Baconjack

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.

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.