Original

No I said it’s not pitched as to let’s destroy an industry just before school holidays and then track their attendance figures just after and boast about how it was our story was the reason why they fell. That I can guarantee doesn’t happen. Do they often get facts wrong, or gloss over things to make you believe the viewpoint the author wants you to believe. Shit yes. If this story does that, then I will happily say yes they did. My only point is from the start there is a lot of upset people without even having watched this yet. It’s like how people judge a coaster before having even ridden it.

If they don't do the story correctly Sunday, I'm more than happy to call it out and say it was a bad job.

And I said in my first point I am surprised it took this long for a piece like this to be made. And again no programmer said let's do a shock piece and smash a struggling industry and then high five each other Monday in the boardroom. That's not how segments/content is pitched, its just not.

Let's just say I know how these things work.

Exactly my point, you just proved it for me. Accidents do occur more often in other areas so when it happens at a theme park, a place of fun, it shocks people, people don't expect it and therefore becomes a human interest story that someone will do a feature on.

I can 110% guarantee you are wrong.

Wow you guys think way too far into the media and their motives behind everything. No one in programming at Seven went "hey, school holidays are around the corner, I know what will really screw up the parks business!!!" It just doesn't happen, trust me. Also Green Lantern and TRRR aren't our only two examples here. Someone fell out of the Log Ride, whether they were dumb or not, it happened. A girl in 2014 died at the Adelaide show. WWF caught fire just after the park closed in 2003. Last year a woman was critical after falling from The Hangover in Cairns. In 2000 two cars collided on the Wild Mouse at the Royal Melbourne Show, with 8 children injured and 5 going to hospital. Also in 2000 the Spin Dragon ride collapsed injuring 37 people. And how many close calls have there been we don't know about? That's more than 2 in the last century and I wouldn't be putting GL in quotations, that was an accident and by sheer luck no one was injured or killed. What else do you call the wheel assembly of a car falling off? And yeah, why wouldn't they use footage and stories from incidents overseas, we have the internet now, anyone can watch them and they have been viewed millions of times. I just hope the show then points out the rigorous maintenance our rides go through. But then again we all sat there and said that pre 2016 when seeing and hearing about accidents overseas like with Smiler at Alton Towers or the deaths at Disney Parks, or the dodgy rides in India and said "that wouldn't happen here, our standards are better, we're safer". Then TRRR happened and we found out what DW had been up to at the inquest. People know they could die in a car, but ask anyone outside of enthusiasts, especially those with families and they'll tell you they always went on TRRR and not once did it ever cross their mind they could die on it. Hell I'm an enthusiast and it never crossed my mind.

And yeah if its a serious accident or an industry where people are constantly dying, or an industry where people don't expect people to be killed, chances are at some point there will be a feature on it whether that be on TV or written article.

Again this is my point of being too close to the story. Someone was negligent at a place that attracts millions of people and people don't think of dying by going to a fun place. It is 100% a human interest story, that will attract eyeballs, hence why it is being made. If you didn't want a story made highlighting errors in a particular industry, but also understanding where we're also headed then shows like this, 60 Minutes and 7.30 and Four Corners wouldn't exist and they are 100% needed. I just hope they also show how much effort goes into making a ride and to keep it safe. There is nothing in the description to say its a hatchet job. Just that these rides are designed to scare while supposed to be safe, we know that, the general public don't. I think there are a lot of people jumping to conclusions before having even watched this.

You may also be a little too close to the subject to comment fairly, being loving theme parks, so anytime anything negative is mentioned = media are bad. To be devils advocate here for a moment. Let's just remember MW had a very close call with GL, that was the fault of the manufacturer, not the park. Plus let's just be very clear DW were negligent for years and resulted in someone being killed. That's not a media beat up, that's a fact. When people talk about parks they still mention DW to this day and some are too scared to go still, and even if articles weren't still mentioning it, it would still be in the back of people's minds and will be for a very long time. And what the TRRR inquest showed us was this incident had happened before, but no one had been killed. Now how many other close calls have rides had that we just don't know about because thankfully no one was injured? Disney parks have killed people, Cedar Fair parks have killed people, so have Six Flags parks, Luna Park has had people die, people have died at fairs/shows in Australia and thanks to the internet we know about even more accidents where third world countries safety standards are a lot more relaxed. We can even watch them on YouTube as people film these accidents. I'm not saying this won't be bad publicity for the parks, I'm also not saying it will be entirely factual. I'll hold judgement until I watch it. But people go to these parks expecting to come home safely and some people haven't, therefore that makes this a human interest story, that frankly I'm surprised has taken this long to be developed. As soon as there is an accident where the general public wouldn't expect there to be one, that shocks them, and we find out safety standards were lax, 60 Minutes or Sunday Night always run a story on it. Now Sunday Night doesn't exist anymore, instead replaced by 7NEWS Spotlight covering one topic each week, so there will be an entire hour dedicated to it, so hopefully they can go in depth to how safe these rides can be, not just the dangers. The promo also appears to interview staff from Cedar Fair. This is the blurb from 7: In an hour of television your family will remember watching together forever, Spotlight goes behind the screams to reveal the tightly held secrets of the global billion dollar theme park industry. Featuring never before seen vision and interviews, Spotlight takes viewers on a wild roller coaster ride across Australia and the United States through tales of innovation, survival, tragedy and triumph to bring you the most fun you will have sitting down this year. Anyway, that was completely off topic from the DW update, which was great btw.

But DC Rivals was in production before the Rapids incident?

You're right, there was a period of low investment. But I feel, optimistically, those days are now behind us and we can realistically talk about options for the parks we normally wouldn't have

Why does everyone go so low ball when looking at new rides? They've built a Hypercoaster, SW are building a nearly 1km long wooden coaster as part of a $50million expansion with two other flat rides and DW a 1.2km launched coaster a couple of years after a big indoor dark ride. We've never had coasters this long or big. I think the parks have proved they have the budget to go big if they want to. Let's not think so small

I'm really keen to see how VRTP connects the hotel to the two parks, AOS, PC and TG, will they create big walkways, or go with another transport option. As well as what other entertainment options they add. They own Intencity, could we see a mega version of that, that rivals Timezone in Surfers?!

But then I can't imagine HWSD was a cheap show with the amount of time the cars would get smashed up and require repair.

See I think its crazy we have such a long ride like Rivals, yet it only has two trains. I feel it's a ride that could have had 3 trains in operation at once since its a 1.2km track, with a 4th in maintenance. I get SE can only use 2 at once since its so short, but I'd like to see it have 3. GL I feel was built with the mindset to be a capacity monster like SD, being 6 in operation at once with one in maintenance. But it sounds like from what people say here, the computer chucks a hissy fit at any more than 4 at once, regrettably reducing capacity.

I know I would love to see our parks with 3 trains on all rides, that way, no matter what time in the year you always have 2 trains on a busy day. The parks will only get busier over the years, so it just makes total sense to me. Less wait times, the more people enjoy the rides, happier they are, more they spend in park, the more they tell their friends what a great time they had, rather than complaining they had a shit time and avoid the place because the lines are too long. I would also like to see them overhaul loading and dispatching procedures, obviously still in a safe way though. But that is for a different conversation.

I mean, except for the fact they sold off a lot of their land. I would have loved to have seen Lego Land as third gate. DW as the xtreme park, WWW, and Lego Land. Keep the kids rides they've got now at DW so that park is balanced out for everyone and if you really wanted create a fourth gate and split the animals off, but obviously flesh it out way more and add more enclosures.

Or WnWs

It's what I always hoped VRTP would do with the property. Use WnW as a test case before building a dry park. Question. How much land does the park own to expand on?

It was a concrete jungle, that didn't look nice, had no shade, bad service, asked people to pay for extras that were free at the other park, oversold passes and overcrowded the park. It left a bad taste in the mouth of locals after the first season and it's struggled (I think) to get people to give it another go. That and it appears they didn't much to try and fix the problems, no extra trees planted and no new slides were installed since it opened to give people another reason to give it another go and visit there. So yeah, bottom line is, not great management. If we had of ended up with the original artwork, free parking, not overcrowding or overselling passes and friendly staff, it would have been wildly successful!

I won’t disagree about feeling tucked away, not to mention dead end, but as Spotty did point out who worked on the ride, the GP still flocked to it as one of the parks busiest rides. It would be nice with the new ride to begin to open this part of the park up, creating a loop and connecting it with DC arrivals, Doomsday and West. But from a business standpoint doesn’t make sense because then the public miss going past all the stores. It only works if you’re creating a new land out the back and opening park land with new food and merch stores there.

Exactly, you need an IP that can be generic, or you have to ask other movie companies for licenses and again they can become dated too, hence keeping the ride strong enough that once the IP fades the GP just see it as a great ride e.g. that Police Academy was. Yep, that’s why I suggested it, the movie has always been a fan favourite, even today and now we have a new one coming and Paramount aren’t really in the park game these days so there’s money to be made from the theme parks licensing. Warner Bros. did the second Willy Wonka and that’s a fan favourite that has lasted, but also has a great story that doesn’t necessarily need the movie to lean on. But while Warner did the movie doesn’t necessarily mean they have the park rights. E.g. Harry Potter, the movie is there’s, but now Universal does the parks. Plus Village Parks aren’t tied to Warner anymore, so they don’t need it to be their movie. Just pay a licensing fee for the IP you want, then opportunities then can become endless.

The movie IP doesn't always need to stand up in however many years time, as long as the ride and theme is strong. I still don't think PA dated, sure the movie was old and forgotten by many, but the show was strong and had those movie/theme/story elements that made it a fantastic show. Anyone coming through the gates today to see PA would see it for a great show... Not the fact its name is tied to an old movie, its just a show about bumbling Police cadets. Plus Rodney was brilliant as the warm up act. Wild West is the same, that isn't even tied to the movie, it was just great timing, so the name of the ride was changed to be the same as the movie, but eventually ditched it. It still stands because there have been so many old western movies. The ride really has nothing to do with movies, just takes you to a western world. Mad Max would work because the theme is a apocalyptic world and look how many movies run with that theme. It also makes theming easier because you can leave things a bit bearer, strip it back, and it works. What works even better when you go out of your way to age things as well, such as painting the track and supports to age them. Another theme that works is using the "stunt car" theme, a coaster works, but for me I'd love to see a simulator ride, which I remember many years ago @Gazza came up with the idea for such a ride sitting where the dodgems are now. Hell, remember this was the loose theme LW ran with when it first opened up and the movie that was shown in the cinema was going on a car chase to see what it feels like in the movies before they abandoned it and you just walked through the cinema. Flight is another great theme, it would be great if they could strike a deal for a Top Gun IP. You don't always need to rely on the IP, it sure as shit helps because the public already know it, but if it can tie to the movies in some way and last on that theme long after that IP is gone, then job done.

I'm well aware a launch coaster costs more to operate than a chain lift. I was asking what costs more to build, launch or chain. One requires more steel, but the other requires more components to get the train going at speed. Building such a long track, launch, spire for the train to go backwards (which is an extra for this ride), all the earthworks happening on that land since TRR used to sit there, queue and station house and rerouting of the train have all come to together to explain why this is not a cheap ride to build and not DW being ripped off.