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It's actually been a bad year everywhere. Dreamworld you can't blame them for everything being closed (or it's entirely their fault depending on how you look at it), but all the Village parks were under done. WnW had a new attraction miss opening day, and Super 8 was closed for the busiest part of the holidays. Movie World had it's new ride closed as well as Scooby looking like crap, as well as no extra incentive to visit during holidays (decent extended hours or entertainment offerings). Sea World closed Viking's Revenge and left it sitting there, with along with the remains of the water park and lack of decent ride options the park is in a horrible state. I'm worried about how little money Village are putting into the parks at the moment. They're spending big dollars on other things and it's noticeable how little capital they have left for in the parks stuff. At Movie World I don't blame them for Intamin ride not working, but Scooby looking like shit is on them. The lack of any new entertainment option is on them. The lacklustre parade is on them. The lack of extended trading is on them. Yes there have been some good things, almost all of them also at Movie World; Rick's Courtyard looks great, there's new Vynal on intencity, they put a bit of effort into upgrading some facilities, so credit where it's due, but they just seem to be firing on one cylinder at the moment Dreamworld were the only park park who seemed like they were trying this year. Sadly for then it was a bit like trying to fight blindfolded with your legs tied together with a hand tied behind your back. Full marks for trying but with the bulk of the rides closed and a public image that needs to be built from scratch it was always going to be a big ask. I really hope that Village and Dreamworld can get it together for next year, when the parks are going well the Gold Coast is going well. This is my hometown and I love the theme parks. I'm harsh on the parks not because i don't like them, but because I really want them to succeed, and it sucks watching them stumble like they have been.

Given that capex figure includes top golf and doesn't account for the fact that Village have more parks than Ardent, that figure is pretty meaningless and out of context. Anyway I should clarify what my point was; What I mean is they're spending so much money on a new things right now (new coaster, Top Golf etc.) that there's no money in the pot for other stuff as it comes up which it does all the time when you're in the theme park business (new Viking's boats, higher insurance premiums for Viking's/Scooby). My point wasn't that they don't invest in the theme park division, it's that at the moment they seem to be unable to spend the money needed to keep the parks running properly. If the insurance premiums have gone up why isn't there money to pay them? If the boats need replacement, why not buy more and get you through till you're ready to replace the ride properly? Why did Mammoth Plunge close last year and why is it still there? Are you really going to close a ride when you know there isn't the budget to replace it for 3 years and the park is already thread bare? Sea World is my favorite park, so yes it is going to influence my judgment of Village when they keep making the place worse. What of it? lol The irony is the resort looks great. When MW hotel I hope that they make a Hotels division and the people currently in charge of SWR run both, there's clearly some passion and drive there. There is clearly passion in the company for MW too, but it's like Dreamworld, it's making the most of scraps. WnW is also pretty stale right now but I feel like there's at least some drive to at least keep it where it is. That's not to say DW's shit doesn't stink either. Dreamworld's owners have been funneling money out of Dreamworld and into Main Event for a long time now. You won't often hear me say nice things about Ardent. I wouldn't be surprised if on the day of the Dreamworld incident no one at Ardent head office actually knew they owned the park until the media told them. But management at a park level have really made what they have available to them count recently, and unlike Village Dreamworld hasn't had stable management, so it's not entirely the fault of the current management that the park has a lot of run down areas which need sprucing up. But to the current regime's credit the park was looking great, and they were one big new ride away from something spectacular. I'm not as negative as today's posts from me would have you believe, but I think there are a lot of VRTP apologists on these boards right now, and I feel like someone has to be a counter point to all the 'Everything village do is amazing!' posts because while some of the stuff they do is genuinely great, some of it is at best pretty piss poor. (or should that be poor piss? #wherehavethebubblesgone?)

I've said it to myself before and I will say it again. Village is in a holding pattern and they have been caught off-guard. I would have thought with all they bad reviews village got last Christmas period they would have rectified the problems. Which brings me to the holding pattern. SW doesn’t know which way to move because they are waiting on the casino. MW cabin approval was slow. MW is waiting on a slow-moving car park approval before they move on the hotel. MW big thing was Doomsday and it was fenced off. Carnival was rushed and underdone. Gosh, thinking about it the list could go on and on. It’s a wonder anybody turned up. I forgot the flat beer. Who the hell thinks it’s ok to sell flat beer.

NO! We were that close for our first hyper.

They just need to come out and get technical. Explain in detail how and why the safety systems activate and what's involved in resetting a ride which would explain why it's easier to evac guests instead.

Not just the Gold Coast, they've blamed the Dreamworld incident for a decline In Sydney too. I'm sure the reputation for poor value, unpredictable operating hours, being understaffed, consistent poor customer service, unfriendly policies and not opening a new attraction since the park opened has nothing to do with it.

Ive been in Queensland for the past 9 days and i've forgotton what a blinker looks like.

Channel 9 also mentioned the River Rapids disaster & low visitors to the parks instead of telling the proper news that the Lego store is opening on Saturday. The themeparks should no longer do media callouts if they want to turn a good story bad.

The post above from @joz is so much win.

Dreamworld just posted a video

It's good that Superman got repainted. It's sad it got to the point where it was 'desperately needed' (seriously this isn't Dreamworld, management hasn't changed half a dozen times in the last few years). I'd venture that Super 8's replacement was pretty badly needed, that's a lot of money to spend for the hell of it, and I'm glad they saw the value in rebuilding the ride exactly as it was (though rankings above the lane rather than timed results work better for me and does it still record false starts? Oh well who cares it's still awesome they did that). I'm not sure I can rate replacing the mechanics at WWF as a good decision, it's an 'exactly what you'd expect' decision. Replacing old equipment is just part of running a theme park. The themeing upgrade was welcomed, though last I saw once the ride reopened they kinda left the stuff that was broken. Like the ride's open now, that's all we're doing. The plaza at Sea World is good, would probably be lower on my priority list than a new ride, and if you were serious about improving the park you'd have moved midway games. Also I'm reliably informed that the lights in the roof can be gelled for special events. They're not LEDs, it doesn't just take the press of a button, some dude has to get up there with a boom lift to change them. Super! Superman came to the parks which is good. How about characters from Storks? The Lego Movie? What about some extra villains rather than just joker and Harly Quinn? Everything else is about revenue, VR, well themed Doomsday, and new f&b outlets. Don't get me wrong of course, all of those are good things, and everyone's best mate is clearly a driving force behind a lot of it. But it's all based on 'what will we get a return on' not 'what will make the parks better' and I think unless they can change that culture they're going to continue to struggle.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Dreamworld Lego Store sells DC Comics merchandise. I mean - sure, I know Lego has license on these things, but the closest, direct competitor to DC land Movie World now sells their flagship characters!

Just pretend that the hangover ride from the local fair was well themed.

But in saying all that, we do have to give them some credit, despite them doing some bad things/decisions in the last 12 months. They gave Superman Escape a much needed repaint They brought back the Superman street character Introduced VR to AA which is awesome. Despite the closure of DD for 3 months, the area is themed awesomely. They did upgrade/replace mechanics of WWF The plaza did some what fix part of the movement through SW New food outlets at MW And even that it wasn't urgently needed they did upgrade the Aqua Racer So yes there were some bad decisions, but they did make some good ones also. But with what we know about happening this year, hopefully it will be one of the parks better years.

It must be so frustrating for them to have to deal with the ridiculous media, it'd be like going to your job doing it exactly as you're supposed to and then getting yelled at anyway... oh wait that's retail life anyway.

From The Courier-Mail:

It is the oldest theme park ride in Australia so they were probably expecting it's eventual demise for a while but this is what makes me think it was unexpected: They had a maintenance period scheduled for this year between mid-July & mid-December. (To me, this means prior to early November last year, they expected it to operate into 2017 & after late-August last year (when the 2017 maintenance period was announced), also expected a major refurbishment of the ride in mid/late-2017 for operations beyond 2017) This Facebook comment says "...the Viking Revenge was closed for its annual maintenance review and a decision was made to retire the ride". (To me, this sounds like the decision was made during it's annual maintenance review) This Facebook comment says "...after a careful consideration, a decision has been made to retire the ride..." (To me, this means they had to think about it before deciding) The above Facebook comment also says "...there are several new and exciting options in the pipeline". (To me, this means they haven't decided on the replacement attraction as of late December - which you would think they would have done before closing Viking's Revenge - though they probably expect a decision to made by the end of this year as they have announced that the announcement of the replacement attraction would occur this year: "We look forward to announcing details of this attraction in the new year") Lastly, the fact the replacement attraction is not planned to open until 2019 - 2 years away. (To me, this makes Viking's Revenge's permanent closure occurring earlier than what they wished) If anything, I think it was unexpected until mid-way through the maintenance review last October/November where a problem was found (or the DW incident had an affect) which built a growing expectation for a permanent closure which they decided to implement in early December. Agree with your whole post @joz but am confused about the statement above and how it fits in exactly? Quick comparison of annual attendance: Dreamworld (2015/2016 - inclusive of Whitewater World & SkyPoint): 2,413,937 (6,614 people/day on average) Magic Kingdom (2015): 20,492,000 (56,143 people/day on average) With attendances like that, the US theme parks clearly earn more money to spend on their theme parks.

Say what?! Village has historically and continues to spend the vast bulk of its capital expenditure on the Gold Coast theme parks. Since FY09 Village have spent over $300m of capital expenditure on their Gold Coast parks. In the same time period Ardent / Main Event have only spent $72m. i.e. VRL have spent 4.1x as much! In FY16 Village spent $59.2m out of a company total of $98.9m of capex on the Gold Coast parks (the remaining capex was only that high because they rolled out a couple of new cinema sites). In FY16 Ardent spent $9.6m out of a company total of $158.7m (!) on DW/WWW. The vast majority of expenditure went to Main Event. Ardent / Main Event have spent tonnes of opex on the guest experience in DW/WWW this Summer because the year is already a total and utter write-off from an earnings perspective in DW/WWW due to the late October tragedy. Following the sale of their Gym business and Marinas they have a comfortable enough financial position (almost no debt) that they can afford to subsidise the parks to help them recover from the tragedy more quickly (probably in order to sell it for a better price and become a pure exposure to the Main Event business in the US). The evidence shows however that it is Village and not Ardent / Main Event that has historically cared about its theme park business and invested to keep it sustainable. Ardent / Main Event has used DW/WWW as a cash cow to first fund its foray into Gyms and then more recently fund a headlong rush into rolling out the Main Event business in the US. I know you are a big fan of Seaworld and obviously disappointed at its current low ride count but I put it to you that this is colouring your judgment. You aren't privy to why Vikings Revenge was closed (I suspect massively elevated insurance costs on a self-built ride) or why they didn't finish the refurbishment of Scooby-Doo (I suspect an excess of caution post the DW disaster has generated more work than originally expected).

You do make some good points in regards to what I said @joz, and do agree with them with the explanations you've made. It shows both the time and position, and yes it does do false starts. Sister jumped to early last week and she got zero, but still displayed time.

Claw Wipeout Surfrider Doomsday

Half of the people here haven't experienced doomsday yet

So today i paid a visit to Holoverse in Southport (behind Aus Fair) after seeing it in one of those tourist brochures in my hotel. Easiest thing to say would be i was blown away (i'm normally very sceptical of anything boasting VR or 3D.). So first off, you get the choice of 2 experiences: "experiences" and "False Eden: Part 1". With a limited budget, i chose to do just FE. When you get loaded into your gear, all it is is a belt with a white Mo-Cap ball on the front and your glasses and "wand" in a holster. The glasses surprised me as they not only chose active shutter 3D, but through that, it was also running in an anaglyph setting, combining the two. These also had the Mo-Cap balls on either side. Then there was the wand; this was almost literally a Wiimote with the bullshit cut off the bottom and a cross-guard on the top with the balls on either side of the guard. Once assigned to your booth, you "Tap-On" with the NFC chip on the wand, then stand on the feet on the ground and hold the wand out in front for calibration. Before going in, i was skeptical on how movement was done. Basically its about 85-90% On Rails, and as you jump from side to side, the screen will shift with you. The 3D use actually surprised me in the sense that with the sword attachment, you were able to really bring it up to your nose and get not a single spec of Ghosting. As for the Crossbow (best weapon), you were able to use the scope as you would normally, despite the entire thing being on the screen. The Staff is a useless weapon. I'll be the first to admit that the story is kinda weak, but for all you fat kids with Lightsabres, if you get over 200 points, you get a free slushie. Getting over 200 is harder than it sounds too (i got 214). The only things i would change would be: - Increase the FOV by about 5 degrees. The system gives you a certain FOV and blurs and de-renders (occasionally completely cutting off) your peripheral vision. Where its currently sits gets a little annoying in the earlier levels. - Rendering. I don't know if its the processor trying to keep up or what, but in my jumping around, the environment was rendered about 10 degrees into my FOV. - Height. The game will get chopped off at times because of the screen. the screens probably only 2m high, and everything on the screen is rendered in true height. So around mission 6, the hair of one of the holograms is chopped off as are most of the beasts heads (and in the case of flying frogs, the entire unit goes off screen). This gets questionable as you have a boss fight with a dragon. -Sound. This ones just more of a nitpick than anything. But They only give you stereo Bluetooth headphones. So for you non sound people, if a tigers running at me, i don't hear it like that. You hear it as coming from the sides of both ears (also the voice mixing is bad). -Also, just slow down the 3D shift. If i'm moving my weight from one leg to another, there's no need to completely shift the 3d render like Transformers. If you're into whats basically VR, its worth the $35. It's $55 or so for 2 sessions, so you can do both.

credit to TPSN: a section inside the store, staff with the Lego Store uniform

They say 35 minutes is the rough time or so. I didnt do experiences so i wouldnt be able to tell you if vertigo would set in. Also for a 5 year old i wouldnt recommend lost eden. Its a bit hard and theres large monsters getting all up in your face. Although LE doesnt have any height based things, i believe experiences has 2. Both i believe you can see in the video.

Don't hold your breath too long otherwise you will die while driving and cause a crash @pushbutton

I'd like to see an extra question in the poll Does Jamberoo need to create a poll every time he creates a new topic? [x] No [x] No

Stick it on your fridge folks!

I read it more to the point of "there's no set date for the ride to commence maintenance at this stage as it could change at a moments notice, so best to check the site." Even if you know/have seen a current schedule for it, it could still change. As far as the theming goes, the rep is technically correct that it's still open given the poster asked specifically if it was closed on/around January 28. IMO it's not that they don't know there's reduced theming, or that it's "poor" or management's fault, it was more "here's an answer that isn't likely to result in follow up questions."

The big takeaway from this is what some are now calling the great beer crisis of 2017. Those beer taps need some love asap. #wherehavethebubblesgone?

Alton Towers does have a monorail

"a bit smoother" How can a brand-new flat ride that was perfectly smooth already become any more smoother?

Why not two?