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It's a shame that the current norm for Australian theme parks when talking about something that is less than positive is to just go hush-hush. Village is guilty of doing the exact same thing after they demolished the interior of Scooby Doo and a large number of guests were left confused and frustrated. When I visited in the peak season last year, I don't think I saw anybody come off that attraction looking satisfied. Our theme parks need more transparency. They're worried that they'll be giving us ammunition to attack the parks, but all we want to know is what on earth is going on. Radio silence isn't an option in this day and age.

Where's Sky Voyager? Dreamworld's biggest ride in 20 years is nowhere to be seen It has been heralded as a major component of Dreamworld's turnaround strategy. But with 2018 behind us and the peak holiday season drawing to a close, there's still no Sky Voyager. Click here to continue reading

Whilst probably not of too much interest to most of you, thought i'd upload some photos and a bit of a trip report from a visit just prior to Christmas that i've only just got to. All in all i think the Shaun the Sheep integration in the park is fantastic. Multiple photo opps with some quality statues all over the park starting from the carpark walkway. The show is entertaining for the kids, and a fresh concept for the park, definitely done "in house" as opposed to a port from somewhere else - my only complaint would be the need for air con or more fans in the area The tractor ride is simple, but i had hoped it would have been more elaborate. It is literally a 4-5 minute ride from in front of the current Stockman show paddock, up the path between the main building and the kangaroo walk through/photo shop, past the bird feeding area (which has a "stop" for departing passengers only, no one can get on at this point, though its only 1 minute from the main stop anyway). It would be have been nice for it to take in the surrounds of the park or the extremities at least and turn it into a 10-15 min ride. The tractor/train itself is well theme. The kids playground is just that... the waterplay area i missed as we were heading to Wet N Wild afterwards. The new building up towards to the top of the park ("Adventure Camp") is quite good - it has air con (yay) and bean bags/seats to sit down and relax with STS playing on the screen. There is free colouring/arts stations for the kids. There is also an upcharge activity which i have to say is actually well worth it and not just a money making gimmick. For $10 you get a set of clay and instructions on how to build a clay shaun the sheep and his dog friend (NFI what his name is). Once complete, you take it over to a little station that is set up as a farm with toy animals etc, and using an ipad you make your own little claymation clip (basically making small movements between each photo, which are then all put together into a clip - roughtly 50-60 shots making a 5 or so second clip - exactly the same process claymation animation uses, which is then emailed to you. The additions have probably padded the park out to a 3/4 day experience if you wanted to see all the shows - but given we had seen them all and really just went to see the new additions, it was about 2 hours before we were burning up and headed to WnW.

That’s the spirit, close your water coaster during summer.

Yes, I think the general lack of communication is part of what makes it so frustrating. I was at the park last week and a tourist was having a go at a staff member because they thought the ride was open. I think just extra communication would help. Delays happen, but it's how the parks handle it that should be judged and in this respect Dreamworld have done an average job.

SW have uploaded the parks full maintenance listing for the year

Agreed - pobody's nerfect. Modern marketing & communications is about creating a conversation - the biggest players like Universal & Disney have mostly abandoned the veil of secrecy for this exact reason. While not directly related, this Forbes article also highlights how brands can actually create higher satisfaction by solving customer's problems well than customers who had no problem to begin with.

If you would like you can go through old topics and see me confirming shockwave would be a disko coaster even though people called me a liar, god go back to the roller-coaster.net.au confirming MDMC was an Intamin. Shit go way back before WWW I was at blue lagoon and announced the rumoured plans for 3 different parks in the early 2000's. I am not a dylan or an Andrew H I have a proven rep here and you cannsee that in past posts from www worker and www worker 2.0. So please take your thumb out your arse and stop being such a dick. I said expect soft openings next week aka this week that post was made January 5th go back too your camera.

WnW have released their full maintenance listing for the year. Nothing unusual, with most slides closing during their usual periods, and Calypso Beach and Surfrider closing for the Winter

Any decent project manager would almost certainly have known in October (probably earlier) that it wouldn’t be ready on time, and by November would have been admitting that to their colleagues. Strange that they didn’t pivot the marketing spend to April school holidays, where Dreamworld would have had some clear air (given Village are promoting everything for summer).

"Hey, it's Dreamworld, I know it's a day or two before Christmas, but we need a run of 10k park maps done, some billboard footers redone..." "Yeah, everyone at the office has taken the Christmas week off, so it wouldn't hit production until mid first week January after New Years. Do you have the artwork ready?" "Well, no, our whole team has taken the week off too." Rinse and repeat for who-ever's doing their ad-buys, who's producing the radio segments, looking after Digital spend (Adsense etc.) - I actually feel for marketing here, they've been dealt some average cards & they're the ones copping it despite it not being their problem and having to deal with it with no support.

I'd imagine it'd be really, really, really, really, really, really difficult to get anyone to step away from their family and do work on Christmas.

Maybe they thought it would open on time?

DW have begun adding dates for this years maintenance schedule. At this stage WWW doesn't have anything scheduled, but worth while pointing out that BuzzSaw will be closing again for maintenance next month, HWSW opening date has been pushed back again, the Dreamworld Express is closed for the next couple months and the Claw is will be closed for almost 2 months as well.

The project has had multiple changes that have massively changed the overall scope. To put it less eloquently, there's only so much you can do as a project manager if the client keeps changing what they want, which has clearly happened when you look over previous interviews about Sky Voyager to now. Perhaps if they had kept to the original plan that the previous CEO (Craig Davidson) had that didn't involve scrapping the facades and keeping to the original size of the cinema they'd still have enough fudge time to keep ahead of the unforeseen issues they seem to be facing. Instead, we had Paul Callendar on record on the 20th December on the PCL interview saying that they were still adding things to the final film just days before it was supposed to open. To be honest, it sounds like Weiss made some major changes to the project when Craig resigned, whilst expecting it to still be delivered on time. And let's be clear here, I dunno of too many $17+ million dollar rides that were conceived and built within 18 months, let alone under 12, let alone under 6. Even if you're a multi-millionaire, you can't just throw extra money and manpower and expect them to be solved on schedule.

Am I right in believing that Trolls Village will be departing in April? Seem to remember it being stated as a 12 month attraction?

Misters were present when I went on the 8th Good to see Rampage was actually running full cycles. I must've just gone on a weird day

Three months downtime for the "train"? If only they had a highly reliable option instead of what they are using now!

The new showtime listing has also been uploaded to their website. Definitely think they've nailed the style now. I thought what they had was good, but this just cleans it up and makes it easier to read.

Yes I can see how those issues could have arisen, and been to some extent hard or impossible for Dreamworld to control. However I'm pretty sure they could have at least not put signs all around the park indicating it's open. They could have left the cover over the sign on the building itself, and they could probably have arranged for the billboards to have a temporary sticker partially covering the "Now you can fly", and reading "Opening Soon". They could also have used their website and social media channels to publicise that it's opening soon (preferably with an approximate date), and as has been said they could even have maybe informed sites like Parkz of what the delay is and when the new opening date is likely to be.

This tiptoeing is the number one thing I dislike about our parks, especially VRTP. Rather than just saying the same thing to everyone. Maybe expand on generic statements and give actual reasons or some idea what is happening. Would make things a lot easier and more understandable for everyone

The trouble is that SkyVoyager is EVERYWHERE to be seen! Not only is the building looking complete externally, but they've removed the wraps from the sign, and added it to the park maps. There's banners at the park entrance saying "Now you can fly", and much bigger ones for kilometers around on the M1, all of which strongly imply the ride is open! I don't mind that it's not open yet. I'd much rather they take longer and it opens fully operational and meets or exceeds guest expectations right from the beginning (unlike Scooby-Doo), and of course most importantly, it's SAFE! What's wrong is all the premature marketing as described above. Surely someone at Dreamworld could have ensured this was delayed until the ride was actually ready to open.

The positioning of the Flying Carousel has been confirmed by Brad Loxley, the Senior Amusement Park Manager, and that is on he old Flying saucer site. Of course, that was well over 12 months ago but I dont think that plans have changed in that period of time. In reality, I dont think you could get a better site than this for this type of ride- the elevated position of the ride will give it an extra thrill factor as the ride rotates and swings out across the Midway. Will look fabulous!! In other news Brad Loxley, the aforementioned senior rides manager at Luna Park, has left the park to take up a position in Vietnam's Sun World. This is a huge loss for the park as Brad had worked at the park for well over 20 years and is well respected in the industry. I had managed to strike up an excellent relationship with Brad over the years and conversed on quite a number of subjects relating to the park, he was nothing but a consummate professional and his love for Luna Park was great to see. Luna Park is now looking for a senior Manager to fill his shoes!!! Anyone on these pages care to apply?? https://www.ausleisure.com.au/news/brad-loxley-to-depart-luna-park-sydney-after-20-years-to-join-vietnams-sun-world Its great to see an Australian do extremely well in the industry!! Good luck Brad, we wish you all the best from the forums here at Parkz.

Your sarcasm detector needs work Push....

I said it for Wild West Falls and I'll say it again, throw a bunch of vapers in the disco room and pay them in fidget spinners to make it foggy.

A reminder of what the food options used to be once upon a time - Seafood Boil-Up Seafood Chowder Cobb Meat or Seafood Po Boys Gumbo Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalepenos BBQ Chicken Wings Orleans Dog Pulled Pork Roll Slow Cooked Ribs Jambalaya Buffalo Chicken Wings Millionaire's Bacon Key Lime/Pecan Pie

No one has ridden, it’s not been signed off by WPHS yet.

I don't think @Www worker 3.0 has ever led us too far astray in the past, I believe that they've ridden it. As to the soft opening, they've got you there. But things get delayed too.

I think this where the Flying Carousel is actually supposed to go.

History has shown that once a new ride is open, what we see is what we get. Some examples where the Show/Theme has been scaled back / below expectations from original plans on our more themed rides. - WWF. Version 1 and then worse, Version 2. - Justice League. - Superman - Storm. I hope for some minor technical adjustments to the existing show such as lighting but doubt Projection screens/so called mapping animation would be changed from what is already there. Are the colourful Lasers as per the Ad now working in the main room? Also a good amount of fog juice in that area would do wonders. @djrappa pointed out pink fog in the marketing image. Adding fog/mefog or steam to some parts of the dark ride section could also be a simple way to diffuse the lameness of some of those effects, effectively blurring the sightlines and adding atmosphere.

So dreamworld are still at it. The public facing representatives are kept in the dark and cop the abuse, while those in the ivory tower have no idea what it's really like in the park.

I'm going to assume you're intelligent enough to know what I meant, so I won't answer that.

Firstly, I didn’t abuse you, and despite you deserving an abusive retort, I won’t, as hopefully a mod will simply ban you for being abusive for zero reason. Carrying on the way you did just discredits you further

Got to ride today, while its not soarin it's the best thing to happen to DW for a long time.

I believe it is commonly known as "Dreamworld"