doing little Q&As about things like the colour of the track and stuff? Yes, this single video, after the last piece of track has already been placed is really more than Movie World had done at this point in construction...

Here's the thing. Whether or not there are 'restrictions' in place, the QLD Gov and the CHO have stressed the need for people to distance, change behaviours etc. Most dining facilities are still operating at reduced capacities to maintain distancing, and most businesses are still operating under the terms of their covid-safe plan. If the park factored in zero-contact interactions with characters in their plan, then, until they revise a new plan and publish it, they'll follow what they've already got. You can't sanitise plush fabric gloves easily in a manner that won't wreck the suit or cause it to be sopping wet... so you just don't have contact. Disney parks in Florida still distance their character appearances with physical barriers to keep guests away from them - and they've pretty much reopened everything - even mask rules are dropping in public areas. Many of the Covid-safe plans out there are being relaxed, provided folks who enter the facility are using the QR code, but there are still too many people who enter shops and restaurants without using them, and it shouldn't need to be policed at this point. The biggest problem we have right now is that as soon as we lift a restriction, or change it from 'mandatory' to 'recommended', the great unwashed use it as an excuse to say 'I don't HAVE to, so I WONT'. Apparently "you're allowed to exercise" translates to "people are allowed to sunbake on the beaches!" I saw a woman on Facebook this other day talking about how the QR system wasn't mandatory until July 9, telling everyone they didn't have to use it (Whilst failing to understand the QR system was mandatory for businesses to use by July 9, but that it should still be used by every business that already had it. In one sentence she talked about how she thought it was important to use it, but how proud she was that she told off some lowly coles employee and walked in anyway because it wasn't 'legal' yet.) ...and I would never have thought it would be such a hard concept to grasp, but I learned otherwise 15 months ago when we had to have celebrities on youtube showing us how to wash our hands properly. Just because the government says 'no restrictions' - that doesn't mean we should just go back to completely normal. All it takes is for one person to become complacent at the wrong time and we're all back where we started.

They'd better hurry up! We've already had the solstice and days are only getting longer from here!

The only trouble with that idea is that the parade route is quite a distance. When do you announce them? when they reach the daily planet? so the people at the fountain can't see who has been announced? Parades are a moving feast. Disney does it so well there's just continuous energy from start to finish no matter where along the parade route you are, and the 'story' of the soundtrack plays out right in front of you because the audio is set up that way. I'm not suggesting MW have to do disney-level parades here, by the way - far from it - but we can't make this into something it isn't. Back in the older days - a parade was exactly that - characters came out on floats, waved, and left. That's precisely what a parade is... and that's what they've delivered here.

Pretty sure the park had at least one of the originals, maybe more - but i'd hope they wouldn't be dusting them off and they've had new ones made up - would have given some prop students some real fun over at the studios i'm sure! Might just be my imagination, but there's so many similarities between the Mr Freeze float and the Wonder Woman float I always just thought that's what became of it...

Oh dear. You shouldn't have done that. Now nobody will go to the event because they've already seen all the good bits, and they will go broke and have to close down. *folks. this is sarcasm. its a form of humour. if you didn't laugh, the joke wasn't meant for you. have a nice day.

Given the dangers they've had with their adjoining bushland, I wonder if these will have fire-sensing eye detectors in the front carriages?

I think it's one of those niche pages that start out focussing on a small part of a small topic, and then run out of content, so they just start update-spamming every new garbage bin installation at the parks in a desperate ploy for clicks to try to stay relevant. I think I saw them post something about trading hours the other day - something i've sorely needed since TPSN blocked me for posting too many fountain updates.

Dreamworld own goals another marketing release! I must say - I find the "logo" to be quite 'yawn' if i'm honest. I did manage to find their early design drafts for it though...

I mean I guess it depends on what you consider 'of real note'. I've always regarded the camera bridge on BigCycWheelCoaster between the corkscrew and the loop to 'feel' pretty close because of the angles between the two elements. Definitely not CorkViper's level of close under the monorail but still pretty close.