Baconjack

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.

Not long to go now. I'll stop by the park tomorrow and get some daytime shots.

Remember the last time a theme park in Australia tried their hand at investing in 'capital light' events rather than actual rides? How well did that work out for them? Well GG's DW. You're playing this by Wonderland's book now. It's only a matter of time before this park bites the dust. At this point you can't even tell the difference between Ardent and Sunway. DW is quite literally not long for this world. I'll give it two years before Dreamworld as a whole is announced to be ripped down and turned into housing or Westfield expansion.

Sometimes I get the feeling Dreamworld is not long for this world and it angers me. Sell the fucking park already instead of trying to find ways to turn it around by cutting opening hours. Your signs of struggle are incredibly obvious and it is also very clear Ardent should have tried to make efforts to sell the park while it was of reasonable value when they were selling off AMF Bowling last year. We'll be seeing a Defunctland or Abandoned episode on this park if you keep going down this path.

Will get down to the park in a week or so to see how this project is going. Hopefully they can stick to their promise and get this thing open in time.

Gravity Max looks like a pretty cool ride worth taking the trip to Taiwan to do. Of course the media would capitalise on clickbait from a breakdown on a coaster that is actually very famous among the GP. Gravity Max gets shared all the time on Facebook and other social media. It's like the media making an article on a Kingda Ka or Formula Rossa breakdown.

That's honestly a bit of a shame to hear the Holodeck isn't running well. Bear in mind this simulator was developed in 1993 and LPM's model is a 22 year old one originally built for Sega World. Considering Sega has long cut off support for this type of ride I'd probably be seeing them replacing the ride. They could use the opportunity to get a cool VR attraction but I just don't see LPM investing the money into it.

Have never been to LPM. Would like to go check it out one day though despite it being small park, there are plenty of unique and rare types of rides in the park worth giving a go. I wonder how the AS-1 from ex Sega World Sydney is going over there?

I'm the guy responsible for the production of the Sega World video. I probably sat there for about a year on and off producing the video. I made a second video with updates to what is going on in 2018. The statues that used to sit out the front of the park as photo ops are sitting in a junkyard along side the final Wonderland sign. I had a hand in trying to get them for restoration but the owner refuses to sell them, sadly. Wonderland's sign is there for $25k if anyone wants to buy it, though. It is an absolute crime how only the AS-1 ride stayed in Australia post closure, LPM have it at the minute. Ghost Hunters would have been a solid pickup for Dreamworld who had bought Big Dipper used from LPS around the same time. In fact most of the ex SW rides should have been looked at by our own theme parks if they wanted cheap new(ish) rides. On the topic of SWS 2 as Wil mentioned, I did touch on how it could happen in the new video. Probably would happen as some sort of 'retro revival' but I still don't see it being likely.

Thrill rides at a park represent their signature attractions. If Dreamworld built a big 'shit your pants' tier ride, they have a world (no pun intended) of marketing at their fingertips. Big rides brings in big crowds, exactly what happened when ToT first opened in 1997, and DC Rivals to a lesser extent. 2019 looks to be a reasonably quiet year for our parks and Dreamworld should have been aware of this after Village's recent two years of capex additions and seized the opportunity to plan and construct a giant thrill ride that opens in the September school Holidays/Boxing Day window without new competition from Village next door. SV and the upcoming lazy river are good additions and definitely fit well in the park but they aren't the ones that will turn Dreamworld around. If they spent $18 million on something like a Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster it would have been a better investment for the situation at hand but here we are, we have a cool little simulator that might not give the attendance boost the park is looking for.

To thrive long term Dreamworld needs to first restart their thrill rides agenda from square one. Rip down ToT, Hot Wheels, Giant Drop, Wipeout and Buzzsaw rather than wasting millions of dollars refreshing these rides every 10 years. MDMC, Claw, Tailspin and Pandemonium are the only thrill rides worth keeping at this point. Yes I do enjoy the aforementioned rides and ToT/Giant Drop are some of my favourites in the park but progress means change and these outdated rides are fast approaching their last legs. Keep the Dreamworld tower and convert GD to floorless gondolas a la Falcon's Fury. Build an Infinity Coaster or Mack launch coaster to replace ToT. A ABC Torbillion to replace Wipeout. An RMC Raptor or S&S 4D Free Spin to replace Hot Wheels. This has to be an action plan over a long term period (a good example of this is Ocean Park's Master Plan which doubled the park's size in under a decade). Thrill rides is obviously Dreamworld's weak link at the moment, remember how 10-15 years ago they took pride in their thrill rides collection. Now their youngest of the 'Big 9' is six years old. Dreamworks is desperate for an upgrade. Or if Universal wants to cut ties with Ardent, perhaps a new IP altogether, Cartoon Network, Sega or Pokemon would be strong candidates. Land freed up by the removal of ToT will give enough room to expand the Shrek/Kung Fu Panda area. ABC Kids World is a good start but the bigger family rides need attention now. Make use of all the empty spaces in the park. TRRR and Eureka's huge parcel of land could be used up by a new coaster, or better yet, the dark ride that Ardent has promised. Blue Lagoon should have been cleared forever ago and that land can be used for something relatively large. If Hot Wheels is removed its spot can be used for a new slide tower. Obviously none of this will ever happen because Ardent doesn't understand the concept of strategic thinking and prefers to run their existing rides into the ground instead. Sky Voyager is a good start but there's still a long way to go for Dreamworld to be a strong park once more. This situation has needed to be responded to since at least 2014 yet very little has been done, if anything at all.

What ???? WnWGC has both a lazy river and a wave pool and neither of them make each other redundant. Many other water parks around the world have both rides. And when the time comes for Hot Wheels to be ripped down, it is far more likely an extra slide tower would go in its place than a new coaster.

Hey, I'm actually the guy who made these videos, thanks for the good feedback. Making content on theme parks, especially on Australian ones, is not at all common on Youtube, but there's a lot to explore in the Australian theme park world.