DaptoFunlandGuy

I know, that's why I said "WAS the main reason" and "it WAS their job" Yes, which is why all he parks have signage like 'items left at own risk' and so on. Its why parks do so well with All day lockers... Loose item boxes are usually for glasses, hats and so on. If you're carrying your phone and leave it in the box you're accepting that risk. The issue is that GL can have more than two sets of cars running, so its not possible just to have a 'car 1 box' and a 'car 2 box' like Lethal\Arkham used to have with Red\Blue trains.

You are right - with the exception that a show featuring a known quantity will draw existing fans of that known quantity - which is evidenced by the amount of people commenting on Dreamworld's social tagging their friends in exclaimations of OMG and talking about how they get to see him 'again', etc. etc. Even if all of these are passholders, giving them a reason to get them through the gate does have a positive impact for the park. Big fans might stay for both shows, and grab some food in between. We don't know how large his fan base is, or how many 'extra' this will bring to the park. Not anywhere near what a blockbuster hyper coaster will do, but for cost vs. benefit, this show might actually give them a better return per guest than dropping $30 million.

*Except for: Westgate Freeway Mt Alexander Road ... Fuck it - there's too many to pick on. Perhaps it would have been better to say 'several grids'... because, well - the grid around albert and middle park face NW\SE direction, whereas Windsor to Richmond's grid is more NNE/SSW, Melbourne CBD itself is NNW/SSE. I could point to various areas around Sydney that are 'grid-like' that are screwed up by geography - (such as the harbour). Brisbane is arguably 'gridded' within the CBD, but outside of that - nope... All cities are 'planned' - at least until the plan changes... I guess everyone tends to lean favourably towards their home city

I hadn't really paid any attention previously, but I did watch a TV special he did a while back on YouTube last night. I can't say I was impressed. Every illusion \ stunt \ trick he did i've seen done before (i've even worked backstage for a few of them) so I have a fair idea on the gimmicks involved. He's certainly a talented escape artist - you can't fake some of that, but let's face it - he's performing twice daily during school holidays at Dreamworld. It's not like he's resident at the Rio, MGM Grand or Planet Hollywood...

That was by choice though right? They don't actually assign you a particular seat... so you could perhaps have chosen to go and sit on the left side, right? You have, actually, and was the main reason for an extra staff member right at the entrance to the queue where the GL sign is, as it was their job (just like at superman) to ensure you didn't enter the queue with loose articles, and direct you to the lockers (which were right next to them). People with glasses they needed to see with would pass them and similar objects off to an operator who had baskets for just that reason - but the loose article boxes on the station have always been there.

If ride ops are riding this, and being trained, then i call bullshit on handover either not occurring, or being "handed back". Numerous people on these forums have already stated the issues are with the building, not the ride.

Really though - they got all those parts into the building. it wouldn't take much to take them out. The screen is probably the most laborious part, and even that wouldn't be hard to tear down and rebuild elsewhere.

You don't need to beg. You're entitled to your own opinion. You're also entitled to be wrong.

Open Rides

Looks like everyone did...

Based on facebook reactions, there are several sentiments out there: Pleased Apathetic Critical that the park can't open a ride after 4 months Jokes about shady seating Jokes about using magic to make rides disappear, or appear. I wouldn't agree that the consensus is 'pleased' overall.

I don't think Belinda (from what I recall) was against it - just her evil koala overlords that prevented her from engaging with us by not contributing.

When the fountain is bigger than the likes, ignore. (and give it another fountain)

Well, there was that one time that @The Original Belinda Brown visited...

Speaking of scooby props - I've been out to WnW a few times recently, and spotted props from the Scooby film in and around Calypso Beach. Can anyone tell me how long they've been there for? It's been a few years since I was last at WnW (post constrictor, pre WnWJr.), and I don't recall seeing them last time i was there..

Indeed - here we are on page 3 of this discussion thread already - can certainly say it worked. Such a shame the parks don't use such reveal marketing techniques for - you know - their headline attractions... Pretty certain he acted the clown for a while there too.

I do enjoy that you're on the ball with this info, and usually the first to post it. I really just wish you'd learn a bit more about the DA\BA processes involved in some of these applications, so you could draw better conclusions. But i'd say you're leaning in the right direction to suggest its 'stage 1' of more than one stage.

Lose some weight you fat bastard.

Clearly not a comfortable seat.

to be honest, the first 'monster' screen you see reminded me a little of Mystic Manor. no way are they on the same level, but it reminded me a lot of the final Mystic scene.

Honestly - he's a pretty well known illusionist. Magic shows do have a place in theme parks. It's not a game changer, but it is something else both memorable and interesting to do at the park. I'd like to see them establish a residency for him for a while - if nothing else to give people something to do when nothing in the park is open. It just doesn't make sense that they're blowing their wad on an entertainment contract whilst simultaneously nickle-and-diming the retail outlets and food stalls.

Can't fault the story. Its ridiculous that they don't see it. Fucking Emirates Airlines First Class Lounge isn't that comfortable.

Finally got to ride this in person. Green screen effect didn't work. Lift screens are amazingly too close. Disco room was extraordinarily dark (but in a way, this made it better as you couldn't see the turns or drops), and no smoke. Final drop clearly visible too. Other than that I enjoyed the other effects, and didn't think the graphics were too horrible - more representative of those of a 2000-ish era movie. I don't love it. I don't hate it, i hope i caught the disco room on an off day, and i'll assume the green screen was just a glitch. I'll ride it a few more times before i make my mind up.

They just need to remove the 'big 9' billboard they've got facing the southbound motorway at the back of WWW. Surely around the world there are wooden structures with timber older than 40 years though... the age of the wood isn't in and of itself a 'yikes' now, is it? Wouldn't it be more the condition of that timber? (which granted, at Dreamworld, probably is worth Yikesing) As for a send off - if the ride was in an operable state, and was safe to operate, sure - let it run for another few weeks or whatever - but would you be advocating a send off if the park had found an unsafe condition within the mechanics of the ride? no. of course not. This is of course the difference between a planned replacement ride process that US\EU parks have, and a 'oh shit, its busted up good, better not run it anymore' that our parks have - including things like Sea Viper. Even parks that do run structured replacement and lifecycle programs, the unexpected does occur. As Slick mentioned - two years ago the CEO was talking about the ride lasting for years more - clearly, this took them by surprise. It shouldn't have, but clearly it did. LTRR wasn't directly replaced by JDS though. The warehouse was gutted and spent at least a full year as storage space, and even played host to their lot sale that year (i've been in the space to pick things up from that sale\auction while it was a giant empty warehouse, full of christmas decorations and parade floats) You could just get a carnival operator to drop a trailer based ride into the park for a year or two though...?

Trust Dreamworld to fuck it up and build the wong coaster.