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I guess the other option - and this is probably heresy - is to offer worthwhile food and beverage options in the park at reasonable prices?

Oh dear, seems like Village are attending Ardent Leisure's "How to run a theme park" seminars...

Everyone here knows i'm a huge Dreamworld fan, and this year I had the great fortune to spend a day with the man who built the park with his bare hands, John Longhurst. After our first meeting, I came away with a recorded conversation about Dreamworld's history that lasted over an hour and a half, and has been later transcribed into some 16,000 words of what I reckon is some honestly brilliant stories. It also goes a little bit into my own personal history with the park; suffice to say you'll start to understand why i'm so passionate about the place when you read through the article. You can find the first part in a series of stories here - John Longhurst's Dreamworld Stories - Origins - Part 1 I think the magic in this piece comes from simply reading through John's own words, so rather than spoiling the stories at such an early time i'll instead post the pictures that are seen on the jump. Comments and questions are totally welcome. Some of John's many books about Walt Disney. Mr. Day's Coomera property the day John Longhurst bought it. One of John's many books containing a series of incredible photos. Hollywood Cottage, now defunct. As former General Manager for Special Projects, Bob Tan, mentioned to me recently, "As for the cottage, it was very unfortunate. I recall a buyer wanted to take it away and re-erect it at his property on the Gold Coast, but the management of the day decided we disassemble it and store it for future use. It ended up consumed by termites." Dreamworld's Main Street was heavily inspired by Walt Disney World's Main Street of the same name.

I liked when they tried some new food options at the deli, the american style sandwiches. They were pretty tasty, big serving and well priced. I thought they would continue expanding, a few different gourmet style salads would have been awesome. But it all seems to have been shelved. Not sure if they didnt sell or just didnt give it enough time. Its a pitty because gotham is utterly rubbish. Once upon a time their burgers were pretty juicy and certainly tasty. Ive had 2 in the last year and both times im sure the bun was stale. It reminds me, remember when they did pulled pork burgers with "slaw" and lattice fries at west burgers? Those things and the loaded fries tasted amazing. I dont mind paying 15-20 for a burger and a fries if its like that. Full of flavour, very filling, not what you expected at a theme park.

MW’s lines suffer from the fact there is only one traditional food outlet being Gotham. It’s struggled for capacity since they decided to not open Wild West Food Outlet which I haven’t seen operate for over 2 years. Outside of Gotham there is Dirty Harrys which is specialised and not for everyone (especially kids) and Ricks which again isn’t what many are after. Then there is the fact it’s closed by 3pm leaving the park bereft of actual food other than ice cream & churros after that...

SE does operate in light rain, or at least it has. It isn’t particularly comfortable in the rain however, but if you really want to feel what needles in your face feel like, DC Rivals in a downpour is your go to...

It's already back opened. Two trains 'bumped'. Please done sensationalise

100% And would be good for the people at DW and the industry as a whole in Aus.

I visited briefly today too! It was a pretty hot day on the Coast and we popped by in the afternoon for a couple of hours, hoping to cool off on Storm, which unfortunately was closed. There was a crane on site and another construction vehicle but absolutely no sign of work activity around the ride. Given the Park only currently has 1 other ride I think it's a pretty shit show unless absolutely every possible step is made to keep both rides open for Guests. I get that essential maintenance necessitates rides closed from time to time, but given the current situation at the Park it shines a light on just how unbalanced the variety is nowadays. And wow is it Hot there! SW used to always be enjoyed as the cooler Park option but these days it feels less shady and with the absence of breezy attractions like Skyway and Water rides, the air con within displays is about the only welcome relief. Some other observations.. * Absense of water fountains throughout the Park. MW has these (and chilled ones) everywhere. * Park entry looking tired and run down. A coat of paint and general refresh would go along way here. IMO the whole entry needs a complete reconfiguring. It's a hot mess. * Creatures of the Deep outdoor display remains about a third half remaining and frankly utterly pointless. There are signs of some sort of development going on toward the reclaimed area, but once you reach about as far as before the Lighthouse the area remains closed off right around to along the South of Dockside. One can only hope a new ride is in the works. * Flume ride area sits snbo and is a pretty sad reminder of a park in better days. Not that VR was much, mind you. At least it was something more than a leaf filled Flume channel and the rest of the remaining ride, left to rot and for everyone to see. * Ray Reef remains closed with no sign of activity. Again this just makes you think that very little effort is going into SW at the moment. Perhaps someone can enlighten me on this but my hunch is this attraction may have been suddenly shuttered for reasons of Public Liability? Hmm.. * New Kids water play area is obviously a smash hit with it's target demographic. As cute as it is, I just look at it and think wtf. Honestly. There are plenty of Resorts on the GC that have this kind of thing covered. Oh well, I guess it shows how simple things can give little ones a lot of joy. * If they are going to close and refurb a ride right now, the Battle boats is looking pretty shit right now. Most Targets are not working and like with so much of the rest of SW needs some love. * Don't even get me started on the Seal exhibit at the back. Many wouldn't even know it's there and frankly that's probably just as well. Forget building a new Coaster or other single major new ride, this Park needs a masterplan with a megabucks rebuild and rebrand - now more than ever. A significant repurposing that starts from the front to the back and covers everything in between. Much like DW, most of SW's infrastructure is ageing faster than they can keep up. Just like DW, only a clear plan, vision and indeed the money to back it is what will work.

Having the vegetarian would be a missed-steak

Had an excellent time with the awesome Parkz people @ABYSS and @Tim Dasco. The place was busy, today, for the second last day of the season. As Abyss said above, Inferno was only doing shots and Chairlift closed early at two (although it did open early as well). Tim managed to sneak in his 150th ride on Goliath. The wait time for Abyss was a couple of minutes and Kraken, probably around 10. It seems Black Widow is off for the season. The staff were in a good mood - and were impressed by how often Tim and Abyss go there. There were lots of first timers going to the park - some people weren’t familiar with the rules. I saw a large group of Chinese people guffawing at the vertical drop on Abyss, the roller coaster. The wildlife area got some love and attention in the last couple of weeks, with some new railings. It looks like Dudley, the emu, will spend her off season near the pond. I got to talk to the keeper, and it seems like they will have an interactive area for the female Kangaroos there, next season. Great to see this neglected area of the park getting some attention. Feeding Dudley was very cool - definitely the gentlest emu I’ve met. Kahuna Cafe was the busiest I’ve seen it in sometime. The restaurant area is something that has been left largely untouched and would be great it if it had a tenant next season. Everyone’s been impressed by the food offerings, like the salads and sushi, imagine how much time and money they would spend if there was a restaurant like Rick’s at MW. If it’s raining in the park, people could hang out there until the skies clear. AW currently has its rapids tube ride, but a lazy river would certainly be welcome. Tim has lots of exciting theories about the next stage of development, but only time will tell. We had an awesome season and can’t wait for September.

Strip the themeing and you have a basic and boring mad mouse coaster with a weird slow section of track. The themeing is what helps make that ride something great and is what has helped the ride become a “legend” as such. Mention Movie World to anyone that doesn’t regularly visit the parks, and they will probably recall the Scooby ride and Superman. The ride is in an extremely poor state right now, and for a park that calls itself Hollywood on the Gold Coast, it’s certainly lacking anything that makes it memorable.

Great day in the park, today. Beautiful weather in the early to mid twenties. AW was quite empty, which is surprising because it’s the start of the school holidays and there’s only two weeks left in the season. No wait for most rides, except for the Grand Prix, which was up to about half an hour. Kraken was a walk on. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, including some kid who had climbed up a tree near rail rider. Someone else managed to get a mat from the slides into the big pool. Geniuses!

Lol no offense but if you need to cite the designer, it's a rubbish record. News just in, Arkham is the tallest Vekoma Rollee Coaster in Australia 👍🏻 All this sort of marketing does is devalue records as a thing, like all those super niche Proslide records. Just market something for how good it is rather than some obscure fact that not even autistic super fans care about. Joz - Autistic super fan.

Part two is now up, which covers John building Dreamworld and the many relationships he forged a long the way. John Longhurst's Dreamworld Stories - Building The Impossible - Part 2

Um, The Druid height sign guy is held together with roof rack elastic ropes! So Disney! " Beware the power of the "Abys..mal."