themagician

Construction walls are down around the Big Red Boat Coaster

I believe as part of the proposed light rail extension, anything land that is within x distance of the line does not have a height limitation anymore. And because there’s a proposed route to Sea World, that height limit no longer applies to them (they still of course need approval and can be rejected)

Have you gone in the past week since the flyer opened? I've heard a few people comment the music has changed since it opened.

The coaster has been added to the attraction listing, so I suspect we could see it open any day now https://www.dreamworld.com.au/rides-attractions/dreamworld/kids-rides/big-red-boat-coaster/ And Kenny & Belinda's Dreamland has it's own page on the website https://www.dreamworld.com.au/rides-attractions/kenny-and-belinda-s-dreamland/

This does confuse me though. Even if the park was open until 7 Sunday to Thursday and then the night markets operated as normal. Just having the park open those extra couple hours makes a difference.

For everyone’s reference, the Summer events they’ve had since 2015 are: 2015 - Beatbox 2016 - Fire Machine Night Show 2017- Can’t find/remover the event 2018 - Can’t find/remover the event 2019 - Fun House 2020 - Bluey Show & Monster Trucks 2021 - Dreamworld Memories/Cosentino 2022 - Dreamworld Circus Yes, but most of the current yearly events (including recent summer events) have happened during that time. I’d say because of all the construction that has/is happening, that’s been their focus and they are relying on that for the summer

They proved that with the Sky Flyer

This area looks to have turned out really nicely. Much better than letting a ride rot away

Jaggs has said in several of his videos that the shed will be hidden behind a large mountain structure (similar to what we've seen in the concept artwork) and it will be as tall as the structure of The Claw. I suspect that since the queue and station is mostly inside this building, I suspect the jungle theme will be extensive within and it will carry through into the coaster too. In the video they showed at the announcement event, there was very extensive theming inside.

I think so. This coaster will come together very quickly, they will construct the building for JR and then externally things will probably look like they’ve slowed down, but really it’s all going on inside. I suspect we’ll see foundations pretty early in the new year (potentially even for the vintage cars). And I’d guess all the coaster track will be installed by Easter.

Somehow, this area of land as a construction site looks better than it did as ABC Kids World in the last couple years.

I haven't ridden it yet, but to answer some of your questions. What was your impression of it operating with fountains behind the DW globe, and how do the fountains affect that photo opportunity? - They don't impact the photo opportunity in a bad way. How is the music? And the fountains? Are they synced? - There is several different songs playing. There has been classical and Christmas music. Do the fountains have a single program or multiple programs that run throughout the day? - From what I've seen, they have been using one single program for the fountains, but they can certainly run multiple. Are there boxes for loose items - including loose shoes? - Yes there is. They are on the floor surrounding the central structure (so the items won't get wet) How long is the sequence and is it too long or not long enough? - It goes for 2-3 minutes, which I think is an adequate amount of time. How fast are the operations and could they be improved? - From what I've seen, they are efficient. With the riding having a 64 seat capacity, so even if there is a bit of a queue, it moves quickly when loading. But obviously with that many people, it takes time to load/unload and check all the harnesses (There has been two staff checking these).

I’d argue it’s an even better view if you sit on the far left seat (west side) or right seat (west side) (I got my east and west correct this time @DaptoFunlandGuy) and if you look towards the south, you get a spectacular night view of the city To be honest, it’s not that exciting because it’s just the Coomera river, housing and wetlands, so you don’t see much.

My thoughts exactly. There is also the Warner Bros. Boutique (I think it’s across from the department store) that also sells a heap of Looney Tunes merch.

😂🤦 The area in front of the entrance was nicely done, but not very big, so I imagine the overflow would be a nightmare on a busy day. In fact, I’d imagine the whole thing wouldn’t be fun when it’s busy, especially when leaving the park.

@Gazza unfortunately not. Due to the weather, it doesn’t operate in the rain.

I think it should be Wizard of Oz. Great way to promote the land coming next year and it would be even better if they had a model or some sort of sneak preview of what’s to come.

I recently got a chance to visit both Funfields and Gumbuya World in Victoria. This was my first time to both parks, so here are my overall thoughts and experiences during my visits. Funfields A 50 minute drive north of Melbourne, I arrived at the park around 9:45 for a 10am opening. The weather wasn't looking to great at arrival, so it was a very quiet start to the day. Not knowing much about the park (except for photos of new attractions that have opened in recent years), we started with a lap around the whole park to get a feel for it's layout and it's offerings. I was with two others who regularly visit the park, so it was cool to get a guided tour from someone who knows the park well. Walking through the Mystic Kingdom, it looked like a solid kids area, with a good variety of attractions. The two water play structures were reasonable, but I definitely think the park would benefit from having a structure like the one at WWW, but with the addition the WnW Jnr slides (more on what I think this park should add later). We then walked past Typhoon and the older slides of the park, before heading over to the more recent additions of the park. This 'Proslide Precinct' has been executed very well, particularly with the addition of the wave pool. We used the lockers at the back of the park and the seats by Volcano Beach before taking on the first slides. First slide of the day was Gravity Wave, as there was three of us, currently you can only have either two or four people ride. Even with two people though, what a fantastic slide this is. I haven't ever ridden a slide like this before (Kamikaze is probably the closest, but not really) and these are such a great slide. We did a couple rides on this as a group of two, but we found a single rider so we could do a ride with four. WOW. Four people on this just made the experience even more thrilling. And overall the attraction has such great pace, not a dull moment. Spoiler alert, this was my favourite attraction in the park. One of the GC water parks should absolutely get one of these. Next was Supernova, their newest attraction. While not entirely the traditional tornado slide, it very much had a similar experience. However, comparing to WWW and WnW this was definitely the better version. The flying saucer component, visually looks cool, but doesn't really add much to the overall experience. But overall the pacing of the slide, speed and drop into the funnel were a lot of fun. Next was Typhoon, which is very similar to the Little Rippers at WWW, but a much longer experience. I always enjoy the Little Rippers, so this version was even more enjoyable because of the extra length at the start before the drop into the bowl. We then did Wipeout & Blackout, these were more standard tunnel slides that you can ride as a single or double. Blackout was definitely my favourite of the two, purely because it was actually pitch black (not like Blackhole at WnW, but the former Terror Canyon's... total darkness). The remaining slides weren't opening until later in the day due to the lower crowd levels, so we walked around the remaining areas of the park. I was surprised to see so much area was dedicated to grass/picnic areas, but apparently that is a massive selling point for the park as you can bring your own food, have BBQs, etc in this corner of the park. The whole area looked to be really looked after and was so nice to see a park to offer something like this. The weather was turning for the better and it ended up being a beautiful day, which meant the crowds did start to increase. We went into the wave pool, which has also been nicely executed. It's not a massive wave pool and the volcano at the deep end could've been better to hide some of the trees behind (it just felt out of scale). We then went on the Kraken Racer and this was definitely the surprise of the day. The BRO at WWW is much bigger, but the speed you pickup in the tunnel on Kraken is insane. I went on the outer slide first, but the second go I did the inner slide and that was even more insane. Dare I say you even get the sensation of airtime coming out of the tunnel. I think this could be the best racer in the country (The only one that might beat it is the Octo Racer at Jamberoo, but I'm yet to ride that one). We then did the Splashdown slides, which are the oldschool sitdown mat slides; these are fine, but wouldn't be missed if replaced. We then did a few more rides on Gravity Wave & Supernova and then ended the day on the Toboggan. This was the first ever toboggan I'd done and they're definitley a lot of fun. Overall, Funfields is a fantastic park. It is very well looked after, all the staff were great, loading was efficient, the food offerings were very good value & quality (better than any of the GC parks). Their overall attraction lineup is really good and with another slide tower with a couple more sldies, that will really complete the park (and there is surprisingly a more land behind Gravity/Supernova for plenty more future expansions). I thing I haven't yet mentioned, but worth noting... the stairs to access the slides are very wide and comfortable to climb; they have really cared for the guest experience! And on my point earlier about building a larger kids splash area, I think the removal Bumpa Boats and utilising that land for some of the KIDZ ProSlide attraction would suit the park very well. With the go-karts set to close and the addition of a lazy river, that will be a great asset for the park and I look forward to seeing how they theme/landscape it. Funfields is definitely a park I would head back to and I can't wait to see what they have planned for the future. Gumbuya World An hours drive west of Melbourne, I arrived at Gumbuya World at around 11am on what was a very wet and cold Melbourne day. The entrance to the park is really nicely done and so is the walkway leading to the point where the park separates into its four lands. Again, not knowing much about the park (other than it's two coasters), I walked around the park getting a feel for it's layout. Being a much newer park than Funfields, it's overall masterplan is very beneficial to it's layout and arrangement of attractions. To start the day, we had to do the coasters. First was TNT, which was quite the surprise. Overall, it has been very well executed, with a cohesive and developed theme that is clear throughout the whole ride experience. The audio really adds to the experience and the little pieces of theming scattered (but well considered) throughout the on-ride experience is really well done. It actually surprised me how good it was. I'd say it's the third best themed coaster in the country (behind Leviathan because of it's queue and station and then Superman for it's pre-launch experience (Scooby would beat TNT, but Village ruined that ride)). And the coaster itself was such a great surprise. It's just a good fun coaster and depending on where you sit, it can be thrilling too. It's super smooth and the trains are super comfy (I hope Kenny's Forest Flyer can benefit from them one day). We ended up riding it about 8 times throughout the day in a variety of rows, but back seat was definitely the best! Next was Project Zero, the reincarnation of BuzzSaw. For me, this was always a one and done at DW and as expected, I still feel the same way. The ride has definitely had a lot of work done to it to bring it back to life, so kudos to the park for investing in it properly. The ride experience was much better than the last few years it had at DW, but it still wasn’t the smoothest ride. It’s nicely presented, but isn’t anywhere near to the level that TNT is at. We then walked around the rest of the park it see its offerings. There are quite a few flat rides on offer, but none were a stand out, except for Rebel (but not in a good way). That rides got to go. It’s very loud, obnoxious and kind of ruins the overall park experience when it’s operating. All the other flat rides, while fixed to the ground, feel temporary. They all look like retired carnival rides that they got for cheap to just build up the parks lineup. The animal area of the land was pretty impressive in its scale. There was a lot more to it than I expected and it’s been nicely put together. Despite the rain, we gave all of the water attractions a go. Unlike Funfields, the four attractions share the tower, but there’s only two queue lines between the four. So up end with the issue that WWW had with Green Room and Wedgie. Thankfully, due to the rain, we didn’t actually have this issue, but I can imagine on a nice day, the queue would be a nightmare. And the staff definitely weren’t as efficient as Funfields, so even a small queue took longer than it probably should have. Out of the four slides, the only notable one was the Boomerang, which was a less superior version of Gravity Wave. All the other slides were one and done for me (even if it was a nice day). The wave pool was much bigger than Funfields and is comparable to WnWs in its scale and large screen at the deep end. There was also a lazy river that went around (almost) the entire waterpark. This was very nicely done and one part had rapids which were enjoyable. After this, we did a few more goes on TNT and that was the day done. The food wasn’t outstanding, just standard theme park food and quality. One thing I noticed was that almost all the seating in the waterpark you had to pay for. There was the standard cabanas, but there was been wave pool seating that you had to pay for. There was some free, but it was very limited. I imagine in the summer, that park sucks a lot of money out of people because of the up charges. Something that I thought it was lacking was just overall attractions. Yes they had more than Funfields, but most of what they had wasn’t great quality in my opinion. TNT makes Gumbuya worthwhile for me, but they definitely need more water slides and a decent amount of flat rides that feel permanent. FINAL OPINIONS Overall, I had an enjoyable time at both parks and it was great to finally visit parks outside the Gold Coast to see how others run a theme park. For me, Funfields was definitely a standout. They had a great quality of attractions, good variety, the park was very clean, friendly and had quality. Gumbuya World was enjoyable, and I’m still blown away by how good TNT was. They did a fantastic job with that ride and I can’t wait to see what Movie World do with their version, because Gumbuya have set the bar high. For me, it’s the best family coaster in the country (Village can’t convince me that Leviathan is a family coaster) and if they keep it up with that standard, they have the potential to be a great park. They just need more. And I would definitely recommend checking them both out if you’re in Melbourne. My final score based off my first visit to both parks would be an 8.5/10 for Funfields and a 6.5/10 for Gumbuya.

This! That would be a fantastic attraction for that site. Those rides are cool, but their location can make them so much better, and this would be the perfect spot for one.

They did, but I think it’s been a long time since it worked

I think it still comes back to the fact that the GP still have the impression that they haven't replaced all the attractions they closed and the park is looking run down. For the first point, they would be right. They still need another four (at a minimum) attractions to get the ride count back up to what it was pre-2016 (and that's after the addition of Jungle Rush), but they need to have some major hero attractions. The park was known for rides like River Rapids, Rocky Hollow, Wipeout and TOT, and I think after they were all demolished (which I do unfortunately agree needed to happen) that's really when people started to say 'there's nothing to do'. Out of everything that was announced in November last year, I think the only hero attraction is Jungle Rush. Everything else is warranted and adds good value, but most guests aren't going to rush to the park for Dreamland or Flyer. Jungle Rush is probably the only exception to that providing the marketing is pushed really hard and the ride is actually very good. For the second point, I think they have been working very hard over the past couple of years to rectify that, but until they get people back into the park, that perception will remain. I think that's one of the reasons why they have the night markets, to get people into the park to see how good it's looking. The areas of the park they are showing off during the night markets are looking good, however there are areas that still need a lot of work (back of Ocean Parade and former Rocky Hollow area), but that will come in time (but they need to hurry, otherwise it's going to take a lot longer than they hope to get back to the 2.4million guests).

I think @DaptoFunlandGuy meant it's consistent in the way that there is almost always wind (particularly at Sea World), not consistent in it's direction. Does anyone? Other than providing a great view, I don't think it has much else going for it (even as a family attraction)

I assume that means it's $10 for unlimited rides each night. I think that's very reasonable and will do very well.

Definitely would, but an even easier and cheaper option is to just have a fall in the floor so all the water falls back into the pool That’s a decent ride cycle time, should definitely make it feel like it’s worth it. Overall, I can’t imagine the ride queue will get too long because of how many riders it can get per cycle. However, there are less double seats so it’s possible that queue could get quite long, but single seats will be quick. The light mist will definitely be great in the summer heat, but was there pooling in the queue?

I'm interested to know if it's like this through the whole queue (which I suspect it might) or if it's just pooling in this one area. If there is a fall in the queue area it should all fall back under the railing into the trough, or it's uneven and is falling into this one spot. Either way, perspex would be a quick fix, but I think it would be better (for deflect and look) to just have it full height.