Jamberoo Fan

Not a stickler but have been interested in semantics a bit lately... I just thought it was pointless saying selected rides are open from 9am when all of them will be opening at 9:30am anyway. It is only 30 minutes difference which could include the time to enter the park, use the amenities & maybe only get 1 slide in. If it was 8:30am, I wouldn't have posted anything as 1 hour difference is enough to make you question why most slides are shut if you didn't know they would be opening in an hour's time.

It can work - just let them book a time period to use the attraction but not charge a fee. If the ride gets booked out, you just have to give it a miss or go another day. People don't normally visit every attraction at a theme park anyway - there is usually something they have missed regardless of it's significance in the park.

The Summer Fun Pass went on sale on Christmas Eve and gives you unlimited entry until Tuesday 28th February 2017 & a chance to win a $200 Kodak Moments voucher on Australia Day.

I think cameras are allowed on SDSC but whether MW wants it to be filmed without most of it's theming is another matter. I don't think the media would care unless it was found to be unsafe.

True but I'm sure it can be worked around. I based those statistics on the current route so it should be roughly correct and similar for a Spit branch line. There is only 1 set of traffic lights between Main Beach & Sea World so the total delay shouldn't be too long. There are probably more traffic lights to negotiate on the entire existing line than a future Spit branch line. It would be like a bus - electronic signs on the front & sides stating clearly 'To Sea World' while the others saying 'To University Hospital'. By the way, a bus shuttle probably would work and be easier to set up/manage but it is not the most appealing form of transport and that alone might reduce the number of guests utilising a bus connection from the light rail to Sea World and back.

True but depending on the part, wouldn't they wait until an order is made before producing it? Service plans sound possible though.

My thoughts - DW is definitely doing everything possible to win back the trust while the other parks are just complying with their safety audit requirements as well as now taking extra caution towards guest safety but they may not be 'trying' to operate at their usual standards due to the lower than usual attendance. SW might not be getting a lot of praise on here but at least they still got marine animals/educational exhibits. They are probably redirecting finances to non-ride projects this year or saving it for a major investment in future years. 2016 has been a big year for the Gold Coast parks - they are focusing on refurbishing this time - no doubt that it is for the Commonwealth Games: DC Comics Super-Villains Unleashed Arkham Asylum: Shock Therapy Virtual Reality Star Tour - Access All Areas Wet 'n' Wild Buggy Super 8 Aqua Racer refurbishment Sea World Plaza refurbishment Stage 1 of Tiger Island refurbishment The Lego Store would have also opened had the Thunder River Rapids incident not occurred & the parks have been making other improvements to the park in general. There might have been more to add to that list above too but that's all I can remember right now. At least 1 theme park got a completely new non-upcharge attraction in Doomsday Destroyer - anywhere else in Australia, you could go a few years without a new ride so if you're a regular Gold Coast theme park visitor, consider how lucky you are to have new rides & attractions nearly every year. Bit unlucky though this year that Doomsday Destroyer has been in maintenance longer than it has been opened though...

I was surprised seeing those photos that @reanimated35 shared yesterday but was mainly disappointed that MW didn't warn guests yesterday that 'thematic enhancements' were underway. MW does have high theming standards but as long as it is temporary & guests are warned, then it is fine for me. For anyone who is wondering, here is a more panoramic version of 2 of those photos @reanimated35 shared: Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe this photo is of the stations viewed from the final brake run while this photo is of the left turn after the 'axe-attacking knight statues'. It would be very difficult to do a Scooby Doo re-theme - it has to be based around Spooky Castle as that is the entrance to the ride and the carriages are the same as Spooky Castle's carriages. Unless MW changes the carriages (or re-themes them - I don't know how easy that is), it has to be themed to Spooky Castle. Extremely unlikely but if that was the case, I'd write a complaint letter. A dark ride (or an indoor ride) should never have VR in my opinion.

Did Wet 'n' Wild Gold Coast really need to point out that selected slides open at 9am when all slides & attractions will be open 30 minutes later anyway? They could have just said 'Slides & attractions begin to open from 9am'. Given they did say 'selected slides', they could say which slides.

I agree with this but I just wish the dry attractions (and FlowRider) were not upcharges. The only non-upcharge dry attraction, Surfrider, opened as a combined wet/dry attraction. After seeing the final Buggy product, the cost makes more sense but given it's located inside a theme park, I don't think many people will use it as they've already paid a lot of money for tickets to the park. Local pass holders may use it occasionally though.

I don't see any reason why a branch light rail line from Main Beach to Sea World would not work. With concerns about capacity, just purchase more trains and fit them into the timetable. There are about 8 or 9 light rail trains operating on the existing line in it's peak operating periods. You would need minimum 2 for a Spit branch line terminating at Sea World - one heading north and one heading south. This would mean a frequency of about 1 every 25 minutes. 6 or 7 new trains maximum would see light rail arriving at Sea World every 7.5 minutes & increasing the frequency of the line between Main Beach & Broadbeach South to every 3 minutes and 45 seconds.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't theme parks only pay manufacturers for new rides just once (maybe plus a deposit)? They wouldn't be paying them during the ride's whole life cycle unless they paid in instalments or if it was for repairs to the ride that the manufacturers only specialise in. I'm pretty sure most (if not all) manufacturers don't build rides before selling them too. They wait until an order is made. Otherwise, the manufacturers would be wasting money (and space) on built rides that haven't yet (or never) got bought.

Given Boxing Day has past, I thought I'd share this graph from Google Trends: The red line is the search term 'movie world tickets' while the blue line is the search term 'dreamworld tickets'. The purple line is December 20-26 2015 while the black line is October 23-29 2016. The right side of the graph is currently the statistics for December 25-31 2016 so these statistics are incomplete as there are still 4 days left in that time period. I also noticed DW added this to their 'What's Open' webpage: Does this mean prices will increase once all the thrill rides have re-opened? And (this may be a incorrect interpretation) that online tickets/passes are now the only tickets/passes discounted? Yeah, those were the changes required in the prohibition notices. DW didn't decide to 'change' Buzzsaw first - they are just waiting until the safety audits are completed & if the audits say the rides are safe before re-opening any of them.

Super 8 Aqua Racer (as well as SkyCoaster) is no longer on Wet 'n' Wild Gold Coast's maintenance webpage. I assume both re-opened today then?

Super 8 Aqua Racer is now scheduled to re-open on Wednesday the 28th of December 2016.

What's the go with Doomsday Destroyer?: SCSC is still scheduled to re-open on Boxing Day according to Warner Brothers Movie World's website's attraction maintenance webpage.

From The Courier-Mail: When did they make DW 'change' Buzzsaw 1st? And what 'new changes'? I only remember Buzzsaw getting the only 3 prohibition notices DW received from Workplace Health & Safety QLD inspectors.

It's not a guess as the hypercoaster is clearly next to the swamp which they've interpreted as a 'lake'. The same swamp is very likely the 'lake' in VRTP's proposed 'lakeside precinct' (so the swamp might be converted to a 'lake' in the future) but I don't think the 'lakeside precinct' is part of MW. I think it is separate and more near TopGolf's rumoured site & the western side of the swamp.The plans for the 'lakeside precinct' and hotel have already been approved but yes, VRTP might want to announce everything at once like they did when SE was formally announced - when SE was formally announced, they announced expansions at all their theme parks.

I know a lot about the usage of The Spit but not about how often locals travel to The Spit to utilise these uses (apart from SW) and no, I definitely don't think you are wrong. If visitation to the beaches of The Spit is enough to produce constant sufficient demand throughout those days for a cable car/gondola, then yes I think it would be fine to have a cable car/gondola connecting Southport with SW.

True but those are in or very near the CBD of a city where people are going to/from all day. The only thing most tourists would go to The Spit for is SW only and that's only around 10am & around 5pm. I only brought it up as despite how wonderful the idea is, the capacity of these gondolas/cable cars have to be considered & I believe the capacity is too high in this situation. And no, I don't think one way ferries in this case are viable. Didn't forget but as a non-local, I don't know how often locals travel to The Spit for non-SW reasons. I took an assumption that locals rarely do but until you posted, no one argued locals use The Spit regularly for things other than SW but still in your argument, it's only in the summer - only making it a seasonal attraction so far.

Because demand for transportation to The Spit would be less during the main portion of the day (11am to 4pm) maybe to the point it is not worthy to operate it then. Other Australian tourist cableways operate during the day because there is constant demand in the day for it's usage such as Cairns' Skyrail, which operates to about a 60% or more capacity. But yeah, I agree operators won't care about the general public's opinion if the cableway is still financially feasible.

Source? The last official information posted on here was that Rocky Hollow Log Ride is still undergoing it's safety audit.

@bladex, @AlexB is referring to the plants not Viking's Revenge. I'd say it is temporary until Viking's Revenge's station is demolished, which probably won't happen until the summer holidays are over. Plants are thus visually better to have sitting there until the demolition occurs instead of having this sitting there for months & months & months...:

Here. DW's tigers were born in: Hirakawa Zoo (2) Poland (1) Cairns Wildlife Safari Reserve (1) Krefelder Zoo (1) Tiger Island, DW (8) None were born in the natural habitats of tigers. The home of most of the tigers is DW.

I never knew this but that does help. I still think though even if fewer cars were run, the cableway won't operate most of the day & thus still be considered underutilised. @AlexB's monorail suggestion, to me, is more likely. Imagine if they connected Jupiters Casino's monorail to SW's monorail? But then people probably would wonder why they built the light rail then. I agree with that but I wasn't ignoring it. The cablecar/gondola would be very useful around 9-11am & 4-6pm but might be rarely used between 11am & 4pm. The same would apply for the hotels. The casino/entertainment precinct I can see getting increased visitation after sunset depending on the entertainment on offer. I still think a cable car/gondola would be underutilised & being labelled a 'white elephant' unless there is something on The Spit that will have the need for people to travel to & from between 11am & 4pm.