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I totally agree with Nev, having been on one of these trips myself. A while back we looked at getting ride time on Superman, at that point I didn't really have the relationship with the group I do now (hell maybe I should just make mention of this idea to JSM next time I see him) but the response was pretty much you have to include a full F&B package in order to hire the ride. Which is fine but the price wasn't extremely cheap (but bear in mind that these rides are not cheap to run or staff). Now if we were to go ahead with such a thing I think the park would be more willing to come to the party on other things, perhaps free entry being one of them. I think we would need to pick a ride and run with it, as much as a lights on tour of scooby might sound cool, it's really just a wild mouse in a shed so not much to see with the workers on... Superman would be a good one, as it has both themed and coaster components, it would be someone from Tech Services you'd want to show you around because they will have the answers we would want. You may be able to get a look at the plant rooms, but no persons are premitted in the engine room when the coaster is being launched so don't get your hopes up for that. As far as the right person or persons for Q&A that's really up to what you want to talk about. More than likely if he's around Steve Peet may be happy to chat, he's a really nice guy by all accounts. Perhaps someone like the themed construction manager would be up this groups alley? And again if you want the nuts and bolts questions answered then you want to try and get a hold of tech services... One thing you'll find with a lot of these people at WVTP is they are very into this whole ride thing themselves, so they may be more willing to participate than you think

Surfrider is back open... Unfortunately it was a problem that no one could have foreseen and was discovered in morning checks the day you visited the park (why it wasn't posted out the front I don't know??) Parts had to be sent from overseas which unfortunately took a few days. I can tell you though they were installed the second they arrived and tech services were just as annoyed as you the ride wasn't running... You'd think Intamin would know what they were doing by now wouldn't you!

There are quite a few shows that all run on this similar format, medievil (how the hell do you spell that??) times is another example. The concept of an arena with animal/horse action, coupled with audience seated in a diner theatre type arangement is by no means new, but it works well. Seems crazy to re-invent the wheel just to be different for the sake of it. From what I'm told by people who have seen both AOS is more of a solid theatrical show with a competition segment, where as the dixie stampede runs for an our is pretty much all balls out, fast action and audience screaming the entire time... Both shows have proved extremely successful

I'm pretty sure the jets on the final drop are always off over winter in order to reduce the amount guests get soaked in the colder weather. I'll attempt to confirm whether they are gone for good or not this week.

Just a quick note, Village Roadshow is a wholely Australian Company. There is no longer any American ownership of Movie World... Just looking at that picture of the Dodget Facade, I really hope that is temporary or the photo makes the what looks like vinyl signage look much worse than it is... After all this is the exact kind of theming and finish disney is now UNDOING from DCA.

I was on board for the bird kill in stealth during the TPR trip last year. Was a bizare to see feathers suddenly appearing between the cars. The poor buggers like to sit in between the brake fins because they are nice and warm.

WVTP must be so glad they have Matt to let out info they would obviously like to keep quiet to everyone in a public forum

I don't find the design all that bad with SE but it is a nice flowing layout. On Rita however which has sharp changed in direction it absolutely pounded my neck...

Okay I have been looking at all the photos... is it just me or does the launch track not look like it has anywhere for the catch car to run on? Every Intamin launch until now has used box truss track... this is all flat...

I'd just like to add that NO PARK WORKERS ARE NOT ALWAYS INFORMED AS TO WHAT IS GOING ON! Yes at some point they are informed prior to opening but often not the many months, or sometimes even years we as enthusiasts know about something. Perfect example is the Surfrider at WnW. Certainly no one knew what was happening before the parks arrived, and even long after that and into construction many employees at your level did not know what it was all about. Most still don't know anything about the policies regarding attire whilst riding and all that sort of stuff. Same goes for something like Batwing, yes after a while many people knew it was a tower ride. Barely any knew exactly what the nature of the ride worked, and certainly no one who didn't take the time to find out for themselves knew how it worked. So you're full of crap, no management DON'T always tell front line employees everything and sometimes anything about new attractions coming months in advance. Even now many people at WnW are scetchy on the details of the new White Water Mountain slides... There are some of us like Ian, Joz and myself who have irregular channels for information, but none of these are through front line staff, it's just the way they opperate. And on top of all this ANY information an employee might know IS NOT to be posted to a site such as this.

The key problem with Superman's design is that the plot is given away. The station should have been set up as an 'open air' train station with little seperation between the que and the loading platform. However, the trains should have dispatched 'as normal' and the earthquake should have happened around the corner. It makes no sense why the train would be leaving the station if there is an earthquake???? It's also dumb that they went to the effort to make the doors cover the superman on the back of the train but then you can clearly see it through the doors as the train is dispatched anyway. The perfect example of a themed station design is Space Mountain is Disneyland. As you enter you spiral down towards the loading platform all the while inside a highly themed space port. You know exactly what is going on before you board and I don't think I've ever been so impressed with the hub of activity and picture of efficiency that is that station. I mean hell, look at the disable boarding track and you know things are being done properly. The whole idea is the ride experience starts AFTER you leave the station, not AS you leave it.

Hey JC. Email me off list and we can chat, I'd be curious to know where you're working and stuff, always keen to catch up with fellow people in the industry. I'm also not in the habbit of slagging off co-workers in a public forum so yeah, drop me a line. clinton (dot) dulieu (at) wvtp (dot) com (dot) au or use the one listed in the forums.

Grundys even had waterslides at one point!

Unfortunately the show kind of ended up having no LD. All started promising, the dilapidated and barely functioning show stage rig was put back into semi working order by some techs with the right attitude. Then one of them put a bit of a design together, I was brought in to help with a couple ideas on how to make the best of what they had available and the program the cues for them. Then the show was left in the hands of the day to day show techs to run the show and was somewhat messed up. Then it was 'adjusted' several times over the first few weeks to get progressively tackier and tackier and left with what it is now. But you know the kiddies, they love their colour and movement. I still think it looks reasonably good for a show in the park and I am much more impressed with the set than what was last in there, but it could have been so much more. Sadly I think we're still a long way off from seeing something like Disney's Lion King or Aladdin shows, or even the Maverick show back in the park. But I sure hope it gets there at some point and I get to be involved!

Well no I think you've been around here well long enough for us all to know who you are Gazza.

Why aren't you listening Richard, are you just stupid or just not quite all there at the moment? Ride Op. has clearly told us he has no idea whatsoever why the ride is closed but can definitely tell us will all certainty it is not closing permanently. Now why doesn't that make perfect sense to you?

Oh well see that's another thing, I will never take anyone seriously that doesn't have enough credibility to actually back their posts up with their name!

WOW, going against a manufacturers recommendations doesn't strike me as safe, it strikes me as arrogant. That's usually how ride accidents happen in the first place, parks thinking they know better than the manufacturers. Next they'll be saying they know better than Ride Trade and replace the cables with something they 'just know to be better' and then SNAP, we'll see an accident here too... Oh and just who was it that contacted you personally from Inatmin Ride Op? Because I mean like before, you said, we, so I'm assuming you had some key role in keeping the ride open did you?

I'll echo the above post and add this... WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING? Document of Priorities for rides?? Visuality?? Are you just making these things up? And how is their addition because how can something be the third most important part of a ride after safety equipment (being only one thing??) I dunno mate, you just seem to be loosing credibility with each post. For me, I'd be much more inclined to listen to your posts if they read like they were from a ride ops perspective, where as you always seem to be trying to talk yourself up.

I dunno but one thing annoyed me in that first post... when he said they would have to pay 'us'. It really gets to me when people say that. I may work for Warner Village but I don't say Intamin are building US a new half pipe coaster. It has nothing to do with me, I just happen to work there. Just always struck me an an arrogant way to try and talk ones self up in my opinion.

Yeah I'll second that warning... you'd be surprised, WVTP have a lot more employees than Dreamworld and the person giving our group induction on my first day of work there was able to identify me from this site... They are a lot smarter than we sometimes thing

All I know is the Booster Bike I rode lacked major height or extreme speeds yet it was still an incredibly fun and good ride... now with that being made by Vekoma, I am sure anything we see here from Intamin will be equally as great.

Come on it looks like crap. To be honest it looks exactly the same as the shelter they built at AOS for me to park my boom lift under back of house. They've taken a classic dreamworld attraction and made it look like something temporary. I don't know how people in control could look at what the old attraction looked like and thing this is an acceptable recreation. God I even remember back in the day when they had actors on the course that would stag a fake arrest by the police during your course. It's just tacky and bland.

All I know is I've been telling everyone at WVTP what WnW needs is a Disco H2O slide for quite some time now... Actually just doing some quick looking the only waterparks I can find that have closed 'recently' in the US have all continued operation with new owners... so I don't know about us buying slides from over there... will do some digging today at work

I'm pretty sure the rules on the ticket state that you can't use photos for comercial purposes so you posting them on an internet forum site shoule be fine, as a member of the public and in a public area. Joz is correct on was on site back of house at work (I work for WVTP) so any photos I were to take wouldn't be allowed to be posted publically as per company rules. I would think this would especially be the case with this ride after the issue with the paper writing a rather unwelcomed article on the forthcoming attraction.