Ride Downtime

[stumpy6]

One of the biggest reasons stopping me from booking my Gold Coast trip now for February next year is that DreamWorld and MovieWorld dont show their "ride maintenance" schedule going that far - I will be extremely dissapointed if I turn up in Feb only to find one of the better rides not operating because of maintenance! Most of you guys, being roller coaster junkies, is it fairly predictable when rides will be down for maintenance? ie is superman escape due for maintenance in the next 12 months? I suppose it would be a little premature to assume now that there will be no ride maintenance happening in February 08?

[dreamworld_rulz]

I've gone to the Gold Coast in February every year for last 3 years and haven't had any problems. The 1st week of February is the best week.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

To say "no maintenance in the next 12 months" would be impossible. All rides have an "ANNUAL maintenance" cycle. Simple rides take hours, or a couple of days, Whereas large rides, like coasters can go down for weeks during maintenance, depending on what problems crop up. I'm not entirely sure of the timeframes, but in my experience, steel coasters without major issues would take about a week, unless they're only a one train coaster, in which case it would take longer because they could not bring it back after the first train was completed. Woodies can take much longer, especially if they should catch fire in the summer sun whilst under maintenance... (ahhhh those were the days). If the parks don't publish the maintenance schedule that far, It can't hurt to ask them. If you explain to them that you're trying to plan your trip around certain rides, I'm sure they will be happy to accomodate you if they can, so you don't go elsewhere. Having said that, remember that unexpected things happen, and even if you have been assured of the ride uptime prior to arrival, if the techs and mechs who inspect it that morning aren't happy with something, its closed. In my personal opinion, I don't like the idea of going in february, simply because if something has been wearing out over the heaviest trade time of the year - Christmas\Summer school holidays, the park will take it out the moment the peak period is over, and february is it.

[www worker]

easy go onto there website and they tell u on dreamworld

[dreamworld_rulz]

One of the biggest reasons stopping me from booking my Gold Coast trip now for February next year is that DreamWorld and MovieWorld dont show their "ride maintenance" schedule going that far

easy go onto there website and they tell u on dreamworld

Hmmm it appears that someone didn't read the post properly.

[Gazza]

easy go onto there website and they tell u on dreamworld

Yeah, but the Dreamworld website doesn't have information for what ride maintenance is happening in FEBURARY. Edited October 4, 2007 by Gazza

[DEAP]

In my experience parks are fairly conscious about when they plan ride maintenance they don't want to disrupt many people as much as possible. If there was a way they could do it with out affecting any one I'm sure they would do it then, but most of the time its not possible (ie: takes a couple of weeks to do). So generally planned maintenance occurs in the quieter time during winter out of school holidays. Having said this some times a ride may need to have its schedule moved forward although this is very rare, but the park operators still consider February peak season so will avoid maintenance in this time at all cost (except safety of course). So with the exception of unforeseen faults you should be fine in February. DEAP

[rosscoe]

When Superman went down earlier this year, it only appered on the website ten days or so before hand.

[mickey_079]

uhh didn't want to be annoying and make another thread that wont go over two pages so I just wanted to add on this, myself and 5 other mates are going to GC next year to just theme park it and have fun, we want to go half way through the year though, when would be the best time to go, like around school holidays and with ride maintenance? We want to book accomodation ASAP so yeah just want to know when the best time is around june july. THANKS

[dreamworld_rulz]

Avoid school holidays because you'll spend 90% of the time in a queue. Hotels charge you 1 weeks accommodation for the price of 2 weeks. Just go to www.ratestogo.com.au for prices. Or you can go on Ebay. There is no best time. But either 2 weeks after or before the holidays is a good time.

Edited October 8, 2007 by dreamworld_rulz

[mickey_079]

I know not to go school holidays, I said that in the post, but thank you, we said about 1 week before holidays. We book off NRMA, get it cheap, prob not as cheap as you listed but hey, there all good quality. Thanks again.

[dreamworld_rulz]

Sorry misread your post.

[mickey_079]

its cool, everyone makes mistakes. Just looked on ebay, chevron actually goes really cheap there. Quoted from NRMA site PLUS, NRMA members who pre-purchase their can also enter the Dreamworld from 9am (an hour earlier than everyone else) and ride the Big 6 Thrill Rides - the Tower of Terror, Giant Drop, Wipeout, The Claw, Cyclone and all NEW 'Mick Doohan's Motocoaster' as often as they like!* How long has this been? Does it only apply at certain times in the day? I know you could do this with some QLD insurance, I didn't know about NRMA

Edited October 8, 2007 by mickey_079

[T-bone]

It has been going for as long as RACQ and RACV have been doing it. The only problem with this was there were only a handful of people doing this, even during the holidays, and this meant for the first time ever, I had to wait for a grand total of 6 or more riders for the TOT team to launch the ride. Giant Drop 3. It was good as we were given a couple of consecutive launches on the Tower, and I got some great consecutive rides on the Giant Drop (5 in total). So yes, it wasn't all that bad. But for those people who don't purchase their tickets from the various motoring clubs, here's a tip. The parks generally start to let people in through their gates at around 9:30am, and because of this, and the Early Entry offer, you will get an extra half hour of ride time.

[mickey_079]

Oh ok, just last time I went to QLD, NRMA said nothing to us about this. Any who, if I have anymore questions I will start a new thread because I think I may have a few more questions. Thanks for your help