Slick

If you look closely there's a nice wrap that tells you what's going on.

In a perfect world, what do enthusiasts want? Because fans can't have it both ways - folks want the parks to be transparent and more receptive to feedback (and even engage with enthusiasts 😱) but also think it's ridiculous when they leverage insights from the folks that know their assets the best. To be frank, if analysts, investors and even the boards themselves use Parkz for insights and insider knowledge, there'd be something wrong culturally if the middle managers were too short-sighted to do the same.

Could be because it’s a knee jerk reaction to this thread. 😂

I think you've backed yourself into a corner. I've pretty clearly written that I have no doubt there's more to come, the issue for me is that the first impression for any theme park should never be having the park's icon dumped out the front and inaccessible and then immediately followed up a giant black wall, particularly when guests are expecting to take a photo at that spot as part of their day. I'm pretty flabbergasted that people are happy to give any park a pass on that, it definitely shows a lack of objective criticism on those who side with the park. And in the process of trying to defend something obviously very, very average, you've chucked everything in plus the kitchen sink - from photos that require you to be peeking through other fences through to positioning me along an opinion set that has nothing to do with me. I don't think you're being objective so much as you're being a contrarian for the sake of being a contrarian. You're soooo close to getting it. Thing is, you can have your cake and eat it too. A park can really easily go "hmm... first impressions matter at a time when we're really trying to build consumer confidence, and we're about to do this major temporary change to one of the most iconic bits of the park. We should definitely make sure that whatever we do we minimise anything that damages the guest experience in the interim. Let's make sure that when this bit of fencing goes up, we have a wrap on it straight away that clearly explains what we're up to. Because so far this year we've done lots of transparent communication, and people love us for that, so it'd be strange for us to do the polar opposite and leave black walls up for even a second. Especially when we've got night trade on too. It's not a good look for us. We did put wraps up late for Sky Voyager and this is even more of a prominent change to something people would obviously get upset about and there's a bunch of research that shows first impressions for experience and revenue matter, so let's make sure our project managers are all over this tiny but critical detail. If we have to spend an extra grand getting someone in before park open to apply the wrap, it's totally worth it. Also, let's make sure the globe's out of sight from guests as they drive in, that's such a massive slap in the face, especially when if they were to then get hit by a giant black wall with no information on it."

If that was the Movie World arch and the first impression when you walked in, is that okay? Extending to that, are those mesh fences ever okay? Again you’ve fallen into the trap that by being critical of one must mean I love the other - this isn’t old school V8 Supercars where you have to pick Ford or Holden. Either can do stuff that deserves both praise and derision. I also love how you assume folks don’t care about the globe or taking photos. If it’s all about the rides, just put everything in shipping containers… oh wait.

It doesn't take days and weeks to apply a vinyl sticker to a wooden fence it takes hours, in fact it could've and should've happened after park hours or the literal second the fence went up, which is the point I'm making, not about whether or not they should've gone with some other kind of fence. Sorry, but there shouldn't be a giant black wall as the literal first thing guests see when they enter. Not now, not ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. If anyone thinks to the contrary my humblest of apologies but you're a Dreamworld apologist. They'd have the whole project timeline and mapped out, but they didn't think to consider the guest experience and what it signals to guests when they're not met with a beautiful globe but rather a giant black wall as their moment of the day? Christ on a bike, shopping centres do this quicker and better - there's no excuse. Thing is,the path to profitability relies on guests using their annual passes at least twice but tell me, how many guests would feel their experience is worth coming back for when the first thing they see is a giant black fence and the iconic giant globe dumped out the front of the park? Exactly my point - anything would be better than this.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid032tb6f37QvuR5YGTZh8oSAcfm4rtD8DLWNjQs3wVYMwdRjFEB3uMK9XMvDTqCgza6l&id=100071539044404 Looks like it gets worse - right now guests are greeted with a giant black wall. No doubt they’ll put a wrap on those walls eventually but I personally would’ve moved heaven and hell to make sure where the globe was situated somewhere accessible (at the minimum) and had a wrap put on the second the wall went up. One day of trade with black walls as your first impression is one day too many.

As the #1 focal point for guests, it’s staggering they didn’t spend the extra couple of dollars to temporarily rig this elsewhere. People are gonna arrive and the first or second thing they’ll see is half a globe and a bunch of disappointment they can’t get “that picture.” Here’s hoping I’m wrong and there is in fact a plan.

History tells us that creating a culture that pressures people into keeping rides open is a bad idea. Furthermore, there’s a reason why there’s the perception that if you take your car to the car-maker directly to get serviced that it’ll get better maintenance and care. Consider that the mechanics are niche to that particular brand and therefore have more experience and knowledge to do a better job. But some people here think the solution is to take their car to the local grease-monkey equivalent who promises they can do a better job and for cheaper? Crazy. There’s two halves to the downtime problem, both due to the pandemic. On one hand, there’s undoubtedly been a brain drain in the industry. These aren’t simple bits of kit - there are hundreds of thousands of parts, rules, regulations and codes that would take any good maintenance person years to understand in order to realistically anticipate the parts and scheduling requirements to keep a ride operational. So there’s a skill shortage and the industry needs to replace those who have left the industry, and then those maintenance staff remaining are being pulled in two directions - one where they need to upskill new staff, and another where they are required every which way because their niche skills are in short supply in the organisation they’re at. Want to know how you create burn out and further brain drain? Rinse and repeat that last sentence. Then you’ve got part supply issues - if maintenance staff have got plenty of tenure they might be able to anticipate potential shortages, but that’s a big maybe. But if post pandemic budgets are still tight and parts are at a premium because of economic conditions, maintenance staff might be asked to not keep so many spares afoot and have a more ad-hoc approach to consumeables. Suddenly you’ve got a strategic decision infiltrating multiple departments and creating outcomes that are the opposite of what the organisation is after. But yeah, just subcontract out maintenance, that’ll fix the issue. 🫠

Great trip report - did you happen to ask anyone why the twin hammer disappeared?

“Hey! Let’s go on the one with the red track!” “Superman?” “Nah, the one over there!” “Yeah, Superman!” “NO, the red over near Superman that’s not Superman but has a launch on it.” “Yeah, Superman.”

That’s really interesting. I wonder if they’re RGB? Would be cool to integrate into various major events.

Just to add, not all fonts are designed to take up every single square pixel or inch of space they occupy for each letter. You wouldn't use their existing typeface because the artistic design of the typeface is more suited towards digital and print. Those smaller counters and legs (the spaces inside the characters and the end of a stroke respectively) might look great on an iPhone, but they reduce legibility when viewed from far away or at a reduced scale. Plus there's clear character kerning that results in some letters being not quite as wide to accommodate common character pairings. If maximising legibility and footage was the game, you'd pick a different font. In fact, you'd use something almost like what was there before, which ticked both those boxes. See? Almost like they knew an upside down M wouldn't work. Let's conclude the bad-faith arguments for today. 🍻.

The irony is delicious. 🍻 Anyway, now that your axe is ground, TLDR; One's clearly right, one's clearly wrong. I could do this all day with street signs, billboards, books, keyboards, logos... It's pretty standard for W's to look a certain way. 😂

This is the condescending bit, just FYI. Try all you like to assume I've got my back up because I don't like being corrected, the reality is that were just being condescending. 🤷🏻‍♂️I'm always happy to be wrong, that's how you learn stuff, but you clearly want to dabble in the semantics because of an axe you need to grind instead of engaging with the spirit and overall message of my post. The letter "w" almost overwhelmingly doesn't have vertical strokes in 99% of fonts and applications. It looks weird to have vertical strokes, which is why this whole thread kicked off. That means it's become pretty standard in our everyday environment to see it look a certain way. If you need to have a conversation about binary interpretations of lexicon in the digital age of interpersonal exchange you can have it somewhere else. Remember, opinions are like buttholes - everyone has one.

Proceeds to write a condescending lecture based off thoughts on my opinion. Can't have it both ways. They really are average aren't they? Again, death by a thousand cuts. Little bit here, little bit there, and then suddenly Dreamworld doesn't have the same charm for some reason. It's almost as if getting the details right actually matters for immersion, and it's why they're so important in a themed experience. 🤷🏻‍♂️

You don't need to form a bad-faith opinion because I said standards instead of semantics - it's so dreary because my opinion doesn't materially change either way. The joy of communications/advertising/design is that it dabbles in the grey of manipulating consumer mindsets on thousands of tiny things, however imperceptible or subconscious which is the point I'm getting at. It doesn't matter what their justified position was for using an upside-down M, it's still odd. Plain and simple. Ultimately it all adds up to form a conscious consensus about an organisation and this is one of those indicators. TLDR; people who aren't knee deep in typefaces may not understand what they see, but they'll know something's off. To drive the point home, here's some memes. This is what most people think: But here's the reality. It's an old graphic designer joke I've recreated just for you: And in real-world corporate environments, here's the reality of why you use the right typefaces the right way: Vertical strokes are the reason why it looks strange not the size. If legibility was an issue, they'd be using a font with larger counters to increase long-distance visibility. This is a forum where folks enjoy talking about details in an industry that prides itself on adding in little details to maximise the experience and immersion. If that's how you feel then you're in the wrong place. 🤷🏻‍♂️ This. It's totally okay, folks like me just expect more than just okay because once upon a time the bar was actually set quite high.

I’m sure there was, still doesn’t mean they should ignore pretty basic graphic design and English language standards. W’s just don’t commonly have vertical strokes, which is why it looks weird. It’s just basic and communicates a lack of detail.

Pretty dumb to try and save a few grand on one of the Gold Coast's most visible and iconic attractions if you ask me. That brand doesn't need a 115m tall billboard that screams "we still cut corners".

With the Formula 1 at Miami, Florida this week, I came across the fact that the track has its own Dopplemayr gondola system called SkyView - check it out here: https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/hard-rock-stadium-gondola-dolphins/ What was most surprising was the price - 3M USD is bugger all for 12 cabins and an expanse that's 100m longer than what Sea World would need if you were to retrofit 1:1 the previous chairlift attraction (SkyView is 550m, Sea World's SkyWay was 450m-ish). It's been long enough that it would probably be a drawcard for families again too - added to that, there'd be minimal site work needed and no real impact to the park to build. But here's where it gets interesting - if the park was to close the monorail, what if they did a loop system using gondolas instead? You could have two stations roughly where the old chairlift stations were, with a third station where the monorail station is at the resort - perfect for hotel guests, corporate events etc. At that point, you're only adding another 200m of infrastructure and a third station on top of the cost of the one in Miami. What's everyone's thoughts? @Bikash RandhawaI think I solved your monorail problem - I'd be totally on board with this being a monorail successor.

If you've got a few minutes to kill (and can blast past the mountain of ads) this article does a good job at explaining what's up - https://www.themeparktourist.com/news/20230424/33340/500ft-rear-spike-addition-top-thrill-dragster-now-looks-unlikely TLDR; looks like it could be a 500ft rear spike and they'll do a swing launch for Dragster.

It's quite curious they've picked a font with such small counters and identical M's & W's. 🤷🏻‍♂️ They're two completely different typefaces.

Where is this sourced from?

I think you can safely assume they're not solar-powered. If they can run power to an entire plant room 115m+ into the air, they can get power to the letters on the way up.

It's a cable holder. As the cable car moves up and down the tower, a bunch of these fold out to prevent the winch cables from flying about. This design is pretty old school - Intamin now use a passive holder that the cable car collects on its journey.