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You should go check out Rivertown

Dreamworld have definitely put much more love and care into the whole land than MW with Wizard of Oz - every part just looks spectacular. The details placed within each part look fantastic, even a non E-ticket like this looks amazing, and will only get better thanks to weathering and the growing greenery. Good job to Greg Yong and his team for making Rivertown so great, I can't wait to see what is next. Hopefully some enhancements are made eventually, such as retheming Motocoaster into the land and redoing the store's facade to match.

We have an opening date… To our valued passholders, We’re thrilled to announce that ALL attractions in Rivertown will officially open this Monday, 23 December!

It sadly just closed for the day when I arrived there, but the staff were nice enough to let us look around the restaurant! It looks REALLY good. There's theming everywhere, nods to Dreamworld's past everywhere (including posters for both Tower of Terror and Wipeout) and has its own theme song that plays. The entrance sign to Koala Country is in there, and one of the old Giant Drop Mammoth Skulls. It's Disney level.

IMHO it looks like it’s been done on the cheap. MW need to ask for some refunds for their $100M, or have a serious look at their procurement processes. I wouldn’t exactly say it’s “immersive” theming, with the exception of the one bit of queue for FOTWW. Everything else is just themed. The rides themselves are great, and well done to MW for bringing some fun & variety to the GC ride lineup. But to harp on about the millions spent, the immersive theming and all that just set the bar too high, and they couldn’t reach it in the end. Also, someone needs to have their execs line up for a ride in 34c+ sunshine for an hour +. They NEED fans, shade and aircon for the inside bits.

Certainly looks the more flushed out of the two theme park areas opening this summer from everything posted online

I'd have to agree that the land is sadly pretty mixed, leading towards the negative. I love the initial themed indoor queues for both coasters, but after that... oh dear.

Jungle Rush soft opened again this afternoon, and I got another ride on it! They've actually added a lot in the few days! There's even more theming and audio in the queue and station, and they've added more theming to the turntable room. It's also a lot darker now too, which was a big complaint I had the other day. Also did Murrissippi Motors, which was a lot of fun.

I do have to give them props for trying to fleece guests… when you buy tickets to the buffet (which is the quietest I have ever seen it -half tables are empty) there is pop up that asks if you want to add a Bugs bunny Christmas sack for $10, usually $20. I passed on it as I’m a little past Santa sacks. Lo and behold, you arrive at the buffet and your “free” gift is said Santa sack. i’d be pissed if I had paid for it also kudos on removing self service soft drinks from the buffet… certainly cuts down consumption when you have to get in a line at the bar to get a refill of your coke… no character visits either..

Just screams to me that they weren't ready to open it yet and only did it to be first. They wouldn't have the staff rostered to operate it because they didn't even intend for it to be open at all

Because normally every ride eligible to be open (I.e not under maintenance or tech issue on the day) is usually open for every night event… I was too looking forward to riding them at night today. Guess there’s always next year 😒

Makes sense to not give your new attractions away for free, especially when you just spent 100,000 billion, trillion dollars on it.

Big fail not keeping WoO open for white Christmas

and recently they covered the play school wheel queue

Lets be real realistically its more like the execs have never experienced a wait for anything

I just find it constantly baffling that they insist on having ride queues outside. Like have the execs ever experienced the Queensland heat, especially in summer? Like why not have the queues fully indoors or better yet have an indoor ride? Even the area itself barely has any shading for people to get out of the sun unless they wanna go in the building

Always thought food at our parks across the board was on the pricey side but $26 is not all that bad for a schnitty. Some pubs charge more for them than Dreamworld does

i’m not sure if i’m remembering correctly, but wasn’t Wicked Witches station meant to have screens and show the Monkeys flying away as the train departed the station? i swear this was announced when the whole area was announced.

I swear I saw ribs at some point in the prior marketing, but otherwise looks pretty solid

Oh gee I didn't realise the menu was gonna be that big, I'm eating there in future.

Yes, but Rivertown isn't advertised as "Open".

Considering they’ve said it’s officially opened, I doubt it

yeah i think Rivertown definitely has been executed a lot better then WoO. i think when you hype up a product so much like they have for 4 years, you need to deliver more then you promised, especially when you’re saving money using cookie cutter layouts. the fact they haven’t even covered the concrete tunnel on FOTWW with atleast some fog speaks volumes. however, i haven’t seen it in person, so i’ll reserve my final judgements until i see it for myself.

Some more photos… (spoilers ahead) Flight of the Wicked Witch queue: As you can see, the first section of the queue is very well themed. Unfortunately though, all of the immersion disappears as soon as you walk through the haunted forest and are presented with a bland hallway and a direct view of the studio’s BOH areas. The rest of the area is nicely presented, but definitely not “immersive” as the BOH areas are visible at pretty much all times and no effort has been made to block them out (or at least make them less noticeable). One thing to note is that there is a lot of permanent lighting all through the land, so I’m betting it should look pretty spectacular at night (though I do wish some of the lighting fixtures were more “themed” into the land. Modern suburban street lights do not belong in OZ). Kansas Twister queue: At one point in the queue, you walk through Dorothy’s house. There are a number of effects (such as video screens in the windows showing debris flying past and lights that swing back and forth from the ceiling) that help support the idea that the twister is approaching. You then make your way out to the barn and the ride itself. Overall, I think the rides themselves are good additions to the park and definitely help boost the park’s family attraction lineup. However, the OZ precinct is far from the immersive experience that was promised. Though it’s very nicely presented and there are elements that are quite well done, the overall product sadly feels a little cheap and tacky IMHO.

The caged path is one of the worst if not the worst path I have seen in a theme park.