My Visit (15th October)

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Hi All Just got back from a trip to QLD for the weekend, and wasnt planning on visiting the park, except that I got a discount admission token from McDonalds on Friday, so I drove down and got there about 9.20 on Saturday morning. The line was only queueing to one ticket booth, which didnt open til 9.30am. I purchased my ticket, and then went inside. There was a promo radio show going on near The Claw when I arrived (SeaFM i think it was, and there was an Indy car and the Indy girls there). I was on what I think was the second ride of the Claw for the day. Queue time was the length of the first ride, so quite impressed with that, however it wasnt 10am yet! Walked around for a while, deciding what to ride next, and chose WipeOut, simply because it was open. Queue time again was the length of the current cycle, then I was on. This was my second time riding the WipeOut, and it seemed a little more energetic than when I rode it back in March. Then after walking around waiting for it to become 10am, I went for Reptar. I'd never ridden it and was after something I could ride without too many forces on the body, my stomach was a little churned up at this point. Queue time again was incredibly short, only waiting for the current cycle to finish then I was on. After this, I headed for Cyclone, knowing the problems with queue times from reading this forum occasionally, and having been on it twice. Luckily, I walked right up to top level of queue line, only having to wait maybe two cycles before being let on. The ride was a bit rougher than when I last rode it back in March. It felt very shakey side-to-side, especially on the first turn after the main drop, and the highly banked turn before the looping elements. After this I headed for the Tower Of Terror, and walked right up to the stairs, and I was amazed. There was about 4 of us there. The ride attendant came out and told us they were having some problems, and that engineering was onto it, but were unsure of how long it would take. So I headed off to checkout the Big Brother house, that occupied a bit of time. When I returned to civilisation, I rode the Log Ride, sizeable queue line there. Then having seen the Tower Of Terror operate successfully a couple of times, I headed back over there. Queue line was back to the steps. When I got to the station, the girls who were operating the ride were really friendly and appeared to be enjoying their work. One quick ride on the Thunder River Rapids Ride, after lining up for a reasonable amount of time. I'd queued up longer for this ride in the past I ate, and then left the park, having enjoyed my day. I didn't ride Giant Drop because the queue line was not overly long, but still sizeable, and I'm not a big fan of the ride anyway. Only ride not operating besides the SkyLink was the Captain Sturt Paddle Wheeler

[Guest Kyle]

I couldn't be bothered going on the Skylink or the Paddlewheeler because they're both BORING! Also, I can't really see the Tower of Terror having engineering problems, otherwise the whole ride would be closed, including any queues. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed your day!

[Adam]

I can't really see the Tower of Terror having engineering problems, otherwise the whole ride would be closed, including any queues.

Well if the ride operator told them they're experiencing "problems" then chances are the Tower of Terror was actually experiencing problems. They don't close a ride or it's queue until they know the scope of the problem usually. Kyle, if it's a minor problem and they only need a Park Engineer to come and reset the ride then why close off the queue if it's only going to be re-opened again in a matter of minutes?

[Slick]

Where do you get your facts from Kyle? It's as if you popped out of no where and started reciting the "this is what happens, but not really" book of theme parks.

[dreamworld_rulz]

Kyle.I've been in the TOT queue line twice when it broke down and all the ride ops did was get on the mic and apologize for the delay.

[The Theme Park Master]

I really didn't need to do this, Kyle, but once again, I must inform you that you are wrong. In no way would the queue be closed for the TOT just because there was a mechanical (or whatever it was) problem. These issues last about 5-10 minutes, and it would be pointless closing a ride down just to then say that it was open again. Also, have you thought of the build-up of a waiting queue outside the ride? Whenever you (or whenever I) go on the TOT, the queue is pretty big. To have a queue that big lining up outside the skull, you would be getting problems with capacity and room. I don't think that's going to happen. But let's humour you and say that it did happen. Um...er... IT'S NOT GOING TO!

[Slick]

Ok, let's look at this from someone with first hand knowledge. Let's look at scenario one. If a ride has an e-brake, basically it's a)get the passengers on the pod safe b)alert radio to get some people (sups, engineers, whatever) to reset the ride c)intercom the waiting guests about the delays Scenario two would be the one that's getting some people confused. Let's say a tire fragment shatters, a bird hits the pod (it happens pretty regularly) or there's some bad weater overhead, depending on the severity the ops either tell people that if it's going to be a normal delay they can choose to stay in line, but typically if it's weather related, the ride is cleared, and the ops head downstairs to chain up the skull and tell boarding guests that the ride isn't operating.