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Some photos of what I presume to be new theming for the ride from John Cox’s Creature Workshop website http://www.johncox.net/showcase/theme-parks/warner-brothers-movie-world-2/

Indeed Mickey! When I read your post in preview (your first two lines) my first thoughts were how the house of mouse dealt with the dearth of options surrounding them in Anaheim (prior to them paving paradise and putting up parking lots) - it was indeed one of Walt's greatest disappointments about the Anaheim park was the cheap junk that sprang up all around the park, capitalising on the captive market. Disney simply did unique and better products, things you couldn't get down the road (cough burgers cough) - things that took you out of the everyday - and as has been mentioned - turkey legs, mickey waffles, mickey ice cream bars. Sure, much of it is just a different shape, but people still buy it - and today more than ever with everyone pausing to instagram their food before they eat it - a unique food item would sell like... waffles! Even just something as simple as a turkey leg - although i daresay the Australian market doesn't have quite the same taste for turkey that the Americans do... but there has to be something that they can do which is unique, capitalises off their licensing or brands, that would see people willing to fork out for it, even if it is exhorbitantly overpriced? It's not enough to serve standard fare (like popcorn, or hotdogs) in a container printed with a licensed character and assume that that is enough to justify an obnoxious price tag. I'll put my money where my mouth is on ideas*: A waffle in the shape of the WB shield An ice cream bar (think Magnum) in the shape of the Batman crest take the ice cream bar a step further, and make it a 'home made' affair. One of my best memories at Knotts was an eskimo pie, nothing particularly interesting about it - except it was hand dipped in molten chocolate and had choice of nuts \ sprinkles etc Do dagwood dogs, but have the Joker's graffiti smiley stamped on them Do a burger with a coloured bun - green for green lantern, black for batman, red for superman. each burger should be different, similar to the gotham range currently on offer Hand make fairy floss - but get a guy in who makes ART out of them (i'm sure we've all seen the YT videos of guys doing this) instead of the pre-packed months-old variety A signature iced confection (think Dole Whip) - perhaps theme it to Taz Devil (and have Taz's image be part of the blender that makes it - the motion and sound of a blender suits Taz perfectly) Thats another tangent - don't just make the food unique - make the method of service unique too! In addition to the Taz blender contraption, what about a Rube Goldberg style contraption (one could theme to Willy Wonka or similar) that prepares \ serves the food when the order is placed (and then somehow automatically resets) - it doesn't even have to 'actually' serve the food so long as it LOOKS like it does... I CBF googling it but i know i've seen a video of a restaurant (i think in a theme park) that actually delivers your food on a roller coaster like delivery contraption - and i'm sure someone will point it out to me in due course... We usually criticise gimmicks here, but in this case, i think the parks need a gimmick to make their food have a point of difference. Don't get me wrong, the quality we have lamented here for almost 3 pages does need to improve, but its not enough to make your burger as good as the one across the road, or even better justifying the more expensive price tag, if the experience is much the same (i'm talking bored or frazzled staff (depending on the time of day) who are either not interested in serving you or too busy to get your order right) - I think this is why Dreamworld's Parkway has largely fallen flat too - they tried to be an alternative to a road house, by delivering much the same as a road house, in a less convenient spot. Improve the food - do whatever you have to with the prices, but make it an experience worthy of staying in park and paying a premium. I'm not talking bloody projection mapping (that might swing in Disney's premiere dine-in restaurants but it won't wash in Movie World) - i'm just talking about making your food unique enough that people won't mind paying extra to buy it. *Some ideas are quite feasible and realistic, others are a stretch just to try and tie the brand. Others might not have the desired effect (i know that the black burger buns have had mixed reactions in outlets like Burger King), but the point is i'm just a guy who doesn't work in Village coming up with ideas and tie-ins. Imagine what they could come up with with the knowledge, licensing etc - i'm sure products of similar nature have been done in other parks, probably many using the Justice League characters to full advantage - these are just ideas, and i recognise not all of them would be commercially viable - so there isn't a need to hyper analyse every suggestion - it was just to get some creative juice flowing - by all means come up with some better ones of your own...

I don't understand why bowling alleys need consistent branding, and I understand even less why you would license someone else's. It makes even less sense why you would license someone else's branding when its so dull and boring. At the end of the day, it's a bowling alley, it lives and dies based on if people want to go bowling, not the name of the place. 100% get rid of the dull branding and put your own in.

An American Style diner would work well I reckon, with Philly cheese steak, loaded hotdogs and fries, New York style pizza. Things that are unique we have seen work well at Carnivale like Millionaires Bacon. So many options and ideas, so little creativity by their F&B team

Dunno about Crappy Jack's but the little Japanese place over the road does some great sushi! But isn't that just the thing? There are so many food options a short distance away and some pretty good ones at that. Like so many others, I don't mind paying for convenience but the quality/quantity needs to be there. With our Parks it's just not and you only need to look at what Disney does to see that F&B can be an enormous part of a Theme Park's profitability. I dare say the Mouse makes most of it's food coin off it's biggest fans.. The Passholders

The good thing about Movie World is that Hungry Jacks is a short walk away. They even built a nice pathway besides DC Rivals to get you there. As a passholder you don't need to stamp your hand for re-entry just scan your pass to get back in. This is why Movie World need to greatly improve the f&b offerings and offer a passholder discount.

Last trip to MW I figured I'd rather die than eat at Gotham (long wait, terrible value, shit-house food, nowhere to eat it), Dirty Harrys seemed pricey and didn't really appeal (don't think much of Mexican food in general, so figured Mexican food at MW would be a one-way trip to diarrhea-district) so we ended up at Ricks. It was alright *shrugs*. Would have killed for Ricks versus the crap that Dreamworld served up when we next visited there. I feel about as good about eating at the parks as I do buying food and beverage packages at the cinema. You know you're copping a rod up the rear on price, and you know the quality is far below what it should/could be.

Nahhh - crap chips and good chips still cook at the same pace. Same goes for going to the effort of cooking someone a fresh batch if it's quiet, especially when there's staff standing around having a giggle - if you've got a good product at the right price and you look after your staff it sells itself, and in my experience Gotham Cafe in particular has neither of those three.

It used to have a monorail... sort of. I don't stop there because of whats there. I have family in coffs, so we're usually going through the town to see them anyway - the bypass would be convenient, but its a nice 'almost halfway' stop between brisbane and sydney, and we usually plan to stop in coffs for that reason. Eliminating the trucking traffic through the town is a positive, but the tourism aspect shouldn't suffer as much as places like the Macadamia Castle, because it is actually a waypoint on the journey.

For all your verbose analysis, you're ignoring the fact that the Wild West outlet is barely opened year round. If they're not finding the demand to open that one outlet, how the fuck do you think they're going to deal with SEVEN of them? None of what you've said will work for the simple fact that they can't even get ONE outlet right. Outsourcing is stupid, and shouldn't be an option because you're only diluting your profits further - what they need to do is rethink their current outlets, rather than building more that will remain shuttered year round.

Whilst I understand the name change to closer affiliate it with its new owners, TimeZONE, I think it’s a terrible branding choice. And whilst it is true that the Aussie operations had to pay a licensing fee to use the AMF name here, it had 30 odd years of good brand recognition behind it. Poor choice imo...

They could've gutted Kevil Hill & used the current pass centre as an entrance to the space that connects directly to the existing Dreamworks experience and made it something that has the potential to last beyond the twelve months Craig mentioned.

The flood lights over the driving range are now turned on

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.

I think you overthink things too much.