joz

^ The uniforms with the JL floats are Gotham City Police uniforms. I agree with everything you said about the parade, a truly remarkable parade, the atmosphere towards the end with the characters dancing was just unbelievable. It may only be a short lived show, but it's honestly so good I wouldn't be sad at all if it came back for the summer holidays, or did the odd Saturday night show. If I could offer one suggestion it would be to get the retail people out there selling more crap that either flashes or glows in the dark before the parade starts. That's how good I think the parade is; I want to see more retail! I think having a few hundred people armed with flashy crap for the final dance number would really improve the atmosphere too. A good job all round, go see it, you won't be dissapointed, and if you are then you can't be pleased.

Read up on the Big Thunder Mountain accident to see why. I agree the situation sucks though, I've long been of the opinion that Gold Coast parks don't compensate people well when they've been in line for a long time and rides breakdown. One could argue that they don't HAVE to, but since it's a customer service industry they SHOULD be doing something for inconvenienced guests. I don't know what, maybe members have other ideas? (Return tickets, front of line passes for other rides?) It also sucks that River Ride and Batman still alternate even though the park is packed for the holidays. With any luck that will change soon, I've found that even in the middle of the summer holidays, if the park firing on all cylinders large crowds are quite bearable. I will also say something In defence of the park; Lethal and Superman are only running one train because that is all that's available at the moment. Lethal only has one train, and Superman's second is still having work done on it. The moment the second Superman train is available I'd suggest it'll be two train operation again, but for now operational realities dictate one train only. Interesting report in any case

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2010/0...coast-news.html A couple of things I think worth pointing out: "The 'QWalk' climb has been heralded as a saviour for the local tourism industry" Really? Have things really got that bad for the Gold Coast? "Ardent Leisure predicts the projected number of visitors would be about 50 per day during non-holiday periods and up to 220 during peak holiday season -- an expected increase of 80 per cent on existing visitor numbers to QDeck." Surely the place gets more visitors then that? "It would operate from 6am to 3am seven days a week" 6am till 3am? Who on Earth is going to do this at 3 in the morning except drunk people and do they really want drunk people climbing around the top? Anyway, sounds fun, may have to check it out, I hear good things about the bar up there, any everyone knows how much of an alco I am

Well the rumour mill has been pretty good to us so far this year, and according to the grapevine, one of the things you've said is totally untrue, one is (to me) quite plausible, and the other is heavily rumoured to be true. Knock yourself out Internet! Never mind if it's happening or not; if it was up to you, what would you replace River Ride with? Remember it's in Kids' WB Fun Zone so it has to be family friendly and ideally fit within that theme (not just Looney Tunes). Another River Ride themed to something else? Another indoor coaster? Dark Ride?

As it stands now, there is only one train, and I'm willing to bet the train that is running would be a 'purple' train, bit of both red and blue mixed together.

Well Sunday is normally the busiest day of a long weekend, combined with the fact that there's 200,000 odd tickets that expire in 2 weeks, combined with the fact it's a beautiful day, yeah, it's going to be busy. It was busy Saturday and if it's a nice day tomorrow then it's going to be busy then too. It sucks I know, but what do you expect? One of the side effects of having so many passes expiring at the same time is there are a heap of people who want to take one last trip to the parks, so it is going to be busy over the next couple of weeks, weekends especially.

^ Regardless of the talent putting the parade together it's nothing if there isn't any willingness on the part of the management to make it good. Early word on the street is willingness is not only there, but it's in abundance. Hallelujah! All I know is I've been pissing and moaning on this site for years about how the parks need to add nighttime shows, so it's great to see that finally happening! Can't wait

Thanks for the feedback. Basically we decided against an international parks section because when we had one it was pretty much empty, and one of the things we wanted to do was cut down on empty forums. If we had enough interest we'd obviously look at putting in a separate section, though I think it would take a huge increase in traffic to justify it. If you want to discuss a foreign park, then start the topic in the Theme Park discussion forum, its that easy! Most of our active members have travelled to international parks and we have a couple international lurkers who will pipe up at right thread so there's absolutely nothing stopping anyone from starting a topic about an overseas park. So the question is, one month on, how are people finding the changes?

Wow, they're adding Speedcoaster and Twister? That's a huge addition to a place that's about the same size as White Water World's wave pool. Good on them.

What sort of place is it? Is it a caravan park or local pool or something?

I must be the minority here, but I like the idea of 'Rotational rides'. They're so landlocked that the only way they'll keep interest long term is to constantly mix up the ride line up, as it wouldn't take to many new rides before they're out of room, and knocking out the classic stuff. As far as I'm concerned the only new permanent ride they should add is a river caves ride to the classic half, (I have no idea where, or how to accomplish this, but there you go) and keep Maloney's Corner as a modern, constantly changing place where all the "New" "Wow" rides are. That doesn't mean it should continue to look like crap; give it some nice landscaping, bit of modern themeing and shade, and you've got a new part marketable part of the park that can constantly be mutilated without tearing out any one's childhood memories. As for adding the Wave Swinger, well sure why the hell not? Probably not my first choice of ride, but they're fun, both to ride and watch, kids dig 'em, and as with any ride at Luna Park, stick it right next the the Harbour and it'll have one of the best views around.

^ Yeah, they've lost the water park pool. Though as luck would have it, WnW's wave pool closes for a couple months later in the year

Don't know what the setup is now, but back when I worked for the park it was a case of finding them new homes elsewhere in the park. Between the 3 pools at Shark Bay, the VQC, Ray Reef, temporary tanks back of house and the Open Air Aviary there was always plenty of room.

Well just to throw fuel onto the fire... http://www.parkz.com.au/photo_update/const...ld-const_17.JPG Actually, I don't think this is anything beyond the fact that the Aquarium and Shark Attack building share filtration and life support systems, so to do work on those you'd need to close both. It would be great if they went ahead with the ride or started from scratch and re designed that corner of the park but I can't help but be skeptical given the projects already taking place at the other end of the park. Either that or VRTPs have done an exceptional job of plugging the information leaks to the enthusiast community, which can't be ruled out given how oblivious to new things I am these days

Sure, they're unique magical characters that we can remember all these years later, but where's the corporate tie in? Where's the brand leveraging? No wonder Dreamworld is so much more beloved now then it used to be... Seriously, fantastic photos and vid, not sure how I missed this thread in it's first life. If anyone has anything similar be sure to post!

It's an interesting question, but sadly I had to add another option.

If I were you I'd forward that whole post to the park. If you're happy with their response, edit the post to indicate this. If your not happy, then post that to let us know and go up another level. You know, I'd rather we were talking about the positive changes happening at the park (Looney Tunes looks great after it's refurb, new entertainment offerings to name a couple), but when there's so many negatives that need to be dealt with it's hard to see the good things.

The best way I can explain it, is we've been riding ToT, Wipeout and GD since long before you were born, Cyclone since you were 2 and Claw since you were 5. While they're still great rides (well, most of them are ) eventually you get tired of them, and need something else to bring you back to the park, or instead of visiting every year you'll visit every 2 or 3 years. I assure you that if they haven't added anything by the time your 22 you'll probably be bored with the place too. The other thing I'll say is adults have to earn their money, and every year it gets harder and harder to spend money on something you've done to death already. Not trying to sound like a downer, but it is the way it is. That doesn't mean you shouldn't be enthusiastic about the park, heck if DW had the rides it has now when I was 11 I'd have loved the place too. It just needs something new to get me back as an adult. To be fair to the marketing department, when was the last time there was something worth visiting for? I had originally planned a big reply about how for the most part, Dreamworld advertising is pretty good, but think what I found on Youtube while researching is far more interesting then anything I have to say. Enjoy! *** POST EDITED 10th of July 2010, CHECK THIS OUT PEOPLE LOOKING THROUGH OLD POSTS!!!! ***

I'd say it's a little bit of both. The boats are supposed to be as balanced as possible, with the back being the lightest. Having said that, it's pretty moronic to ask one member of a couple to move when asking both to move one row together would have also worked. Really, unless the couple were huge (like 150kgs each) they should have been fine back there together, and given they got through the ride fine I'd say it was the op operating the ride to letter of the law regardless of common sense.

For all the negatives down the road (and boy are there allot of negatives down the road), the one positive point VRTPs have been able to cling onto is that they're still going ahead with capital spending, with all three major parks getting something of note this year. Dreamworld's problem isn't the heavy discounting from Village, Dreamworld's problem is that they haven't added a good attraction since Claw, and haven't added a 'wow' attraction since Giant Drop. Whether or not Village discounted this year, DW would still be having sliding attendance and revenue. The discounting may have made that decline steeper that it would have otherwise been but the lack of a good new attraction would have still have seen a decrease in attendance. Even the capital they are spending doesn't seem all that well thought out. I question Ardent's decision to add a slide which will be well and truly eclipsed in 6 months, giving them only the winter months to be able to market a water slide. Also questionable is whether rushing out and quickly cobbling together a laser show when MW is doing a big night show for Xmas this year was really worth it. It seems to me that rather then trying to expand their own offering they're trying to dilute the marketability of whatever Village is doing. Interesting idea, but all you're doing is pissing money up the wall for no gain unless there's something 'wow' to back it up. I hope there is something wow coming, otherwise 2011 will be another very hard year for them.

The .gif down the bottom sort of this page shows how it works.

1. The driver's cabin doors is controlled separately to the guest doors. 2. Maintenance use only. 3. Indeed, brakes released indicator. Fairly self explanatory that one 4. There's a dead man foot pedal 5. The one above is a 'jog' key. Best way to describe it is it bypasses some small faults and allows the train to move even when there's a problem. In a former life I dabbled as a monorail driver.

The unmarked dial down the bottom is for speed, turn it all the way to the right and it's at top speed. Fun fact: the top speed on the back straight is faster than the rest of the track. On each monorail there are 8 motors, and the numbered display show how much power each one is drawing, they should all draw roughly the same and if one isn't, it could be an early sign that somethings wrong. The reading is zero for the displays because the train is parked, hence the motors aren't drawing any power.

Not that I'm aware of, it's been gone for nearly a year now so I think turning the lights off instead of having the ship actually disappear is as good as it's going to be. Agree with everything you said MickeyD. What I would say though is that since management doesn't care, no one cares anymore. I don't totally blame the staff, it's hard to care about your job when your bosses don't, and a good proportion of your work mates have been sacked. But the worrying thing is that the people who should care are focused on just saving as much money as they can for the sake of a bonus. Yes, rather then getting a bonus based on how good a condition the parks are in it's about saving money. It's not the sort of thing I'd normally draw attention to aside from the fact that people are asking us why the parks are looking like crap.

Pretty much, the glass which makes the effect work has been removed since the frame which supports old is so old. As far as I'm aware there aren't any plans to replace it. I suggest reading up on the 'Peppers Ghost' effect to see what the glass was for. Welcome to the forums BTW!