DaptoFunlandGuy

JDS and RRRC are both attractions kids and parents can enjoy. Honestly - I get why some enthusiasts would want to remove it but the attraction is one of the best children's attractions on the gold coast. It's a capacity monster for little kids. Adults (even those without children) can ride it, and it's a fun 'mini movie world' (albeit outdated) that is really cool to walk through. I hate that it replaced LTRR and wish LTRR still existed, but at this point i'm not going to advocate removing it. Meant to? Yes. Achieved? No. Honestly there's still plenty of teenagers that are fearful of 'big coasters' and WOZ does nothing to dispel that fear. There is still a gap in the lineup and coasters should never have been the solution to plug that gap. Once Speedy got the minimum height (which on behalf of all ride operators I 100% agree was required) it should have been taken out - it no longer serves any purpose that JDS cannot fulfill. The park cannot close it's kiddie land for 18 months. They'd have to bring in temporary flats which would look like garbage and crowd out the rest of the park. You don't need to shut the area - you need to take back the maintenance shed\LTRR showbuilding, fit it out internally as an all weather attraction space, THEN you can close off the other half of the land and develop it. So, basically everything I said at the beginning - looks like this plan has some support! Out of all the attractions in WB Kids - and you want to axe the most popular? makes no sense.

Honestly for a children's area, there's nothing wrong with that, as long as there is some thought put into the models and how they would be themed. There's a real opportunity to spruce up WB Kids. The land itself has remained virtually untouched for around 20 years. Sure Marvin got plonked on an old seating area, and JDS rejigged the traffic a little from how it was with LTRR, but overall the bones of the land haven't been messed with in a long time - in that time Sea World has been through at least two generations of their kids land, and Dreamworld has been through FOUR.

This is what happens when you install a consumer grade solution in a commercial grade environment. Well gee, it must cost them so much money to pay for all those safety managers they've got nothing left to develop a creative solution that preserves the illusion and theme. Let's just wrap every ride in westfield grade blank white hoarding. It seems to me like they realised when demolishing the hut that they needed to run power elsewhere, installed something temporary across Speedy because it was the closest structure to the tree, but then once the arcade was finished, nobody bothered to put it back in what was obviously a less noticeable spot.

The bonus to the public not really noticing the finer details is that they also don't really understand how long it takes to do this. The entire ride is in a box and progress from the outside is invisible. Unlike a ride SBNO out in full view for 3 years - they don't know what is happening inside. GP perception will see the ride open and their nostalgia will either: lead them to acclaim the upgrade as a massive success, or; lead them to decry that 'they should have left it how it was' - You could reopen the exact same ride and still get those two polar opposite responses. I'm sure most will just be happy it is open again and hopefully they have brushed up the interior theming enough that it looks sparkly* and new and everyone will quickly forget just how long it has been closed. *And by sparkly, if they don't get that skull-head-mirror-ball back i'm going to riot.

Just so this doesn't go by unchallenged, there would be no requirement for it to be black. black is just the cheapest available option. Now do a photo standing at the fenceline like you would if you were mum waiting for the family to come down the drop... I was going to say this was pointed out ages ago, but that was just the cable running to speedy taxis, not all the way to the tree stage. That does look horrible, but for an area of the park that hasn't been greatly touched since opening (only edits around the periphery) there hasn't been an opportunity to run power to the centre for things not previously planned. What WB Kids needs is to be gutted and refreshed. New discussion thread here.

Continuing conversation from this reply i've put down my current thoughts on a WB Kids refresh. What WB Kids needs is to be gutted and refreshed. My ideal first plan would reclaim the other half of the old LTRR soundstage from maintenance - maintenance might need to relocate entirely if they've outgrown their own space. Put in a new kids area into the soundstage building with multiple attractions similar to Mermaid lagoon at disneysea, or USJ's Sesame Street Fun World. It doesn't need to be immersive, just an indoor area out of the sun with some rides and activities for the little kids to blow off some energy. The reason this is the first plan is it provides the opportunity to refresh the rest of the land without dropping the kids offering in the park. Once this is open, move to refreshing the rest of the land: Remove speedy taxis. It serves no purpose with the introduction of JDS Find a new home for the parents room that doesn't occupy prime attraction space and demolish Taz' Rest Stop along with the original Marvin facade to make space for new attractions. You could potentially provide parent's room facilities as part of the new indoor stage space if you planned for it. Consider the longevity of both Sam Train and Tweety Cages and perhaps remove them in place of new attractions If this whole corner of the kids area can be cleared, then also consider (controversial I know) removing the giant tree. It's a gorgeous old tree and it's been there for a long time, but it occupies prime park real estate and is a major blocker to expansion If the tree comes out, tweety, sam train, taz and the old marvin area are removed, you're left with a huge plot of land you can close all at once, which allows greenfield planning for a new install, with the added benefit you can actually run power to the character stage and bury the cables rather than flying them through the trees suspended on wooden poles. Update JDS to bring it current to today's park lineup (remove arkham, add WOZ, for example - and does it have DCR?) Turn the JDS arcade (is that still there with the new kids arcade?) into a JDS themed gift shop to bring more opportunity for merchandising into the land instead of the laneway entrance most people walk straight past. Reopen the restaurant with a new offering and re-establish a covered (umbrellas) seating area for parents to chill while the kids run their energy out. Probably a bit much especially for BGH's current attitude toward the park, but that's what i'd love to see. WB Kids currently offers a disjointed experience. There are 'rides for babies' plus road runner. So the slightly older kids that have outgrown the 'baby rides' but haven't graduated to hypercoasters don't have a lot of middle ground, so there's an opportunity with this level of expansion to provide some 'middle of the road' attractions - a lot like what Sea World offers in their nickelodeon area.

All great suggestions. And while i'd love to bash village here and say they just went with the cheapest option to solve the problem, my bet here is that their risk analyst\consultant has probably told them the more thematic options Gazza posted above weren't acceptable because it only reduces the risk but could still be climbed and only 6+foot pool fencing would eliminate the risk, and anything less than total risk elimination simply wasn't an option for them in this current risky averse world.

Its a hard pill to swallow when a rollercoaster can be built in a year, but it takes 3 years to rebuild. From what I understand, they had planned on upgrades with Mack and had booked their build slot - which I believe was supposed to be after WoZ opened - but the ride had to be closed earlier than planned - the build slot couldn't be moved up, so the 3 years has just been waiting on Mack to deliver in the timeframe previously locked in. I believe they've taken the time to improve other bits and pieces (and all the cars are getting replaced too, I think?), so there is a lot being done - but the time it has taken is much longer than actually required - which may set some false expectations.

Honestly - in the current environment, the reveal would not be worth the potential foot traffic to their retail offering. Having almost all their merch and F&B down main street - i'd avoid it entirely. If you consider what the park offered prior to 2004 - Main Entrance offered BA:TRide and the SFX soundstages \ studio tour. That's it. "rides" and experiences were all through \ beyond main street. Roxy, Scooby, PASS\HWSD, Lethal, WWF, Kids, showstage and all the other various attractions that have come and gone over the years. Everything was in or past main street. Now, almost nothing is and everything is front-loaded. I realise the park has issues with noise (not a problem for indoor dark rides of course) but the front loading is so bad now you could effectively never walk past any opportunity to drain your pockets, save for the JL store at the exit. It just seems like really poor design.

There is literally zero reason to walk past the WB Department store - everything open (for adults) is off the entrance roundabout. Edit: They should probably remove Doomsday from the list since they've announced it (and ripped it out of the ground) Edit2: even off the roundabout there's still 3 attractions closed - Rivals, Flash and Wicked Witch.

like - even *not black* would have helped.

*sigh*

The Rivertown area could do with a few 'themed billboards' put together out of ramshackle junk and old timey lights - "kind of like the highway signs of "just 2 miles until you reach...."

Are you this obtuse deliberately or were you just born with it?

it's a bit of a double whammy for jungle rush because dropping the second train instantly increases the cycle time by 33% in addition to the load time. For both parks though, it is off peak, out of holidays - this is the time when train rebuilds should happen so that they can run both trains in the peak periods. At least in JR's case it is out of the sun and at least they attempted to provide guest comfort with ventilation systems in the queue.

i'm sure many people would be unaware that the restaurant even had a function room. I know it was in some earlier concepts somewhere but I never saw it, nor any doorways leading to it, so when I saw the advertisement posted (which also said "live inside janes rivertown restaurant" it was a fair assumption for me to make it would take over the entire dining room. I've no doubt many other potential guests will see that and assume the same thing - potentially scaring diners away rather than attracting trivia buffs! I realise it's their marketing and not yours brad - not aiming my critique at you, just calling it how I see it. Also as an additional critique of the park - the early days of opening, they had queues, and refused people a table on the basis that they were waiting for tables - but they had an entire function room space they could have opened up to seat more covers?

Well now - be sure to read things properly to understand what's happening before looking silly - you're incorrect here for two reasons a ride envelope with a supervising operator is a bit different to a static display with no staff on duty in any nearby capacity I was answering the question posed by Narra about what risks they did identify, and I was postulating what logic MW's consultancy firm may have used - rather than stating my own opinion.

You can't rush these things. it might take other folk 9 months to build a rollercoaster, but here at village, we'll refurbish one in 3 years if it kills us.

Yeah look - I'm glad they're trying things out and it's awesome you've been able to collaborate with them. I know they want to drive visitation and increase revenue, and i'm not shitting on the concept at all - I don't mind a little pub trivia on occasion while having a drink or two... ...but if trivia is happening in a venue - I prefer to eat elsewhere. This is definitely something i'd avoid, for my own personal tastes and preferences.

Also probably down to it being a kids ride in a kids area, and assuming children would follow instructions and adults would be mature enough to take responsibility for their own actions (and their progeny).

Seriously? that shit has bothered me for years and they fix it NOW?

100% was not suggesting your prior callouts were undeserved - though in some cases I would hold a different opinion!

sensible decision.

Kudos for the self-reflection and calling out your prior criticisms in comparison - I agree with you though - the whole area is beautifully done and almost perfect. The progress they've made from "opening" day to now is wonderful and the turntable chamber would have easily dragged the score lower if you'd seen it on opening day when it was practically a black box. It would have been great for them to open fully show-ready, but they easily could have opened and called it a day - so the constant installations and upgrades post-opening where they continue to plus it really does deserve that 9/10 - and maybe when they're finished - maybe it'll even crack that double digits... it is definitely really well done. Just unfortunate the timing of things (which they definitely should have allowed for in the project, so there's really no excuse for the delays - but at least they're persisting!)

I'm wondering if someone could get crazy enough to create a zacspin style track for a zipper - so rather than just the loop it could do more? probably not practical for a traveller but that thing would look insane - i'm just spitballing what they could do to the humble zipper to reinvent it?