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Mini Trip Report & Update A belated trip report and photo update from my trip to Aussie World on 31st December. First of all, I expected the place to be busy, but was pleasantly surprised to see the carpark half empty considering it was a long weekend. Obviously, the park was expecting more of a crowd too, as every ride advertised to be open was, with it’s own ride op (most rides run fine here with one) and, as a result, all (except The Plunge, which was about a 5 minute wait) were pretty much a walk-on. On entry to the park, about 11:30, we were promptly and friendly helped to process our passes which we’d received as a gift from my Sister. She’d found an online deal giving a family of 4 unlimited entry to the park until the 31st of March for $145 (through RACQ, I believe). The registration process was quick and they let us head straight into the park and suggested we come back in a couple of hours to collect our pass. My eldest son was a huge fan of the Imaginarium on our last visit, so we headed there first. There was a short wait, due to its low capacity, but most of the rooms and effects were working well (a couple minor things like a monitor not working in the ‘elevator’ detracted a bit) and some of the rooms are pretty impressive. RIP Wildmouse Before I get to the new additions to the park I will cover the most noticeable omission from the park, the much loved wooden wild mouse that was the park’s major drawcard until recently. As has been posted already, the Wildmouse site is now a very flat and desolate looking patch of dirt. The only thing more devastating to a coaster enthusiast than seeing the site bare, is looking directly behind it to discover the whole coaster unceremoniously dumped in a heap. A little solace can be taken from the fact that the coaster lives on as theming next to the new Mayhem Maze (more on that shortly)... and as a poke-stop (it’s sad that I even checked, I know). Bombora This latest addition is a mini drop tower. Think the Sylvester & Tweety one at MW with the addition of it spinning around a pole (& allowing parents to ride) and you’ve got the general idea. Despite being my eldest’s favourite at MW he didn’t want to ride it (although he was a bit timid and stand-offish the whole visit), but it looked only a little more thrilling than that kiddies offering. Having said that, it looks to me like a great ride to go on with younger kids (the accompanied height being 100cm). A 'giant' surfboard completes the surf theme... Beaut Little Toot Toots On my last visit to the park I couldn’t help but notice the ride with perhaps the worst capacity I’ve ever seen at a park. The Tin Lid Trolleys were only ever meant to be a ride for toddlers, but it consisted of two tiny mine carts which each seated one child, and both ran on their own track, meaning a 2 kids per cycle capacity. Aussie World have clearly recognised that their growing popularity no longer allows for rides with such low through-put and have added the ‘Beaut Little Toot Toots’. While still being suitable for the smallest of guests, this new train ride allows parents to ride with their kids, which depending on your tolerance to incredibly loud farm animal noises, may be a positive or a negative. Mayhem Maze I wasn’t sure what to expect from this brand new attraction (had only opened on the 28th December as a permanent part of the park’s attraction roster). I was glad that a local park had decided to add a full-time walk-through scare attraction, but was a little anxious as to what they would’ve managed to pull of for a park of this sizes budget. Now, I must say straight up, I haven’t been through a lot of horror / fright nights style mazes, other than Fright Nights about 5 years ago (give or take) and USH House of Horrors in 2008, but I am not the most easily firghtened, or impressed park-goer, but here goes. The building is themed to a 50’s era, abandoned, fairground-style attraction with ‘funland’ a-blazoned across the front and an overall (not so) fun house look and feel. The backstory is displayed on a couple of signs on approach to the steps, as well as a number of signs warning that the attraction isn’t suitable for younger children. There was also a large sign detailing how the attraction included live actors who would tailor the experience to suit the audience, and therefore give ‘smaller frights’ where appropriate. Despite this assurance and my 8 year old considering going through (I’m bloody glad he didn’t), I decided to go through myself first. I walked, alone, up the stairs and along a thin boardwalk, the sort I have traversed many a time to enter a fun factory or similar type of attraction. When I reached the door there was nobody there, I tried to open it, but nobody came out to meet me. I stood there awkwardly alone for a little while before a group came up the queue behind me. Good, at least I’ll have company, I thought. The newcomers to the line asked me, had I tried the door? Is there anyone in there? Shortly afterwards, an attractive attendant in a 50s inspired costume peered through the door and asked how many in my party. Just me, I replied, at which she took me through into the lobby, where she briefed me on the usual walk-through rules: Don’t touch or try to fight the actors (I didn’t realise I looked like a fighter) and I’ll be fine; Follow the white lines painted on the floor and I’ll find my way out; Don’t burst out of the Emergency Exit (advice not heeded by the group behind me); and if you become too overwhelmed or disorientated, raise your hand and someone will assist you (the same goes for the illusionarium, and they will also stop most of the rides if you raise your hand, a feature that is appreciated when trying to warm kids up to larger thrills). So, the very first thing I have to make mention of is just how dark it is in there. Coming in from a particularly hot and glarey day, I found it extremely hard to see where I was going, and felt lost and disorientated on a number of occasions. I won’t talk about the specifics of the maze to avoid spoilers for those who get to visit, but I will say the main scare actor is an evil clown, and he is menacing and gruesome. Slowly making my way through the maze there were plenty of occasions where a strobe or flash would reveal that the clown was right up in my face, or right over my shoulder. Several other times he worked as a diversion, leering on one side, while another scare actor, one of his victims, would burst out behind you, or even under your feet, screaming for you to run away. Overall, the set design seemed pretty high quality, with each scene revealing just how depraved this sicko clown actually is. The maze was typically quite tight and continuously wound back against itself, providing plenty of scare opportunities for the scare actors. I found it a bit difficult to determine how many were actually in there (I’m guessing 2 plus the beehived greeter, but it felt like more) and to their credit, they got a fair few jumps out of me during the experience. I think it is a really well put together, little scare attraction, and I hope it gets the patronage, and love, it deserves. It was certainly quiet on the day I went, being at the northern-most extremity of the park, behind the Ballroom Blitz, and given the park still attracts mostly families with kids under 12 or so. Once the additional flat thrill ride replaces the Octopus (and the crazy mouse replaces our beloved wild mouse) this year, there should be enough to keep teens amused as well. I can honestly say Mayhem Maze should have them shrieking! Overall The rest of the park is looking good, the mini golf seems to have been done up and is attractively landscaped. The staff were mostly all fairly friendly (except for that damn clown!) and the park was clean and tidy. The shed area is also looking good and is being utilised a lot more for concerts and functions, but during the day serves as a nice cool place to escape the heat and have a cold beer. The back of The Pub was looking shabby, but given it is only a few weeks away from it’s major refurbishment and expansion that is understandable. Work will commence after their Australia Day festivities if you want one last look at the iconic red Ettamogah Pub. I’m looking forward to seeing the park’s growth over the next couple of years and really think it will be a great option for families with kids of any age by this time next year.

i dIDNT fIND iT tOO bE aNY lONGER jUST mORE fIRE eLEMENTS cOMPARED tOO lAST wEEK.

I can say with absolute certainty that the track will arrive before September. You can chisel that on a stone tablet.

Give the guy a break. I'm sure it's just a case of a poor choice of words and he doesn't think a cleaner is a lower member of society than a food and beverage attendant.

My advice for you as a "tired 13 year old" is not to judge a book by its cover, or the worth of a person by their job title.

I'm so glad you enjoyed your visit. Aussie World is a true gem and I can't wait for them to expand.

Just been at the park. TOT is in testing Shockwave was being checked over and had some testing of seat harness GD had workmen on the top of the gondola, and men were varnishing the timber in the queue area Carpark about 60% full so far today And this sign has been updated:

This Seems To Be The Hallmark Of Totta Who Claimed That It Was Just How His Phone Typed But I Call Bullshit Because I've Never Seen Any Other Phone Do That And I've Used All Three Major Operating Systems Without A Problem.

What if say he worked for the freight company? Then he'd know when it was shipping but nothing about the construction. Let's maybe wait for an answer for we jump down the condemnation path

That mad mouse is a sad sight to see. Thanks for the photos Strop.

I'd imagine priority one right now is Lego Store and getting through the holidays.

Two things. One. This news story is crap from start to finish. If you think there's a problem with news reporting in the world, be it about small or major issues, educate those who share journalism with a clear bias. Two. The irony. One second Channel 7 is running stories on dolphins and how good our parks are, the next second they're running stories that would cost VRTP huge sums of money in bad PR and yet by comparison, portals like Parkz that are filled to the brim with brand loyalists posting feedback on what the park does in a way that's not even remotely innocuous (because ultimately we want to see the parks succeed because we care so very much) and we're still collectively branded as a bad thing.

An encouraging trading update from Ardent Leisure now has the stock showing value “too hard to ignore”, according to Credit ­Suisse analysts, who have boosted their recommendation to outperform, from neutral. The analysts see a potential 40 per cent earnings-per-share increase over two years as confidence trickles back into the company following a deadly incident at its Dreamworld theme park in late October. Shares in Ardent Leisure plunged as much as 32 per cent over October 25 and 26 after four people died on a family ride at the Gold Coast tourist destination, with investors bracing for significant legal and regulatory fallout. The stock hit a nine-month low at $1.82 but has since recovered. The trading update, released by Ardent on Friday, referenced “very positive guest sentiment” at its theme parks and “strong revenue growth” at Main Event, which Credit Suisse analyst Matthew Nicholas sees as an “inflection point”. “We believe the update represents a cyclic bottom from a newsflow perspective — the market has a sense on base attendances at Dreamworld and a weak first-half like-for-like result at Main Event has been confirmed,” Mr Nicholas said. Along with the recommendation upgrade, Credit Suisse puts forward a sum-of-the-parts 12-month price target of $2.80, which compares to yesterday’s closing price of $2.31, up 3.4 per cent for the session. “We’ve cut fiscal 2017 earnings (forecast) per share by about 23 per cent. However, downgrades to outer years (2-7 per cent) are less severe,” Mr Nicholas said. “On updated numbers, Ardent Leisure trades at 17.5 times forward price to earnings ratio for fiscal 2018 (with our Dreamworld earnings about 70 per cent below peak fiscal 2016 levels), ­offering around 40 per cent earnings-per-share growth into fiscal 2019 through virtue of the Main Event rollout (US comprises almost 80 per cent of group earnings by this stage).” Credit Suisse estimates Ardent Leisure revenues fell about 63 per cent in December following the tragedy, but says drawing conclusions on this basis is problematic because many of the park’s rides were closed. Other brokers remain cautious on Ardent, with analysts at UBS, JPMorgan, Bell Potter and Macquarie all branding the stock a hold. Can't all be all doom and gloom with CAB buying a 5.05% stake into ARDENT yesterday.

Thanks for the report, @Aw hype. Sounds like you had a pretty good day.

Thank you. If ur brain has the impulse to say that I meant disrespectful things, what does that truly mean

Is that correct? I thought I read everyone has an instructor. It's just if you don't have a license you don't get to drive.

I don't think seven news are going to stop reporting matters like this because a theme park forum doesn't like it

I'd definitely ride it, coming from someone who wasted 30-40 minutes at the front of the queue for Furius Baco watching them switch out one train for another. It was a painstakingly slow procedure for an equally painful ride.

Same difference. I've known plenty of people who choose to work in cleaning industries due to work/life balance, availability needs, enjoyment of the role, or because they have investing interests in the business. That doesn't make them any less of a person in a societal, or any other, structure. Regardless of your employment standing, CEO or cleaner of the CEO's toilet, everyone is human, has the same rights.

Wonder which headline the GCB would run with.. "Public endangered by harness that doesn't undo" "Dreamworld trap riders in order to keep people in the park" "Motorcoaster disaster, Mick Doohan refuses to comment" On another note, did our second night/Fire Machine visit tonight. Park noticeably busier than a week ago when we first went. Also appears that my first viewing of Fire Machine may have been missing some Fire elements or their was a technical issue, as tonight's had a lot more fire! Haha glad we went for a second look as would never have known

Ridden today. It's actually quite a unique experience, but not worth the ridiculous waiting time. Theming still up in queue and station. Nothing after the doors at the very beginning, which just remained open the whole time. Mostly just dark and temporary fences, not a lot to see. Evil laugh and swinging axes still there and working, but the evil laugh was a bit ridiculous with no monster to embody it. Quite interesting with no walls - the final 90-degree turn into the elevator faces the wild mouse section, which gives it a whole new level of foreshadowing. No jungle section at the end, that's entirely gone too. I also noticed that the spider in the wild mouse section is still there. Overall, I'd recommend you ride it while the theming is down. It wasn't worth the long wait, and I obviously miss the theming, but it was unique and interesting for someone who is interested in the technical side of things and behind the scenes.

Guest Services contacted me yesterday regarding my complaint. They advised that during it's recent downtime, there were a number of issues surrounding the Ghost Train section of the ride. One thing lead to another and given the ride's age of 15 years, these things couldn't wait any longer and needed to be addressed by way of removing everything and starting all over again with a clean slate. The time frame would only allow for removing everything and unfortunately not the dark ride scenes. A fairly last minute decision was to reopen the ride for the school holidays to help with crowd capacity and give people the opportunity to experience the roller-coaster. The ride will remain open in it's current form until the Crowd levels subside. My guess until the end of January. They added that they understand how immensely popular with visitors and it's for this reason that it get's the chance for a new lease on life. I really hope this is true because Scooby-Doo is still a very marketable and valuable franchise to the MW brand. I gave my feedback to GS to pass on regarding the lack of communication to Park goers and that a clear expectation needs to be set for would-be riders (including foreign visitors) so they know and understand what to expect, especially after waiting two+ hours... yikes! I asked for Ride Attendants to be more vocal about this which they said they would pass on. After reviewing the opinions of all and speaking to them directly, I'm willing to give MW the benefit of the doubt and look forward to seeing an improved rebuild of the ride using today's show technology.

Photo Credit: Theme Parks All In One VRTP have managed to combine Movie World's love of A-Frame signs with Dreamworld's love of A4 signs! Although I'm not sure what a "spoky" coaster is?