Leaderboard

Attended the opening of Rivertown this morning and so I can directly compare Movieworld's and Dreamworlds. Dreamworld opened the doors to the park about 9:55am (and had a small contingent of VIPs and Theme Park enthusiasts in at 9:30am) and then had up to Rivertown gated off. At 10:05am we were then escorted down to outside the Jungle Rush coaster and there was about 15/20 mins of speeches and then the ride was ready to go. From the beginning the rides were open, stayed up for most of the day (Jungle Rush had a few periods of short down time) and the experience was really enjoyable. There were plenty of staff rostered on, the area looks amazing and well themed (and i am sure there is more to come, but it looks pretty much finished) and the radio was there giving out prizes. It felt like a true 'opening'. I really like that Greg acknowledges theme park enthusiasts in his speeches and is so connected to the community needs. It's a much more humble approach to theme park management. His offsider Michelle (I believe she is Ops manager) spent the morning in the control booth of JR then went and helped serve at the Rivertown Restaurant, it is not uncommon to see Greg helping in these back of house areas, it shows that even the exec team will jump on board and help out - it's a really good look. This is in direct contrast to Bikash who was quick to scoop into the VIP fast pass queue at 10:05am for the WoZ rides. Dreamworld was alive today and it's great to see the hard work they are putting in paying off.

Scuse me, but that's a Parmi right there. The numbers have gotta stand out, and while theming is nice, i think what fits the theme is something brown, beige, cream, or green and those just aren't going to pop out hard enough to be seen by servers across the restaurant. We went yesterday and tried out the restaurant. Although advertised as 11:30 open, staff informed us it wouldn't open until 12. We waited around, and were the second group seated, though some of our party joined us a few minutes later. Drinks took a little while to come out (nothing too fancy) and then we all ordered food using the QR code. We watched as other groups came, ate and left. Several senior staff came in wearing their jungle rush branded button down shirts and some with dreamworld staff nametags, with groups (I assume their family) and also ate, and left. So the service was reasonably efficient. Our second round of drinks came in a reasonable amount of time given the restaurant by this time was packed. Unfortunately our food didn't arrive. Well... one dish arrived (so we knew the order had been received) but nothing else came out... We waited almost 45 minutes (we waited this long as several wait staff running food kept coming near, looking around and then returning to the kitchen, so we weren't sure if this was our food but kept the hope that ours was the next one out of the kitchen) before one of our group approached the bar to raise the missing food. To their credit, they checked our table number, went immediately into the kitchen, returned a few minutes later and advised our food was coming out the door in moments, but acknowledged that it most definitely should not have taken as long as it had. Compounding the issues they also advised they'd experienced an "IT issue" with their ordering system. They offered what was a fair compensation for the delay, but it did end up taking two hours out of our day by the time we had eaten (kids meal didn't come out with the other main meals and we had to ask another waitstaff to go check and it arrived about 5 minutes later. Putting the delay aside, the food was delicious, perfectly cooked and well presented. There was a small hiccup with salads being delivered with incorrect ingredients (one of our party specifically ordered one salad over another because the other had coriander in it. The alternate one had coriander in it but wasn't listed on the ingredients. The replacement they sent out was a different salad (the one that had coriander on the menu) but without coriander... so a little odd there, but again, resolved quickly once it arrived. I noticed Greg come through the restaurant while the bar staff were sorting our food issues. He came through chatting to folk and a few minutes later was manning the bar - nearly got a drink from the man himself but I declined his offer as we needed to speak with the staff member we'd dealt with on our food issues. We saw him moving about Rivertown throughout the day and I think it's great to see a really involved leadership team. It was clear to see the restaurant had issues, and around the time we approached the bar, the restaurant suddenly swarmed with dreamworld staff who were very clearly not the restaurant wait staff. (At a guess, I'd wager they even pulled in office \ admin team to clear plates and glasses.) Overall, while I know the restaurant had opened a few days prior, I'm happy to put it down to essentially opening day jitters. I don't believe the park has had this level of full service dining before, and the venue itself hasn't operated in over 6 years. Teething issues are to be expected, in or outside a theme park. My local had a new store open up in July this year and our first visit on opening day was a nightmare and we left after 1h20m without food - however we returned 3 weeks later to perfect food and speedy service. I'll be trying out Jane's again in a few weeks time - I suspect the team will have found their rhythm and bedded down their procedures \ ironed out any kinks. At least, I hope they do - but will update our experience when we can. ETA: I should add while all the dreamworld nods are cute, and the animatronics certainly give the place a certain life - it kinda feels jarring against the rest of rivertown. It's like it was designed by two different companies - there's a whole bunch of thematic elements that just don't fit the 'rivertown' canon. It's a great place to cool off in the heat and sink a beer by the river though, i just hope the animatronics don't end up looking like the old koalas that surfaced a few years ago - need to ensure they're maintained and kept up.

I’ve heard on good authority that there is certainly more to come but they’ve had delays with some shipments. We’ll see this land and attractions continue to improve over the next few months.

100% agree with this one. Guaranteed to be the most popular ride on the GC now! (In terms of catering for the masses)… don’t hunt me down all you DC Rivals diehards There are the 1 or 2 white ones as well Look… if I could fault the ride experience in any way, it would be the motors are too loud. not because I’m being sensitive… I feel like there’s supposed to be sound effects are you travel around, past those 3 heads, etc. and over the motor noise you can’t hear anything Unless I’m totally wrong about the SFX… in which case, no faults 😂

@Narrayou missed out on a great ride. I think MM has turned out to be the star attraction of Rivertown. You would be hard-pressed to find a better attraction of its type.

Exactly, Dreamworld has so much space available and we don't need more knocking down of one attraction to build another. Just give it a retheme to fit better if Rivertown ends up being a hit for them

I agree with your review. I found theming overall good but the indoor section underwhelming. I don't know if there is a story the ride is telling but if there is, it's very abstract. The queue was hot for me but it looked like maybe they were having some issues with how it works because 2 staff were carrying pedestal fans. As always the staff at DW are great. MM is a great addition but the roof of the cars continues to suck for me, plus I still don't see the point of the seatbelts because nobody checks them. As feared MM has the biggest queue in the park. I also found Rivertown doesn't feel connected to the river. Facade of the gift store looks cheap. I would say DW was reluctant to spend money on it with the limited life left in the Motocoaster. The JR merch in the store is garbage. It's the type of items I get for free at a work conference. Overall, really well done DW. Psssssss, hopefully DW already has some shaded seat to be placed by the river on backorder.

I don’t think it’s the gaps, I think it’s from the openings where the coaster track goes outside that daylight comes in

Greg has been working tirelessly to turn DW around for 5-6ish years… and it’s done it by leading from the forefront. The man deserves some reward from his efforts via ticket sales, market share and share price *he’s

This is an example of what a good boss looks like. Some of us might have worked jobs where your crappy manager/owner will do nothing and sit at his desk and not interact with anyone as opposed to acting in a front facing role towards customers when you can. Hopefully the reception of the two areas from general audiences after Boxing Day is similar to the observations on here and causes the tide to change. I mean not having aircon or fans in parts of queues for rides in Oz should do that by itself, if movie world doesn’t change that ASAP they are kidding themselves. It’s time Greg and his team’s efforts in turning dreamworld around get rewarded

Tidbit about this from opening day: The drivers seat itself can now be slid forwards so that kids can reach the pedal.

I’ve really tried to remain unbiased, but damn the differences in openings are polarising. I really hope Clark or Bikash get a chance to visit Dreamworld today for some learnings they can apply to MW…

Visited yesterday and got in 3 rides on Jungle Rush. It operated all day without interruption as far as I could tell. Two train operations and super fast 2-3 minute tops dispatches (probably helped having Greg in the operators booth as well. Love how hands on he is with these projects). Overall a great ride with great pops of airtime and laterals. The sound effects are fantastic and create an awesome atmosphere. Although I did see it scaring a lot of kids. Probably creating some core memories I’m sure. The indoor sections are a little underwhelming. Lots of black panel walls and the daylight comes right in lighting up things that are probably supposed to be hidden. Will definitely make for a great night ride. Overall fantastic addition to the park with it perfectly tying together with Tiger Island. Just needs some shady spaces to sit and it will be bang on. Well done Dreamworld.