Tricoart

And, by the end of the year, anyone's suspension of disbelief will end the moment they walk in the plaza & are greeted with the Yellow-Brick Road

Fair, I hadn’t been able to find a high-quality close up of Big Dipper’s connectors. Still, though, them being the way they are remains a weird decision to me, and even there I feel like it’s slightly uneven.

Steel Taipan’s track extends so no hard gap exists. v09044g40000c8eafh3c77ufc3rmc3ag.mov Toutatis, however, has just been designed with a very small gap, one that can only be seen from super close up (significantly closer than Big Dipper’s) Also, I’d hazard a guess that the issue of not having track connected to itself independently is mad worse by the forces being put on the connections. Toutatis’ track switch, at least while at speed, is mainly experiencing push-pull forces, i.e. the main force its’ direct ground connection is braced for. Meanwhile, the general layout connectors on Big Dipper (and all coasters) are susceptible to all different types of forces, which could make the gap become/feel worse while in motion than it looks whilst stationary (especially with a heavier train).

Pics or it didn't happen.

My thoughts are that I hope it’s temporary.

Thing is, they've had to purposefully get a second spinning seat for this to happen, connect it to their other train, assumedly use the old rear car for something else, and run commissioning again just for the new spinning seat, so they must be expecting whatever cost gained to be worth the cost/effort sunk into it, and I don't really see why or how they think that with the addon's historically rather low usage. That said, though, I'm still not gonna be convinced 'til someone has photos tbh.

You sure it wasn't just running the one train? AFAIK Dreamworld's only had one spinning rear seat since the ride opened, and on most days it was being used about as much as DCR's backwards facing seat (which is to say, not a lot). Purchasing a second would help in the situations when the other train is in for maintenance & they want to offer the spinning seat 24/7, but I'm hesitant to think they'd do that so far after opening when the ride hasn't had that much pull to begin with.

Though Dreamworld's had the closest thing to quiet zones in comparison to Movie World w/ their Kickback Cove & Corroboree areas (though, I guess Doomsday's section could be considered a quiet zone now that nothing's open), this is genuinely a great idea and I really hope that the other parks follow suit. I've been wanting to have a nice place to level myself while at the parks many times, and have mostly just resorted to going on Sky Voyager or Justice League if there's a short queue, or the aforementioned areas of the parks if there's not a lot of wandering guests (headphones & sunglasses also help with both scenarios), but this is gonna be a huge help especially when the park's feeling packed.

Also be careful when eating there. Gone once, got food poisoning on the first night, ruined whole holiday (/related birthday), never went back & never will.

Blander than their food/merchandise options?

Yeah, Sea World’s website could do with some clarifications/edits about that. Levi: Storm:

IMO, if Levi didn’t have the roughness/‘feel’ of a wooden coaster (especially one with Timberliners, from what I’ve heard of others at least), it would almost perfectly fit the ‘family-thrill’ category, albeit on the higher end of heights/speeds (e.g Expedition Everest). But, mainly due to said roughness, and partially due to the allure an imposing wooden coaster has here, ’family-thrill’ is a hard sell.

Yes, have several workers pull consistent all-nighters so they can bring cranes into the ride envelope, paint a couple track pieces if they’re lucky, then remove ‘em all by the time testing begins in the morning, at which point none of the paint will have dried & the only thing that’s pink’ll be the train. That sounds both ethical, logical, and financially viable.

Budget cuts, private equity, etc etc.

‘Family-Thrill’ is just an ever-increasing subset of coasters, meaning a ride that’s accessible to wider audiences (generally via a shorter ride height (in both meanings of the word), no major positives/ejector airtime, and by focusing on more ‘graceful’ shaping), whilst still containing some elements that pop (generally opting for graceful negatives > positives, so most leaning towards floater airtime, with boomerangs using spikes & some options including an inversion or 2), which parks are wanting to do more and more, both because they’re a safer investment than balls-to-the-wall thrill (as well as generally being cheaper before theming), and most parks have historically had a drought of rides in the genre, seemingly jumping straight from kiddie coasters to completely thrill-focused ones. Vekoma’s been filling this subset with their models/rides for much longer than Gravity Group (think their Family Boomerangs, Mine Trains, recent SFC’s, & all their Disney coasters), and almost every major manufacturer has at least begun to dabble in ‘em, either with models solely for the category (Recent examples being the RMC Wild Moose, B&M Surf Coaster, Intamin Multi Dimension Coaster, & many other manufacturers’ Vekoma-like models), or by adapting their existing models’ layouts/features to suit a tamer experience (Mack Launch Coaster - Manta, B&M Wing Coaster - Mandrill Mayhem/Maximus, Intamin Blitz - Cheetah Hunt, etc.).

The furthermost enclosure from the entrance (‘Day Yard’ in the plans) is unoccupied due to construction, meaning progress into this section of the redevelopment is viewable.

One frame, one coaster, 3 separate coats/colours of paint.

Once again:

New social post showing the inside of the "Wizard's Chamber" in it's current state, as well as a preview of some related theming elements. (From Movie World's Instagram)

If only there was a way to see what rides will be under maintenance in advance... like a maintenance page that clearly shows accurate info about both current and future maintenance, instead of misleading/convoluted stats about current maintenance... Guess the technology just isn't there yet. /j /srs Wouldn't be surprised if it goes down post-holidays tbh

Superman has reopened(? That was quick.) https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8YyjxIpOUS/?igsh=b2c3YXdycWR6eHYx

They already did, it's them saying Intamin's delivered the parts, describing a bit about the launch system, & confirming that the ride is testing for an opening 'ASAP'. https://www.instagram.com/movieworldaus/reel/C8VhRxtSCpl/?hl=en

Looking closer, it seems like the welding was their way to get around Big Dipper's roughness, meaning they must have thought, either from their own rides or from the feedback of others', that the cause of Big Dipper's roughness is gaps in the track. Which, looking at it's construction, may very well be at least partially the case, as even in the POV's there are pretty noticeable gaps in the track. And, from their handy construction timelapse, I can potentially see why. Unlike RMC Raptors, which have track connectors that work similarly to most coasters, where track pieces are bolted to each other independently of a third factor like a support, Hot Racer's by design seem to only be able to be pieced together via a support. Here are three instances of this from said construction timelapse, as to show different angles: Instance 1 (Before & After) Instance 2 (Before & After) Instance 3 (Before & After) Hopefully that explains what I mean, that track pieces are only able to be connected to one another through the use of support connectors, and in all of those albeit low-quality photos, gaps are still recognisable. So, if I had to guess, welding track pieces together was their 'fix' for this, as there doesn't seem to be any other aside from completely redesigning the track (and/or trains) to allow for separate connections that could negate the gaps seen above, but it seems either it hasn't worked or there are other factors for the models' roughness. And, for comparison, here's the best image I could get to explain how Raptors can do it, but Hot Racers' can't: At the bottom is a connected track piece, with a plate bolting the 2 sides together independently. There is also a similar plate on top of the track, as seen in the middle, and a small square for another bolt to connect them without any plates that's viewable on the bottom half of the track piece that's being lowered into place. And, though the connector is much easier to view than that of the Hot Racer's, there's no noticeable gap, because of the precision that method allows for. But, because of Hot Racer's tubular track, and possibly them being a launched model, flat connectors above or below the track are impossible without redesigning the track entirely, and possibly the underside of the trains. What they could have done, and what they hopefully do in the future, is do a more minimal redesign that still keeps with the same basic track type, but allows for semi/circular connections as seen on most other predominantly tubular coaster types (their own included, like Pantheon below) Again, no welding needed, and no gap viewable despite an even closer photo.

Haven't ridden (either), but from what I've heard from people that have ridden Big Dipper, it tends to run a bit rough. Don't know if that was an issue with the 'prototype' LPS got, or if it's due to it's location or another external factor, but the main thing I'm interested to hear about Mahuka is if that issue has persisted.