DaptoFunlandGuy

The latest i've heard is the ride requires a whole new 'lot of things'. I've heard the track went vertical today so i'd say the halfpipe will be standing within a week or two, weather depending. Getting it open will be subject to the new rules and laws on amusement devices post-TRRR. I had also heard whisper that a new train was coming too. This might not have always been the plan, from what I recall of the earlier details i'd heard - that may also contribute to delays if it wasn't ordered day one. I've got no response to the rest of what you said though - Amen.

You actually don't hang there. When you feel like you've stopped moving, the gondola continues to rise - albeit very, very slowly. If you sit on the edge seats and look inwards over your shoulder you can see the tower behind you and you will see you are still moving. The gondola keeps moving upwards until it reaches the release mechanism. The mechanism is a large mechanical release that, when the gondola makes contact, bumps the gondola as it slides into position, before reaching the release point about 1-2 seconds later. When you feel that clang, you know you're about to drop!

This is an interesting idea. The Fright Nights mazes are currently an underutilised facility as well. Many of the US parks have large facilities (See the Knott's Wilderness Dance Hall as an example) where it hosts mazes for halloween, but is used for boysenberry festival as a food and drink service area - it hosts many different events throughout the year. If the FN maze buildings were on a guest-accessible route, they could utilise these facilities throughout the year to host many different activities, offerings and such. So pure laziness activity. The departments don't "need" this space at all. You still haven't demonstrated that the chinatown alley is essential for the departments to use as BOH. As a matter of fact the more we discover about how this area is used, the less it seems like it is essential or necessary. I want you to imagine this - the park is building a huge, brand new land. Anchored by three rollercoasters, more than they've ever built in a single install, themed to a brand new, never seen in park (in a major way) intellectual property. Just like Lethal Weapon or Wild West before it, it has an immersive pathway directly from Main Street, with a huge bridge over the front announcing to the (movie) world when can be found down that path. No, it's ok. Make everyone walk through the Superman Plaza, or they can pray to find a hidden passageway behind a dining area.... I know the tree is gone, but this sure looks like the entrance to a brand new multimillion dollar land!!! Yes - this is how i'd want to present my brand new IP - by directing people to walk past the superhero or the cartoon dog.

Forgive me, I should have known given your username and how many excuses you've made for them that you are critical of Village. Because that's what "storage" is... a place to put things when they aren't in use. Besides - parade floats are stored out in the dirt behind Wild West (I can supply the nearmap images if you'd like). If you need a space to work on them, sure - but that doesn't have to be in a show building either. To be clear the highlighted area just showed a lot of empty space. Several buildings could be constructed in that area without impeding access to other facilities on the other side. Parking can always be accommodated elsewhere for short term needs - as a matter of fact, there are MANY carparks within spitting distance, and most of those vehicles don't need to be onsite. The studio support buildings around the back end also contain (or did previously contain) theme park workshops as well for various support services and trades. It wouldn't be the first time the studios and the theme park facilities shared workspaces or were neighbours. Yep - like the Sea World Carnivale floats, by the sounds of things. It wasn't multi level, just offsite across Kopps road. it wouldn't have done much for these issues.

They need staff to sell the wristbands, staff to check the wristbands and mark them off (finding a texta to scribble on a wristband takes time you know) or otherwise a device to scan an online purchase code. I assume given the different forces exerted on the backwards row that it would be subject to additional checks to the pylon and subframe. Additionally, the backwards row resulted in one less row of seats which reduced capacity on the ride. The thing about the price is that its mostly intended as a barrier to entry. You can only fill two seats per train so you need to find the balance between 'affordable' and 'so popular it's sold out at midday' I'd say if it was $10-$15, everyone would do it way more, which would lead to it constantly being sold out, and then those who want to give it a go 'once' wouldn't have the opportunity. I don't know what it is - so many of my enthusiast friends are weird about drop towers... I guess I had Space Probe in my earlier years so maybe that's why i'm not bothered by them. If it helps, my 7 year old went on Lex Luthor and just wanted to marathon it. Though the towers are roughly the same size, Lex is less 'whoa' than GD - it's not something I can put my finger on - but if there's any part of you that would try it - i'd recommend it. it's a great ride.

Jesus christ - are you in Village Marketing? Say it with me

The park operated for at least 16 years with that alleyway open. Please explain to me what this space is needed for, besides a couple of dumpsters and a place to store food carts when not in use? When Disneyland needed more space, they moved their administration team offsite so the onsite services could expand into the administration areas. When management takes space from the park, the tail is wagging the dog.

That may be the case. Either way they used to reopen it once the maze \ christmas \ whatever was cleared, and now it seems to just sit closed all year round when not in use for special events, so the point still stands.

LTRR stage Chinatown Alley Showcase (the grandstand seating is still there, just behind the curtains) Intencity (Fright Night maze remains inside all year round) Gremlins theatre (though this is used for staff training) Stars Cafe (kitchens used for AOS food prep, though the dining area and all the memorabilia is just left to gather dust) LT Diner (next to RRRC)

The property has ample open space. At the back of WOO there is around 20,000 SQM of open space and thats still allowing significant space around the water tank, and buffers from soundstages. Which in turn can be the past. If it changed once it can change again. If maintenance needs additional high-rise space, should they just close Scooby Doo too? Say it with me - SUPPORT FACILITIES SHOULD NOT OCCUPY ATTRACTION SPACE AT THE EXPENSE OF ATTRACTIONS.

Just because the park made stupid short sighted decisions out of convenience (see also: LTRR show building storage), doesn't mean it can't go back to the way it used to be - which gave much better guest flow around the park.

Thanks for making my point.

Yeah, it said that in March and April too. Still didn't operate the entire time we were there.

Because big expensive change is not (apparently) ...and would have delivered upwards of 20 years further operation, whereas the small cheaper (band-aid?) maintenance is only going to give you another season or two max, based on the failure rate of the drives. Given it wasn't operating during the peak Spring Break season (and i'm not sure whether it's operating during this summer season) it may not have long left... if at all.

If a retrofit isn't difficult, why did SFMM come to Australia to pillage the TOT carcass, instead of just buying a new launch system? While not financially viable for Dreamworld, SFMM could easily have afforded to retrofit S-EFK if it were that easy.

Village parks don't have the capacity to spread that sort of load. a small group of people with an unlimited wristband can essentially marathon the park's signature attraction and grind everything to a halt.

It was a nice calm space to retreat to during a busy summer operating day. Air conditioned too. I'll be interested to see what they intend to do with it.

They're doing it just to annoy you.

There is a very big difference between an accelerator rollercoaster model that is largely a traditional style coaster that has 17 current installations including one that opened last year, and one under construction (according to RCDB) showing the ride type still in production, and a reverse freefall model which is completely un-traditional, had only two installs in the world, with the most recent construction dating back 26 years, with the manufacturer withdrawing both maintenance and parts support, and both models suffering terribly from a reliability standpoint as they aged with no realistic prospects for retrofitting, and only one other park to potentially share the costs with. Popularity variable plays a big part where something is possible. But it can't overcome the impossible. You were so close. But not really. There seriously wasn't a viable path for any park to keep a reverse freefall operating - the only reason SFMM's version continues to remain on life support (and thats a stretch given its current operations) is because TOT became an organ donor. Technically yes the park would have closed - because if they'd tried to keep TOT alive, it would have involved commissioning the construction of custom designed replacement parts from a new supplier, along with all the testing if they had to reverse engineer (assuming Intamin didn't hand over their intellectual property) so yes, they'd have gone broke trying to keep it alive, but for all the same reasons Qantas would go broke if they had to hire someone to design and build replacement jet engines from scratch for their planes once Rolls Royce \ P&W \ whoever else supplies their jets discontinued them. (And for all those reasons, it's why they didn't do it - which is why the ride closed).

While that may be the case, it wasn't always that way. Village has plenty of room to construct a maintenance facility elsewhere - a soundstage intended to be part of the park's footprint shouldn't be occupied by back of house purposes for convenience if it prevents the park from future growth.

Realistically the storage isn't a major obstacle. They existed for many years without that as an option, plus have other storage options including studios, back of house towards paradise country, or even offsite options if they can't accommodate it onsite. JDS isn't going anywhere anytime soon (though I do hope someone springs for a refresh of the theme to update the attractions featured in the ride - particularly Arkham \ WOO, so as far as the Sesame Street type ride, I doubt it would fit. However - the soundstage is big enough it could feature multiple levels. If the ride system is capable of traversing two floors, it could fit in the storage-half of the building without impacting on JDS, and then MW would be the home to two very elaborate kids attractions, nothing like anything else on the coast.

I think the discussion has been that most accelerators (like superman) are going to need some sort of new launch system in the near future, so there's a lot of people watching TTD to see what comes out of it and considering what, if anything, is transferrable... I don't think Dean was suggesting it was a suitable option for SE, though.

So this primarily benefits people who visit the parks very regularly. Given Leviathan's current ~50% uptime, the odds of getting 5 rides in in a day are low. It's good that they're having a bit of a 'how many rides can you do' contest, but considering there'd be only a handful of key holders, and even a smaller number of those in a position to ride regularly, i'm wondering if they'd get more folks interested if the prizes were based on a 'draw' system with every ride on the coaster counting as one 'entry' into the draw? This whole program just sounds weird to me.

If there's one thing we should have learned by now is that Village will announce a product that contains a certain level of benefits, then slowly strip those benefits away without compensating anyone, before eventually deliberately tanking the product by completely obliterating it's value to the user, forcing them to stop using the product entirely.

So just to be clear, they're not reversing the direction of travel, so the heartline roll is not in issue?