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First opening night, in the history of FN, opening night wasn't a sell out. Says volumes on what people want.

I went last night so thought I would pop up a bit of a review of positives and negatives of my thoughts for anyone interested. Small spoilers ahead regarding the Horror Encounters. The event began at 6:00pm with an introduction by Beetlejuice, he came up on stage, introduced the event and then it went into about a 3-4 minute musical performance, after this Beetlejuice came back and 'released' the horde and then the event began. We had fast pass for the mazes so went straight to try and get on a maze without using the fast pass so we could do a maze without using the entitlement. Positives + The mazes themselves haven't had any real changes, except all the preshows are gone (the VIP rooms, the Conjuring). This did speed things up and added another 'room' to the Maze. There was considerably more actors in the mazes than last year + They have added a DJ to the maze precinct at the back which builds a much better atmosphere. + Beetlejuice pretty much stayed out the whole night in main street for photos. If you wanted a photo, you got one + I really enjoyed the entertainment. There is good pyrotechnics, The Wrath was great as always, the calibre of the entertainment just felt better this year. It does make main street feel like a 'concert vibe', which I really liked + The way they group people in mazes this year is much much much better. Previously you were grouped in 10 or so and this meant you almost always missed a scare. This time they ran people through generally as a group (or 2 groups if it was 2s) so you often only had about 4/5 in your group. You get a lot more scares, people move through mazes quicker and it's much more immersive. The improvement in the way you experience the mazes cannot be overstated, it is much much better. + The staff were great. I can find Movieworld staff a little 'barky' but I did not find this last night. Negatives - Fast pass continues to be oversold. We still waited 25 minutes for DCeased, 30 for Conjuring and 20 for Death Row even with fast pass - DCeased had more actors but is still just a 'poor' maze, it's not overly thrilling, which was a shame because I thought the time could have been used to improve the maze - There is considerably less scare actors in the precincts now (i predict maybe even half?!). There are many more actors in the mazes, but the precincts themselves would now only have about 7/8 in each area. - Hypercoaster was running 1 train (!?!) The 'new' this year is the horror encounters. There are four horror encounters and they are setup in Main St. They are The Exorcist, Conjuring, The Nun and IT. You line up for each of these separate and they don't have a fast pass option for these. The lines rarely exceeded 15 minutes. The staff essentially take a small video of you 'encountering' these characters. If you want a photo you can pay a $25 'candid' photo charge (although we have a candid photo card so just used that). They were a bit of a mixed bag but I see what they are trying to do there. The Conjuring: The crooked man comes out and greets you and then goes back into the door. This was a great encounter as you saw the crooked man and he looks great. The Nun: You stand in front of a wall and the Nun essentially appears behind you. IT: You stand in front of a wall and Penny Wise appears behind you, although he did 'reach out' a bit The Exorcist: The best one by far. They give you a cross and you basically perform an 'exorcist' for 10 seconds or so and they capture the video. This was very very very clever and looked amazing in person, genuinely 'movie quality'. My whole group loved the encounters. The ones where you could see the character (rather than wait until you had left and had to watch the video) were the best ones. I think these are a great addition, simple, effective and sunk up some of the crowd. As they were in main street you could hear and watch the Music while you waited as well. So, in summary. I really liked the event. I was quite disappointed when I heard the mazes were the same but the quality of the entertainment, the addition of the horror encounters and a better way to experience the mazes had me genuinely impressed. I don't like that there was less scare actors and I still wish there was more 'new', but if this year's event is about improving quality then I would call it a success. Side Note You get some good views of Wizard of Oz and the Oz Precinct, it looks nearly complete and Emerald City looks great.

I think this is extremely disappointing. This wasn't just a theme park ride, it was the last monorail in Australia. It held an important place in rail infrastructure history, and because it was primarily a tourist attraction rather than a public transport system I thought it had a much better chance of surviving than the Sydney and Brisbane monorails. Welp, guess I was wrong.

@themagicianI'm even more worried. The level of theming DW promised us and bones of the ride still aren't completed. Track isn't completed, no building structure completed and let's not mention the whole ride system that needs to be installed. Some late night coming up for workers on this one to get it ready.

It seems they struggle to get the right balance because for a few years a lot of us on here have been seeing there aren’t enough actors in the mazes, but a good amount in the precincts. And then a few years before that it was the other way round (which seems to be the case again this year). Around 2016 and prior years they almost always had a great balance of actors in mazes and around the park.

No need to worry anymore, they’ve started installing the roof structure for the station 📸 @Ogre

King Claw went out for tender today. Images from public tender.

I myself have Luna Park Sydney as my local park, so the introduction of Boomerang, Big Dipper and Sledgehammer was huge for me. Never thought I would be so close to an Intamin coaster in my life! I think as Aussie enthusiasts, not only is it harder to get to other places in the world to pursue our passion, but it is also harder for other enthusiasts worldwide (for instance 7hrs from London to America, 16-20 hours from London to Australia). I remember other enthusiasts on youtube announcing a trip to Australia because of the recent developments, and the massive curiosity of DC Rivals helped quite a lot, and it sounded like they were talking about taking a trip to Mars with the way they spoke😅 I believe we are just so separated from the world’s best parks compared to say Europe or America. However, this also taught me how powerful just one new big attraction is for our tourism. Saw a lot of American enthusiasts on one of my most recent visits to Movie World! I am happy that parks around Australia are starting to introduce new world-class experiences. Still waiting for a B&M and/or an RMC! But seriously, the world of Oz and Jungle Expedition are really good investments, pushing the overall full-package experiences envelope further than I have seen previously. In my personal opinion, I believe that because we have not been an amusement/theme park-heavy country, the demand, cultural significance, and enthusiasm for such is markedly lower than elsewhere. If I talk to anyone from Europe or America, they instantly light up when talking about their local parks, even when they aren’t enthusiasts. Most people I know in Sydney haven’t been to Luna Park since they were children! I definitely hope that we even see new parks start to pop up in the future, grow a new generation of love for such attractions. Anyways, that’s where my head space has been in recent years on the past, present, and future of Australian parks. Covid really did a number on parks, and I was even a ride operator right before they shut down, definitely a scary time. However, I think the future of Australian parks is brighter than ever with these new investments and expansions!