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I’ve just spent almost three weeks exploring Japan and along the way visited several theme parks. Two of which we had already planned to visit and two others that we ended up visiting in the moment. This includes Tokyo DisneySea, Universal Studios Japan, Fuji-Q Highland and Suzuka Circuit Motopia. I first visited Japan 9 years ago and at the time only visited Universal Studios Japan; you can read that trip report here: Tokyo DisneySea This was the first park of the trip and my third ever Disney park (Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studio Park being the other two). We didn’t have enough time to visit both Disney parks on this trip, so opted for DisneySea because of how highly everyone talks about this park (and for Fantasy Springs). We arrived at the park at 8:30, with the park set to open at 9. We’d heard that the process to get in was pretty quick even when the lines are long as the staff are efficient… this was not the case. We didn’t get into the park until almost 10 (not a complaint, just something to note for anyone planning to visit). Once we were through the gate, I immediately jumped into the app and started trying to book passes to jump the queues for as many rides as possible. The first impression enter the park under the hotel is one of the most mind blowing first sights I’ve ever had walking into a theme park. It is so beautiful, so detailed and it makes me want to see it all at once. We began exploring the park in a clockwise direction towards Port Discovery. Walking to this land, it honestly didn’t feel like you were in a theme park, everything looks so well considered, amazing sight lines, detailing, atmosphere, it’s all just incredible. Our first ride was Nemo & Friends Searider. I didn’t really know what this ride was, but my wife is a massive Finding Nemo fan. The ride was essentially a 3D simulator ride and made you believe you were shrunk down to the size of a fish and go on a journey with the characters. A well executed ride, but nothing out of this world. We then ventured to Mysterious Island to ride our first free past pass ride, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. To access this ride you have to enter into the centre of the volcano, which alone is absolutely insane, but then you work your way down towards the water and under the volcano. The ride itself was really impressive and give you the impression you are actually underwater and see all of these underwater creatures, very immersive and enjoyable ride. We then had our first paid fast pass ride, Toy Story Mania. This was only our second ever shooting dark ride (Justice League being the first) and my god this was so much more enjoyable. All of the mini games were very fun, the queue and station theming were great and the shooting system (while tiring by the end of the ride) was easy to use. From here we had to make the very long journey to the back of the park as we had our first fast pass (This was the fast pass we were able to secure as soon as we entered the park) in Fantasy Springs, Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival. Fantasy Springs was by far the area of the park I was most looking forward to and I had stayed spoiler free for the most part. The first impressions as you enter into the land is mind blowing, it’s just beautiful. It really does feel like a fantasy. The music starts to change, the landscape changes and you become fully immersed into what they’ve created. When your within the land you can’t see anything else but the land you are in. We headed to the right into Rapunzel’s Forest. The queue for the ride was really well executed and the loading procedures were so fast, organised and effective. The ride itself is a boat ride that doesn’t have any drops or lift hills and takes you on a very shortened version of the Tangled movie. The animatronics and execution of the scenes were unlike I’ve ever seen in person, it actually creates emotions. And that final lantern scene was beautiful and made me feel like nothing else in the world mattered in that moment. Sadly the major downside to this ride is it feels like it’s over before it’s begun, it’s way too short and should’ve been at least double the ride time, but it is still absolutely worth riding and paying for a priority pass. As it was nearing lunch time, we decided to stay in Fantasy Springs and eat at the Royal Banquet of Arendalle. The menu wasn’t massive, but its offerings were very enjoyable. To enter this sit down quick service restaurant you had to do a mobile order and show the order at the entrance when it was ready. Then once you’re inside it tells you what counter to collect your order from and that’s it! It was a very simple and fast process and didn’t require any waiting. The dining area had a massive amount of tables, so there was no issue finding somewhere to sit, and it was a really pleasant space to sit and relax amongst the craziness of a Disney theme park day. I’d highly recommend anyone visiting this park to visit this restaurant for lunch and a place to relax. After lunch our ride was Journey to the Centre of the Earth. This was the ride I was most looking forward to, but with a 4.5hr standby wait time, my only hope to ride it was with a fast pass (thankfully I managed to secure one while we were sat down for lunch). This ride is set within the volcano and takes out on a journey deep into the centre of volcano exploring what lives within. I had stayed relatively spoiler free for this ride, but knew it had a similar ride system to Radiator Springs or Test Track and there was a massive animatronic. Before we had even boarded the ride, the queue line was mind blowing. It has so much detail, effects and the use of an elevator to give the impression you are dropping deep into the volcano. The ride itself was incredible and ended up being my favourite ride in the park. It wasn’t necessarily overly thrilling, but the suspense, animatronics, darkness and use of smoke and fire made the experience unlike anything I’d ever been on. And that last massive animatronic before you are launched out of the volcano was incredible. This ride has to be a must do for anyone visiting this park because it will blow you away. When then explored the ‘Mermaid Lagoon’ and ‘Lost River Delta’ lands and like the rest of the park was really impressed with the level of theming and the rides on offer. Mermaid Lagoon is the only dedicated kids ride land in the park and offers a great variety of flat rides. I was really hoping to ride Indiana Jones, but with a 3 hour wait, the single rider line closed and being unsuccessful in getting a fast pass, sadly we had to miss out on this. We then ventured into the Arabian Coast to ride Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage. This ride had the shortest wait time in the park at only 15 minutes. I had heard this ride was an enjoyable boat ride and generally always has a short queue and after riding it, I don’t know why because it is really really good. It’s a gentle boat ride filled with hundreds of animatronics, music and effects and is probably the longest boat ride in the park. It’s just a classic and fun ride. After this we headed back into Fantasy Springs because how could we not! We wanted to explore even more of the land while we tried to get priority passes for the other rides. This land really feels like its own seperate park and you could honestly just spend the entire day in here exploring every corner and detail. We were lucky to get a fast pass for Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey and it was for in 15 minutes after purchasing. And wow what a ride this was. The story telling, detail, effects and animatronics were unlike anything else. This ride was fantastic and was easily my second favourite of the day. And the length of the ride really allowed you to get fully immersed into the story, which is what Rapunzel’s ride unfortunately lacked. Unfortunately that would be the last ride of the day as the weather had dramatically changed and was now very very windy and cold. We originally wanted to stay for the nighttime shows, but these were cancelled due to the weather. Generally speaking, we did eat at many different food outlets and stalls throughout the park to try different things, but the only place we dined was within Frozen. And for merchandise, we didn’t actually buy anything because there wasn’t actually anything within any of the stores that was of interest. The merchandise we found to be very much targeted to the Japanese market (for obvious reasons), so there wasn’t even a magnet or tshirt that appealed to us. Overall, what a fantastic day and easily my new favourite theme park. However, while using the app and booking passes is a simple process, it’s does make the day pretty stressful, especially when you’re trying to make sure you get on everything you want. Any opportunity I had I would be in the app refreshing it to try and buy or secure passes for various rides because most attraction waits were between 1 and 4 hours. Throughout the day I was trying to get a Standby Pass for the Fantasy Springs rides, but had no luck, which is why we had to buy the Priority Passes to be able to ride them. From the start of April you no longer require a Standby Pass for Fantasy Springs attractions, but that means the queues are now up to 5 hours for the majority of the day. Fuji-Q Highland I’ll be upfront about our visit to this park, it wasn’t originally on our list of places to visit due to time constraints. However, we do manage to spend about 1.5 hours wondering around the park for reasons I’ll explain shortly. We hired a car for the day from Tokyo so we could go and explore the northern areas of Mount Fuji. To get her via train can take over 4 hours, but driving was only 1.5 hours. I highly recommend to anyone who wants to see and explore Mount Fuji, but doesn’t necessarily want to stay a night out there. As we arrived in the area, we actually drove directly past Fuji-Q and the views you get of the park and awesome. Getting to see these coasters in person made me realise why people make the trek to visit this park. We explored the Lake Kawaguchi region in the morning and because we had some spare time over lunch we decided to stop in the Fuji-Q before heading to the Chureito Pagoda. Part of our reason to justify visiting the park for only a couple hours was because it is actually free to enter to park. The park has a pay per ride system, or a ride all day option that basically makes it like visiting a normal theme park. As we drove, it was ¥2,000 to park and then get a free entry ticket from the ticket booth, which we had to scan to be able to enter the park. At this point it was around midday, the park had been open a couple of hours and the car park appeared to be relatively empty. This made me think that there might be a change I could get to go on at least one of the coasters (spoiler alert, this was not the case). The first area of the park you walk through is ‘La ville Gaspard et Lisa’, a French inspired street with good theming and plenty of eateries to choose from. I didn’t know much about this park, but this level of theming made me think maybe the whole park was like this…. I was very much wrong. There was some theming in Thomas land, but otherwise that’s about it. And maybe it’s not really necessary because you visit this park for the insane coasters and the incredible backdrop that is Mount Fuji. We decided to do a full loop of the park to see what it had to offer (in terms of food and to see what the wait times were like). Very quickly my hopes to possibly get on a ride or two became a dream because despite what I deceived to be very low crowds, every coaster had a wait time of a minimum of two hours. I had heard that this parks dispatched times were bad, but wow they have to be some of the worst in the world. I couldn’t even tell if they were running multiple trains because they had dispatches of over 5 minutes between the trains arriving into the stations and leaving. If you thought Villages were bad, think again. The wait times also didn’t help because they now only have 3 major coasters in operation, all of which have decent ride times. Do-Dodonpa closed several years ago now and all that remains is the loop and only a couple months ago Eejanaika also had an incident and now very much looks like it could be closed for some time. Obviously it was a little disappointing I wasn’t going to get a chance to ride anything, but it wasn’t originally in our plans to even visit the park, so I was happy to just be there and see it in person. In terms of the rest of the park, it did feel run down and I don’t know if I had set the park too high because I had always heard good things about it, but it was underwhelming to walk around. With two major coasters closed amongst 4 or 5 other flat rides closed and the operating flat rides looking like they need some love, everything was a bit meh. Don’t get me wrong, the operating coasters did look like a fantastic experience and really these are the main reason to visit this park. But for anyone who is planning on going, don’t expect much else outside these coasters, the incredible backdrop and the food was decent for theme park food. And after witnessing the dispatch times, it could honestly take you all day to just ride the 3 coasters even on a quiet day. On our way out we stopped by the Fujiyama observation deck, which for about $15 allows you access to a lookout with amazing views of Mount Fuji and the park, but is surrounded by the track of Fujiyama. After the first drop, the train ascends up to the rides second highest point because looping round this lookout; a very cool experience and you don’t have to renter the park to access it! Universal Studios Japan This park I was able to visit nine years ago during my first trip to Japan and was very excited to visit again particularly for Super Nintendo World, to get to go on the ride within the Wizarding World and to go on some of the attractions I loved last time. Before visiting, I had the main goal to get the Universal Express Pass 7 because I wanted to make sure we could actually achieve everything we wanted to because of how busy this park gets. And with Nintendo still requiring an entry time, this express pass guaranteed entry and every ride. Anyone who is wanting to visit this park, if you can afford it I highly recommend you get this pass. They sell out very quickly, but to fully enjoy your single day that I’d say it’s a must. For us entry tickets were $100 each and the Express Pass was around $250 each. This made it a more expensive day than at Disney, but far less stressful! We visited the park on a Tuesday, which isn’t the busiest day of the week for this park, most major rides had wait times between 2 and 4 hours. We had timed entry for the Wizarding World for 10am (this land doesn’t require an entry pass like Nintendo). The park opened at 8:30, but we didn’t arrive until 9:30. Unlike Disney’s security system, Universal’s was a lot more efficient and while the line was almost as long as Disney’s, it took us half the amount of time to get into the park. Once in, we headed straight for Hogwarts. My wife and I are big Harry Potter fans and while I’d been here before and we’d done the studio tour in London, we were very excited to experience this land to its fullest (something I didn’t get the chance to do last time). I love the entry into the Wizarding World at Japan; to my understanding it’s very different to the entries at both American parks, but walking through the forest and (almost) separating yourself from the rest of the park was very well executed. We headed straight for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, a ride I unfortunately missed out on last time. And having never visited the American parks this would be my first ever time experiencing this ride. The wait time was around 2 hours, but with express you skipped straight to the lockers and then join the regular queue, making the wait around 15 minutes in total. Having read all about this ride, but having never watched a POV it was still very much a surprise even after the ride opening over a decade ago. What an impressive ride this is, especially with the immense amount of technology involved (particularly considering how long it’s been open for). The loading procedures were so efficient, it’s impressive how high capacity this ride actually is. It’s filled with screens and practical sets and effects that all blend very well together. The ride system was unlike anything I’ve ever been on and it did make me feel a little nauseas (which I’d heard some people feel after this ride), but it was only brief while getting off the ride. My wife wasn’t able to ride this (due to a recent surgery), but last time I visited they offered a Hogwarts Castle walk-through experience, where you walked alongside the rides main queue, but you bypass the rides station so you don’t have to ride it. This was great because it allowed you to experience the immersive detail of the queue and it never has a wait. Sadly, we asked about it this time before the staff said they don’t offer that anymore. I’m not sure how long they haven’t offered it, but it’s a real shame they’ve done so. Next up was Flight of the Hippogriff, which had one of the longest lines in the park the whole day. If you don’t have express pass or don’t get to this ride first, it absolutely isn’t worth it. It’s fine for what it is and they have two trains operating, but it just isn’t a high capacity ride. We spent the next hour or so experiencing the entire land, checking out all of the stores and detailing; it’s so enjoyable to just walk around this area of the park. Earlier I mentioned this land almost separates you from the rest of the park; the reason it almost does this is because with Donkey Kong Country open, that land backs directly onto the Wizarding World, so you can see parts of that land behind the Hogwarts Castle. Heading out of the land we made our way anti-close wise around the park, so next us was Jaws. I remember absolutely lovely this ride last time and I enjoyed it just as much this time. It’s such a classic ride and I wish there were more rides like this around the world because even though I couldn’t speak the language, the story was clear and it’s such a gem. I truly hope USJ keeps this ride for as long as possible, since it’s the last. We then ate at the Boardwalk snacks for lunch before heading to Water World. This was the fourth time seeing this show (USJ once before and twice at USS) and it’s still just as good as the first time. I’d happily watch this show any time I visit a Universal park that has it because it’s so well out together (like how Police Academy was). We made our way through Jurassic Park (we come back here later) to head towards Minions Land. Last time I visited this park it was the Back to the Future ride, so I was interested to see the change and how they modified the ride to suit Minions Mayhem. The land itself was really well executed, with lots to look at, a couple of stores and a variety of food options (I highly recommend the Minion steamed bun). We had an Express Pass for Minions Mayhem and it was the first time ever expressing this ride and other than a simulator style ride, I didn’t really know what to expect. In summary, it’s fine; a one and done; you can skip it if you aren’t sure whether or not to ride it. I don’t know if the setup for the ride differs to other versions of the ride (would be interested to hear from anyone who’s ridden different versions), but the setup and ride system was exactly the same as what Back to the Future was. So much so, it seemed like they were still using the original dome/screen because you could seen all of the panel joins and it was pretty distracting. The ride experience I did find a little nauseating too, almost more than Harry Potter. We then continued our loop around the park through New York and Hollywood. I had hoped to ride Space Fantasy, but this wasn’t included in our Express Pass, the wait was 2 hours and no single rider option. With the closures of Spider-Man and Backdraft, this area of the park did feel pretty lacking, which is a real shame because both of those were great attractions (Spider-Man remained my favourite ever ride before this trip). We explored the many stores in these areas and found the merchandise offerings a lot better than Disney. It could be because it was more of what we were interested in, but it felt like there was a lot wider range of products to choose from. It was later in the afternoon at this point and there still a few things we wanted to do before our nighttime entry into Super Nintendo World. We made our way back to Jurassic Park to ride what still remains as my favourite coaster, Flying Dinosaur. I first rode this when it had only opened a few weeks prior to my first visit and was interested to see if it still had that well known B&M smoothness and if it still scared the hell out of me. The answer to both those questions is yes. There are only two rides that I’ve ever been on that genuinely scare me, The Giant Drop and this! The intensity, forces, speed and just the whole damn layout are insanity. But my god it’s so much tun. I was lucky enough to get front row on this ride so I could see everything we were about to face. Surprisingly this time I didn’t grey/black out (last time I didn’t many times), so I could truly appreciate every aspect of the ride. I would honestly visit this park just to ride Flying Dinosaur! And the efficiency of the load and unloading has got to be the best in the world. They have two stations and three trains always in operations. There is no stacking (unless there’s an issue), so this means there is always a train load, a train out on the track and a train unloading. Hats off to the team that operate this because it’s incredible to watch and experience. We then made our way back into the Wizarding world to have dinner at the Leaky Cauldron. The line was this restaurant was almost an hour long at lunch time, but for dinner it was only 5 minutes. They offer English pub style food and it’s an enjoyable meal for the pride you pay. At this point it was now dark, so we spent a bit of time walking around the land to enjoy its lighting and ambiance before making our way to the land we’d been most looking forward to, Super Nintendo World. We’re of the age where we grew up playing these games, so to be able to experience it in real light was very exciting. We’d obviously seen photos/videos of the land online, but the feeling of walking through the pipe into princess peaches castle and into the land was unlike anything else. There was so much to look at, it was very overwhelming but I just wanted to stand there and take it all in. I can see why this land could over stimulating for some people, but for us it was just pure joy and excitement. We made our way through to the land to ride Mario Kart. The scale of entrance into the ride was so impressive, but it just got even better as we made our way through the queue. The detailing and scale of everything was mind-blowing and we probably could’ve spent a long time just looking at it all. You collect your Mario hat that the AI googles connects too at the end of the main queue area before heading into two different rooms; once shows you how to wear the hat and the next explains how to play the game during your ride experience. I’d heard the game aspect usually took people a few rides to get the hang of, so I was sure to play close attention because I was only getting the one opportunity to ride. Now I had watched tried to POV or two of the ride when it first opened, but they honestly don’t do the ride experience justice. If you wanted, you don’t have to wear the googles and you could just sit back and enjoy the sets because they are really well executed, but the game aspect was so much fun. To be able to play MarioKart in real life made me feel like a little kid again, it was so much better than I had anticipated. The ride takes you through a blend of all of the iconic MarioKart tracks and it’s all executed so well. During the ride’s explanation they suggest that you should aim to collect over 100 coins and that I managed to do, so I felt like I picked up how to play the game/ride pretty quickly. We then made our way to Yoshi’s adventure, which is just a slow moving tracked ride that allows you to see the Nintendo land from a new perspective, with a show scene halfway through the ride. We enjoyed it for what it was, but definitely isn’t a must if the wait time is too long. Because we were entering the land at 7pm and the park was closing at 9pm, we didn’t see value in spending $50 on the power up bands to experience all of the mini-games. But honestly, you could probably spend your entire day in this land just playing all of the mini-games and you’d have a great day (if that’s your sort of thing). It was now time for Donkey Kong Country and the ride I was most looking forward to riding at this park, Mine Cart Madness. The Donkey Kong land itself isn’t massive and is mostly taken up by the ride itself. But like the Super Mario area, the detailing and Easter eggs were everywhere. Again, so much to look at and do, with lots of mini games, food options, a store and a Donkey Kong meet and greet (sadly it was too late in the day for an appearance). It was 8pm at this point and Mine Cart Madness was still listed at a four hour wait and the queue went all the way back to the entrance of this land (the ride entry is all the way at the back of the land). Even with Express Pass the wait was still about 30 minutes, as the ride vehicles only seat 4 people, but that is a crucial part to the ride experience. The station does have a moving platform and the vehicles were only spaced out around 15-20 seconds on the course, so the throughput is very high. The ride itself was so much fun! I’ve read mixed reviews online with people saying the ride it way to short and is rough, and while yes I wish the ride time was longer, it already takes up the majority of the land and due to the vehicle being attacked to an arm that extends down to the track, they don’t want to ruin the illusion when you’re off the ride. The ride itself isn’t necessarily rough, because it does run smoothly, but it does throw you side to side at a few moments on the ride, but I perceived this as being on purpose. You are riding a Mine Cart, that is jumping track and is turning on two wheels, which in reality wouldn’t be a smooth experience; so it all just adds to the narrative of the ride. There are water and smoke effects, animatronics and show scenes throughout the ride and all of it coming together made it a really fun overall experience. It’s not worth the four hour wait, but I’d wait an hour for sure. It was almost time for park close, so we began to make our way to the park exit after an incredible day and a greater appreciation for how awesome this park is. However, with now only a 10 minute wait (actually just a walk on), I had to get a night ride on Jurassic Park. This ride had been closed for 18 months as part of a massive refurbishment and had only reopened earlier this year, so I was excited to ride it in what should be in perfect condition. Because it was a cold and windy night in Osaka, I opted for the back row as the ride-ops said this is where I would get less wet (they were correct). It was so great to ride one of my favourites again, particularly at night and in such great condition; a perfect way to end the night. Suzuka Circuit Motopia The reason we got to visit this park is because we attended the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix. As part of your entry into the event, you also get unlimited access to the entire theme/amusement park, which is integrated into the race circuit. This park is a little tricky to get too, so it’s definitely not a must visit on your Japan trip, but it has a good selection of rides. It is a free park to enter and you just pay per ride, or can purchase an unlimited ride ticket. On our first day at the F1 we entered into the event through the Main Gate, which is also the main gate for the park itself. The park it split into multiple lands, which include a water park, kids area, a driving school type zone, but the main area we walked through was called GP field, which is right alongside the race track and features the parks main coaster, GP Racers and a giant Ferris wheel. GP racers is a Hoei Sangyo (Japanese manufacturer) coaster that has duelling frack with ride vehicles only seating two people per vehicle. The track is less than 500m long, so it’s a relatively short ride experience, but like Motocoaster at Dreamworld, offers a motorbike style ride experience (with a lift hill). This ride experience is so much more comfortable than Motocoaster, because you sit sit like you are riding Jet Rescue, but the ride vehicles are like a bike so it offers the same sensation as Motocoaster should do without all the pain! Still a fun little coaster and glad I had the opportunity to ride it. Conclusion Overall a fantastic trip to Japan and after 9 years, still enjoyed it just as much if not more. The theme park highlights obviously being DisneySea and Universal Studios, with Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Fantasy Springs, Flying Dinosaur and Super Nintendo World being the major highlights from both parks. Obviously the massive crowds play a major part in the experience and can dampen it if you don’t have express passes. While we found the overall quality of ride and the theme park itself to be better at DisneySea, we ended up having a better overall day at Universal because it was less stressful and we didn’t have to worry about being on the app to secure ride passes, otherwise we’d be standing in line for hours and wouldn’t really achieve much.

Rode both yesterday, first time with Africa and 2nd time Australia Africa is light years better in almost every way. It is more immersive, more entertaining, more cultural, and ultimately more fun. It felt a lot closer to the calibre of ride that I was originally hoping for when I first rode Sky Voyager. In fact it was the first time I have felt truly immersed in this style of attraction outside of Disneyland. I really hope DW continue to mix it up and maybe bring us some other destinations too. As much as I appreciate what Sky Voyager Australia brings as a showcase of our beautiful country, particularly for visiting international guests, the experience itself just doesn’t quite hit the mark compared to Africa. On another note, was really great to see full carparks and long lines at DW, all the work they are putting in to improve the park is really paying off and I hope they continue injecting life into it.

There was a time when I would have said that Bikash's departure from Village would be an opportunity to celebrate. I don't know his reasons or his terms, so unsure how Clark and the rest of the leadership team feel about this - but I don't think Bikash is the only person for whom responsibility for the current state of Village should rest. However he departed, the fact that we find out from his personal statement, and a media article, rather than a statement by the company \ park outlining his legacy and also his replacement only goes further to make me feel all is not well at Village Roadshow.

They already need to start rethinking

I rode it today, it seems like the film is way brighter, I’m not sure if they reversed the screen but it’s crystal clear and way more immersive! I unfortunately didn’t get to experience the Australia film as I ran out of time but from Africa people were screaming of joy in the more exciting parts with is something I did not experience in the America film

No just has to be part of a theme park. Read the thread title. Picking some random pub several km is clearly not a theme park pub. It would be like picking a random McDonalds and calling it a theme park burger joint. AOS doesn't count because its a scheduled performance, has like 2 options on the menu. Nobody looks at AOS thinks its a pub you just go to. Skypoint doesn't count because the attraction itself is not a theme park / amusement park, which is why Scenic World was knocked out. This is just arguing in bad faith.

It was always going to be that way because MW always operates like this. The purchase of a dueling cost is mind boggling, if you're mostly not running it to duel. Copying Gumbuya World suspended coaster was also mind boggling. After selling DW's and MW's car park over the weekend. It's easy to know which theme park is stumbling.

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Visited WWW yesterday for the first time since 2010! Wow where has the time gone? I think it was definitely a wise choice to focus on DW first, it was in a much worse state and WWW although its not perfect its still ‘good enough’ to put on the back burner while they focused on the main park. The Green Room is still the superior slide imo and I enjoy it more than Tornado at WnW. The rip really struggles to keep a moving line and you get the feeling it really needs triple vortex firing to keep it from being blown out. Temple of Huey tower is still great with something for everyone. The bro is still awesome, and being a bit heavier I get some serious speed on him, always fun. Fully 6 was a little disappointing, if only the tubes were a little faster. 2 and 3 look fun, and it leaves a sour taste knowing they will probably never reopen. Another chill people mover like a family tube ride like mammoth falls and a lazy river would be the first investments I would be looking at for new attractions. They really need to remove Wedgie, being a slide that aesthetically trumps everything thats open and is permanently closed is just a bit of a let down. A bar closer to cave of waves would be a really good move, bit more like the WnW set up. A facelift on cave of waves to improve theming would also be awesome. Looks cheap and dated up close. Finally returning the back gate near gold coaster for easy park hop would be awesome. Considering their main marketing for WWW is two worlds in one day it makes little sense to make guests exit DW to enter WWW. This would be great if they ever decide to return ocean parade to its former glory and have a nice transition from that into WWW.

Going to TDL and not forking out the $20 to ride Beauty & The Beast would be a travesty. It has to be seen to be believed. great report @themagician brought back many memories from my visit 16 months ago. its a shame you missed out on Indy, was a great rice. Did you get on Raging Spirits? journey was so impressive, and we had zero prior knowledge of the ride so we’re blown away by the ending. agree Spider-Man was fantastic at USJ and I’ll miss that when we get around to visiting again. We did Space Fantasy with The Ring overlay and it was a bunch of fun. We waiting about 60-70mins and probably wouldn’t have waited any longer tbh.. flying Dino is hands down the best coaster I’ve been on. We had front row too, and the intensity and experience can’t be matched to anything here in Australia

I can see everyone else is trying to explain it but feel like it could be made clearer. During two train operation one train faces each way. On departing the station, each train enters the turntable. each train departs the track on the loop-back that returns it to the turntable. The turntable then drops the train onto the final leg back to the station. Each train returns to the station facing exactly the same direction it left. Train 1: Forward>Backward>Forward Train 2: B>F>B During one train operation only one train is on the track. In order to offer the alternating experience, the train must return to the station facing the opposite way to how it departed. In this course, it leaves the station, enters the turntable, departs onto the loop-back circuit into the turntable again, however in this situation the turntable drops the train back onto the loop-back circuit for a second time, before dropping onto the final leg. As it completed an extra loop back, the train returns to the station the opposite way. In one train operation, due to the extra leg completed, the ride time is longer and you get to see the loop-back section from both directions. Train first dispatch: F>B>F>B Train second dispatch: B>F>B>F I feel like if you experienced one train operation first, I can understand why the two train operation experience feels 'less' because the ride time is shorter. For everyone who rode under two-train ops, getting to ride the one-train circuit feels like a 'bonus'.

No changes, just didn't open at all on Monday and I heard that it was a bit on off on Tuesday. Park new this and still ran rivals with one train. Full queue, 70 min + wait, single ride queue full, awful dispatches. Good stuff Movie World!

Nah Busy weekends is a nice new touch.

We went last Monday, only 1 working. And yes the staff are miserable, something drastically has to change in the management. Night and day difference in regards to the theme park down the road with attitude etc

In my opinion, the guest experience is a much higher priority at Dreamworld than down the road. Might not be much of a standard compared to the world stage, but for the local area, Dreamworld is shining.

We have a slab.

Bit of a strange find over the weekend... It appears that one of those 'Human Powered Pedal Roller Coasters' has popped up in the Rydges Resort in the Hunter Valley, around a 2 and a half hour drive from Sydney. These are Chinese-built and have been popping up all over Tik Tok and Instagram over the last year or two. From what I can find online, it was built in 2023 alongside a number of other rides at the resort. It doesn't look like it has operated in some time however, as there was quite a lot of rust on the track. Still a peculiar little find nonetheless.

Train 1 - station Train 2 - maintenance bay Train 3 - on ground outside maintenance bay Remove train 2 via maintenance bay (would require extra set of whatever it goes onto to be removed). Then place train 3 back in its place. So briefly there is a single train on tracks. Wouldn't require an extra block.

I’m not surprised doing something that improves the guest experience these days (and costs money) would be very out of character for the park.

Send the park an email, they're currently seeking guest feedback and I'm sure they'd welcome this.

Let's speculate before we find out the truth.🤣 My speculation.

^standard village M.O.

Worse, but as I said, maybe someone got to the volume controls who shouldn't have, the day I went. If you start selling,whatever you're taking, you will be rich.

I didn't mean this to become a thread on technicalities but you leave me no choice dapto. - Banana bender pub passes the sniff test in terms of being a theme park pub. Its not inside the gate line, but clearly any sane visitor would eat there in preference. - ever since scenic World made it clear they're not building their roller coaster. They don't get to be called a theme park in my opinion.

Work has officially started on the 2nd and newest Alone Coaster in Australia. The Big Banana’s Plantation Coaster is due to open for the September school holidays. Here is a link to vision and a report of the start of construction ceremony https://www.facebook.com/share/1Bb4HryE3c/?mibextid=wwXIfr

The most noticeable update in a while, the main ride sign has been removed. (Theme Park Ogre)

Hi, clickbait YouTuber in question here. I don't normally respond to much on this forum, as I find it gets a little heated a lot of the time - as you correctly pointed out, I prefer to block that sort of thing out and allow commenters to enjoy their own echo chamber, since my channel is a hobby and I do it for happiness and a creative outlet, and I often find people tend to go for the jugular which leaves me feeling defeated and demotivated. I'm a roller coaster channel, not a platform for free speech, and I'm not obligated to give anyone's insults, or even rudely-phrased criticisms, any oxygen. But you've successfully baited me with this statement. I thank everyone for their feedback on my content. I genuinely enjoy taking on board feedback from those who do like my videos and those who don't. I appreciate that there are plenty of people who will disagree very strongly with my opinions on the current state of Movie World, or the way I approach video essays, or the way I run my channel in general. I've enjoyed reading your own takes on Movie World's current situation, and I actually agree with some of you. You've made some interesting points. I see no ill-intent in any of your feedback, and while I stand by my statements and my approach towards criticizing Movie World after my latest visit, I respect you all for voicing your own thoughts on it. I'm not sure when my next Movie World-related video will be, but I have genuine hopes that it will be a more positive one, and I hope some of you may even give the channel a second chance and enjoy it This statement right here, though, is why some commenters in particular are removed from my comments sections. This is not the first time that particular people have crossed the line from criticizing my content into drawing my personal issues into it and insulting me, and failing to see how there's a difference. Yes, I came home from my initial attempt at Coaster Odyssey due to health issues. I have a chronic illness. I spoke candidly on my channel about how it left me in hospital on the other side of the world, which was a terrifying experience, and also led me down a very dark path in terms of my mental health. I openly discussed how I spiraled into a depression badly during that time. I worked my backside off in casual jobs to save to start that journey, and I was still working casual jobs overseas to keep the journey a reality. Even putting YouTube aside, it was a dream of mine for a long time to travel and work long-term, and to pursue theme parks around the world. It hurt to have to come to the decision that I needed to go home so soon. And I've since been working my butt off yet again to make sure I'm recovering, getting the medical help I need, and will be continuing the series in July. I appreciate and respect that you have your objections to my content, and that's fine. But belittling my health issues and mockingly saying that I had my "tail between my legs" during what was objectively one of the most rattling, scary, painful and gut-wrenching experiences of my life is a stretch too far. Again, I was in a hospital, on the other side of the world from everyone I know and love, in a significant amount of pain, unsure what my insurance would cover and if I could even afford the healthcare, let alone the flight home that I eventually painfully realized I needed to book. And once I did get those airfares paid, I spent every night lying awake, still in pain, feeling like everything I'd worked so hard for over the past 2 years had gone up in smoke. I am so, so lucky that I have a wonderful support network because frankly, that trip was my reason to get out of bed a lot of days. So thanks for your input Jobe, but kindly leave my health issues out of your criticisms, please and thank you. We all have our struggles to cope with and I'd appreciate it if you could have the decency to separate your critiques of the content I create as a hobby from direct attacks on my health and suggestions that I'm cowardly for being forced to make decisions for my own health. Cheers mate.

Junior Driving School ruined Movie World.

Just in case anyone missed the entire site plan posted back in October Both entry and exit pathways are ramped up from street level, while the RideExpress lane does have a short set of stairs up to the grouping area.

It makes *some* sense, the highest (easily) climbable point on the Model T is like 3 feet (the back seat rest) whereas the highest climbable point on the Fire Truck is easily above 7 feet and if you have a bunch of kids climbing and rough housing on that thing it's more likely than not someone falls off. That said I said it makes "SOME" sense, for reasons I'm sure are very granular and come from an insurance point of view, but I don't agree with it either. For example, there's a climbing structure for kids in our local shopping mall that, while enclosed is like 15-20 feet high and any kid can go on it and (presumably) fall to injury or worse and yet it's still there after god-knows how many years. So yeah, I don't agree with the Fire Truck being inaccessible, but I understand it from a presumably very insurance minded and risk-aversion management that Dreamworld is no-doubt focused on after ~the incident~.

Yeah no, IMO the first impression is standing quite a bit further back from that. But that's just it - you can't even see the temple for all the jungle that comes before it. The climate changes before you even enter the temple as you delve deeper underneath the jungle canopy. This is a photo opportunity, not a temple. It just feels artificial. And despite DisneySea having a great respect for sight lines, the temple is visible well outside the delta. Just my opinion

The point isn’t that airport security and theme park operations are identical—it’s that they both involve moving large volumes of people safely through bottlenecks, and some do it far more efficiently than others without compromising safety. Everyone still goes through metal detectors, bags are still X-rayed, and staff still intervene if something flags. The key is smart systems and layouts that maximise throughput while maintaining safeguards. Now compare that to VRP where processes feel designed for friction. One clear inefficiency? Not allowing re-rides on dead days. If there's no line, no operational constraint, and guests are willing to go again, it’s absurdly inefficient to offload and reload the same train unnecessarily. That doesn’t improve safety—it just wastes time. Same goes for loading flow. Why wait until the unload platform is totally clear before even starting boarding? In many cases, that’s not a safety issue, it’s a procedural flaw. I fully agree with you if it’s implemented smartly. For a ride like Superman, universal-style metal detectors after the main queue with free double-sided lockers would be a game-changer. Keeps pockets empty, avoids last-minute dispatch delays, and doesn't punish guests with extra fees just to follow the rules. That’s the kind of ops thinking that actually improves both safety and efficiency.

Hyperia is just undoing the connections between the cars. A rebuild in the context being discussed here is tearing the whole train down to its individual parts, inspecting them all, replacing some, and then reassembling the whole thing.

Probably a standard cost saving move….

@Dean BarnettYou're adding a train, you're adding an extra maintenance bay. Where are you adding the extra block to safely run 3 trains?

Yeah see i've got sligthly different views on the offerings. Physical passes aren't really needed anymore. Everything is on people's phones and they are rarely without them. I'm more than likely to turn up at the gate and realise i've left my pass at home but i'm unlikely to leave my phone at home. Offer it as an extra for people if they like - or perhaps for kids who don't have phones so they can still visit without needing mum's phone at the gate (at an additional cost of course). I'm also apprehensive about Pins. I've seen the Disney elitism from Magic Key holders, and pin traders, and just all round PassHoles, and giving people status pins to wear are likely to be wasteful for people who don't care about them, but loathesome for those who do - I can see visuals of groups walking through the park with a lanyard full of "X year member" or "Platinum Gold Super Shiny Status" pins and using that as some sort of status symbol that makes them better than the average punter. I don't mind special edition pins to commemorate things - "i rode king claw first" and such, but the pins kind of hit the same way the Wizard of Oz coin did. Except the pins are wearable and will be obnoxiously brandished by the park tragics who collect them for status (and the same thing goes for the proposed 'points' earning system too. ) On the contrary, they've been rock bottom single priced passes for a while now. VIllage moved away from that system a few years ago, and while Dreamworld has been slowly creeping the price up it has still been the 'bargain' cheap priced pass - which it should have been given the poor cousin offering the park has had for so long. The opening of Rivertown signals the change in the offering. It's about time they tiered their offer. The cheaper guests will still buy the basic pass, while those who want a little more can pay more for it - this will let them diversify what they offer which in turn will let them target their future offers based on the tier of membership taken up. It lets them take the price up for the full pass while keeping a cheaper option for those who want less. Eg: I've never been to skypoint, but i've always wanted to. I'll be disappointed if they strip it out of the pass, and i'd be likely to buy the pass that included it just so I could go if I wanted to. When we travel we tend to buy the upcharge fastpass or VIP offering just because we don't want our day to be spent in lines. While we have dreamworld passes, we visit infrequently, so if i'm making the trip to coomera, i'm probably going to invest in whatever makes the day better - i'd like to see them introduce the old Village VIP GOLD offer (that they killed off 3 months into the program without refunding anyone) - to open the park early for shiny members and open 1 or 2 rides those days just for those members. THAT i'd pay for.

MW can't load one train efficiently so I don't know how throwing more trains at the staff to load, fixes the problem.

Yes I’m aware @New display name, but they should have 3 trains if they were serious about throughput for their best ride in the park - they can just park it in the station overnight.

Adventure World has submitted a Development Application - Public Amusement - New Amusement Ride, Relocation of Existing Rides and Site works. Interesting to note it says relocation of Existing Rides and glad to see a New Amusement Ride is coming. Interesting to see what this becomes.

Good parks have a spare train - so in rivals case - 3 trains.

Even if MW was the first (which they weren't) Village in the past have been know to put terms in their contracts, to protect their investment.

It seems like they only operate both trains in peak season and maybe busy weekends.

yep - 0% market research on new \ returning attractions and 100% 'what can we post that people will like / comment / share / subscribe to'

For those of you who are unfamiliar, a block zone is a section of a ride that only one train may occupy at a time. At the end of a block zone there is a method to stop the train, in case the block zone ahead is still occupied. This is the safety system that prevents rollercoaster trains from colliding with one another. The train disengaged from the lift hill and derailed at the top of the hairpin turn, off the beyond vertical drop, meaning that until it cleared the first mid course brake run, the following train wouldn't be able to enter this section and it would stop at the top of the lift hill. At no point could two ride vehicles collide.

I consider myself fairly well traveled, have been to 200+ theme parks in my time and 2025 Movie World would be in the bottom 5 for operations. The park management doesn’t seem to care about guest (and possibly staff) experience whatsoever. It’s all about the bottom line. If anyone complains about wait times they are gaslit and told it’s due to safety, which is completely at odds with how almost every other theme park (safely) operates. I’ve seen some 2 hour waits but there would have been 500+ people waiting in a queue. Movie World somehow manages a 2 hour wait for 200, so no wonder guests are fed up.

I have to disagree here. 2-3 hour waits for rides at a park that’s usually only open for 7 hours a day is a valid criticism. Spending nearly half your day in line for Rivals when it’s running one train ops and slow dispatches will leave a bad taste in your mouth, as evidenced by reviews of the park online. This isn’t Disney or Cedar Point where you may wait that long for some of the most popular rides, but the parks are open late into the night and there’s plenty of other shorter wait attractions to squeeze into your day.

Fwiw, Movie World's Google ranking now is 4 out of 5. Lowest of all major parks in the country. Also, I have let my annual pass lapse for VRTP - first time in about 9 years. Movie World is no longer a positive place to be. It's a shopping mall with rides.

I’ll make a spotify playlist next time I’m at the park 👌

LOL, Wash your mouth out! I've done the Beast, I've done the Zamperla Giga Discovery, I've done the Intamin and the Intamin one is in an entirely different league. See, the issue with these types of rides from cheaper manufacturers like Zamplera and KMG is that they put underpowered motors in the swing, so a great deal of the ride cycle is spent simply getting to full height. On the KMG it takes 1:30. The Giga Discovery takes close to 2:00 But the Intamin? 45 seconds. Its like being strapped to a rocket at the start. Intamin know where to push it when it comes to intensity. and then at the top of each swing, the motors are actively pushing back in reverse, and forcing you downwards, so you get enhanced airtime in the same way Batwing drops down "faster than gravity". More of the time is spent on the fun part...swinging beyond vertical, and less on the crap part....low speed nauseating swings. And the rotation speed is perfect. Its not pretending to be an eggbeater like the Beast. And there are no OTSRs. Cant wait to have one down the road.

My opinion is that primarily through a lack of competition or incentive, our parks, by far and large haven't really needed to or warranted supporting their enthusiast/loyalist community. However, the US theme parks are a hugely different situation entirely. My belief is because there's more competition at every level for them, there's an incentive over there to be above the curve in their marketing tactics and as such find it super important to really reach out to their most loyal customers. And let me tell you, every marketer ever knows that book 1, chapter 1, page 1 is all about engaging your brand's most loyal customers (here's just two from a sea of thousands of articles explaining just that) and ultimately that's where i'd like to see our parks in the future as a collective. US theme parks do regular Extended Ride Time (ERT) Events, behind the scenes walkthroughs designed specifically for our sort of crowd, do Q&A's with their design teams & most important of all, work with the key influencers/sites to ensure the right message has been delivered and the best possible content is being made to build their followings. That is where we should be in Australia in 2017. Every other niche group in any other industry will get this sort of stuff (especially in Australia), whether it's cars, photography, trains, drones, architecture, civil engineering etc. etc. etc., and yet here I am with OurWorlds, pounding away at emails just trying to get point of view video on Rivals that I know will generate heaps of great, free publicity for Movie World, and I gotta say, i'm still hitting a brick wall. And it's not like i'm not known for point of video footage either, i'd like to think that despite whatever critical opinion I may have at any given time that may off-put some execs, by and large the hundreds, if not thousands of hours I personally pour into real, honest, quality content (content that in the particular case of the Rivals HyperCoaster, gets used in their shareholder reports, no less) is worth at least a g'day. And this makes it really hard for me, because to make good content, it's a two-way street, because i'm certainly not going to pull a Robb Alvey and start sneaking cameras onto rides either and put content out there that suggests breaking the park's rules is okay. Like seriously, I have literally been served a lobster lunch in return for my roller-coaster videos. And yeah, granted, there's more then a few numpties who call themselves enthusiasts, and I think that's also par for the course in any group. I certainly don't think same sex marriage is anything but a must in this country, and that's despite a very few super-leftie, hippie marxist types making it hard for there to be a rational, calm discussion about it with those who may have concerns. So in my mind, just because @Andrewh did the wrong thing a while back and jumped into a closed off part of Dreamworld, doesn't then mean that we're all a bunch of crazies who just want a scoop. Nah, I actually think by and large we're all pretty well rounded folk who enjoy a beer and a laugh at our favourite places, and if they followed in the steps of their global counterparts on proven methods to make these prime digital audiences work to their advantage, they would be saving literally hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in ad-buys alone. As for outside of the parks, the reception is always pretty interesting. For me, my DNA is pretty entrenched in theme parks so most people know that it comes with the package. When my father passed when I was a wee lad, theme parks were a literal escape into another world. When I would go to theme parks, I'd take hundreds of pictures on every trip and unbeknownst to me at the time, I was actually refining a skill i'd use later in my professional career. So I owe a lot to theme parks, but in saying that, I try to keep it pretty chill. Just like people don't want to know the psi of your fully sick turbo, people don't want know how the LSM's on Tower of Terror's launch work. Some people will ride kiddie coasters and chase credits so they can say "I did 6000 coasters!", and that's cool too, to each their own. These days theme parks for me are all about great experiences, and when it comes to travelling, they're a great waypoint to craft an adventure from, but they're not the only reason to travel abroad either. Just as an aside, I say all of this with no animosity - i'm a frank, honest guy these days and given my own personal passion for these places, really all of this comes from a place of wanting to see the parks succeed and really grow in the future.