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Part 1 of what I was going to try to make a short review, but I guess its length just proves how jam-packed and amazing the day was. The first half of what's below you probably already know if you've already been on the tour or have read one of the fantastic reviews on these forums already, but the content in last few paragraphs you probably won't have seen.

They know a lot more than you'd think and a lot more than they'd reveal. Wouldn't you enjoy making up some story and seeing how far someone would spread it?

Well, it is a speaker "box"

I dunno, man. I don't see how they could get faster than 8 every 30 mins. To me 3.75mins per cycle is pretty good especially when you take VR into consideration. Got any suggestions? Let's just say that without actually working with rides ourselves, we will not fully understand why certain things work on some rides and not on others.

What are you all gonna do if it ends up being neither a Launch or a Hyper?

So just saw this on DW facebook page... Po's Kung Fu crew coming right at you! Rumour has it that spirit of the Furious 5 flows through this fountain and all who pose with it are gifted secret kung-fu moves @eelizuli's crew defintely were! So from this post their social media department are actively encouraging people to do this... Hope their legal liability insurance is up to date for when the first person falls and injures themselves and tries to sue... Personally if you are silly enough to do this and hurt yourself well you're an idiot... But DW should also not be actively encouraging this...

I'll just leave this here for anyone who missed it last night... ? ETA: me tooooo ?

Second part of the tour was definitely not as fantastic as the first, but while it didn't fully appeal to me if definitely did appeal to some of the others in the group.

My 2c on Arkham VR: What an experience. The star tour guides had organised for us to get free VR on the presentation of our badge, so I got to experience it twice. It blew me away completely, definitely the craziest and most intense experience I’ve ever had on a rollercoaster. If you’re at the park and haven’t experienced it - spend the $5 to get the headset. You will not regret it and you are really missing out not getting it. It’s a completely different experience to the non-VR version and might even make you scream, even if you aren’t a big screamer (as our Star Tour guide told us from his experiences). The storyline is great and the visuals are incredibly realistic - it’s a bit like dreaming - you know it’s not real but it feels so real and you just forget the outside world. A lot better than what I’ve seen of the Six Flags VR. You dodge many of Batman’s famous villains (meeting the Joker face to face is truly terrifying), and get a visit from Batman at the end who deals with the Joker. The intensity is unbelievable, even after riding it plenty of times before you do not feel like you're on a rollercoaster at all. The wind on your feet going up the lift hill is the only thing to remind you of the outside world, and even that feels as if it's part of the VR when you're going through Mr Freeze's cell. Cons - well I’m sure you know what I’m going to say, so I’ll start with the less-obvious con. That is - what Theme Park Girl said, the VR feels quite loose around the inline twist and the first time I was afraid it was going to come off (I don’t think it actually would, it’s quite secure). The second is that the roughness of the coaster does make the VR a bit shaky. Now on to the big one that everyone was expecting - efficiency. It’s been destroyed, even with a few people using VR on each train. It takes substantially longer to get all the VR set-up and calibrated, even with staff telling you what to do before boarding. It was pretty poor efficiency before, and now it’s even worse. If the queue is past the second switchback on the ramp, don’t bother riding as it’s probably going to be over an hour before you even get on. Let me put this more into context - at a time yesterday when Scooby had about a 10-minute queue and Superman was virtually a walk-on, Arkham still had a 45 minute or longer queue. I timed some of the dispatches and one of them (a particularly bad one) was about 10 minutes. Hopefully it’ll get better once the staff are more used to it. So yeah, go down to Movie World and give it a try, it’s an incredible experience. Everyone who came off all had this look on their face of 'wtf just happened, that was so amazing'. Side note - the new theming and TV screens that have popped up are fantastic, and the storyline is incredibly clear now. Did the hanging guard always twitch like he does now?

Just a quick trip report from this morning. Headed to AW around 9am this morning with new season passes in hand. First and only problem of the day was that the member's car park was still locked. Headed to the new general car park and was handed a member's card/sticker to be displayed in the car by a helpful team member. The car park looks pretty good, although it doesn't appear that the lights have been hooked up yet. Walked all the way around the front to the new member's entry gate. It looks pretty good, with a queue area that funnels you into the park. Passed the new cabanas in Dragon's Kingdom. Rail Rider has had a bit of paint work done. The new lockers have been finished off nicely. This leaves the new grass area more open and free from the lockers and showbags' stall. The old lake grass area is such an improvement. I really appreciated how the castle island peddle boat station has been left in place, including an instructional sign and turnstile. Most people won't notice that Bounty's Revenge was ever there at the front of the park. The boat now resides between the Grand Prix and Kraken. It looks good - a fitting tribute. Buccaneer Battle has a new sign and some cartoony trees. The Grand Prix now has blue, yellow and black karts. Going up the hill, Inferno appears to be a much improved version of Freefall. There are intermittent smoke fx, appropriately sinister music and new theming, although there's currently no cover to the queue area. Whilst it would have been cool to give the ride a new paint job, the colours aren't far off what you would ideally like anyway. The ride program remains the same at three shots and one drop. Abyss was testing early on, with the trains stopping on the mid-run brake. I saw a large group of Japanese people who were quite excited when the ride was being put through its paces. The area underneath the ride was looking a little overgrown again. Funniest commentary of the day has to come from the genius Black Widow ride operator who said that there have been no fatalities this season on the ride. It was about 12 degrees Celsius when I arrived at the park and there weren't a lot of people swimming. Water Mountain looks great, with western themed music and clever uses of timber. They've stripped back the paint of the hut and it now looks like it did in the earliest days of the park. The train and water jets on the Rocky Mountain Rapids were an excellent addition. Around the back of the park, the junkyard appears to have been pushed further behind the wildlife area, with a greenhouse and plants taking its place. There's lots of smoke pouring out of the top of the Kahuna Falls volcano, but it didn't seem to be synced with the bucket pouring. I really liked the redesign of the Kahuna Cafe. It makes a lot more sense now. The same could be said for the rest of the park - a bit of thought has been placed into so many things. It was awesome to find all of these little 'Easter eggs'. Food-wise, the cafe really hits the spot. So many healthy choices and good quality coffee. Had a breakfast muffin early on and Mark's favourite Chicken Caesar Salad for lunch. A lot of the staff appear to be learning, but everyone was friendly and welcoming. Saw Mark and Ross a couple of times too.

Hopefully Janine has a video of a better angle to share, but you get the idea. (sorry this stupid tag won't budge lol-->) @JaggedJanine

I must be really drunk sitting here. I can't see any video on this page of DD running. Ok I just went way back to the last page to find it.

I knew you weren't complaining Nikki

Wasn't so much a complaint on my part about the load times, it's just that when there's technical difficulties with the VR, it can slow things down a bit. Especially when dealing with first time VR riders who don't quite get the calibration process for whatever reason, and need to be walked and talked through it. Pretty sure that's what happened with my last VR ride, but then again, it's not like I could see exactly what was going on whilst I had the headset on I know the staff there work to the best of their ability.

Yeah, I added a video of it a couple of posts back.

We should all make a post about what we think it will actually be and see who is right once it is announced.

Had a little chittychat with a few 'Inmates' today on Arkham. I said that the VR didn't seem to be affecting load times at all and they said they were trailing a few different procedures to find something that meant they didn't drop in dispatch times. Which is usually 6-8 every 30mins. Apparently one of the guys working there today came up with an easier procedure that seemed to be working really well. I did VR for the first time today and tbh.. thought it was running just slightly faster than it did without the added VR. So all of you that have complained about load times can now chill.

Yep! All of Dreamworld's rides that require you to 'secure all loose articles' have some sort of pigeon hole/storage box/storage container, that you can chuck your stuff in. Obviously it's not as secure as a safe. I have never had anything stolen.

This is why I haven't posted my photos. Only one I have that's slightly different is this one as it's got a worker doing some final touches to Ivy in the corner (wasn't initially my intention to get him in the shot so that's why he's only half-visible), although the sunlight absolutely destroys the upper half.

Perfect, thank you for that. I missed that video originally -- I was thinking it was just a repeat of the opening/launch show (which I had seen through Movie World's Facebook Live), but you gave a great tour of the whole area. I noticed there was smoke rising from a grate next to Destroyer... was this just for the launch night only or does it run during the day? It's a nice effect as it gives the area that New Yorkey feel.

Says the girl who's at the park almost daily and still posts plenty of photos.

Lol that would be kinda funny.

You jump on the spot and it causes an earthquake which breaks things. I included footage of it in my video from last night up there ^ ? It's around the 11 minute mark.

Whilst they are now more modern, unfortunately the update to the toilets hasn't changed the fact that some people are slobs. Went in there a couple of days ago and there was water and toilet paper all over the floor. Such a shame ??

Totally agree... However my 4 yo son absolutely loves destroying that car over and over Im liking Captain Cold... More just for solving the puzzle right when someone is taking a photo at the back of the truck... Appearance wise though has to be between Poison Ivy and Scarecrow...

Not sure how many people are getting to try Killer Croc or Captain Cold today... Pretty sure @Theme Park Girl and I are having too much fun getting people with the effects as they pass by ?

One thing that made me laugh was the positioning of the speakers on the female JL animatronics... ahahaha.

The on-ride video system. It's also on Batwing.

You have to pay for Doomsdays Fast Video. Its $30 and a link gets sent to your email like Fast Photo. Also $30 per video. There are 4 wristbands to choose from. Joker, Harley, Bizarro and Doomsday.

Haha, same with me on my second round, although it was a bit shorter for me.

But why not place those lights and internal / external theming on another type of slide?

Love the look of this area....Plenty of opportunities for slides to fit the theme...A giant gold pan themed bullet bowl slide, mineshaft drop trap door slides, enclosed slides themed to rattlesnakes. And of course, plenty of options for dry rides and coaster that fit this theme. ... PS, are AW gonna buy the masters across the road once it shuts and turn it into an indoor section

Yeah, I have to confess that whilst my first VR ride was quick dispatch, the second time round was very slow. I was a single rider in the back row and had no issues putting my headset on and calibrated, but must have sat there in the 'treatment room' for at least a good 5 minutes, wondering what was going on outside in the real world? Eventually a staff member came up my way, and I was informed there were 'technical difficulties' with other riders' headsets which were causing the delay. It is still early days, however. I'm sure as time goes on, efficiency will become better and better and they will iron the initial problems out ?? One other thing I noticed second time round, but not first, is the ride audio playing from the train speakers. But it wasnt until the very end when batman showed up, as we were pulling into the loading dock. They may need to consider cranking it up just a little bit? ?

It'll take multiple rides to spot all the easter eggs...There's literally about 20 or so warning notices on the last lift hill, for example one with an order "that all whiskey consumed must be purchased from Rio Bravo outfitters" for example.

So I had a look at Theme Park Girl's Facebook live video from the launch of Super Villains Unleashed and I have to say I am beyond impressed. The precinct looks particularly amazing at night with all of the facade windows lit up and just a great general atmosphere. While the area is quite small, I think in terms of concept, theming and particularly interactive elements, it is one of the more impressive theme park precincts I have ever seen. While somewhere like the Harry Potter zone at IOA has clearly set a benchmark for this type of experience, I would say that this area certainly rivals it in terms of the interactivity, creativity and functionality of the various elements. I reckon kids are going to go absolutely nuts for this area. Huge congrats to Village Roadshow and the bosses and team at Movie world!

Not trying to hate or anything, but why the hell would you get another tornado? As if funnel web isn't a good enough tornado for even a major park. Seems kinda retarded, why not do a triple bowl slide instead of a triple tornado. Is it jealousy of kraken pulling in all the records?

Wow, what a day. Absolutely worth the price, if not three times it. Review to come soon (maybe tomorrow I'm dead tired) but I need to thank Greg and the team at movie world, most importantly our guides (Matthew and I'm forgetting the other guy's name, jc help me out here ). Thanks as well to the rest of the group, although probably only two of you will see this (@jcgoldcoast). Every part of the tour was absolutely fantastic, there were a few things I don't think the past guys did which was awesome, Doomsday and the new area is amazing, and VR on Arkham blew me away, more to come on all that.

And who don't work a normal 9 to 5 during the week

After another day in Atlanta I took the drive about 3.5 north into Tennessee, through Knoxville and up into Pigeon Forge for Dollywood http://www.parkz.com.au/parks/US/Pigeon_Forge/Dollywood Theres heaps of photos beyond that link. Dont forget you can also search for specific phrases like "dollywood food" etc for specific photo filtering. This is the sort of park that speaks to me, it is a high quality park with a pleasant natural setting, good thrills, good theming and good secondary attractions (Much like places such as Alton Towers, Busch Gardens Williamsburg etc) It's basically mostly an old time 1880s theme, with lots of craftsman displays and old buildings, as you'd see in a historical park like sovereign hill, but there is a 50s themed area and a country fair zone at the bottom of the park too. Quite hilly and leafy, with lots of modern rides mixed in too. In the lead up to my trip their newest coaster, Lighting Rod had been having persistent reliability issues, with many enthusiasts who planned trips being spited by the ride and missing out. I’d resigned myself to the ride being closed, but looked at the upside of it being a good park with or without the ride, and one that had been on my hit list probably since they built Thunderhead. The ride had been closed for close to a month in the lead up to the start of my trip. However, upon checking the website on the morning of the drive it had gone into technical rehearsal again! OMG please don’t break, please don’t break! So things were looking up! The park has a great deal where if you have a one day ticket, you use it from 4pm on the day prior. I got there around 5pm and was able to stick around till 10pm. A thunderstorm had just blown through so most rides were shut, including lightning rod. But they had staff on, and were allowing guests to wait in the bottom of the queue. I stuck around for about 15 mins before deciding to seek alternative activities, starting with some food. First thing I tried were tater twists...Basically natural cut curly fries. They were ok, maybe could have had a bit more crunch. Continuing further up into the park I stopped off at the Grist Mill for some cinnamon bread. It basically tastes like the best churro ever...Fresh bread so a bit of stretch and very soft, the outside was crusty and covered in cinnamon and sugar. Very rich but very nice. I finished maybe 1/3 of it, so it’s better to share. Turns out Blazing Fury operates in all weather (well, it is indoors) so that was my first ride. Basically you leave a fire station themed loading area, and it’s a powered coaster at the start, going uphill at a steady speed through dark ride scenes of a burning mountain village (With the typical fire effects where they have sheer cloth with lights and air being blown in the windows) There’s the odd bit of amusing hillbilly dialogue (“put your damn pants back on Chester” etc). Towards the end there are three big dips, including one where the bottom falls out of a covered bridge, and another where a “train” is coming towards you at a crossing. It is an older ride, so I’m not allowed to be too harsh, but this really does seem like something the park could/should be plussing to bring up to the standard of the rest of the park. Basically, the burning village part was just way too quiet, apart from the occasional bit of dialogue so you’re riding in silence so there’s no atmosphere. Where’s the burning/crackling fire sounds? Dramatic music? Fire wagon sirens? Some of the scenics seemed a bit half hearted, e.g. the “train” you collide with is a single spotlight shined at you, with no train body. They should look at relaunching this with some better SFX (e.g. fire projection mapping, smoke, heat etc....maybe even pyro if the building is suitable for it?) Basically, it’s a cool concept for a theme, but misses the mark a bit. Just further up is Tennessee Tornado, an Arrow looper, which was the last one they ever built, so the track is different, and the supports look like what S&S build. It was just re-opening as I got up there. It was good, ran pretty smoothly and made good use of the terrain, with a lot of the ride back from the main park. The queue building is a big wooden structure with random bits of olden paraphernalia smashed into/ through the walls. Does the job. The lift hill runs up a hillside, and a u turn leads into a steep straight drop that goes through a tunnel through the hillside. When you reach the bottom there’s a large loop, which has had the entrance and exit stretched quite far apart (much more and you could probably call it a corkscrew) From there, it’s an overbanked turn, a loop, then a sidewinder (imagine the last bit of cyclone in reverse) You rise up into a high banked turn, and then hit the brakes. It’s a fairly short ride, but lots of action and does the job well. If only Arrow had started building better engineered coasters a few years earlier, the company might have survived a bit longer. Night and day in terms of quality between this (1999) and say Big Dipper/Cyclone/Hot Wheels (Originally 1995) Next up I hit Wild Eagle, a B&M wing rider built on a hillside. Like a lot of Dollywoods coasters, it’s in a bugger of a location to get photos, which is great for creating surprise, but a bugger for the photographer. This was another reason to be happy with Dollywood had Lighting Rod not opened....I love wing riders, and Gatekeeper is one of my favourites. The theme is a bit looser, but the ride is very attractive, with an elaborate contemporary mountain building as the station, with detailed stonework at cut metal screens etc. There’s also an enormous eagle sculpture built of stainless and corten steel. Herschend is a Christian company, so there are a couple of bible verses on plaques in the queue too. The trains are of course themed like eagles in a sort of avian version of the human centipede. From the station you make a turn and head up the lift hill to the top of the mountain, part of which has to cut through the hillside. It’s great they have used the terrain, but unfortunately they’ve had to strip the mountain bare a bit to allow construction, and it hasn’t revegetated. I’d love to see some fast growing trees and plants on the hillside to get it back to how it was / to match the surrounding countryside. The first drop is straight, followed by a fun loop, and a zero g roll which generates all sorts of strange feelings due to hanging off the sides so far. There’s an immellman, but the best part IMO was the corkscrew, which came very close to some tree branches. The ride finishes off with a floater hill and a figure 8 helix. It’s a solid, and very enjoyable ride. I reckon every park should have an “enjoyable” thrill coaster like this (or a flyer or something) in conjunction with your extreme forceful rides (Like your RMCs, Intamins, Mack loopers etc) The only faults I could find were the aforementioned lack of trees, and the fact that the vest tightening cylinder seemed a bit overactive in its calibration, so it was pulling very tight on your collarbones by the end of the ride and stacked on the brake run. I also would have liked to have seen the trademark wing coaster “inline twist through obstacles” on this ride (maybe could have been in the middle of the figure 8)...Would have been cool to fly between two trees or something. The next ride up was the excellent FireChaser Express. Now while Disney probably wouldn't build a ride like this with standard track and exposed supports, the rest of the ride felt quite Disney to me in feel. You head into a wilderness fire station with lovely ornate Timber detailing and plenty of other fire fighting theming like hoses, smoky bear posters, an old fire truck etc. Checking the train is quick and you are on your way, launching out of the station around a few turns, before joining the lift hill and getting up quite high. You a few back to back turns in the air (one of which is unbanked, wild mouse style) A drop leads into a few more hills with a moderate amount of airtime (it is a family coaster after all) before you head back around through a fireworks testing range with random fireworks stuck in targets at odd angles. Eventually you reach a dead end in a sketchy looking "gas/propane station" which sells fireworks (a surprisingly common sight in some southern US states actually!) The place is burning, you feel the heat, and the flames spread along to the pride of the store, a huge "big Bertha" firework, which tips over and points towards the train. With sparks and smoke the cracker goes off and you are launched backwards through a shroud of smoke, and a few more turns and hills to around to the front of the station. A track switch allows the train to move onto the intital lauch track to reverse into the station (so you get the realism of driving out of, and backing back into the station)... didn't seem to harm capacity, because the trains seem easy to check quickly. Basically as a family coaster its difficult to fault. Of course you could always add more theming along the main track to make it feel less like an exposed coaster, but that would be unnecessary....its a great ride...more parks need high quality family coasters like this, beyond your standard rollerskaters. The one thing I think they should do is open up the old elevated ropes course starting platform....its there, and would make a great observation deck for the ride, and the top of the park in general. Checking the wait time app, Lightning Rod still wasn’t open, so i continued around the main loop of the park to Mystery mine. This is an indoor/outdoor/indoor/outdoor eurofighter with a spooky mine theme. The station seems set up for huge crowds, with about 4 load points from memory (So maybe a bit longer than GLs station) This is one of the older eurofighters. The older ones basically are like wild mouses with loops and odd turns, while the newer ones are basically scaled down versions of full sized looping coasters, so this had a very different feel to dare devil dive from a couple of days earlier. From the station its a small steep drop into the mine, with an odd outward banked turn past some equipment. A few more turns in the dark and theres another drop under a rock crusher. You are brought around to the base of a mine shaft, where some untrustworthy crows sit on one of the levers and send you up a 90 degree lift. When you get to the top I was semi expecting a beyond vertical drop, but it’s just a small dip and turn, and a couple of humps as you go through a wooden bridge structure. On the other side the wild mouse feels continue, with what i called in my head a “skateboard u turn” and a couple of tiny helices. The big 8 person car takes these quite slowly. You then cross back over the bridge with a couple of weird mini Stengel dive type thingys and re enter the mine. From there the music becomes dramatic as you are hauled up another 90 degree lift. There appeared there should have been a projection at the top, but all there was, was a blue screen. At the top theres a ledge with boxes of explosives. As you can predict it all goes up in flames right in front of you, with heat on your forehead, you start to drop, but rather than going straight down into it, it’s like the one on Takabisha with a short 45 degree section with mag brakes, but then you finally drop and at the bottom emerge from the building. For the end of the ride you go all green lantern, with a fast barrel roll, and a dive loop before you hit the brakes. Overall, quite good. I found the back seats smoother than the front, and you get thrown around a bit in the outside seats. Euro fighters are definitely more comfortable with lap bars! It’s a strange one, with lots of time at low speed doing odd manoeuvres, and only really is fast for a few seconds right at the end where the drop and inversions are. They need that projector working too, was broken both days I was there. Heading back down hill was Thunderhead, the parks GCI with an utterly confusing layout that looks like it was designed by a drunk. It’s a typical GCI, so fast pacing and nonstop turning, and deafeningly loud, but for this reason they all feel quite similar once you’ve done a few. They’re also best ridden in their first or 2nd season, beyond that they settle into a certain level of roughness that never seems to be shaken despite the efforts of the various parks maintenance crews. So solid, and I did about 2 or 3 laps during my total stay. Passing back around to the front of the park Lighting Rod was still not up, so it must’ve broken down during the rain. So I ambled back up the hill to do some more rides on Wild Eagle and Firechaser Express. Heading back downhill I paused to take this photo, but saw a train run, so instantaneously stopped what I was doing and headed for the entrance of Lightning Rod, the worlds fastest woodie, and the only one with a launch. This is the world’s best coaster. I mean that. It gets everything perfect. The initial 30 minute queue wound through a glass garage door fronted mechanics workshop, with a hot rod on a hoist, before heading out back into a four storey factory built of brick. The queue loops up and back along each floor, past typical workshop theming like oil drums, tool chests, workbenches with car parts etc etc. Anticipation grew because out the windows you have a clear view of the launch, and the final quad down and turnaround. Lots of excited faces as each train hit the brakes, and the whole time I was just hoping it wouldn’t break down! Finally I was in the station and was allocated 2nd back row. RMCs are great, and the trains are very comfortable, but they have that issue of the hydraulic harnesses being difficult to open and close (Like how GL was when it first opened), so a lot of station time is chewed up with staff and guests straining to get the harnesses open at the end of the ride. From the station you turn, and accelerate quite briskly uphill , with the forces amplified because you are on an incline. Strong airtime on the first hump, which makes you realise what you are in for, and the another strong dose at the top of the huge first drop. In RMC style its stupidly steep, and holds you out of your seat, triggering that real primal “I’m gonna die” reflex as you drop off the steep hillside. From here on, you are in a valley hidden from the rest of the park. You turn and bank up into this giant sideways hill that bulges out, so you are being thrown out sideways and upwards. Train then drops down and into a reverse banking stall turn (like on the Twisted colossus high 5), where you bank right-left-right...really powerful twisting! A couple more crazy airtime hills follow that are much smaller than the proceeding elements, so heaps of negative gs, before you turn to head up hill again through a double up. Heaps of air at the apex before things get even more crazy on the quad down. Basically it’s like one of those humpy playground slippery dips or those wavy slides you see at shows/aussie world. So as you can imagine with each progressive dip it gets faster and with stronger air, almost to that point where it’s hurting your thighs! You’re blazing along at this point, as you pass the station building, bank up through a climbing u turn and drop again into the brake run with heaps of speed...No sense of slowing down at any point of the ride! Back seats are best for sure. Basically, it’s got all the thrills, power and intensity of something like Skyrush, but in a far more comfortable package. Couple that with a rugged terrain setting, hidden from view, plenty of trees, and a nicely themed queue and cool looking train, and you have a recipe for the perfect coaster. Things become even better at night, because the back part of the ride is very very dark...no bloody spot lights spoiling it like the beast at Kings Island, so this ride takes the crown for the best night time coaster too I reckon. My strategy for Lighting rod was to keep riding it till it broke down (though this meant foregoing night rides on the other coasters), since there was no guarantee for its reliability for the length of my stay, so I stuck on it till closing time, with the queue progressively getting shorter and shorter with each lap, till it was a walk on and I was on the last train of the night. Wandering out of the park you can appreciate the nice lighting on the buildings. It was 10pm, but I wasn't done yet. About 15 minutes away are two alpine coasters. There are four all up in the Pigeon Forge area, but I stuck with these two given the time I had, Goat Coaster and the Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster are literally 1.5km apart, on the same road on the same hillside. Goat Coaster shut at 11, And the Smoky Mountain one at 12. A Wiegand alpine coaster is like those sled runs at Jamberoo, Magic Mountain, Thredbo, Big Banana etc, except its locked on a stainless steel track, and the carts have a backrest, and there is a control handle for each hand. (goat coaster) Both rides were fairly similar, the goat one a bit faster, and the smoky one much longer. These rides were in darkness too, other than a bit of LED strip lighting at points. (Smoky mountain alpine coaster) They are pretty fun, but the backrest does actually dig into your back a bit (especially on the turns) because its just a U shaped pipe with shadecloth on it, with no padding. Also,the cars have a centrifugal brake, so once you hit top speed the car feels like its catching on something, and brakes slightly. Hitting top speed is no effort, especially because I gave the cars in front a bit of extra time so I could do an unrestricted run. The rides are lengthy, with a lift hill that takes several minutes. On the way down you do multiple helices, little bumps and lots of turns. On the balance, I prefer the normal Weigand bobsleds...more control, a bit more fear of crashing, and more comfortable. So that was day 1. Day 2 had the park open till 7, but I started off with brekky at DreamMore resorts buffet, where the best feature was an ommelette bar where you could pick various veges and bits of ham, cheeses etc to mix in. So I took the day at quite a relaxed pace, doing all the coasters a few times again, and picking up a lap on the diminutive Sideshow Spin Coaster (whose claim to fame is that it used to be themed to the religious cartoon VeggieTales) I tried Daredevil Falls...same boats as wild west falls, but fairly conventional, with none of the backwards drops or turntables or airtime hills etc that MWs has. The top bit had a giant moving buzzsaw however, but otherwhise the theming was more just nice stuff to look at rather than story driven. Mountain slidewinder was awesome...Basically a water slide, but you ride in your street clothes in this 5 person inline boat that is made out of moulded foam rubber rather than the typical inflatables you might see. This allows it to twist and flex a bit, and pick up a fair bit of speed, so you bank high on the walls, and cop some decent splashes, and fear the whole time that you are going to tip over. A great gem. The Dollywood Express takes you up to the back end of the park, but there's not a lot to see in terms of unique views of the rides, other than the back of Thunderhead. They do some fun stuff like make jokes about the various bits of scenery and theming on the way out, like the "lemonade stand they made us shut down" (spoiler: it's a moonshine still) Some more from the rest of the park. This rapids looked a bit too wet for my mood at the time. Likewise, splash battles are cool, but very wet so nobody seems to ride them at any theme park. I had one of the fried chicken sandwiches. It's just a fillet like in a KFC burger, and bread, nothing else. Would have liked pickles at least, like the chicken sandwiches you get at Chick-Fil-A in the US. The skillet steak sandwich was nice too, but southern food is very heavy going considering how hot it is...While I'm here, and interesting fact about the park is the average staff age is over 60, and you see plenty of seniors working away dilligently...a contrast to the teenagers that staff most theme parks. I was two minds about this, on one hand its great they aren't discriminatory in their hiring. On the other hand its a bit of a reflection on the US that many older people cannot enjoy a relaxed retirement after a lifetime of working. The park is very pretty. I rounded out my 2nd day at the park with one last lap each on Wild Eagle, Mystery Mine, and closed out in the front row of Thunderhead. Overall, its an excellent park all around, with great theming, great rides, immaculate upkeep and a pleasant atmosphere. The coaster collection is pretty well rounded, and they have built a few in recent years....I'd love to see a major dark ride as their next addition. Everyone should try to visit this place if doing a US theme park trip!

^ In short, who cares what they do for the foundations, I'm going to be riding this beast above ground.

I do not post the SAME photos though. I at least try to make them a bit different.

The thing with this area now is that we have now posted photos of everything so photos are now getting repetitive. Im struggling to get photos of stuff that are a little different to what everyone else has already posted.

Probably just teething issues at the moment; give operations a month or two to get it working smoothly. Thanks for the operations insight @JaggedJanine. "6-8 dispatches' every 30 mins" = 16 dispatches/hr, that's 16*20 people = 320 pph....that's very low capacity for peak periods. I wonder if MW would ever consider getting a 2nd train for Arkham? By the sound of it, the ride has once again become a popular attraction, and even more so now with the addition of VR.

Don't listen to park staff they don't know a thing

They wouldn't know a lot cause otherwise 1 of them would tell a friend who would tell a friend and so on and so on and then we would all know what's going on