DaptoFunlandGuy

Was this guy selling cups of small spherical ice cream? Because it sounds like he was the dippin' dots guy. 12 months to paint Rivals if it were completely shut down to do the job? BULLSHIT. Unless they're completely stripping it, a new coat or two as part of maintenance shouldn't take too long, provided the weather is kind. I won't put a number on it, but 12 months it isn't. Definitely less than 6. I think he might have been pulling your leg matey. Local painters with these skills already exist. They paint buildings and bridges and all sorts of things. Roller Coaster Painters aren't a specialist industry (although its quite reasonable in a country with as many coasters as the USA that they might have a specialist company that only does coasters). There used to be a company that had website images from their work repainting Lethal Weapon back in the day, and to be honest I reckon Lethal would have been the harder one to work on - A skyreach EWP platform can reach 150ft, meaning most of the coaster can be reached by a suitably qualified painter without additional equipment. The drop is 200ft, so everything else is lower than that, and the drop can be accessed by qualified abseiling crews (my multistorey building was painted by crews like this), so there is very little that can't be reached with a single EWP and some ropes. (suitably qualified personnel obviously, and you'd be surprised how many of those exist locally). Anything you can't reach is gonna need a crane and a man-basket but they used that to build the damn thing so not difficult to get them in again.

Insightful. They did give some additional detail about sensors and whatnot in a facebook post when west went down for maintenance and improvements to increase the station throughput and the post was similarly lambasted

Neearmap's latest update is dated 7 Jun - so less than two weeks ago. There is a construction fence around the entire ride envelope, not just the lift. There is a vehicle access way set up in the fencing which exits to the bottom right side of the picture. Some of this fencing has been up for a while but can't confirm how long as the most recent update prior to June was November. TPSN is certainly unreliable garbage but even a broken clock is right twice a day, and given the advanced set up (ie - its not just a fence to keep people out, the vehicle access path isn't something you do if you don't need it), i'd say if it doesn't start this week, it isn't far off....

I'm not sure - but I overheard an operator while I was waiting one day mention they had to delay dispatches because it needed more time to cool down - maybe this maintenance period will fix that issue up though... hopefully?

He opens his browser and types 'google.com' into bing, and then googles "funny pictures old man"

I think the original point I was trying to make is that Superman would never hit those dispatch numbers. Ops that fast in an Australian park? laughable.

Yeah - less days open per year does require them to cycle it even faster to keep up. And testing cycles would amount to ~1% given 120ish cycles per day. But yeah, I did say night events and off-peak periods would all come out in the wash so maintenance periods and testing cycles also wash out. They get 431 only if they can hit a 2 minute 46 second dispatch time from open to close all year round. I think its a bit further than you'd think.

I mean, 45,000 cycles a year based on a 7 hour / 364 day trading operation means 123.6 cycles a day, on average. That's only 17.6 cycles an hour (or 353 riders per hour). They'd need to dispatch the ride every 203.8 seconds or 3 minutes and 23 seconds. They may have achieved that on opening but there is no way in heck they reach that these days. And yes, i'm ignoring the night events, but since they reduce hours in winter and everything can be a walk-on I think it all comes out in the wash. (If you were wondering about the dispatch times for the maximum 55,000 cycles - it would need to be 151 cycles a day, or 21.6 cycles an hour (or 431.7 riders per hour). They'd need to dispatch the ride every 166.7 seconds or 2 minutes and 46 seconds and that is absolutely hilarious, but makes me wonder how the big US parks with Intamin Accelerators manage when they trade for longer hours. I think its a good idea, but then again I thought the same thing about the Leviathan Blog, which hasn't been updated in over 15 months.

I mean, once they missed their originally planned opening date, at least they just changed to 'coming soon, keep an eye out for announcements!' instead of the duck season \ wabbit season strategy deployed at Sea World.

Didn't he say in the coaster video that it's the 'being strapped in and not being in control \ not being able to get out' - but you're right once past the initial drop, he overcomes the fear pretty quickly.

They have several aircraft such as Cessna 210s, Cessna 310s, Cessna 404s and Vulcanair 68, but they don't make a secret of it if you know what to look for - http://i.nextmedia.com.au/Galleries/20111208053101_Aircraft%20with%20HyperPod.jpg One of their Cessna 210s a few years ago had tail number VH-MIQ, for example - so you can find them, and then you can track them (more or less - but I can't confirm whether this aircraft is still in their fleet today) The next time you see an aircraft flying a grid pattern, get the tail number and then google the registered owner.

So… you don’t need turnstiles… just paint dots on the floor and they’ll work it out? It’s called different safety jurisdictions. Australia is safer. This is why. Because ride computer says no. Or, if parents are apparently incapable of watching their kids, they should supply their own damn wristband!

I'm looking at DW's facebook post with these images, and I don't see a gondola in this picture on FB. It also doesn't look uniform (same thickness) all the way from top to bottom of the image. Not sure why there'd be different but very similar versions of the concept art, but they're all subject to change anyway. The status quo does point to it facing the highway, but as has been noted several times, they do state 'visible all over' or something to that effect - which points to either a face with higher exposure or multiple fixtures.

Yeah look - I rushed that post this morning before a meeting and on reflection, I was overreacting to that. Apologies.

The silhouette of the tower was clearly visible - it was more than just the top, it's just thats all that was lit up. (Shock - imagine if more of it was lit!) Wasn't it you that asked the question on where we think it should go? Yes, yes it was. If you'd already made your mind up that it could only go in one place, and intended on rubbishing everyone else's opinion, why even ask the question? The other consideration here is if the lights are mounted inside the ride track there is the risk of damage or contamination by ride oils and greases (part of the reason the tower looks as dirty as it does now - i've literally had drops of oil rain down on me whilst riding) - but if you had the lights outside the ride track, they'd be both lower maintenance and easier to access without impacting the ride systems. Heck - why not have one facing each way - north, with a slightly western facing aspect to hit the southbound highway, and south, with a slightly western facing aspect to do the same? They've just said lights, visible from all around the coast - they haven't said only one such installation will go on on one side now, have they? You get to see Joker on the southbound approach well before you're beside the park. Likewise the TopGolf logo is visible on the northbound approach for a little bit before you're alongside it - they aren't directly faced parallel to the road. The difference though is that the Tower can be seen from A LOT further away. It's taller. There'd be no point facing Green Lantern south, or north, because it isn't tall enough to be visible outside the few hundred metres of highway frontage they've got, Dreamworld tower on the other hand, as already pointed out - can be seen from the damn broadwater. I'm not saying put up your sign to hit 38k local residents, i'm saying put it up so it can be seen further away.... by ACTUAL people, not just the Wilkies Scrub conservation area. We're sure grateful you're not in charge of things.

I think you're finally catching on - so by this point, you stop putting dates on it because the constant moving of the goalposts is damaging your reputation with the paying public and you're pissing more people off with every missed deadline so at some fucking point you just say 'coming soon' instead of constantly updating the signage. They're still running ads that say September 3 (couldn't withdraw the ad quick enough) and people are probably booking now (if not already) for their september holidays and they're seeing ads that have another date on them. Be honest with people. tell them your woes. admit your mistakes. Don't stick your fingers in your ears and pretend like nothing is happening because the PR train has already left the station and you can't be bothered to catch it.

Right, it's a billboard. The thing about billboards, is you want to reach the most people. This isn't something you can only see in the 3-400 metres before you pass it. This is going to be visible for miles. I've been on a boat in the broadwater and night and been able to see the LED lights of the tower, so you can see it across the gold coast. Which one of these layouts do you think is going to be seen by more people? (Which of these layouts is also a giant 'fuck you' to the competition? (Also, the 50% of folks who drive by don't see it on their way south, there's a more than 80% chance they'll return the same way, so they'll see it as they go north eventually....)

Yeah the original on-station boxes were pigeon holes only just large enough to accommodate a glasses case or other small pocket-sized item, and I believe they expanded this space to have bigger boxes.

Well, they say it will be visible from all over the gold coast. Personally, I think the southern (former TOT track) side would be best as that faces more of the gold coast (and more of the park!) than any other side. This also means it can be maintained without needing to interfere with the ride systems. Sure, it isn't directly facing the highway, but i'd hope the gold coast has learned that putting light installations facing the highway is fucking stupid (and you can still see it when you're northbound)

No, you stop putting dates on it, period, until it is FIRM. And if you prioritise selling tickets on a misleading premise, it ends up being 'once bitten, twice shy' and that strategy doesn't fool the smart consumer more than once - long term marketing tends to prefer to maintain integrity than to mislead the consumer to make a quick buck.

He's a youtuber that has been around practically since the beginning. His main channel does a lot of 'things you didn't know' and some can be very nerdy science and technology whereas others are just cool places in the world that he found interesting. The best part (as Slick references) is that his main channel is primarily short 3-5 minute videos so you can catch them when you've got a few minutes with nothing to do when you don't wanna settle in for a 20-30 minute episode of something, they're snappy, quick and to the point while also being informative. He's one of my favourite youtube channels to drop by when i'm taking a break. He's done a load of things for the BBC and even produced a number of gameshow style episodes including some other popular youtube channel collaborations with folks like Technology Connections as guest stars. "Money" is one of my personal favourites and I wish he'd do another series on that. I think he launched Tom Scott plus about a year ago (he made a short video announcement on his main channel asking people to name the channel) where he explained his intention with the second channel - Plus is kinda Tom Scott does Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe a nervous computer geek. He's already herded sheep, been set on fire, and learned to ride a bike.

In my opinion, physical photo printing in our parks needs to be staffed. Thermal printers require ribbon replacement, paper rolls, and occasionally can jam. I fully support the idea of a digital download at each ride - and then one central photo place near the park exit where you can present your digital download link\wristband\whatever for them to print if you want to (and if you don't want to, you can just leave) - those rides that already have the barcode scanners basically do this, but in the age of smartphones and QR codes, we need to do away with the wristbands and let it go directly to phone. As for sunglasses, while I realise that most people's glasses would stay on, some would not. If you say "you are allowed to wear glasses on this ride" most people would assume they won't come off, and no care is required. Then some people will lose them on-ride because that is inevitable. Then you have the issue of needing to retrieve them, which in the case of expensive designer pairs you can say 'come back tomorrow' but in the case of prescription 'i can't see without them' you need to get them NOW. Which results in downtime to the ride, and is why you should just blanket say no. 100% this. Wonderland's coasters loaded with this method - an air gate for each row, and a long queue rail behind each gate. The front and back rows were longer (obviously) and the middle rows shorter, and when you got to the station you could see how long each was to make a decision on whether seat position was important to you or whether you just wanted a ride. You could also count the rows to work out how many cycles you had to ride, and if you had friends in other rows, they could allow people ahead of them to time the ride together. All of this without ANY operator involvement. When the air gates open, 2 people from each gate enter and do their thing. Saves an entire staff member on 'grouping' I've had on-station re-cycles at Arkham, the old Corkscrew, . In most cases the computer system needs the harness to be completely opened and re-closed unless maintenance have locked the harness sensor out in the computer. This ensures that every harness gets re-checked. But for single-station rides, re-rides without re-queueing shouldn't be an issue. Imagine, for instance if you had to re-queue for Green Lantern - what a disaster! There may be an issue with rides like Superman where the 'station doors' at the rear of load\front of unload aren't certified to have guests pass through, so the train has to be completely empty because those gates are within the rider envelope? Just a theory... All your examples are valid and are a great way to handle loose items - in every case better than superman, but i'm fairly certain in every case that these designs opened with the ride, and superman already has a system, so changing it would be expensive and time consuming. If I remember correctly, Green Lantern opened with a similar system to Superman, which is why there are lockers at the ride queue entrance, but this was quickly abandoned in favour of on-station boxes, which was a cheap and simple change for a ride with a single load\unload. You can't do that with superman unless you get rid of the second station and unload at the load station - the trouble there is that you make it much harder to operate dual trains - unless you still park at the unload station, in which case you aren't really saving any time. The real time saver for Superman is for Operations to ensure riders are grouped while the ride is cycling. ensure there are people ready at the doors before the train parks, and to open those doors as soon as the train parks. Then as each row is ready start harness checking working backwards.

I got you mate

The Florida Tron was shuttered during covid. I don't know if there was official Disney announcement on it, but every Vlogger I know that follows the florida parks was reporting on it at the time - they literally boarded up the holes where the track exited the building. So whether the park announced it or not, it was VERY common knowledge that Disney had paused construction deliberately and intentionally during the worst of the Florida covid restrictions. Village may have strategically delayed their attraction, or it may have been shipping delays, or labour delays, or the fact that Aries was in the second phase and Jupiter was rising. The issue for Village is all they've done is move the date whenever the date has gotten too close. It feels like a teenager after school holidays who keeps pressing the snooze button not realising they should have gotten out of bed 18 months ago... and we all keep giving these analogies because the park created a vacuum which the public are only happy to wildly and inaccurately fill. There is no PR catch 22 at this point - when you're this far beyond your original launch date - the best thing you can do is just be honest. You'll get the acceptance of adults and the sulking children won't accept it no matter what you say so they don't really matter. But honesty is the way to win the PR campaign, not silly tricks like promoting your brand new roller coaster and themed land as a reason to buy season passes, only to delay the entire land's opening beyond the expiry of those passes.

I mean, I think both parties stood to gain from this. Tom comes off as a very genuine and honest person - I do get the feeling he had a legitimate fear - and as far as 'safety fluff' - they did reassure him that they'd done safety checks as such but didn't go into any great deal behind the safety mechanisms as such. Either way it was a good little video, and the ending seemed so emotional and heartfelt. Also me: tell him about the Smiler! tell him about the Smiler!