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I was at DW on Sunday. Both trains running with spinning seats. I rode a few times throughout the day and never saw a single person in them. The queue was never more than 15-20 minutes long, even with the second train stacked on the brakes because of the slow operations. $25 p.p. is too much for an average day. If the queue isn't long, there's not even a fast-pass benefit to paying. DW needs an in-park app so they can dynamically push a limited number of 2-for-1, half price or $15 deals to people when there is no demand. Let people know the maximum number of discounted seats available (say 20) and they'll get snapped up quickly. If they sell out, do the same thing a few hours later. The trains are cycling anyway, might as well get some money than no money.

Finally! It's been a long, tense 13 and a half years, but we've now got the definitive answer we've been waiting for. Jokes aside, if Huss still made the Rainbow, it would have been a perfect addition to Sea World instead of Vortex, or even a Wipeout replacement. Hopefully they, or another company can bring it back. Something with similar height, speed and airtime, or even a super-sized version of it that is more suited to a permanent park install.

This does not look like a well engineered ride. From the video, there are a number of spots where the 'single rail' track is mis-aligned, and you can see a lot of welding and grinding has happened to get the actual rails aligned and smooth. There's nothing really wrong with welding track pieces together, but most modern coasters are so well machined that they just bolt together. There is also a lot of rattle happening in this video. It's always hard to notice initially since both cameras and editing software can add stabilization/smoothing, but look at the track as it moves past the bottom of the screen, probably not enough to be painful or even uncomfortable (for now), but definitely enough that you'll notice it. It will be interesting to see how well these rides age.

To be fair, the Channel 7 news story was just reporting on the delusional Victorian MP that thinks Disney should build a park in Frankston. Their choice of soundbites from the locals set the tone from them. They can't have opinions in news reporting, so the best they can do is report on the MP and get the locals to say it's dumb.

I don't want to be 'that guy' but why would you change a mountain-themed ride to the New Orleans Bayou? Clearly no one from Disney has ever been to New Orleans because, famously, the highest point of elevation is only 27ft (8.2m) above sea level.

The trend for Disney and Universal is to go bigger not smaller. They don't want to just build parks, they want to build resorts. They want to make 100% of the revenue you spend on your holiday from hotels, food, drinks, parking, airport transfers... etc. They want to build destination parks that keep you on company property for the entire duration of your stay. When they build parks, they're usually joint ventures that are majority owned by local governments. No Australian govt (state or federal) want one of these companies consuming 100% of an international/interstate tourist's spending. They want them to spread it around the local communities, so they will never support a large scale park in Australia. The local population is too small to sustain a park of that scale anywhere in Australia, if it could, Dreamworld would have expanded to fill their available land and done a licensing deal with one of the major studios (like Universal). As for international tourists, Australia is really, really far away and expensive to get to. Our nearest neighbours are generally poor/developing countries, and the ones that aren't already have Disney and/or Universal parks (Singapore, HK, China, Japan). A Korean or Vietnamese person wanting a Disney or Universal experience isn't going to come to Australia, they're going to to an Asian park or make a one-in-a-lifetime trip to the US. I personally like that we can have parks like Dreamworld and Gumbaya (even Aussie World) that are smaller and have their own unique vibe. I'd like to encourage them to to better themed experiences and tap into unique Australian stories and experiences that you can't get in the rest of the world, rather than just cloned experiences from a park 6-10 hours flight away.

I'm not particularly concerned about the recency of the photos for an update, but it does raise the question of why Village waited to post these photos if they had them in late March. The rides are still a long way from being finished, with no official opening date, so this isn't to build hype and promote the ride to families booking holidays (although it may have that effect, but the social accounts are also filled with negative reviews, so who knows). This and the recent video are reactions to the ongoing closures. Village let the bad reviews and negative sentiment set in, not just with enthusiasts but with the general public. One can only assume that visitor numbers are down and people aren't renewing passes, so they've started some crisis PR to try to save the park's reputation because they've finally realised that reputational damage = real financial damage. So the complaint about recency for the sake of recency definitely is 'fucking dog shit' as you put it, but in the context of all the problems the park is facing and the lack of communication, why did they sit on these photos for so long? If they're part of the solution now, then they were part of the solution 1-2 months ago when NSW was still in school holidays and all of the roller costers, WWF and JL were closed for several days. Yes, people can say 'they've posted it now, so they're doing better', but the real measure will be whether they can keep rides open for guests, whether the communication continues, and most importantly if there is a change in staff attitudes toward guests which has been pretty terrible for 12 months. I'm hoping that this is meaningful, sustained change, but the same management and social media team was telling people 'F*** off, no refunds, you should have checked the website', just 3 weeks ago. I guess the point is that it's not just about communication anymore. They've done real damage to the trust that guests have in the park to provide them with a great experience. A PR campaign and some social media posts just aren't going to fix the underlying problems with the management of the park. That's what they need to fix to rebuild the trust.

The only viable area with enough land close to the city would be Hamilton, and you could build it as a destination alongside the athletes village for the Olympics. It could tie-in with Eat Street. It would only ever be small because it is landlocked, and directly under the flight path. But honestly, Brisbane is saturated for shopping centres. That area is an easy drive to DFO, Chermside and Carindale across the gateway, and there just isn't much of an appetite for 'small' parks in Brisbane when the major theme parks are so close. The Gold Coast can barely even get smaller attractions like mini-golf and a slingshot to survive with it's booming population. Australia just doesn't have the population to sustain a Universal or Disney park. Our current parks are dead on most weekdays outside of school holidays. The US has much larger international tourist numbers, and a local population of over 300 Million. China has 1.5 Billion, Japan has 125 Million with another 50M in Korea a short flight away, Singapore is central to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Phillippines, with a combined population of over 400 Million, Europe has over 400 Million. A tiny country with barely 26 Million people is just not going to sustain a Disney/Universal park. They're bigger and better themed, but with much higher operating and maintenance costs - which would be made worse by Australia's high minimum wage/super costs and highly volatile currency exchange rates. They'd be bankrupt within a few years. Plus, Australians love traveling overseas and have proven that they will go to Singapore/Japan/US/China to visit a Disney/Universal park. Disney also don't own their international parks outright. They're co-owned with local governments, usually with Disney holding a minority stake (which is why Disney can't tear down Splash Mountain in Tokyo like they did in America). If the Australian Govt decided to pay the construction costs, Disney would look at an Australian park, but there is exactly 0% chance of that happening. Even the joint-venture Universal Studios Dubai couldn't get off the ground and they have more money than God. The best you could hope for is a Disney-themed cruise terminal if they choose to significantly expand their cruise operations here.

Are they slowly trying to change the name to Uncle Rush, one letter at a time?

The lockers might end up staying and just be paid lockers for general use.

This comment seems to have slipped under the radar, but it answers the question about staff operating seat belts. So thanks @mba2012 for getting it right. If the seat belt is fastened and the strap tightened, it interferes with the push/pull procedure, where the 'pull' is just testing the tension of the seat belt, not the primary restraint. If there is a hydraulic/ratchet restraint failure in such a scenario it wouldn't be detected, and the seat belt would be the only restraint with no redundancy. The safety standards and codes that govern Amusement rides aren't just for parks. They're also for traveling rides that experience wear/tear/damage in setup/pack down and transport. It's one set of rules for every operator and every ride. So while it's highly unlikely a ride like Rivals or ST would need a seat belt, people can and have been ejected from traveling rides, and severely injured or killed. Even a ride as mild as TRRR was able to fail in a deadly way, GL also failed in a way that could have been deadly - different rides, different parks, different reasons for failure. Every safety standard is written is someone else's blood. Unlikely things happen. Operations are never slower because of safety, they are the correct speed to safely operate the ride. At Village parks, operations are slower because of corporate culture, under-staffing and, in some cases, poor station design. Removing the current locker system at SE won't speed up operations. It will just move all of the pocket checks to the front of the queue. SE pulls strong forces where riders are seated with their knees above their hips, which means anything in your pockets will fall out - potentially onto people in the paths below. So while you could have a better loose article system at the station, guests cannot be trusted to actually empty their pockets or understand the potential consequences of not doing so. For that reason, the park is not likely to change the current station or procedures.

I honestly think that this should be reported to the ACCC. Advertising a major ride against a 3-day pass price during a period when that ride is scheduled to be closed is misleading and deceptive. I would say the same for all the digital billboards with that photo. The reasonable expectation is that purchasing a 3-day pass would allow you to ride Rivals. The ACL doesn't require anyone to have actually been misled, just that it is likely to mislead or deceive.

It doesn't fit the theme of the ride at all. It was supposed to look like an airport terminal, and instead it looks like it belongs in an industrial park. I've detailed extensively why at the time of its construction AND given some of the history of aviation in Queensland which could have been used to build a story around the ride and the building, in this post: And I provided examples of what could have been done here - based on actual airports from around the world: The facade of the building is just aluminium cladding hanging on a steel frame. It would be incredibly easy to replace it with moulded fibreglass (Scooby/JL/Jungle Rush) or traditional cladding like the other buildings. The shade structure over the exterior queue would need to be torn down and replaced with something more traditional, which is easily achievable. The glass towers around the stairs would ideally be removed. There is plenty of space inside the building's original footprint to redesign the stairs so the glass protrusions are not needed, alternatively, they could get the same facade treatment as the rest of the building. Is this costly? Yes. But fixing the terrible decisions of the previous management have been and will continue to be extremely costly. But the long term viability and profitability of the park are going to depend on it. Aesthetics matter. Especially at a 'theme' park. It is why ToT was removed and the tower redesigned. It could have stayed as it was, but the new management saw value in the aesthetic improvement. Imagine if Disney put the SV building on Main St. or if Universal put it in Wizarding World. People wouldn't say 'but it matches the theme of the ride', they would call it what it is - a lumpy, bulbous hemorrhoid of a building that doesn't belong in any theme park, anywhere.

It doesn't make a difference. Honestly, the demand for up-charge seating is so low even on busy days that they may as well scrap a booking system entirely and just have a wireless Eftpos terminal at the head of the queue line. If it's going to be in an app, then they should use it a little smarter - offer off-peak, mid-week discounted rides ($10-15) to annual pass holders to entice them into the park, even let them buy multiple rides for a lower price. If the ride is running with empty seats, better to get some money than no money. That would be the only reason to need a booking system - to get people into the park on quiet days and get guaranteed revenue out of them. F&B discounts (if you offer decent F&B) would also do the same thing.

Operating costs aren't that important if you're attracting enough guests, which you won't do if you keep rides closed.

The only other park install of an Intamin Suspended Twin Hammer was in Malaysia, which opened in 2003 and closed in 2015 - the year before Doomsday opened - because it was so unreliable. So they should have known, or at least should have at least contacted the Malaysian park for a reference before buying the ride. Zamperla make the Hawk model that does the exact same thing, has many more installs and is a much more reliable ride.

If it is out of copyright, then anyone can do anything they want with the stories, characters, music and images and no one can enforce royalty or licensing payments. Specific trademarks - like the names of the coasters and any associated artwork - can be enforced though, and WB registered the trademarks, not Village.

They're about 15 years too early for that. But the copyright on the movie - including specific things that are only in the movie like ruby slippers - expires in 2035, 95 years after the film's release.

I don't think anyone is disputing closing once and doing all the necessary work. The thing that people are pointing out is that they're doing that on SE AND Batwing AND DD (which has other issues) AND Scooby all at the same time, with a lot of unplanned stoppages/late openings/closed seats on GL, Rivals, RR, and WWF. There have been several days where MW were charging $110 single day entry for people to watch HWSD2, and see Batman showcase because every single adult ride has been closed, as well as Road Runner - meaning there was not a single roller coaster or thrill ride operational. That is an unacceptable situation to be in and is 100% due to the park's management failing to invest adequately in the maintenance of their rides, plan maintenance schedules properly, and replace defunct rides in a timely manner when it is clear that they've reached the end of their lifespan (SD, AA, DD). But also due to the types of rides and attractions they operate. A simulator ride like Batman could operate even if one or two simulators failed - just at reduced capacity. The Movie Magic show could still operate if one of the show elements failed, other areas of the show could be padded out and the host could still explain how things work with other demonstrations. It also means that annual maintenance can occur on part of the attraction while it is still operational, reducing the amount of time it would need to be closed. It is also apparent that there are management issues from staff attitudes toward visitors. Staff are not friendly, none of them want to be there, and replies to customer complaints on social media have shown absolute contempt for visitors that just wanted a fun day out with their family. Compare that with DW, where they acknowledge they are in a state of transition, they know most of the park is a construction zone, but the staff are engaging, friendly, courteous, and genuinely want to see people enjoying themselves. I visited DW for the first time since 2015 the other week and the staff were the single most memorable part of my day. The staff issue at MW is what really indicates this is a top-down problem because the front line workers are unsupported and have no power to fix the situation for unhappy visitors. A theme park is a retail business, a service industry business, an art/design and performance business and a heavy machinery business. Movie World was once the stand out performer in Australia for all of these, but it's fallen behind in all of them and completely bungled the last one. People are rightfully pointing out that 2 month closures should be unnecessary, and planned overlapping closures are just bad management. But 2 month closures when you've got so many other closures - planned or temporary - happening in the park to the point that people are paying full price entry and cannot go on a single ride, is what most people in this thread are complaining about. Yes, DW have some extended closures for various reasons, but the difference is in the broader context of the park's offerings and operations.

Thank god they didn't. It would have been such a waste. The SE helix has been an under-utilised dead spot right at the front of the park for almost 2 decades. This absolutely is the right space for a mediocre flat ride of this size. Yea, Doomsday sucked and was a bad choice for the park, but that plot of land was well-themed when it opened and it deserves a better ride than a Surf Rider. If anything, they've missed an opportunity to update SE's story, theme the Flash to Villains and put a lot of that theming at the front of the park, all the way up to Rivals. But that would have required them to commit to replacing DD with something better, and re-theming the area - which is expensive. If they kept the theme, there are plenty of reliable, relatively inexpensive classics that could fit there - like a Top Scan (just an example). But I'd personally like to see a re-theme. DC is basically dead now as a 'movie' franchise. Dune and Madmax would be my picks, and they both lend themselves to immersive theming of an outdoor thrill flat, with an indoor simulator (like batman) in the show stage.

The concrete has been poured and leveled with the metal rebar for the footers sticking out of it. The footers will have concrete poured around them eventually, but onto an existing concrete pour. Which means the current concrete will be mostly set when the new concrete is poured and they won't be chemically bonded. This is called a 'cold joint'. There will be a gap between the layers into which moisture can seep, which will eventually rust the metal rebar and compromise the structural integrity of the footer over time. My assumption was that if the footers are going to be indoors, then it may not matter. Apparently the moisture in the air is enough. My best guess is that if the footers are inside they will be easier to seal (and maintain a seal), than if exposed to the elements, so they've decided to pour the footers later. There are footers that seem to be level with the concrete in the third image (looking toward GD), so it seems the elevated footers (with cold joints) are only for the turntable structure. I know enough to look at the pictures and try to make some guesses, but I'm not an engineer. So I guess we just have to wait and see what they actually do.

If the footers are inside and not exposed to the elements, does it matter? This is a legitimate question, I'm not an engineer.

@Tricoart The last time was 2015. I always remember it being rough, but i never walked off of it with actual red marks and bruises - like someone had tried to karate chop my head off - as is the case with the new restraints. It's not a fun ride, and it's never been a good layout. It's just 3 banked turns, a sidewinder and a vertical loop. Again, it's just my opinion, and I understand that people have nostalgia reasons for wanting to keep it, but DW can do better. I genuinely believe that the current management would do better. The land it's on could be used to expand WWW or the Exhibition Centre, even the Exhibition Centre building could be used to house a ride - or part of one like Superman Escape. That whole area of the park is just dead ends and a hodge-podge of bad choices from bad management over the years. The Exhibition Centre and GC just feel plonked down without any real thought. To be honest, to re-imagine that whole end of the park would take the commitment to just remove an old, bad ride, and then re-work the entire area from (and including) the Wipeout plot and Exhibition Centre around to Kevil Hill. That's an enormous amount of space that could fit at least 2 roller coasters, a water slide tower, a dark/indoor ride and 1 or 2 decent flats. I'd much rather have that happen with Rivertown level theming than holding onto a sub-par Arrow coaster that just hurts to ride. Most importantly, I'd personally be happy to pay up to $250 for an annual pass if that were to happen.

I rode it as Cyclone and Hot Wheels. It was always a rough ride and nothing has changed with that, but the new restraints add constant pressure and weight to your shoulders and collar bone and just rub the entire time and smash into your neck on the janky turns - especially if you're over 6ft. These restraints took it from a rough ride that I was willing to go on, to one that I have no interest in riding again. It's effectively SBNO for me. The ride was built in 1994. It's a 30 year old, second hand coaster. Thunderbolt only lasted 21 years, and Gold Coaster has been at DW for 23 years. I personally think it's time to replace it. Removing that coaster and it's station would open up room for a much better ride that everyone could enjoy, and would allow for a cleaner transition between DW and WWW. Removing ToT opened up the land for Rivertown, and removing GC would do the same at the front end of the park, and I've got faith in the current management to do a great job of it and bring some magic back to the park.