Hi all,
Well, this is my first post here so hi to all of ye:) My Theme park exp comes from spending many years as a member of WB's Movie World's Operations and Middle Management Team. MW aside, I very much grew up with Dreamworld having been a regular visitor of the Park for many years with an Annual Pass. This post is what caused me to join this website so expect my reply to be a pretty involved one. Here go's:
Today, when I walk into the park through what was once a beautifully executed Main Street, I turn right to see a Giant Fibre Glass Wave, Lobster and enormous Ice Cream cone surrounded by a mash of Midways and Luna Park style thrills. Dreamworld has seen it's themes scattered in many differant directions over the last few years - Infact, no sooner does a new ride open that a new 'themed area' joins it. My ideas would be to bring the themes back to the size and style that the park was originally intended as by it's creator, John Longhurst.Themes and thrills in so many aspects have been poorly executed at the park for so many years. Today, with the pressure of 3 parks banded together against it, either they continue to work solely toward attracting the Teenage Thrill market or completely Re-Imagineer the place. My idea is to do just that, no matter what the cost so here's my two cents worth:
#1 A "Tomorrowland" style area featuring futuristic thrills amidst other wordly styled rock would be great at replacing the currently dreadful looking "Ocean Parade" area including the new "Claw" ride- The old Thunderbolt site could extend this Theme with god knows what but could also easily fit such a Theme.
#2 Mainstreet could be stylised to fit some kind of Eutopian appearance featuring elongated and fanciful buildings and characters (akin to the Emerald City in Wizard of OZ) IMAX could feature a spectacular 3D adventure featuring in theatre FX and motions. The Ford Cars ride would be gone and replaced by a bizarre transport system that would tour the central area aboard Hot air Balloons & the Giant Drop would be rethemed as some Crazy Inventor's sky ride!
#3 Gold Rush Country is just perfect for DW. It would be great to see new rides expanding this theme as well as existing rides brought up to par. Technologically, we can do a lot better than that nowadays and with the right know how, the skies the limit! DW needs to move away from simply attracting a market that spends so little once through the gate. Why not build a "Haunted Shack" style Omnimover ride that would feature FX that surpassed MW's. The ride could be built in the Island that is surrounded by the Murray river cruise where the whole theme would spill over into the region.
#4 Retain and expand on the whole "Nick Central" idea. Cartoon buildings and landscapes should be enhanced as well as new attractions added. Turn the old ToT entrance back around as it was and theme it to a particular cartoon character instead of an enormous skull (another example of dreadful theming!).. NOT HARD! & YES! THE LAUNCH! (speaking from exp & knowledge) I'm sorry but the ride could most positively work better in the rain if the run out was covered!!! In addition, decent Lighting FX etc as part of the launch and a well themed queue could really add to the WoW factor of this ride!
#5) The Blue Lagoon is a cool theme but the land was cool back in the 1980's. Today, the Theme needs to be revisited. If we were to have an "Ocean Parade" in the Park, then let this be the spot to have it! The area does not have to be all about slides and is certainly not that anyway! Throw in or move a couple of midways and some walkthrough 'underwater' areas and you've got yourself a much more entertaining 'Blue Lagoon'
#6) The animals of the Park should be nurtured and embraced as part of DW's uniqueness. My plan though would be to have them inhabiting the back half of the park together in a more central location rather than having them scattered all over the place. Here, the Park's diverse array of wildlife would inhabit the brand new Jungle like, 'Outpost' themed area
Well, dat should about do me:) I'm sure you all agree the kind of potential a place like this has if only someone took such DREAMS and turned them into REALITY