Original

Adding to the Chopper chat, doesn't MW have a helicopter landing pad just near their admin building. And on occasion over the years I've seen the SW helicopter land at MW.

You can pay for the year up front and after that it will continue to be debited monthly unless you cancel.

^ I'd love to see them build something like Lightning Rod here. The construction pics of that look amazing!

I'm going out on a limb here, but extreme sit down steel coaster and worlds best. I'm going to say Hyper Coaster, and that idea was only out in my head because the first we saw of the Western area being blocked off was a first time poster with hyper in their name. I just think a hyper coaster would fit the bill for a world class attraction and fits the definition of extreme steel coaster.

I'm guessing that's what they were talking about. I did enjoy how they fondly remembered it as a better ride than AA. I wonder what they thought Thunderbolt was...

I stood in line at SE and listened to the group in front talk about how much better LW was before it became AA and your legs didn't dangle and it had that double loop. ?

If you really wanted to hide Superman, how difficult is it to use the technology where you can have plain glass, but can also instantly frost itself? Although I see all sorts of problems with that and it getting dirty.

Yep, grandstand was expanded. Can seat more people than what PA could.

Maybe they could just a few cinemas in under the Village name instead of a massive multiplex, plus Village have a joint venture with Event Cinemas which is what I'm presuming we'll see at Coomera. I'd also guess we'd see an Intencity since that's also a Village property. I'd like to then see them move the one in MW out and use that area for another attraction.

Yep, but hey if you had unlimited funds to fix these issues, it's something I'd definitely do. Hell after watch just happened with GL, MW should be able to get a good deal from S&S on their products.

As I've already banged on about I went to the parks just before Christmas. Figure I'll just go through my thoughts since now going is a once every few years thing now instead of going once a month. The park looked really great. Kudos to the gardeners and general maintenance team, the park looked very nice and well kept. Parts of the family noticed parts of the ghost town area looked tired. I did have to explain that's how it's meant to look. Although even parks like Knotts at times have pulled down parts or renovated sections of their Western/Ghost Town to keep it looking "fresh". However, MW's Ghost Town/Western section, really pulled off looking like a Ghost Town, the section was dead. HWSD, boring. Yeah the driving's cool, but that's it. The script's weak. My party hadn't been since PA and all said they thought the new show was terrible compared to what used to be there. I get the PA licence was too old, but that show had it all, a great warm up act, comedy, a good script, car stunt driving and actual stunts. The 4D LT movie I thought was great, probably the most use of the seats I've seen in a long time. The pre show room I thought was a little bear, but hey that's a something nothing really compared some of the past films. Maybe down the track a LT themed room. My thoughts on the rides are already up in the thread about what MW needs to correct. I mean it was great I got on the rides so quickly, but seriously I could have got on so quicker if only operations had of been sped up. Crazy restrictions and slow staff prevent this. One thing I think could help with line times is making queues a little more interactive, just small things to keep guests are occupied and not noticing how long they are in line for, like how the old rides had pre shows. I think this would be great for GL, JL and Batwing, maybe some more Subway themed things for SE. GL looks great now the plants have grown up, it does feel like the ride has good theming, you know until you get to the bridge. Scooby, the queue rooms video does need an update. I'm not saying get rid of it, just add some more videos into the rotation, like the extra features from the DVD, the scene from the movie that is actually the spooky castle and maybe some old school Scooby cartoons. Everything was working on the ride except I noticed most of the fire sensing lasers on the cars were out and the Grim Reaper was out of action. The music was loud, the fog was non-existent and great to see more lasers, but the coloured ones did absolutely nothing without the fog. The disco room was also very hot as well, I feel like I remember it being air-conditioned??! WWF was great, but yes a touch up to parts wouldn't go astray, some parts have gone from looking faked old to now just plain old. One thing I'll say with the park in the queues SE air con is hit and miss, JL was nice, but wasn't busy, I feel like it would be hot with the aircon struggling if it was full. The park I think should have themed ceiling fans as their best friend for ride like WWF and AA. Old school ones for WWF maybe painted black with graffiti for AA to keep the line a bit cooler and better themed than just big industrial wall fans. Also, this was the first time in a long time I went with people who aren't ride people I noticed around some rides there wasn't a lot of seating for them to wait for me, they struggled to find seats as well as shade, some of them were elderly. Don't have an opinion on F&B as we went home early to refresh ourselves and eat some dinner before heading back for WC. Overall I loved my day, I've always loved the park, I have a soft spot for it. However, it's not as good as what it was a number of years ago. Whether my soft spot had me viewing it with rose coloured glasses my party really didn't like their day. They use to love the park but didn't feel there was as much for them to do before. They hated the stunt show, missed the River Ride, obviously too old to ride its replacement, missed having the extra rides, walkthroughs and behind the scenes shows. They didn't have as much to do as what they use to and since the park has grown since they left, they didn't think it was good enough. That being said, they loved JL, in fact they laughed the whole through the ride, which I rarely hear them do on rides, so while everyone says they wish it was a little more thrilling and moved around it fits its demographic perfect. While they have filled the thrill ride brief, my party who hate rides, (only half of them do Scooby), felt they'd been neglected. They also felt MW had become a money grabbing exercise, they felt at every corner MW was trying to get money out of them. Coupled with all of this the park just left a sour taste with them and said they wouldn't return for some time, and this is a group that used to love going. SW for them was a different story, but seeing as I've already written so much, I'll leave that for another time.

GL if operated correctly could be continuous operation. I know it's not really feasible, but I think Batwing should have a second tower, that way the ride could be operated all year round, closing one tower at a time. AA should have a second train like SE so one can always be being loaded. Joz is right, instead of waiting for people to walk off the ride and close the gate just begin loading as people as they exit, check the exit gate last, not first before loading people. The park hasn't just lost the sponge rides but those rides also had the queue as part of the ride. Batman, LT and Gremlins all had preshows as part of the queues that could admit tons of people before getting to the actual ride. Now SE is just switchbacks, same with Justice League, the outside queue is still there, but no preshows are used just switchbacks, making the wait for the ride seem longer than what it used to be. We've also lost the LT show, sure it wasn't much but could soak up crowds, it should have its own theatre like the kids theatre at SW. Also the two smaller soundstages that only get used during Halloween make some sort of behind the scenes thing just for Summer.

Your right AlexB I know they like to cycle empty cars to prevent stacking, sometimes I think though this is caused by slow operations. Yes guests can stack these things sometimes, hell, the party I was with caused stacking because of someone we were with had a disability. But operations should be moving quickly enough when this occurs stacking is kept as minimal as possible. When an empty train pulls up and sits there 30-45 seconds before guests are led to it is not good enough and just allowing the stacking to become worse. Why in 1994 could MW open LW with 2 trains but in 2015 with more guests coming through the gates only decide one operating is good enough?! How can they run Scooby with so many cars so well, but GL can only have 4 and 2 trains sit on the brake run full while the other 2 are being loaded and parks around the world keep them running continuously.

^ Agreed, when the population is bigger and the park has grown, these sorts of things should be added, or kept or at least changed up to something new but park hours kept the same. Not being taken away and then bringing it back for one night and telling everyone how amazing it is and what a good thing they're doing for everyone. I love VRTP they build some great things, but also go and make some stupid decisions. Albeit they look at the bottom line in the short term and don't think it's stupid.

I went just before Christmas. I hadn't been for a good 3 years or maybe more so I still haven't posted my thoughts on the park but even though I went before it got busy one of my mine complaints was efficiency. Green Lantern: one car wait. When I got off the line was back down to the L shape on the bridge. Even though it was a one car wait I was still waiting for longer than what a one car wait should be. Batwing: I was the only one in the family who wanted to ride, so I used the single rider line, the only person who was in the line so I got on the next ride and still waited a good 5mins before I was shot up. SE: Only 2 switch backs full, but could have been a walk on IMO. 2 train operation, the second train would arrive on the loading platform while Loader 2 had only just come out to start sorting and was slowed down further by always searching for far too long for groups of 2 or 1. AA: 4 train wait = something along the lines of a 20min wait. I know as a rider my timings out so my have been a little bit quicker but when you watch how slow they load, sure feels like it. Scooby: 40mins, half the room full at times the queue moved quick and then stood still for ages. My memory was it always moving, so even if it was long was one of the rides best qualities. WWF: To the door of the old video room, staff here really have to get people in with a moving platform. However with that said, several times it was stopped as people not being loaded in time. Not sure if that was staff or just dumb guests, I couldn't tell. However after coming down the drop we were 2 boats back from unloading as the entire platform was full with boats, for what reason I won't try to guess as I wasn't there to witness it. Too busy emoting the ride! Justice League: Operations were pretty good. Except for every now and then they kind of just didn't fill the cars or took ages to finally let people on slowing it down. Now I'm not complaining I did everything with very little waiting. However watching their operations it was clear things could be made so much better. I got some lovely staff, and some grumpy ones, but they were just slow. Now I'm no operations person to work out how to get people to load quicker but surely having your group ready to get straight on helps and I don't think it's necessary to make sure everyone has exited and the exit door has shut, before you begin loading and all staff were so slow at checking harnesses, just slowly walking everywhere. So I think if you want to fix MW fixing operations is number one, retraining staff, make them feel valued. Longer trading hours in summer, black out dates for cheap passes and incentives like opening early for VIP passes to get them in and out or other special offers like Disney does. Same goes for F&B problems you pointed out Skeetfly after all that's where the parks make most of their profits these days. Don't piss these people off and they may be willing to spend more when they get to the counter.

When I went just before Christmas, which I've been meaning to post a trip report of for ages now, SE was running with 5 staff for 2 train operation. 1. loader, 2. Loader & Sorter, 3. Unloader, 4. Entry, 5. Supervisor.

I always thought a Soarin' concept ride would be great for Sea World if you could fit a smaller version into their old 3D theatre. I know DW is an Aussie park I just think SW could pull it off better flying over Gold Coast or Australia or through different oceans and places like Canada where the Polar Bears are. In terms of what I'd like is to see the park continue refreshing itself and open Euerka, let MW have their big coaster this year and come back fighting the year after.

I really wouldn't classify us in the peak period yet. Boxing Day is when you hit the peak period time through to the rest of the holidays. In fact Friday is the last day of school for QLD and next Friday for NSW. Otherwise I'd ask why didn't DW start work earlier on Cyclone and the V8 area earlier to have it open for right now, the peak period. I didn't say a check-up was why the coaster was down, it could have already been through that, simply that shutting rides down not too long after opening is standard procedure. With the carousel, pulling it down so there's just a mast left does sound exactly what you'd classify as a rebuild, pulling it down to its bare bones and putting it back together and yes Fright Nights could have triggered that. What I am surprised at is the ride not being on the website as being down because even though you might call it a carnival ride there is one at every single theme park here on the GC and even the Disney parks, so I'd also classify it as a theme park staple.

Alex B is right, every ride closes a month or two after opening for a check up. Just like the car analogy he gave. It's to check that when it was commissioned everything is still working as it should as these are new parts wearing in. I think you'll probably find nearly every piece of machinery has to go through this. Whether this is the break-in maintenance check or something else, I don't know. But go back through every ride opening and you'll all find they went through a brief check up. Also the carousel, that could just be a complete rebuild, we've seen a lot of rides go through it and even when coasters are down their cars go through rebuilds.

Well considering VR owns Intencity & Village cinemas you'd imagine they'd both of those brands in as well as probably a WB Store

MW is due for another big one, but SW is also desperately missing something big!

But are we sure it was MW that asked for them, or did S&S already have this design in planning/ready to go? I'm sure it wasn't just MW that wanted this, it's also beneficial for S&S because they can then sell the model with an extra option. Just like how Mack can sell their wild mouse with a lift instead of the standard lift hill. Or what about SE, that might be a similar system to others around the world yet carried risk because that design had never been built before. I'm just saying we have no idea what pressure was put on S&S to create an 8 seat, if any was at all, and that's something I doubt we'll ever know.

Not from Sea FM, written for the entire HIT Network. Probably from Melbourne or Sydney. You'll find it on all their HIT websites, you'll also probably find the article pop up on the Triple M network as well as their Local Works stations like Gold FM.

When you look at Disney Hollywood Studios they seem to be following the same path as Movie World, instead of just showing you behind the scene of movies they're want to take you into the movies themselves.

And until SV had to be demolished & they filled in part of the lake for Wild they were very land locked and I don't really want to see anymore of the lake filled in, give the park a real charm. With the car park, I'm not suggesting build a second across the road just acquire the land for future expansion, most animal exhibits need large plots of land, just look at Shark Bay & Dolphin Cove. The car park could always just go up