Movie World Scheduled Maintenance 2024

[aaronm]

3 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

How long can you keep blaming 'covid supply chain' on things before that supply chain becomes normal, and you should just be planning for that sort of delay?

If past trends are anything to go by, VRTP management can always find a reason apart from their own poor planning to justify mediocrity. I'm waiting for the day when multiple major attractions are closed "as a result of guest feedback" 🙃

[franky]

5 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

As for GL and Superman, are these planned maintenance periods?

According to the website, only Lantern (and obv. Scooby) are planned outages.

SE has only been down since today and is an unscheduled closure.

[Gobbledok]

Its unacceptable that they didnt plan better for an unscheduled closure

They could take some lessons from other parks on not treating their guests with contempt 

No wonder their attendance is so low

[Sammus77]

I was in park today, first time since 2019. It was not great. I get planned maintenance, and I understand unscheduled maintenance. However we had people in lines next to us complaining that for the period of their annual passes they rarely attend when there isn’t multiple headliner rides down at the same time. We also witnessed guests confronting staff at the front of rivals when they shut the queue at 4:40 ‘to ensure the staff can close the ride by 5pm’. I’m sorry but if you have three of your 4 available ‘big’ coasters out of action (planned or not) and only a 1 train service on the single remaining big coaster, then you sure as heck don’t shut the queue almost 30mins early because you want to go home before 5pm. That’s clearly a directive from management, and it’s one that says we don’t really care what the customer thinks because the customer just keep coming, but surely this is going to unravel for them one day soon right? In addition the bathrooms were filthy everywhere we went, the food insanely expensive, (almost $20 for a cold burger and a handful of cold chips that amounted to a meal as small as a cheeseburger meal from maccas), for comparison we had a large burger with decent serve of chips from dreamworld for $16 big serve and fresh. Lots of wear and tear around the park, weeds growing out of gutters and cracks in the buildings etc. I don’t know I guess I expected more. We went to dreamworld last week, almost everything was open, there was a lot of bright fresh colours everywhere and you could see plenty of investment into the park. The absolute biggest difference that stood out to me was the staff. At dreamworld they seemed very engaged and energetic, and wanting to cycle through rides efficiently, at movieworld we found them uninterested and some of the painfully slowest operations I have ever witnessed around the world. As someone who hasn’t been to the parks in many years, and who has visited many parks around the US, and Asia, it seems as though dreamworld are driving the right behaviours and expectations from their staff and delivering a far greater customer experience. Just one man’s observations 😉

[Ashley Jeffery]

7 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

 

How long can you keep blaming 'covid supply chain' on things before that supply chain becomes normal, and you should just be planning for that sort of delay?

Covid supply issues are still ongoing. It's why a lot of car models are 8+ month waiting lists. 

[Gobbledok]

Ridiculous I know someone who walked straight in a bought a brand new ute just a few weeks ago

[Ashley Jeffery]

42 minutes ago, Gobbledok said:

Ridiculous I know someone who walked straight in a bought a brand new ute just a few weeks ago

Want a medal? I never said all cars.

[TomiJ]

 

2 hours ago, Ashley Jeffery said:

Want a medal? 

I want a medal. Please message me privately to discuss this further. 

[red dragin]

10 hours ago, Ashley Jeffery said:

Covid supply issues are still ongoing. It's why a lot of car models are 8+ month waiting lists. 

Is it covid issues, or a back log from the covid slow down combined with the higher demand for new cars during the slow down? 

My understanding was many manufacturers slowed down or stopped production of items like computer chips, which caused the delay. Then everyone wanted a new car because they had surplus holiday cash they couldn't use. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

11 hours ago, Gobbledok said:

Ridiculous I know someone who walked straight in a bought a brand new ute just a few weeks ago

On the flip side, I ordered 2 cars in April 2022, and at the time of order, the dealer was already telling us to expect a wait time of more than 12 months, even though they suggested it could arrive by December. Fast forward to July when the first one arrived, and the second one comes in this month. 

That's the entirety of my point. It isn't 2020, so we're not dealing with something we've never dealt with before. We know how long things are going to take 3.5 years in.

We shouldn't be going with the pre-covid schedule, making no changes to account for the by-now known delays, and then throwing our hands in the air when it all falls to pieces and blaming covid.

(As an aside, I know several people who cancelled their cars the month they were ready for collection, so dealers are getting stock back to sell that wasn't previously available - as folks who did want to spend their money on a new car suddenly find cost of living putting pressure on their budgets - so there is stock for sale, provided you aren't fussy over the exact model, style or colour) 

52 minutes ago, red dragin said:

Is it covid issues, or a back log from the covid slow down combined with the higher demand for new cars during the slow down? 

My understanding was many manufacturers slowed down or stopped production of items like computer chips, which caused the delay. Then everyone wanted a new car because they had surplus holiday cash they couldn't use. 

Regarding one of the cars I ordered - we'd ordered a special model, and while pre-covid, the factory would churn out a number of them every month, the dealer told us that certain components were in rare supply, so while they were churning out dozens of 'base models' every week, the upgraded models were all on hold until a 'certain number' came into the factory to make it worth them doing a retooling of the production line.

From what I understand - they never slowed down, or stopped - but they did change their production schedule and focussed on volume rather than meeting the oldest orders.

[Baconjack]

Green Lantern doing Green Lantern things. That thing breaks down constantly but people forget because Doomsday exists

Edited September 7, 2023 by Baconjack

[New display name]

6 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

On the flip side, I ordered 2 cars in April 2022, and at the time of order, the dealer was already telling us to expect a wait time of more than 12 months, even though they suggested it could arrive by December. Fast forward to July when the first one arrived, and the second one comes in this month. 

That's the entirety of my point. It isn't 2020, so we're not dealing with something we've never dealt with before. We know how long things are going to take 3.5 years in.

We shouldn't be going with the pre-covid schedule, making no changes to account for the by-now known delays, and then throwing our hands in the air when it all falls to pieces and blaming covid.

(As an aside, I know several people who cancelled their cars the month they were ready for collection, so dealers are getting stock back to sell that wasn't previously available - as folks who did want to spend their money on a new car suddenly find cost of living putting pressure on their budgets - so there is stock for sale, provided you aren't fussy over the exact model, style or colour) 

Regarding one of the cars I ordered - we'd ordered a special model, and while pre-covid, the factory would churn out a number of them every month, the dealer told us that certain components were in rare supply, so while they were churning out dozens of 'base models' every week, the upgraded models were all on hold until a 'certain number' came into the factory to make it worth them doing a retooling of the production line.

From what I understand - they never slowed down, or stopped - but they did change their production schedule and focussed on volume rather than meeting the oldest orders.

I don't know how many coasters in our parks are built in Asia. 

[webslave]

20 hours ago, franky said:

SE has only been down since today and is an unscheduled closure.

They lost SE the afternoon before around 4pm and it didn't come back up.

It just really struck me at the time just how thin the line-up was, and just how broken so much of the stuff in the park was or at least was perceived to be.  For example;

• First building you encounter in Main Street is a shuttered outlet that has clearly seen better days.
• Roof of main street looks generally shabby.
• Chipped/cracked paint on the street curbs and small scenery items.
• Most main street windows look dirty/weathered.
• Every ride photo barcode dispenser was empty and in most cases broken.
• At least half of all ride photo screens broken/not functional.
• Items like ride queue length displays clearly long-term out of service.
• Empty enclosures where static displays previously existed.
• Major attractions down practically everywhere you look.
• Major attractions with badly faded paintwork.
• Major attractions with stuff that just clearly doesn't work.
• The Doomsday area was to broken stuff what studio showcase was to the Batman franchise.

Not to mention, of course, it blows out queue times on other stuff when you have so many rides down.  It was a real nuisance that the ride queue times in the app were so far out of whack.  A clear example that persisted all day was Marvin; 5 min advertised wait all day, never dropped below 35 mins in reality - all of the kids queuing in direct sun.  Not really good enough.

Standard VRTP attitude everywhere that there's no sense of urgency. Nothing more frustrating than watching a train sit in the station for a full 5 minutes multiple times while queuing while staff would stop for a good long chat any time one of them rotates out.  "Oh wait, have to come back for my water bottle..."  I totally get the idea of working safely, but there's working safely and there's walking from one end of the station to the other in slow motion.

Adding to the perception of how thin the park is for things to do is the walk from Batwing to the next attraction.  As an adult your next working attraction from Batwing is either West or (if you can be bothered) RRRC.  I didn't include DD as it was seldom running, and when it was running it... may as well not have been.

They were expecting a crowd of 3k people in the park for the day.

[Rivals]

5 hours ago, webslave said:

They lost SE the afternoon before around 4pm and it didn't come back up.

Superman was reopened by the time the park closed, it did a couple cycles with guests before 5.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

18 hours ago, New display name said:

I don't know how many coasters in our parks are built in Asia. 

Not sure what that has to do with the price of fish.

[New display name]

2 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Not sure what that has to do with the price of fish.

I wouldn't be buying any fish that came from Asia either.

[webslave]

15 hours ago, Rivals said:

Superman was reopened by the time the park closed, it did a couple cycles with guests before 5.

That's good I s'pose, but we'd given up by that stage.

I do wonder though what happens to the staff assigned to SE for the day if the ride spends the day down. Can they not be reassigned to other attractions where they can meaningfully impact wait times?  I could see the benefit on something like Tweety Cages that cycles very slowly because of the cycle of; stop ride -> go and unlock and pin exit gate -> walk back to one of the cages -> unlock cage, assist guests out of cage -> close cage -> move to next cage, repeat -> walk to exit gate, close gate and secure -> return to ops booth to retrieve height bar -> walk to entry gate, unlock and begin briefing riders -> admit riders -> close and secure entry gate -> return height bar to ops booth -> walk to first cage and assist guests -> walk to next cage, repeat -> return to first cage and secure -> walk to next cage, repeat -> return to ops both, brief riders -> start ride.  I could see how having a second operator could quite feasibly double the cycles per hour.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

If the ride is confirmed down for the rest of the day they do usually redeploy ops staff for the most part. If there's a chance it could come back up, ops staff generally man the front of the queue to perform guest relations about the closure.

If the ride is confirmed down, depending on how busy it is, and a number of other factors, they could be redeployed or even sent home early if their shift and agreement allows it - but you've also got to allow for the fact that ops aren't always trained in everything, and even if they have been trained on it, they have to keep current in the attraction to be able to work it. if it's been too long since they last operated it, they can't work it without a refresher...

so short answer is - its complicated, but it does happen sometimes.

[New display name]

I've always been under the impression staff don't work on the same attraction all day. 🤷‍♂️   If what I believe to be true is true, they can't send you home if your next ride for the day is open.   A ride attendant I know, told me when multiply rides go down, you have many staff with nothing to do but they aren't allowed to go home. 

[Dean Barnett]

Not sure how it impacts on rider throughput - but Tusenfryd were cycling staff every 1hr throughout the park from ride to ride.

Edited September 8, 2023 by Dean Barnett

[Rivals]

If a ride goes down for a delay and it is expected to be longer delay, the ones that know how to operate other rides will be sent and the ones who have only been trained on the ride that is now closed will stand at the front of the line to deal with guests. once the ride is near reopening and ready to do cycles, the staff that were sent away are sent back to reopen the ride. 

Most staff who are trained on multiple rides do rotate throughout the day, from my understanding rotations happen every 1-2hrs or sometimes longer depending on the crowds and how many staff are on.

[Spotty]

General rule of thumb (from when I worked there) is if a ride goes down during the day they will have 2 operators out the front and will rotate them every 30 mins or so to give them a break from the angry GP. If they know the ride will not reopen for the day, depending how busy it is they will offer staff to go home early. If it was off peak and adding extra staff to a ride wouldn't make a difference really. During peak times they would send you to another ride your trained on to help. Example if Scooby wasn't rostered a 2nd loader and you were at superman but trained on Scooby you could be sent there to help. But if it looked like Superman was going to re-open they'd send you back to get the ride ready.

General rule was, if the ride crapped out big time after around 3:30 - 4pm they often would send all crew bar 1 or 2 home as they would know depending on the fault if it can be fixed. Also that's total crap about them closing the queue to get staff home, absolute BS. I get doing it for fright nights due to restrictions but holy crap. I remember the days of doing batwing in peak season. Queue closing at 5:00, and not leaving till 6:45 that night (despite my roster saying 5:15 finish). Annoying as all hell, but that's part of the job. 

But once again, funny that Dreamworld is seeming to be doing things so well lately. Guess that's what happens when pretty much all of the management in the attractions team and other teams are ex VRTP management. Well, they took the good ones at least and have very fond memories working with some of them too.

Also, you had to work on a ride at least once every 3 months. If you didn't you needed to be retrained or do a refresher. You would normally be rostered the same ride for the whole day but each ride would have several positions. A typical roster could be for example with Superman:

9:45am start > Load 1 > 11:15 lunch > 12:00 Unload > 2:15 break > Entry till close.

WBK you'd rotate through the kids rides + dodgems back in the day

Edited September 8, 2023 by Spotty
Extra info added

[franky]

8 hours ago, Spotty said:

Queue closing at 5:00, and not leaving till 6:45 that night (despite my roster saying 5:15 finish). Annoying as all hell, but that's part of the job.

Maybe that's a recent change then? We got off Rivals at about 4:45 yesterday and it had the Ride Closed chain across, someone was also manning the entrance to Batwing as we were leaving.

Rivals did go down at about 4 (we were already in the queue) but maintenance attended and it reopened in about 30 mins.

I've gotta say though my experience at Movie world yesterday was vastly improved to some degree. Ride queue times were frustrating and I agree with webslave in that there's still no sense of urgency from ride ops. The park itself however looks better than I remember it from our visit 12 months ago.

Rivals queue has had some mulch and extra fencing installed to help the plants not get picked by bored guests.

Superman has new working screens in the queue, and it felt like the A/C was actually working in the queue too.

We went to like up for West but the queue was at the entry door, so we gave that a miss (we can't stand listening to that 10 sec music on loop)

[Park Addict 93]

6 minutes ago, franky said:

Maybe that's a recent change then? We got off Rivals at about 4:45 yesterday and it had the Ride Closed chain across, someone was also manning the entrance to Batwing as we were leaving.

It changed roughly a year ago if I remember correctly. 

[westical]

On 7/9/2023 at 2:48 PM, webslave said:

As an adult your next working attraction from Batwing is either West or (if you can be bothered) RRRC.

What was wrong with Justice League?