Vidgamer

I went last night so thought I would pop up a bit of a review of positives and negatives of my thoughts for anyone interested. Small spoilers ahead regarding the Horror Encounters. The event began at 6:00pm with an introduction by Beetlejuice, he came up on stage, introduced the event and then it went into about a 3-4 minute musical performance, after this Beetlejuice came back and 'released' the horde and then the event began. We had fast pass for the mazes so went straight to try and get on a maze without using the fast pass so we could do a maze without using the entitlement. Positives + The mazes themselves haven't had any real changes, except all the preshows are gone (the VIP rooms, the Conjuring). This did speed things up and added another 'room' to the Maze. There was considerably more actors in the mazes than last year + They have added a DJ to the maze precinct at the back which builds a much better atmosphere. + Beetlejuice pretty much stayed out the whole night in main street for photos. If you wanted a photo, you got one + I really enjoyed the entertainment. There is good pyrotechnics, The Wrath was great as always, the calibre of the entertainment just felt better this year. It does make main street feel like a 'concert vibe', which I really liked + The way they group people in mazes this year is much much much better. Previously you were grouped in 10 or so and this meant you almost always missed a scare. This time they ran people through generally as a group (or 2 groups if it was 2s) so you often only had about 4/5 in your group. You get a lot more scares, people move through mazes quicker and it's much more immersive. The improvement in the way you experience the mazes cannot be overstated, it is much much better. + The staff were great. I can find Movieworld staff a little 'barky' but I did not find this last night. Negatives - Fast pass continues to be oversold. We still waited 25 minutes for DCeased, 30 for Conjuring and 20 for Death Row even with fast pass - DCeased had more actors but is still just a 'poor' maze, it's not overly thrilling, which was a shame because I thought the time could have been used to improve the maze - There is considerably less scare actors in the precincts now (i predict maybe even half?!). There are many more actors in the mazes, but the precincts themselves would now only have about 7/8 in each area. - Hypercoaster was running 1 train (!?!) The 'new' this year is the horror encounters. There are four horror encounters and they are setup in Main St. They are The Exorcist, Conjuring, The Nun and IT. You line up for each of these separate and they don't have a fast pass option for these. The lines rarely exceeded 15 minutes. The staff essentially take a small video of you 'encountering' these characters. If you want a photo you can pay a $25 'candid' photo charge (although we have a candid photo card so just used that). They were a bit of a mixed bag but I see what they are trying to do there. The Conjuring: The crooked man comes out and greets you and then goes back into the door. This was a great encounter as you saw the crooked man and he looks great. The Nun: You stand in front of a wall and the Nun essentially appears behind you. IT: You stand in front of a wall and Penny Wise appears behind you, although he did 'reach out' a bit The Exorcist: The best one by far. They give you a cross and you basically perform an 'exorcist' for 10 seconds or so and they capture the video. This was very very very clever and looked amazing in person, genuinely 'movie quality'. My whole group loved the encounters. The ones where you could see the character (rather than wait until you had left and had to watch the video) were the best ones. I think these are a great addition, simple, effective and sunk up some of the crowd. As they were in main street you could hear and watch the Music while you waited as well. So, in summary. I really liked the event. I was quite disappointed when I heard the mazes were the same but the quality of the entertainment, the addition of the horror encounters and a better way to experience the mazes had me genuinely impressed. I don't like that there was less scare actors and I still wish there was more 'new', but if this year's event is about improving quality then I would call it a success. Side Note You get some good views of Wizard of Oz and the Oz Precinct, it looks nearly complete and Emerald City looks great.

Ads have started appearing around the Gold Coast too, seriously this marketing is so good

Well, the time has come. I will keep an eye on the socials to see if anything gets announced

Does anyone know if this will be live streamed at all?

Big Brother and Dreamword are intertwined it would be a perfect mix for them to bring it back on site, Dreamworld has the land. Imagine an updated opening credits scene with King Claw (it used to have the Claw for the opening scene)

Saw it today. I prefer the American one to the Australian one but I don’t think the image clarity is as sharp for the American one.

Yes they have really half arsed the opening, when the park went seasonal they said they could do all maintenance over the winter break, it’s very disappointing. These slides remain shut for half of the September school holidays

No new mazes is trash. Event stops at 10:30 now too (used to be 11). Are village even trying anymore?

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is all green in terms of colour… perhaps connected, perhaps not.

Great move, especially as it is basically a front of line pass too.

Dreamworld continues to lead the way with inclusivity and repurposing old spaces into something genuinely useful - a great move.

Unfortunately it is the official characters. Saw them both in the parade

Does anyone else think the Movieworld characters for Heroes and Villains look considerably worse this year? I've attached photos of the Riddler and the Penguin, both look like a considerable downgrade and actually look tacky. Photo credit: Movieworld's Instagram.

$10 is a bargain - what a great offer. It's great to see Dreamworld experimenting with events like this.

A great move. The ride line up is looking a lot healthier than it was on the page a week ago. Marvin the Martian reopens next week too.