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On a recent trip to Malaysia, I got the chance to visit Genting SkyWorlds, located in the Genting Highlands, north of Kuala Lumpur. To get to the park we took an hours taxi ride (which was only about $25 each way using ‘Grab’, which is Malaysia’s version of Uber) and then a 10 minute gondola ride. The park is about 1.8km above sea level, so despite it being very hot and humid in Kuala Lumpur, it is much much cooler up at the park (so if you visit definitely take a jumper). Before I took about the park, if you’re planning on visiting the park it’s probably worth staying at one of the many hotels in the Genting Highlands. There is so much to see and do up there on top of the theme park. Its owned/operating by Resorts World, the same company that operate Universal Studios Singapore and many of the other activities at Sentosa Island. We arrived at the park for opening and it’s a very grand entrance. You enter from inside the mall and the first thing you see is the fountain with the parks sign and Mad Ramp Peak in the background, a perfect photo op. The weather was perfect and at this point, the crowd level was very low. We decided to make our way around the park in an anti-clockwise direction, starting with Rio. We’re big fans of Rio, so I was very excited to the film come to life in a theme park land and it did not disappoint. The whole land was very well themed, with Carnivale music played throughout the whole lane and for us it was pure joy. The main attraction for the area is Samba Gliders, a Setpoint Swing Thing suspended coaster, with each gondola seating four people (two facing forward, two facing backwards). The queue was very well themed and provides a great outlook over the land (as the station is on the second level). We went on it twice so we could ride it in both directions and facing forward was a lot more enjoyable. The ride was relatively comfortable as it was lap bar restraints, but I just found see where you were going to be a more enjoyable experience. The land also featured a carousel and a Zamperla Demolition Derby. Next up with ‘Epic’, an animated film based around little people living in your garden. This land featured a Zierer Flying Gondola and the main attraction, an indoor flume ride. A side note to make here for those who don’t know, Genting SkyWorlds is actually constructed over multiple levels. Nearly all of the indoor rides are actually located underground, creating more usable space to fit more attractions. So for this flume ride, it does something rather unconventional. You enter the well themed queue and station on ground level, board your boat and then the main drop is actually first. You then make your way through the flume ride and then the lift hill is at the end, with a very small drop. The rides story is a shortened version of the movie, however it tells the story well and uses a mix between practical sets, animatronics and screens. It’s not at a Disney level, but it’s been executed very well. Next up was Ice Age, the biggest and most popular land in the park. It features a flat ride, stage show, trackless dark ride and mine train style coaster. The trackless dark ride, Ice Age: Expedition Thin Ice, was okay. There was no wait for this one, but this queue was one of the longest queues I’ve ever walked through. It took us about 7 minutes to get the loading area and the ride only last 3-4 minutes. And it was a bit underwhelming. It’s more kid focused, but the story did feel well thought through, there were a couple practical sets, but it was mostly screens. The coaster, Acorn Adventure was manufactured by Beijing Shibaolai Mine Train, making this my first ever coaster by a Chinese manufacturer. The queue was very well done (as all of the rides at this park are), the layout was a lot of fun, with a large helix wrapping around a waterfall. However, this thing was very rough and uncomfortable. It really throws you around, the seats aren’t comfortable and this was my first time riding a coaster with shin guards? Why are they there when it’s a sit down coaster? After this we ate at Bucks Cafe, which has a wide variety of grab n go style food and as its Malaysia, very well priced. The next land was Andromeda Base, which features Seprent Slayer, Batwing Spaceshot and Sky Climb (Sea World throwback). We didn’t go on any of these, but once again, well themed. This land does also feature a Dynamic Attractions SFX Coaster and it does look to be complete, however it’s been listed as ‘under construction/future attraction’ since the park opened. And by the state of the ride from what you can see, if it does ever open, it’s got a lot of work that needs to be done. Since we visited, it’s actually been removed as a future attraction from the parks website and is greyed out on the park maps. So this makes me think we might not ever see this ride come to life, however the parks lineup of attraction needs that one big hero coaster, so I hope they get it going or build something that they can actually get operating. Next is a throwback to the 2005 animated movie Robots. This was the parks smallest land with only two rides, which are actually stacked on top of each other. They were flat rides that didn’t interest us, but they were very well executed. Liberty Lane is their San Francisco land that is more of a themed pathway that connects two large lands, however for me, this land contained the parks standout attraction. Invasion of the Planet of the Apes is a 3D trackless dark ride. The queue was one of the most immersive and well themed queues I’ve ever been in. It was very well detailed and featured a pre-ride show to set up the storyline. The vehicles were similar to the style of transformers/spider-man at universal parks and you went through rooms that featured large practical sets and screens. The story was really well done and I was totally immersed into it. At the end it does feel like it needed one more scene as it felt like the ride abruptly ended, but otherwise I loved it. The final rides we went on were in Central Park, with there being an Aerobat, Independence Day: Defiance (flying theatre) and Night at the Museum: Midnight Mayhem (shooting dark ride). The flying theatre caught me off guard with how much I enjoyed it. The screen covered a lot more area so when riding, you couldn’t actually see the edge, making it much more immersive. The story was pretty good and made good use of the flying theatre aspect of the ride. Definitely worth checking out. And finally, the shooting dark ride had a very well themed queue, really well detailed and felt like you were in a museum. The ride itself however was fine, just a typical dark right with little to no theming between the screens. There is one more land, Eagle Mountain, however this land just contains one attraction, which is also coming soon. ‘Mad Ramp Peak - Full Throttle Racing’ is a Dynamic Attractions Duel Power Coaster that looks like it will be a lot of fun. The attraction is very well themed, with heaps of rock work and waterfalls throughout its layout. This attraction/land can be seen very all corners of the park and will make a massive difference to the park and offer something unique and thrilling. This is said to be opening this year, so hopefully it does because I think it will elevate the park and put it on the map for a lot of people who aren’t sure if it’s worth the visit. In general, the crowd levels were pretty low with a maximum wait of 20 minutes for rides, but most only had a 5-10 minute wait. There were also quite a few other food outlets and stores throughout the park that all offered something different. You can definitely tell the park hasn’t yet got the crowds they were hoping for because all of the merch was on a heavily discounted sale (and it was all of good quality). I definitely recommend visiting this park if you’re in Malaysia, especially once Mad Ramp Peak is open. And as a comparison because I know a few people on here have been to USS (which I’ve been too twice), I preferred this park. For my final score, I’d give Genting SkyWorlds an 8/10.

I did say I'd get around to this eventually. Let me preface this by saying - I went with my family. Ages 6-67. I was more interested in enjoying my time than taking 1000 photos, so there aren't many photos that don't have family members in them. If I have some photos to share of a particular thing I will, but otherwise I’ve included photos found online and attributed wherever I can. I'm going to cover off on more than just Universal itself, but i'll try to group things logically. This was our first post-covid trip out of country, so i'll include some details there too. This is pretty much in ‘itinerary order’ and it’s what we found worked for us but happy to answer any questions if you’re planning a trip as we did loads of research before visiting to decide what we did (and didn’t) want to go to. Travel We departed Brisbane on September 12th - a trip postponed by 2.5 years (originally planned to go in April 2020). Our bookings were made while Singapore was still quite heavy on restrictions for covid, however almost all of these were dropped days before our arrival. Masks were required on public transport and in health settings and that was about it. We travelled with Qantas, and received frequent communications in the lead up to the departure date on what we needed to do. Singapore's immigration requirements needed us to upload our covid vaccine certificates, but you could only do so 3 days before travel, which made it stressful with not much time before departure if something went wrong (but nothing did). On arrival, we breezed through customs and straight into a transfer service to our hotel. Just be mindful advertised prices for these services don’t include some additional fees if you pay by card, taxes, tolls in some situations and so on – so make sure you’ve got a bit more available than what it says on the sign at the airport! Accommodation (No, we didn't stay at Raffles) We went through many changes to our accommodations - Singapore has long been a transit hub and while some hotels were shuttered due to low occupancy, others were being used as quarantine hotels for unvaccinated travellers and so the options available were minimal. We originally found a family-friendly hotel with adjoining rooms not far from Orchard (the major shopping district), and while it was close to the MRT, everything we wanted to do was easily 30 minutes transit each day. We really wanted to spend a lot of time on Sentosa Island (more on that later) but the only hotels open were the ultra expensive luxury style resorts, most of which didn't offer adjoining rooms for families, and charged full rate per room. We eventually bit the (very expensive) bullet and booked Hotel Michael, part of Resorts World and steps away from Universal and all of the Sentosa attractions on the island. Hotel Michael was a bit more expensive than we would have liked, but it was worth it to not face losing 60 minutes minimum per day to transport. Then - with mere weeks before we were due to start our trip - we received an email from a mailing list we had signed up for 3 years ago - that the hotel we had booked for April 2020 - Village Hotel Sentosa - would reopen just in time for our arrival! (and it was about 30% cheaper than Hotel Michael, and a lot more modern!) Village Hotel Sentosa (A view from one of the two Infinity Pools overlooking Singapore Straits) Village Hotel seen from the Sky Helix While not as close to the big attractions as Hotel Michael, Village Hotel was 2 minutes walk from the Imbiah Monorail station or a downhill 5 minute walk to Resorts World. The hotel also had their own shuttle bus departing every 30 minutes, and stopping at Beach Station, Resorts World, and VivoCity (mainland shopping centre with connections to MRT and Buses to practically anywhere you wanted to go). Village offered adjoining rooms in two different family friendly sizes (standard and deluxe), and with the hotel first opened in April 2019, it's barely aged having spent two thirds of the time in mothballs. The hotel was bright, fresh and clean, not suffering the usual damp smell associated with air conditioned hotels in a tropical climate. The hotel shared it's space and facilities with several other hotels operated by the same group including the Barracks (old school style) and the Outpost (deluxe adults only resort), with a very generous 5 swimming pool zones (including a lazy river!), two of which featured an infinity pool edge to the Singapore Straits. Both of these pools overlooked the Sentosa beach show 'Wings of Time' offering an exclusively private in-pool view of the show and fireworks each night. The courtyard surrounding the pools was full of lush tropical plantings and also featured fish ponds full of lily pads and small fish right outside our window. Additional chillout, gathering and play spaces, a steam room, poolside\in pool bar, a snack truck fitted inside a Kombi van, and more than enough places to sit, lay back, relax and chill out. At night, they showed poolside movies on a big screen, and set up coloured bean bags for people who didn't wish to enter the water. I mean, I know i'm going on about this hotel, but when we considered the facilities at the other hotels we'd looked at - this resort was amazing. Kids also got their own checkin desk and received a welcome pack upon 'completing checkin' which included a stuffed toy mascot for the hotel they could colour in themselves (markers provided) and their own branded robe and slippers to keep! The hotel staff delighted in surprising the kids with little gifts every now and then - a hotel branded rubik's cube, mini ice creams and snacks, all sorts of little surprises to keep the kids in constant awe. Each day the hotel lobby had something fun for kids too (though we had little time to do them all) including facepainting, balloon animals - even free caramel popcorn! The hotel also had a snack trolley where every day a constantly changing array of "childhood snacks" from Singapore would appear, free for guests to try (I think i've tried every possible layer cake combination that ever existed). We did have some minor issues with housekeeping but these were quickly resolved by the front desk team. Their concierge though were amazing - when trying to make a last minute booking, our credit card required a text message authentication code - which of course we couldn't receive as our Aus numbers weren't set up for roaming. (I'll include some info on this stuff later) - After explaining what we wanted to do, and them realising that none of their other options would work, the concierge personally paid for our tickets on his credit card, and added the exact cost to our bill, and then had the tickets forwarded to the hotel so staff could have them printed and delivered to our room - a process that surprisingly took several hours, that they completed well after midnight to ensure we had our tickets for the next day. Village Hotel Sentosa rating - 10/10. Even with minor annoyances with housekeeping, I'd be happy staying here every time I visit. SEA Aquarium Ok so enough about the hotel - Our first full day was spent at SEA Aquarium on Sentosa Island. We figured this would be a shorter day for us if we were still suffering the effects of the flight, and ease ourselves into things. The Aquarium is part of the resorts world group, and ticketing is handled on the same website (so you can buy all your tickets in one transaction and play with your shopping cart before you checkout if you're on a budget). The group operates Universal, the Aquarium, Waterpark and also a separately ticketed Dolphin Island interaction, which is sandwiched between the waterpark and aquarium, which allows them the opportunity to upsell a dolphin experience as part of the other attractions. For these reasons, we were able to price up a package that included a dolphin experience with our Aquarium tickets by booking a VIP Tour of the aquarium. Surprisingly this was well worth it, with the tour guide offering a lot of informative info about each of the exhibits and answering questions. The VIP tour also gets behind the scenes access at several points in the experience - including private experiences with sea jellies, poison dart frogs, and even iguanas. The Aquarium opened as the world's largest, and is only beaten by Chimelong Ocean Kingdom. The Open Ocean exhibit is huge at over 18 Million litres including 3 giant Reef Manta Rays, and one of the world's largest Queensland (Giant) Groupers. The Open Ocean exhibit has a giant panoramic viewing space with raised grandstand seating for an uninterrupted view of the exhibit. It also features a wrap around 270 degree viewing area, which also has overhead windows too. A restaurant is situated on another section of this exhibit so you can dine right by the Open Ocean - and if that isn't enough, they also feature deluxe resort villas, with an underwater bedroom and your own private viewing window. (Though, do remember the public aquarium viewing window is directly opposite and you can be seen!) SEA Aquarium rating - 7.5/10 Dolphin Island Around lunchtime, we moved from the Open Ocean up to Dolphin Island by a private elevator and were introduced to our dolphin trainer for the experience. The included experience is 'out of water' though you can do premium 'in water' experiences too. You spend a not insignificant amount of time with a dolphin and trainer just for your own private group, and several photographers positioned around the pools capture some great candid shots during the experience. Be aware that these photos will be some of the most expensive photos you will ever purchase (and I say that having paid Wedding Photographer prices at Sea World), with the only package offering more than 1 or 2 photos from the experience costing well over $200 (though admittedly for this price they give you every single photo plus a leather bound display album). We were satisfied with the experience but overall the attraction has been quite controversial. A family friend used to be a trainer at our Sea World so we have previously spent a lot of time with SW's dolphins, and I just didn't feel that the same care and attention into the animals was present - they were circus performers rather than exhibiting natural behaviours. It's hard to explain exactly what it was about the experience, it just didn't feel 'right'. Animals that misbehaved were scolded and rebuked, whereas at SW the poor behaviour would simply be ignored. There were also open wounds clearly visible while still working the animals in the same routine. Rightly or wrongly, my feel on this experience was sour. The 6 year old absolutely loved it (and that's who it was for in the first place) so I left conflicted. I would not recommend. Why didn't we do Sea World? We had planned to, but as this opportunity came up while booking tickets, it seemed a no-brainer inclusion whilst on holiday, rather than a separate GC trip, and Singapore's weather was always going to be better for a poolside experience. We do know better and i've already resolved to book with SW for his next birthday. Dolphin Island rating - 3.5/10 Wings of time This is a ‘world of color’ style show done over water on the southern beachfront of Sentosa. Projection onto water screens, dancing water fountains, pyro effects and a few other surprises. I caught ‘Songs of the Sea’ back in 2010, and this show was a bit more polished and a bit less cringe-worthy corny live-acting, but I feel the 100% digital show was lacking that physical element that made the stage ‘three dimensional’. The live actors in SotS connected the audience to the screens a lot better. As mentioned, you could see the bigger parts of the show from our hotel pool so we caught the finale a few times, but did see the show in person and it was worth the visit. Hot Tip: try to pick a seat towards the back of the seating area. Look for the giant “rocks” with the very badly hidden speakers and don’t sit directly in front of them. The show’s sound system relies on a few large drivers instead of smaller spaced out speakers around the ampitheatre, and the volume for those directly infront of them is uncomfortable at best. The island is still recovering from Covid shutdowns and does not offer all attractions every day. While WoT operated, many of the food options immediately outside the venue were closed as we went on a Tuesday. During busier times – eg: Thursday to Sunday, the WoT ampitheatre is also open during the day and admission is free with food purchase from the vendors nearby. This gives a spacious seating area overlooking the Straits, and a ‘day show’ dancing fountain operates to some quiet classical pieces. The show’s duty cycle shuts down the fountains briefly each hour, at which point they operate a standalone 40m+ water cannon similar to what you’d see in Canberra at the Captain Cook memorial in lake burley-griffin. Wings of time rating – 7/10 Singapore Zoo The zoo and several other attractions appear to have been grouped under the ‘Mandai Wildlife Reserve’ banner since my last visit. The complex houses 4 attractions including the ‘day’ zoo, the ‘night’ zoo, the River of Wonders, and down the road a ways was the Jurong Bird Park. Ticketing for all can be arranged through a single portal, though the combinations on offer made choosing tricky. In the end, our decisions were made for us as we had chosen to do the ‘day’ zoo and River of Wonders, only to discover that River of Wonder’s signature attraction – the Amazon River Quest (a ride system similar to a log flume \ looney tunes river ride) would be closed for maintenance. We had decided against the night safari given kid’s stamina (it was a damn long day) and the Jurong bird park not being co-located made same-day trips unviable. So we ended up just doing the zoo, and having a less-rushed day all round. Travelling to the zoo was easy – hopping the North-South line to Khatib and then boarding the $1 shuttle bus to the zoo had us there pretty quickly. The entire complex is currently undergoing significant development (though I didn’t take the time to research what this was for) so expect a lot of construction for the near future. The zoo itself was mostly unaffected by this, and most exhibits operated normally. The habitats were well laid out both for natural simulation as well as easy viewpoints. I think we did one of our biggest ‘ walking ‘ days at the zoo, though there are trams to take you around the park, they only have designated stops which can be a long walk back if you pass something you wanted to see. The zoo itself is a must-see in Singapore in my opinion, though the experience compared to 10 years ago had lost some lustre. I do hope that the development sees great improvement in the overall offering. I have minimal criticisms for the park other than to beware of all the walking (and hills) involved! The lack of a printed map (online maps available for download don’t help when you have no printer – phone navigation was extremely difficult) is probably my only disappointment here as we very nearly missed several key attractions because of multiple diverging paths, so we had to keep re-checking the map for the correct pathway to backtrack to catch the part we missed. The zoo has an on-site KFC situated within a kids zone, featuring farm animals \ petting zoo etc, and a huge splash pad \ tipping bucket area with plenty of space surrounding – which would be critical on a hot & busy day. Singapore Zoo rating – 7.5/10 Universal Studios Singapore We finally got to Universal, despite literally staying across the road from the park, as it is closed midweek as a consequence of covid. Like any good enthusiast, we tried planning as well as we could to be aware of what would be open \ closed, under maintenance etc. We’d figured out we would be missing the Halloween events, though with a 6 year old that was probably for the best, but as far as we could see, everything except the vintage cars in the Mummy land would be operating. We knew the park could be busy and didn’t risk it – we had express passes pre booked from the start. How. Wrong. We. Were. Madagascar On arrival, Crate Adventure was boarded up and being demolished. We knew it was due to start soon, but hadn’t heard they’d already begun. All online park maps still showed it as available, it wasn’t listed on the maintenance page as unavailable, and the first news we had it wasn’t open was when we saw the hoarding (though in-park maps were all modified to cover the ride up). The hoarding around Madagascar land made accessing the carousel a one-way path, and the building it sits in makes it an odd place to get in and out of. The entrance to Far Far Away was likewise closed off, and access by the narrow lakeside pathway only meant the park choked up quickly in this area with a crowd. Far Far Away After Carousel, we moved to Far Far Away and quickly lapped Enchanted Airways a few times while the crowds were low. We moved to Shrek4D only to find it hadn’t opened yet – technical difficulties. Donkey Live was shuttered (another covid casualty), and so we moved onto Puss in Boots – which was also having technical difficulties and wasn’t open yet. We did go back to Far Far Away in the afternoon and got both Shrek and Puss done, and while this is arguably the better Shrek4D, they skipped the entire animatronic pre-show and went straight into the theatres. While one could argue that it was a covid safety measure, we’d all just queued in the enclosed queuehouse for 10 minutes, and then were herded into the enclosed pre-show room for another 10 minutes, before sitting in the theatre for the entire runtime of the show, so surely skipping the pre-show elements wouldn’t have made a difference – just poor show. Puss in Boots was a standout attraction for us all, it was fun, the story was well told and made sense even if you hadn’t seen the film, but unfortunately the outdoor animatronics and characters were all chipped and peeling paint everywhere, so while the ride was fun, it presented very poorly. Waterworld Also not operating. Also due to Covid. Given this was advertised as an included perk on their VIP tour, I felt this was really poor. It wasn’t listed as a closure online and again we only discovered it was closed when we arrived. Jurassic Park Canopy Flyer was a big target for our group as it was something everyone could ride and most hadn’t been on this style of coaster. Back in 2010, the express pass was valid for this, as was a single rider line, however neither of these were available on Canopy Flyer (it is one of the only exceptions to the express pass advertised). Still a great unique attraction, if somewhat too quick for the wait time. The Jurassic spinner was operating at capacity with a full queue, but Jurassic River Rapids was also closed – for long term maintenance of several months (something we also hadn’t seen on the park website prior to our visit, but something clearly known in park as all the maps in park had this attraction blacked out like crate adventure). The land did have a ‘meet blue’ experience for photos and interactions which was pretty cleverly done, but definitely did not make up for the loss of Rapids. Food So far we’ve made it through three lands and I haven’t mentioned food – and that’s because there weren’t many options actually open. The park has several large dining facilities including a huge Jurassic visitors centre, but most were closed. A few carts operated serving very basic cart-style fare, but for meals of substance, choices were mostly limited to Mel’s Diner back at the front of the park. This is, again, another covid casualty. Attrib: Resorts World Sentosa I tried the 'Mel's Rendang Burger' with a Rendang curry mince sauce, which - while messy (and not exactly the best choice of food for a hot day) it was super flavourful and delicious, and would definitely recommend if you don't mind a bit of spice. (Attrib. Entree Kibbles) Egypt We moved onto Egypt, only to find the Vintage cars (the only ride advertised as being closed) was in fact open, so the little guy went and had an adventure while we tackled The Mummy. The fire scene on this attraction is still very impressive, though the lighting and reveal is somewhat spoiled by dim ambient lighting that gives the game away before the showscene triggers. I don’t remember it being like this back in 2010, but heck, it was 12 years ago. The queue is suffering with a lot of damage to the plaster walls, but this is the price you pay having walls so close to bored guests with phones stored in lockers. While in Egypt, a street parade came through with all sorts of characters on a truck \ walking beside, handing out Halloween candy to guests as they passed. This was mini packs of skittles, mentos and other non-melting premium branded candy which I thought was pretty impressive. They did many circuits throughout the day culminating in a main street show at closing time. SciFi City This was my Eleanor (for those who get the reference) – Every opportunity I’ve had at a duelling coaster has been thwarted, including this one when I rode in 2010. The seat hanger incident happened weeks before I arrived last time and in the years since, it had been down every time I’d started to plan a trip. Thank goodness we’d bought express passes because this is where most guests were (in hindsight, starting there would have been smarter, but 6 year old). I found it a bit odd that the entrances and lockers were so far removed from each other, it was quite the journey to get into the queue for this. Metal detectors \ wands were in use (understandable given the ride zooms over major pathways) and we were off. The express pass paid itself off in spades here as people were literally sitting down on the stairs as we zoomed past. Both sides of the ride ran very well and ops did a great job to have dispatch timed well for maximum duel. Unfortunately, the ride’s design was based on the larger, heavier trains, and the differences in the lighter trains showed, with the timing between the two trains out of sync after only the second element. Still a great ride, with Human an enjoyable coaster and Cylon a balls to the wall experience. (I'm sure I don't need to add a stock image of Battlestar.... so here's the view from our hotel!) IMG_4380.MOV We took on Transformers, which the little guy loved, but not much different to the Hollywood version for us. The ride and queue gives definite respite from the heat, so it was surprising more people weren’t riding it. New York We had missed Lights Cameras Action on our first visit so it was great to finally see it in person. The holding area prior to the experience was a bit drab (and hot) and I can only imagine how bad it must be on a busier day, but thankfully the queue was short and not crammed with people. Although we had seen this online the experience wasn’t what we were expecting, but it absolutely wowed the little guy and that’s all that mattered. Another great opportunity to cool off from the heat (and maybe get wet). The sesame street spaghetti chase is also in New York, and while not a big Sesame Street character fan, the little guy also loved this experience. A ‘peter pan’ style attraction, done decently well, with great theming and use of characters. Main Street The main street is a series of merch stores and a couple of quick service food carts, but the choice and variety of merch was fantastic, and we happily spent over half an hour (and a lot more on the credit card) picking up great unique souvenirs from the park. Universal Singapore rating – 6/10. I think this is fair – while the park was still in ‘covid recovery mode’ there were a lot of things they could have achieved for minimal effort (such as updating their websites, given they had custom-made stickers covering the ride closures on the park map). The park could have done a lot more, and I feel that some of what was lacking was done out of convenience – a case of “blame covid, not us” when there really wasn’t an excuse for the current state. Adventure Cove Waterpark We booked a cabana for the day which came with towels, a “safe” made out of plastic, and some chairs with a fan and some other small comforts. It made a great base camp for the day and was close enough to all the action. The Wet Maze was closed (another covid thing) and like Universal, most food options were also closed, with only one major food outlet in the park. They have a sort of ropes course over a pool with water jets and other interactive elements, but this was also closed. View from our Cabana These aquariums were actually part of the Lazy River (Second Photo Resorts World Sentosa) The park’s standout attractions include the lazy river, which circles around the outside of Dolphin Island. Due to the design and layout of the various attractions, the lazy river has two clear Perspex sections as you cross into the ‘Dolphin zone’ which goes over the top of a large drainage canal. These canals are apparently where they store water from various tanks while they are closed for maintenance. The dolphin island section of the lazy river is also home to a small stingray and turtle exhibit, and an ‘underwater’ tunnel with sea life swimming all around you, and you can come face to face with these guys while floating by. The lazy river also has a wave generator (not switched on during our visit) and floats you around the entire park, including some underground sections with small fish tanks embedded in the walls. Some outdoor parts also had animal enclosures next to the path, but these were empty and closed for maintenance. I was amazed at how intermingled everything is in this area - The Dolphin Island attraction is on the right, the lazy river enters bottom right, curves around the stingray exhibit upper left before exiting upper centre. SEA Aquarium was below some parts of these areas. Another highlight for the park was a free-to-use reef snorkel – after a quick briefing, guests rinse under a shower to remove excess chlorine before donning flipper and a snorkel mask to swim in a roughly circular saltwater lagoon home to a massive array of sea life similar to Sea World’s reef snorkelling experience, but the price was the best part. Attrib: Resorts World Sentosa They also have a hydrocoaster style slide, with loading occurring at the bottom (so you get a long, uphill journey lying feet first while staring at the sun) but the ride was damn quick and we caught air on almost every hill. The wave pool was solid, and relentless, making it hard to stay upright if you sat in the shallows. The park had colour coded life jackets available in every size so swimming ability was less of an issue. The one downside to the park is that they are extremely restricted on rider numbers and weights. Many slides needed two riders, minimum heights meant the little guy couldn’t go on very much as most started above 120cm, and maximum combined rider weights meant the two adults couldn’t ride together, but as the little guy was too short, none of us could ride. This left most big slides (except hydrocoaster) unavailable. All in all though, the lazy river made up for this in spades and we spent at least half our time circling the park in a tube with an occasional dunking to cool off when things got too hot. The park had plenty of shelter and shaded path areas to walk on, and while lacking in some variety, the quality of what they had certainly made the day worth it. The restrictions are not park imposed but are a manufacturer requirement, so it isn’t fair to argue that as a fault of the park, although the designers of the park planned this poorly to not have middle-of-the-road options as the other attractions stepped very steeply from a splash pad \ tipping bucket tower, to the big slides with heavy restrictions. A couple of nice body slides might have filled this gap nicely. The theming of the area was great. The park was lush, deep tropical plantings, with faux rockwork caves, statues and other elements. Real sandy beaches entering the lazy river, plenty of life jackets for poor swimmers (there seemed to be a lot who weren’t great swimmers and I guess we’re lucky in Aus to not have this issue) Adventure Cove Waterpark rating: 7.5/10 Sentosa Sentosa Island was celebrating it's 50th birthday Sentosa Island itself has so many different attractions, but this was our itinerary plan so we hit everything on the same day. There is just way too much to do and so this is not an exhaustive list – I’d encourage you if you’re planning a trip to do thorough research on what is available and what appeals to you. Beachside Trams – Sentosa runs a free tram service along the southern edge of the island, stopping at most major attractions and all the southern facing beaches, with the main station directly under the monorail (and right outside Wings of Time), so one can save quite a bit of walking around this way (although the walk is pretty good if it isn’t too hot) Mega Park – Mega Park includes a bunch of attractions under the ‘mega’ banner including the MegaZip line, which goes from one of the tallest points on the island all the way to Siloso Beach. Tandem rides are available for smaller \ lighter riders, and a high maximum weight limit means this attraction can accommodate almost every possible shape and size (but check their website for specifics). We timed this one well, as it was lightly raining in the morning, and the skies absolutely PELTED DOWN as we made our way from the landing zone back across the beach. Other attractions within their group include a high ropes course, a para jump, a rock climbing wall, and a bungee trampoline. Fort Siloso – an historic attraction dating back to the invasion of Singapore, with many historic elements, buildings and stories, this was a great walkthrough, though there are several spots with uneven stairs and steep stair climbs or ramps so anyone with mobility issues may have problems with this. Last time we visited the hills \ ramps were both ways, however Sentosa has since introduced… Fort Siloso Skywalk – An elevated walkway through the tree canopies that takes you from Siloso beach straight up in an elevator to the canopy level, with a flat level walkway offering fantastic views both south over the beaches and north over the mainland and ferry terminals, it was great to not have the uphill walk to reach the fort! Luge – An old favourite from our last trip, the Luge offers four different cement tracks down Imbiah Hill, and two chair lifts to take people back up to the top. The chairlifts and each luge track has on-ride cameras, and these are coded into special RFID chips embedded in your helmets, making it easy to view your photos by scanning your helmet (though do check them after each lap as it ‘forgets’ the photos after a certain time). The whole place has taken a huge step forward since our last visit and is far better organised and safety conscious (though the maze of pathways at the top of the hill leaves something to be desired). Unfortunately for us, the Dragon track (the fastest \ longest \ most advanced of the four) was closed for maintenance and work was visible from the chairlift with large sections of concrete being jackhammered for removal – not an easy feat on the side of a mountain! Sky Helix – A Relatively new experience that only opened December 2021, the tower is situated at the top of Imbiah point, and rises a further 35 metres from the ground for uninterrupted panoramic views. The Sky Helix replaced the Tiger Sky Tower which was a fairly run-of-the-mill observation tower ride with an open air floorless platform. Riders board seats akin to a coaster, and are seatbelted in. Drinks are allowed (including cocktails) and a host controls the attraction from the centre of the gondola, entertaining guests with commentary, comedy and taking photos once you reach the top. This experience was 100% well worth doing as something different and highly recommend. Imbiah Lookout also had a butterfly aviary exhibit (closed and boarded up) and a Madame Tussaud’s in a wartime-era barracks\Hospital building which we skipped after doing Hong Kong’s MT’s and being underwhelmed. Imbiah (and Siloso Beach for the Fort access) can be conveniently accessed from Resorts world by Cable Car – however the cable cars are chargeable per journey and only sell return tickets, so jumping in for the ride up and walking downhill isn’t an option. Having done it once I can definitely recommend you do not try walking up the hill from Resorts World, however the luge chairlifts offer a much cheaper way to the top. Mount Faber Cable Car – We did end up taking the cable car on our second trip – and did both the Sentosa cable car and the mount faber one, which is quite a distance away from Sentosa itself! Mount Faber Cable Car also offers special experiences onboard the cable cars including dining experiences, and while this was interesting for us, neither the website, nor anybody at the ticket counters could tell us what the food options were for children in these experiences (a separate kids menu was mentioned online but no information on what it included) and the only answer we could get was “call this phone number to book and maybe they can tell you” so we opted out of this experience despite building it into our itinerary. The ride itself is nice during the daytime, and not as hot as you’d expect for the climate. Cars were pretty much the same as the Disney World cable cars, so not much else to mention. Resorts World – One could spend days outlining everything available at RWS. Other than the attractions already mentioned, there are a number of hotels, a two level open air shopping district (including food) and a casino. You honestly could spend a week at Resorts World and not see and do everything they have, and they are just one small part of the island. For us, notable was Hard Rock Café, the Candy store and the Lego store. The Sentosa Merlion was under renovations and covered in scaffolding, and a new building was being constructed right next to the RWS cable car \ monorail station. I couldn’t find info on what this is planned to see, so we’ll find out on our next visit I guess. Overall, Sentosa gets a solid 10/10 – not because everything was perfect, but because there was something for everyone to do (if you’re willing to pay for it). There were experiences and hotels for the super rich, but also more budget conscious offerings and plenty of free things to do (or “free with purchase of food\drink”) and you were never far from a nice place to sit and enjoy a coldy with a good view of something – there were countless restaurants and food offerings – the island is really designed as a playground for all ages and it is hard for anyone to be disappointed with their visit. If you plan to do a lot on the ‘mainland’ of Singapore, staying on Sentosa does complicate your travel plans, but if your itinerary is Sentosa-heavy, or primarily intended as a relaxing holiday, then Sentosa really is worth the premium price you’ll pay to stay there. Other Mainland Attractions Raffles – Ok, it’s one of those things you gotta do at least once, right? So a Singapore Sling in the long bar done and dusted. Well overpriced but you get the history and experience. I learned something new about the development of the sling (ladies couldn’t be seen drinking in public apparently) and threw peanut shells on the floor as is tradition. The hotel is the epitome of opulence and stupidly expensive though I’m sure it costs a lot when you’re still making zen gardens out of the sand in the ashtrays, and half your staff are required to be sikhs in high turbans to complete the look. The place wasn’t easy to get to, but we did it, and it’s done. 6.5/10 Gardens by the bay – Wow. This was in development on our last visit and it’s amazing what a country can do when they have a mandate to have greenspace available to every resident. All of the domes are worth the visit individually, the rest of the gardens are worth a full day. We unfortunately only had the best of a rainy afternoon, so we whizzed through as quickly as our eyes could appreciate it. The domes are air conditioned and offer welcome respite from the heat (are you picking up on a theme here?) and all are superbly presented. They were in the process of installing a new Avatar themed element to the cloud forest which should open soon in good time with the sequel. The Supertree show was well done, albeit a little simple in today’s modern intelligent lighting era, but entertaining all the same. We goofed here and didn’t allow enough time to do all the things we wanted and I’ll say it again, allow a full day for gardens by the bay. Beautiful spaces, and I’m envious of those who have this a short drive from their homes – 8.5/10 Singapore Flyer – missed this last visit, made the walk across the bridge from Marina Bay to ride. Singapore was setting up for the formula one while we were there so navigating some of the roads were a little tricky, but got a great view of Pit Straight from the flyer. The attraction is obviously built to handle huge crowds, with miles of queue lines we walked straight past and got on almost straight away. It’s a pleasant trip and a great opportunity (again in the air con) to rest weary feet after walking around all day. Solid 9/10 IMG_4064 (1).MOV Changi Airport \ Jewel – Not many TRs would cover the airport, but there’s a reason why Changi Airport has won over 650 awards (Awards and Accolades | Changi Airport Group) including many ‘best airport in the world’ by numerous outlets, some of which have awarded it multiple times (and in one case, 35 times from 1988-2022!) Changi is made up of four terminals (they just announced they’re building a fifth one) as well as Jewel. You can honestly spend an entire day there (we did) and still not see everything. I’d highly recommend allowing a day to explore Changi if you visit Singapore. Although this isn’t an Airport forum, so I won’t spend too much time here – some of the attractions include: Around the terminals: A ‘Kinetic Rain’ exhibit \ sculpture, featuring dozens of small metal balls attached to small wires, synchronised to raise and lower creating mesmerising patterns in Terminal 1 Numerous gardens and fish \ koi ponds A Transit Hotel, located airside so you can sleep without clearing customs if you have a particularly long layover (or if you want to spend another day exploring the airport!) A butterfly garden A rooftop pool A 3 storey giant slide Movie Theatre ‘Petal Clouds’ another kinetic sculpture across 200 metres of the galleria in Terminal 4 ‘Immersive Wall’ is a 70metre x 5metre LED display showing panoramic vistas of Singapore Kids play areas and tonnes of other things to occupy practically everyone for days Jewel Changi: Glass-bottomed bridge through the canopy Mirror Maze Hedge Maze Topiary walkways Discovery Slides at one of the highest points inside jewel ‘Foggy Bowls’ that kids will love Bouncing Nets Walking nets Petal Gardens All of the above are part of SkyPark and can be experienced by purchasing a single ticket, but individual experiences can be purchased separately. Jewel (continued) Changi Experience Studio (interactive exhibit showcasing airport operations. Shiseido Forest Valley Rain Vortex Jewel also houses YotelAir – another hotel based at the airport, however this is on the landside and you don’t need a boarding pass to stay. Located right inside Jewel, this place positions you well if you plan to spend several days exploring (and you definitely can!) At jewel is a baggage storage company (Smarte Carte) who will store your bags for a fee – however before you pay, check down the hall a bit as there is an early bag drop counter that some airlines (including Qantas) utilise which can save you a bunch in baggage fees and lighten the load so you can explore Jewel and the rest of the terminals unburdened by large suitcases. I think that's it for now. Singapore was one of the first destinations in Asia to open back up and so has a great head-start on tourism. Flights are plentiful and so are the hotels (now) so prices are starting to drop. Not a sponsor, but i'd definitely recommend adding Singapore to your planning the next time you go looking for somewhere overseas to visit.

I've noticed they seem to have dropped that tagline from their latest marketing for the ride - maybe they realised how ridiculous it sounded. The post says "sky high" and "behind the scenes" and includes video taken from the crane lifting the board into place. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess we will see more of the same content shown in the teaser - putting the ride together and testing. Footage from the crane, maybe a drone and some other positions? a time lapse would be cool if they have it too. And yes, I know. Its Surfrider and its a relocation... big whoop, right??? But think about it - if they're going this hard on media for a relocated, rethemed ride - what the fuck do they have in-store for when Oz is nearing completion.... Now that's exciting. Screenshot for those who don't use socials...

I reckon it will rely heavily on how difficult it is to build a ride within a ride, even when you only have to move it from your neighbouring property

Just re-reading my original post and I should add to the above - On our visit this year, there were a few things to update: Accommodation: We again stayed at Village Hotel Sentosa. Our checkin was New Year's Eve and the place was packed. All of the little 'special' things I mentioned on our last trip - the gifts, the snacks, etc were all gone. Kid's checkin was not a thing either. We were a group of three this time so had booked a different room type ("sleeps 3"), and discovered on arrival that they expected the three of us to share one bed. This is common in Asia but not something we had expected, nor really obvious in the fine print and had assumed a rollaway or similar would be provided. The room wasn't big enough to fit a rollaway and they were at 100% occupancy, and so we had to make do for NYE. The following day the hotel moved us to a different room type which did accommodate a rollaway but it still dampened our view of the resort overall. Universal: The park has resumed 7 day operation The Madagascar carousel is now also removed and the entire Madagascar land continues construction for Minions Shrek 4D had reinstated the animatronic pre-show, and the seats appeared to work for us on this trip. Donkey Live had reopened The themeing elements on Puss In Boots had received a lot of love and looked fresh as opposed to the dire state of them on our last trip Waterworld had reopened Jurassic Rapids had reopened - this Tube style attraction is different to the boat style jurassic adventures, and we got absolutely soaked - so much so we had to stop and wring out our socks. Food - every single food outlet was open and operating The queue in the mummy has seen extensive repair work and no longer has holes all through the plaster. The mid-course fire scene is still as brightly lit as ever, spoiling the surprise. Little guy was tall enough to ride everything now - didn't like The Mummy purely for the theme, but loved Battlestar Galactica and lapped it repeatedly. Trains weren't dueling every dispatch but operators tried to when they could. Most causes of not dueling was down to guests not being ready to board and having items in pockets or things like glasses and footwear. One one occasion, operators held dispatch for our train because our little guy's watch had a camera built in, and they don't allow cameras (though every other dispatch it was fine) Sentosa Island This trip was a much more relaxed approach. We'd been recently so the plan for Singapore was to relax after a mad-rushed trip through Hong Kong over Christmas (which i'll get down to writing up eventually). As it was intended to relax, we did a lot less, spent way more time by the pool and far less on paid experiences, though we did do the Luge again. We had planned on eating at Hard Rock again (a tradition) but discovered that the entire Forum dining precinct in Resorts World was closed for refurbishment. Hard Rock chose not to renew and relocated their entire operation to the AIRSIDE of Changi Terminal 2. In place of the wonderfully varied and air conditioned eateries in the Forum, Resorts World had moved in a few shipping containers selling food-truck style options. We tried this once, and decided to eat elsewhere for the remainder of our trip. (It didn't help that it was raining, and the roofing they provided was wholly inadequate). Everything seemed to be open more than last time though some places didn't open every day. We explored new areas of the island we hadn't been to previously, but many only opened at certain times so didn't do anything new. The area where Sentosa Merlion was was still under construction (I hear it has since been reopened) but the Merlion is no longer there and a new boardwalk style path has opened between Resorts World and Beach Station. A pleasant option in fine weather if you don't want to wait for the Monorail. Gardens by the Bay We avoided the domes this time but took a walk to Satay By The Bay for lunch (10/10 recommend). We also walked all the way out to Marina Barrage (the water reservoir wall, not the building with the boat) for the view (and then it rained for half an hour so we took shelter and wandered the complex for a bit!). Changi Terminal \ Jewel We spent several hours wandering Jewel again on our outbound day. Due to the nature of our travel plans, we actually had 24 hours to spend airside on our inbound leg (before flying onward to Hong Kong) so we stayed in one of the Airport hotels and spent the entire day exploring all of the various terminals. We still haven't seen it all. Our hotel overlooked the apron at Terminal 1, with great views of aircraft movements all over the terminal, and gave us access to the rooftop pool for a swim \ spa and cocktails. We tried to visit every display, garden, and take in all the outlets, stores, food options, but there were still too many and we've already agreed we need to allow more time on our next trip to or through Singapore to continue exploring the terminals.

Thankfully for us, this was actually the only disruption the effected our plans. I think other rides did go down throughout the day, but because of the order we did thinks we didn’t feel the effect.

I recently got to visit both Luna Park Melbourne & Adventure Park Geelong for the first time. Like the other Victoria parks that I visited late last year, I didn't know much about these parks. All I knew was Luna Park had one of the oldest coasters in the world and Adventure Park had some very colourful slides. Luna Park Melbourne Located in St Kilda along the beach, this is defintiley the easiest park in Victoria to get to and is probably why it's one of the more popular parks (particularly for toursits). However (spoiler alert), it’s pretty disappointing. I haven’t been to Luna Park Sydney as a comparison, but Luna Park Melbourne needs a lot of work done and a real vision for what it could really be. I didn’t have high expectations before visiting, but to be honest, it was actually worse than my low expectations. Before going into my issues with the park and how I think it can improve, here’s the positives. There is a lot of history for this park and the entrance is certainly impressive. If you arrive my tram, it’s the first thing you see leading up to the park and with its architectural style and the coaster looping around the park, it’s unlike any other park I’ve been too. Watching the coaster go past over the entrance was very cool to watch, particularly as it’s relatively slow moving along the straights. If you haven’t ever been to Luna Park Melbourne, essentially The Great Scenic Railway surrounds the entire perimeter of the park, with all of the other rides spread throughout the park, with a couple of food options and stores. There’s quite a lot of the park that is heritage listed, so there is a lot of traditional and ‘unique’ buildings within the park. The Luna Palace building is currently undergoing a major refurbishment, so a large portion of the park felt like a construction site. But when complete next year, it will increase the footprint of this area of the land and allow for more rides and event spaces. So the first ride of the day was of course The Great Scenic Railway. This was honestly the main reason for wanting to visit the park and it was genuinely a lot of fun. Because it’s unlike anything else in the country (and really the world because of its age), it is so unique and is definitely something that got to be ridden. The station building is actually beautiful and it looked like it recently received a repaint because the colours were very vibrant. The cars were very tight and did cause a few bruises in a couple of moments throughout the ride, but that’s all part of the fun right? Having a human operating the brakes on board was so strange to witness and I feel like it’s something that won’t be around for much longer. The layout itself provided great views of the Melbourne landscape and it did pick up a bit of speed on the drops (maybe even the smallest bit of airtime), but otherwise it’s a pretty slow ride, but that gives it one of the longest ride times for any coaster in the country. Some of the other rides we did were Supernova (similar to SWs Trident, but it actually operates), the carousel, ghost train and speedy beetle (SBF Visa spinning coaster). All of these were fine, nothing to brag about, and most of the other rides were either something you found at a carnival or something I wasn’t interested in riding. So now onto my issues with this park. There is a lot of concrete. In fact, the entire park was just one big slab of concrete that became pretty hot, considering we visited on a cooler day. There was no landscaping (and if there was, so little that it went unnoticed); it needs some greenery to bring some life to the park. There was almost no shade, very little seating and the park felt old. Yes, it is a very old park, but that doesn’t mean it should feel old and dirty. I mentioned earlier the Scenic Railways station was beautiful (I actually loved looking at it), but it was mostly hidden by food trucks and a couple umbrellas. They should be showcasing this history, not hiding it behind stuff. With the major construction project that’s happening definitely isn’t helping the park, so I’ll have to visit it again when that’s all complete, but the way the park was laid out felt awkward and crowded. I know a lot of the rides aren’t permanently fixed to the ground so they can rearrange things as they feel necessary. But the park feels like it needs a master plan to work out what it’s trying to achieve. There are a few rides I’d say just get ride of (providing they aren’t heritage listed) and that allows for new and more exciting things to take their place. There was a kids train that was driving through the park, but on a busy day it just gets in the way. It’s honking at everyone because people aren’t moving because there’s such little space to move. I can see this park has so much potential and I hope the recently management can turn it around to take advantage of its location, history and what it could be. I wasn’t expecting great rides, but I did hope to feel the charm and history and such an iconic park. And for me I just didn’t feel it. I didn’t expect it to be like the Gold Coast parks, or even Funfields/Gumbuya that I got to visit last year, but I left the park disappointed. Maybe I’m being too critical of Luna Park Melbourne (so I’m interested to hear others thoughts), but I do hope post this major development of Luna Palace, the park begins to transform into what it could be. Adventure Park Geelong Located just over an hour south of Melbourne (20 minutes east from Geelong), I also didn’t know much about Adventure Park Geelong and its offerings. All I knew about were the colourful tornado style slides that opened in recent years. This park has a good range of both water slides and dry rides spread across the park, but what makes this place special is the massive lake in the middle that has endless boardwalks and green spaces surrounding it. For the most part, it is a very pretty park (I’ll get into this more later). At the front of the park are all the dry rides (and a couple old slides) and then across the lake is all the newer water slides with the pro-slides, lazy river, racer and kids play/splash zones. Our group had a treetop cabana during our visit, which provided a good view of the pro-slide attractions and was a good location to store all our belongings. As there’s no wave pool, there’s no ‘central’ location to keep your stuff like you would at a normal water park. There are some loungers and grass areas around the lazy river, but if you’re visiting a cabana might be a good idea on a busier day. We started with the Tornado and Tsunami. These are comparable to Green Room and Triole Vortex at WhiteWater World… but better. The Tornado (while a smaller model compared to the GC versions) has a great build up to the drop and certainly has a great pace. And Tsunami is a lot better than Triple Vortex (I just used it as a comparison because it has three funnels), as you ride in the standard clover rafts and the slide gets some really good speed and you actually drop into each of the funnels. The last funnel is fully enclosed and does slow you down, but it picks up speed again into the final splashdown. On the left side of the park is the other area of the water park, which features a large lazy river, with the kids zones and aqua racer in the middle. The Aqua Racer is a clone of the one that used to be at WnW, so it gives quite a bit of airtime on the last few drops. The lazy river has one main entry/exit point and something WnW should take note of, a queue line. To the side of the entrance is a queue line that is used on the parks busier days to help organise the chaos of waiting for a raft. There is also a wave machine at one point of the river, but unfortunately it was not operating during our visit (Gumbuya World had one operating and it makes the lazy river become river rapids, which is always good fun). There are some cabanas behind the river and they actually have their own private access to the river, seperate from the main entrance point. And the final water attractions are at the front of the park, which are two more traditional double raft slides that are (almost) pitch black and throw you around and get some good speed towards the end. The parks food offerings are for the most part your standard theme park items, but they were surprisingly cheap compared to most other parks I’ve been too. Burgers were around $12 and then a regular combo was $8, which included chips and a drink. And it was good quality too! Now it was time for the dry rides and there’s quite a good selection of them too. There was most of your normal expected flat rides, but there was also a wave swinger, large Ferris wheel, traditional carousel and SBF Visa spinning coaster. All of these were well presented and they were laid out very well across the front of the park. They also had two mini golf courses and paddle boats (on the lake) that were included with your general admission ticket. Overall the park was very clean, looked after, nicely presented and had a solid variety of attractions that easily fills your day. All of the staff were great and reasonably efficient. However there were a couple of negatives/areas to improve. Firstly, the entrance was very underwhelming. There was a large lawn area, with some shade sails and then the ticket booths. There was no big park sign and nothing to welcome you. It was very strange to not see a park sign at the entrance to the park. Secondly, the park has a massive winter night event and Christmas night event that apparently pulls massive crowds for both events. However, they don’t take any of the decorations down when the events aren’t on. That means, throughout the entire park are mesh animals, Christmas decorations and Christmas lights. And I mean everywhere. From every point in the park, you could these decorations and a lot of them aren’t in good condition either. I’d imagine this event has run for a few years now because a lot of it was looking pretty tired (probably because it’s left out all year round). It’s a shame they don’t pack it all away when the events aren’t running because I can see how pretty the park is, but you’ve got all the stuff everywhere. I can appreciate why they wouldn’t because there is so much of it and it would take a long time to remove and setup, but also, they would need a massive shed to store it all as well. Also, this park has a lot of land. There were (essentially) fields of land within the parks fences for so much potential expansion. The park could definitely benefit from even more water slides and maybe even a wave pool. I haven’t checked, but I’d guess you could even fit a DC Rivals on the land they’ve got (they wouldn’t have the budget for it, but just to put it in perspective). This park is already very solid and definitely worth a visit and I’m keen to see what they do in the future. Final Score My final score based off my first visit to both parks would be a 3/10 for Luna Park Melbourne and a 7/10 for Adventure Park Geelong.

You’re 100% right on this and the one scary/intimidating aspect they included in the area (the doomsday statue that used to roar and have red glowing eyes) they have facing the wrong way and goes very unnoticed.

To be completely honest... the CONCEPT behind Doomsday was a good idea, a decently themed flat ride. If the ride actually worked properly, and wasn't a total potato it would have for the most part been alright. It was just a shame that the ride was so unreliable and was down so often because from what I gather that's the biggest complaint with the ride (apart from the B mode it's now running in). I really don't think they would have chosen the model if they knew it was going to be so unreliable. Honestly if it had been me though, I would have moved SurfRider to Movie World at that point in time and put it where doomsday was and chosen something different for Flash but that's a whole different story. Scooby is much the same, the idea was good (refurbishing and bringing it up to new standards) but the execution kinda failed. Although from what I heard, what Movie World got vs what they paid for was not quite right. I will give them props for bringing back the theming standard for the ghost train to the original for the most part (we do not talk about the screens though...) and getting the light show running properly. So IMO it wasn't a complete failure, just some things didn't go quite right.

I went there last year and it was pretty, lets say mid. The operations were horrible, with 10 minute dispatches for multiple ride even know the park was booked out. Another thing relating to the operations is the weight balancing thing, even on a booked out day if there were single riders they would make them go by themselves, lets say on the Pharohs Curse if there were 10 single riders who could fit in a carriage of 20, then there would be 10 on the other carriage and the others would have to wait. Also the park seemed tired, it feels like they are using the "classic theme park" thing as an excuse to not add anything or clean up the park. Some of the queues especially the Ghost Train felt cramped in measurement, if you needed to get past people for whatever reason it was very hard to get through.