The Giant Drop Refurbishment 2022

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, Slick said:

Isn't the whole purpose to build awareness to folks driving by? And by popping it on the south-side of the tower, only 50% of their audience see it. (And in before anyone says "everyone driving by knows what Dreamworld is" - if that were the case then Apple, Samsung, Nike, Microsoft etc. etc. wouldn't spend a dollar on advertising.)

Right, it's a billboard. 

The thing about billboards, is you want to reach the most people. This isn't something you can only see in the 3-400 metres before you pass it. This is going to be visible for miles. I've been on a boat in the broadwater and night and been able to see the LED lights of the tower, so you can see it across the gold coast. 

Which one of these layouts do you think is going to be seen by more people?

(Which of these layouts is also a giant 'fuck you' to the competition?

(Also, the 50% of folks who drive by don't see it on their way south, there's a more than 80% chance they'll return the same way, so they'll see it as they go north eventually....)

[Bloxay]

2 hours ago, Gazza said:

They wasted two million dollars making this 😭 Anyone know why it is still up?

[Slick]

8 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

I've been on a boat in the broadwater and night and been able to see the LED lights of the tower, so you can see it across the gold coast. 

Exactly - the LED lights on the top of the tower, as in, the top few metres. If the intent is to light up the tower to be visible at night from far away then you just need to light up the top. Problem solved. If the solution is to have your brand (or word) visible in its entirety to the most amount of people for the longest duration possible, it's the west side of the tower (which is why it's been that way for decades).

3 minutes ago, Bloxay said:

They wasted two million dollars making this 😭 Anyone know why it is still up?

Because it was going to cost a fair bit of money to remove. Also, artworks are always subjective and public art generally always has detractors. Having said that, I think there's a pretty unanimous opinion out there that this piece of art is poorly executed.

[Gazza]

OK so the M1 lights are crap but the Green lantern, Top Golf and Joker signs are good and face sideways.

I think the goal would be to have clear visibility for a constant stream of traffic in both directions because you have hundreds of thousands of unique eyes, often from further afield.

Rather than just showing it to the same 38,000 locals in the suburbs highlighted. 

 

[Dean Barnett]

It’s such a waste of money. At least add to the attraction - I’d be enclosing one side and putting a pretty sign up the top if it. 
 

It would be a world first to drop 400ft in darkness.  

[themagician]

But the best part of drop towers, is the view and realisation of how high you actually are. If you enclose it, that takes it away and for an old ride like the GD, probably not worth the investment. They put a tunnel around TOT and that made it worse. Enclosed drop towers, in my opinion, only work if they are like Disney’s TOT. Which is about the story and the ups and down drops.

[jjuttp]

Are those street lights supposed to say something?

[xRazzBerryx]

4 hours ago, themagician said:

Enclosed drop towers, in my opinion, only work if they are like Disney’s TOT. Which is about the story and the ups and down drops.

And this. 
 

 

[Dean Barnett]

5 hours ago, themagician said:

But the best part of drop towers, is the view and realisation of how high you actually are. 

I’m saying enclose one side so you can still run both. I just did Mystery Castle and can quiet happily say that the drop in the dark was way more intimidating- but it will never happen. Same as adding a launch which will be very exciting but would never happen because it’s a completely different ride system. 
 

My issue is spending so much money / causing so much down time for adding stupid aesthetics.  

[Rivals]

1 hour ago, Dean Barnett said:

My issue is spending so much money / causing so much down time for adding stupid aesthetics.  

the rides badly overdue for a repaint / refurb of the station area so it’s for the better it’s not exactly stupid. just like how they repainted Sidewinder to Gold Coaster and it was such an improvement. 

[Baconjack]

^ also on this, dreamworld desperately needed to ditch the late 90's TOT era foam theming that was rotten and just outright ugly. Giant Drop will be getting another neighbour eventually so that whole corner of a park needed a fix up, glad to see it getting attention.

I do think Dreamworld could have gone further and converted the tower to accommodate a falcon's fury gondola, but what we're getting I'm not complaining about.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

17 hours ago, Slick said:

Exactly - the LED lights on the top of the tower, as in, the top few metres.

The silhouette of the tower was clearly visible - it was more than just the top, it's just thats all that was lit up. (Shock - imagine if more of it was lit!)

Wasn't it you that asked the question on where we think it should go?  

20 hours ago, Slick said:

What side do we think the new "DREAMWORLD" letters will go on the tower?

Yes, yes it was. If you'd already made your mind up that it could only go in one place, and intended on rubbishing everyone else's opinion, why even ask the question?

The other consideration here is if the lights are mounted inside the ride track there is the risk of damage or contamination by ride oils and greases (part of the reason the tower looks as dirty as it does now - i've literally had drops of oil rain down on me whilst riding) - but if you had the lights outside the ride track, they'd be both lower maintenance and easier to access without impacting the ride systems.

Heck - why not have one facing each way - north, with a slightly western facing aspect to hit the southbound highway, and south, with a slightly western facing aspect to do the same? They've just said lights, visible from all around the coast - they haven't said only one such installation will go on on one side now, have they?

17 hours ago, Gazza said:

OK so the M1 lights are crap but the Green lantern, Top Golf and Joker signs are good and face sideways.

I think the goal would be to have clear visibility for a constant stream of traffic in both directions because you have hundreds of thousands of unique eyes, often from further afield.

Rather than just showing it to the same 38,000 locals in the suburbs highlighted. 

 

You get to see Joker on the southbound approach well before you're beside the park. Likewise the TopGolf logo is visible on the northbound approach for a little bit before you're alongside it - they aren't directly faced parallel to the road. 

The difference though is that the Tower can be seen from A LOT further away. It's taller. There'd be no point facing Green Lantern south, or north, because it isn't tall enough to be visible outside the few hundred metres of highway frontage they've got, Dreamworld tower on the other hand, as already pointed out - can be seen from the damn broadwater. I'm not saying put up your sign to hit 38k local residents, i'm saying put it up so it can be seen further away.... by ACTUAL people, not just the Wilkies Scrub conservation area.

14 hours ago, Dean Barnett said:

It’s such a waste of money. At least add to the attraction - I’d be enclosing one side and putting a pretty sign up the top if it. 

We're sure grateful you're not in charge of things. 

[Gazza]

I know you can see the tower further away, but how close do you need to be before letters become discernible?

 

 

[Slick]

2 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

If you'd already made your mind up that it could only go in one place, and intended on rubbishing everyone else's opinion, why even ask the question?

Suggesting that I'm "rubbishing everyone else's opinion" when I've predominantly just quoted you a few times to engage in pretty typical, normal, robust discussion is a pretty good indicator of who's trying to rubbish who. Rubbishing opinions implies that I'm treating your opinion as worthless, the reality is that I've quoted sections and added to thoughtful discussion. Having said that, I'm sorry to hear you feel your opinion is rubbished.

2 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

but if you had the lights outside the ride track, they'd be both lower maintenance and easier to access without impacting the ride systems.

If it were on the west side of the tower, they'd have direct, physical access to the lighting fixtures via The Giant Drop's cable catch car platform. That would lower operational expenditure and improve customer experience, as they wouldn't have to isolate neighbouring rides because of the need to create a custom rig like they've done for the Tower of Terror track removal.

2 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

The silhouette of the tower was clearly visible - it was more than just the top, it's just thats all that was lit up. (Shock - imagine if more of it was lit!)

Again, if the goal is to be visible from as far away as possible, then having letters down the side of the tower that you can only see in its entirety from a fairly immediate distance is probably not the most effective solution, and as you say, lighting it up to be more clearly visible via some architectural lighting fixtures is probably a better use of coin.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, Slick said:

Suggesting that I'm "rubbishing everyone else's opinion" when I've predominantly just quoted you a few times to engage in pretty typical, normal, robust discussion is a pretty good indicator of who's trying to rubbish who. Rubbishing opinions implies that I'm treating your opinion as worthless, the reality is that I've quoted sections and added to thoughtful discussion. Having said that, I'm sorry to hear you feel your opinion is rubbished.

Yeah look - I rushed that post this morning before a meeting and on reflection, I was overreacting to that. Apologies.

[Slick]

4 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Yeah look - I rushed that post this morning before a meeting and on reflection, I was overreacting to that. Apologies.

No stress mate. In future, if you feel like anyone's rubbishing your opinion (myself included) send me a DM. 🍻

[themagician]

Based off the concept art, they show a gondola on the same side as the lettering, so I’d say it faces west towards the highway 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

9 minutes ago, themagician said:

Based off the concept art, they show a gondola on the same side as the lettering, so I’d say it faces west towards the highway 

I'm looking at DW's facebook post with these images, and I don't see a gondola in this picture on FB. It also doesn't look uniform (same thickness) all the way from top to bottom of the image. Not sure why there'd be different but very similar versions of the concept art, but they're all subject to change anyway. 

The status quo does point to it facing the highway, but as has been noted several times, they do state 'visible all over' or something to that effect - which points to either a face with higher exposure or multiple fixtures.

[Sly086]

Last piece of TOT track removed 

[Gazza]

13 hours ago, Dean Barnett said:

I’m saying enclose one side so you can still run both. I just did Mystery Castle and can quiet happily say that the drop in the dark was way more intimidating- but it will never happen. Same as adding a launch which will be very exciting but would never happen because it’s a completely different ride system. 
 

My issue is spending so much money / causing so much down time for adding stupid aesthetics.  

Enclosed drop towers are cool, but enclosing GD would be this 120m high structure that probably has to be fairly self supporting since  you couldn’t box out a structure big enough for the clearance envelope by purely cantilevering off the tower.

 

As for this, they had to do all this work to take the track off, and the tower would really need a repaint given it was built in 1995 so its not really much additional disruption to add the lighting.

 

Personally I want to see stand up tilt added to one side of GD.

[New display name]

DW stealing Parkz ideas again @Slick.

 

On 03/10/2018 at 1:04 PM, New display name said:

@AlexB 

I didn't come down in the last shower.  I've studied every inch of that crane and no connection could be found.

 

If you want to talk about good ideas than I'm your man because all DW needed to do was fit a boom to the TOT. 

 

Talk about a solution looking them in the face all along.

 

 

 

 

[Dean Barnett]

19 hours ago, Rivals said:

 how they repainted Sidewinder to Gold Coaster and it was such an improvement. 

It's still rough aF. Would rather a retrack or the inevitable KDRB.  

7 hours ago, Sly086 said:

Last piece of TOT track removed 

 

Why would they do this with the drop tower car right there?

7 hours ago, Sly086 said:

Last piece of TOT track removed 

 

Why would they do this with the drop tower car right there?

[red dragin]

38 minutes ago, Dean Barnett said:

Why would they do this with the drop tower car right there?

Worker on top of the carriage appears to be holding one of the guide ropes. 

[pin142]

48 minutes ago, Dean Barnett said:

Why would they do this with the drop tower car right there?

7 hours ago, Sly086 said:

For shits and giggles

7 hours ago, Gazza said:

Personally I want to see stand up tilt added to one side of GD.

Couldn't just add a third side to the tower (former ToT track mounts repurposed) for this?

[Brad2912]

Driving past the park at 5:15am this morning, there was work occurring on the tower. It was still dark apart from sparks. If I had I to have a guess I’d assume something to do with the removal of the ToT lettering given they were on the west bound side facing the M1 and about at the height of the bottom letter