Levithian

Just migrating previously divorced systems into a single control would be a huge undertaking that could actually completely result in failure, requiring replacement of existing hardware that just isn't compatible or just can't be made to play nice. Hell, just integrating a Q-SYS core into different rides to give them complete control over sound and lighting/fx was a big enough undertaking, and that really had nothing to do with the actual running environment. People also need to realise (remember?) that scooby doo has ALWAYS been a victim of changing controls and expectations surrounding things like fire systems and safety. We would all love to see hazers, complex laser lighting and smoke so thick it billows out exit doors any time they are opened, but it's not 2002 anymore, and some things haven't been deemed possible/acceptable for quite some time. I'd like to see alternatives investigated, especially these days with modern chilled or co2 atmospheric effects in use, but maybe it's not an option either. The cynic in me can't help but feel some part is due to the cost/really do not care enough about this to make a serious effort though. Sometimes I think management fail to realise the experience is not just about a physical ride, but everything else that goes with it too. Goes double for in park entertainment too. If the ride is on a track destined to repeat itself, what makes lasting memories for people? you only needed to spend 10 minutes reading facebook replies to see common themes to guest experiences reliving experiences across decades of operation. Can't really do that now can you? 🤣 It's funny that the company once implemented a "creating memories" campaign with a demonstrated push to focus on guest experience and drive up satisfaction, but it's literally like they learned nothing from the period and it just fell away like many other promises or hype they have come up with over the years.

Not trying to make it excuses, but you have to understand the vastly different work/employment environment in Australia though too. Nobody (or the overwhelming majority) wants to work at night. There are also what are essentially block out periods which are considered unordinary work hours. Working during them attracts heavy penalties. Work during night is often considered high risk, sometimes it attracts penalty rates (again), other times it's just not deemed possible as it's becoming increasingly unacceptable for staff to work by themselves in adverse conditions (night time with lack of lighting, lack of staff, combined with things like at heights are considered high risk environments). So, negotiating your way around these sort of things when Australia has some pretty well defined laws, especially when you are up against bargaining agreements, and the vastly increased costs that come with it, it's not always so easy as just thinking you can work at night. What Australian parks could really benefit from is an off season. But, due to our largely tropical to temperate climate found throughout the year in South Queensland, that's not something that is really a consideration.

Because they didn't just replace brake sections. People don't realise but scooby doo was originally designed to be able to be transported. Many parts of the high zone exist on turrets, not fixed to multiple columns like you would expect of an in built track. It's very fluid and moves a staggering amount, as attested to by anyone who has ever worked the high zone with the lights on (especially with the ride in operation!), There are witness marks in many places showing how far it actually moves if you only know where to look. It's like a living, breathing thing every time a car comes through. And thats before you get started on the lift system, not just the cab and track itself, but the winch control and braking systems utilised by it. The braking system is so much a part of the run environment, each one represents a block after all, that simply removing them requires a complete change to the ride control systems as there is a lot going on within each brake zone. Speed monitoring, brake over/under runs, distance monitoring, plus obviously the block system and safety brakes. The ride is so sensitive to car timing not only through the brake block, but between blocks too that changes in speed monitoring registering in milliseconds can send the ride into safety faults. Think of how different friction brakes perform vs mag brakes, think of the hours upon days, upon weeks of testing you'd have to perform to just account for how the brakes will perform once installed, not to mention when jammed inside a hot tin shed. It was always due for a ride control system upgrade as part of the safety case put forward after the dreamworld accident. It was one of those rides that was identified as falling within the new 10 year MAJOR inspection and safety upgrades were put forward as part of the upgrade. You saw the first round of similar upgrades at road runner with new trains, new brakes, new ride control, basically, all that was left was the track. How long was the shutdown for it? and thats a system with only 2 trains and 3 block zones! It was a similar story at wild west falls and I don't think people understand just how much of an investment this was by village. Not just in immense cost, but the man hours that went into even getting to the point of rolling out the upgrades, the testing, the changes made, modifications. It's probably easier to roll out a new ride than it is to try and integrate more functionality and different control systems into an existing PLC based ride control system. It essentially meant the death of arkham asylum, it nearly took down road runner too. It shows you how determined village were to see the ride reopened and not replaced. So, not only were sections of a very unique track design replaced, new cars designed taking them away from the manual, ratchet operation of the restraints, new frictionless brakes installed, along with complete upgrades of the ride control system to actually have all this function, including actually pushing all these upgrades through to the qld government for certification, you go and throw unscheduled downtime into the mix and a ride manufacturer that wasn't expecting to have to develop new sections of track until a later planned shutdown; what do you get? Chaos. You get chaos. You can be disappointed at the results, but I don't think its fair to downplay the amount of work that went into just keeping this ride open for future generations. I can guarantee you there were discussions surrounding its closure, it could have been a vastly different outcome. People talking about possibility of injuries riding in the darkness, this was a very real thing when they opened after gutting the ride. Greater levels of darkness experienced then, but it really makes a difference when your body can't brace for intended changes of direction. Certainly saw a rise in complaints for not only things like neck and back pain, but just overall perception of how rough the ride experience was too.

They really have a terrible track record for restoring theme elements after a massive shut down. That west shutdown with the new station and boats was the same. Same goes for years upon years worth of justice league closures. It's literally like, somewhere along the line, someone gives absolutely no f*cks for any of it and any planned repairs are canned. I just can't work out if it's apathy or if its budgetary. It's honestly pathetic that everyone seems comfortable with the results they keep producing. At some point I would have thought someone with an opinion that mattered would have had a word and a focus would have shifted to actually doing something about it parks wide, but, nope. Still seems the same as usual. I can't for the life of me think its because nobody in their maintenance teams either cares enough or has the skill to make these repairs, so it only leaves me to think it has to be a management decision. Village MO would tend to suggest they don't allocate the funds and the labour to not only fixing the issues, but to keep them maintained/working. I remember a time when they wouldn't want to open with things broken/out of service. They would actively hold up openings while repairs were attempted, and if the ride supe made a note of it in their diary because it wasn't fixed, it would get passed on to maintenance teams and you would normally see something done about it within a week.

He actually seemed to care about what was going on. He used to frequently be seen walking through the parks at different times of the day, chatting to different people. Seemed like if he wanted to know something, he would just walk out his office and look for himself. In the event of any incidents, he was out there following what was going on, seeing if there was anything he could do but staying out of the way of people trained to respond and letting them get on with it, then debriefing in his office afterwards, making sure everyone who attended was ok.

Given how he was basically overlooked at village, and with bikash now gone, I really wonder if Greg goes home at the end of his day with a nice smile on his face, knowing the general public is now seeing the positive effects and influence he (and half his team that ended up following him) has had since taking over the company. Must be really satisfying to help turn around a company that was close to insolvency, have a plan for improvements (not just recovery) and start to see the positive feedback from guests following investments in things like this. It looks fantastic, when the other reality could have just been another relocation of old cars running around on a track. It's refreshing to see some care and attention given to the setting and themed elements of a ride again, especially when it isn't a big budget thrill ride. Yeah, limited budgets, limited space are always constraints in Australia, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't at least try to deliver something that improves the overall experience. To me, it really shows intention to build zones or lands back into theme parks, something that at least makes an attempt at something cohesive instead of just plonking something down on a bit of land and calling it done. Makes me wonder just how constrained he was working under the village shroud, when this is like the polar opposite of how things are going over there.

Every single high risk industry is playing the risk aversive game. That's what I mean by this day and age. Change is just an opinion. While they continue making profits everybody is happy with, there is basically no metric that shows they actually need to change and its business as usual. There's lots of things they do need to change about the business and the delivery of the parks that would improve guest experience that has nothing to do with their operations policies though. But operations wise, everyone can keep discussing it till they are blue in the face, it's just not something the current management will ever deviate from. Because they purchased the company massively undervalued, they talked of improvements all round as a lot of the properties were seen as run down, dirty, etc. Private equity will spend money if it means they make money. All the properties will look and feel their best they have ever done.... right before you see them for sale. Only question is are BGH playing the long or shot game, because it's already been 5 years and we haven't heard any murmurs yet. All they really needed to do was ride out the covid disaster and return visitor numbers to the figures of 3-4 year period before and they probably could have offloaded the theme park division pretty easily for good profits.

Fire departments don't do that. They don't make policy or give people direction on things like building materials. That's what building codes are for. Anything you use just has to conform to whatever the current standard is. For things that are flammable, it usually has a performance minimum, ie, how long it takes to burn, ignition points, etc. Lots of this can often be overcome with all these different types of fire retardant though, BUT, it generally has a shelf life too. That's what village found out across a number of their properties, not just in scooby doo. It's what lead to the gutting of the ride the first time around. Think poorly performing aluminium building cladding levels of fire. There is pretty much always a safer alternative though. Especially now with the use of 3d printing and reconstituted stone materials. It often just comes down a cost or convenience thing. Are they happy to go the downgraded cheaper option or are they really looking to keep the aesthetics with the additional cost associated? Even with 2d backdrops, there are vastly different outcomes that can be achieved if you actually use artists vs just slap a vinyl print up there. We saw the outcome of the latter in recent years, often at the cost of painted murals or signage that were night and day different. Village had one of the best muralists and sign writers working for them for over 20 years, it really showed across all their parks, the quality and level of detail was evident. It also showed when they got rid of him...... You can thank most of the "movie magic" or themed elements to buildings, set pieces and rides across the parks to a company called sculpt studios. They have been designing and building these elements for village roadshow for quite a long time, not just in their theme parks either! They are a pretty diverse company and can make pretty much anything look like something else. It all just comes down to cost.

Warner bros don't own even a small portion of movieworld, let alone any other village property. They haven't done for quite a long time. It's just a licencing deal to continue to use the name at this point.

I think he was meaning flat 2d walls are a downgrade from the textured, rock like looking ones that were used before.

still sound to be petrol driven engines with throttles. So I'm probably going to say no.

To a point, yes it will improve things. But indoor rides are always much dirtier environments by nature. It's not like the cleaning team are running around with vacuum cleaners under the track and all through the high zone every night. Running fluids, greases, general dirt and grime, rubber from all the friction drive wheels. It'll still be pretty dirty, just not AS dirty. Makes a big difference when things are outside with wind blowing through and rain frequently washing everything down.

TRRR is a vastly different situation stemming from negligence though, but I don't want to get into it because it takes the conversation away from here. 100% its a cop out by applying blanket rules to everything instead of actually taking up a lot of time developing sop's and managing each appliance in a case by case basis. But that's pretty much how all industry is these days, it's a desire for uniformity. Nobody wants to expose themselves to any risk at all as even if you did all you could, if you weren't found negligent or culpable in even the slightest way, it still opens you to being sued (and facing settlement) for causing injury or death. It puts your entire business under a microscope, not just now, but history going back decades. Not to mention the public fall out and the brand damage that follows. So what happens? you go from looking at worst case scenarios to looking at apocalyptic, never in a million years type events. These are the cascading type ones where multiple issues have to combine together to create disaster. So they try to be proactive and mitigate those possibilities from ever happening, let alone the major risk that's present if they combine. It's frustrating for pretty much everyone. All facets of employees, guests, even ride manufacturers, but it is what it is. People really do NOT understand how serious the green lantern incident was years earlier and just how much village roadshow took away from this situation. It is primarily responsible for setting in motion major changes right through the company, not just in how risk is managed, but how far they can offload responsibility to other parties too. You'll find village roadshow a company with a safety culture that is seen to go WELL above the minimum standard as far as procedures and operations go. They constantly receive feedback from regulators praising their efforts, so it's just how it is. I've said MANY times on here, village are prepared to suffer negative publicity and discontent from guests to implement their style of management and operational control. They aren't prepared to take what is largely seen as a backward step at all. It's just non negotiable. People can argue as much as they want, question why, come up with all kinds of weird theories or even offer to walk in and fix all their operational issues, but at the end of the day it simply comes down to they aren't going to deviate from the core. The ONLY thing you can realistically do to improve things like load times and really slow operations is simply to spend more money. More money on increasing permanent staff. More money to retain existing staff. More money to train all staff. There really isn't any point in going any further while this is still a fundamental issue. You could implement existing policy and procedures far more effectively and probably make changes where needed without deviating from their plans, but you can't do it without addressing those 3 issues. Need more staff. Need more competent staff. Need those you have invested in to stick around. Village have always had a bit of a culture of people can be replaced, and there are more employees out there. So when combined with the dysfunctional and insular management many staff members have experienced over the last 15 years, it's been tough going actually retaining staff across many different departments. VERY tough going keeping the good employees you really want sticking around. They either know their worth and move on, while many suffer burn out, or are driven from the company out of frustration. Business as usual though. They aren't serious about addressing guest satisfaction in the slightest. Not until their hand is forced. I've seen a number of people blame private equity as the reason, but that's really misguided. This took root long before the sale of the company, and more or less the same people are still in charge.

it's so much worse when you have to get under the flooring. 🤢🤮🥴

I see you've played scooby doo mystery goo before. 😂