Parkz News Village Roadshow Theme Parks CEO Clark Kirby: 'We're really excited about the future of theme parks'

[Mc coaster]

Personally I think one of the main problems with JDS is that it is built to replicate the park but since it was built before we had DD and DCR they are not existent on the ride.

[webslave]

So the ride was pretty much fine before then?

[Mc coaster]

No I hate the ride and definitely preferred LTRR.

Edited December 8, 2017 by Mc coaster

[webslave]

So, probably not the "main problem", then...

[Levithian]

Arguably, Justice League was supposed to be the big family block buster that would replace something the size of the river ride. Aside from a few mentions about it being boring, few people seem to be outraged at the lack of use of it's building, given the size of the ride and the old library/hall of justice is pretty substancial. Why couldn't a better family ride have gone in there instead? much less hate directed here than at where the river ride used to be.

Anyone who doesn't think driving school is an asset to the kids area has never been to the park with kids in the ~10 age bracket. Especially when 1) its busy; or 2) it's raining, or 3) during events like white christmas. Even with the number of cars on track, i've seen wait times of like 90 minutes before. That's just crazy busy. Id be very surprised if they didn't get through maybe 300 guests an hour when it's like that, thats a couple thousand people a day easily. What's more is kids still want to stand in line to drive them, which probably says something about how much of an attraction it is for kids. I think it's boring too, but there aren't too many kids rides at Movie world that I get asked can we ride again, so for that reason it's something that works for me.

You can wish for the return of the river ride all you want, but it's gone. If you took out the cost of the demolition and fitout of the building before putting in the driving school, i can imagine a realistic budget might have been 2 or 3 million. No chance in hell they were ever going to replace or revamp the river ride with that sort of budget. It might even have been the biggest spend in the kids area in recent history, so they probably get a lot of use for it's small budget. 

There's a lot of space in the kids area in general. You could start looking at removing a couple of the rides that are the least popular, then condense the existing rides into the available space and still have room for another (maybe 2) family attractions. Problem is, what do you put there? they've got towers, they've got a coaster, they've got driving school and maybe keep the train? so what sort of ride does it leave you with kids in mind? maybe a mini swing of some type? retheme/redevelopment of road runner coaster area too and put something more immersive in like maybe a mine/train themed mini coaster? I can't see them doing much in the very near future, but a budget of maybe 10-15 million could completely change the kids area for sure.

Edited December 8, 2017 by Levithian

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Here's my suggestion:

• empty out the other side of the show building. Find storage for your floats, christmas tree and other maintenance crap elsewhere. Plenty of land on property to stick up a new Titan Shed (or find a small soundstage that doesn't get used much and use that for a while.
• install a load bearing mezzanine.
• Install a multi-level tracked (or trackless) vehicle system.
• Utilise physical sets and 3d\4d animation for a looney-tunes styled attraction (think Justice League \ Toy Story Midway Mania). One could even run the storyline similar to the previous LTRR (but without the water) about bugs escaping and tunneling through to Australia - a good tip of the hat to the former attraction whilst giving it a new take \ angle.

While i realise JL is in the park, and is very similar, this would be suitable for all ages, but aimed more at kids. the multi-level gives another aspect. If they give it a similar effort to Doomsday or Rivals, which seems to be their new standard, then they should pull it off and it would be a great addition to the park.

Edited December 8, 2017 by AlexB

[Brad2912]

Sounds like a great idea to me... 

how much of the show building is currently utilised by JDS? Looks a significant portion or it only about 50%

[joz]

Junior Driving School could go anywhere, it could go in Superman's heilex, it could replace Taz Speedy Sam Train and Tweety's in one swoop.  Maintenance storage could go anywhere.  The objection is the waste of a show building which cost millions to build and isn't something Village have shown a willingness to build for a long time.  

 

I don't mind the ride, it's fine as is for now, but if MW were my park it wouldn't survive the next kids area overhaul as it stands.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Rough nearmap calc -

JDS takes up approx 1920sqm

Storage takes up approx 1600sqm.

This is based on just the square soundstage shed. doesn't include lean-to add ons (ie: maintenance has a small add on on the eastern side, theres a small awning \ add on on the western side where LTRR used to exit, and of course the pre-show LTRR building on the southern side which had the earth drill, film set etc - which is now the viewing \ licensing \ queue area for JDS.

Note also that - I can't see the interior dividing wall, so my calc could very well be off. Having been inside the shed when it was completely gutted, I'd always regarded the division as roughly 'half' and these measurements surprised me a little.

[Levithian]

I think the divider is pretty much in line with the inner wall of the old entry into the river ride (so, about where the fence for road runner is). Think staff use it now?

[Rollercoaster_Lover]

7 hours ago, Levithian said:

I think the divider is pretty much in line with the inner wall of the old entry into the river ride (so, about where the fence for road runner is). Think staff use it now?

No it’s a Rollercoaster viewing area

[Brad2912]

1 hour ago, Rollercoaster_Lover said:

No it’s a Rollercoaster viewing area

No, no it’s not, it’s a bit hard to view a rollercoaster from old entry to LTRR, given it’s indoors.

yes, it’s a staff office now 

[pushbutton]

The driving school is pretty good as a ride for young children, and it's very well themed. 

However as a replacement for the LTRR it's pathetic to put it nicely!

Does anyone know why LTRR was closed? 

[Rollercoaster_Lover]

35 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

No, no it’s not, it’s a bit hard to view a rollercoaster from old entry to LTRR, given it’s indoors.

yes, it’s a staff office now 

Yeah I meant the outside queue

[Brad2912]

3 hours ago, pushbutton said:

 

Does anyone know why LTRR was closed? 

The same reason any ride closes...

the cost to maintain or repair is too prohibitive to continue operation.

[pushbutton]

45 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

The same reason any ride closes...

the cost to maintain or repair is too prohibitive to continue operation.

Maybe. Shame they were so short sighted in imagining its replacement. 

[T-bone]

11 hours ago, pushbutton said:

The driving school is pretty good as a ride for young children, and it's very well themed. 

However as a replacement for the LTRR it's pathetic to put it nicely!

Does anyone know why LTRR was closed? 

Well themed? You are soooo funny Push!

JDS is one of those attractions that could easily be picked up and moved elsewhere. It using up the ride building is a big waste of space. 

IMO, when LT closed I was hoping if we didn’t get a new dark ride that we would see the ride building converted into an indoor LT land, air conditioned, weather proof, and could have been fantastic if it was done right. I still hold out for hope.

[pushbutton]

7 hours ago, T-bone said:

Well themed? You are soooo funny Push!

JDS is one of those attractions that could easily be picked up and moved elsewhere. It using up the ride building is a big waste of space. 

IMO, when LT closed I was hoping if we didn’t get a new dark ride that we would see the ride building converted into an indoor LT land, air conditioned, weather proof, and could have been fantastic if it was done right. I still hold out for hope.

Of course it's well themed. You drive around a miniature Movie World! 

[Working on a name]

5 hours ago, pushbutton said:

Of course it's well themed. You drive around a miniature Movie World! 

Very immersive it's like I'm actually in movie world

[Brad2912]

I’m with Push on this one...

JSD is very well themed for a kids car ride. Anyone saying otherwise is because they are downplaying it as it isn’t a ride for their demographic or because they are overly critical as it replaced LTRR..

[Original]

I don’t think the argument is so much if it’s a good addition or well themed, but rather in a bad location. 

It could easily be an outdoor attraction, instead a perfectly good soundstage goes wasted for a great dark ride. 

Edited December 10, 2017 by Original

[Levithian]

it couldn't be an outdoor attraction as 1) the cars would need to be indoors or at least covered over from direct elements, 2) there isn't any existing space in the kids area large enough to put it's footprint.

It's in a kids area. It was never going to be anything other than a kids ride in the kids area. Given they had justice league and scooby doo which would cover bases of older kids and tweeners, it was always going to be aimed at younger kids.

Edited December 10, 2017 by Levithian

[rappa]

God forbid it go outside and some kids got some sunshine for 5 mins!

[pin142]

The whole kids area is due for an overhaul and reconfiguration. Surely they could add a small building if they were to keep it inside although surely shade sails would be enough. The river ride really needed to be replaced with a whole family dark ride. That being said people keep going on about a soaring style ride in one of our parks, the question I have is would one fit in what's remaining of the river ride shed? That would allow for a whole family ride replacement whilst allowing the driving school to stay parked where it is.

[aaronm]

9 hours ago, pin142 said:

That being said people keep going on about a soaring style ride in one of our parks, the question I have is would one fit in what's remaining of the river ride shed?

The Kung Fu Panda ride at Motiongate (not quite Soarin' but similar motion-base simulator attraction) has two theatres in a pretty tight space, something like that might fit.