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Interesting. A few hundred words and it's not written by @AlexB Can someone cliff note that for me please?

Did they update the Peppers Ghost? Or is it still 144p?

Hey parks crew, long time forum browser, first time posting. Couldn't pass up the opportunity to share a little about getting to try out the VR on Arkham Assylum this afternoon. Saw @themagician had posted about VR testing this morning so decided to head to the park. Queued for Arkham at about 3:30 and noticed a few MW team riding with VR, decided to ask if we could try it out and we're initially told it would be completely random and couldn't be guaranteed but after queuing for a second time and asking a different team member if we could wait, he happily put us to the side and grabbed us some VR headsets for the next train. This was my very first time using VR and i was completely blown away by how immersive the experience is, it takes a little minute to adjust and can be slightly off putting for a moment but is quite easy to adjust to. The headsets are really comfortable with an adjustable knob at the back and just a simple drawstring under the chin like on a straw hat, didn't have any issues feeling like the headset was going to fall off. As for the ride itself, I won't spoil details unprovoked, but i was completely blown away. The VR experience totally transformed the entire ride, it was light years more intense than the regular ride, I have never EVER screamed on that ride like i did today. There was only one portion of the ride that to me was easily recognisable, i didn't even notice the intense leg crushing restraints at the end of the ride. Overall I would definitely rate this adaptation to the Arkham. We couldn't thank the staff enough for letting us test and they had us fill out some feedback forms afterwards. We were also told that it was looking like it will be $5 per ride, I was happy to hear that. I'd been sceptical on the pay per ride scheme but after riding today i will without a doubt be riding again and will be more than happy to be paying $5.

VR is testing and it is a case of luck of the draw if you get to experience it (people are chosen at random). I will say it does fit the theme of the ride really well and better than what Six Flags have on The New Revolution. Didn't notice any real difference in load times for the ride and the headset setup here is more comfortable than what I experienced on New Rev. It is definitely something I am looking forward to doing again.

Time to invest in a drone @Theme Park Girl.

He's become quite the celeb GM, huh.

I'd just like to say from my trip to the park this morning, the staff were very efficient with the loading and off loading of GL and SE. They were very quick, didn't mess around, and didn't have trains waiting in the station too long before they unloaded/loaded it again.

The TNT are static sticks that have been placed throughout the ride. Does it live up to the standard I was hoping for? Yeah it does actually. Given I'm a fairly pessimistic person I was ready for it to open identical to how it was, so to see so many things pluses was a pure delight. I don't want to oversell it because if someone told me it was amazing before I went on I'd have been a bit disappointed, but as a theme park fan I'm very happy with what they've done. WWF is genuinely one of my favourite rides in th park, I made the comment in another thread that if the park opened with WWF it would have had a significantly more successful first few years. So to see that ride looking it's best again is so pleasing to me, I would have stayed to ride again (something I never do these days) had the line not blown out. Could they have done more? Here's the thing; what they did was go through and plus the entire ride, the whole ride looks great; ghost town has animal bones in it, there are hand painted signs everywhere, again the train bridge looks great, the insides have been relit and look great, the last room has had some extra props added to it so it's not so bare now. If it were my project, I would have blown the entire budget in the last room. So while they could have done more in the last room, the improvements to the whole ride more than make up for it.

Given the Games are clearly the reason for the sudden large investments in the theme parks, here's my thoughts: Firstly, remember that the Gold Coast is well known for it's theme parks - they are a icon. Secondly, therefore, internationally the parks will get a lot of media coverage so the 1st thing all parks are going to do is refurbish - they want to look good for international media and visitors during the Games. As we can see, all the parks are doing this as we speak. International visitors & media users, when they think of theme parks, expect hypercoasters, gigacoasters, stratacoasters etc, which none of these theme parks currently have. The closest in standard is Superman Escape, which doesn't qualify as a hypercoaster at a minimum, but is renowned as one of the best rollercoasters worldwide due to it's theming, flow and smoothness. Australian theme parks constantly tell us they can't build bigger rollercoasters due to it's costs and the size of the surrounding populations but if a reputation is at stake worldwide that the Gold Coast is Australia's 'theme park hub' then 1 hypercoaster at a minimum needs to be built. MW & DW were the 2 likeliest parks to have this built. I do recall someone saying that MW & DW have shared their plans in regards to pre-Games investments so given the enormous cost of a hypercoaster, I'll guess that they agreed that MW would build it (maybe they can handle the financial risks better?). Dreamworld may have taken a different strategy. The Games won't see an increase in international tourism until the Games themselves and after a short interval, again after the Games - though some people argue these post-Games tourism boosts never eventuate. In my opinion, they do occur but not on the scale people imagine it to be. So the biggest new investments don't need to be opened until Boxing Day 2017 at the earliest - as we know, MW's new rollercoaster is rumoured to be opening then. The biggest investments I'd expect will open in 2018, 2019 and late 2017 with major refurbishments occurring up to mid/late 2017. Remember, in my initial post I said it gave me reason there will be a new DW rollercoaster no earlier than April 2018 - they said "at this stage" after all so they may have plans (which theme park wouldn't?) but for it to open after the Games in 2019/late-2018 or even later (but no later than 2022 like I said in my previous post). The theme parks would obviously focus on improving all their theming as well as more focusing on their main themes (Australiana, water thrills, movies & the sea). Given that an increase in international visitation is highly expected to be a result of the Games, DW may focus on delivering more Australian experiences (e.g. Brock's Garage, Corroboree etc.) rather than thrills which MW can do as they are more flexible in this regard due to the movie theme they have (they are not limited to Australian movies). DW does have international things in their park (e.g. Tiger Island, Dreamworks Experience, Hotwheels Sidewinder etc.) but most of their park is still themed to Australia & international visitors to the Gold Coast would expect Australian experiences at DW rather than just general thrills that they know they can experience back home anyway. And when I mean 'experiences', I also mean Australian theming in rides. So in short, due to the Games & as a result of their respective themes, I'm expecting DW to more focus on the theming rather than thrill level of new rides while MW will focus on both thrill level & theming. Both parks will also ensure they cater for all audiences. Lastly, all of this requires significant investment so they would need to save financial resources to do it. A lack of new developments anytime post-2011 (when Gold Coast won the Games hosting rights) should have been expected so massive developments can occur to open around April 2018. If they did have plans, I'm sure they would have been tight-lipped and/or cryptic instead of just giving a direct answer implying no. Regarding the latter sentence, if you constantly e-mail them or they figure out you are a theme park enthusiast, they will not answer queries about future investments as openly as they would with a non-theme park enthusiast as they know that with a theme park enthusiast, the information will very likely end up being posted on places like Parkz. That's why I don't ask on social media, I wait until a non-theme park enthusiast does - a more open response is likely to be delivered then. I have noticed that, where possible, the social media teams of the Gold Coast theme parks give acknowledgement if management has not told them something or they can't confirm something. @Ryande16, in my opinion, a person's opinion of a theme park should best be determined by the parks' use of theming. An amusement park should best be determined on how well it amuses you. For example, look at Superman Escape - in an amusement park, it would just be a rollercoaster - leave the station, turns some corners, pause, launch, up hills, down drops, hit the brakes, arrive at station & laugh at your ride-on photo - but in a theme park, it is an experience - waiting for a subway train where a earthquake occurs with the only way out being the subway itself and just before the subway caves in, Superman saves the day. Superman Escape without any theming would do it's job at an amusement park - you get G-forces, acceleration, speed, heights etc. - but not at a theme park, the ride would be really generic. Add all the theming that you get with Superman Escape & you can see the difference it makes so it is credited as one of the world's best theme park rollercoasters - that is definitely doing it's job at a theme park. Really, the least thrilling rides can be made into a thrill by converting it into an themed experience. My favourite ride was Bermuda Triangle - not because of the ride design/type but because of the theming. When I think about Bermuda, for most of the ride, it is just people sitting in a boat - that's what you expect at an amusement park - but in Bermuda, they added roof cave-ins, dramatic music, lasers, fire/water/special effects, cinematic experiences, roaming characters etc. - it is an experience. That's what makes a great theme park ride. The ultimate example is the walk-through: At an amusement park, walking down a path could be just that but add a theme to that walking path and you got a whole new and different experience. By the way, the best way to rank theme parks is a highly argued matter on Parkz so don't worry about it much (some people may disagree with my opinion too). Your opinion might be great for amusement parks but theme parks are a whole different ball park. In the end, it is your opinion.

Ahhhh the age old Movie World vs Dreamworld argument. Look, i've worked at both parks now, and they both possess some great pros and cons on both sides of the highway. Looking at it as a purely family experience, Dreamworld has this unique proposition where you can go do a lot of great fun things as a family within walking distance. Tigers, solid kids areas, decent food, waterpark etc. etc. etc. All in a nice contained experience. Where Dreamworld goes awry is their finesse - i'm not sure if it's that Macquarie Leisure Trust methodology of treating the operation as a bank creeping in, but you only have to look at the queue lines for rides like Tower of Terror and Giant Drop to understand that some of the experiences become undone very quickly at a lack of care in some key areas, specifically showmanship for sure. And instead of looking after things and constantly improving, bean counters in the last decade have stripped the park, trains, boats, mine rides and all the characteristics that make us so nostalgic for what was. The good news is they're working on bringing that all back - Tiger Island looks incredible, i'm sure Lego will be great, and all the improvements they're doing add up, but is it enough? Is it stalling for time and keeping shareholders happy while they find someone who wants to buy it? I'm not sure. It's clear they're very interested in Main Events in the US, and that's become priority one, and unfortunately unlike Main Events the theme park industry is a long term investment game and without adequate consideration for this hard fact the capital needed to ensure guest expectations and experiences are met suffers. When you look ahead at Oxenford, they're not just working hard, they're steaming ahead at great pace and closing any and all gaps the competition has on not only Movie World, but VRTP as a whole. Totally from a personal perspective, but in the next year or two, if Movie World improved WB Kids and developed it into a much larger, immersive experience with a few new attractions, VRTP's combined offering from all their parks will have Ardent completely licked. What i'd like to see then is a Dreamworld that responds instead of a Dreamworld that's happy playing second fiddle, because if they keep the blinkers on for too much longer and pretend they can respond to perfect market conditions and a competitor that's burning money by dabbling in non-major experiences (referring to Lego) i'd dare say that's what will happen. VRTP are investing some serious dollars on building new things and improving on what's already there, and I don't see Ardent doing the same, and that actually makes me a little sad, because it's a small enough town with how few parks we have without one giving up and being comfortable that their signature roller-coaster is a Sydney hand me down, and that their signature thrill ride that they still use on the billboards to this day is a ride that's coming up next month on 18 years old. EIGHTEEN. Giant Drop will be 18 next month. If that doesn't say "we need a new big ride asap" i don't know what does.

Here's a quick vid from today. You can also see about 45 seconds into the video people were being told not to take photos of the incomplete area/over the fence as they don't want to have it seen before it's ready. I'd read that as the same way Disney doesn't want their back of house seen - DC might not be too happy if an incomplete area was visible and there was construction rubbish or something that made the area look unclean.

Do I like your review? I'm..... I don't actually mind it, I just wanted to make the joke.

Its a cool little sequence for those who haven't looked more closely....you hear a gunshot, the dodge city population sign has a small bit that falls off, so the population drops by one, and then a tombstone rises up in response.

If I didn't know that was real, I would've thought it was photoshopped.

Down at the beach this morning.

A lot of shops at shopping centres have the same no photos in store rule... It is to prevent people from taking photos of merchandise and making their own version of it...

There's actually no ETA. At the ride entrance right now with staff. It could be literally any time ?

Again, stop basing the parks off the quality of rides. Sure, it's a big factor but it's not the only one. DW has experiences that MW doesn't offer and if you would want to compare family experiences you'll find DW is much further ahead.

Pretty sure they didn't know, also, they didn't keep their mouths shut, they said that it is definitely not a maze but could a bar. No beef tho idc.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, really odd choice by MW, but I'll take it. Funny seeing how you guys were saying it was 100% confirmed not a maze though.

It's not exactly like DW have been sitting on their hands. they have invested serious capital on new/refreshed F&B outlets across the park, the Brock Museum, new TI, Lego shop. Whilst these may not be thrill rides or coasters, they are offerings that engage and please their core market - families, and also experiences that make DW a more complete full day park.

So long as no one broke any rules, did anything stupid or pestered any staff then I don't see the harm in sharing photos of anything and everything. That's pretty much the Parkz policy. I think it all looks really great and any publicity by way of photos on Parkz is only going to help build hype at this point.

Wow! The mountain looks incredibly clean. I still would've liked a coat of paint to make it look more realistic but it definitely looks a lot better. Great to see Boot Hill isn't gone forever. Fantastic photos as usual @Theme Park Girl

well to be fair they have painted the walls yellow when they were originally white and plus I had photos of the actual construction site which no one has posted yet which you didn't address in your post

I wish I could say that's not surprising