DaptoFunlandGuy

*puts popcorn away*

Well this gives me an excuse to go back to AOS. I do like that they're making an effort to keep the show fresh, changing things up and reinventing it to keep people coming back (and keep the techs from going bored over the same show day in day out). I look forward to seeing it... I know it's a long shot - but i'd like to see them offer a 'difference' on a more regular basis. A different show once a month thats a little less 'historical outback' and a little more 'audience involvement'... but either way - i've seen every AOS so far and they haven't disappointed yet. If this is upping the ante from AOS > Light Horse > Phar Lap > ? I look forward to the next instalment.

gets upset over critique of his vocabulary... ...best response is F... off ****. You sure showed him.

I'm going to take an educated guess and say two train would have involved training on engaging the transfer track and bringing 2nd train on off. I would also imagine that as the station would pretty well constantly have loading unloading going on - it would probably require additional staff so there would be different "roles" to train them on (you couldn't have one person to check harnesses AND group people through from the chain, because that would be happening constantly). I'm sure theres other more technical aspects to it which no doubt Spotty can fill in... how'd I do Spot? So you were wrong then? I believe the reason we got a 'purple train' is that it was far cheaper to cobble one good train out of two poor ones, for a ride that wasn't that popular at the time. The revamp to Arkham has certainly revived the old girl, but she still is - at her core - a vekoma SLC. Whilst i'm sure a new train could possibly have been purchased, as I understand it (just like Sea Viper) the same rolling stock was used, and only the seat structure was changed. To have obtained a second train, they would have needed to obtain another set of SLC rolling stock, which would be considerably more than the cost to upgrade the one train that they had. Sure it's popular now, but how were they to know what a re-brand and a new train would do for the ride? It'd still be a vekoma SLC, so it's popularity may not have taken off, and then they'd be stuck with a ride that had two trains, whilst only ever needing using one! What a waste of money that they could have put towards other things - like more efficient loading on their popular rides?

First and foremost, just by your behaviour i'm going to make an assumption that you also fit into the 'lazy teenager' category. You certainly aren't behaving like an adult. Secondly (and i'm sure our incognito park staff will correct me if I am wrong) but as far as I am aware - Ride operators in Australia are required to be a minimum of 18 years of age - so this blows your 14 year old lazy teenager comment right out of the water. As for the mention of Abyss, it was being offered up as an example of a ride that (in their view) did not meet your obviously flawed definition. I've never seen a cast member playing on their phone for any length of time. Several parks i've been to don't allow cast members to carry any personal items such as wallets or phones. rules may be different these days, where most people carry a phone instead of a watch, so I can imagine they might pull it out to check the time, and then put it back, but it hardly adds to the delay of dispatch. I do stand corrected on the Cyclone cycle time. I was going off the video linked to the RCDB profile which is an onride, but there was about a minute of off ride footage. Altogether the ride time is closer to 2 minutes, but this doesn't count computer-controlled parking, and the PHYSICAL loading and unloading and harness checking of guests... so the cycle time (time between dispatches) is easily 3 minutes or more all things considered. The only person on these boards right now being a 'douche' is you. As i've stated previously, you aren't acting like an adult, and i'm pretty sure you've said you go to school, so i'm just going to say this... There are ride operators on this board - that you've called 'lazy teenagers' despite the facts clearly showing that your claim cannot possibly be true. (you're lucky Daniel isn't around). There's also a lot of experienced, well travelled folk who have been in or have something to do with the industry. You are more than welcome to express a view or opinion, but recognise that a lot of these folks have been through this all before with the last little twerp who thought he knew everything. And many people will know a lot more about a lot more than you do. Theres a lot of 'insider-but-public' information about the parks to be gleaned from the folk around here also. Calling them douches is not a really good way to make friends on this board. Calling many of our members 'lazy teenagers' is probably going to win you no awards either. Dial it back a notch - you're welcome to express your opinion, but at the same time you need to respect other's opinions also. Also recognise that not everyone walks around with a flashing neon sign that says 'park employee', so do be careful with whom you engage in a debate with, as it could be very embarassing for you when you discover otherwise. (a certain discussion on crowd lasers comes to mind). This is nice Alex. I'd like you to get to know him - he wants to help you. Nobody enjoys it when pissed off Alex gets on the boards. It tends to frustrate many.... so for everybody's sake - please try and take some of this on board.

+1

*grabs popcorn*

Here is something like I imagine it... My mspaint skills are getting better - Gazza would be proud.

Given the ACTUAL ride time is around 2:55 (not counting computer controlled parking), 3 minute cycles will never be seen on Cyclone... kinda impossible.

Riding lethal arkham "around the time of the change" wouldn't contribute to 'dual train confusion' - Lethal had been running a 'purple' train for a long time at that point (purple being a mix of red train and blue train). It hadn't had true 2 train operation in years.

So a surfrider style seating arrangement (sitting in a circle, facing outwards) that spins, attached to a pandamonium air race style swinging arm... sounds like a mini claw. Of course with the air race, there are many swinging arms, so there are many mini claws, that all rotate around the hub as well. So not "exactly" the same as pandamonium. In case you weren't already ready to puke...

Nup - they've already got a rock pool. They can't put something similar in, even if it were different... everyone would call it the 'doomsday' of sea world.

Thanks Ninja for the awesome direct-uploaded photos which I can actually see! It's wonderful when people follow the rules! That grass looks lush! Hopefully they've 'bedded it down' sufficiently for it to be a usable space come december. And Flea - I have no doubts our wonderful park management were already thinking on the same wavelength - and at least if they aren't - they were reading this thread! edit: It's a bitumen path - not exactly a 'road' and when Jet Rescue's piazza is pebbled, and viper's area is grassed, a bitumen path is a good boundary to keep one from encroaching on the other. Nobody ever suggested the grass is a permanent addition, and the path may just be another maintenance access-way for various purposes. I wouldn't consider the bitumen as an indicator they've made up their mind about that site.

However, you didn't state it as a prediction - which is the point Jobe is making.

Good to see they're actually going to do something with it - even if it is just a nice grassed picnic area or similar. side note: how do you plant dirt?

Where's the drop tower? Isn't there supposed to be a drop tower in every theme park?

I don't have the background knowledge to think of any off the top of my head - but i'm going to look to Gazza for verification on that. I'm sure not EVERY theme park has a drop tower... (You said 'except sea world' - so i'm not counting Sea World San Diego - which also does not have a drop tower)

^except on these boards, where it still lives on in people's memories of things that never were. (FoF members may know differently however)

^sounds like The Claw

We're at page 62... there has been 1542 1543 individual posts. Wipeout's refurbishment is complete and the ride is open and has been for a month. Tail spin construction and triple vortex construction has been completed and both have opened with few hiccups, photos and videos have been posted. What else "on topic" is there to discuss, considering this topic is "2014 in dreamworld - tail spin construction, wipeout refurbishment and triple vortex construction" ? We've even discussed their switch from coke to pepsi, new shops - hell - we even discussed the recolouration of the ocean parade pavement... I don't think theres going to be much more for dreamworld in 2014, except for the obvious Big Brother House attraction at the end of the season... which i'm sure will get it's own topic. Frankly, the only reason this thread has made it this long and managed to stay close to topic is because the refurb and construction has only just recently been completed.

Doing really well themed mazes?

1,300,000 people at say $99pp on average for a ticket (not counting repeated trips from passholders) = $128,700,000 2,900,000 at the same price (SFMM pricing is a little more complex, so it's easier) = $287,100,000 Dreamworld = 85ha SFMM = 110ha Now assume each park has a base operating cost of $1m per hectare, including ride operation, maintenance, wages etc (and ignoring the obvious additional income generated by concessions which would also have their own costs) and you're left with this: Dreamworld = $128.7m - $85m = $43.7m SFMM = $287.1m - $110m = $177.1m That is obviously far more than "double", and $130m is, as you say - a "huge difference" - in terms of decent coasters - if we say $30m per coaster (allowing for compacts and mega coasters to average out), Dreamworld can afford 1 coaster, while SFMM can afford almost 6. I have obviously taken some liberties with numbers, however - consider that the cost of construction in the USA is less than here, and many other operating costs (like wages, maintenance etc) are cheaper in the US than here. (This is why I felt the $1m per ha was a reasonable figure for comparison purposes) Even if SFMM's operating costs for maintenance and wages are higher because of their higher coaster count... even if we made the operating costs $2M per ha for SFMM - they'd still be buying 2 coasters for every one dreamworld did - purely based on that attendance. When you're looking at figures, remember that every business has a critical 'break even' point for their cost of sales. Once both parks reach that point, every person through the door really doesn't add that much to the cost, because the rides are going to run, require maintenance etc whether there are people there to ride it or not - so double the people doesn't double the costs - and hence why SFMM is able to buy and build more and more than dreamworld ever will.

Dreamworld has similar visitation to Six Flags Magic Mountain??? Would you be so kind as to provide a source?

In general, rides where you ride in a specific number, or assigned rows, having single rider queues means you can fill the seats that aren't sat together by using the single rider queue (SRQ) - for example - Green Lantern sits 4 abreast. Groups of 3 leave a single empty seat. The car is leaving the station with or without that seat filled, but the park can keep the wait time down for everyone by offering single rider. Without a SRQ, the single rider you would have put on the ride is queuing in the main queue. When it comes their turn to ride (in the main queue) they take a single, and perhaps a couple gets on next to them, and then you're left with another single seat to fill. The point is that when a single is available, if a SRQ is in operation, the ride op can just call the person at the front of the SRQ directly to the seat vacant because the op knows a person in that queue is a single, rather than walking down the main queue calling out for a single rider which can take time firstly for the single to notice, put their hand up and then make their way down the queue line to the front. This is especially important on multi-carriage operation such as Scooby or Green Lantern to avoid a backlog on the brake run. However (as has been discussed ad nauseum) it isn't appropriate on a ride like TailSpin where each seat is a single. (And no - Scooby and Green Lantern don't have SRQ - I was just making them the example)