aaronm

"Maintenance" is 30% keeping the ride operating well, 70% cost savings. High likelihood that both sides will shut.

Looks alright, having just the one simulator room will present capacity challenges but overall this seems a solid replacement for the ambitious but underwhelming Madagascar boat ride. USS desperately needed something new as well - it must be close to a decade since Puss In Boots opened?

I don’t get it either, there’s more than enough room for both boarding and disembarking guests to access the cubby holes. The train is stationary for goodness sake. My guess is that a risk manager suggested it as a solution to some imaginary problem, nobody wanted to challenge and now it’s VRTP policy forever.

I think this is a good summary. It feels incomplete - two things stand out: - the transition from highly themed indoor queue to a maze of cyclone fencing is jarring, even more so given the general lack of useful shade. - the courtyard desperately needs a small shop or F&B outlet, something to give it some energy and movement. The character meet and greets are nice but not enough to make the area seem complete. More shade would also be welcome here.

Industry-leading immersive theming doesn’t come cheap I guess.

Some sort of new tracked raft ride is going in at Futuroscope, there’s an idea.

I can’t unsee the dinosaur turd.

Would have been perfect for a coaster called Kansas Twister.

VRTP's aspiration has always been to be like Disney and Universal, job done I guess.

With DD and the Studio Showcase closed there's a decent sized plot of land available for expansion. I doubt they'll try a big thrill ride there given proximity to neighbours. Dare we hope for a new dark ride?

Assuming this land is based on the book it’s all public domain IP, so no licensing fee.

I sometimes make cheeseburger pizza at home, Dreamworld are on a winner with that one. Whole menu looks pretty great - DW proving again they know what they’re doing when it comes to food.

Even crazier when you consider they were able to reuse the existing AA queue building. It’s hard to see where the money was spent for sure. If Gumbuya and Luna Park can afford a family invert and boomerang respectively they can’t be all that expensive!

Appreciate the pictures and reports from those who’ve visited. I’m getting the impression this is like Nintendo Land at Universal Hollywood. Small, cheap and unimpressive. Will be nice to +3 the coaster count but nothing in this land suggests it will have the perennial appeal of SDSC or (lest we forget) LTRR.

Looks fantastic so far! Amazing to see a soft opening before Christmas when all of the experts here were adamant the park would struggle to make Australia Day…

Providing they theme it as well as the original ride (“claw” supports and all), this sounds great.

Hardly an apples for apples comparison, given the perilous financial position of the park and other events happening over that period.

On those measures I'm surprised that the fountain in the entry plaza isn't counted as an attraction, unless it's under maintenance?

I find it hilarious that anyone here is defending a park operating with >50% of its major rides out of action, what a joke of an operation Movie World has become. The fact that the park reportedly defends the poor customer experience as being "in line with our requirements" is laughably tone deaf and contemptuous. It's unfortunate that most guests don't find this out until they've wasted their money on admission. No refunds, moose out front should've told ya!

Looks great. One day they'll have some capex to redo the Sky Voyager facade and there will be much rejoicing from enthusiasts.

I'm not sure your suggestion is workable, but they'd almost certainly make more money with some sort of dynamic pricing model. If the row isn't occupied 80% of the time the park is charging too much, there's no profit to be made on empty seats!

We had a slightly damp day at Happy Valley Shanghai back in 2016, coasters operated as normal in light rain. Heavy rain or lightning might be a different story. But in general they seemed more like the European parks than say, Japan (where a light sprinkle is often enough to pause operations).

Some great advice shared already, outside of Disney/Universal I'd recommend adding at least one or two smaller parks. In Tokyo: - Yomiuriland has some wonderfully unique attractions (noodle cup rapids is my personal favourite) - Tokyo Dome City has the excellent Steel Dolphin - Hanayashiki is peak "weird Japan park" None of these would necessarily use a full day either. There's also Fuji-Q with its infamously slow operations, I would try to combine this with a visit to Mount Fuji if you're going to bother. A day trip from Tokyo is possible but personally next time I'll be trying to spend at least one night up there. Other random parks to consider: - Nagashima Spa Land, Japan's answer to Cedar Point - Greenland, quite big with a healthy dose of oddball, weird and interesting rides - Parque Espana, takes some getting to but well worth the effort. You may even end up as "King of the Parade" (as happened to my friend, hilarious!) - Suzuka Circuit, with the famous "scream and it goes faster" coaster - Nasu Highland, with a spaghetti bowl of coasters straight out of Rollercoaster Tycoon

Would reduce operational costs, I imagine that’s important to VRTP execs right now.

Missed school holidays, might as well aim for July now.