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Yeah I think @webslave has the right of it. I'd also suggest that a lot of this crap is a downgrade. I think everything about the execution of this upgrade from the sign out the from (The fuck even is that?) to the final scare is worse than what was there when the ride opened. When I talk about the evils of installing technology for technology's sake, this is exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. The only thing I'll give it credit for is what it tries to do; it tries to tie the ride back to the movie more, so credit for that. But the laziness of the animation, how badly blended the screens are to their surroundings, the junk that's been added in there all take away from what they're going for. The animation is significantly worse than the move, which normally I wouldn't complain about but the movie is from 2002 and the effects weren't all that great back then. Finally, the marketing for the ride just made promises not based in any kind of reality; we were promised projection mapping, we got screens. Of course that'll be disappointing for anyone who follows this sort of thing. Maybe the public won't notice as much but if you're following the stuff they were saying like fans were, then you'll know how much it doesn't deliver. Also you can't put an A-frame out the front that says 'Technical rehearsal' after the fact and think that makes everything OK. Where on the Facebook posts or on the website does it say 'Tech Rehearsal'? Oh that's right it doesn't, it just says in multiple places it's open. I hope it gets better, I hope the animation is improved, I hope that the levels get sorted, I hope the queue gets fixed and I hope marketing have learnt something. Ultimately, it's a downgrade, but the only reason I felt compelled to write anything about it at all is because of the apologists who come on here saying how wrong anyone is for feeling let down and how great MW are for putting the themeing back in. I'm sorry but this is objectively worse that what was there originally. Tech doesn't automatically make things better, particularly when it's as badly done as it is here. It's not unsalvageable but any means, and there's some decent creativity gone into it, but as it is it looks either lazy or very amateur.

'Actions speak louder than words': Dreamworld is still a decaying, unreliable theme park Dreamworld CEO told Sunrise viewers this morning that actions speak louder than words as Dreamworld once again promises the same commitment to safety and maintenance that they've been offering for more than two years. Click here to continue reading

Was in the park and snapped these on the way out. Still think the original facades looked a million times better, but it's not the worst thing in the world. Will say i'm now excited to jump on this thing in a week or two - bonus points to Dreamworld / Cutting Edge if they pull a Soarin' at the end of the ride's film and the fly-over ends back in at Dreamworld. Switchbacks are all in. Sails look nice. Not sure about all the white. Bit boring. With the huge barriers down it's much easier to see now. It's a tight fit. (THATS WHAT SHE SAID) The connection between old and new is... interesting. 😕 Note the switchbacks on the left - i'm guessing for Ride Express? A closer look at the main entrance. Three stories? Signs. There was another sign near Billabong which shows something different as well. It definitely wasn't always going to look this way outside. Big ol' white bum with a lot of exhausts. A wider look at what's going on. And some panos for the pano folk.

Movie World for some reason were happy enough for it to sit there like that for as long as it did. That's egregious enough, I'm not about to give them a free-kick by making that somehow the baseline for this project. More than you'd think. Your advertising has to be connected with reality though if you don't want people to feel ripped off. Rubbish. It hasn't been "completely transformed". Getting it back to a condition that is similar to what it was like when it was new is not a transformation. "New Technology" was not on the list of promises, and even if it were the use of it is sloppy, uninspired, and dated. Tip: 'dated' is not a word you want to hear when people are talking about your use of new technology. That Movie World allowed the ride to deteriorate to the point that it was internally a mess of barely-working effects does not move the baseline they set which was the condition on opening day. You don't buy a Lamborghini, crash it around, not mechanically maintain it to the point that it stops running and then buy a Hyundai Excel and call it an upgrade. I think this is where our views fundamentally differ. Under your logic repainting a roller-coaster that hasn't been done in fifteen years would count as an upgrade. Under mine it would count as maintenance/refurbishment. Yeah... I guess I'm old-school in that I believe that if you're going to tell the media you're going to be completely transforming the ride, taking people on a ride experience like never before, and changing the name of your ride to include the term "new generation" that you probably ought to be aiming a little higher than "arguably the best it has ever been".

What on earth are you talking about? The ride experience is the same, albeit with a couple of minor additions (of debatable quality). To refresh your memory: Where is the "completely transformed"? Transform, v: X to change in composition or structure X to change the outward form or appearance of X to change in character or condition Have they taken guests on a "ride experience like never before"? No. Are there new special effects? Yes. Are the special effects "improved"? Debatable. Is there new projection mapping? No. Is there improved projection mapping? No. Mist? Dunno. Sound effects? Dunno. To be absolutely clear here - if they told people that they were going to reinstate the ride as it was with a few enhancements I doubt you'd have anyone feeling that what was delivered wasn't what was promised. The tagline "Next Generation" tells the customer that this will demonstrate clear advantages over what it replaces - and from most accounts it fails to do so. I don't care that they managed to dig up some ancient plans for set pieces from well over a decade ago in homage to a film that was ultimately unmemorable - that was not the task. The task was to create a ride experience that lived up to the marketing; a complete transformation of what had come before it with new and improved special effects such as projection mapping, mist and sound effects to take guests on a ride experience like never before. It's not a museum piece; it's a marquee attraction in what is arguably the number one park on the Gold Coast. The marketing will get butts into the park to try it out - the execution is what will determine whether those guests feel like they got value out of the experience, and whether they feel like the park was genuine in what it sold them. It's in the execution that they have set themselves up for failure.

You are so unnecessarily rude to most people on this forum. You contribute no photos, just stupid comments and argumentive paragraphs.

I can't help but echo these sentiments. In terms of how well they have utilized the mediums, the 'next gen' screens and animations stand out as poorer quality than the original 3D set pieces and animatronics. The drop down monster actually gave me a jump scare as it has been so long since riding with effects that I forgot it was there, but that pitiful attempt at a scare at the end was just pathetic and out of place, I doubt it'd even scare small children that much. If you don't have the budget to get the new tech done properly, you could have better spent your money improving the original effects. I can imagine with the money wasted on the screens they could have added extra lighting to spice up the original set pieces and scares in the haunted house section. They could have improved the smoke and lasers in the wild mouse section, maybe even still adding the cool lighting effects that we now have in that section. I think going for a 'next generation' approach when in reality you only have the money for a bit of a refurbishment was a bad idea. It's not just smartarse enthusiasts who pick up on this stuff either. Most of the GP have an understanding of what makes good and bad animation quality through movies and video games. They also know a lot less about the challenges involved in making theme park attractions and won't take it into account when they evaluate their enjoyment of the experience. A friend of mine can attest to that, he was more disappointed with the screens than I was.

Great summary, Dreamworld have spent money on the unnecessary to save on the important. A visit to the park now becomes a quest to find which rides are open. Ardent management had no idea how to run the place prior to the rapids accident, and it's clear that they still don't. SkyVoyager is nice but it's also the only major addition since 2014, far too long between drinks for even a medium-sized park. The sooner this place is bought out the better, hopefully by a group with some money and common sense.

That's a perfectly valid opinion. I just prefer to focus mostly on the positives, and there's plenty of that at Dreamworld!

It was mentioned before, but i'm hoping that the fact they 3D scanned the disco room means something else is coming - i wanna hope there's more to come, and they've just rushed it open to cater to the holidays. If there's nothing more to do, it is great that it isn't a hollow shell anymore, but it is underwhelming. I still stand by my earlier comments that a lot more work has gone into it than people are giving credit for, but i still hope there's more to come.

Sky Voyager now shows on ride express (and Zombie Evolution has been removed)

Safety is our No.1 priority,’ new Dreamworld chief DECEMBER 06, 2018 DREAMWORLD’S new boss will “bring back the wow factor” along with airline-style safety as part of a $40 million makeover to return the theme park to its former glory. Speaking exclusively to The Courier-Mail, new chief executive officer John Osborne said the 2016 Thunder River Rapids tragedy reduced him to tears. The park’s owner, Ardent Leisure, has been under siege since the 2016 tragedy and the harrowing coronial inquest that followed. Mr Osborne, the former head of hotel and resort chains over a 25-year career in the tourism industry, said he already had high hopes for Dreamworld’s ability to return to the glory years he remembered as a frequent visitor over the past 30 years. A new state-of-the-art flying theatre simulator ride will open within weeks as part of a $40 million expansion designed to bring back crowds. New Dreamworld CEO John Osborne has high hopes for Dreamworld’s ability to return to the glory years he remembered as a frequent visitor over the past 30 years. Picture: Nigel Hallett He said his personal affinity with the park meant the accident in which Kate Goodchild, Luke Dorsett, Roozi Araghi and Cindy Low were killed reduced him to tears. “I, like I guess everybody else in Australia, shed a tear when I saw it on television on the evening news,” he said. “Some of the great times we had as a young family were here … I always thought it was the biggest and the best theme park in Australia. “I was thinking of the families (of the victims) and of the first responders and what a terrible tragedy it was.” He said he also felt compelled to help – an opportunity which eventually came knocking, replacing acting chief executive Nicole Noye, who had filled the role since the shock departure of long-term boss Craig Davidson in July. A panel of workplace health and safety experts has proposed sweeping changes to theme park safety during the final days of the inquest into the Dreamworld ride tragedy. Four people were killed in October, 2016, when the Thunder River Rapids ride malfunctioned at the Gold Coast theme park. The inquiry is in its fourth round of hearings and is expected to conclude on Friday. Image: News Corp Australia Mr Osborne, who quietly started his new role just over a month ago, said he had great faith that Dreamworld could reverse its fortunes. “I pick up the vibe that everybody that I have spoken to really wants to see Dreamworld recover,” he said. He said winning over the public with Dreamworld’s safety standards and bringing back “the wow factor” would be key elements to the revival. “Safety is obviously the No.1 thing – that is our No.1 priority,” he said. “We need to demonstrate to the public that Dreamworld is an extremely safe place.” Dreamworld has already moved to raise standards, looking to the aviation industry for inspiration. “Aviation is considered by most people to be the benchmark for safety and I think there is a lot of similarities with what we do here,” said Mr Osborne. “We are adopting many of the things that the aviation industry does in terms of safety.” Geoff Sartori, a former safety adviser at Qantas, has been appointed as an independent external safety adviser. Mr Osborne said millions of dollars were also being spent on a revamp. In addition to the new flying theatre, a concept all the rage in other parts of the world, a massive expansion is under way at neighbouring WhiteWater World which will add a tropical oasis-themed precinct featuring rides, beaches, a river system and wildlife-watching.

It's possible to love theme parks and still hold them to account push. Entering peak period with so many rides out of action is ridiculous and Parkz is not being unsupportive of the GC tourism industry for calling them out in my opinion.

When I saw the animation on the POV’s on YouTube I immediately thought of this video, it’s animation is on par 😂

I appreciate the ambition with that part, but the distance to the monsters didnt feel right at all, and at one point they're just clipping through the car. Hopefully they can fix that part up.

As someone who absolutely loves living in SE Queensland, and the amazing access we have to so many theme parks (Dreamworld being the largest), it saddens me to see so much negativity about it. This on a site that's all about theme parks, in a forum whose members love theme parks. Anyone who visits Dreamworld can easily see investment all around the park. Sure there's a lot more still to be done, but I would like to believe it will be. Of most immediate interest of course is SkyVoyager, which I'm sure will be one of Queenslands (and Australias) best theme park attractions! The atmosphere in Dreamworld is energetic, and most of the staff offer guests great friendly greetings (some train announcers excepted)! Exciting things are happening! Let's show our support for Dreamworld!

Decent article. Lols no fanboys yet.

That's a pretty good concept Spotty. I took it a little further: Most of this explains itself. The F&B and Merch discounts would have to be priced up - i don't know the parks profit margins but i assume the percentages here maintain a margin across most of their range. If it would increase the pass holder per cap spend, then it can't be a bad thing. One thing to think about is whether you'd include a discount (even if its a different rate) for experiences such as SW animals, WnW pay-per-play experiences, HWSD back of house, star tours etc etc, and\or AOS, or whether you reserve that for 'premium privilege' tiers (more on that below). FN and WC tickets - i kept them in the higher tiers as Carnivale, by all accounts, needs to boost attendance, whereas WC and FN are frequently full. I opened FN in a lower tier as they have more flexibility about running additional nights, whereas WC, there isn't much option to run extra nights, and it frequently sells out despite not much in the way of improvements. Discounted offers would be perhaps half the price of a GA ticket. Premium Privilege - yes, its a crap name. I just see this as a way for them to offer more to a select group - early entry during peak times, with exclusive rides open early (like the old VIP Gold). First access to new attractions and experiences - admission by invitation only \ etc. Offers to attend things like out of hours events for filming, TVCs etc, all the enthusiasty things that die-hard fans want and are willing to pay for Special one-off offers - eg: "visit this month and show your pass to receive a free bucket of popcorn"... things to encourage revisits, that don't cost much\anything to do. Preferential seating at shows on a first come first served basis - ie - reserve a block of maybe 10 seats in show arenas at SW and MW, available only to premium privilege members. (and once its full, its full). The tiers would mean that some things are offered to tier 1 first, and then opened to tier 2 if the tier 1 holders don't take the offer up. Other things would be offered to both tiers from the start (such as preferential seating, and the monthly freebie). They could also feature a 'premium privilege upwards seating pit' exclusively for some events for the parade.... Pie in the sky? probably. still - nice to dream.

*cue fanboys here or on facebook abusing you for calling it like it is.

They have been running a story all morning about Dreamworld and SkyVoygaer on Sunrise. https://au.news.yahoo.com/dreamworld-set-open-17m-ride-202955493.html

I do think the marketing team got carried away on this one - it would have been better positioned as a mild retheme (Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster: Scrappy's Revenge... or whatever). The new additions are good, but "next gen" is probably better used to describe Star Wars land, rather than adding a few projectors and flatscreens to an indoor mouse. They also would have done well to hold off on the social media announcements until it was out of tech rehearsal, kind of a rookie mistake there...

I’ve been waiting for someone to say this! I work with projection all the time and have seen just about every example of projection mapping ever - the quality of this apparent “refurb” is atrocious and I’ve seen better content created by students. It’s not even projection mapping technically speaking, because it’s not being mapped to anything. Projection is so easy to make look tacky and I think movie world have just shown that you’ll never beat the charm of a physical set.

Here's the latest update!

I think the main thing they’ve got wrong about this is that the projection mapping is mostly just on square walls. This just makes them look like a screen & really tacky. Projection mapping should be projected onto objects, which then bring that object to life.

You're gonna love it here.

lol i love making internet weirdos write paragraphs

hHah this video is just stupid

I really like the look of the facade, even though it doesn't tie in with Green Bean Coffee, overall looks very nice. Not sure what everyone is complaining about?

Coasters typically run polyurethane or nylon. It is entirely possible each car has a different combination of 'fast' or 'slow' wheels which might be impacting the roughness you're experiencing. In short, slight variations to each car may mean every car has a slightly different combination of each wheel type for optimal performance. Coaster 101 says it best: https://www.coaster101.com/2011/10/24/coasters-101-wheel-design/ It's also just entirely possible that as the wheels, bearings and track heat up with usage, and with sunlight, the ride experience can also differ from ride to ride across the course of a day as heat expansion absorbs the tolerances built in by the manufacturer (and is why on extremely hot days, Abyss is shut down).

updated link

You can't sell more fast track passes if you don't have queues for your rides!

Undulating waves are created with air pressure or water paddles. High pressure air, or a moving paddle displaces water at the deep end forming a wave. In simple terms, the air model is a giant fan that creates a depression in the water, and the water displaced from that depression has to go elsewhere - creating a ripple. So in simple terms the mechanics, and cost to operate is fairly simple. In terms of construction, these displacement style pools really only require the pool itself, and connected filtration, with the fans or paddles placed at one end. A water dump pool uses a lot more energy to operate. I'll use Thunder Bay as an example - since it was what I could find some stats for online - it uses a 100, 200 & 300 horsepower pump to move water through 3 metres vertical, along a length of 9 metres of pipe, into the dump reservoirs. On the numbers - it dumps 341,000 litres into the 7.6 million litre pool to cause the waves. To generate waves of a reasonable frequency, these pumps have to move that water constantly - achieving approximately 150,000 litres per minute at normal speed. You're then running a hydraulic system to open and close the reservoirs (there are eight chambers at Thunder Bay, so 8 separate hydraulic doors), although the hydraulic pump is a small part of the system energy wise, it's another moving part requiring maintenance etc (and in the Tbay example, they use vegetable oil rather than regular hydraulic fluids due to the risk of the oil entering the pool water. Finally, rather than a standard 'pool' construction, to ensure the water dumped flows to the 'shore', the system can't pump water from the deep end, or else those pumps would be countering the effect - so the pool needs a water return, so that excess water at the shoreline can return back to the pumphouse. I found this little graphic online that represents it well, and as you can see - large volumes of water return in a specially constructed channel, rather than just pipes like a pneumatic wavepool filtration system, to move large volumes. These channels, with their steel and concrete, naturally cost more to construct as well. TL:DR - yeah, what @djrappa said.

On the contrary, I wouldn't say it was unnecessary at all. I'm the crotchety old man that sits in the corner waggling his walking stick at the kids playing their records too loud, occasionally spouting pearls of wisdom that wise kids occasionally benefit from if they listen. The forums are a place for discussion - something each of us has equal right to do. ...And you don't contribute photos either - you contribute slideshows of photos and 5 second vine videos that are impossibly difficult to watch. You also create threads that are against the forum rules - such as this one - generically named 'dreamworld WWW update'. Honestly i'm surprised it's lasted this long as it is. I've tried to dialogue with you. Privately i've tried to explain to you what it is that you're doing that's annoying people. Several others have politely pointed it out, and you don't seem to get the message - so at that point you lose all restraint from me, and i'm gonna let you know about it. Honestly, this world is creating too many fucking snowflakes that think the world should adjust to suit them, instead of the other way around.

That's rich coming from a person who sarcastically commented "closed today. awesome" on a ride that's in technical rehearsal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_rehearsal Before major attractions celebrate their grand opening, they open periodically to the public during the two or three week period leading up to the grand opening. This allows the park to get team members fully trained in running the attraction with actual guests, and it also allows the park to work out any remaining kinks in the system. These unannounced, unpublished openings are often called soft openings. The catch is that there is never a schedule given to the public, and these rehearsals may last an hour, a few hours, or just a few minutes… it all depends on how much training is needed and whether or not problems develop. *(It is a contrast that the WMBW social media team announced it was open to social media, instead of 'soft open' - so the first word you get of technical rehearsal is at the ride entrance - so boo to the park) Honestly - although you've only posted a couple of times, you've been a member for at least a month. I'd have thought you'd have at least a basic idea of the vibe here. If you're going to walk into the middle of a conversation and then expect everyone to change how they're conversing because you don't like it - you're gonna have a bad time.