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So because the ride doesn’t suit your child, it’s irrelevant in the grand scheme of things as a DW asset? Sky Voyager* will be an attraction 95% of people will be capable of riding, and if they have executed it as promised, it will be well received by the majority of the market. DCR is the best ride on the coast by far, but it’s market demographic is much smaller than that of Sky Voyager*. Both groups of parks have faults, and no one is doubting DW is well behind in the game, but Sky Voyager* is the best type of attraction for them right now - large target demographic, unique to the park, easy to market, no perceived risk factors. *yeah I had skyrider there first...

Yeah, Ardent are definitely selling down the track. But we can't just stop having an opinion on the park because their plan is to sell it? They are currently, actively investing in the park which is what matters since they have neglected the park for years. Also, when it comes to Village and the parks being their "core business", didn't Ardent just sell off everything but Main Event and the Theme Parks? As Main Event is a US based operations, that would mean their "core business" in Aus is... you guessed it, theme parks.

Ardent are investing to pretty up Dreamworld for a sale, that’s all. Their long term plan is for someone else to own the park so they can open more FECs in the US. Village, at least, see the parks as part of their core business, and despite the occasional misstep have done a far better job of knowing when to refurbish and when to retire older attractions.

For the record - If people want to waste their time writing bogus reviews then that's fine, kudos to you for the creativity. But when their responses start becoming abusive and offensive that's where we draw the line. We've removed a whole lot of posts here. Rest assured no one has missed out on anything other than a bit of fan fiction. 🙄 Every indication I have is that the ride has only been experienced by Brogent employees as the formal handover has not yet taken place.

Sydney New Year's Eve revealed on the 6th of December that Luna Park Sydney's Ferris Wheel will feature as part of the event for the 1st time. Like with Vivid Sydney, they are making the most of the lighting upgrade to The Ferris Wheel. From the Sydney New Year's Eve media release:

I'm not saying DW are perfect or deserve to be held in the same regard as Village. Hell, I jumped on the bash DW wagon for a solid amount of time too. But it's just infuriating to see people instantly write off DW because they don't have a hypercoaster or because of stupid reasons like, they don't have any walkthrough attractions and village do. Ardent are only now pouring money back into their parks, so it really doesn't seem fair to compare a park that has had continued cash injection for the past few years to a park that is only now investing money. I'm not arguing that they deserve equal praise or criticism, I'm saying, if you're going to criticise or praise while comparing them, do it on the merits that they share, instead of comparing apples to oranges. That's like comparing Aussie World to Knotts Berry Farm, they are both lovely little parks, but the one with more money to throw is always going to win. That's when you'd start looking at the individual aspects that make up each theme park and start comparing those. Numbers are important from a business point of view but the general public doesn't care how much the park is making or how many people are going through the gate when deciding which park to visit.

Recently I made a trip to Disneyland Paris, and wow what an awesome time we had. Unfortunately it was freezing cold, with temperatures reaching down to -6 degrees, plus strong winds as well. This was my first Disney park and I loved it all. My girlfriend had a busted knee, so on arrival we went in to hire a wheel chair. They were very accommodating, and with this, got fast track for all rides, and only had to wait the queue time, rather than booking in advance. And on a number of occasions, the staff were very accommodating to us because of the wheelchair. We started the day by visiting Walt Disney Studios. Unfortunately we didn’t get early access due to a ticketing issue we had at the hotel (To he explained later). We went and created our Fast Pass for Crush’s Coaster, and then went to ride Tower of Terror. I was well aware of the rides story and experience, but it was still quite a shock for how fast it dropped and went back up. My girlfriend had no idea what the ride was about, so she absolutely loved the surprise she got from it. Crush’s Coaster was also very cool and unique. I’ve never been on a spinning coaster before, and the way the track was laid out, it had some awesome air time and corners, along with a pretty good storyline. We then went and created a fast pass for Ratatouille. With the longest wait so far, we went and explored the park a bit more and checked out its other areas. The Toy Story Playland had some decent rides and theming. The park overall did seem a bit thrown together, with rides just in places because that’s where they fit best rather than immersive zones. The shopping and dining was also minimal, but reasonable. It was then our time to ride Ratatouille, which was great. The theming, story and immersion of the ride within the sets. If people aren’t familiar with the rude, it uses a magnetic track, with 3 cars moving throughout the ride alongside each other. It was very smooth, quick and you felt like you were within the scenes. Can’t wait to see how they improve on it with the version coming to Epcot. The only other ride I would’ve liked to go on was Rock n Rollercoaster, but unfortunately it was having technical issues at the time. After this we made our way over Disneyland. We started by going to get lunch in Fantasyland. The food was great, and they were very accommodating with the wheelchair, by taking us to the front of the line, and moving tables around for it to fit in. We then made our way through the park checking everything out. This lead us to Thunder Mountain to create a fast pass. Once created we made our way down Main Street, checking out all the shops. After making quite a few purchases it was time for our fast pass. As we got to the ride, everyone was exiting as the ride had just broken down (And unfortunately remained closed for the rest of the day). So we went on Pirates of the Caribbean. Definitely a great ride, and thankfully we didn’t get wet. Continuing through the park we went to make a fast pass for Peter Pan, but unfortunately this has also just broken down. So we made our way to Tomorrowland, where we got to ride Space Mountain. While not the smoothest coaster was definitely really enjoyable. This area of the park definitely did see quite empty/uneventful, despite Buzz Lightyear having of the parks longest queues (so we have that ride a miss). The weather did suddenly change, so we went back to Main Street and explored even more of the stores, until it cleared. Peter Pan did finally reopen so we created a Fast Pass for that. The ride wasn’t overly smooth, but was really immersive and enjoyable. It was then time for the parade and fireworks, which were both really great. And that was it, my day at my first Disney park came to an end. It was a shame we couldn’t get on a couple more rides, but unfortunately the weather, ride closures (especially Thunder Mountain) and timing wasn’t always in our favour. But overall it was a great day, and can’t wait to go to another Disney park. For two nights we stayed in the Disney Village Nature Resort, about 15 minutes drive from the parks. The resort was beautiful, and in the warmer months would be amazing, especially for families. You could spend an entire week just at the resort without even visiting the parks because there were so many activities to see and do (so I would highly recommend). The check in process was quite strange as it closed at 7pm, a bit rushed, so we couldn’t get out park tickets that night to get into the parks early (which would’ve helped a lot) and because the resort is so big, it took about 10 minutes to walk too (no issue), and the resort had very nice lighting, but not enough, so was difficult to navigate at first. The room was however very nice and had everything anyone would need. Overall the resort was very nice, and the parks were awesome (more Disneyland because it was more immersive), so I highly recommend if anyone was in the area, but would suggest two days for both the parks to make sure you can do everything.

I found this to be a very informative video of the new RMC Raptor coasters. It delves deep into how RMC have designed/engineered the Raptor track, layout and trains in order to deliver a major thrill coaster at a fraction of the cost of a regular tubular steel thrill coaster - which is the ultimate purpose of the RMC Raptor product. What was particularly interesting, is the reported cost of the coaster from the video creator. Probably should be taken with a grain of salt, but if that's true it would be the perfect coaster for up and coming aussie parks (e.g. Funfields).

Needs more love. If you want to skip the below i'll simply say that it seems that it seems like it's still very much a work in progress. Lots of technology used and lots of it still needs refinement (and a bit more coin spent) to bring it up to either what they're selling in their TVC's or up to the standard it was at previously. Main queue line hall is still very sparse - black walls where there was facades previously plus the same behind the scenes reel is still showing. If it's "next generation" i'm sure it's worth the money spent to put something new or additional on the screens because without much else to look at all eyeballs are on those screens. I suspect something unexpected happened there with the main hall facades and am guessing it'll return soon, so not a big deal. Strobes are missing from load. Are they still there? A lot of the dark ride component is as it was which is great to see - new facades do blend in well and it's hard to figure out what was actually old and new. Great job there. First sign of newness are two gigantic screens in the dark ride section (not project mapping) with videos of the purple gargoyles trying to jump at you. It's fine but a bit meh for my liking. It's definitely missing something (like a facade to project map onto, methinks.) Second newness you see happens as you approach the swinging swords - there's a giant green screen that sticks out like a sore thumb that's used for a big projection screen effect that succeeds the mirrors - essentially more purple gargoyles seem to appear from behind you and try and attack you. Again, it's okay but with a bit of love and refinement of the timing between cars and effects would mean you wouldn't see that green screen and the illusion wouldn't be ruined right off the bat. I think personally taking the super old school approach of something like a simple pepper's ghost effect would've been way more effective, but to each their own - at least in this situation it's an easy fix so not a big complaint from me, and if it can be improved upon and refined it'll be great. TV Screens line the lift. Great idea, but needs way more love. One car (and i'd say only the front row of the front car) gets to see Scrappy, with the rest seeing two screens that are out of sync with the front screen's faux-rock wall graphics - meaning when the lift hill moves it's not only out of sync with what's physically happening but the screens are out of sync with each other. Again, just needs love to get right. High zone (party room) is strange. The turntable is a...thing? Is it a mirror room now with kebab-shop LEDs? Is it a breaking mirror room because of the car entering it? Is it supposed to be a laser and i'm being zapped? It doesn't make sense and I don't get the story being told there. It's from here through to the end where I become really lost - one laser was working in the high zone but there was plenty of random props on the floor of the high zone. Just seems off. Cool strobey lights and effects for the drops along the track but neither seemed to be in sync when the train zoomed past. Again not a big deal, that'll take time to get right, so no complaints there, but the cool, epic track was missing (is it supposed to be playing?) and with one laser it just seems flat now. Not hard to get back to being super awesome, just needs someone with the right expertise to spend a bit more coin to bring it up its former glory. The last scene with the faux drop has more projection screens. I much preferred the faux drop being hidden by plenty of haze and a laser cutting across. At this point there's been so many gargoyles randomly jumping out at you with the volume set to 11 that the novelty of the jump-scare has worn off. I'd maybe try something different, or fun, or novel, or something with the screens to round off the story. Ends back in a Tiki room theme along the brakes with a jump scare at the end which I will admit I liked. TLDR - I walked away kind of lost of words - i'm not sure I like it yet - it feels rushed. Is all hope lost? Nah, it's salvageable with some more love, which I hope it gets and it's what i'd like to see in the future - it's fine for the summer break, and then come February, having someone spend a bit more time getting the timing bang on, spending some time getting the screens (and some real project mapping) happening and even getting a specialist in to do the lasers right will make this ride epic.

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.

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.

Can't disagree with much of what you've said there @aaronm. It would be interesting to see what the original brief for the project was to know whether marketing went over the top or the project itself under-delivered.