Levithian

Thats one of the arguments for basic style belts like on the thunder river rapids. In the event of raft flipping or becoming submerged, the passengers can remove the velcro restraints very easily and exit the craft vs buckled in style belts which provide a greater risk of drowning.

Its probably largely out of their (the park) hands. Their insurance company has probably initiated proceedings to recoup money from the engineers public liability coverage.

Its a terrible place for any development as the whole place is a massive flood plain. The golf course, and now the titans facility has been multiple meters under water across multiple major flooding events on the gold coast.

No, I said the 10 yearly applied to everything, including control systems too. I didn't say scooby doo got a new control system, only that it was upgraded like west. Road runner is entirely new. These were due to audits and inspections as part of the newly created 10 yearly. Just on the SLC upgrades, vekoma used the original wheel carriers and replaced the hangers and restraints like kumbak did for their SLC upgrades. They simply didn't have a replacement and you'll find the upgraded SLC's and the later built ones with the vest restraints still use the old design. It wasn't until their next generation trains came along for their suspended thrill and family coasters that the wheel carrier design changed. Now I believe they are offering complete upgrades using STC trains and offering retracking services for companies that might want to smooth out any alignment issues. Nor’easter didn't just get their upgraded SLC restraints, it also had sections of track replaced about 5 years ago, which is the reason it is so smooth. Vekoma restraints or kumbak, they just remove the head banging of the OTR's, but they weren't a recipe to increase the smoothness. That's a whole different issue around design and a few maintenance related problems that see them run really rough. As above though, this is pretty off topic. You don't really "lose" money on rides, they depreciate till they are basically worthless in terms of capital. So selling something cheap isn't really as clear cut as that. You have to factor in removal costs, shipping, construction, etc, plus just how badly you might want to move on a ride in order to set a price. You'd think they would have a pretty good reason to want buzzsaw gone though, even if it was just because it might be difficult to maintain/service/support.

It did get a system upgrade. Road runner didnt just get new trains, it was completely overhauled. Including the control system. Same with west.

Can't see new owners, who are essentially an investment firm, allowing their parks to go backwards, losing themselves money when they eventually come to sell. It's literally what they do, buy, increase the value of the holdings, then sell at a profit.

It does apply to the control system, it's the entire ride, not just mechanicals. Why do you think rides like Scooby Doo, Wild west falls and just recently Road Runner got a complete upgrade? Road runner for example could have gotten new trains without updating all the controls and wiring. What cost cutting do you think was going on? and what did you think was damaged on arkham?

The top of the train was original, they only replaced the bottom hangers and seats. Id like to know why you think it was heavier though, the kumback design was more compact than the original frame. What is the added wear and tear too? it ran for 7 years with the upgraded trains, that would tend to suggest it was pretty reliable. The fact the control system hadn't been upgraded, and the new 10 yearly requirement the government created after dreamworld is what spelled the death of Arkham I was told. It needed a complete overhaul and they decided it would cost too much money vs the age of the ride.

So put them in buildings. Both parks have underutilised areas that could be fit for purpose. This just smacks as doing things on the cheap. It's tacky as all hell.

Queensland parks don't really have seasons is the issue though, it's pretty much just from holiday period to holiday period. The peak seasons are probably the september school holidays and the end of year holidays after christmas. That 3 week period into the new year is probably non negotiable, so december is the deadline. Trouble is, you can't just make up a schedule with any times you want. With the new government controls in place, you cant exceed the time frame between maintenance intervals. So, say you closed superman for annual maintenance in march 2020, come march 2021, the ride has to close again for yearly maintenance based on the interval. If you want to change the schedule you have two options, close the ride earlier, changing it's yearly rotation, or let the ride sit closed until your maintenance is completed later than the previous year. It has a knock on effect to other rides you might not want closed either. When you throw in deliveries for major changes, covid and problems with traveling around the world, unexpected ride breakages/failures, and anything else that seeks to completely mess up your planning, there probably isn't much scope for making major changes to your schedule without something being sacrificed. Given the choice of keeping wild west falls closed through later months due to extended works being done, or potentially having to close another major attraction for an extended period of time so you can alter the schedule; there's probably less impact keeping the ride closed and just sucking up the guest complaints about it being shut than there is permanently changing the maintenance schedule for maybe 2 or 3 rides just to cover the extended down time. I 100% agree with what you are saying, but I know there are probably more things going on behind the scenes than we are aware of that results in scheduling like it does too. Even if its simply down to maintenance budgets only allowing a certain number of employees so your hands are kind of tied with what shutdowns you can manage together due to the workload. A superman may work with a doomsday, a wild west falls with a scooby doo, or a green lantern with a batwing, but a superman and a green lantern, or a superman and a wild west falls might be impossible to manage.

Road runner looks like it has been completely upgraded, including new generation vekoma trains. Wild west falls is supposed to be getting newly designed boats. Neither of those would be a cheap exercise. Its not like they are being neglected. If anything, id hope this shows village have changed their thinking and are willing to reinvest in their current rides and attractions before splurging on new ones. Theres money they could inject into some more of their rides before needing a new coaster. Justice league. DC rivals theming, maybe more superman theming? Fix the complaints with the scooby doo upgrade. What about the kids area? For me its not a problem while they are actively investing in their park, even if it doesnt mean new rides are coming soon. It would be a massive issue if they were to just sit back, do nothing and blame covid for everything.

What about all the other work they normally do too? I would not at all be surprised if changes have to be made if new boats are coming, plus all the testing that probably has to go on before it can open. Its a pretty significant change in ride operation getting newly designed boats with restraints. If you look at what was closed during april to july, they probably couldnt suffer another major ride closure either. How many rides can you work on at once, and how many shut before you might as well close the gates for a down season? Some would argue village were already at that stage recently with more than half the park shut for a significant amount of time.

Another 15 years you mean? Is it still really an arrow coaster if it was built in Australia and now has vekoma train?

Its already iconic. What addition view will it have if it is taller? It can already see over the city, the river and to mt cootha. The only plus is additional capacity, but I think that works against it more than it helps. Reason being, how many groups of 20 people do you think turn up for a ride? Kind of a moot point anyway with covid.

A good addition for a city with an existing wheel? What greater addition will this one make? apart from cost a lot to purchase, build new foundations and erect, at which point the ticket prices will more than double, probably leading to another financial disaster.

It's transportable in the sense it can be pulled down and moved, but it had foundations built and piers sunk for it to be positioned where it is close to the river.

Its purely cost. Someone would have paid a painter to paint those 3d signs and keep them in good condition. Same with all the signwriting and murals. Now they just feed them out of a printer and stick them on and do without a painter.

Probably age, rust, cracking, etc. Don't know if you've noticed, but they were doing a lot of cutting into the fake rocks when they were removing the sign too. Not sure if they removed any other parts in the ride like they did at yosemite sam's train where they removed all the rock theming that passed over your head. Same thing seems to have happened at Road runner. They took all the rock arch way down too, not just the sign.

Why does this only have to be a single ride? why couldn't they be planning to install two?

Solar inverters need 240v supply to work. Thats why when power goes out, the inverter switches off and nobody is at risk of you feeding the grid. Only way around this is battery system which has an automatic changeover switch that disconnects the house from mains when failure happens, or by using a generator (which also should be wired using a changeover switch, not just plugged into a power outlet and backfeeding the distribution box for the house). If you had power, you either still had mains supply and didnt lose power, or you have a big problem somewhere and you need an eletrician to check it out before you kill someone.

Do a london style "mind the gap" safety campaign with high vis signage and announcements when unloading. 😄

Looks like the same car that was in the last wb showcase? Did you have a look through the last display before it closed?

They dont have the budget though. Its kind of a once in a life time spend to turn around a bad situation and massive decline in numbers following the dreamworld accident. It doesnt make any financial sense at all to spend 100 million dollars when you are 200 million in debt. But the situation required immediate action to bring people back to the parks quicker as they couldnt sustain a 5 year recovery period. The reduction in turnover and cash flow was worse for business than taking on a massive amount of debt. So they took the lesser of two evils. Have to remember, pre covid, village were only talking combined attendance numbers across all their parks of under 6 million. You realise how small those numbers are when you remember that a great deal of northern hemisphere parks are seasonal too and achieve their attendance figures while being closed through winter. Compare them to something like the six flags group who normally see over 26 million a year total attendance. Vastly different operating budgets even when you account for different admission prices.

+ extensive history with vekoma already. Id love to see a thrill coaster replace it. It's kinda like SLC generation 2. Wonder what the pricing is like.

I think it gives them scope for adding another encompassing thrill ride to help it blend into the area in the future though. Rivals only does so well because there is so much already going on at the front of the park with green lantern, superman top hat and batwing being so visible. You can't have your big statement ride tucked away somewhere in the back though, it kind of defeats the purpose of building a stunning new attraction when you don't have a lot of else in the park to back it up. It needs to be a presence seen from within the park or when approaching the entrance.