I've been wondering about two things:

Firstly, why did they remove the themeing in the first place, especially given that they were obviously nowhere near ready to replace it? Given this happened so soon after the comprehensive safety checks on all rides statewide after the Dreamworld incident, it makes me think there may have been some sort of safety issue with the themeing. I find that hard to believe, but if that's not the reason what else could it be?

Secondly, when are they going to replace it? I asked that question today at the guest service office and also of one of the staff on the ride, and I was told they have very little information but the themeing will probably be put back next time Scooby is closed for maintenance.

Well that's not scheduled until 28th August. Surely it doesn't take that long!

Anyone got any ideas what's going on, and why it's taking so long?

The theming was removed as it is believed they did not meet fire safety standards, therefore being a hazard it was immediately removed. Theming is believed to currently being remade and we don't know when it will be re-installed, but as guest services have said, probably going to be during the next maintence period. Unless they slowly add it back in after hours.

Well slowly adding it back in after hours is exactly what I would have expected, but there's no sign of it yet. I just can't see it taking that long.

28 minutes ago, pushbutton said:

Firstly, why did they remove the themeing in the first place, especially given that they were obviously nowhere near ready to replace it?

Insurance.

29 minutes ago, pushbutton said:

Secondly, when are they going to replace it?

When it's ready and approved. 

The theming was fairly encompassing around the ride track. I don't think a lot of it would be able to be installed after hours whilst the ride operated during the day. Apart from being a pain in the ass for the maintenance crew to have to remove all equipment etc every day to safely operate the ride, I also doubt many of them signed up to pull all nighters for weeks on end 

12 hours ago, pushbutton said:

I just can't see it taking that long.

How long should it take?

This line of thinking happens to me all the time.

I have clients ringing me up wanting to go ahead with a job and they try and tell me how long it will take.  I tell them all the same thing. 

“This is not KFC, I’m not sitting at the front counter waiting for you to place an order.  I have 3 months of work sitting in front of me before I can even get to your job.  Plus, I must squeeze in my Parkz gossip throughout the day”.

 

Edited March 5, 20178 yr by YLFATEEKS

9 minutes ago, YLFATEEKS said:

Plus, I must squeeze in my Parkz gossip throughout the day

Looks like you have your priorities set straight. ?

Why it was removed, thanks to Joz in the other thread.

 

Edited March 6, 20178 yr by Original

39 minutes ago, Santa07 said:

Looks like you have your priorities set straight. ?

Not really. If @YLFATEEKS had the priorities right, there'd be no time for work since he'd be too busy on Parkz. 

2 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

The theming was fairly encompassing around the ride track. I don't think a lot of it would be able to be installed after hours whilst the ride operated during the day. Apart from being a pain in the ass for the maintenance crew to have to remove all equipment etc every day to safely operate the ride, I also doubt many of them signed up to pull all nighters for weeks on end 

Additionally to this, but i think if they add stuff into the ride, they'd have to test the envelope to ensure people can't hit it \ touch it etc - so if they did it piecemeal every night, they'd have to test the envelope every day before they could open it... I don't think so.

In agreement and to further what @AlexB has said, I'm pretty certain that they won't be touching the refurb aspect of the ride until later in the year. It seems have bigger things to focus on in the meanwhile, primarily two major activities happening at the front of the park. 

The park is obviously in the middle of spending a fortune of money, time, and effort. While I'm sure Scooby is on the cards somewhere I agree with what's been said above and I think the refurb won't be until later this year, or perhaps they're wanting to go all-out and we'll only see it next year (which would be annoying to have it in its current state for so long, however if the new experience is worth the wait I'm definitely ok with this)

It's a reasonable assumption that the removal was sudden and unplanned given that it happened during the peak season. If they could wait a month and do it in February then surely they would have. With that in mind:

• Village Roadshow have announced increased scrutiny on capital expenditure.
• The roller coaster is huge CapEx that is already locked in and certainly unavoidable at this point.
• VRTP recorded a pretty sizeable drop in attendance for the half year and VRL were pretty cautious (even pessimistic) about where the division will be come end of financial year.

I'm not entirely sure where all this talk of new theming already being fabricated started, but I wouldn't be so sure. With additional CapEx unlikely and operating budgets stretched thin because of a likely revenue drop, unless there were unavoidable contracts for the re-theme signed prior to the Thunder River Rapids incident, I wouldn't expect anything this financial year and I wouldn't hold my breath for anything this calendar year given there will be huge uncertainty surrounding theme park performance until at least the end of next summer.

 

Let's all keep our fingers crossed that this amazing new coaster brings MW the massive (and sustained) attendance boost it will deserve, giving VRL the flexibility and confidence to fix up Scooby etc. I know all of us on here will certainly be doing our bit to help out! ???

Edited March 6, 20178 yr by GoGoBoy

The spooky passageway in the last part of the queue is getting a partial repaint, to remove the graffiti and just freshen it up a bit.

^ finally!!!

While they're at it, I hope they address the maintenance light glare above the monitor at the end of that corridor. It's been bugging me for ages. The area should be dark.

^I think, because that is an emergency exit, they're required to have lights on in that corridor.

I guess they could put a small metal plate behind it so it obscured it through the doorway though.

^ a simple and effective solution @AlexB. That would make sense as beyond that doorway is the remaining east bound Gremlin Theatre exit corridor and that would be the lights shining from the Hallway.

That light has always been there. Bugs me to hell too. 

Much like the lights over the wall at Storm's station. Oh how I hate seeing maintenance lights. 

^ HERE HERE!!

One of my pet hates was when Supervising the Looney Tunes ride and Tech Services would often leave work lights on in the Maintenance Bay before leaving, casting light across the ceiling and spoiling the 'night sky' effect.

I don't think lights need to be left on in hallways that are emergency escapes. The office I work in has evacuation stairwells on each end of the building and the lights in those corridors are off unless the fire door is opened and a button is pressed to turn them on.

Also, exit signage doesn't have to be the giant green signage, it can be a black sign with green text. There may be more regulations around this than I am aware of, but I have definitely seen such Exit signs.

Emergency exit signs must be illuminated, and emergency exit corridors/storewells must also be well lit, and not require a manual switch to be activated for the lighting to kick in. 

16 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

Emergency exit signs must be illuminated, and emergency exit corridors/storewells must also be well lit, and not require a manual switch to be activated for the lighting to kick in. 

I've looked after buildings with reed switches on each door that turned them on for a set amount of time, and if the fire panel was activated they also came on. 

I think though that talking of reed switches and such is probably taking things too far - the corridor used to be a public access corridor - it was converted to an emergency exit with the current Scooby design. it wasn't built from scratch with EWIS, WIP phones, etc. The law requires it to be lit - and its far cheaper to install an 'always on' light than it is to install some automatic system somehow linked to the door - the more complicated a system, the more chance there is of failure - but even if it were robust or simple enough to be guaranteed to work, it comes at a cost - a cost far exceeding a simple shield that would block the light from spilling through the doorway.

black emergency exit signs are typically used in theatres to prevent white light bleeding into the performance area and ruining the effect. I wouldn't imagine there would be much difference in cost, and I can't see why they couldn't be installed in 'themed' areas to minimise their impact... but the key issue here is a work light, not an emergency exit light.

I would dare say the light in question is probably on a circuit with many other lights so has to remain on.