Bmull19

Superman lockers would be easy. They could do it like MDMC with the spinning storage thing. Scooby could always have like a storage compartment in the cart. I noticed in some of the Disney rides they have storage compartments. One (forgot what ride it was) had one that locked when the harnesses locked and unlocked when the harnesses unlocked. This could work for Scooby Doo. Only problem is it might take some space up on a car that is already small.

^ They COULD make lockers free, but there'd be so many issues around that one way or another because Scooby operates so many cars at once (16?) and they have a different exit to entrance. And if they made lockers like the Superman ones free, then anyone could use them, even if they weren't riding. The logistics behind free lockers on a ride like Scooby are just impossible. EDIT: And I agree on the noise thing. Maybe the parks could be really nice to all the residents close by? Hahaha.

Thanks DjRappa for clearing that up.

^ Yeah, I measured the distances. That's only for WWF though (which doesn't operate on Fright Nights). Lethal weapon is about 320m away from the closest resident with Superman being even further. There's 380 metres or so from Ocean Parade & TOTII station to the residents next to Dreamworld. You're probably right, though. They probably generalize all of Movie World based on their border.

^ What do you mean 'differing urban contexts'?

Maybe from last year?? I didn't go last year, so how late did the rides run to? As for complaints this year, I don't think they had any factor in the time as they decided on 9pm before the first night.

Quickly on the topic of revenue raising and covering it under a different name... I brought this up on the Fright Nights page, that the noise restrictions are actually 10pm (Businesses) (11pm for residents on Saturday nights). Movie World staff continue to say that rides must stop at 9pm due to noise restrictions. Even Dreamworld have the rides until 10pm for Screamworld and they have rides like TOTII which produce so much more noise. Cost cutting being covered up here? Back onto Scooby, it's just another one of those things. If it truly is for guest safety, we're becoming too much of a 'nanny country/state' where nothing is too safe.

I heard rumors about Scooby having a no loose item policy soon, but didn't think they'd enforce it. Do you know if it's just like a warning but you can still take loose items on or if they're actually turning people away? If the latter, then there's going to be a lot of upset guests. Soon it'll be you pay to get into the park, but then you HAVE to pay to get a locker.

^ Or report for the Gold Coast Bulletin.

Woah, that's harsh ratings! Everyone's entitled to their own opinions though. This is how I would have rated it on the same scale as yours: rating 3.5 to 4/5 overall mazes 4/5 rides 3/5 actors 2.5/5 atmosphere 4/5 value 4.5/5 Last night was definitely one of the weaker nights. I think next year might be a bit better with the lines as Green Lantern might attract some of the lines.

Don't get me wrong, I think Fright Nights is an excellent event and definitely worth the money, but it wasn't as 'scary' as it was worked up to be. There were 3 or 4 actors for the whole of main street roaming around with a VERY limited number of actors in SAW. I still think it's a good night, just they could have given it that extra, I dont know, thrill? I agree with the China Town comment. My friend & I were walking through there in the rain and the atmosphere was like you were in a movie. All they needed was for one or two people to jump out from a corner in there and it'd be complete.

Tonight was MUCH busier than last week. Didn't get a shot of Main Street, but everyone was there from 7:05 to about 7:50ish because of the storm. The storm meant all rides were shut but Scooby and the SAW and Zombie mazes were shot because apparently (according to the security guy blocking them off), the steel railings as queue lines are dangerous in storms. The SAW movie thingy in Roxy was full because there was nothing else to do. Scooby doo had about a 1.5 hour wait during the night, except after the Burlesque show when it died down.

Hahaha, I knew that video was going to come up sooner or later.

The app will be free. And we're not in it to make money, so we're not going to be trying to make a return on it. There's not that much cost involved, the main input is time and effort. Besides, Park Buddy will be promoting Outsiders when it releases, and more positive exposure is good.

We're still planning it out so it's perfect and then we'll be getting in contact with them. We're just about ready to start showing test set ups.

We're ready to be knocked back, cause we're thinking the same as you. We can offer it to them, and try to persuade them with everything we can, but it doesn't mean they'll accept. We're going to try our best, show them tests of what it is, what it'll do, etc. and just hope for the best, even if it's just one or two parks with it built in at release, hopefully the others will then see that it works, and HOPEFULLY is popular and will want to join in. All we need is a chance from 1 park and pull it off. Sarcasm? Because clearly then they'd be hesitant! We don't want them to be any more weary then needed and we want to make the process as simple as possible for them.

^ You do have a good point. I have to agree, I think you're all right with this overcast/solar panel issue, so there will definitely be a need to work around it. We're not set on solar panels yet, we don't have them purchased just yet (all we have at the moment are sensors), but we'll see how it all unfolds in the next 2 months.

That's one of the problems we thought of (we actually thought of it at Fright Nights). We're looking at solar panels that also store power, or just adding two extra panels per ride system. There'll most likely be 15 sensors per ride, and these'll take about 2 of our small solar panels to power them all through a really thin wire connecting them all on the roof/wherever we hide them (hiding them to not ruin any theming). If we were to install one or two extra cells per ride system, then we could save that power for a rain day/week. The only draw back is then there'll be one extra wire, and the less wires the better. And/Or we just explain to the user through a pop-up message (which will come when the input from the sensors is 'No-Data') that it is an overcast day, no sunlight is causing problems and that it will work on other days. I'm sure people have enough reasoning to understand that and use it on their next visits.

I'd say it's a better version of the Q4U without the whole virtual queuing bit and those extra features I mentioned. The only big difference is that Park Buddy is free, giving access to all park visitors, and does not have a limited availability. The only thing Park Buddy might have problems with are night time events (no sun = no power) and VERY overcast days. But that amount of overcast is only about 20 - 30 days a year on the Gold Coast, so it won't cause too much of a problem.

We're not trying to tell the queue time to people who are at the line, we're trying to tell them before they get there so they can get the most out of their day. Of course it's mainly aimed at locals as tourists/one time visitors don't care about the queue time as much. An example. A group of friends are having lunch at Ocean Parade and really want to do Giant Drop afterwards. They walk over to the queue line to see that it's too long and they're not prepared to wait that long. So they walk to TOTII and see that's too long too and so they just go ride a high capacity ride like Wipeout. With something like Park Buddy they could plan which ride to do straight away and save time walking around, which in this case could be a while to get to the ride then ponder, discuss and move on. I've seen it happen to so many people. Let's even put this into the case of a one time visiting family. They are told that the best ride is Superman Escape at Movie World, but when they get there, the line is massive. Whilst they're in queue for other rides, rather than Superman, they could check the queue line for Superman, and as soon as it gets to a reasonable length for them, they could go hop in line after the ride they're currently in line for. Obviously the bigger the park the more useful it is, so hopefully as the parks grow, Park Buddy can continue to grow with them and add more rides to the application. Don't forget, there's also more features to the application - ride closures and a GPS map system, which are pretty self explanatory. We're also going to do more with the data the sensors collected and allow the parks to customize and use the data as they wish.

We're not planning on any other operating systems other than Android & iOS at the moment. These two operating systems make up about 75 - 80% of smart phones, so we're happy with this amount. The Android conversion will probably be outsourced, but should work at the same quality as the iOS version.

Remembering that the first night is usually the quietest, here were my wait time approximately. At the start of the night, Arkham and Psycho began to build up quicker than the others. From about 6pm to 6:30pm, it was probably a 5 to 7 minute wait for both of them. Over at Zombie (at about 6:40ish) and SAW, no one was ever over there yet making them both pretty much a walk through. After having done them both, SAW instantly became a long line, so long I just never bothered for it again. Zombie never really got a long line. At about 7:30, Psycho probably had a 20 minute wait and Arkham looked as if it had a massive line, but was only actually 10 minutes, which is definitely worth it for that maze. Toward the Burlesque show beginning, the lines of all mazes died down, so definitely do them around this time. At 9:40, we were talking to the attendant of the Arkham maze and she said if it stays like this, she's going to be lonely for the rest of the night (there was no one else behind us once we got to the front!). The maze lines stayed pretty short after the Burlesque show through to 11pm. As for the ride lines, depends what ride. Lethal Weapon 30+ minute wait, Scooby had a 5 minute wait and I'm not sure about the other rides, but Batwing's looked about 15 to 20 minutes.

I went last night. I really enjoyed it from about 7:45pm on wards. At the beginning there were problems like the fire alarms going off at the sound stage for zombie and the wind was blowing all the smoke away from the park and the mazes, so zombie was pretty much nothing. I talked to Lynton (the guy who designs and directs the mazes) and he was getting everyone to turn the smoke up. It was just after this the fire alarms began. Then later on, after doing Arkham for about a 4th time (it's definitely my favourite!), Jordan & I saw Dominic, a worker for Lynton, and he said the smoke machines were working really well now and that it was like a cloud there now. I didn't have enough time to do Zombie again, as I saw the burlesque show (which was awesome ) and then did Arkham again, Psycho (as I hadn't done it without a camera in front of me yet) & rode Scooby. The circus show was cancelled due to the high winds, so that's one I'll have to see the coming Saturday. All in all, it was an excellent night. I think the nights from now on will be better, assuming the wind dies down by then or they keep the smoke machines going at their current rate. Arkham is definitely my favourite, followed by Zombie & Saw and Psycho at the bottom.

Asked me a month or so ago, I would have easily said Dreamworld. Just then, though, I had to sit there for a little bit and ponder... then I decided Movie World.

What? They couldn't even DRIVE to the park just to see the footers and realise that it WILL be out the front of the park? Or they couldn't see Movie World's pictures showing that Lethal Weapon will STILL exist after it is built. Or the couldn't even Wikipedia the rides to see which one is in Magic Mountain and which one is in Great Adventure? And seriously, where did the idea of it being a stand up come from? Because they have the same name?? News at its finest...