Movie world Maintenance 2022

[Dean Barnett]

Everyone hated Alton Towers when they got flats, but they had one of the longest lines on my visit earlier this year. (To be fair.. everything had a long ass line) 

[Rivals]

2 hours ago, Cactus_Matt said:

If they could put temporary flats into an unused show building (not too familiar with what, if any buildings at Movie World they have that are unused) and then just have a bunch of smoke machines and lasers and other cheap but cool-looking effects I think that'd go a fair way of making an ordinary temporary flat ride into something "theme park worthy".

The only two spaces (that I'm aware of) they could’ve used would’ve been the show building next to DD - now occupied with the WB Studio Showcase and the old bumper cars building - now occupied by Fright Night Mazes. Apart from those i don’t think there’s any free space unless they manage to fit one into Superman’s ride envelop, but i’m not sure if that would work or not.

[Levithian]

6 hours ago, Dean Barnett said:

The Gold Coast parks would be better off closing for a month or so to do all the maintenance at once (if they could have enough crew to complete it) - they'd spend most of winter operating at a loss anyway (apart from school holidays).  The flagship parks globally wouldn't have as many rides down as they have right now - it would be like Disneyland opening with Splash/Space/BTMR down .. putting everyone on Carousel of Progress and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Heck European parks even get temporary carney rides in if they have extended downtime of a ride during the season. Get Speed in and offer rides included in the entrance fee  .. something you can't get anywhere else.

You wouldn't even get it done in 2 months. 

People underestimate how much cleaning, crack testing and painting happens with each ride. Weeks, if not that whole month would be eaten up by just removing things and sending them somewhere, then picking back up. 

Sometimes things just take as long as they do because you can't manage it any other way. Combination of costs, staff levels, suppliers, contractors or other 3rd parties involved, hell even the weather. It has to be a reasonable plan that is achievable. 

Throwing caution to the wind and doubling your staff during closing the park / off peak season to complete more maintenance in a shorter time must not make good business sense for anyone as you would expect that's what would be happening. 

If they can tell exactly how much every person coming through the gate spends on average at each of the different retail / f&b departments, you bet they have applied the same scrutiny to other park operations to see if they can be more efficient or save money. 

Edited August 17, 2022 by Levithian

[Dean Barnett]

Is there any reason why it takes so long here? SFMM as far as I'm aware currently has 20 rollercoasters open.. with no issue. In fact while i've been there I've only seen one coaster closed due to maintenance.

 

I can't remember the last time Disney coasters need to close down for so long.. I can imagine the outrage if Space Mountain was closed for months for scheduled maintenance (overlay installations are different), in fact evening opening late causes so much of an outrage an article was written about it! 

[Rivals]

1 hour ago, Dean Barnett said:

Is there any reason why it takes so long here? SFMM as far as I'm aware currently has 20 rollercoasters open.. with no issue. In fact while i've been there I've only seen one coaster closed due to maintenance.

 

I can't remember the last time Disney coasters need to close down for so long.. I can imagine the outrage if Space Mountain was closed for months for scheduled maintenance (overlay installations are different), in fact evening opening late causes so much of an outrage an article was written about it! 

America is a different country with less strict safety laws and regulations.

Edited August 17, 2022 by Rivals

[rappa]

Just 100% no, no way, never to the idea of bringing any portable rides into the parks. 
gross

[Brad2912]

2 hours ago, Dean Barnett said:

Is there any reason why it takes so long here? SFMM as far as I'm aware currently has 20 rollercoasters open.. with no issue. In fact while i've been there I've only seen one coaster closed due to maintenance.

Let’s see…

Much larger maintenance crews, on cheaper wages, at parks making more in a month than ours make in a year. Different govt and regulator requirements. Easier access to parts/components without them needing to be on a ship for 4-6 weeks to get there. 

there’s a few off the top of my head - I’m sure there are others too 

[themagician]

7 hours ago, rappa said:

Just 100% no, no way, never to the idea of bringing any portable rides into the parks. 
gross

Sea World did with SkyFlyer and DW did when Dreamworks was under construction 

[Tricoart]

15 minutes ago, themagician said:

Sea World did with SkyFlyer and DW did when Dreamworks was under construction 

Yeah, dunno why it'd be a bad thing to add some temporary portable rides, so long as they had the space to fit 'em without messing up crowds. It's not like (most sections of) Movie World, Sea World, or Dreamworld are focused on intricate themes that a flat ride would take away from. So, as long as the space is there, it's not in a themed land like WWF, Atlantis, or Dreamworks, and it'd improve the parks lineup, I don't really see a reason not to go for it.

[themagician]

The quality and presentation of the travelling rides generally isn’t up to the standard that theme park attractions have. Travelling rides are usually much older and don’t offer unique experiences. People generally don’t go to a theme park to ride the same stuff they can go on at a carnival/fair 

[Tricoart]

54 minutes ago, themagician said:

The quality and presentation of the travelling rides generally isn’t up to the standard that theme park attractions have. Travelling rides are usually much older and don’t offer unique experiences. People generally don’t go to a theme park to ride the same stuff they can go on at a carnival/fair 

110% true, portable flats are of lesser 'quality' to that of amusement/theme park rides in a guests eyes, and by all means more permanent flats would be the much better mid/long-term option for parks with a lack of them (both with uniqueness, guest experience, marketing power, the whole 9 yards). Temporary/portable flats should never be the sole solution for that problem, I think no one here would disagree there. But only for the short-term, while more permanent solutions are being planned/worked towards (like Dreamworks, like Atlantis, like hopefully Movie World), and there is undisrupted empty space, I still don't see a problem with the idea. At least, not one that's glaringly and indisputably bad enough to justify the mere idea of it's existence as "gross". 

Edited August 17, 2022 by Tricoart

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

16 hours ago, Tricoart said:

so long as they made an announcement at least a couple months beforehand

That's the issue though - in the past when planned maintenance occurs without other issues arising, there's no need to fill the gaps. It's when multiple attractions go down unexpectedly, or are down for longer overhauls where you start getting overlaps and gaps appear. You couldn't announce these sorts of things months beforehand because you wouldn't know it was going to happen until last minute.

16 hours ago, Tricoart said:

"if they could have enough crew to complete it"

This is the big thing here because currently the maintenance is spread over 12 months with the current level of staff. If you compress that into 1-2 months, you need 6-12 times the number of staff to complete it in the shorter timeframe.

16 hours ago, Tricoart said:

Far as the temporary flats go, if MW were to attempt that route, where could a decently-sized temporary flat even be placed?

Naturally this depends on what the ride is, who it is suitable for and how much space \ power it needs. In no particular order, I can imagine fitting a few trailer\portable rides into the park across these locations:

• Grass outside Superman near fountain
• Grass\Paved area outside Superman's exit ramp
• Road to studios (used during fright nights to get to the sound stages)
• The sound stages and surrounds themselves if not in use
• Main Street courtyard (see also: Boost Juice etc)
• The pathway behind boot hill (which is a back of house area but could be made guest accessible if needed)
• Smaller kiddie attractions could also be dotted around existing pathways if they have a compact footprint (like a teacups or rockin tug) which would also supplement the park if they were to close WB Kids for a full overhaul.

I'm just saying what could be possible. Let me reiterate:

16 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

I think overall i'd prefer if they didn't bring carnival rides in, but at the same time if they had massive downtimes across multiple rides beyond their control, i'd applaud them for doing something to fill the gap

 

10 hours ago, Dean Barnett said:

Is there any reason why it takes so long here? SFMM as far as I'm aware currently has 20 rollercoasters open.. with no issue. In fact while i've been there I've only seen one coaster closed due to maintenance.

A quick check on Sixflags.com reveals Apocalypse is currently closed for refurbishment.

The park doesn't have a publicly listed maintenance schedule, so it's difficult to plan around specific attractions if you're keen to ride them. 

You're also looking at a park in the tail end of their busy summer season, with August their third busiest month.

11 hours ago, Dean Barnett said:

I can't remember the last time Disney coasters need to close down for so long

The Matterhorn closed on August 8th, and has no re-opening date. When I mentioned earlier about all the mountains being closed in 2013 - Big Thunder was down for a massive refurb, and even had a tower crane on site (I could literally here park fans screaming "sight lines!" everywhere I went). All the big attractions do have big refurb periods from time to time - most people just don't notice it because one major missing from the day doesn't leave a hole in the lineup.

Disney are smart about maintenance though. They have an entire third shift many other parks don't, and you can't just exclude overlay closures because while thematic changes occur for overlays, a lot of the nuts and bolts maintenance things get done at the same time. 

1 hour ago, themagician said:

People generally don’t go to a theme park to ride the same stuff they can go on at a carnival/fair 

But they do expect to be able to go on a ride. And in some cases lately, that has been sorely lacking.

[Gazza]

Perhaps one solution is to have more attractions, particularly smaller rides with shorter maintenance periods so even with a couple of major rides closed the park is still a full day.

[New display name]

11 hours ago, rappa said:

Just 100% no, no way, never to the idea of bringing any portable rides into the parks. 
gross

I thought the Sea World Eye had no grossness about it at all.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

53 minutes ago, Gazza said:

Perhaps one solution is to have more attractions, particularly smaller rides with shorter maintenance periods so even with a couple of major rides closed the park is still a full day.

The last time the park built a flat ride, everyone lost their fucking minds that it wasn't a coaster. Movie World definitely has a high number of coasters and needs more flats, so it is a good solution... it just won't be a popular one.

3 minutes ago, New display name said:

I thought the Sea World Eye had no grossness about it at all.

was the eye a portable ride though? like sure, they relocated it and always intended to, but wasn't it cemented into the ground? it's a bit different to a trailerised carnival ride...

[New display name]

5 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

The last time the park built a flat ride, everyone lost their fucking minds that it wasn't a coaster. Movie World definitely has a high number of coasters and needs more flats, so it is a good solution... it just won't be a popular one.

was the eye a portable ride though? like sure, they relocated it and always intended to, but wasn't it cemented into the ground? it's a bit different to a trailerised carnival ride...

100% made to be transportable.  

 

 

 

You're not going to put many portable rides straight on sand are you?

[Gazza]

The Sea World eye was “transportable”, but it’s not the same as a typical carnival ride that is painted with cheesy airbrush graphics and looks temporary and only stays for a couple of weeks.

Those Ronald Bussink wheels seem a bit more involved for set up, and stay at their location for long periods (The Wheel of Brisbane is a good example) and the install doesn’t look as “cheap”.

I think the main giveaway with the sea world eye was the metal flooring and the ugly modular fencing.

But it still looks a lot  more tasteful than a regular carnival ferris wheel

 

 

I think SW eye got a pass because it was a big ride too, in an iconic location.

 

 

Edited August 18, 2022 by Gazza

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

13 minutes ago, New display name said:

You're not going to put many portable rides straight on sand are you?

You generally lay a slab for the trailer to park on...

[rappa]

My reason is because they all look tacky as hell.

From the kebab shop style lighting package through to the fact I could see Bloody wheels underneath the thing, that sky flyer at Seaworld looked awful.

As does nearly every other traveling ride no matter what you do. Yes I would say the exception was the Seaworld Eye, and if you could do that with something sure. But I highly doubt that’s what you would get. 
 

Id hate to be a park operator. One day its “they suck because they didnt build a fully themed immersive attraction”, and the next “oh just wack some carni rides in there.”

I dont envy their position

[New display name]

13 minutes ago, Gazza said:

The Sea World eye was “transportable”, but it’s not the same as a typical carnival ride that is painted with cheesy airbrush graphics and looks temporary and only stays for a couple of weeks.

 

I don't remember calling it a carnival ride. 

How long a ride is required to stay up to make it worthwhile to put it up in the first place has nothing to with the ride being portable or not.

For the same reason you wouldn't install the Sea World Eye at a week long event, you wouldn't install a traveling wild mouse coaster at the Coomera state school fate.

 

[Dean Barnett]

1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

If you compress that into 1-2 months, you need 6-12 times the number of staff to complete it in the shorter timeframe.

Luckily for them they could get crew from overseas who normally do winter work in the northern hemisphere to do the same here.

 

1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

A quick check on Sixflags.com reveals Apocalypse is currently closed for refurbishment.

This was the same one that's been closed for me on half of my visits - rmc wen?

 

1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

You're also looking at a park in the tail end of their busy summer season, with August their third busiest month.

True - but I was there in November (their dead season) and every ride was open.. just running damn slow because it was like 5 degrees C  

 

4 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

The Matterhorn closed on August 8th

They haven't announced an end date -but the last time it closed - it was only for two weeks.

[Rivals]

If MovieWorld swapped to an on and off season like the parks overseas or down in Melbourne, they would definitely get more hate compared to if a couple rides were closed.

Also yeah they can figure out a way to get people from over seas in to help do the maintenance, but is it worth the hassle? You’d have to train them to make sure they are up to date with the Australia Safety Regulations and Legislation, replacement parts will still take 1 - 1 1/2months to ship if not longer, 3-4months closure would be the minimum while also not earning that much money either as WNW and i’m guessing SW would also be closed. I don’t think it’s worth it at all.

It also doesn't get too cold down the coast either, which is why parks overseas actually close because it’s too cold for normal day-to-day operations, so what would their reasoning be to the public? Why change something if the replacement is worse then what’s currently in place.

If i had to pick between new temporary rides being put in (ones that are presentable and not tacky - if they exist somewhere) vs closing down for months at a time, i’d definitely pick the temporary rides. But overall, i think the solution is reduction in ticket prices for when major rides are down

Edited August 18, 2022 by Rivals

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, Dean Barnett said:

True - but I was there in November (their dead season) and every ride was open.. just running damn slow because it was like 5 degrees C  

The park tends to get slammed for the Thanksgiving period at the end of November, so most of the month is weirdly quiet, but most things are open in preparation for the holiday.

[jjuttp]

8 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

The last time the park built a flat ride, everyone lost their fucking minds that it wasn't a coaster.

To be fair, even if Cedar Point was built here, people would go bonkers if a new ride wasnt a thrill coaster despite being almost the entire line up. The coaster riding public only want their tastes catered to and nobody elses.

[Levithian]

20 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

This is the big thing here because currently the maintenance is spread over 12 months with the current level of staff. If you compress that into 1-2 months, you need 6-12 times the number of staff to complete it in the shorter timeframe.

As I said before, its just not possible. You cant drop 8-10 rides worth of inspections on an engineering firm here and expect to have it returned to you inside a week. It's not just theme parks that need additional staff to make those sort of things happen, its everyone connected to the shut downs too. 

Everything about engineering and manufacturing is MUCH cheaper in the USA. Overheads running everything is MUCH cheaper in the USA. You just can't compete with them. It's just part of a host of reasons why things are different in Australia. 

16 hours ago, Dean Barnett said:

Luckily for them they could get crew from overseas who normally do winter work in the northern hemisphere to do the same here.

And where does the money to pay for them come from? Raising ticket prices? Would you even stomach that if a park was closed 3 or 4 months out of a year?

On 17/08/2022 at 9:58 PM, Rivals said:

America is a different country with less strict safety laws and regulations.

If anyone ever wanted proof of differences, here's an average example. Jump ahead to 5 mins.
 

There's no railings at all. No steps/walkway up the lift, just a ladder system. While he is wearing a fall arrester, it's not a safe work environment even in high risk. 

You wouldn't see a lack of safety like that or workers placed in that position daily on a ride in Australia. None of it would be acceptable. 

Edited August 18, 2022 by Levithian