Looney Toons River Ride closed

[Gazza]

especially with Universal creating a new standard of dark rides

They still did Madagascar though.

[westical]

There's one dark water ride at Disney nobody loves.... "it's a small world".

The line up when I was there in October suggests otherwise.

[Reanimated35]

^ Go just after the fireworks at 9pm(?)

[westical]

Day & night.

[alex_1]

I find it very odd that Village Roadshow has taken out 3 family dark rides with no replacements planned. They should realise that this could very well give Dreamworld the upper hand, and dare I say it is. Village Roadshow should see this very clearly? Then again, Movieworld and Village Roadshows possibly have the crappiest marketing and PR system in existence; "Hey we have the steepest coaster in the world! Oh wait no we dont. And we keep saying we'll tell you the opening date but in reality we'll just randomly without warning announce that the new coaster is open! Yay!" So I wouldnt be surprised if they dont have any replacements planned for the 3 rides and that all 3 will rot away like the Mine Ride at Dreamworld. I mean really, unless you have a replacement ready, why close 2 family rides before the holidays? It makes no sense at all. /rant

[pin142]

There would be a very good reason for them to suddenly close them. Especially given how strict our safety laws are over here. (null)

[GoGoBoy]

I find it very odd that Village Roadshow has taken out 3 family dark rides with no replacements planned. They should realise that this could very well give Dreamworld the upper hand, and dare I say it is. Village Roadshow should see this very clearly? Then again, Movieworld and Village Roadshows possibly have the crappiest marketing and PR system in existence; "Hey we have the steepest coaster in the world! Oh wait no we dont. And we keep saying we'll tell you the opening date but in reality we'll just randomly without warning announce that the new coaster is open! Yay!" So I wouldnt be surprised if they dont have any replacements planned for the 3 rides and that all 3 will rot away like the Mine Ride at Dreamworld. I mean really, unless you have a replacement ready, why close 2 family rides before the holidays? It makes no sense at all. /rant

You are absolutely right. It was completely crazy to close 3 of their major family attractions all around the same time. There just aren't enough other attractions at the parks to justify this decision. Then when you have a situation where Green Lantern or another ride is closed due to unexpected maintenance and there really isn't much left. The parks just wouldn't be worth visiting in that situation, in my opinion. You can also see from the number of complaints regarding crowding coming from the general public lately that it is a problem

[westical]

There would be a very good reason for them to suddenly close them. Especially given how strict our safety laws are over here. (null)

Pretty unlucky if 3 of their 4 dark rides developed critical safety issues that required permanent closure.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

The ride systems of Bermuda and LTRR are relatively the same, and are relatively the same age. For them to both experience similar issues within 18 months isn't entirely unheard of. The effects in ALL THREE of those attractions were at best, ready for the garbage pile and at worst beyond salvage. Or maybe - they just decided that rather than pay the memory of the ride a disservice by showing it off at it's worst, they decided it was time to close the ride.

[westical]

Or it was cheaper.

[Jobe]

Or it was cheaper.

Exactly.....they opted for the cheaper route. No matter how much you try and dress it up, or justify the closures, the fact remains that closing all 3 rides in similar timeframes was poor decision making. Closing them without any real replacement or plan (that we know of) is , in my mind, very poor management indeed. Its a fact that these closures could have been handled so much better and the problems faced by Movieworld today could have been somewhat tempered if there was a tiered plan in place. Edited January 18, 2012 by Jobe

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I'd say, if you want to take that argument: If closure was simply, purely, and ONLY because it was cheaper to do so - then in a financial climate that isn't very healthy, i'd say (in MY mind) that it is quite an apt decision by management, rather than being poor. Sure, from an operational standpoint it may appear poor - large crowds, busy periods, and closed rides doesn't seem like a sound decision. But what if the costs associated with maintaining it at a level required by law meant that they exhausted their available funding, and could only staff rides, shows and outlets for 2 hours a day? or only 3 days a week? That wouldn't be a very good management decision - they would lose revenue - digging the hole deeper. You must remember that VRTP didn't just up and decide one day to close all three. Sure - they did close within a short (18 month) timeframe - but could they help it? I'm not trying to 'dress anything up' - i'm just hypothesizing other 'just as likely' scenarios to those who would condemn the parks administrators. As I said - BT and LTRR are similar ride systems, with similar effect systems, of a similar age. Surely it isn't outside the realm of possibility that they both had similar catastrophic failures within an 18 month period rendering both attractions beyond repair? And whilst BA-TR is an entirely different ride\show system, it is also of similar age - and has seen many years of service - is it possible that faults were also discovered with the attraction that was beyond economical repair? 'In similar timeframes' should also be considered as 'completely outside of their control' (I don't have proof to back this up, but surely if it were within their control to keep it open, thereby alleviating complaints to guest services, as well as crowds and queues in busy periods, don't you think that they would have?) Throw back to Corkscrew - a safety fault was discovered during checks on the attraction after an incident which I shall not disclose here. Further investigations revealed major structural integrity issues which required immediate repair. Now without going into the finer details of what was \ could be wrong, and what was needed to repair \ fix \ replace the issue, the attraction was closed, with little notice, for a long period of time. At the end of this long period, the attraction reopened, and was subsequently rethemed. I guess what i'm trying to say is - don't condemn the management for your perception of what they are doing. Until you know the facts behind the decisions, you need to trust that management are doing the best job that they can to continue to deliver their product without compromising the integrity of the brand, and it's assets.

[rappa]

Ignoring everything else and not introducing my own views on the good/bad, shouldn't/should haves or anything of that. I don't get why there are all these posts condemning closing the rides when there is NO plan to replace them. How do we know there is no plan? It's like everyone has decided on their own the park has no plans, and is condemning them for it when for all we know they are already constructing the replacements.

[westical]

I have no doubt they have plans for the various sites, but the sight of Bermuda sitting there virtually untouched for what's been over a year isn't attractive to visitors. I look forward to the exciting new attractions though.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Rappa - my sentiments precisely. Westical - the sight may be poor for regular visitors - but holiday makers etc wouldn't know how long it had been closed. Would you rather they put up new, generic 'new attraction coming soon' signs if they haven't yet decided on a finalist to replace it? If they had to close it, suddenly, for safety \ financial reasons, and had no plans (or money) to replace it, then it's going to take time. Maybe their plans are to replace all three with a similar ride system (with a diverse experience) and they get a discount if they order all three at once? Again - sure - the appearance may not be the best - but the percentage of guests who would view it as a 'seriously poor management decision' would start with a '0.XXX' The majority of guests would just go "i wonder why its closed" or "maybe there's a new ride coming" and leave it at that. My only criticism of how they've handled ALL THREE closures is the unsightly construction fence surrounding bermuda. Sure it would have cost more to put up a themed fence - timber boards with a "themed" warning sign to keep out (plus the requisite 'official' warning signs strategically placed along the fence) would have been a better look. IMO the white, temporary fencing is an eyesore - but that is my only complaint. Had they built the fence as i've described, i'd have no problem with the ride sitting there as is since it was closed.

[GoGoBoy]

I'm not quite sure why there is such passionate defending going on of the parks management here. No one is saying the parks are terrible - just that it was a very questionable decision to close 3 of their major rides, all at the same time, without any replacements yet. I have no doubt that something will eventually replace these rides. That is not the issue. But I doubt all 3 are going to be replaced at the exact same time (and as we have seen Bermuda and Looney have been SBNO for quite some time now). To have all these rides closed during a major holiday period is not good. And as I said, when you then have a new ride like Green Lantern breaking down there is even less choice available. These are not big parks to start with - everyone already complains that they are too small and don't always fill a day. Alex I'd have to disagree with you when you say that very few guests would worry about the situation or think it's a poor decision. I have worked in theme parks and I can tell you there is nothing that peeves guests off more than closed rides. They hate it! Especially when they can't see a good reason for it. You can even see from the feedback MW and SW have been getting on their facebook pages that people don't like it

[qldtaw]

Great post AlexB.... finally someone who gets it! People if you are not happy with the way VRTP management a running the parks get off your but... go work for them... spend many years climbing the corporate ladder to higher management and then show them a thing or two. At the end of the day they ARE a profitable business and continue to weather the current ecconomic climate. You may not like what you perceive them to be doing... but sorry currently their strategies are working.

I'm not quite sure why there is such passionate defending going on of the parks management here. No one is saying the parks are terrible - just that it was a very questionable decision to close 3 of their major rides, all at the same time, without any replacements yet. I have no doubt that something will eventually replace these rides. That is not the issue. But I doubt all 3 are going to be replaced at the exact same time (and as we have seen Bermuda and Looney have been SBNO for quite some time now). To have all these rides closed during a major holiday period is not good. And as I said, when you then have a new ride like Green Lantern breaking down there is even less choice available. These are not big parks to start with - everyone already complains that they are too small and don't always fill a day. Alex I'd have to disagree with you when you say that very few guests would worry about the situation or think it's a poor decision. I have worked in theme parks and I can tell you there is nothing that peeves guests off more than closed rides. They hate it! Especially when they can't see a good reason for it. You can even see from the feedback MW and SW have been getting on their facebook pages that people don't like it

I totally disagree people are sheep they are told what to watch, what to eat and what to ride. Close something and they just go and do something else. Not the other way around. Theme Park enthusiats would be 0.XX percent of the total theme park annual attendance figures. We are the only ones that care about closed rides.... These three rides are long forgotten by the general public... i really don't see anyone giving a hoot that they are gone. I reckon if you surveyed 100 people off the street and asked them what they thought about each ride they wouldn't even know what you were talking about. Ask them about Green Lantern or Superman Escape and i reckon you would get a more favourable response.

[westical]

We are the only ones that care about closed rides....

Have you seen the number of posts on Movie World's Facebook about the Green Latern closures? People care.

[keadz]

We are the only ones that care about closed rides....

Thats a gem.

[GoGoBoy]

Oh qldtaw. No one cares? Do you know how many times Sea World has had to respond to questions about the closure of Bermuda Triangle on their facebook page? Or the Batman ride and Looney Tunes on MW's page? Or when ANY ride is even closed for a short period of time for maintenance etc? And this is JUST going by their FB pages. Not counting the countless of questions they'd get via email, phone, in-park etc. ...oh I forgot another big one: Eureka Mountain Mine Train. Dreamworld was constantly getting asked about why it was closed and whether it would reopen. It got to the point where they got sick of responding and so other FB fans would respond for them

[Gazza]

Thats a gem.

I do wonder how many of the people asking would be members on here though....

[joz]

We've only got the facebook page to go off so that's what we're going to go by, but I think to say the average once every two years visitor hasn't noticed that there are less rides now than there used to be is an under estimation of the public. It's worse at SW where the train tracks and Betmuda act as a rusting reminder of what the park used to have, but it's still true at MW and DW that people know that there used to be something there, and are dissapointed there's not now. How dissapointed is up for debate but I think the parks would do well to plug those holes sooner rather than later.

[qldtaw]

Are you kidding? You are using Facebook to base your argument? Movieworld have 15,682 followers with an engaged audience of 1692.... Last i recall their annual attendance was around 1.4million a year So there Facebook would represent 0.01% of their customers..... Hardly a true representation of the larger audience of the park. I reviewed every post on the Movieworld Facebook page back to the 1st of January 2012.... I would go further but this took long enough as it was. This is all i found... no complaints just 2 questions regarding Batman. January 10:

Movieworld, would you be able to tell us maybe when the old batman ride will be replaced with something else or what it might be tehe

?

January 5:

Do you still have Batman The Ride at movie world? I didn't really like that ride.

So lets project some exaggerated figures. Even if there were the following complaints daily over a year period: - 5 on Facebook - 5 over the phone - 5 via email - 20 in park - A total of 35 complaints a day or 12775 a year That would still only account for 0.009% of customers complaining. I think this evidence supports my claim.... In fact their Facebook is littered with people talking about Green Lantern... funny that.

[CruiseSF]

believe me people are noticing. My friends who have come back from QLD keep complaining about the parks because of the lack of operating rides. These friends do not follow the parks and I don't talk to them about them. Dreamworld is the only one with the current valid excuse (as we currently know).

[westical]

And how many of those Green Lantern posts were about it being closed?