Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster Overhaul

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

5 minutes ago, rappa said:

Surely this is a case of discovering something not worth fixing/couldn’t be fixed quickly during regular inspections and not some big cover up. 

It is. Surely. But the cloak and dagger website updates in the middle of the night without a peep from the park drives speculation. The whole direction of this discussion is just "be transparent".

5 minutes ago, rappa said:

Something of this nature may be completely reliability related like a pump or something and not in any way safety related such as a piece of track to break off. 

I doubt a pump is gonna take two years to arrive. If it wasn't safety related, then i'm wondering why it had such a sudden closure with almost no forewarning.

And i'm left wondering because... you know.... vacuum.

6 minutes ago, rappa said:

Covid delays on parts/components is still a real thing every day.

Yes, it's a real thing every day. for the past 3 years. We all know it, but this is why it should not be an excuse any longer. Because this thing is 'new normal' it should have been factored in. It is no longer unexpected. (And certainly shouldn't contribute to an additional YEAR delay not even two weeks after the initial announcement.) 

[rappa]

I didn’t say it would take 2 years. But what if the planned closure was in 6 weeks and said ‘pump’ was going to take 10 to arrive? That’s entirely plausible. You can’t plan ahead for Covid delays on things you aren’t expecting to need. 
 

At work we plan way ahead on our usual orders because of delays. But when a customer calls and wants a specialty item it still takes 3 months to get it instead of the old days of 2 weeks. No amount of planning can change that. 
 

To be fair to the park, it’s not like we have any RIGHT to know what’s wrong. Transparent I say IS changing the year to 2025 now instead of in 18months. And of course a webite update happens in the middle of the night. 

[Naazon]

35 minutes ago, rappa said:

Surely this is a case of discovering something not worth fixing/couldn’t be fixed quickly during regular inspections and not some big cover up. 
Something of this nature may be completely reliability related like a pump or something and not in any way safety related such as a piece of track to break off. 
 

Covid delays on parts/components is still a real thing every day. 

Are you saying the doors at the start are coming back?!?! If they don't I'm holding you personally responsible now.

[REGIE]

There was a door at the end to I remember before you got to the unload station 

[red dragin]

It could be as simple as a second piece of track has been identified as needing replacement. And either Mack can't fit it into their schedule, or Movie World didn't want to pay extra to get it sooner. 

[Tricoart]

There could be a myriad of reasons for both why it closed so abruptly, and why it's taking longer than originally stated for it to reopen. But the matter of fact is that nobody knows until VRTP are more transparent, and in the meantime all that's going to happen is people (meaning anywhere from us fanatics who know way too much about the ride, the news, or just normal visitors of the park) will be left wondering what the reason is, grasping at straws & making conclusions based on mere hearsay. And that inevitably leads to hysteria (see "crack in the track" or "Leviathan's sinking"), especially when the last thing people remember happening about the ride is "Guests trapped in complete darkness, 10 meters in the air for over an hour after ride suddenly stops, fire department called to rescue".

Edited February 10, 2023 by Tricoart

[webslave]

Another plausible option may well be that the refurb was already planned and ready, but a failure in something has happened sooner and even if they could manage to get it here in two weeks it's unlikely to pay for itself between now and when that item is made obsolete by the refurb.

Let's say it's part of the elevator; would you spend three-quarters of a million dollars for the sake of, say, six months of operation knowing you'll be replacing the whole thing at refurb time - or would you just cop the short-term backlash, not tell people that was the reason, and try and make the conversation about the refurb?

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

46 minutes ago, red dragin said:

It could be as simple as a second piece of track has been identified as needing replacement. And either Mack can't fit it into their schedule, or Movie World didn't want to pay extra to get it sooner. 

This is entirely plausible, believable, and acceptable.

6 minutes ago, webslave said:

Another plausible option may well be that the refurb was already planned and ready, but a failure in something has happened sooner and even if they could manage to get it here in two weeks it's unlikely to pay for itself between now and when that item is made obsolete by the refurb.

Also entirely plausible, believable and acceptable.

1 hour ago, rappa said:

To be fair to the park, it’s not like we have any RIGHT to know what’s wrong. Transparent I say IS changing the year to 2025 now instead of in 18months.

In my view, that's not being fair to the park, but everyone has their own views.
For me, being transparent would be... actually being transparent. 

I will agree with you on one thing though... and that is that we DON'T have any right to know what's wrong.
The flip side of that is clickbaity media hit pieces, and everyone speculating from the benign to wildly fanciful as to the reason. #Vacuum

You can't point to the park's current level of "transparency" and then suggest the speculation isn't fair to the park. People are going to fill in the blanks if the park leaves blanks.

 

A sudden closure usually implies "something went wrong" and puffery isn't transparency, and speculation ensues.

The last several pages of discussion here have largely been the following:

1. wild speculation of possibilities
2. people casting doubt on those possibilities
3. people suggesting if the park was open about whats happening and why, the wild speculation wouldn't occur
4. someone suggesting the park is being transparent, and we should be grateful they even bothered to update the website at all instead of leaving a date they know they're not going to meet and letting everyone book travel to visit their park only to push the date back and the last min... shit this sounds familiar.

 

[Spotty]

5 hours ago, REGIE said:

There was a door at the end to I remember before you got to the unload station 

There has never been a door before the unload station, there was one between the load / unload station but never before.

[Gobbledok]

From what I can piece together, the ride was always going to have a long major refurb but its been brought forward and announced seemingly suddenly. 
So this is more a case of people being upset that an extended closure was announced without warning rather than aggrieved that said closure has been brought forward a bit yeah?

[rappa]

5 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

For me, being transparent would be... actually being transparent. 

We are doing this and that for this date… what is more transparent?

No park ever has said “ride is closed because plc had xyz fault” or “brake calipers needed adjusting”. How could any of us ever expect different in this case?

Surely the scenario @webslave proposed is the most likely. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

6 minutes ago, rappa said:

Surely the scenario @webslave proposed is the most likely. 

It is, and I said that... but I'm not going to keep going around in circles. You think they've been completely transparent, and I (and others) don't. Happy to leave it at that.

[rappa]

I feel like they have been as transparent as anyone can ever reasonably expect a theme park to ever be. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

On 10/02/2023 at 6:53 PM, rappa said:

I feel like they have been as transparent as anyone can ever reasonably expect a theme park to ever be. 

I respect your opinion as being different to my own, but you haven't added anything new, and i've already responded to that.

On 10/02/2023 at 6:39 PM, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

You think they've been completely transparent, and I (and others) don't. Happy to leave it at that.

 

[Guest 239]

Personally I feel the communication should be centered around how this wont affect having a good time at the park. I'm sure 99% of guests don't care about why this happened and more so are concerned about how this will affect their time in the park. The park has rather poorly communicated why MW is still worthwhile visiting this year outside of "If you come back in 2024 & 2025 we will have some new stuff!"

Considering Scooby's immense nostalgia factor and the fact that Movie World is experiencing a ton of bad press as of late it wouldn't surprise me if people start looking elsewhere through 2023. Whilst DC Rivals is still a perfectly valid reason to visit and experience, I feel Movie World has really lost a lot of what that made that park special beyond Wild West Falls and perhaps Superman when it reopens. The rest of the park is ultimately nothing special.

The Easter holidays are going to be really important for Movie World, and it'll be interesting to see how the park and guests respond to everything. 

[Naazon]

@Guest 239 Isn't that why they are rushing Surf Rider into MW?

[Guest 239]

Just now, Naazon said:

@Guest 239 Isn't that why they are rushing Surf Rider into MW?

That's my thoughts, but since they haven't announced anything than hardly anybody knows that.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Edited October 22, 2023 by DaptoFunlandGuy

[Rivals]

1 minute ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

 

Not anymore...

These goalposts have moved too!

it might not have been updated on here, but it was changed to 2025 around March. work also has not started on the ride or the building at all yet, i think the ride just reached the end of its life and they had to close it immediately (hence the short notice.)

[STRAWS]

If its only partial track replacement its probably still going to be janky as hell I have never been a fan of Mouse coasters. 

[Baconjack]

58 minutes ago, STRAWS said:

If its only partial track replacement its probably still going to be janky as hell I have never been a fan of Mouse coasters. 

Well to be fair they probably don’t need to replace track during the dark ride section, it will only be during the mouse section where stress on the track takes place.

Also this is a horrible take lol, if mouse coasters weren’t janky they’d be boring. Half of the fun of wild mice is the feeling of going off the track during the hairpin turns and the reason this one is highly regarded is because it feels that more intense and out of control because it takes place in a box

Edited October 23, 2023 by Baconjack

[brissy phil]

This thread is an interesting read that's for sure and I appreciate every body's opinions.

For me, something isn't right here.

It feel like they only just finished that really long "refresh" which felt no different in reality to the unassuming rider. Smoke and mirrors.

Now an into 2025 re-opening.

You could plan, build and open a DC Rivals in this time.

I hope it's a genuine massive overhaul.

I hope the overhaul is really evident from the rider's experience point of view.

I hope capacity / loading speed is an outcome.

I hope it's an end-to-end overhaul.

I worry this is a monorail / time delaying / money saving / budget line marketing exercise.

You can't fool people in 2023, yet here we are.

[Tricoart]

1 hour ago, brissy phil said:

Now an into 2025 re-opening.

I hope it's a genuine massive overhaul.

I hope the overhaul is really evident from the rider's experience point of view.

I hope capacity / loading speed is an outcome.

I hope it's an end-to-end overhaul.

I worry this is a monorail / time delaying / money saving / budget line marketing exercise.

You can't fool people in 2023, yet here we are.

I think (/hope) there’s a few key reasons as to why it’s opening 2025:

- They were planning on keeping it open into late 2023/2024, but issues arised & they decided to close it early.

- Mack has a fabrication backlog, so the new track/trains can’t be done sooner rather than later.

- They’re reversing changes made to, and updating the existing, theming as to be more in line with the expectation they’ve set with Leviathan/WoO (hopefully).

- The location is adjacent to WoO’s, so it could be the case that they’re only starting Scooby after WoO.

As for capacity, the trains & ride computer *should* help that immensely.

Edited December 2, 2023 by Tricoart

[franky]

1 hour ago, Tricoart said:

As for capacity, the trains & ride computer *should* help that immensely.

I just dont see this panning out. There'll be individual lap bars like RR/WWF that'll need to be checked and rechecked before dispatch. There'll be storage boxes or lockers and no more taking loose items on the ride.

Capacity is going to be worse, not better. Every ride that's had an overhaul is like this now. Safety standards have changed.

I hope I'm wrong.

[themagician]

1 hour ago, franky said:

There'll be individual lap bars like RR/WWF that'll need to be checked and rechecked before dispatch.

Scooby has always had this 

1 hour ago, franky said:

There'll be storage boxes or lockers and no more taking loose items on the ride.

If they’re keeping the seperate load/unload stations (I really hope they are), then storage boxes are unlikely. If there are lockers, that won’t make wait times or loading worse, if anything it might help a small amount