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I got back from the states just over a week ago, but I spent my final day in LA at Disneyland before catching my late evening flight. Due to circumstances beyond my control I had about 8 hours at Disneyland, which was enough time to try Smugglers Run and have a good look around the new Star Wars: Galaxy Edge, plus have a go on all my other favorites (Yes to Indy, no to Autopia). Still, its an expensive day out, Admission is $150 USD, plus buying a few of the special food items and a souvenir mug meant it turned out to be a day out worth over $300 AUD. Totes worth it though. You can see pics here: https://www.parkz.com.au/parks/US/Anaheim/Disneyland/ride/4314-Star_Wars_Galaxys_Edge https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/ride-2449-Millennium_Falcon_Smugglers_Run As for Galaxys Edge, its’s awesomely themed, with plenty of detail, with a mix of architectural styles. Perhaps though there was an over-reliance of random electrical boxes and cables everywhere, and throwing varnish / scuffed paint around everywhere willy nilly to make it look aged. On the plus side, they’ll never need to paint anything. The Morroccan inspired architecture is a real treat. I think the main shortcoming though is that there's not a whole lot for youger kids to do compared to the rest of DL, it seems heavily geared to Star Wars fans with money to burn in the shops. The entry to the area is quite sublte, there’s no big entry sign, you just pass through a tunnel, the music changes, and there you are. In particular the rockwork was impressive, I liked how the really tall stuff was done just a tiny bit lighter to give the impression it was further away with the atmosphere in front of it. I thought some of it felt a bit static though. A lot of parked space ships with nothing in terms of sound or light or vibration, and I was hoping they’d have more droids everywhere whirring and buzzing. Looked all very beautiful, just lacking a certain energy. As for the area, one end was a sort of marketplace/ town area, with interconnected plazas and several buildings, and this is where you find Smugglers Run. The other end was a bit more natural feeling, with essentially a main path lined by futuristic lamp posts and arid bushland (Plus a couple of token space ships which were fenced off and some container type gift stands) , in some ways it felt like being in the picnic area of an Australian national park. On one side, behind a layer of scrub is rocky façade and the queue lines for Rise of the Resistance. I sort of couldn’t get excited for this bit. Obviously Rise of the resistance will anchor this end, (But even then it’s largely a hidden attraction) but what it basically means is that once you get past Splash Mountain, its more or less just a path with nothing much to see for a good 300m or so until you get to the marketplace bit of Galaxys edge…It feels really strange compared to the energy of the rest of Disneyland (Like the lively bit in Adventureland for example). Kind of feels like they need another restaurant, or things living in the bush, or some sort of minor attraction to anchor this end and give it some life. But down the marketplace end, it’s great, I stuck my head in every shop, which are oozing with details and animatronics. They’ve made the decision to go super realistic, so there are no signs for any shops, and there are only subtle hints (Or not so subtle, in the case of the First Order shop) outside each one as to what they contain, for example the light sabre place has some religious looking statues. The lack of signage means a bit of trial and error to find what you want. The droid place was cool and reminded me a bit of star tours queue, with robot parts running around on conveyor belts overhead. The marketplace section is the most interesting, with ramshackle shade made from cooling coil panels and bits of wire, and various handicrafts. A lot of the merch seemed geared towards full on cosplayers, with full jedi outfits and flight suits and the like. Again, for realism they’ve shied away from too many T shirts and products with “Star Wars” on it. Where printed T shirts do exist, it’s much more subtle in their design. Merch on the whole seemed less expensive than I expected. A storm trooper themed mug was only $17 USD. As for the food, it’s my favourite in the park, and the menu items feel more at home in a laneway café than a theme park. If you want something more sophisticated than chicken tenders or burgers, come here. Over the course of the day I tried a few things. Kaduu Ribs, pork ribs with a nice sauce, very little gristle, and this lovely vinegary cabbage slaw. Fried Endorian Tip Yip, a slab of fried chicken on bubble and squeak, and this salsa verde type gravy. Moof Juice – Sort of tasted like that Lavaburst fruit punch you get a maccas in the US, but with a bit of pineapple and a tiny edge of smoke flavor. Not full bodied enough for me. Pink orange colour like grapefruit juice. Meiloorun Juice – A bit more citrus and sharper, and more refreshing, but again, not that full bodied. Ronto Wrap - This was like the thinking mans hot dog / best Bunnings snag ever. Was a spicy sausage, plus thin slices of peppered pork, plus slaw, in a pita. I shall try to recreate this at home. Blue Milk – The milks aren’t really milks, but rather a frozen icy frappe type consistency made of plant based milk. It tastes a bit tutti frutti and reminds me of those frozen Weis Bars, but had a bit of a citrus finish. Green Milk – This one tasted like the scent of those automatic air fresheners in the toilets at shopping centers, a lot more citrus, and bit floral and fragrant too. It’s not cheap though! $8 a glass! I’d happily have more, full bodied but not heavy going. I also spent $5.50 usd on a 400ml fancy bottle of diet coke. I didn’t get into the Cantina, it was booked out, so no Carbon Freeze for me. F. The one and only ride is Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run. For my first go I did the full queue, where you first wrap around the outside of the millennium falcon, past rows of cargo crates etc that form the queue. You eventually head inside and ramp up through a workshop area, with a giant engine on display (Again, I thought it looked great but felt a bit static for a giant workshop. A couple of robot droids doing work in here would have really livened it up. You then loop around on a top floor, lookout out over the roof of the Falcon and the area as a whole, a great vista. Heading into the preshow room, a ultra realistic Hondo animatronic tells you about your mission. You’re borrowing the Millennium Falcon to pinch a shipment of a rare element from another planet. With that you board down a jetway tunnel, with a slightly bouncing floor, and enter the millennium falcon itself. Before you enter, a CM hands out your card for your role. I got gunner. They have different colour coded cards for each boarding group, and a few boarding groups are milling around in the main room of the falcon, so this gives fans a few minutes to look around and enjoy the interior, sit at the chess table and so on. In what feels like only moments you are called up to board, and led down a hallway into the cockpit. Unfortunately we had some 7 year old kid in the pilots seat, so we crashed into everything and anything. The way the controls work is someone controls steering, someone controls up and down, the two gunners just gun by spamming the shoot button (you have an option to set up auto aim, and I did this setting by accident ugh), and the engineers at the back just button bash to fix problems with the ship, and also fire a harpoon to nab the shipment of the rare element. For everyone not piloting, it feels a lot like mission space in that you just blindly hit whatever button is flashing. You cant fail the mission, but you do get a score based on how well you do your task. At the end of the day it is just a simulator, just a very well themed one. Second time round, I got engineer, and this has a surprising amount of influence on the health of your ship. If you react fast with your button presses, you can repair a lot of damage and get a good score for the group as a whole. The ride film itself lacked a certain level of soul and humor you get on rides like the new Star Tours, there aren’t any characters diving for cover as you fly around, it mostly takes place on an industrial alien planet, with a lot of the action focusing on following a flying freight train and avoiding tie fighters, to steal the shipment. It feels a bit like playing something like F Zero. At one point there is a tense moment when the ship plunges down a shaft before pulling up at the last second, but otherwise feels fairly on the rails. Maybe to improve it, it needs a bit more drama on the way or an impromptu encounter with a well known villain where you really have to fight (not just pick off tie fighters) Overall its quite good, and well polished, and an impressive technical achievement in terms of having something animated on the fly, but for most people, I’ll be solid quality simulator attraction. Cant wait to see how Rise of the Resistance turns out.

There is some post processing but actually really simple (compared to some of my other work) - mainly adjustments to shadows and highlights (is a high contrast subject after all), and a slight boost to vibrancy. Basically the simple edits you would normally take to process a RAW file - the light was really that brilliant on the day. Here's a few more from the day too.

The issue I have with storm is after the splash down, it ends to quickly. With the length of splash down required and possibly the turning of the boats it wasn possible. But even just an S shaped route would have added something extra to it. Also when the splash down happens you can see through to the start. If you are in a wrecked ship, why can we see the start of the storm. And finally, the exit path, while it’s cool to watch the splash down, they should have made it as if you are walking through the ship and exiting out of one of its doors. It had the chance to be an awesome ride and replacement of BT, but for me, it just misses the mark. But still a good family coaster

Completely disagree, because Storm works perfectly as a family thrill and as a step up from BT, but just shy of the extreme thrill rides. Plus I think for what the ride is its themed quite well, if it just had the fire effects like the concept render showed it would be the cherry on top. The park would have been well complemented having the two living together in harmony at the park. One a dark water ride and the other a more thrilling water roller coaster with themed elements. And let's not forget at one stage the park was looking at placing Storm elsewhere (albeit out into the carpark).

I must make comment and say that over the past few times I have visited Dreamworld over the course of the last week, I have noticed no closures or delays of the ride which is extremely unusual for this attraction, in fact, I did not notice a single delay on any ride, whereas almost every visit there will be multiple delays across the board. Hell, I remember this attraction being closed more than it was open during 2017 and 2018. On recent visits, TOT store has still been completely full of merch, with no customers, despite the sale being on. Most of the merch is extremely old, Big 9 thrill ride cups and shirts featuring Wipeout, etc etc. Dreamworld has by far had one of their most flawless years in terms of maintenance in 2019, and I applaud them for that. Rides have been swiftly delt with, with no extended maintenance on thrill rides. I would like to see them reducing open hours even further on TOT to suck out it's last juice until the next big ride. Even 11-2pm, it doesn't bother me. I guess this could be the last maintenance period for TOT and WWF ;(

Imagine how exciting finally getting some new slides on the Gold Coast would be!

I've just seen a new updated analysis of the situation. "SkyVoyager Opening Details" SkyVoyager is Dreamworlds long-awaited amazing new ride experience. Following many months of testing to ensure the highest safety standards, we are now very excited to announce that we have submitted an application to the relevant authorities who will carry out a final detailed assessment before approving the ride to be opened. As soon as this approval is granted, SkyVoyager will be opened! We anticipate that this may occur in the next few years, in a world of pure imagination."

Parkz has been saying for a while that it's not got long left. It looks a lot to me like it's being nursed through so they can make the inevitable closing date as far off as they can. I've said it before, announce the date it's going to close so peiple can visit and have their last rides, and announce that on closing day plans for the future will be announced. Announce new coaster, point out that new coaster has a feature which renders tot2 obsolete, and start building hype for the future.

I think some WD40 will fix the ride and will make it go higher on the tower. The parts are most likely seized so that should fix it .

Yea, because that worked so well with SV.

Try tell that to Movie World... they built half a roller coaster before they even acknowledged it even existed

They are brilliant photos. Would love to see some more from other parks when you come back. (SeaWorld 2020??)

I've never bitten my tongue so hard.

As I said, I saw this in a world of pure imagination! #themeparkaddict Yes it was very silly. That was my intention in response to some of the previous messages which added no new information.

Wow, that's an incredible colour without a filter (unless you did some post processing?) - nice shot! 🤜

That’s a cut any paste of what they have been saying January. There is no change

Hmmmm could've been repurposed in the new area.

Hey all, I just wanted to pop back and say thanks for everyone's advice and input. I was at Movie World on Monday. Had an absolute blast of a day, and had no issues with my bag. Locker for Superman, but everywhere else was fine. Queue times weren't too bad, although if I had a do-over I'd probably get a fast pass to skip some of those 30 minute waits. Had a blast with my camera too (off-ride, obviously - I love my landscape photography, and rollercoasters - duh - so was great to have brilliant conditions for that too) Just a big thanks for everyone's input and suggestions - made heading out solo much easier knowing what to expect. And now I want to come back and do it all again

Also, I saw someone on Facebook mention that a supplier of a major part for Tower of Terror had closed down. Obviously that’s a rumour at this point but seems plausible.

Well that was Greg Yong's decision so I guess he will go down same path with dreamworld.

Picture @themagician

If anyone is planning on visiting MW between August 12 and 18 for rides, probably best not too as 7 rides will be closed for maintenance