Vidgamer

Attended the opening of Rivertown this morning and so I can directly compare Movieworld's and Dreamworlds. Dreamworld opened the doors to the park about 9:55am (and had a small contingent of VIPs and Theme Park enthusiasts in at 9:30am) and then had up to Rivertown gated off. At 10:05am we were then escorted down to outside the Jungle Rush coaster and there was about 15/20 mins of speeches and then the ride was ready to go. From the beginning the rides were open, stayed up for most of the day (Jungle Rush had a few periods of short down time) and the experience was really enjoyable. There were plenty of staff rostered on, the area looks amazing and well themed (and i am sure there is more to come, but it looks pretty much finished) and the radio was there giving out prizes. It felt like a true 'opening'. I really like that Greg acknowledges theme park enthusiasts in his speeches and is so connected to the community needs. It's a much more humble approach to theme park management. His offsider Michelle (I believe she is Ops manager) spent the morning in the control booth of JR then went and helped serve at the Rivertown Restaurant, it is not uncommon to see Greg helping in these back of house areas, it shows that even the exec team will jump on board and help out - it's a really good look. This is in direct contrast to Bikash who was quick to scoop into the VIP fast pass queue at 10:05am for the WoZ rides. Dreamworld was alive today and it's great to see the hard work they are putting in paying off.

The execution on this has been world class. They deserve all the credit they get. It’s amazing how much Dreamworld has evolved.

I think they do removed pizza from the buffet this year? Is that right?

I went down for the opening this morning so thought I would try and put some ideas down on what I think works well and what hasn’t delivered. Of course these are all my first impressions and just my opinions. At 10 we were let into the gates of movieworld at about half of the people there ran to Wizard of Oz. When you enter the world the access to both rides is through the Emerald Palace. There are test seats for both rides when you walk in and a large Wizard of Oz Chamber (which is very impressive). we decided to do Kansas Twister first and the theming for the queue line is really good, you go through Dorothy’s house and it looks really good. We were one of the first in line but had to wait for the executives to get their rides in (why they don’t do this before the park opens I do not know, but it’s never a good look a bunch of Village execs going through fast pass while others are waiting.) Kansas twister is a solid roller coaster with the capacity to take lots of people. We enjoyed it. As we exited Kansas Twister they have the bad witch out for a meet and greet which was cute and my kids loved that, we then did Flight of the Wicked Witch. The wait for this was long and it kept going down, the queue is brilliant and very well themed. The ride was smooth and quite thrilling. We then saw that Kansas twister had gone down. They were extremely slow to load Flight of the Wicked Witch. the land itself looks immersive and well themed. The only thing I find a bit jading with the queue for both coasters is that the last little bit before you load for each coaster you are essentially in an outside queue surrounded by black metal fencing, I wish they had thought of a way to keep the queue indoors right until you load up. i think the price statement around 100 million is rubbish, there are still areas that clear cuts have been made (the walls in the haunted forest are painted which gives it a low budget ghost train feel when looking directly at the walls) but it’s still far away the best theming Movieworld has done recently.

Does anyone know if Jungle Rush opened today at all?

Let’s hope a passholder email goes out tonight or tomorrow. I saw 2 shipping containers in the car park today so it seemed there was more theming to come…

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.

That’s a really good promo. Seems to be a great mix of CGI and practical sets they set up for filming. Very good.

It's great to see enhancements still being made to WhiteWater world, it has been left behind in the redevelopment plans though, a lazy river would actually go well. I acknowledge the paintings of the slides and Fully Six but this was all pre 2022.

Trying to stay on topic but Dreamworld does have an Autism day which seems a bit more genuine. The good news is that The Flash has a night time lighting package and I think that is good. While it's a recycled ride at least we're getting a decent sign and some lighting. I know it's not a huge amount of effort but it's more than would have previously been done.

There is fencing in the car park of Dreamworld now, perhaps we'll see the coaster arrive soon?