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From what I’ve seen, the view that Movie World has really gone downhill has become fairly mainstream lately. I’ve had many non-enthusiast friends, family and work colleagues tell me they’ve been disappointed in Movie World during recent visits and that they found Dreamworld to be far more enjoyable. I’ve seen similar discussions in various (non theme park related) online communities too. I honestly don’t really care if it’s currently considered a half day park or not. I’d much rather visit an overall decent park with care for the guest experience and lightning fast operations like Dreamworld over a park that continuously frustrates guests like Movie World.

There’s still lots of theming elements sitting around in the former Rocky Hollow area. I wonder when and where they’ll be added to Rivertown?

The most I saw it go up to when I was there was 20mins, which was impressive considering how busy it was.

I’ve been hearing a lot of rumours and speculation online that Funfields are planning on building some kind of roller-coaster next year. Pretty much all the major Aussie theme park YouTubers have mentioned it in podcasts/live streams and I’ve seen numerous comments about it online. Supposedly, a planning document was leaked from the park that confirmed a coaster was coming. However, I can’t find anything about it anywhere. Apparently it was doing the rounds on social media about a month ago, but if it existed, it seems to have now been scrubbed from the internet. Does anyone know anything about this supposed “leaked document” and if there’s any truth to this rumour at all?

The park had a great atmosphere, it was really buzzing. Wait times varied quite a lot for each attraction, but in general the operations were fantastic. Jungle Rush in particular was a standout. It had an advertised 50min wait, though it only took me around 35mins to get on. They were getting the trains loaded up and dispatched extremely quickly. It was a similar story with Steel Taipan, the staff were doing a great job trying to get the trains out as fast as possible. I think the attraction with the slowest ops and longest wait time in the park was the Dreamworld Express. For some reason, it was taking almost 10mins to load/unload guests at both stations. It would definitely be good if the park could look at speeding that up a bit.

Some updates from today. It’s coming along nicely! Also, the park was unbelievably busy today and the crowds were some of the biggest I’ve seen in years. The car park was literally full, with people resorting to parking on the grass at the rear of the car park and along nearby roads. By comparison, Movie World’s car park wasn’t even half full when I popped in during the afternoon.

I noticed that a bunch of tape is now hanging below the launch on Superman, as well as in a few other locations on the track around the ride. Flash is still dismantled, though the loading platform has now been roped off too.

Looks really good! Definitely a much better location for it near the lake.

I noticed that Superman Escape is now listed on RCDB as “SBNO” and the page says the ride “operated from 12/26/2005 to 8/2025”. I asked a staff member at the park today what was happening to the ride. They told me they didn’t know what was going on, but believed they were “trying to figure out what to do with it”. They said it’s unlikely to reopen anytime soon.

I’m very surprised that Mad Max hasn’t had any major presence at the park thus far. It seems like it would be the perfect IP for them to utilize in a big way.

This was in the GC Bulletin today (there is a digital version, but it’s behind a paywall).

They’re now painting the front of the castle. I was able to get a little glimpse inside while they were working near the entrance. I’m not sure if this is directly related to the Scooby refurb, but I noticed the speakers that were located on this lamppost (that used to play the Scooby music) have been removed. The ones on top of the castle are still there though.

Something’s definitely up with Superman, the launch cables are currently hanging down.

A couple of photos from today (I didn’t get too close, as there were a lot of workers on site).

They’re making a lot of progress on the track, there were a bunch of people working on it today. If they can keep up this pace, I think they could potentially be on track (no pun intended) to open it for the September school holidays. I noticed they’ve resurfaced the crossing near Main Street station too.

Noticed a couple things at the park today. First of all, the roof looks so much better now that the painting is complete. I also happened to notice that the park have finally replaced a lot of the old standard rubbish bins with these new proper theme park style ones, similar in design to what you see in many big parks around the world. They look great and are even colour matched to fit the theming in certain areas too. Some of the bins have been placed in front of the Remota Boats and the pool has been drained. I hope this is just a temporary thing during maintenance and they’re not retiring them. They’ve also changed the background music in Kenny and Belinda’s Dreamland. Instead of playing generic pop music, they’re now playing whimsical/old timey music which is a really big improvement and fits the atmosphere a lot better IMHO.

The lights are gone now.

Maybe, but I’m sure I’ve seen it operate during winter before. It also doesn’t actually get riders wet, so it shouldn’t make much of a difference.

Had a chance to ride WWF for the first time in a while and my God is it in bad shape. Basically none of the effects worked (apart from the geyser and the swinging saloon doors/balcony breaking away in the ghost town). There was no audio around the ride at all, no video in the turntable room and even the water tower before the final lift hill (one of the most consistent effects in my opinion) failed to activate. To add insult to injury, parked directly behind said water tower in plain view was a parade float, completely breaking all immersion. It’s honestly embarrassing that the ride is operating in its current condition.

Yeah, the track behind Rivertown is completely gone and the section near Jane’s Restaurant has been paved over.

Yeah, I have to say, I’m really starting to worry this is turning into a Sea World monorail situation (where it was “definitely coming back”….until it wasn’t). On my last visit, I noticed the sign in the Main Street station that said the train “will return to the full loop soon” wasn’t there and the announcement on the train itself about the loop returning didn’t seem to play. Plus the remaining track and infrastructure between Jane’s and the Wildlife station has been completely let go and is gradually becoming more and more dilapidated. I’ve also received a bunch of mixed responses from staff when asked about it coming back, with some suggesting it won’t ever return. Either way, it’s pretty clear things haven’t gone to plan and I really hope the park can figure out a way to get the full loop back, as it definitely needs to come back. It would be such a shame to lose yet another classic transport ride (or at least major part of it) in our parks.

It was taken at eye-level, a few meters back.

Movie World has reopened the area around WWF despite the ride still being closed. Here’s what the new fence looks like up close. I noticed they’ve cut down a bunch of trees around the ride meaning you can now easily see into the back of house maintenance areas.

Not sure if this means anything, but a large section of the car park has been closed off.

I visited the park for the first time in a while yesterday and the biggest improvement that really stood out to me was how much more immersive and complete Rivertown feels now that the old TOT building has been painted go away green. Having that big white shed sitting in the back of the land was always somewhat distracting and took away from the experience a little bit (despite how great everything else in the land was). Now that this has been rectified, it blends in so much better and really doesn’t catch your eye like it used to.