Leviathan - Operations and Soft Opening Complaints

[Tricoart]

4 hours ago, Brendo88 said:

Great Post!

Can I ask what app that is you're measuring the forces with on your apple watch?

An app called ‘Ride Forces’.

 

Also, Levi’s thrown a fault and is currently completely down, after already intermittent operation yesterday (wasn’t under operation for a large portion of the day, and around 30+% of trains sent were empty from what I saw. Supposedly was only due to wind yesterday, but with the actual faults today I don’t buy it), and further intermittent one-train operation today. I was on the last train of yesterday, the ride threw a fault then and we were gonna get evac’d, but they eventually got the second train to dispatch and we were able to slowly roll into the station and unload. Something’s definitely wrong. I’ll wait in the queue and update when there is one ig.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Tricoart

[Dean Barnett]

52 minutes ago, Tricoart said:

and around 30+% of trains sent were empty

You'd want full trains if wind was the concern. 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Dean Barnett

[Tricoart]

7 minutes ago, Dean Barnett said:

You'd want full trains if wind was the ocncern. 

If wind truly was the concern, it’d probably be in the mindset that it’s better to test an empty train with the current wind speeds, than run w/ guests at immediately and risk an evac if it does rollback. Either way, there’s almost certainly more going on than just wind.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Tricoart

[Dean Barnett]

Yeah which is why I don't think wind was an issue.. 70% trains sounds like a train/restraint issue.

A full train (of warm bodies or water bodies) is way more likely to make it around the track.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Dean Barnett

[Tricoart]

Workers are now walking the track with a bucket and a paintbrush, brushing the running steel with something (maybe water, maybe some lubricant?)

Update: Officially closed, queue emptied. Wind definitely not the reason, the ride is faulty.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Tricoart

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

2 hours ago, Dean Barnett said:

Yeah which is why I don't think wind was an issue.. 70% trains sounds like a train/restraint issue.

A full train (of warm bodies or water bodies) is way more likely to make it around the track.

I'd suggest the 30% is just due to the number of stoppages throughout the day, that necessitated them to cycle empties before loading guests again. Both trains cycled at least once before guests re-entered the load area.

[New display name]

15 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

I'd suggest the 30% is just due to the number of stoppages throughout the day, that necessitated them to cycle empties before loading guests again. Both trains cycled at least once before guests re-entered the load area.

Pretty embarrassing day for SW.  Lev closed at 12 but before that 1 in 3 trains sent empty because of problems.  Trident not open at all and Vortex didn't open to 3:30pm.   This is why you have soft openings.  

[Tricoart]

Crumb of good news, Levi was test cycling with (seemingly) two trains consistently for about half an hour before park close. Hopefully this means the issue has been fixed, and it’s fit for (somewhat) normal operation come tomorrow.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Tricoart

[New display name]

1 minute ago, Tricoart said:

Crumb of good news, Levi was test cycling with (seemingly) two trains consistently for about half an hour before park close. Hopefully this means the issue has been fixed, and it’s fit for (somewhat) normal operation come tomorrow.

My thoughts because it was having issues they shut it down to get it ready for tonight corporate Christmas party. 

[Tricoart]

12 minutes ago, New display name said:

My thoughts because it was having issues they shut it down to get it ready for tonight corporate Christmas party. 

I was thinking the testing might be for that too, but if it’s running 2 train ops for the Christmas party, it should be able to run 2 train ops for the following operating day

[New display name]

8 minutes ago, Tricoart said:

I was thinking the testing might be for that too, but if it’s running 2 train ops for the Christmas party, it should be able to run 2 train ops for the following operating day

Today reinforced why I don't like people.  People fighting in the queue.  People pulling at the plastic plants.  Me telling parents to stop their kids from picking up rocks from the fountains and throwing them at the silver scales.

[Tricoart]

The worst thing I saw was, seeing as the exit dumps you right beside the main queue helix, there were people riding, exiting, ducking under the outer helix railing & skipping most of the queue, then riding again, for the entire first day.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Tricoart

[themagician]

Trident has been removed from the maintenance page, wind speeds are supposed to be much lower today. Chance of the ride opening?

Hopefully Leviathan has a lot less trouble too with the lower wind speeds 

[Rivals]

41 minutes ago, themagician said:

Trident has been removed from the maintenance page, wind speeds are supposed to be much lower today. Chance of the ride opening?

Hopefully Leviathan has a lot less trouble too with the lower wind speeds 

on the rides actual page it still says closed due to high winds, i’m going to guess maybe it just hasn’t updated. 

I wonder if they finished testing during the night event last night or maybe my source just wasn’t reliable about the final testing.

[Ashley Jeffery]

12 minutes ago, Vidgamer said:

I am in line for Leviathan now. It is still testing and hasn’t started taking people yet. 
 

edit: it has now tested about 10 times and stalled at the top of the lift hill once. There is one or two people on the trains now (look like tradies). Lots of people in line (and have been since opening) very annoyed they are running carriages with one or two people. 
 

One of the trains in particular looks like it is struggling to get up the lift hill, the tradies may be there to see if they can feel if there is an error. 

Should of been advertised as soft opening. This is just bad press for Seaworld. 

[rappa]

Firstly, the train doesn’t ‘stall’ on the lift, it will stop there if the 2nd train isn’t brought into the station. 
 

Second, maintenance staff ride the ride as part if the daily safety checks, so it’s silly to be annoyed they are doing so. 
 

And finally, I know its been a while since a big major ride like this opened, but this is pretty normal anywhere in the world, new rides often have issues and as an enthusiast you should know that the price you pay for wanting to be ‘first’ is the thing might break down. 
 

There is no such thing as a soft opening, its open or its not. When parks like Disney do ‘technical rehearsals’ they bring in select groups at select times to ride. Sea World already did this with staff and contractors. And the reason? Because if you had public there they would be all buthurt just like the above when they didn’t get to ride. 
Until you open open a ride for normal ops you can never properly test it for how it will run under normal conditions. So unfortunately inevitably small issues will come up. 
 

Just keep in mind, its an amusement ride in a theme park, it’s not the fight against world hunger, so if you have to wait a little longer to have a go, it’s not the end of the world. 

[New display name]

@rappayour cheque is in the mail.  Regards SW  

[Rivals]

the ride is down again, it didn’t open until late and has operated for around an hour only.

[rappa]

1 hour ago, New display name said:

@rappayour cheque is in the mail.  Regards SW  

Its got nothing to do with Sea World. This is the care at nearly every ride opening anywhere. 
I once flew to the other side of the world to hopefully ride Lightning Rod. When I got there it died and didn’t run again for months… and STILL has issues years later. Shit happens, and as I said it’s just the risk we all take trying to get on something early. 
 

What good does pissing and moaning on the internet do?

[Dean Barnett]

2 hours ago, rappa said:

There is no such thing as a soft opening, its open or its not.

I’m sorry but that’s entirely incorrect. 
 

A soft open is to test the ride with the stresses that comes with the general public. Universal and Disney do it because it’s a really good idea. Guests have no expectation of the ride or ride elements working and they’re free to close it any anytime. 
 

Sea World operated it for a few days for staff and a few invited guests (media reporting on the opening day weren’t given a ride before reporting on the opening)

 

Doing the official opening on a Friday was a bit dumb  

 

 

[Vidgamer]

8 minutes ago, rappa said:

Its got nothing to do with Sea World. This is the care at nearly every ride opening anywhere. 
I once flew to the other side of the world to hopefully ride Lightning Rod. When I got there it died and didn’t run again for months… and STILL has issues years later. Shit happens, and as I said it’s just the risk we all take trying to get on something early. 
 

What good does pissing and moaning on the internet do?

You must be missing the point of a forum. I also don’t buy the “that’s just what you get” excuse. The way Village has handled Atlantis has been very average and it feels like people are far more lenient on Seaworld than if the experience was the same at Dreamworld.

In fact, if we compare directly to Dreamworld, Steel Taipan was constructed quicker, there was passholder previews, the communication was better and the train has been reliable ever since. 
 

Now let’s compare this to Atlantis which took 3.5 years to get going, has had issues for all 3 of the days it has been open, Trident meanwhile simply isn’t ready and the experience today was very average, I’m just reporting on the general sentiment today, the general public just knows they waited 2 hours to get a go on the ride and their was no communication whatsoever. 

The ride itself, fantastic, but let’s not look at it all with rose tinted glasses.

Edited December 4, 2022 by Vidgamer

[rappa]

11 minutes ago, Dean Barnett said:

I’m sorry but that’s entirely incorrect. 
 

A soft open is to test the ride with the stresses that comes with the general public. Universal and Disney do it because it’s a really good idea. Guests have no expectation of the ride or ride elements working and they’re free to close it any anytime. 
 

Sea World operated it for a few days for staff and a few invited guests (media reporting on the opening day weren’t given a ride before reporting on the opening)

 

Doing the official opening on a Friday was a bit dumb  

 

 

Yeah and I’m saying no one would get it. The ride would brake down and everyone would be on here bitching that screens weren’t working and they came all way there and didn’t get to ride, etc etc. 

As usual your posts are living in a fantasy land. 
 

Does it suck the ride is going down? Yes of course it does, but it happens. 
 

Steel Taipan was an off the shelf ride with a car port for a station from a manufacturer that already built one 5 mins down the road. Leviathan is a one off custom built coaster and the first one for the manufacturer in a country that has INSANELY different safety standards to the rest of the world. You really can’t compare the two. 
 

Like I said, it sucks. But throwing around things like “they’ve handled the entire ride building poorly” is a bit if a stretch. 
Reality is, it’s annoying, people get annoyed and then have a vent. Which is fine, but let’s have some perspective at the same time. 
Be mad at things to be justifiably mad at. The ride going down in its first few days of opening isn’t one of them. 
 

As for communication, no park ever including Disney has told guests how long a ride will be down for or what is wrong with it when it is. 

Edited December 4, 2022 by rappa

[Dean Barnett]

I mean I'm using previous experience to not travel interstate within a coasters first operating week, but there's video billboards everywhere in Sydney right now advertising that it's open.. when it isn't. Airfares are $500 return to the gold coast/Brisbane right now.. if I travelled up for the day as a GP I'd be very pissed. 

It's ok to say they could have done a better job with this. Like why even open the queue if it hasn't been handed over yet? That's theme park 101 stuff there. 

[rappa]

You are 100% correct. 
Based on the hour by hour operational status of the ride they should put up or disassemble billboards interstate. 
 

They also should wait until the ride is cycling trains full of guests before allowing any guests queue for it. 
 

They really don’t know what they are doing and should refer to your years of experience in theme park operations instead. I’m sure an automated turnstile could solve half these issues just as a start. 

[Dean Barnett]

Thanks. Finally some recognition!