DaptoFunlandGuy

Yes we do - the audience for this octopus isn't going to assign gender to an octopus based on a name. the name isn't obviously masculine or feminine, it's an ocean related pun that is clever (and a bit dark if you consider what CAL-A-MARI is) but theres certainly no overbearing gender assigned to it.

I agree with most things you've said here except the quote above. Cal is short for 'Caleb' or 'Calvin' (also Caledon - see: Titanic) and probably a few others. Cal is also short for 'Callie' or 'Callista' and a few lesser known as well. So gender is not an issue here. Just the Agro-vation style voice.

Heritage standards are actually quite detailed, but they make allowance for the fact that nothing lasts forever. While this relates to buildings rather than rollercoasters i'm sure many of the principles remain the same: Heritage maintenance: Timber repairs - Informaiton sheet 5.2 (nsw.gov.au) And of the day they recognise that timber may need to be replaced from time to time to keep the structure safe and standing, there's just guides on doing it the right way.

it's almost as if they planned it!

Everything i've seen of this Octopus is a hit, and i'm surprised there isn't more media and discussion here about it, honestly. The interactivity is cool, but - and especially since they have an 'auto' mode - I worry that that will be the default setting once the initial novelty wears off. I also thought they'd have a high pitched, fun voice, rather than a Jamie Dunne wannabe. I wonder if they could have invested in a voice changer to try and homogenise the voice regardless of the person behind the controls...

Wait.. What IS your name?

The lightsource is behind the lower track. You can tell based on the highlights on the side edge of the footer. Potentially that is throwing the foreground track into shadow, and dynamic shading is portraying it darker than it is, and it is in fact the same light grey all the way along? If you look as the track rises to the top hat, it still looks dark facing the camera, but the inner structure becomes lighter, due to the different lighting angle?

But your name isn't Bob?

Anything is a urinal if you're brave enough.

Cheaper to run than WWW.

Probably a cost thing. Disney used to replace every lightbulb in an install when they reached 50% of their life. It ensured the show was never running sub-standard, but it was both an enormous expense, and an unnecessarily wasteful one. These days you'll see dead bulbs and the like because 'it isn't due' for maintenance. it's more cost effective as the 'damage' to the show is considered to be worth the money they save by only replacing things as they blow. The downside is that if something is working as it should during a maintenance period (and it isn't SCHEDULED to be replaced), it gets ticked off. If it fails 5 days later, it might have to wait until the next time it goes down for refurb... unless it is show-critical.

I think, if I translate everything written above, it did recently get a big fix up, but because maintenance is an ongoing matter, things have broken since then and haven't been fixed.

Yeah that sounds about right for previous years. It wouldn't be hard to go back through prior year threads here to find when the sold out dates started appearing in the discussion to nail down those facts, but it does sound right that they'd have nights sold out, and be putting on extra nights by now-ish. Perhaps they have priced it up too much - or perhaps this price point is finally getting it right so that they can make a decent profit without cramming the park full - which would make it far more enjoyable for those who did cough up the dough.

yeah once they started bolting lights to the track and removing the safety cowling and power bars (not to mention scrapping the monorail train), it was done. This is the part where i'd lambast Bikash for his statements when they scrapped the other train, but the reality is they may not have had a decision at that time and now they do, so benefit of the doubt. It's a shame to see it go, but if it is truly done for, then I hope that: The park makes every effort to remove the track and pylons around the park wherever possible and as soon as possible. A new, modern slow-paced, family friendly attraction is investigated and procured to take advantage of the unique and picturesque location on the spit. (I'd love a modern transport attraction, but a big wheel would be just fine. The Southern Star Wheel in Docklands Melbourne is having some financial difficulties - Imagine that giant star lit up across the spit at night! Since Flume and the castle are both done too, now would be a great opportunity to redevelop that whole mid-station precinct. Despite New Atlantis, there is a gaping (physical) hole in the park's lineup right now that needs to be addressed.

If the ride is confirmed down for the rest of the day they do usually redeploy ops staff for the most part. If there's a chance it could come back up, ops staff generally man the front of the queue to perform guest relations about the closure. If the ride is confirmed down, depending on how busy it is, and a number of other factors, they could be redeployed or even sent home early if their shift and agreement allows it - but you've also got to allow for the fact that ops aren't always trained in everything, and even if they have been trained on it, they have to keep current in the attraction to be able to work it. if it's been too long since they last operated it, they can't work it without a refresher... so short answer is - its complicated, but it does happen sometimes.

Not sure what that has to do with the price of fish.

On the flip side, I ordered 2 cars in April 2022, and at the time of order, the dealer was already telling us to expect a wait time of more than 12 months, even though they suggested it could arrive by December. Fast forward to July when the first one arrived, and the second one comes in this month. That's the entirety of my point. It isn't 2020, so we're not dealing with something we've never dealt with before. We know how long things are going to take 3.5 years in. We shouldn't be going with the pre-covid schedule, making no changes to account for the by-now known delays, and then throwing our hands in the air when it all falls to pieces and blaming covid. (As an aside, I know several people who cancelled their cars the month they were ready for collection, so dealers are getting stock back to sell that wasn't previously available - as folks who did want to spend their money on a new car suddenly find cost of living putting pressure on their budgets - so there is stock for sale, provided you aren't fussy over the exact model, style or colour) Regarding one of the cars I ordered - we'd ordered a special model, and while pre-covid, the factory would churn out a number of them every month, the dealer told us that certain components were in rare supply, so while they were churning out dozens of 'base models' every week, the upgraded models were all on hold until a 'certain number' came into the factory to make it worth them doing a retooling of the production line. From what I understand - they never slowed down, or stopped - but they did change their production schedule and focussed on volume rather than meeting the oldest orders.

How different is a chinese imitation bamboo roof and a tradiitonal spanish terracotta tiled roof, really... Seems like that'd be the easiest fix for it - it worked for the bondi pavilion.

i've seen what happens to a thatched roof at Movie World. i'll pass on that. Don't get me wrong, i'd love for them to fix it. the fact they haven't likely indicates they're being tight, and that's probably because they're barely breaking even on things right now so there has to be more justifiable bang for buck. the kids playing in the splash pad aren't going to notice that the roof is chinese, and they've probably accepted that.

correct, but totally nothing new about it.

Yeah that hasn't really improved since the closure board I posted a few months back. Interesting this board says carousel is closed, but the app says its open too. As for GL and Superman, are these planned maintenance periods? Scooby I understand, but there's never an excuse for them to PLAN to have three coasters down at the same time. Knowing full well scooby is down for so long they should have shuffled things around a bit to ensure only one of the other major coasters was out. How long can you keep blaming 'covid supply chain' on things before that supply chain becomes normal, and you should just be planning for that sort of delay?

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The concept art presents that roofing largely the same as it was, so i'm not sure there are plans to change it - at least not this round.

The other eye does, you just can't see it. They've been doing a lot of things in stages, the first step usually to get the ride reopened after the theme, with many other non-essential items like theming coming in when it's ready or available, without keeping the ride closed for months waiting for it...

"ride exit queue". Can you get fasttrack for that?