Movie World Scheduled Maintenance 2024

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

On 29/11/2024 at 3:22 PM, Baconjack said:

Wonder if this is a manufacturer recommendation from Intamin or it is another insurance broker’s decision given there is no precedent on other installs throughout the world I am aware of

I know that, for MACK at least, the seatbelt thing is a manufacturer requirement - this is because if a seatbelt is done up prior to ops check, then their 'push-pull' check is only testing the seatbelt, not the hydraulic locking mechanism. Operations push-pull on the harness to ensure it is down and locked, and then do up the seatbelt as it is only the supplemental restraint. I don't think Intamin is about to revise their procedures this late in the accelerator game, and judging by other reports, it wasn't a requirement at other times. 

It is plausible that the operator who we're discussing here was having a busy day and accidentally spieled their Rivals spiel instead of their Superman spiel. it's easy to do. They possibly got ribbed for it by the other ops after dispatch.

On 29/11/2024 at 11:55 PM, TV15 said:

The seatbelts on SE are completely unnecessary, they can be undone at any point in the ride. Essentially a piece of mind feature. If they're not needed on a ride don't have it. It slows down ops. FSF was delayed due to the secondary restraint locking system (the seatbelt) it's a clever, completely custom design that doesn't allow for the seatbelt to be undone during the ride.

They aren't completely unnecessary, and I believe we've discussed the superman seatbelt previously - the receiver has wiring going to it. Presumably ops can tell if a seatbelt isn't done up. It may only be in the station, but it could also be at the launch track too

On 30/11/2024 at 6:27 AM, Levi said:

one thing i’ll never understand is not being able to do up our own seat belts, especially with rides such as Superman and Rivals. people have been doing up their own seatbelts on Superman for 18 years, and Rivals for 3 years before covid, atleast Steel Taipan and Flash actually opened with those rules (even if SurfRider didn’t have that rule.) i wonder if we’ll be able to do the seatbelt on fotww ourselves or not.

For Rivals at least, see above.

As for the view that "we did it for years, so why change now" - that sort of thinking leads to killing people. If you identify a risk or experience an incident which leads you to review your current processes and decide to change those processes to reduce or eliminate that risk, you should.

When you don't, you end up with a home-made ride built in house that relies on one operator to oversee massive amounts of moving parts, with failing infrastructure causing regular shutdowns, and a history of the exact same incident occurring in the past, without taking any actions to prevent possible fatalities that did unfortunately eventuate.

On 01/12/2024 at 12:51 AM, Baconjack said:

Legally speaking in most parts of the world rides of Superman's level of thrill are required to have fail safes in their restraint design which is what the seat belt is for. All accelerators are delivered with such to be compliant with regulations. No idea what the go is with australia standards but I'd assume they are very similar to what you see in America and Europe.

Putting it all very simply - All rides have to have a redundant restraint system. Many manufacturers ship their attractions with a dual hydraulic lock - essentially two separate cylinders that both lock, so if one fails, the other will hold. That qualifies as a redundant restraint system in most of the world.

Australia however considers that the secondary restraint has to be of a different type to the primary restraint - ie: they can't both be hydraulic locks. The reason why is because of a perception that the potential failure to one hydraulic cylinder could theoretically happen to both cylinders simultaneously given that the equipment is the same age, is put through the same forces, is maintained by the same people using the same replacement parts, etc etc. 

For example (and this is just a napkin hypothetical, i'm not a hydraulic expert), it is possible that contaminated hydraulic fluid could enter both systems and block a valve or develop a slow leak or similar. While extraordinarily rare for that to happen twice and at the same time, it's possible. Having an alternate locking method that can't fail in the same way as the primary restraint is technically safer as something that can cause one system to fail is unlikely to cause the other to fail.

 

[Spotty]

On 30/11/2024 at 12:55 AM, TV15 said:

The seatbelts on SE are completely unnecessary, they can be undone at any point in the ride. Essentially a piece of mind feature. If they're not needed on a ride don't have it. It slows down ops. FSF was delayed due to the secondary restraint locking system (the seatbelt) it's a clever, completely custom design that doesn't allow for the seatbelt to be undone during the ride.

If a seatbelt is undone at any point during the dark ride section of Superman, the ride will automatically e-stop. The seatbelts have sensors to tell if they are buckled or not, if not buckled the ride will not dispatch. Also if the unloader accidentally leaves a seatbelt buckled when coming into the load station, that seat can not be used for the next cycle as the system will basically have a panic attack and not allow it to be unlocked until it comes back to unload. (That part of the system honestly is so stupid but it is what it is).

[wikiverse]

Here are some useful resources for anyone wanting to dig deeper:

For those who want to spend $263 - AS 3533.1-2009 is the Australian Standard for amusement devices, Page 30 for info about containment and restraint.  This is for design and manufacturing of amusement devices.

https://www.intertekinform.com/en-au/standards/as-3533-1-2009-123064_saig_as_as_274721/

 

Worksafe Qld code of conduct (for operators, not manufacturers):

https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/118501/amusement-devices-cop-2023.pdf

 

Safework Aus guide for amusement devices (federal version of the above):

https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-10/amusement-devices-general-guide_-_updated_september_2022_1.pdf

[mba2012]

1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Putting it all very simply - All rides have to have a redundant restraint system. Many manufacturers ship their attractions with a dual hydraulic lock - essentially two separate cylinders that both lock, so if one fails, the other will hold. That qualifies as a redundant restraint system in most of the world.

Australia however considers that the secondary restraint has to be of a different type to the primary restraint - ie: they can't both be hydraulic locks. The reason why is because of a perception that the potential failure to one hydraulic cylinder could theoretically happen to both cylinders simultaneously given that the equipment is the same age, is put through the same forces, is maintained by the same people using the same replacement parts, etc etc. 

For example (and this is just a napkin hypothetical, i'm not a hydraulic expert), it is possible that contaminated hydraulic fluid could enter both systems and block a valve or develop a slow leak or similar. While extraordinarily rare for that to happen twice and at the same time, it's possible. Having an alternate locking method that can't fail in the same way as the primary restraint is technically safer as something that can cause one system to fail is unlikely to cause the other to fail.

It appears that the requirement for a tertiary locking system isn't restricted just to Australia. Notably both Mack extreme spinners as well as Voltron both have a mechanical locking system, as well as the hydraulic system (which I imagine is still dual-redundant). This gets activated after the push pull (which is done automatically on the extreme spinner trains), and also prevents the harness from further closing during the ride. I'm not sure how these work exactly, but I've wondered if it's a system that could be adopted to satisfy the requirements in Australia.

[Levram__]

On 29/11/2024 at 7:34 PM, Naazon said:

I work in the insurance industry. Brokers, or more specifically the underwriters don't have the final say, but they do set the premiums based on perceived "risk" and VRTP is money first. I've heard some crazy specific rules imposed by insurance, not specifically for theme parks but Aus Zoo in the past, and car dealerships more recently.

Agree, this is a more accurate depiction of an insurers influence. You will often find that the "suggestion" or sometimes influence can come from the risk assessors for the particular underwriter. I've dealt with these particular roles within my role in the industry on a number of occasions. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

2 hours ago, mba2012 said:

It appears that the requirement for a tertiary locking system isn't restricted just to Australia. Notably both Mack extreme spinners as well as Voltron both have a mechanical locking system, as well as the hydraulic system (which I imagine is still dual-redundant). This gets activated after the push pull (which is done automatically on the extreme spinner trains), and also prevents the harness from further closing during the ride. I'm not sure how these work exactly, but I've wondered if it's a system that could be adopted to satisfy the requirements in Australia.

Now that you mention it, I seem to recall Flying Dinosaur had this type of mechanical secondary restraint whereby a pin locked into the restraint after the restraint was checked. 

 

[Brad2912]

2 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Now that you mention it, I seem to recall Flying Dinosaur had this type of mechanical secondary restraint whereby a pin locked into the restraint after the restraint was checked. 

 

recall something similar, there was some magnetic function involved 

[Ash]

If anyone was wanting to go today, don’t bother every major ride is shut. Was terrible 

[Brad2912]

15 minutes ago, Ash said:

If anyone was wanting to go today, don’t bother every major ride is shut. Was terrible 

According to the page only SE, GL and SDSC is closed 

which other rides are closed 

[Ash]

39 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

According to the page only SE, GL and SDSC is closed 

which other rides are closed 

Rivals was down all morning, Wild West was down all morning also, Marvin the Martian, Sylvester and tweet cages, and justice league all done from roughly 1030 till when we left at 1. A lot of disgruntled customers, myself included.

We just purchased the yearly passes yesterday too, went yesterday most rides closed due to the rain which is obvious, Wild West was closed before the rain kicked in due to a sensor fault. It’s actually disappointing, our Dreamworld passes just ran out so thought we would give village another go, big  mistake 

[red dragin]

I took my kids today, and yeah, heaps was closed. Looked at rivals about 1pm, single rider queue was 30+ people. 

Not surprised when dispatch times where ~6 minutes per cycle. 

Junior driving school was thankfully a walk on 😂 

[Ash]

14 minutes ago, red dragin said:

I took my kids today, and yeah, heaps was closed. Looked at rivals about 1pm, single rider queue was 30+ people. 

Not surprised when dispatch times where ~6 minutes per cycle. 

Junior driving school was thankfully a walk on 😂 

It’s honestly terrible. Main Street was packed because no rides were open. It’s average, and I much prefer Dreamworld and the atmosphere it delivers 

[Baconjack]

Having 3 majors open when private schools nationwide are starting to finish for the year is pretty poor form.

Hoping the issues are fixed in the next week or so when people start showing up in large numbers

[Aw hype]

Anyone know what is happening with SE? Currently on holiday over here and the website says it's down. Want to try ascertain some sort of an ETA for reopening so we can go on that day,

[eggplant8585]

25 minutes ago, Aw hype said:

Anyone know what is happening with SE? Currently on holiday over here and the website says it's down. Want to try ascertain some sort of an ETA for reopening so we can go on that day,

Typically it’s a sensor fault or something similar. It will most likely be up by Friday at the latest, if not sometime tomorrow. If it’s something more serious it will have temporary closure on the maintenance page 

[Gobbledok]

You really have to wonder what soulless employee of the month proposed this large format printer to their overlords and was lauded with praise 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Did you forget to add something to your post?

[eggplant8585]

Superman was open today however only running one train and pretty slow. DC rivals was running two trains and were doing decent dispatches, at one point the second train had only stopped on the brakes for 20 seconds before they sent the other one. 
 

green lantern closed all day then reopened about 3:45. Once all the school kids left lines were 10 mins for dc rivals and about 20-50 for the rest 

[themagician]

2 hours ago, eggplant8585 said:

DC rivals was running two trains and were doing decent dispatches, at one point the second train had only stopped on the brakes for 20 seconds before they sent the other one. 

It’s a miracle! 

[Aw hype]

4 hours ago, eggplant8585 said:

Superman was open today however only running one train and pretty slow. DC rivals was running two trains and were doing decent dispatches, at one point the second train had only stopped on the brakes for 20 seconds before they sent the other one. 
 

green lantern closed all day then reopened about 3:45. Once all the school kids left lines were 10 mins for dc rivals and about 20-50 for the rest 

We dropped into MW yesterday and today. 

SE was running one train at 3pm this afternoon, with a listed wait time of 30 Minutes. Low and behold, after 80ish minutes standing around, we got on. Such a shame that the ride ops only seemed to give a shit about how quickly things moved after the the line was shut, presumably to get home on time. 

Rivals was even worse yesterday. We bit the bullet and joined the 90 Minute line at 1215 yesterday, only to not be on until about 3. Staff seemed lethargic, uncaring, like they didn't want to be there, and were above all else slow. There also clearly was not enough of them to run things efficiently. 5 (and that's me being nice) Minute dispatches on your flagship attraction on any given day is deplorable, let alone with SE down and GL being as unreliable as it is. I will concede I Did not ride today so there could have been a better crew on.

It's a stark contrast to how we saw things at DW. As much as lines were long, the place was organised, staff were working hard, friendly and actually looked like they cared about visitors and wanted to be there.

The contempt that the Village seem to be treating the consumer with is disgusting - the fact that in an off peak time, I could only get on 4 things in a whole day is deplorable. The arrogance to do things like have a listed SE wait time on the app of 30 minutes yet close the line at 4pm is quite shocking (what is up with these clearly under-representing wait times?).

I knew from on here Village were bad, but man the contrast between the places is insane. I really hope things turn around and trend Upward at DW with JR. They clearly care about and have a passion for visitors and their experiences at the park, where Village don't.

 

 

Edited December 5 by Aw hype

[eggplant8585]

6 minutes ago, Aw hype said:

We dropped into MW yesterday and today. 

SE was running one train at 3pm this afternoon, with a listed wait time of 30 Minutes. Low and behold, after 80ish minutes standing around, we got on. Such a shame that the ride ops only seemed to give a shit about how quickly things moved after the the line was shut, presumably to get home on time. 

Rivals was even worse yesterday. We bit the bullet and joined the 90 Minute line at 1215 yesterday, only to not be on until about 3. Staff seemed lethargic, uncaring, like they didn't want to be there, and were above all else slow. There also clearly was not enough of them to run things efficiently. 5 (and that's me being nice) Minute dispatches on your flagship attraction on any given day is deplorable, let alone with SE down and GL being as unreliable as it is. I will concede I Did not ride today so there could have been a better crew on.

It's a stark contrast to how we saw things at DW. As much as lines were long, the place was organised, staff were working hard, friendly and actually looked like they cared about visitors and wanted to be there.

The contempt that the Village seem to be treating the consumer with is disgusting - the fact that in an off peak time, I could only get on 4 things in a whole day is deplorable. The arrogance to do things like have a listed SE wait time on the app of 30 minutes yet close the line at 4pm is quite shocking (what is up with these clearly under-representing wait times?).

I knew from on here Village were bad, but man the contrast between the places is insane. I really hope things turn around and trend Upward at DW with JR. They clearly care about and have a passion for visitors and their experiences at the park, where Village don't.

 

 

Yeah we went to join superman today when it said 40 minutes but the line was visible inside and I knew it was longer than that. Upside was green lantern line was very fast. Was all the way down to the last statue and only took 15 minutes! 
 

We joined superman first after it reopened and it showed a 90 minute wait. We waited 84 minutes. We joined Wild West falls at 70 and we waited 68 minutes. Every queue time for us at least was accurate!

I find it ironic on their recent google reviews that are poor that movieworld is responding saying they had unprecedented crowd levels this week. What do you mean? You know 30 school buses are coming. 
 

At least they have dc rivals second train on even technically outside of school holidays! 
 

We should only hope that once the new land and scooby reopens that the capacity at the park will be sufficient for nothing to exceed an hour wait! One can only dream 

[Aw hype]

1 minute ago, eggplant8585 said:

We joined superman first after it reopened and it showed a 90 minute wait. We waited 84 minutes. We joined Wild West falls at 70 and we waited 68 minutes. Every queue time for us at least was accurate

WWF has been bang on. 

2 minutes ago, eggplant8585 said:

I find it ironic on their recent google reviews that are poor that movieworld is responding saying they had unprecedented crowd levels this week. What do you mean? You know 30 school buses are coming.

Absolute crock of shit. Spoke to various members over the parks in the last couple of days, inclusive WnW. They are very aware of the amount of school groups arriving over the next two weeks. They wouldn't set up big marquees and label them with individual school names on a whim and a prayer.

It's gross what they're doing and getting away with as a business. The fact that the park is ultimately failing to deliver an advertised product and then blatantly lying to the high-paying customers they've ripped off is terrible.

14 minutes ago, eggplant8585 said:

At least they have dc rivals second train on even technically outside of school holidays! 

Second train is good when you don't have a crew stacking every second train for 2+ minutes.

[eggplant8585]

3 hours ago, Aw hype said:

WWF has been bang on. 

Absolute crock of shit. Spoke to various members over the parks in the last couple of days, inclusive WnW. They are very aware of the amount of school groups arriving over the next two weeks. They wouldn't set up big marquees and label them with individual school names on a whim and a prayer.

It's gross what they're doing and getting away with as a business. The fact that the park is ultimately failing to deliver an advertised product and then blatantly lying to the high-paying customers they've ripped off is terrible.

Second train is good when you don't have a crew stacking every second train for 2+ minutes.

There was a good crew on dc rivals for a few hours today then it got slow. Line was all the way down to the old sign where it said the wait time and that was only 10-15 minutes at one point because of how fast they were pumping them out…

if only they did what dreamworld does on super busy days and has 4 people checking the restraints 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Just being devils advocate here, but not all stacking is the fault of the crew. Guests constantly board the ride with things in their pockets, or dally around with their loose items. 

I absolutely agree Village's standard operating procedures don't really allow the Ops crew to be 'fast' but station delays are inevitably caused by guests a lot of the time.

Why do you think the Ops spiel at the top of their lungs to the queue repeatedly about things in pockets, etc?

[Aw hype]

1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Just being devils advocate here, but not all stacking is the fault of the crew. Guests constantly board the ride with things in their pockets, or dally around with their loose items. 

I absolutely agree Village's standard operating procedures don't really allow the Ops crew to be 'fast' but station delays are inevitably caused by guests a lot of the time.

Why do you think the Ops spiel at the top of their lungs to the queue repeatedly about things in pockets, etc?

The odd 5 Minute dispatch due to guests piss farting around and not listening is Fine. There were periods were the train would sit empty for near on a minute, with no one getting off or on, while ops people were having a quick yarn about one thing or another.

I don't blame those people specifically. Such low (comparitive to DW) work standards being deemed acceptable are a failure of management, not to mention the obvious lack of staff allocated to the rides.