Noll_57

I went on Superman yesterday and while all the on-ride effects seemed to be working, I was disappointed to see that the iconic queue line video has been removed. All the TV screens have been taken out.

I decided to swing by the park to check out what was happening with the new ride. It looks great and the lighting package compliments it really well (it’s effective even during the day). However, operations were abysmal. It no joke took over 10 mins to despatch one ride. The staff were too busy talking to each other in the op booth to worry about running the attraction. This was in front what appeared to be park officials and members of the VRTP social media team. It was so bad that many people in the queue line simply gave up and left. I really hope the park sorts this out. Here are some shots I took while I was there…

So… is the show dead again? They haven’t uploaded a new episode in ages and the interview with Funfields management they promised months ago still hasn’t been released.

Looks great, love the theming on the op booth.

I hope Village have another auction like they did a few years back. I’d love to potentially get my hands on some of their old gear.

This was in the GC Bulletin today….

100% agree. A new, well themed and immersive dark ride is exactly what Australian parks need more than anything else right now.

I’m honestly incredibly surprised a big IP like Bluey isn’t getting any representation in ABC Kids World. With the show being as popular as it is (both here and overseas) and with it being made and set in Southeast Queensland (heck, some of the show even takes place on the Gold Coast), I thought it would’ve been a slam dunk for Dreamworld. Considering there are many people of all ages who actively watch and enjoy Bluey, I reckon it would appeal to a much wider audience than you think. Then again, I guess all of Brisbane is truly the real Bluey theme park.

To get this thread (somewhat) back on topic, Coaster Studios have just landed in Australia: Also for those who didn’t see it, TPW recently hosted a live Q&A where our parks were discussed quite a bit:

It just would’ve been nice for them to experience both of these attractions and get their opinions of them. Plus Scooby wasn’t announced as being closed when CS first organized their trip. But yeah, I’m sure they were expecting some additional closures.

Coaster Studios are arriving next week. Sucks they’re not only going to miss out on Superman, but Scooby Doo too.

So something I’ve noticed lately on various theme park podcasts and discussion groups is talk about the difference between regional “action/amusement parks” and theme parks. One notable example is a recent podcast episode I listened to that spoke about Gumbuya World’s new coasters. The hosts claimed that “Gumbuya has transcended it’s action park status and is now a proper theme park” with the addition of these two new attractions. I disagree with this statement. In my view, Gumbuya has always been a well themed park with dedicated “lands” and areas just as any legitimate theme park would and I’ve always classified it as such. I don’t think simply adding one type of ride should suddenly change the entire category the park is labeled under. Meanwhile, I’ve also seen other people claim that Gumbuya needs at least 4 or 5 more major attractions before it can be classed as a true theme park. So that’s got me thinking, what truly makes a “theme park” a proper theme park and at what point does a park like Gumbuya cross-over to become universally regarded as a theme park instead of a simple action park? Is it when a certain level of theming is installed? When a certain amount of rides and attractions are brought in? Does it matter what kinds of attractions the park has? Does layout have anything to do with it? There are parks like Adventure World and Funfields which have fantastic theming and story telling in their rides and tick a lot of the “theme park” boxes for me, yet I’m sure many still see them as action/amusement parks. At the same time, there are other parks that have coasters and big attractions but are widely regarded as simple amusement parks. To give my opinion, I see parks like Adventure World, Adventure Park, Funfields, Gumbuya World, Aussie World, Magic Mountain and Jamberoo as a unique “Australian style” of theme park (similar to how Europe and the US have distinctive styles of theme parks) as let’s face it, it’s what the majority of our parks are like and isn’t really replicated the same way anywhere else (particularly the wide open spaces and mashup of dry rides and water rides sharing the same space). I’m interested to hear your thoughts and opinions on this matter.

I would say that early Movie World (early 90’s to the early 2000’s) was a lot closer to Universal’s standard then what we have today. I think the shift to focusing on adding thrill rides and less about theming and immersion has cheapened the experience (even though we have more attractions now than we did back them). Still, I wouldn’t call it a “regional park”, but I’d say it’s teetering on the edge of being one in its current state. It will be interesting to see what happens after WOO opens. If the area is finished off to the high standard they’ve been promising and is as well themed as the concept art, it could improve the overall image of the park and increase its international appeal. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Honestly, this is a great fit for the area IMHO. A solid upgrade from Pounce and Bounce and in a much better location too. With all these new additions and upgrades currently taking place, 2024 is shaping up to be a big year for Movie World (and GC parks in general)!

From what I’ve observed, the in-house AV team mostly just focus on shows and events.

I can understand that the maintenance department have their hands full and have to prioritise jobs. However, I still think it’s a little ridiculous that some of these systems have remained non-functional for over 4 years. I’m sure management would have realised they’re not working by now as it’s quite noticeable. Even if there have been issues with sourcing equipment, surely they could’ve come up with a workaround in that time. This issue doesn’t effect other parks (and wasn’t an issue at Movie World in the past), so I don’t know why it’s currently such a problem at MW. Either way, it’s pretty disappointing.

Fairly often. I’m local and like to visit the parks when I have the chance.

I’ve noticed this too. I was reading an article fairly recently about a ride stoppage and pretty much all of the comments were calling out the media’s BS. Good to see.

Dreamworld vlog is up:

What the heck has happened to all the background music around Movie World? Walking around the park yesterday, the only area that had decent working audio was Main Street. All other areas were either dead silent with no music playing whatsoever or had so many broken speakers that it could hardly be heard. I know this may seem like a somewhat unimportant issue in the scheme of things (and that I’m being a little picky). However, it made for a very dull experience overall and caused many of the areas to feel pretty bland and lack atmosphere. Music is such an essential part of theme parks, helping to create an atmosphere, immerse you in the attractions and assist in making your time within the park a little more exciting, magical and special. Movie World has historically been extremely good at this, with themed music appropriate to each area of the park surrounding you at every turn. However, since 2019 things have taken a noticeable turn for the worse (and they’ve only gone further downhill as time’s gone on). Here’s a quick rundown of the current audio situation (from what I’ve observed) within the park: *Superman Escape’s external music - not working, hasn’t played since 2019. *Green Lantern’s queue music - not working, hasn’t played since 2019. *DC Rivals entrance music - playing, however only one speaker is functioning correctly. *DC Rivals queue music - playing, but only the speakers behind the murals and in the station unload area are working. *Scooby’s external music - not working during my visit yesterday, only seems to play half the time depending on the day. *Doomsday - playing, but multiple speakers are clearly damaged (sound very distorted and lacking bass or treble) *Wild West area - not working, hasn’t played since the WWF upgrade in 2021. *Looney Tunes area - not working, hasn’t played correctly since the RRRC upgrade in 2021. New speakers were added around the tree in mid 2022 and the area music briefly played through them for a while. However those are no longer operating either and the land is now back to complete silence. *Road Runner queue music - not working, hasn’t played for about 4 months. *Main Street locker area - not working, hasn’t played for about 4 months. So yeah, as you can see, barley anything is playing at the park right now and the fact that some areas (like outside Superman Escape) haven’t had working audio for over 4 years at this point is pretty ridiculous. This would never happen at any of the Disney, Universal and other “world class” parks out there. I actually managed to ask a maintenance worker I bumped into what the deal was with the lack for audio. He told me that “Superman’s outdoor mushroom speakers were stuffed” and they “were having trouble replacing them”. I’m not sure why they would have such trouble, considering they’re just speakers that sit on the ground (and I discovered that they can be purchased locally from this place in Robina, literally 20 mins up the road): https://www.scpaudio.com/LS-21-Garden-Speaker-30W-100V-3-Taps In any case, surly it doesn’t take over 4 years to fix something as simple as a basic audio system with a few speakers. As to why the new speakers around the tree in the Loony Tunes area have been turned off again, the worker informed me that they were “clashing with the sound of the carousel”. Considering the carousel and the area music have always played side by side with no issues, I’m not sure why it’s suddenly a problem now. The carousel wasn’t operating during my visit, meaning nothing was playing at all. However, it would have to be blasting pretty loud to effect the audio by the tree. In addition, all of the broken, neglected mushroom speakers in this area have still not been repaired and continue to sit there in silence, rotting away as they have done for years now. I understand I may sound a little overly negative here. However, to me music has always been such an important part of the experience of visiting Movie World (or any other theme park for that matter) and it’s incredibly disappointing to see it become so neglected by the park. In my opinion, VRTP have done a pretty good job with MW recently, turning it around and breathing new life into it (through actions such as tidying up the park, refreshing attractions such as JL, improving their annual events, announcing/building new attractions ect.) and they deserve praise for that. Yet despite all of this, the audio problem has persisted and continues to get worse and worse. It’s become so bad that even friends I visit the park with have noticed and commented on it. I’m hoping Movie World will continue the good work they’ve done in other departments and return the auditory experience of the park to its former glory, thereby assisting in making the overall guest experience the best it can possibly be.

Great trip report! Jamberoo is a beautiful park, I’ll have to head down there and visit it again as soon as I get the opportunity.

Wet n Wild vlog is up:

Do you have a link?

Looks like VRTP’s marketing people are up to their usual tricks on TPW’s Instagram. Did you guys know Scooby Doo is “Australia’s most iconic coaster”? 😂

They’ve pretty much confirmed that they will be building one as it’s part of their master plan. There was a lot of talk about it during the media coverage of the two new coasters.