Reviews & Reactions - Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster: Next Generation

[pushbutton]

Second day it's been closed. Just seems they had ample time to ensure it was ready before reopening this week. 

[dylan_oregan]

Do these two Props still exists ?

[Gold Coast Amusement Force]

The first one I think it just before the projection mapping. You could miss it if you aren’t paying attention in the POV. Second one I think is gone.

There still doing a proper opening which media are supposed to pick up on.

[grimoireweiss]

The staff said it’d open at some point today, they had no time frame. Lots of irate parents. 

[pushbutton]

Just now, grimoireweiss said:

The staff said it’d open at some point today, they had no time frame. Lots of irate parents. 

That's happened every day this week, with the possibile exception of yesterday when it was apparently closed all day. 

Just not a good look, especially so close to Christmas. 

[grimoireweiss]

I’m pretty disappointed, having driven from Brisbane to check it out. I mean I’m a grown up with no kids so overall I can do other stuff, but it sucks for kids who were hyped up for it. Such is life. 

 

Why is this forum so perpetrually mad?

Edited December 19, 2018 by grimoireweiss

[webslave]

57 minutes ago, AlexB said:

Whilst on the surface, it doesn't appear that they've done much - Every. Single. Set. Piece. Has. Been. Recreated. From. Scratch. Out. Of. New. Materials. While it looks the same, it's hardly "minor". While you only see the additions - the projection, the screen, etc - what you're not seeing is that EVERYTHING is new.

That's not really how it works in this industry though - what you're talking about is a refurbishment in which you replace/repair items needing it and potentially add some new touches.  Know why they didn't just call it a refurbishment?  Because they know nobody is motivated to visit on the basis of a refurbishment.  They want new.  Let's review how this was sold:

Quote

Another attraction that will be a fan-favourite at Movie World is the all new Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster: Next Generation. The ride has been completely transformed with new and improved special effects such as projection mapping, mist and sound effects to take guests on a ride experience like never before.

Fan favourite?  Well, that doesn't exactly fit with the idea of enthusiasts bitching about it, does it?  Has this ride been completely transformed?  Well, there's been negligible change in the ride's form, or function.  If they recreated every set piece from scratch out of new materials, why should we care?  What was promised was not what was delivered.  Even if they could have rebuilt from the same plans, should they have?  

[red dragin]

There was an ad this morning during Sunrise, specifically showing the ride and nothing else about the park (and flogging the one pass at the end). 

They'd better get it sorted soon. 

[Naazon]

13 minutes ago, grimoireweiss said:

The staff said it’d open at some point today, they had no time frame. Lots of irate parents. 

How many trains are running for DC and Superman?

 

Hopefully they get it running before White Christmas tonight to soak up the crowds.

 

 

Edit: Also, welcome.

Edited December 19, 2018 by Naazon
Saying hi

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

49 minutes ago, grimoireweiss said:

thank you for the snark????

That's rich coming from a person who sarcastically commented "closed today. awesome" on a ride that's in technical rehearsal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_rehearsal

Before major attractions celebrate their grand opening, they open periodically to the public during the two or three week period leading up to the grand opening. This allows the park to get team members fully trained in running the attraction with actual guests, and it also allows the park to work out any remaining kinks in the system. These unannounced, unpublished openings are often called soft openings. The catch is that there is never a schedule given to the public, and these rehearsals may last an hour, a few hours, or just a few minutes… it all depends on how much training is needed and whether or not problems develop.

*(It is a contrast that the WMBW social media team announced it was open to social media, instead of 'soft open' - so the first word you get of technical rehearsal is at the ride entrance - so boo to the park)

2 hours ago, grimoireweiss said:

Why is this forum so perpetrually mad?

Honestly - although you've only posted a couple of times, you've been a member for at least a month. I'd have thought you'd have at least a basic idea of the vibe here. If you're going to walk into the middle of a conversation and then expect everyone to change how they're conversing because you don't like it - you're gonna have a bad time.

[iwerks]

3 hours ago, grimoireweiss said:

Why is this forum so perpetrually mad?

Welcome. Yes, we’ve been wondering that for sometime too.

[pushbutton]

Some new members who are respectful would be most welcome! 

[grimoireweiss]

lol i love making internet weirdos write paragraphs 

[New display name]

Edited December 19, 2018 by Skeeta

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

18 minutes ago, grimoireweiss said:

lol i love making internet weirdos write paragraphs 

You're gonna love it here.

[xRazzBerryx]

I think the main thing they’ve got wrong about this is that the projection mapping is mostly just on square walls. This just makes them look like a screen & really tacky. Projection mapping should be projected onto objects, which then bring that object to life. 

[mssveattck]

48 minutes ago, xRazzBerryx said:

I think the main thing they’ve got wrong about this is that the projection mapping is mostly just on square walls. This just makes them look like a screen & really tacky. Projection mapping should be projected onto objects, which then bring that object to life. 

I’ve been waiting for someone to say this! I work with projection all the time and have seen just about every example of projection mapping ever - the quality of this apparent “refurb” is atrocious and I’ve seen better content created by students. It’s not even projection mapping technically speaking, because it’s not being mapped to anything. Projection is so easy to make look tacky and I think movie world have just shown that you’ll never beat the charm of a physical set. 

Edited December 19, 2018 by mssveattck

[MickeyD]

7 hours ago, pushbutton said:

That's happened every day this week, with the possibile exception of yesterday when it was apparently closed all day. 

Just not a good look, especially so close to Christmas. 

Right now the only People the Park is pissing off are Passholes that have little more to do than visit. And complain. Sorry Push but you are not their demographic.

So long as they have everything running by Boxing Day, once the Interstaters arrive..

Edited December 19, 2018 by MickeyD

[Levithian]

They gutted the majority of the ride, right back to nothing. It wasnt removed and put back, it was hauled out and recreated from scratch. Everything from basically the load station back to unload has been developed, created and installed. They even made the building bigger in a few areas to accomodate it. 

So im not sure where refurbishment comes from? 

[webslave]

2 minutes ago, Levithian said:

So im not sure where refurbishment comes from? 

From the fact that the experience for the rider only very slightly differs from prior to the stripping.

[Levithian]

Thats your experience but it has nothing at all to do with the reality that it has been replaced. 

So when talking about time and just a refurb, thats not really the case. 

You can argue about them calling it new vs similar to old all you want though. But aside from showing new added effects in the adverts, they were just calling it next generation werent they? Not brand new, everything is different? 

I thought it was just a little confusing in the add because they kinda lumped it together with aquaman which is new, made it sound like they had new rides this summer when reality is they have a new static display and an old ride is open again largely complete.

Edit: being realistic, what is the expected budget? Maybe a couple million if very lucky? Maybe 2/3 to go on actual construction. So that leaves you with a spend of maybe 600-700k on cool stuff. 

Not sure what you guys were expecting, but youd probably need a cool stuff budget in the millions itself (and not by just) to produce something near ground breaking or industry leading in just a couple of effects/sections of the ride.

That was never going to happen with the financial state village are reporting. It was never going to get a $10,000,000 make over to blow everyone socks off, no matter how big an opportunity they had to upgrade. Nobody would have ever approved that capital spend. Not when they are cutting costs everywhere and trying to remove debt. 

May have had more money spent on it if dc rivals wasnt the big committed spend before scooby doo needed rebuilding. But timing kinda sucks and the coaster was their completely mental, makes no sense, big spend for the decade. 

Edited December 19, 2018 by Levithian

[webslave]

14 minutes ago, Levithian said:

Thats your experience but it has nothing at all to do with the reality that it has been replaced. 

So when talking about time and just a refurb, thats not really the case. 

You can argue about them calling it new vs similar to old all you want though. But aside from showing new added effects in the adverts, they were just calling it next generation werent they? Not brand new, everything is different? 

What on earth are you talking about?

The ride experience is the same, albeit with a couple of minor additions (of debatable quality).  To refresh your memory:

Quote

Another attraction that will be a fan-favourite at Movie World is the all new Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster: Next Generation. The ride has been completely transformed with new and improved special effects such as projection mapping, mist and sound effects to take guests on a ride experience like never before.

Where is the "completely transformed"?

Transform, v:
X to change in composition or structure
X to change the outward form or appearance of
X to change in character or condition

Have they taken guests on a "ride experience like never before"?  No.  Are there new special effects?  Yes.  Are the special effects "improved"?  Debatable.  Is there new projection mapping?  No.  Is there improved projection mapping?  No.  Mist?  Dunno.  Sound effects?  Dunno.

To be absolutely clear here - if they told people that they were going to reinstate the ride as it was with a few enhancements I doubt you'd have anyone feeling that what was delivered wasn't what was promised.  The tagline "Next Generation" tells the customer that this will demonstrate clear advantages over what it replaces - and from most accounts it fails to do so.  I don't care that they managed to dig up some ancient plans for set pieces from well over a decade ago in homage to a film that was ultimately unmemorable - that was not the task.  The task was to create a ride experience that lived up to the marketing; a complete transformation of what had come before it with new and improved special effects such as projection mapping, mist and sound effects to take guests on a ride experience like never before.  It's not a museum piece; it's a marquee attraction in what is arguably the number one park on the Gold Coast.  The marketing will get butts into the park to try it out - the execution is what will determine whether those guests feel like they got value out of the experience, and whether they feel like the park was genuine in what it sold them.  It's in the execution that they have set themselves up for failure.

[Levithian]

As opposed to it sitting as a stripped out shell?

You are familiar with how advertising works right? Tell the truth with creative licence. 

They did everything they promised. It has been transformed. It has new technology, and whether you like them or not, the effects are improved. I think people are remembering what scooby was like in its prime, not what it was like when it closed initially to be gutted. Sets may have looked good but everything else was a mess and what effects hadnt been removed was very hit and miss. 

To get an opened, functioning ride with working effects, some of which is new technology, combined with a set that looks very similar to old is a infinitely better than the state of the ride the day it suddenly closed and was gutted. The fact it has working effects in multiple areas is a huge improvement than its ever been in the last decade. 

Its arguably the best it has ever been, even if it fell short of expectation. 

It might not be what some people want or what a lot on here were expecting, but you have to be a little realistic too. 

Edited December 19, 2018 by Levithian

[GoGoBoy]

5 hours ago, mssveattck said:

Projection is so easy to make look tacky and I think movie world have just shown that you’ll never beat the charm of a physical set. 

Well, luckily for you the ride is filled with physical sets too - obviously lovingly restored from the original plans (and with more details added).

Regarding downtime - I struggle to think of any international park that has opened a new (or newly re-worked) attraction without intermittent closures due to technical difficulties during opening weeks.

[mssveattck]

34 minutes ago, GoGoBoy said:

Well, luckily for you the ride is filled with physical sets too - obviously lovingly restored from the original plans (and with more details added)

I know that.. lol. I’m just saying there are parts of that original set that were sacrificed in favour of something that was meant to be technically stunning and wowing riders - and it’s not. Don’t get me wrong, I love the new set additions but the tech stuff is just so bad. The ‘next generation’ potential was there and we were pretty convinced they were going to execute it well. But they didn’t 🤷🏼‍♂️