DaptoFunlandGuy

Much of the elements they could do would require themeing in the area, which wouldn't wash during the day time.

It's been answered already but just want to make sure it's clear - no ride safety features prevented this incident from being worse than it was. It was pure dumb luck - nothing more. Yeah, nah. The ride vehicle could have ended up in the creek had the failure occurred at a different point in the track. The fact that the car was leaning inwards towards the failed bogey is the biggest factor. Buddy it's very clear from your knowledge of the ride and it's operation that you don't know the full details. Had there been a death on GL and a coroner's report released, there would be plenty of information out there to support the statements being made. I don't often like to 'pull rank' but take a look at the history of the people who are saying GL could have been a lot worse. Consider the possibility that there is more to it than you currently see. You see, the problem with making this argument is that Village used to operate another Flume ride, and in 1993\94 it closed and was refurbished \ rethemed into probably the greatest themed attraction we've ever had on the gold coast. Even Disney Imagineers were gobsmacked over how much they'd done on such a little budget. (For those who don't know, Bermuda triangle was a retheme \ refurb of the old Lassiter's lost mine.) This proves that it can be done - it's having the vision to do it, rather than cave and just buy an off the shelf product, slap a logo on it and call it a day. Universal manages to work this with their Hollywood Backlot. I know we're on different scales here, but the studios could be negotiated around. Granted, USH recently tore out their animal and SFX stages to build a rollercoaster, so there's merit in what you're saying - but it doesn't mean they have to move away completely (I could see showstage easily showing some sort of SFX show the likes of what USH previously had) Sorry - no. 8 rides in a day is a metric used by the biggest in the business and plenty of research has shown that guests who have achieved that number of attractions in a day will leave a park feeling satisfied... As for wait times, worldwide, the longest wait times consistently reflect Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea and Movie World. (I'll give you a hint though - one of those parks is not like the others!) Now, I can't quote attendance figures for MW, but I know that collectively TDR handles more than 27 Million guests per year. They routinely have 2-3 hour queues for their most popular attractions, including soarin' and Beauty and the Beast. While they do queues better, there are still plenty of 'outdoor' relatively plain queue areas in these rides too. But you can also see cast members working hard to get people through quickly. The wait time isn't 3 hours because it takes 7 minutes to dispatch a rollercoaster - the wait time is 3 hours because there's 6,000 people in the queue. However, as i've recently shared in another thread - we still achieved 20 attractions in a day when we recently visited TDL - and while we had some advantages, I'll guarantee we still got into double digits without those advantages. On the flip side, I can't remember the last time I got 8 attractions in at Movie World. Being obtuse as usual, but you are technically correct on the back of what Gazza said. I think the issue is Disney sees those 1-2 hours waits on the big headliner e-ticket attractions, but there are still plenty of classics with great capacity that round out the day - one can visit Disneyland and ride a bunch of D-and-below ticket attractions (and older e-tickets) and still have a fantastic day. If you go to the park to ride the big shiny thing, you go knowing it will have a longer wait than the rest of the park. When the 20 year old accelerator is also pushing 2 hours, and the family wild mouse, and the space shot, you start running out of other tickets for your guests to go on. MW's problem is they all have shitty wait times, not just the headliners. Sorry - didn't Morgan Ross (vomit) or the assistant come out at the beginning of HWSD in that getup? A director with a bullhorn needs licensing? fair suck of the sav mate, you're reaching. As for WB logos, the group already licenses numerous indicia from the company. I'm sure they could ask? Let's not rule out the possibility of building a studio water tower with the WB logo on it because it would need permission for use? (cough DC Comics cough Wizard of Oz cough Scooby Doo cough Looney Tunes cough) I for one have been quite vocal about supporting the parks increasing their prices - with the caveat that there has to be value in the pricetag - specifically because I would like to see them able to operate with higher prices and lower attendance numbers. Unfortunately they've gone with higher prices and higher attendance... I watched the video a few days ago and the specific details escape me, and i'm not about to rewatch it to capture the specifics, however I remember thinking during the video some of the suggestions could be easily implemented. Many of the future attraction things would need to be 'as needed' but a couple of cheaper flats could be factored into the budget fairly easily and would boost attendance even if not as much as a big thriller. Doomsday was meant to do that, it was just unfortunate about the chosen ride. But doing things like involving your senior operators in the ride manual, getting suggestions and considering improvements and that sort of thing don't really cost you anything. Case in point: There's some great suggestions in there, and most wouldn't cost too much but would be welcome improvements. There should be no reason for ops crew to have to shout at guests either while grouping or providing safety spiel. Pre-record the big spiel items, or give them a PA system... actually, do both anyway. Two caveats though - I'd heard about there being an issue for mist fans and some concern over legionnaires disease. It leaves me wondering how other businesses get away with it, but if that's the reasoning for it then I can't argue too loudly. Second, Scooby Maintenance - I think they took it away for a while and people were turning up and complaining because the ride (which they knew existed from previous visits) wasn't on the maintenance list so they had assumed it would be open and were disappointed. It needs to be shown how it is now to ensure returning guests are aware it isn't open. And that's the devious mindset that deserves to see them castigated online. The other parks around the world with consistent 2-3 hour wait times you pointed out earlier are also parks that provide water and shade in the queues. The infamous disneyland opening story about a plumbing strike leading to a decision to have water fountains or toilets, and them choosing toilets because people could buy pepsi cola is the tough, but understandable decision you make when faced with a crossroads. But you don't then open the park and go "well, people didn't get water fountains on day one, so they don't need them and we won't bother to do it at all" - you get those fucking water fountains online as soon as you possibly can. If the budget has been crunched - it means one of two things happened - either, you didn't budget properly in the first place (and you're incompetent and should be fired) or you allowed another part of the process to run over budget without allowing for this contingency or requiring the partner that caused the overrun to pay for it while happily making the decision that guest comfort elements which were originally included in the budget because they were deemed necessary are suddenly deemed unnecessary. In which case you're a devious asshole, and you're also incompetent and should be fired. Since Covid? or since BGH? i'm having a hard time separating these two events and their cause and effect.... if it were covid - why aren't other theme park companies suffering the same basic issues? Hint: it isn't "since covid." You're 100% right when you earlier talked about their EBA, pay and conditions are a huge part of attracting and retaining good staff... but pay is only 50% of that equation, and conditions aren't just what's written into the agreement - it's also how staff are treated on the ground. ETA: this was written yesterday but due to the server dropouts it kept failing to post, so apologies if the above has already been put to bed.

Nobody mentions how easily it could have been MW who killed 4 people. Oh I know. It was all S&S' fault right? 🤐 I don't think Village is suffering an image problem stemming from TRRR. They went gangbusters post-TRRR and pre-covid. Village's image problem is down to their contempt for guests, and their disregard for the guest experience. It has long ago been about making money, not memories. THAT is the fucking image problem at village.

Just be warned - as far as your 'credits' are concerned - their maintenance schedules aren't easily identified - we had several places we planned to visit based on certain attractions we wanted to do and ended up discovering several were closed for maintenance. The japanese websites sometimes had the info, but the english mirror sites weren't always updated. Some places didn't really advertise the closure - I can remember two places we went to where we literally arrived at the queue entrance to discover a no entry \ closed sign, and nowhere else could we find this info. For one of those, the website was still allowing people to purchase tickets for that date (so i'm really glad we didn't pre-pay!). This may not impact you but do keep in mind this can happen.

Didn't they entirely reprofile the bowls? is there maybe some compliance issue with the new profiles?

You should probably cut back.

Might not be uncommon, but there's something pretty common in all of your examples...

Big Thunder and Splash both get significant waits. Rope dropping Splash is probably the way to go as it's all the way at the back of the park. When you come out you'll probably see a few fantasyland walk-ons (we got Peter Pan walk-on immediately after rope dropping splash). If you do this, while walking to Splash you can be trying to get a 40th anniversary pass for Big Thunder, and you've knocked 2/3 on the head in less than an hour. The gadget coaster will be a solid wait all day, but it moves quickly. We hit that after big thunder and waited about 45 minutes. How our day went down: Splash (rope drop) Peter Pan (standby - walkon) Big Thunder (40th) Pinocchio (standby - 10 mins) Gadget Coaster (Standby - 45 mins) Roger Rabbit (standby - 30 mins) Space Mountain (40th) - now closed Haunted Mansion (40th) Haunted Mansion (40th) we lucked out and picked up a second pass while in the queue so figured it was worth it for the AC Carousel (standby - 10 mins) Snow White (Standby - 25 mins) Small World (standby - 20 mins) Pooh (standby - 30 mins - during parade) B&TB (DPA) Star Tours (40th) Western Railroad (Standby - 15 minutes) Tiki Room (Standby - 5 minutes) Jungle Cruise (Standby - 20 minutes) Pirates (Standby - 30 minutes) Big Thunder (40th - night ride) Splash (Standby - 15 mins) (Happy 15 early entry got us the first two, and probably really helped with the first BT 40th pass - the 15 minutes doesn't let you ride anything though, so it only ensures you're front of the line when rides commence operations)

Since you're arriving early on the 25th, you might consider the USJ "1.5 day pass". You get a half day in the park on the first day, so you could head in in the afternoon to 'get the lay of the land' and knock some things on the head to clear up your full day. USJ can be done in a day but the extra afternoon gives you a bit more time to pace yourself. We did it last year in June and i'd recommend it if you've got nothing else to do that afternoon and you aren't staying far from Universal City. Then you get your 7 ride pass for the second day, and you've already sussed out the lay of the land and how things work. Your plan to hit everything else in the morning is good if you've got SNW locked in already. Just remember the Japanese don't really have weekends like a lot of western countries do - their work ethic is typically a 6 day work week (or more) so the low days aren't always going to be midweek. Thrill Data's crowd calendar shows the back end of September is likely to be 'average crowds' every day. Disney still offers the free 40th anniversary pass on their app, though they do disappear quickly. The best advice is to research what are your 'must-do' attractions and target them first by either rope dropping them or prioritising them in the app if they're available on the 40th pass. On our last day in TDL we managed to do 21 attractions in a single day (Disney considers 8 to be a 'satisfying day' in most parks). We had happy entry and 3 pre-booked fastpasses, but everything else was just working the app and strategically planning our route, plus constant refreshing of the app. The biggest tip is if you see a fastpass popup for something you're keen on, don't wait, don't ask your party if they want to do it, just book it as it will disappear in the time you have that conversation. Have your tickets pre-loaded into the app prior to arrival, and have your credit card info loaded in and\or handy to add in for online ordered food and premium access upgrades - Premier Access is an option pay for play, and is probably the best way to experience Beauty and the Beast or Soarin' - a shame you aren't planning Disney Sea by the sounds of your family members, as Sea is probably the prettiest park in the world. TDRExplorer has done many videos on how to use the apps, and cool tips not just for TDR but also for USJ so if you haven't already - go and watch his channel. Gone are the days where you could rock up to the front gate, buy a ticket and have a good day. Disney Parks - but especially Tokyo require intense pre-planning and constant app-monitoring to fit the most in. If you just want to see the castle and consider that a good day you could get away with doing nothing in advance but if you want to experience more than a couple of attractions, you need to do your research.

It's a controversial topic at present - and no matter which side of the fence you're on, you're going to have one group or another take issue with your position on it, so the smarter option in these is to not engage in the debate at all - but of course then you'll have people who will take issue with you not taking a position at all - so it's lose-lose.

"Sea World's Doomsday" How long do we think before it only goes halfway up due to guest feedback?

My god you have zero idea about consumer logic. They're not relying on a couple of people forgetting. Spend it or not, some of the additional funds are still profit. And it incentivises people to buy. You're not buying a gift card for yourself. you're buying an annual pass. the gift card is a freebie for something you were going to buy anyway. Therefore you may or may not use it. A few years ago they included free ride express passes with renewals. i've still got 1 or 2 I never used. it costs them virtually nothing to include this sort of 'extra' but it bundles it up to make it more attractive (and is the same reason why Village included fright nights, then white christmas, then carnivale and so on with their annual passes) The flyer is of course what I was forgetting that makes up the 11 not including Rivertown. thanks mate.

Full price is $159, which is a fair comparison given Village's local's lite pass is $189. Retaining an existing passholder is far cheaper than attracting a new one. There's plenty of people who alternate properties - one year at dreamworld and one year at village. Offering a renewal with a 37% discount makes it a deal you can't refuse and locks them into another year at Dreamworld instead of forking out almost twice the price for a village pass. I don't know if $129 would be enough of a difference to sway people from 'trying the other side of the highway' if they haven't been in a while, but $99 sure is. Dreamworld needs to hang on to every passholder they have right now - retention is super important. They'll up their prices more in time, but there's still recovery time to go. 2016-2019 wasn't really recovery time because of the inept folk running the show who tried to build crocodile rivers and ampitheatres, and resurrect eureka mountain. Then we had Covid - every corporation's excuse for poor performance. Steel taipan should have been built near the start of 2020 and it didn't open until December 2021. I'd say 2021-2022 FY would be their first 'year of recovery' where they actually had good direction and backing. By that metric we're approaching four years in - and if I recall, everyone believed it should have taken 4. (and don't forget all the other good rides they lost along the way - through poor maintenance and management). So - while i'm not giving them a pass on those earlier years - i'm conscious that - because of prior mismanagement - they're not '8 years in' - they're only 4 - now is the point they should have been at in 2020. I suspect we'll continue to see modest lifts in the pricing, but they're still the 'underdog' so they'll still need to price themselves under village, not because village is better, but to win the 'cheaper' argument and maintain retention.

Pretty sure we discussed this a while ago and the logic we arrived at was that they were counting all the rethemed attractions in Dreamland and so on. Jungle Rush Murrisippi Serpent Slayer Big Red Boat Big Red Planes Forest Flyer BIP Carousel Maze Treehouse Dodgems Splashpad If we're not counting Rivertown in the number then you can also grab the Dreamworld Theatre. Not sure what the last one would be but it's marketing...

Say it with me everyone...

The only thing GD needs is what they do every night - winch the catch car to the top of the tower so the rope doesn't bash around in the wind. The two attractions are very different structures.

Remember that the initial closure was done very suddenly, which points to an unplanned event necessitating closure. So they wouldn't have commenced work immediately. Chances are the majority of the time it's been closed has been awaiting new 'things' from various suppliers \ manufacturer. The update videos they have posted have shown a lot of stuff is getting changed, and they're no doubt very close to being ready to reopen, but again - much of the time it's been out has likely been a waiting game.

Like he said, they're wrong. We've seen the carpark entirely inundated, not just little patches of the creek. And this event is likely to be worse than that. Yes, Trident has tie down points surrounding it and is intended to stabilise the tower in strong winds.

Kudos sir - the atmosphere is so much nicer than Hot Tomato's top 40. Would love if you could share the full playlist as not everything comes up in Shazam.

Yeah I don't think there's any wisdom in anything (show, theme park, or any other event) going ahead in the face of a cyclone that has inched closer to the gold coast by the hour (this morning's track map has it somewhere over southern brisbane \ logan, whereas yesterday it was northern end of Bribie Island). Just because village made the decision earlier, doesn't make dreamworld late. they both made it in advance of the system's approach, and did it at a time where the data made sense. My organisation advised yesterday afternoon that all our offices in SEQ would close today. I've seen some private schools and bus companies also close today - however public schools remain open. I've seen a lot of people crying foul over schools staying open but there's many critical workers out there preparing for this event that wouldn't be able to go to work if their kids weren't at school. Today's forecast has wind and rain, but nothing is forecast outside 'usual' summer storm parameters, so schools being open today makes sense - however i've no doubt in my mind they'll be closed tomorrow. A lot of other things will probably announce closures today, and the disaster press conference today is probably going to have a lot more information now that the system tracking is close enough to reasonably predict landfall location. Wherever you are - stay safe. Your family comes first. possessions can be replaced, but you can't. Don't enter floodwater - even if your 4x4 is modded to the max. Take the time today to secure anything outside that could potentially fly away (and remember that the winds are a lot stronger so heavier objects can fly too), stay inside, away from windows, and don't go outside when the wind stops - you may just be inside the eye. Wait until you've confirmed with official sources that it has passed. Don't run generators in enclosed spaces. boil tap water before drinking until declared safe by water authorities. Turn on location services on your phone, and tag your location on social media posts. If you need help with flooding or storm damage, call the SES on 132 500. If anyone's life is in danger, call 000.

Considering village's staunch opposition to closure in the face of a pandemic, I will give credit where it's due and applaud them for being so proactive in making the call ahead of time to close the parks. I've no doubt Dreamworld will do similarly - it is the smart thing to do. There is a lot of complacency out there - a bunch of folk thinking "oh it won't get this far south" or "it won't come this far in land" and these are the people who grew up in SEQ and have never seen a cyclone this far south. ...and on the flip side the amount of people flipping out and buying up all the "milk sandwich" supplies is ridiculous. Be prepared, not panicked.

Best thing that they could get would be management by Miral group.

The thing is the town isn't what it once was. I doubt the council will spend up - its a sleepy little seaside town - rampant with petty crime and vandalism. We have family in the Coffs region so will always be stopping, but the bypass will still save us time going through the main strip at 60. The banana feasibly could be a stop, but rather than go through town, we'd take the exit at korora and double back if we wanted to do that. A park more akin to Aussie World would be worth the stop for more folks though I reckon.