mba2012

Riding yesterday morning I also found the airtime at the front to be better than at the back, which for the same reasons as you, I don't quite understand. I also found row 10 to be more rough yesterday than it was when I rode it (same row) the first sunday. I'm not sure if that was just since I had ridden front row immediately before, but it did seem rough. Still one of the smoothest coasters I've ridden.

I managed to get 12 rides in this morning. Very few people came for the early access; they eventually ran one train empty and only loaded the other one.

Just got to ride for the first time in row 10. Absolutely incredible, and those last hills have to be some of the best parts. The single rider queue is definitely the way to it, and obviously Slick and a few others feel the same

Are people finding the single rider queue to be significantly shorter than the main one? How long would it have to be to exceed the wait time for general entry?

The trims will always slow the train unless it is not moving, in which case magnetic braking could not hold it still. Like Richard said in the article, the braking force will change in relation to the speed that the train is going. So a train going faster past the trims will experience a larger braking force, purely due to the physics behind magnetic braking.

It looks to be on the joins between the tracks. The best I can think of is possibly grinding down the track so that there's a smooth transition between pieces.

Don't worry, maybe they'll make it up by loading them separately.

The piece at the end here looks to have a connection for the larger spine. I'd guess that's for a loop, otherwise it's for something pretty cool.

To me this looks pretty much like the supports for the track coming out of the loop on flash. The footings in the foreground look pretty big, they could possibly be for the large supports for the loop.

Is it likely that they'll be trucking them down overnight, or is it just something they can do anytime?

I've seen a link here to the scooby doo track on soundcloud a number of years ago. A search for similar threads to this might uncover it.

^ I believe it's usually just closed for winter.

^ Tours like that are alright. I've done a few overseas and when there's at least something that was in the background that you can recognise, it's pretty cool. If the tour guide can get hold of some good stories, or is at least highly knowledgable about the specific locations, then that should make up for a lack of visible sets. Plus it's good promotion for the film industry here. As an aside, someone needs to sort out the captions on those photos. They've pulled them straight out of articles written months ago without changing anything.

^ I'm pretty sure you've historically been able to start buying (or at least renewing) passes a bit earlier than that.

I rode it last just before christmas, and whilst it was in a pretty decent state, there were a few things not working. Nothing must have stood out too much though as I can't remember any specifics now.

I don't think Sea World has operated Jet Rescue with two trains for a few months now for whatever reason. I was there on boxing day and the second night of Carnivale, and it was only operating with one train both times.

^ I'm guilty of calling it profit. Not paying enough attention :/

ABC article from this morning was reporting that all thrill rides should be open by the end of the month. They're also reporting that profit is down 63% during the period from December 10 (reopening) to the end of the year compared to the same period last year. Financial reports from the period once all rides are open should be interesting to see. Link to the article

Alton Towers was still reporting visitor numbers being down over a year after their accident. It was never going to be a quick recovery. Hopefully once all rides are open it'll start recovering a bit more. But they'd be stupid to use visitor numbers from any point during the next year or so to warrant a reconsideration regarding the parks future.

^ To be honest, I'd much rather catch a tram than a bus. I don't know what it is, but they're so much nicer than buses, and I'm sure many others would agree. In regards to getting the wrong service, I think people would be much more likely to get the wrong bus (even with a dedicated one existing) than to get the wrong tram, just purely given the larger volume of potential buses to get on. As for frequency of the light rail, I don't think it needs any more services than it does now. It never gets particularly full, only really through surfers paradise. I'd suspect the best way to do it would be increase the frequency of the light rail from main beach south, and then split them either way to the spit or to helensvale. Plus the occasional service from the spit to helensvale during peak time for people coming form brisbane.

Given that they were constantly extending the maintenance period, I wouldn't be surprised is this were the case.

If there were a splashdown or something of the like, it'd likely have been built by now.

The bridge in the picture comes from Queen street, which continues to run along the south side of the old hospital site. The only thing you'd be skipping is the current bridge.

Jesus, these quotes are annoying... Replying to above, there's not really anywhere to hide track pieces, so I assume they haven't arrived yet. Given the opening date though, I wouldn't be surprised if they began to arrive shortly. Probably very early in the new year.

I wouldn't consider myself an environmental activist, but I'm not a huge fan of the idea of development on the spit and I can see where they are coming from. It has created a unique environment, where all comparable areas have been developed. It's also a really nice area for locals and tourists to go, its absolutely my first choice over every other beach on the coast. To be fair though, this current development doesn't appear to do much in the way of developing this environment. Especially considering most of the land is just a grass field at the moment. The previous proposals on wavebreak island were atrocious though.