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Given how he was basically overlooked at village, and with bikash now gone, I really wonder if Greg goes home at the end of his day with a nice smile on his face, knowing the general public is now seeing the positive effects and influence he (and half his team that ended up following him) has had since taking over the company. Must be really satisfying to help turn around a company that was close to insolvency, have a plan for improvements (not just recovery) and start to see the positive feedback from guests following investments in things like this. It looks fantastic, when the other reality could have just been another relocation of old cars running around on a track. It's refreshing to see some care and attention given to the setting and themed elements of a ride again, especially when it isn't a big budget thrill ride. Yeah, limited budgets, limited space are always constraints in Australia, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't at least try to deliver something that improves the overall experience. To me, it really shows intention to build zones or lands back into theme parks, something that at least makes an attempt at something cohesive instead of just plonking something down on a bit of land and calling it done. Makes me wonder just how constrained he was working under the village shroud, when this is like the polar opposite of how things are going over there.

He was looking on with pride at King Claw yesterday and taking some photos on his phone. he seems like a fantastic leader. Happy to jump in and help as Ash said serving in Jane’s (saw this many times), or helping ride ops in busy periods.

He actually seemed to care about what was going on. He used to frequently be seen walking through the parks at different times of the day, chatting to different people. Seemed like if he wanted to know something, he would just walk out his office and look for himself. In the event of any incidents, he was out there following what was going on, seeing if there was anything he could do but staying out of the way of people trained to respond and letting them get on with it, then debriefing in his office afterwards, making sure everyone who attended was ok.

As you'll notice, there's some pretty major changes to the forums today. Importantly, login is now via your email address rather than username. Your password remains unchanged. If for whatever reason you are unsure of the email account you signed up with, then I'd recommend getting in touch and we can look into it for you. It was a bit of an abrupt transition today; it was meant to be a bit more gradual, but a few things behind the scenes pushed it forward and here we are. The first thing you'll probably notice is the site is a whole lot faster and we won't be prone to those periods of painfully slow loading, which had become more frequent in recent months. There's also lot of new features that I've barely gotten my head around with this latest version of the forum software, but for now it should at least feel a bit more vibrant and down the track we'll be implementing a few new features. For the time being, the main site is down. It's a slightly larger project to get up and running again but it will happen. Today's rather sudden upgrade for the forums meant that it just wasn't possible to get everything done at the same time. There's no immediate plans for me to resume editorial content, but the site will be back soon enough and we'll hopefully find a way to breathe new life into the site and give new voices and content creators an opportunity to share more freely with this community. If anyone encounters any bugs or issues with the new forum then I'd invite you to share them in the Community Feedback forum.

Not long exposure

...and a water ride, and eureka mountain and probably half a dozen other things that were removed without replacement. they're still doing great - but there's still a lot of holes in the lineup.

Seeing Greg serve drinks and food when Rivertown opened last year was refreshing too see, he and the team have definitely turned this park around and now with the theming on “just a flat ride” is second to none once again.

Photo op is back with soft-fall now all around it

Yeah, I’ve been through it 4 times now. The first time it growled at me because of my belt. But strangely, all the other times it let me through without an issue. It seems to be very hit and miss in that regard from what I’ve observed. As for the ride itself, wow, what an upgrade from the original Claw! The new restraints are a huge improvement over the original ones, super comfortable and they allow for quite a bit of movement. You feel so free in them. Pretty much everything that was great about The Claw has been retained and improved upon dramatically. The ride is ultra smooth, while still being extremely forceful with fantastic airtime.

Totally agree! Such a major water park should be adding attractions that are somewhat unique and special, not something you could find at a council aquatic centre, or the Big Banana.

This was a fun ride. I found it to be a lot less nauseating than the old Claw. The transition time between the weightless and positive G forces is spread out along a wider arc, so while you still feel both at a high level there isn't the change between then isn't as rapid and that made a big difference for me. I mentioned this way earlier in this thread, but it really is a different ride experience - still thrilling, just in a slightly different way (when it comes to forces on your body). The lack of OTS restraints is nice, but I did feel like I needed to hold on - partly because I didn't know what to do with my hands - but also partly because you do kind of fall forward a bit if going through the arc face-down. I guess this was also true with the old Claw, but you used to just be able to flop onto the restraint which isn't there anymore. This is the perfect ride for DW right now, high capacity, great theming, high thrill. Now that it's open, I guess we wait for the next big announcement.

The clues were announcing there is going to be an announcement. It's an announcement you make when you have nothing really going on. A bit like the the announcement about the Superman queue.

I got on on Friday - Kudos to the opening crew - still ironing things out but the process was quite smooth. I'm not sure they're getting the full value out of the metal detector though - I walked through, beeped, pointed to my belt buckle and they just accepted my word on it. In a US park where metal detectors are used, they'd wand you to make sure. The park is looking good again (my last visit it was showing some signs of neglect). The ride itself looks great, the theming work and queue house is top notch. I heard the ambient sounds in the queue but i'm not sure if they were playing the soundtrack during the ride as I didn't hear anything different when riding or observing. It sure packs a punch though. I was absolutely once and done, my son went for a second round while I watched but even that was enough for him. He used to be able to do back to back cycles on The Claw - but two was enough for him... i'm hoping this ride isn't too polarising for guests - if it isn't repeatable, then the park has done their capacity a disservice. @Spotty I feel you on the restraints - Since 2016 I couldn't get the restraints over my shoulders either - but King Claw's restraint is a much nicer fit.

Superman started testing this morning and was flying around the track, i think both Flash and Superman will be back by the start of the main holidays. Scooby, Flash and Superman will bring the capacity boost that is needed.

I could be wrong but I don't believe this has come to fruition, the turntable at load is there but I have never seen an accessible vehicle on the tracks (or next to it).

I’m interested in seeing if Village will try to license out any Netflix IP for new attractions or mazes in the parks if WB and Netflix do end up under the same roof.

What a great upgrade from the original Claw ride. The restraints are 100 times better with the air time feel being great to experience. The speed is on another level. Theming once again Dreamworld knocked it out of the park. As I’ve said previously, I’m excited for when they do a dark ride/water ride with the theming they can pull off.

I think it still has space and is appropriate for Dreamworld for the next 5-10 years at the most. I think they would expand WhiteWater world once more on the Thunderbolt land first, and then when it comes time for another expansion to WhiteWater World that's when it will be replaced. For the most part, it works as a coaster and would be a good stepping stone coaster between something like Jungle Rush and Steel Taipan. My ideal timeline would be: 1-3 years: WhiteWater World Expansion on Thunderbolt / Trolls area 3-5 years: New major thrill coaster - Rocky Hollow space 5 - 7 years: Water Ride / Family Dark Ride - Rivertown stage 2 where Motocoaster is? 7 - 10 years: Replacement for Hot Wheels Sidewinder / new expansion for WhiteWater World It's a fairly simple ride as far as mechanics go, and I actually suspect we might see Motocoaster go before this. So until they actually have a plan for the space, I'd like to see them keep it.

They look like a combination of some 3d and some illusion of 3d paint effects which I think is actually pretty fitting for a park that was meant to be about movie techniques I appreciate its long time since the park has actually been about that but nice to maybe see some touches here better than a black cinder block

100% this! First cycle I went on it was lacklustre. It definitely didn’t go full height and the brakes/magnets were engaging as it went past the middle, so it was fairly slow. Second cycle however… WOW! They’ve nailed it with ride choice. Absolutely improved every aspect of The Claw. Got another 2 cycles in by the end of the day… Props to DW ops too! Silky smooth boarding for the first public soft open.

I stopped short of buying a ticket because I'm not sure if the online ticket system is working properly. It lets you buy tickets on days the BB is closed.

I believe money had more to do with it, than the experience. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know a petrol vehicle won't feel the same as a electric vehicle. We had that very discussion here when it was first announced.

Now imagine what they can do on a dark/water ride in the future. They are definitely doing an amazing job as of late with the theming