DaptoFunlandGuy

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?

Given the experiences being shared here, this statement is patently false. if it were consistently available, others would be talking about their success in using it. The fact that most are not able to use it proves it is very much inconsistent.

Yes I do think Village's upcharge offerings change during the holidays - VQ wasn't available on our visit over the weekend in either MW or SW - so i think there's an element of surge pricing, and turning VQ off to reduce pressure in park. DW is a lot more manageable - they're quieter because people are still avoiding them. Once Rivertown has opened I think a lot of that will change.

Understatement of the year.

Twitterverse is reading too much into it. If that weren't going to be the finish line, would they have installed the track around it, or removed the finish post for easier install? i'm thinking the latter.

Their Autopia version, fully electric with smooth controls and safety systems was, in my opinion, far superior to California's boneshaking version, nevertheless, HK hasn't operated an Autopia attraction in over 7 years now. This assumes California is in full working order (which it isn't at present) so the effects are as much hit and miss as Scooby or Superman can be. HK has a smaller load station, but i'm not riding for the station. It's been about 8 years since I went on HK's version but having just come back from California, I think HK stands on it's own - not as big, or bold, but still a great park, with newly opened Toy Story Land and potentially Grizzly open in 2012 - certainly worthy of outranking Ocean Park, which was the original comparison made in this discussion. Like all attractions there's a difference between capital and non capital expenditures, and overlays don't generally come out of the same budget and full rethemes, so perhaps it needs to wait it's turn in the cycle. Nevertheless, the discussion was on a 2012 version of the park where that wasn't a factor. If we're going to make modern comparisons, then we also need to factor in the modern attractions (as well as the current closures) which IMO still tips the scales towards HKDL.

It is strange to me - They would have needed to staff the gates at WWW, and presumably another staff member to supervise the facilities to ensure guests didn't wander further into the park, so it can't be a staffing decision. Perhaps they already had staff onsite at WWW (maybe for contractors?) so it was simpler to do? As for SW - I think the latest numbers i've seen have Levi operating around 50%. I saw SE running while I was there but as mentioned, we didn't hang around long as one of the kiddos wasn't feeling well.

I took the family down the coast last week to meet up with friends visiting from interstate. We visited all 3 parks. I know it's school holidays, and you expect things to be a bit busier, but having recently come back from California during spring break, there really isn't much of an excuse for some of the things we experienced. Dreamworld I'm surprised to get home and find there's no thread about this - but Dreamworld had a burst water main on Friday afternoon. It happened around 1pm-ish, and staff were quickly running around with signs to attach to the bathrooms advising of the water outage. Shortly after, a looping announcement played over the park PA at regular intervals (maybe 5-10 mins or so?) advising of the water outage. Luckily for DW, WWW is fed from a separate water main, so the bathrooms worked at WWW - however instead of opening the internal gate near gold coaster, guests were directed to exit the park through guest services to receive a pass out stamp, then walk across the carpark to WWW to use the bathrooms. Soda fountains were also out of action but they were offering sipper refills from bottled soft drinks at some locations. I heard someone in park mention that the water main may have been hit by construction crews in-park, though that is just rumour. Without knowing that, it's hard to fault the park for it and I don't - the only issue I took with the park's handling of the situation was making guests pass-out instead of opening the internal entry to WWW as there are facilities just inside the internal gate. The park proceeded with Night Market, though we decided to leave rather than keep heading over to WWW all afternoon. Ride queues were reasonable given the holiday period. Cast were being as efficient as possible, wasn't as busy as I expected it to be. Sea World We visited Sunday, and Levi wasn't open. Staff advised it was unlikely to open that day. Trident was cycling intermittently - we noticed it cycled empty several times in a row. Vortex sounds horrible for such a recent installation - not as bad as wipeout in it's later years but still bad sounds - especially right near the dolphin pools. We stopped by all the animal exhibits up to Shark Bay and with all of Atlantis unavailable, we opted to leave for MW - Storm was 130 minutes and Jet Rescue was 55 minutes - whereas over at MW at the same time, Batwing, GL, JL, DCR were all 30 minutes or less (and we later found that the posted 30 min wait on Batwing turned out to be more like 15). Movie World Obviously, queues were a little shorter given there was more to do. One of the kids in the group wasn't feeling that well so we didn't end up staying for the HvV parade, and only did a couple rides. The park was well staffed, and Ops were moving as quick as i've seen at MW in a long time. That zipline tower on main street looks atrocious, and the park is looking tired - main street lights are falling down in places, one of the queue poles for Roxy wobbles a solid 12 inches side to side, so much so that when a kid swung on it, it pulled the queue pole into my son's head with quite a bit of force. Mentioned it to Roxy staff who acknowledged it was broken and had been reported several times. We did catch the 'cartoon heroes' mid afternoon parade, which was fun, albeit a bit short. With only three vehicles, it was over too quickly (though the song choice pumped a lot of energy into main street for the duration). I would have liked to have seen some of the other characters out in the parade - the park needs a 'generic' float that any character is suited to for this, IMO. Overall, this reinforced for me why we tend to avoid the parks during holiday periods. It was busy, but not stupidly so. Cast at all parks were doing a great job despite circumstances out of their control. Dreamworld has a ways to go but all signs point to them looking like they're on the right path. MW is chugging along, but Sea World is just disappointing in it's current state, and despite getting the most recent attraction installations, they haven't impacted the park positively at present, with all the downtime - and having the main drag past the dolphin pools closed off really fractures the flow of the park. Trident is an absolute lemon and Leviathan's unreliability is hurting them badly.

getting artwork, finding quotes, sending it to be printed, getting it installed. Took about 5 weeks or so... not great, but not terrible either, glad that they're listening.

I mean, we ranted when they had DC Rivals virtually built and still hadn't said anything about it.... so *standard rant about how enthusiasts can never be happy*

Nearmap's latest images for all GC parks is April 2023

Entry is to the left of the SE tophat (between that and Batwing). Exit path is where the vehicle access gate is to the helix, so exiting guests will return to the Superman plaza. A bit disappointing - as the choke point that is the walkway underneath Superman's launch is going to see a lot of extra traffic from Flash riders running back to their group \ re-rides. I'm pretty sure it's been settled that the whole reason this is going in here is because of the scooby downtime. They've got winter off-season for the next few months, if I were them i'd be busting it to get it open before christmas, even if it meant Superman had to go down for a bit to do it. Christmas at Movie World without Scooby, plus this thing sitting in the Superman Courtyard not operating - it's gonna be a bad time. No, for me, the only reason why it might be blown out this far is potentially because they've run into an issue they didn't anticipate, or they've had to involve the manufacturer in something and they're unable to attend the site sooner. The ride-in-a-ride claim is total bullshit - as has been pointed out, both Luna Parks offer an install that would take that claim first. It's a complete head scratcher, but we all know our parks have to have their "first" in the "world \ southern hemisphere" claims - even if they are absolute garbage.

ah, I misunderstood that, thanks for clearing it up. my bad.

au contraire - Midnight is 00:00 hours - so it's the start of 'tomorrow' rather than the end of 'today'

Skye Ryder? The park will need a NSFW warning if she's gonna Flash.

You've hit the nail on the head perfectly. If i'd done a TR of the park travelling solo, it'd probably have been identical. HKDL is a great park - and a great "first" Disney park for Aussies looking to head abroad. Those who have been able to visit other Disney parks are likely going to make comparisons, and many come away saying "it wasn't as good as ...." but the park stands on it's own, has a few unique elements that are absolutely excellent and worth a trip in their own right.

I was there and I would disagree. I disagree about this. There's a lot of things that parks are blind to, mainly because they see them on the daily, and don't notice. The font thing is one thing - because it doesn't change - but many other things do. Its the boiled frog analogy. It's the rotting speakers in the garden beds around movie world. The dust-encrusted air vents in Sky Voyager. Heck - even Disney has things pointed out to them by guests that they immediately take action on, but hadn't noticed until it was mentioned on some forum. There's a reason many parks review their fan sites and forums worldwide - and that's because enthusiasts have far more eyes in park that are critical for detail, it does their job for them.

You really need to decide which side of the fence you're going to sit on. You're disagreeing with me here, yet two replies up you're agreeing it would have been nice to have both sides open. You also doubted the demand for it would be there these holidays, and then immediately got corrected on it with reported 45 minute waits, so you can doubt all you like - it doesn't make you right.

@DJKostya is right here. First of all - you're second guessing one of the biggest rollercoaster parks on the planet. They've been doing this likely since before you were born. They're keenly aware of how popular TTD is, and you can rest assured all parties are aware how important it is to deliver on this. Cedar and Six Flags can both afford to gamble on something new. If it pays off, they're top dog. if it doesn't, their parks are still well rounded without the single missing element... i've no doubt if it doesn't work, Cedar has clauses in the contract to recover costs and they can simply return to market and find someone else to finish the job. And as far as Zamperla goes, while they may not have built massive record breakers - what they have is diversity. These guys have turned their hand to everything from supermarket kiddie rides, giant pendulums, drop towers, coasters and everything in between. You could theoretically build an entire well rounded park just from their catalog alone (and they have a few times too) and many of the newest flats installed at the biggest parks around the USA all came from Zamperla. What this shows is that they can do just about anything they put to mind. I'm keen to see what they turn out.

It's not about need. It's a grand reopening. Regardless of the numbers, they should have operated both sides - even if the one operator \ operator group alternated between gondolas. (Not to mention, if both sides had operated, i'd have definitely been lining up several more times to try East side too)