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I’m wondering if Luna Park has brought on this new CEO as a reaction to all the investments from other VIC parks, realising there’s now serious competition in the area? Perhaps this is their first step in rejuvenating the park after years of stagnation. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

According to 7 News, an announcement will be made on Thursday.

Oh right. It looks so similar to the original Intencity facade that I honestly didn’t even notice a difference. I just assumed the “Fun House” was part of Intencity’s branding. Image from Google Street view, taken in 2018.

Considering most of the building is still advertising the Fun House which hasn’t operated since 2019, I’d say it could stick around for a while.

Drove past the site earlier today. Apart from a few mounds of dirt, no progress has been made unfortunately.

TBH, it doesn’t look that bad in person. A lot of the park looks pretty unflattering from above.

Night works are being performed on the tower tonight.

Having two significant coaster additions open up at the same time in a single park is pretty hard to beat (especially in a place like Melbourne which hasn’t really had any major coasters until now). But this is still an impressive addition to Funfields and will help them compete with Gumbuya this season. Right now Funfields absolutely blow Gumbuya out of the water (no pun intended) when it comes to water rides as GW’s current water park offering is pretty lacklustre IMHO. I think it’s smart for FF to continue to invest in and push the “Water Park” aspect of their park as it could give them a decent competitive advantage over GW going forward. Meanwhile, Adventure Park is the park I fear will struggle the most. Now that the bar has been raised by GW (and to some extent FF) I don’t know if it has the same kind of budget the other VIC parks do to be able to complete with them. Hopefully they’ve got something up their sleeve.

Update from yesterday, letters have now been painted orange:

Looks good! Seems like it might have internal LED lighting if the promo images are anything to go by, which will be pretty cool. Between this and Gumbya‘a new coasters, Melbourne’s theme park industry is really booming.

Visiting the park today, it seemed pretty clear that the Dreamworks license is about to expire. The most obvious thing being that the gift shop has now been completely gutted. The area is in pretty desperate need of some TLC right now and considering Dreamworld are usually pretty good with their presentation and upkeep, the fact it hasn’t received it seems like another clear sign it’s days are numbered. At this point, I’d say it’s almost certain that this is where the new area will go.

That video seems to have been removed.

I have to admit, that’s very sad. Seems like most new centres are installing these systems now.

It’s nice that they’re including those bonus offers with third party groups, really helps to increase the value of the pass and sweeten the deal. What’s wrong with the Timezone refurb? Apart from losing some classic games (especially those from Sega World Sydney) I don’t see what’s so bad about it?

Looks amazing, can’t be too far from opening now!

One of the ride markers is located on the opposite side of the pathway, so I think it’s possible some work might be taking place over there too.

None of those Kinect games actually work at the moment. It’s only the practical effects they’ve fixed.

Wow, I was not expecting that level of theming! If the finished product looks anything like the concept art, these new additions might end up being some of the most highly themed attractions we’ve seen in Aus in a while! I fully agree that this could easily become one of the country’s best parks.

Forgot to mention, the hi-strike/exploding bank in the Doomsday precinct has been fixed! It now automatically activates as soon as you press the plunger and the old wristband reader has been completely bypassed. Same goes with the other effects in the area, they now just activate automatically as soon as you walk over to them.

Here are some close-up shots of the area. These “Ride” markers have now been placed in various locations around the area: This appears to be the location of the operator’s booth: Some of the existing speakers have been removed and one of their protective housings has been dumped near the former Marvin attraction: Existing electrical cables are also in the process of being removed: Some more general shots of the area:

I managed to get some photos of the area the other day and it looks a billion times better IMHO. The Carousel looks like it’s just about ready to open too.

It’s pretty easy to see who the target market is just by looking at the design of the place. It really doesn’t scream family theme park hotel. It just looks like a generic, modern, corporate hotel plonked down at the front of the park (though it is aesthetically pleasing).

Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t the spark effects and associated infrastructure on WWF custom made specifically for the ride? Pretty sure I remember hearing it took a lot of R&D to implement them and they were designed specifically with the space in which they were being installed in mind. I don’t believe commercially available “off the shelf” components/systems were used. If true, it would be pretty difficult to reinstate the effect today (as great as that would be).

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but Movie World really needs another decent dark ride much more than it needs a new coaster right now IMHO. The park already has a pretty solid line up of coasters (plus it’ll be receiving 3 more when WOO opens up), but highly immersive, themed attractions are what it currently lacks and what I believe VRTP should be looking at in the future. I know many who still miss the likes of LTRR and Gremlins, an updated take on those sorts of attractions would be a great addition.

I too am pleased to see that VRTP have followed through on their promise of a well themed area and they should be praised for it. TBH, I was starting to become a little worried that the company had forgotten how to do decent theming (aside from perhaps the Doomsday precinct) and their parks would continue to slowly steer away from their thematic roots and become like Six Flags over Gold Coast. Glad to see this isn’t the case and I hope they continue to provide quality theming going forward as it certainly helps elevate the experience overall (looks promising with the announcement of WOO). Even though it’s still early days, from the small glimpses we’ve seen so far, you can tell the queue line is leaps and bounds ahead of what we got with Green Lantern and DC Rivals and it’s great they actually thought about presentation instead of giving us another basic Stratco tin shed with a few murals. Can’t wait to experience it fully in person. Of course, the big question is will the old Leviathan animatronic from Creatures Of The Deep (that was spotted being stored back of house a while ago) make a reappearance? While I also love Scooby, I would say this is a much grander entrance and has a lot more spectacle to it overall. Though I do admire what Scooby pulls off.