Baconjack

'skip the queue'. Not really worth skipping when there probably won't even be a queue because of the shitshow that is Dreamworld's attendance.

I'm actually going to be in Japan in 2020 in time for the USJ Mario Land opening. Can't wait for Super Nintendo World to be a thing in USG too. Having one at the nearest Universal park to our shores is exciting. The Minion area - not so much. Minion Mayhem is IMO the weakest Universal simulator, but great for the kids, Madagascar will need an update in the 2020s anyway as it will be an outdated IP very soon. Shame to see the Madagascar boat ride go though - I thought that was a nicely themed ride when I went there a few years ago. Something Dreamworld could replicate if it had the budget.

Yep, Adventure World would be a good fit for a bowl slide. A Boomerango or Tantrum-style slide would be a good choice also but I can see the bowl going in first. On the topic of Bountys, it was an old ride when it closed. When they shuttered Bountys, the ride wasn't in great condition. It is good to know unlike any other theme park in Australia, Adventure World actually kept part of the ride as a theming element within the park. I'd like to see more of our parks doing that. For example when Corkscrew was removed, Sea World could have kept one of the corkscrews (or both) and placed it at the gate similar to Alton Towers. Or Dreamworld integrating Wipeout's wave structure and/or the old surfboards into their new seating area.

When Dreamworld has such poor graphic design you can tell that they just took a random font off Dafont, gave it a small drop shadow in photoshop and used it for their ride logo. Nice job DW. A person with a basic understanding of Photoshop can make this in about 5 minutes. https://www.dafont.com/airstrike.font , there's the font for your interest. I use a modified version of it for my youtube channel, funnily enough. Either way, the launch event is a good sign towards this ride finally opening. Remember people, this will more than likely be Dreamworld's last ride they build, so get to the park for this never to be repeated event.

Exactly. Give the public a new ride that distracts them from a ride that closes their doors. Our parks should attempt at planning attractions to replace others, that way, it isn't such a blow to the park. Did anyone really care when BATR2 closed? No, because GL distracted them from that. Corkscrew? Storm Coaster. Bounty's Revenge? Kraken. Turbo Mountain? Inferno. And that's about all I can think of for Australian theme parks. TOT's inevitable closure is a PR disaster waiting to happen. I don't see any other scenario happening. That will be where Longhurst's empire starts to crumble down.

What I meant with wiped clean, is that the majority of thrill rides at Dreamworld need replacements in the next 10 years. About 50-60% of Dreamworld's rides will have reached or will be near end-of-life and need to be replaced in 10 years. My plan includes replacements for half of the park's thrill rides that will reach the end of their useful lives in the next five years, which have been accelerated by the fact that Ardent hasn't maintained these rides to industry standards over a long period of time leaving them unreliable and more expensive to maintain. Also when I was talking about a Gold Rush rebuild, I wasn't referring to a carbon copy of what was there. Gold Rush as a theme is a good theming concept for a theme park (and I do understand how it can have bad connotations with TRRR), but I'd like to see the theme taken from a different angle so it isn't similar to the old area that was there. Or you could build an Old West area, but DW will have to one-up MW if they tried that. I also thought HWSW's site was more appropriate for a WWW expansion than Thunderbolt's site, considering how it is adjacent to the park and could fit another slide tower within close proximity to the other towers, rather than out the back where nobody goes anyway. I do consider WWW to be the better park than WnW GC. The only thing it lacks is a lazy river and a second thrill slide tower which they can probably cram into HWSW's spot. Again, I don't know too much about water parks, but there isn't much more WnW has that WWW doesn't. A proper Aqualoop? WWW already has Wedgie (that cuts people's backs and kind of sucks). Dunno much else. As mentioned previously, lowering prices would be a short term solution to get guests through the door. In the long term when all the rides are built, the prices go up again, but try to compete with VRTP for price.

Beware of the big length, but this would be an ultra-long term plan if I had the budget of Chinese theme park companies. My idea is that Dreamworld would engage in banking on the recognition of the park's history and reintroducing former rides that were popular with guests, as well as introduce new flashy rides that aren't seen anywhere else in Australia. Most of the actual theme park section, especially the thrill would need to be wiped clean and totally replaced. Tiger Island, Corroberee and WWW are mostly left untouched with a few cosmetic upgrades. There isn't exactly much worth saving beyond those at this point. Things I'd change right away (short term) Change to seasonal operation. This is done in a similar manner to Adventure World as theme parks usually don't perform well in the winter months. This allows the park to make additions and changes in the winter months. Lower ticket price to make DW a more cost effective alternative to MW. Rocky Hollow is rid of its stupid modifications and replaced with seatbelts like every other log flume ride. Areas I'd work on in the medium term (1-3 years): Wipeout replaced with ABC Rides Torbillon. Identical name and identical theming to the original, promoted as a next generation retro revival. This is because Wipeout is one of the more iconic and popular attractions Dreamworld had and keeping the Wipeout name will draw the attention of guests. Having a flashy ride like this will also grab plenty of press and public attention due to its unusual nature. The former Thunderbolt site that was to be replaced with the lazy river is replaced with an RMC Raptor, named Thunderbolt after the original. This allows the park to retire TOT and having both of this happen in the same time distracts guests from TOT being closed as there is a new coaster in the park to ride instead. Tower of Terror is closed, and Giant Drop is converted to a Falcon's Fury gondola. Ripping down the TOT will free up space for another family ride in Dreamworks Experience. Areas I'd work on in the long term (3+ years) Hot Wheels Sidewinder replaced with a waterslide tower. WWW don't have a Boomerango or a Six Flags-style King Cobra waterslide so maybe it's time to get one of those. This essentially completes WWW. If you want to do a direct coaster trade, an S&S 4D Free Spin would be nice, but HWSW's plot is better for a WWW expansion. Dreamworks is expanded. The arcade and Kevil Hill are demolished and replaced with a Croods or How to Train Your Dragon area, including a couple extra family flat rides. Gold Rush is fully rebuilt with the same theme in mind. Plans for the ampitheatre would be scrapped. A dark ride and a new family flat would be built in this development. Buzzsaw is kept and refurbished a la Wipeout and given proper theming. Gold Rush's initial expansion is targeted as a family thrill area, a step up from Dreamworks but not as intense as the rides in Ocean Parade, that is until... Tower of Terror ultimately replaced by a new marquee roller coaster in Gold Rush and covering up to Blue Lagoon. A Mack multilaunch or Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster would be nice for this area. If you want to really go off the shelf with this, a clone of Smiler would be a cool addition.

Is this clearing to do with the apparent wooden coaster that has been rumoured to open at SW in the next couple years? The site doesn't look big enough for one right now, I'd want to think that somewhere else might be cleared for a ride.

Well Six Flags won't have any donator parts to use on their similar ride in Mexico then. Guess the Vekoma Top Spin will be the theme park equivalent of the dinosaurs.

Coming to a Tower of Terror and Hot Wheels Sidewinder near you !

GCI or RMC woodie.

People here saying JK Rowling think of this: One of the clues says 'they had a TELEVISION SERIES'. Harry Potter didn't have a television series. Try again. I don't know literature enough to figure out what this is referring to. My tin foil hat is telling me its a Big Brother revival.

AA's audio has worked as recently as December 2018. Don't know about after then but AA's audio has worked on all three of my MW visits since 2017.

I've had a look at Facebook posts regarding Wipeout closing. The GP are absolutely taking the piss out of DW/Ardent so I'll share a few of the best comments with you: Obviously most of these people don't have the knowledge of us enthusiasts but it shows how this move being criticized isn't restricted to Parkz.

I'm sure many of us would want a full renovation of TOT. But Dreamworld have said it themselves, they aren't prepared to spend the money on that. Also, yep. Definitely agree TOT is next on the chopping block. If they plan on removing the ride, Giant Drop will go with it. If they plan on abandoning it, Giant Drop will most likely stay.

VRTP are known to do the same thing. Bermuda, Corkscrew, Vikings, Batman 2, and LTRR are examples. In fact, virtually all Australian theme parks adopt this practice. What most parks seem to lack is a long term solution to replace older attractions. They just go about doing it at the spur of the moment if something comes up, then order a replacement that opens 2-3 years after. Stuff like that should be a rare occurrence, not the general rule of thumb. Simple planning that makes a lot of difference to customers. Obviously among our folk we have a reasonably clear idea when some rides are going to meet their end. But normal people don't. VRTP are most certainly capable of having a general idea of what rides should be replaced and when.

Buzzsaw has been Dreamworld's biggest nightmare in terms of maintenance. Matter of fact, it was down for nearly a year. I'm definitely seeing Dreamworld throwing in the towl, and pulling the plug on Buzzsaw next time it goes down for major maintenance, because soon enough they won't be able to afford repairing it.

Well I guess my Big 9 shirt is now a museum relic. Too cheap to make new Big 8 shirts without Wipeout?

Had to happen eventually. Sad to see Wipeout go, one of my favourites at DW (making the Vekoma Top Spin an extinct ride AFAIK), but it was pretty clear the ride had been on its last legs for a while. Replacing it with some seating is also a disgrace but I couldnt expect anything less from Ardent that lack a short term plan, let alone a long term one. As mentioned in previous posts, don't be surprised to see this be the first of many closures. Eventually Dreamworld will get smaller, and the ride count will drop as any costly maintenance issues will be carefully measured against the ticking clock to see if they are financially worth the investment to fix. Instead the park will slowly shrink smaller and smaller, until it gets to the point where it just isn’t cost effective to run it any longer and then poof… it will vanish forever and be replaced by a housing development.

Surprised they have a date rather than 'in the coming weeks'...

Honestly, Merlin buying DW would be many an enthusiast's dream come true, and it does make a lick of sense as they are making investment into Australia. But I don't see it happening. Merlin already has their hands full with opening Legoland Discovery Centres in this country and building new Legoland parks every other year. Dreamworld would be far too big of an investment to take on for a company so new to Australia even though they have bought parks in the past with their acquisition of Gardaland and Cypress Gardens in the past. Alternatively, and this might be a far-fetched theory to some, but this is the most likely way Merlin will invest into DW - Merlin could buy the park as it is like Cypress Gardens and DW will become the next Legoland. Still not a great park but its better than housing , and the Gold Coast definitely has the tourism base to build a Legoland if Legolands are being built in Korea and have been completed in Malaysia. Who knows, Merlin may want to take the next step with bringing the Lego brand into Australia and build a theme park. DW is the prime position for a Legoland. Even if it is a strictly family only park due to its IP and attractions, if that is what keeps Dreamworld alive, I'm all for this transformation. At the end of the day, Dreamworld being protected by legislation a la LPS will be the only way to ensure Ardent won't be the park's final owner. The park is iconic to millions in spite of its weak reputation in the community following the TRRR disaster. If the park did actually end up closing it would be a national tragedy, on the scale of when Toys R Us collapsed around the world in 2018. Every single member of this board would be sad to see DW close whether or not you saw it coming. Not to mention from an analytical point of view, it would damage our industry massively - VRTP would essentially have a monopoly over theme parks in Australia as they have no competition in the region and very little investment would be made in their parks in the future compared to today. The competition between DW and VRTP has brought us rides like DC Rivals, Superman Escape and Tower of Terror, among others. Big rides were built to draw the crowds away from the competitor and towards the park building it. We wouldn't be getting rides on the scale of those if VRTP didn't have any competition. Whether you like the park or you don't, it needs to be recognised that Dreamworld needs to remain in operation to ensure our parks' profile on the world stage continues to expand.

Also, I need to mention that this company operates Dragon Park, who bought the ex-Hard Rock Park Led Zeppelin coaster. It looks really good. Theme parks in Asia are expanding rapidly and I honestly think they are the ones to watch over the next few years as record investment is being made in China and South East Asia. We're already getting what appears to be some solid underrated gems out of these parks that are closer to home than most major American theme parks.

The ride looks really good, particularly the unique LPS deco on the ride itself. Are the Spitfire decals on the city backdrop still there? I hope LPS fix up this theming issue as it is important their rides are integrated in the area rather than just plonked in the Flying Saucer position.

I definitely dislike MDMC as much as the next person, but IMO it is the coaster most likely to get relocated. A small family park in Asia will want to get their hands on a ride like this. Maybe even Funfields might leap at the opportunity to get a cheap used coaster locally. The ride's main flaws is that it doesn't have the sense of speed that Jet Rescue has. The elevated sections are largely unnecessary and the ride, being high off the ground, feels very slow. The ride's uncomfortable trains doesn't help either. If this coaster was built to be close to the ground, it would have turned out much better than what it did.

Buzzsaw, Tailspin, Claw, Pandemonium, Shockwave, MDMC and all of the kids rides are the rides worth saving. Most of these rides are going to go to international buyers. I don't see many domestic parks interested. Maybe LPS, Funfields, LPM or AW could snap up a couple of flats. MW and SW most likely won't be interested in buying used DW rides.. it is kind of counterproductive to market the Dreamworld veterans as new rides because the public will recognise them as relocations right away.