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Hey all Just a short post to ask park members to get onto Dreamworld and say how much they loved seeing the "steam" loco back on the rails today. Yep thats right the steam trains was running around all day today. I asked the train crew when did she return? They told me today was the first time in 3.5 years that it has been on the rails and had some major work done to it. I also asked how often it would run? The engineer said it was a trial today to see what the feedback was like from the public. One hurdle was that he was the only one who can operate the train but asked me to go only Facebook or email dreamworld and let them know my feedback which I have done. If dreamworld read this PLEASE KEEP THE STEAMER RUNNING!!

I'm in. Let's go Dreamworld... bring back the steamers!!!

We're one step closer to them selling Motocoaster.

Hong Kong Disneyland For me, regardless of whether it is busy or not, I recommend 2 days minimum at HKDL. I've been both during Chinese New Year - pre-expansions, and in May - Post expansions. Both times were solid two days. We had plenty of time to re-ride, especially the more intense rides as the locals tend to steer away from those, but it gave us the time to enjoy ourselves without having to stick rigidly to a schedule, whilst still catching all the shows. Don't miss Festival of the Lion King, and although it isn't in English, the Golden Mickeys is something worth catching at least once - its a musical stage show, and all the songs are in english, so it's still very good. Stitch Encounter is also quite amusing. There is nothing in HKDL that I could say 'it's ok to skip that' - do them all at least once - even the smaller kids rides in Toy Story Land are enjoyable. Space Mountain remains my favourite there, but Mystic Manor runs a close second, followed by Grizzly. Make sure you get a map and tick off things as you go - you don't want to miss anything, and the park layout may lead you astray. If you're into doing the full Disney experience - make your first stop the Plaza Inn and make reservations for the Star Fireworks Dinner. The meal is an 8 course degustation of traditional chinese dishes - and it was awesome to try their culture in a setting where you could be confident the food quality was there. In addition to the dinner, their staff will then escort you to reserved seating areas in the hub, prime position for the nightly fireworks. Here's the menu: (remember, the price is HKD) Even if you get the whole park done in one day - allow two - you never know if you might need it - but don't try to rush the park. A lot of HKDL was made with the chinese tourist (photographer) in mind, so there are very picturesque spots everywhere that are beautifully landscaped in every detail, so take some time and smell the roses... (On the topic of photos, they offer a photo pass deal - one price, all day, every photographer and ride photo in the park for no additional cost, with every one available as digital download for 2 weeks. We found it was well worth it to get some really good pro shots within the park too.) Ocean Park Ocean park is well worth the trip, but is always a disaster. Worst days to go to Ocean Park are Thursday through to Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday are the best options, although near Chinese New Year, they may not be good options either. Main reason for this is "Mainlanders" from China do day trips (or long weekends) to the park and generally cause havoc. Thursday is ok, if you get out by about 3pm. As per other advice - get in the gate ASAP and go straight to cable car or train. Train runs first, but cable car is less likely to have a lineup. Do the top of the mountain first. kill EVERYTHING up the top quickly, and work your way slowly down the mountain towards the older rides. Don't miss the mine train (its very unique), as well as Hair Raiser. Dragon should be done once - especially for credit chasers - but once only (and take some panadol). I recommend Dragon to be the last thing you do on the mountain if you can help it. Many of the run-of-the-mill rides like ferris wheel can be skipped if you've done them as they're no different - but the spaceshot has a very unique view. Grab the rapids and the flume to cool off, or visit the penguins for better effect. Polar express is a kiddie coaster, but quite an enjoyable one - so try and fit it in if you can - the capacity is awesome so don't worry too much about queues. Despite being a 'marine' park - i've found the marine animal shows to be at best disappointing and at worse alarming, when compared to the care, conservation and 'natural' look of our Sea World. You're not missing much if you choose to skip the dolphin or seal shows, but do try and catch the bird show. The other animal exhibits are quite interesting - especially the goldfish (who knew there were so many) and the pandas. The grand Aquarium WILL become a crush if the Mainlanders arrive before you get to it, and since it's near the exit, it'll be the last thing you hit up before leaving. It is still 'just an aquarium' at the end of the day, so you can skip it without missing much. Most people are done with OP by late afternoon. There is a dancing fountain show in the waterfront lagoon (outside the aquarium) after dark. I haven't seen it myself, so I can't say whether it's worth hanging around several more hours, but if you do find yourself there at the right time it'd be worth a look. All i read and saw before going suggested it wasn't a 'World of Color' show... That said, since you're doing Singapore as well - you won't miss much if you find time for 'Wings of Time' - the replacement to the ever popular 'Songs of the Sea', which in my opinion was a contender worthy of comparison to World of Color. Since WoT replaced SotS less than two months later... i assume WoT is equally impressive. Singapore As mentioned by others, USS tends to be a bit heavy on the 'right' hand side. I prefer to head left and go through Madagascar and Faire Faire away first. You'll be close to Waterworld for the first show of the day when it comes, and you'll get most of the afternoon sunshine whilst doing the outdoor rides (mid-morning tropical showers are likely, which is why Madagascar and Shrek are better for the morning being mostly indoors). I'm mixed on whether the fastpass is necessary - I went in September (around the time of the Singapore Grand Prix), and whilst we did spend some time queueing, and did see some people using them, they weren't really needed (although we did split up to single rider for the JP Rapids). Pay attention to showtimes, and head for LMA early, but USS is really easily done in a day. Allow another day, if you can, to spend time on Sentosa, catch Wings of Time (as mentioned above) do the zipline, the luge, ride a bike around if that's your thing - the whole island is worthy of your time. If you still have time, another day should be spent on doing the Singapore Zoo, and the Singapore Night Zoo (the bird sanctuary thing isn't really appealing for me). Other randomness in no particular order for both HK and Singapore: Singapore Merlion. There are several - one on Sentosa and one near Marina Bay Sands, but the real one is on the opposite side of the harbour. Marina Bay Sands in Singapore is worth the trip up if you have a night free Raffles hotel - the ONLY place to try a Singapore Sling The Peak (Hong Kong) A Symphony of Lights (Hong Kong) right on the harbour - I recommend the Kowloon side so you're facing HK Island - English narration is available Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Out of time to write this now... PHEW! if I think of more i'll come back and add later... In short you'll never be short of something to do in either place. Enjoy!

I'll definitely give Mark that. Engaging with the brand loyalists (us) has earned him and the park a lot of respect in my eyes and would urge the other parks to follow suit in the coming year as they continue to open new attractions. I think this whole idea of needing utmost secrecy is well and truly dead, especially when almost no-one else internationally does it anymore to the level our gold coast parks do and I would even dare say the concept of utter "Apple-esque" hush-hush works to their detriment. Take today's steam train trial at Dreamworld - no-one except for the clued in few and the extraordinarily lucky knew this was going to happen, and given it was a trial today for the park to see if it's worthwhile bringing it back more often, simply engaging their most hardcore fans to drum up hype in advance would've made all the difference. Taking Mark as a case scenario here, he's effectively taken a group of customers who have an uncanny eye for detail and an unparalleled amount of industry knowledge (for the most part, anyway) and has been able to fine-tune common gripes and potential issues far more efficiently and we in turn have felt actually acknowledged and valued which in turn makes us more passionate about spreading the love for the park and more inclined to help in the future. Welcome to marketing 101 in the 21st century, folks. And that's not to say the parks don't read this or our feedback either, most do, but I think it's another to sign up for an account and go "hey, we appreciate our most avid fans, and you guys love picking apart crazy details like how to hide Superman in the station, how do you think we should tackle x?" Or "What do you think of the burgers at the new motorsports experience?" You know what would be even crazier? For them to actually make sneak peaks and content just for the fans, or even create alternate reality games that we can pour hours into figuring out what the next big thing will be. The crazy thing is that it's totally anything but. Everyone else has been doing this for years, with everyone from Alton Towers to Six Flags and even smaller players like Dollywood doing the very thing i'm referring to. TLDR: we don't bite, we just seem to bicker. It's the internet, trolls exist; it's all good.

never know Yoshi it could be where the Entertainment Precint or the Lakeside Precint

Probably just a replacement/fresh coat of paint. Despite there being a building behind it that could have a coaster inside, I doubt they'd use that since it's used for staff, etc. I'm still sticking with the coaster going in western area.

work is happening near Ricks Cafe, could the ride go here?

We follow the parks very closely. We pay attention to every sneeze and sign. Of course we know HWSW and Cyclone are the same ride. But when Joe public reads in the paper that dreamworld has an all new roller coaster called "HWSW" he's just going to take it at that value, and take the family to the park. Of course, once they realise they are the same, they're already in the park, so they'll enjoy their day, and probably won't complain either.... therefore - the marketing works.

^ haha, that whole thing sounds dodgy as. Wonder what the real motive is?

For those discussing the outside appearance of the new sound stage. As I said ages ago it will look the same as the others as you can see here from the external cladding starting to be installed.