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Ah now I feel like I'm duty bound to explain what's wrong with the place lol Honestly where to do even start with what's happened to Sea World? Since the moment they broke ground on Jet Rescue the park has been in a very sharp decline, and that comes on the back of about 10 years of stagnation. What strikes me is how almost all of it isn't stuff that was beyond their control, but its 12 years of every time a decision had to be made, very reliably the wrong decision was made until we eventually get to the point where the park is as it is now. Let's go through what I mean: - Jet Rescue breaks ground. As part of construction, the train closes, and will never reopen. Bermuda's gas line is ruptured, the decision is made to not repair it, killing off one of the main things that made that ride so special - Carnival games are added to the plaza - Sea World's Water park is given over to the resort. No new capital expenditure accompanies this move, and the Water Park becomes a $5 upcharge for park guests. The Resort is rebranded 'Sea World Resort & Water Park' - Corkscrew, probably the most iconic theme park attraction on the Gold Coast, is painted orange, and is renamed 'Sea Viper' as part of an upgrade that includes new Kumbak trains. The trains (which are heavier and will eventually cause stress on the track that will see the ride closed) are ugly, uncomfortable, and cause the ramp to the station to have steps put in it for clearance making the ride less wheelchair and stroller friendly than it used to be (even if they're not riding, people in wheelchairs and strollers want to not be in the sun, ya know?), the new colour scheme is unneeded, and renders all the thousands of photos of the Corkscrew used to promote the Gold Coast as a whole, obsolete. The retheme comes with no new themeing. - Sea World's ski show, one if it's most iconic shows, closes to make way for a high dive show. While some work is done on the stage area, the main set for this show is a repurposed endeavor replica to keep costs down. - Management experiment with opening all rides at 10:30, for a parkwide saving of maybe a few hundred dollars a day. - An upcharge peddle boat attraction is added to the Ski Lake - The park's only traditional restaurant, Paradise Room, closes. - Dugong Discovery is replaced with a display about Shark attacks, the tone of which is different to Sea World's general message that the dangers of sharks are over stated and they need to be protected. - Stage 1 of Castaway Bay opens, which includes a battle boats attraction, large play structure, and an (Upcharge) sky climb attraction. The kids pool and Plunge Water slide, are not reintegrated to the park despite a natural fit with the Battle Boats attraction, and geographical distance between them and the Sea World Resort which they technically remain a part of, and remain an upcharge. - Planet SOS, a decent 3D movie with decent in theatre effects, is replaced with Happy Feet 3D, which is basically Happy Feet with 7/8ths of the film removed, and no in theatre effects. - Pirates Unleashed high dive show is replaced with Jet Stunt Extreme, a 90's era extreme sports style show, which is at the very least uses the lake better than the smaller high dive show. As part of this change the Endeavor replica which had sat in a dolphin pool where it was an iconic scenery piece, is moved to the back of the lake where it is left for several years, before being demolished. - After limping along with little to no maintenance for many years, (which includes another of the rides iconic features, the disappearing UFO, being inoperable for many years) , Bermuda Triangle closes suddenly as serious structural issues are identified with the tunnels throughout the ride, and the cost of repair is deemed too high. It's eventual replacement is still 3 and a half years away, for the bulk of that time the ride sits decaying behind a temporary fence - Penguin Encounter replaces the short lived Shark Attack display. It repurposes a lot of the pre existing World of the Sea theatre, which limits the size of the exhibit. As part of the attraction opening, the small aquarium which was under the guest services building is closed boarded up. - The Pirate Ship, one of the parks few rides (even back then) is deemed to costly to repair and is removed. It is purchased by a park in Victoria where it still runs around 10 years later. - SpongeBob Parade opens. It works as a show more successfully than it does a parade, as Sea World has no parade route. As part of the parade, inflatable replicas of SpongeBob's house are installed on the Island, and one of the Monorails is decommissioned, and it's PLC is used to control fountains installed for the show. The remaining trains become wrapped in promotional material for the parade, which obscures the view for people in the monorails, and the wraps remain on the train for at least 12 months after the parade's eventual closure. As part of the Nick License, the park installs SpongeBob 3D into the 3D theatre. The 5min film is designed to be played as part of a motion base ride, and underwhelms in a 450 seat theatre with no 4D effects. - Seal Harbour opens. It is basically an area which was already used to house Seals which was made accessible to the public. While nice enough, the design brief seems to be 'Really nice bus stop' and it lacks any real charm. It is also a dead end and tucked out of the way and attracts few visitors, but is a nice enough addition to the park. - Dinosaur Island, a display featuring model dinosaurs opens in 2 unconnected locations; on the peninsula leading to the light house, and the long closed Broadwater Café, a small restaurant which features stunning views of the Broadwater. It's out of theme at Sea World, and guests entering the park now see random Dinosaurs across the lake as their first impression upon walking into the park. -Storm Coaster, Bermuda Triangle's replacement opens. Continuing in the tradition of the ride system to be less than the sum of it's parts, Storm is much less than the sum of it's parts. The Roller Coaster section is intimidating for small kids and not thrilling enough for adults, the most exciting visual element, the splashdown takes place inside. The very short dark ride element takes place after what is the natural finale for the ride type - the splashdown, as such is garners little to no interest from riders and instead makes for a weak and rushed finale. While the ride does succeed in bringing some much needed life to the middle of the park, it requires the shortening of the Flume Ride, and the theme is for a Storm ripping through a shipping yard, as such the theme is for the ride to look ugly and messy. - Sea Viper succumbs to it's new Kumbak train and age and is decommissioned as the track becomes too expensive to maintain. - Dolphin Cove is renamed Dolphin Beach in response to the negative connotations of the word 'Cove' after the release of the anti marine parks documentary about the Taji dolphin massacres, and the long running Imagine Dolphin Show is replaced with a new show called 'Affinity'. In the backdrop of an increasing animal rights movement, Affinity is a great angle of attack to start a pro SW response talking about the Affinity and care SW has for it's animals, how the show you're watching is great exercise and enrichment for the animals, and calling on guests to have affinity for the ocean as a whole. Unfortunately though Affinity is written like someone took 50 goes at writing the opening line, and decided not to waste the effort and reused them for every line in the show. It does nothing to further the park's message and comes off as a weak follow up to its predecessor. Further to this and as part of the change from 'Cove' to 'Beach' tacky changing pavilions are added around the venue which further dilutes the potential message that SW takes the care of the animals seriously (Which it absolutely does) - Sea World gets a new kids land as Sesame Street land is replaced by Nickelodeon Land. Only the Carousel and Plane Ride remain from the land's former incarnation, and 4 new kids rides are installed. They include inspired choices such as custom Rockin' Tug and Tea Cups, along with less inspired choices like the second most generic kiddie coaster on the market (behind the Wacky Worm), and the extremely low capacity peddle powered flat ride. The Skyway, one of the park's genuine family rides closes. It had been running at a greatly reduced speed for many years prior to it's closure. This puts more pressure on the parks one remaining transport ride, the Monorail, which now routinely only runs one train at a reduced speed due to the constant need for maintenance to trains and having no slack in the system after the decommissioning of the third train years earlier. - Following the 2016 tragedy at Dreamworld, the Viking's Revenge Flume ride never reopens from scheduled maintenance. Some half hearted attempts are made to investigate an Intamin retrofit, however plans to bring the ride come with a plan to make the ride shorter by removing the castle portion of the ride and replacing it with an aviary. in the end, no decision is ever made, and 4 years later, the ride continues to rot in full view of the public with no replacement in sight. - Dinosaur Island is replaced by the 'Creatures of the Deep' display. While on theme and an improvement on it's predecessor, it still comes off as a fairly phoned in attraction which is visually unappealing when viewed from the entrance of the park. - The remains of the old Sea World water park stop being an upcharge as the Plunge Slide and kiddie pool closes. It's eventual replacement is 2 years away. In response to the declining park, the upcharge Sky Fortress is now included in park admission - Sea World embarks on two big renovation projects, one is the revamp of Dockside Tavern. The renovation includes removing the bar, and replacing it was a place to queue as the capacity of the venue is massively reduced as there is no longer a large bar. The Verandah is also expanded towards Nick Land and the exterior is suited to match that land. It also includes a photo of Sea World in the 80s. There are more rides in that photo than there are in the current park. The Plaza is also given a make over. The train station is demolished, and a new path is added to funnel people through the newly renovated area. The area is nice, but lacks anything to make it special; the buildings are bland and have no character and the tacky carnival games remain causing a bottleneck. The improved flow of guests and general newness do add some much needed and welcome freshness to the park though. - Sea World's mediocre Fish Detectives show is replaced by the laughably bad Seal Guardians show. While their are many problems with the show, ultimately the biggest problem is it skews stupidly young, and anyone over the age of 10 would struggle to enjoy it, despite the fact this is a show that contains actual real life trained seals. - Sea Jellies Illuminated takes over the indoor section of the Creatures of the Deep attraction. It is based off a popular attraction over seas where jelly fish are displayed with various lighting effects. A research lab upstairs is included upstairs as an attempt to give it a little credibility. The lighting in the attraction is very dim to give the Jellies more prominence, and many people blinded by the outside sun often cram into the small area at the same time which causes some issues. Ultimately, the good outweighs the bad and it is a decent addition to the park - The remains of the Water Park are replaced by a water splash area for kids which would be right at home next door as part of the resort. Here it's a nice enough area for small kids to play. While it is themed, it's not intended to be immersive, as large cartoon style fish decorate the area. A 'Volcano' on stilts is built (presumably at some decent cost) to hide some pipes which are used as part of Shark Bay's filtration system, Overall, it's a nice addition which goes well with the Splash Battle next door and the play structure. - The Lighthouse is demolished to make way for Sky Flyer, a traveling carnival ride previously called 'Space Jam' which is brought in to bolster a decimated ride lineup. It's questionable placement next to Dolphin Pools again slightly undermines the parks credibility when talking about how much it cares for it's animals. While nothing about it's placement it cruel, screams of riders now echo over dolphin pools. This isn't cruel for the animals, but is noticeable for people who may be on the fence about the park - MW's Carnivale event is moved to Sea World for it's third year. During the peak season at Sea World now, the park is a mess of old parade floats and decorations that are meant to be viewed not by you daytime visitor who makes up the bulk of the trade, but by the people who buy a ticket to an upcharge event which is basically a night market with entertainment. In it's first year at Sea World, it runs without a headline show as the parade designed for Movie World can't be brought over. In later years, that glaring omission (which I called out the second the event was announced in it's first year) was corrected with the addition of Aquacolour. A decent show which had no tie in to Carnivale, but had a decent scale and was watchable enough to entertain for it's 20min run time. Most recently the show has been given a link to Carnivale, but was also scaled down as part of that change. Despite the fact that a nighttime show like this would be a slam dunk running every night from Dec 26 to late Jan, it remains something that is only for Carnivale guests. Realistically, most guests leave Sea World long before closing anyway, so extending closing time to 7.30 might be a step to far. - Jet Stunt Extreme is replaced with a Ski Show. But not just any Ski Show, a hip 90's Extreme Sports show! With totally bogus BMX Riding and a radical Monster Truck boat, brought to life by the cool team at Showtime FMX! Perhaps a little harsh a review, it is a deeply flawed show, but a baby step in the right direction which now boasts 3 deeply flawed shows as it's biggest attractions. - Sea World announces it's new Atlantis precinct (because themed lands are sooooo not how we do theme parks any more). The plans include a Top Spin, Permanent Star Flyer, and a Traditional Wooden Coaster. One of the considerations for the traditional wooden coaster over something like an RMC coaster is that the new wooden coaster will have a lower height requirement. The first ride to open will be Vortex, a Top Spin ride which traditionally has a 140cm height restriction, putting it out of reach for many guests. In a tone deaf move given the animal rights movement, this high energy thrill ride will be placed on the edge of a dolphin pool, and ultimately, the ride seems more about sticking it to Dreamworld rather than adding a ride which is best fit for the park. The themeing of the new land promises to be wholey abstract and in no way immersive according to concept art. It remains to be seen if any attempt will be made to theme the back of the sets for Thunderlake which from the back looks like an unappealing shed, (and from the front looks like an unappealing warehouse). - Sea World sells it's helicopter business to a new company who continue to fly using the Sea World Helicopters name. A new facility is built in the Sea World car park. It is described as 'World Class' yet the tarmac from the old carpark is not even resurfaced, and the lines from the carparks remain visible. - As part of construction for the new area which contains no family rides, Sea World will close the Monorail, it's last proper family ride. Rumors are swirling that much like the train when Jet Rescue was built, the Monorail may never reopen. So yeah, want to know why the park feels like a pale imitation of it's former self? THAT is why. That's what happened to the park. 12 years of poor decisions one after the other over and over again. It's NOT your imagination, the park has gone massively down hill. By the time Leviathan opens it'll be nearly 5 years since Viking's closed and it's still there rotting. The park will have a total of zero family rides. The shows are all objectively worse than they used to be. Village takes no pride in the park, and that filters down to the staff in their corporate Village Roadshow branded uniforms who couldn't give less of a shit if they were constipated. Moreover Nothing special has happened at the park since 2004 when Shark Bay opened. Everything feels phoned in, on the cheap or poorly executed, mostly involving repurposing stuff that was already there rather than building anything new or innovative. I know I've gone more into the past than the current state of play, but really if you just look at every decision they've made in the recent past which has shaped the park, you'll understand exactly the current state of the park, that it's not your imagination, it is a mess, and that even if you take nostalgia out of it, the park is objectively bad.

This morning I was invited out to Dreamworld to get a sneak peek of Steel Taipan and a walk through of the entire area. I’ll start out by saying, overall they’ve done a good job with the area. It’s very nicely presented, good aesthetic/theming elements and watching both trains in testing while in the queue/entry areas is awesome. I was able to take a few photos of the area, so I’ll describe what I captured and if anyone has any questions, I’ll try answer them the best I can with what I can share publicly. The entry signage is something we’ve already seen, but here it is up close The path leading to the queue entry A look at the entry and exit paths There is a test seat before joining the queue. The garden beds throughout have been done very nicely. Suits the theme/style. There is a main, single rider and Tailwhip queue. The queue wait time and ride safety information sign is yet to be installed, but will be positioned here. The station area is massive and allows for many people to be organised for loading to make it as efficient as possible. There are also large fans in the station and queue. The screens will show boarding information. Here’s a closer look at the train

Occasionally I'll search through tender websites for theme park projects and yesterday's search at work had delivered some treasure. Here is what is worth noting: This is what the queue line and station looks like. It would appear they are going with a snake skeleton shade structure. Exit Path. There will be 2 tunnels. This is the modern entrance sign is going next to Sky Voyager in Main Street. They will be cutting and filling a sizeable amount of the coaster's site. As a result there will be a large, imposing retaining wall on the Giant Drop side. A look at the station structure. It looks the same as Rivals or Green Lantern. Ramp up to station. An overview of the site. I do not know how this will integrate with Buzzsaw. There is a lot of mentions of the name "Steel Taipan" in the documents, which must be the name they are going to use. When you go to the Australian Trade Mark Search website (https://search.ipaustralia.gov.au/trademarks/search/quick/result?q=ardent+leisure) you can see they have trademarked that name already. If the trademarks are anything to go by, you would also assume that Sidewinder may be renamed GoldCoaster (or The Gold Coaster or something like that) once when it opens again. There is a lot of PDF files in the tender that were cool to check out including Mack PDF files. Happy to upload them somewhere or send them to Parkz to upload if you all are interested to look at the tender further. And before anyone rages about leaks these files are easily available on the tender site and those names are found on the public Aussie trademark website.

The old Sky Voyager building

Here's a couple i got this morning.

I think before it opens they are likely to install another piece or two. I'd expect that to be all though.

And we have supports.

Well here's my update, and some new things we hadn't noticed yet. Along with the completed turn around point, new supports are going up, which appear will twist under and then back of the track. Some supports further down are installed, as well as some down the narrow run (around the lift hill area) and near the brake run. Very tightly twisted track has arrived. More stair pieces have arrived. And there are also some very thick columns.

Ahhh That moment when I remember about this place and log in again after 5 years... I learned so much, had no idea lethal weapon was gone and dreamworld has a big new coaster. Anyhow thought I'd share some of my old photos since many of the things don't exist anymore and its becoming a bit interesting... I should go again after 15 years....

The ride sign is up, in stunning 3d too!

Thank you for giving me the chance to talk about the cooperation with VRTP! I really enjoyed creating the simulation and I hope you all enjoyed watching the trailer. And sorry for not giving you any updates on my simulation, but you may now understand why I was not able to do so.

Here is what my updated simulation looks like. The first two screenshots show the recent status of construction. The last three screenshots show how the track will match the supports already in place.

Something like this would be the PERFECT replacement for Arkham Asylum. It's well themed, and it's actually about movies in general rather than just being Superhero themed, something Movieworld needs desperately. It also looks like something the whole family can enjoy.

Some of the new track and other parts that has arrived The camelback The drop Other parts of the track and station progress The signage out the front of the park: And a look at the logos lit up

Your update for the 10th of June 2017. (and probably my largest so far) Comparison Photo 1 (Stengel/Inclined-Dive Loop): Non-Inverted Loop is becoming more and more visible with each passing week. Comparison Photo 2 (Non-Inverted Loop/Pretzel Helix): They positioned the construction vehicles in the worst possible places. So here's an alternate angle on the loop. Lift Hill: Green Lantern = Current Lift Hill Height Storage Lot: In-Park: In park shots will be so much easier once Lantern has reopened. Footbridge: Other Shots:

I thought I'd start a seperate forum for Leviathan specific construction updates, so that we can easily follow the coaster in one place. This was my first time seeing the vertical construction progress, so I took my big camera lens to the park to get some close up shot of the construction Overview: Close ups: Despite the coaster not yet reaching it max height, it can already be seen for a lot of different points across the park

I used my NoLimits "park" to recreat the exact track and footings that are already in place so i can give you differently angled views on what we have so far. I also added a the parts of the layout that are now obvious from track and footings. In my opinion the dive turn around is set as the following element. As the previous element still a vertical loop would fit perfectly with the foundations (not in the screenshots yet).

A very large portion (something like a third) of the Movie World carpark is now being fenced off.

Hi. I'm a newbie here but read Parkz quite regularly. I love puzzles so I un-jumbled the Dreamworld Billboard.

Quick update first drop to top of supports next lift hill supports being installed may be lucky by days end to see full height

Ok first drop being placed at moment more containers have arrived looks like rest of lift hill and maybe transfer track return run seems to be completed so just lift hill and rest of first drop to be installed lots of work happening at station area

Quick up date airtime hill done major elements done now just for lift hill and first drop Start of lift hill on site

She's a beauty!!! 😍😍😍

Hot PR tip for the person managing the social media account: If you're explaining, you're losing. Everything in that statement prior to the last paragraph should never, ever be said publicly or privately to a paying customer. They do not care about why the rides are closed, planned or not. They care about the fact that they've paid $110 to enter the park to watch HWSD2 while eating $20 chicken nuggets and possibly getting a ride on WWF, if it's open. They care about the disappointment they're experiencing for paying so much money to effectively enter an overpriced, extremely limited shopping mall. Movie World's failures are not the customer's fault - even if scheduled maintenance is listed on the website, people expect the majority of rides to be open, not one ride for part of the day. Acknowledge the unplanned stoppages and then direct people to guest services and tell them that you want to make it right. Don't say that guests are going to be 'well informed and an outcome achieved'. That's effectively code for 'Go F*** Yourself, no refunds'. Just acknowledge the disappointment, acknowledge the unplanned stoppages, acknowledge that this is not how you want guests to experience the park and then direct them to guest services because you want the chance to make it right. That's it. What guest services offer can be tailored to what the guests want, but don't blame the visitor because Movie World can't keep on top of ride maintenance enough to keep even ONE roller coaster operating. Right now, you're taking a bad situation and making it worse.

I finally had the opportunity to get over to the Gold Coast after about 18 months over this last weekend and it was great to see how things have changed and adjusted as we start venturing out of the pandemic. I won't give a details 1-to-1 of everything I did but I wanted to point out some of the major things I noticed after being away from the parks for so long. Dreamworld - Friday 28th of Jan We arrived at Dreamworld around 11 AM on Friday after landing in Brisbane. Getting into the park was painless with check ins, vaccination and ticket checks. I got my pass online during the drive down and added it to my Apple wallet which meant that I could just wander on in. The staff at the front were super helpful and friendly which gave a warm welcoming experience to the park Obviously the first thing we did was wander over to Steel Taipan to check it out. There was a little bit of a line and we had some others coming to the visit us so we wandered around whilst we waited. Despite this area not being necessarily 'themed' I still found that it was presented extremely well with the taipan and Australian motifs. I likened the presentation to that which you'd expect to find in a zoo and I don't feel it's out of place for a park like Dreamworld. I wouldn't have an issue if this was the style moving forward because it's effective and inoffensive. By the time our friends arrived around midday there was a queue for Steel Taipan that was around a 20-30 minute wait and it grew behind us once we got in line. At this stage they were only running one train but it wasn't long before maintenance came over to assist in getting the second train on the track. From there the park was running two trains until close and it was a walk on for the rest of the day. Whilst some may say that this is a failure on the parks behalf, personally I find this great as you can do the attraction as much as you'd like and I can imagine that many people would prefer doing that over waiting in line for over an hour. Despite the carpark being rather full there didn't seem to be too many people in the park and most lines were a walk on. Operations were efficient and there was barely a stage where I thought that Dreamworld could lift their game expect for one staff member who dubbed a safety video as 'boring' and then proceeded to sass out guests who talked during the 'boring' video. Extending from that, staff at the park were excellent. They seemed rather cheerful and energetic which is what you want in a theme park. There were a lot of characters out and about, and in the ABC Kids area we had B1, B2 and Wags hound us down for a photo. The costumed characters were great to interact with and B1 kept on giving one of our group members some sass after he tried doing wiggle fingers for a photo where the bananas pretended to get offended. Presentation wise the park is doing pretty well. The back half of the park seems to be rather forgotten about considering that the main clientele for Wild Life are currently unable to enter the country and the mood down that way is rather gloomy with demolition and a lack of attractions, but the other half is clean, vibrant and buzzing with atmosphere with the horticulture being where the park currently shines as the gardens and greenery are lush and picturesque. Food was okay. I only had Kenny's Fried Chicken which was seasoned well but the chicken wasn't the best quality in my opinion. Others in our group had the parmigiana which they all said was great with decent value. All round I had a really fun day at Dreamworld and it left me feeling good about the direction that the park is going in. It has it's problems but it seems that its actively working to improve them and I'm excited to see this park's future. Movie World - Saturday 29th of Jan We arrived at 9:30 and met our friends near Scooby waiting for Wild West Falls where we got our first sneak peak of the wonderful world of odd decisions that constantly being made at Australia's premier park. For as long as I can remember Movie World has always allowed entry 30 minutes before park open. I don't have a big problem with this except it's usually luck of the draw as to whether you can line up for an attraction or not. They were allowing guests to get in line for Scooby but not for Wild West Falls and so there was a rush of people heading this way to ride the attraction. As soon as the park officially opened we got a Virtual Queue for Rivals whilst heading to Wild West Falls. VQ is an okay system but I don't love it because it's incredibly temperamental and get's wacky when you've got a large group. Also it appears to be geared towards pushing their one-shots which is a problem that I'll extend on later. Thank goodness we did rush Wild West Falls because otherwise it was around a 60-90 minute wait for the rest of the day. Thanks to an issue with the new boats they are unable to use the first row and what was once the parks people eater is now what appears to be an operational nightmare. From what we could gather they were only using around 6 boats with the new stop-start unload things moved really slow. The staff were making the best of a bad situation here but you could tell that it was putting them under a lot of pressure and there were not pleased about it. Next up was Rivals as our VQ was ready. It was about 10 minutes before we got on but I feel sorry for those waiting in the stand-by line because it was stinking hot and that queue has very little shade. They were also blasting mist through fans to help cool down guests but that now means that your phone is going to be temperamental with it's touch screen whilst you wait almost an hour in line. Once we were on-board I was reminded once again what a great coaster this is albeit it's definitely not as smooth these days especially compared to Steel Taipan. As soon as our VQ was scanned for Rivals we booked another Scooby-Doo. This lined up perfectly with unload so we head straight there. Scooby-Doo is still a very fun roller-coaster but my goodness is that ride in a sorry state. Multiple effects and screens were just flat out not working including the on-ride photo and the only part that seemed to be in an acceptable state was the disco room. It's still as popular as ever with guests consistently crowding for it but I could imagine that rider satisfaction would be pretty low. From here the VQ system becomes less handy and the app starts to falter. Most virtual queues had become full except for Superman which was an hour and a half wait. A lot of the wait times were wrong on the app which was frustrating as you'd reach an attraction only to find that it's an additional 40 minutes on top of what is posted in the app. After struggling to find something to do that didn't require us to be in line for a huge amount of time we decided to check out road runner and it's new trains. They look and feel great and they're definitely an upgrade. Eventually Superman was ready so we got in line and had a ride which was great as always except for being a bit headache inducing on the final bends. We noticed it was running two trains but they were constantly stacking at load/unload with little happening. Throughout the day it was not uncommon for a train to enter the station, then the staff would start organising people to the gates, then loading guests in and sending them on their ride. I have no idea why they don't start sorting guests at the gate sooner but its really awkward when the train is just sitting there and it seems like nothing is happening for a hot couple of minutes. Equally as frustrating; DC Rivals was only running one train. This is the parks premier ride that is constantly getting international praise and it baffles me that they're not just running a blanket two trains through the entire Summer season. In saying this, it makes a lot more sense when you realise that the park has monetised wait times with one-shots. Why should the park reduce wait times or add more access to VQ when they're charging $40 AUD to ride DC Rivals once? I would absolutely love to see the metrics as to how many people buy the one-shots because I feel like they'd be embarrassingly low despite putting the park in a position where it needs to decide whether it prioritises those who paid for a ticket or those who will pay in the park. We did Justice League as it was one of the shortest lines of the day and I understand why; in its current state this attraction should not be operating. The first scene has a majority of it's lightning not working so you can only see the starfish, a majority of us in our group found that the lasers just didn't register half the time, one of the screens was not working and apparently hasn't been for months, the 3D no longer works, many of the sound effects and musical queues didn't work and cyborg within the queue needs a hug as his face screams that he is in constant pain. After doing this attraction and Scooby it compounded to me unfortunately becoming very jaded to the state of the park. Many of the buildings are filthy, a lot of the gardens are unkempt, the White Christmas lights are degrading to a disgusting brown colour, there are multiple dead ends with little signage to say what is going on, the park refuses to acknowledge Arkham, multiple ride signs are degrading with Justice League legitimately having a mushroom growing out of it and the villains area near Dooms Day is basically rotting in plain sight. The park is massively resting on its laurels despite being years from its 'A' game. Compounding onto this, Main Street had four external vendors operating with pitched gazebos and banner signage. This is just generally embarrassing. The presence of a Boost Juice van, Exotic Filled Candy stall, some donut joint and a custom engraved light up stand thing makes Main Street feel more like the Royal Easter show than a theme park. I am absolutely fine if external vendors want to be in the park, but at least make it thematically consistent. The first thing you see on Movie World's website is Australia's #1 Theme Park but this statement has as much weight as their marketing campaign which touts AOS as a park. It just feels like nobody at the top really cares about this place beyond the money it can generate and it's blinding them from the problems that are plaguing this park. It's a huge shame because these excellent attractions are being let down by mediocre theme park. Sea World Carnivale - Saturday 29th of Jan After leaving Movie World we went directly to Sea World for the opening night of Carnivale. The atmosphere at Sea World as great! It was a stark change from Movie World as you can tell that a lot of the focus at the moment is on this park. The food offerings are a bit lighter this year but the breaded chicken bro buns were nice and filling. I would personally prefer some smaller and less expensive selections so that you could try more because I've always found the food to be a big draw that was under utilised this year. Entertainment was great but at times it felt like there were multiple bands fighting for your attention against the park music. I didn't see the night time dolphin show but frankly I'm against the idea. Let the dolphins rest. The new show at the front of the park is spectacular and has scrapped any story elements from yesteryears. It's a fun light show with fireworks, live dancing, live drumming and lasers but I do think that they needed an opportunity for each element to shine. Often times there was so much happening that it was difficult to know what to focus on and the pacing was basically 0 to 100 in 5 seconds where it stayed for the duration of the performance. This sort of high octane experience is good fun but can get very overwhelming very quickly. I got to experience Vortex for the first time which is good fun. It's not mind blowing but it's very intense and does a decent job of fleshing out Sea World. In saying that the queue design is awful and does not assist the operators in any way. There should have been an area for them to stage guests with a number because from what I could gather they would send a group and then wait to hear how many more people they needed on their ear piece. This lead to cycles being over 10 minutes even with 4 staff members operating the attraction. I also got to do Jet Rescue for the first time in about half-a-decade. I forgot how fun it was! We got to use Virtual Queue for this but it freaked out when our group of 10 booked as some people were ready straight away and others had to wait 30 minutes despite all booking within 30 seconds of each other. Storm Coaster at night is always a pleasure. It seems that they've fixed some elements that haven't been working in years like the storm projection screen and the video just as you enter which is nice. Operations were great on this which seems to be assisted by a cleverly designed system that can accomodate so many boats/trains. Beyond VQ it wasn't worth getting in line as they were very long. I think for paid after hours events they should be doing everything in their power to keep queues down because it could be a major selling that the park has short waits during the event because beyond the entertainment and drinks there isn't too much grand appeal to Carnivale. It's great fun as an AP holder, but I wouldn't spend $60 on the event. Side note; if New Atlantis opens by Easter then I'll eat my own face because they don't look anywhere near ready enough to open in 10 weeks. The next day we were back at Dreamworld to cap off our trip and we visited WWW as well. I don't have too much to say about this day beyond reinforcing my perspective that I think Dreamworld is doing great things at the moment. Despite being a lesser version of its former self, it really does feel like it's finally got its footing and is on the up and up. White Water World is always good fun when you just want to do a couple slides and vibe out. Ultimately all of this is my own opinion but I'd love to know your thoughts on the parks. If you've got an issue with anything I've said feel free to quote it and provide your two cents. Edit: I'll add more photos later as I'm just waiting for my phone to sync with my laptop.

Current progress

Forgot to upload these after visiting Sunday.

Would love to be those guys up in the cherry picker right now

Here is the loop with the supports in place. Looks incredible!

Lift hill construction has begun. Tonnes of supports in the area, and workmen preparing footers around the area. All cranes are now in carpark, with no more pieces installed for the loop. EDIT: And here's a few more pictures

I have absolutely no idea why Theme Park Girl, whose contributions I and I'm sure many others value greatly, has been attacked in this thread, including seemingly by members of the Parkz crew. It's just bizarre. Please don't stop contributing TPG! I also find it strange that there is an attempt to bring down and fault the user that created that great mock-up video of the coaster. It certainly gave a sense of the scale, regardless of whether individual elements were 100% correct. Are people envious about this or something? Thanks to everyone who is updating the thread regularly with pics. It's nice that barely a day goes by without new photos. This is going to be one well covered coaster, as it should be! Movie World might not be interested in marketing it, but it's certainly getting plenty of attention on Parkz.

More pieces in place. These were from earlier today during the Parkchat viewers meet, so there may be a few familiar faces (or figures lol) in them. Sorry if there's any double ups from the last lot shared by @themagician, it's hard to keep track of what's been covered and what hasn't. But yeah. Enjoy guys 👍 Still waiting for a support to be installed here lol: The brake run at the station: Looking amazing from a distance ❤️

2 hours here and i’m calling it - movieworld is now the worst theme park in the country, by a decent margin hopefully Oz and and a reopening Scooby make a difference but there is no magic left here

I'm no engineer, but can't they just get Superman to push it around the rest of the track? He does it all the time with the other coaster.

Some pics from today! Zoom in and you can see some rockwork in the queue Two new statues! (one pictured). Much much larger than the current one near Vortex. Crates of 'Split Bluestone Tiles" Edit: Not sure if this is new or not but Levy and Trident now appear on the map in the app! Looks like they still may be planning some kind of theming on the bottom right

T R I D E N T

We are going vertical kids

Hi Alex, I understand your frustration. I can tell you one thing that we have zero control over what this site does or how they carry out their buisness. Richard I believe is the man, he is very strong in his views and that’s why I respect him and engage him when I can. Okay so a lot of people reached out to me, I had zero issue with anything being said here, the reason why I am here is to answer questions that people may have if I can without compromising myself. Hi There, unfortunately do I care no, but if someone does make deliberate and ridiculous statements then I will act on it by first talking to them and if it does not work then I will use legal avenues only to set the record straight. I have no issues in copping the heat but I do have an issue when there is false news being spread and people are being a bully. That is not on, I feel in many ways that I should eradicate bullying because I can. Hi Alex, it’s hard to say it all here. In a bit she’ll, I have not seen my kids grow up as I worked every single holiday and Christmas Day from morning to night as that’s who I am. The world thought my wife was a single mum. It was and still is hard as I don’t have much of a connection except I meet my responsibilities with the kids. It’s tough but I did this because I cared about the people I worked with and the guests and the industry. I am not looking for a pat on the back but I am still the person i was when I first started out, those same people still work in the buisness and they were the ones that trained me, btw they still clip me hard if I do something silly, and I am ok with that. I also understand that in my position, I walk with a target on my back and people will attack me and that’s ok. Saying this, if there is malicious content out there, and if it is bought to my attention, I will first talk to the person responsible and then do what i need to. If they are right then I will correct myself and accept the public outcry. Hope this helps mate.

Everyone here knows i'm a huge Dreamworld fan, and this year I had the great fortune to spend a day with the man who built the park with his bare hands, John Longhurst. After our first meeting, I came away with a recorded conversation about Dreamworld's history that lasted over an hour and a half, and has been later transcribed into some 16,000 words of what I reckon is some honestly brilliant stories. It also goes a little bit into my own personal history with the park; suffice to say you'll start to understand why i'm so passionate about the place when you read through the article. You can find the first part in a series of stories here - John Longhurst's Dreamworld Stories - Origins - Part 1 I think the magic in this piece comes from simply reading through John's own words, so rather than spoiling the stories at such an early time i'll instead post the pictures that are seen on the jump. Comments and questions are totally welcome. Some of John's many books about Walt Disney. Mr. Day's Coomera property the day John Longhurst bought it. One of John's many books containing a series of incredible photos. Hollywood Cottage, now defunct. As former General Manager for Special Projects, Bob Tan, mentioned to me recently, "As for the cottage, it was very unfortunate. I recall a buyer wanted to take it away and re-erect it at his property on the Gold Coast, but the management of the day decided we disassemble it and store it for future use. It ended up consumed by termites." Dreamworld's Main Street was heavily inspired by Walt Disney World's Main Street of the same name.

There is going to be a new kid on the block, opening around Mid November. Great to be involved.

Yep going to add an excerpt and some photos you guys might enjoy. If you want to read the rest of my ramblings and swearing, you can go to that other place with the things.

Now that is one cool looken coaster

Wow it looks good at night

They were running two trains in the testing this afternoon, and as soon as one reached the brake run, the next one would leave. I recorded many videos, which I've added below. But here are a few photo updates first. Look at it in action A path is being laid leading from the main road and down along side the coaster Landscaping is complete and the carpark is slowly returning EDIT: Here are a couple of those videos of the ride in testing

@YLFATEEKS here ya go... And this is all you'll get out of me today, I have to head off now ? Hopefully it's more than enough to give you guys a good idea on whats happening atm ☺️

Here you are then!

Yeah there are two types of people who like animals. There are the people who are passionate about animal welfare and become vets, biologists, trainers, park rangers. There are people who spend a lifetime getting to know animals inside and out and do everything they can to protect them and raise awareness about actual environmental issues. Then, there are people like this, who make placards and protest what the other lot are doing. They only make one claim in their article, that because they do 'demeaning tricks' they are healthy enough to be released. Yeah, fit for release has to do with their survival prospects, not how fast they can swim. It has to do with life skills and natural instinct. Most of the animals at Sea World were captive born, they have no experience with the wild. Those that weren't born at Sea World are either rescues (and hot tip, if they think they'll survive in the wild they release them. That's a parks an wildlife decision too not a Sea World decision) and those that were wild born are now so old that they're past the life expectancy for wild Dolphins. It's worth noting that not all the dolphins at Sea World are used in shows, in fact the vast majority are not. Dolphins also when they get older, they do 'retire' from shows and get to live a leisurely life. Also worth noting is that they arent asked to work harder than wild dolphins who have to hunt their food. If Sea World had dolphins and didn't get them to exercise in feeding sessions THAT would be cruel. Finally, doing things for an audience isn't cruel because there is an audience. You ask your dog to sit at dinner time before you feed them? It wouldn't be cruel if people payed to watch your dog sit when you asked it now would it? There's nothing inherently wrong with getting an animal being asked to perform behaviours for a crowd. So yeah, straight up lies and ignorance what these people are spouting, and they should be ashamed of themselves for their conduct.

Statues that make up the rides entrance have now been installed, this looks a letter better then i was expecting. source; Bikash