BNErider

^ Via my regular job, I did some event photography for an awards night in the Roxy Theatre recently. Going back stage behind Roxy was awesome!

I'm a huge fan of Orlando. I feel it's a perfect amount of relaxation mixed with the parks, instead of crazy LA. In saying that, first timers love LA because there's a lot to do other than the parks themselves. The parks' distances aren't too bad; USH and SFMM you can easily drive to if you're staying in Anaheim (but it is still a treck). Knott's is only around the corner from the Disney parks. SWSD I've done in a day, albeit it's a lengthy drive. We're going back to LA and Orlando and we're spending most of our time in Orlando. LA we are only staying in Anaheim because it's a nice location, and we *might* do one day at Disney.

Anyone know what that new shop near Dirty Harry bar is going to be yet? Extra points if anyone has any recent photos!

I have always found the carpark horrible. Until we started parking WAY up the back, pretty much as far as you can go. Not only are carparks easier to come by when you enter, you literally leave and drive on to the service road before any of the other rows try to exit.

Has anyone been to Movie World lately and took a photo of the construction at the Dirty Harry bar?

I absolutely love the "big" sets! Feels much more real. I hope they reconsider their decisions next year!

Interesting reading about the mazes. TBH, I was never blown away by the maze choices but I was hoping the two stage show mazes would be awesome!? Argh!

Definitely didn't screw up, your points were very interesting and I can't wait to see how my experiences differ. I know how long it takes to post these reviews so thanks for the effort!

TBH, I appreciated the review - thank you for providing. I think people can stop reading if they don't want to know too much. I guess a spoiler tag/message could be placed at the top, though.

I rode SDSC a few months ago and noticed the Castle bricks in the queue line were quite damaged/worn in parts. Has anything been fixed up during its downtime?

Not a bad idea, but I do also feel that people will probably get over the Blackfish thing. Some won't, but the majority will. One thing I'd love for our Sea World to do is create a larger sense of "adventure". Think of the original IoA but with animals.

Re SE effects, do the lockers/pipe steam/walls ever move anymore? I haven't seen them running for years!

They're $80 per room/group. That's actually really good value!

I've done HHN in Orlando both last year and in 2010. In general, I feel our mazes are great, albeit a little bit smaller in terms of the size of the individual sets/scenes. Their throughput and efficiencies are better, too. I think this year we'll see four A-level mazes compared to the pervious years' two, so that will mean a big improvement in terms of maze quality. It'd be nice to see a fifth maze introduced next year, though. The biggest thing I feel Orlando has over ours is that the entire park is much more vibrant (less dead spots), and is open super late. You can relax knowing you have enough time to eat, ride one or two rides and hit most (all?) of the mazes. Ours is way too rushed. Personally, I'd love for Movie World to introduce some more attractions/shows outside of the "central" area. Perhaps run a Halloween-themed show in the show stage and put a maze back where the Saw maze used to be (behind WWF). And if possible, run mazes until 11pm/midnight (it used to be 11pm anyway). I don't care if most of the rides have to stop, but surely they could open the park until midnight if they just run mazes/shows/SDSC/JL3D.

Thanks for the photos! Wow, Dreamworld has outdone themselves! I'd only make two suggestions - improve the lighting on the front of the building and fill in the windows with glass. But really, it's such an amazing improvement and really makes me excited to see what Dreamworld has in store for us next.

For me, I'd definitely like Dreamworld to spread out a little. Perhaps somewhere near the Big Brother amphitheatre, old water park, or near the log ride area. As for what rides, well if I'm choosing a roller coaster I'd love something like Cheetah Hunt at Busch Gardens. But I agree that something indoors would be awesome, like a well themed dark ride. I feel that Dreamworld should look at what Disneyland has done their their Adventureland and do that there. The bushland etc would be an awesome place to build it. A few cool restaurant/shops would also help make the area feel lively.

Looks good, let's hope the windows get replaced with glass!

Loving the ice cream parlour - very Disneyland! The churro stand also looks great, and I like how it looks permanent. Message for Dreamworld management reading these forums: Main Street is starting to look really nice again, so perhaps think about replacing some of those ugly window coverings ("curtains") with something a bit more classy, like Movie World/Disneyland have.

I'm going to admit that I'm a bit disappointed. I hope the Wolf Creek and Evil Within layouts/scenes are different from last year. At least the Evil Within maze was really awesome, and was probably one of my favourite mazes ever.

I can't remember... is this the first year that Movie World has announced the introduction of scare zones? I know they've had stuff on the way to the studios, but I can't remember if these were official scare zones or not?

Does anyone have any updated photos of the new platform/signage on Main Street, or the refurbs happening around the place?

I agree with you there. But I liked the concept. Perhaps a full animatronic version would work well (with a more exciting theme). Unfortunately though, the beancounters might not agree with me on that one. Love the idea of a shooter - but feel a larger space would be more suited (to allow for moving/spinning cars... yeah!). But doing up the cinema with full motion seats and a shooter theme would be better than nothing. What would you theme it to though? Shoot the Japanese whalers?

That coaster looks awfully rough, bad pacing and ugly (look at all that bracing). I agree that a few flat rides might be fun, more like Ocean Parade. However, I'd rather one iconic ride (be it a roller coaster, dark ride etc.) than a collection of average flats.

I actually like the idea of a dark ride - as long as the ride stage is well hidden from view. Perhaps something like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica:_Empire_of_the_Penguin

If you kept walking on the "main" pathway after you pass the entrance to the two studio mazes, they're on your right where the large door to studio 2(?) is (the one that's closest to WWF). You always walk past them as you exit the studio mazes and wrap the corner to go back on the main pathway.