GoGoBoy

I just want to say that your illustrations are awesome and really captures the spirit of the Big Banana at that time. The only thing I know about the bunyip is that there still appears to be a little shed by the side of the lake that may have been the equipment room for the animatronic. My personal memories from riding the monorail are the bizarre people-eating banana plant animatronics, and the space station at the top of the hill

Just watched Mr Yum Yum's POV and all of the dark ride portion is awesome in my opinion. Big props to the park for putting so much effort into restoring as many animatronics as possible, and for the much improved lighting and screen animations. Massive improvement over Next Gen. Honestly I don't think the dark ride portion could be any better. Obviously the disco room is another story, but hopefully they address that in the future

Ok interesting, and very surprising, to hear that the blank disco room was a creative choice and not a budgetary one. The lights and/or lasers in the disco room (along with the pumping music) have always been a big part of the experience since the original, so I can't understand why this wouldn't be reinstated. It used to contrast so well with the dark ride portion

I'm going to assume that the majority of the budget went into replacing the control system, safety systems, track, lifts and cars. They probably then had a smaller budget for the theming refresh, which could be why the disco room has missed out. The new animation on both screens, updated lighting and the new Tiki head all would have cost a bit. I guess we have to remember that Aussie parks just don't have big budgets sadly (although in saying that I'm not sure how we were able to afford such blockbuster attractions like Scooby and WWF in the first place)

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a full retrack! Maybe just a couple of small sections

Totally agree! Such a major water park should be adding attractions that are somewhat unique and special, not something you could find at a council aquatic centre, or the Big Banana.

Yeah my understanding is that parks would LIKE to extend operating hours but the cost-benefit just doesn't add up in most cases

Wow, that looks terrible!

More stuff like this would seem to be a good fit in the dark ride sections. From what I've seen so far the indoor sections and the promised 'show scene' seem pretty underwhelming. Still a great ride and well presented, but I was hoping for a bit more from the indoor parts

That's a shame - Triple Vortex was fun. They'd have to be disappointed having to remove at least two of the 'newer' slides surely. It's not a big park as it is

The trouble is it doesn't look like a gem. It looks like an egg

The proposed internal chamber theming looks great. I wonder how much more is planned to be completed? So far there's only a face, a small water feature and some bats, is that right? Would be good to see the blank walls covered with some themed material. Greg always said there was going to be a proper show scene with actual mechanical moving parts, so hopefully this all comes through

I think all things considered the theming is really excellent, particularly the inside queues. But even some of the little touches like the tractor etc around Kansas Twister are nice. If VRTP keeps this level up in the future, I'd find it very hard to complain (though knowing me I'll still try!). It does feel a bit like the Wizard of Oz 'courtyard' at the moment, so it would be great to see a future minor expansion such as an Oz-themed flat ride. This effort they've put into theming makes me hope they will build a decent dark ride again one day, or at least lengthy rides with dark ride portions, as they always used to build. I know it's a challenge, but it would truly be taking the park back to its glory days

WWW had so much potential too! I always thought it was a mistake not to install the proposed action/lazy river, as that would have made it more of a complete park. So sad to hear Triple Vortex is not open too as it's a very fun slide

I agree - it's awesome seeing VRTP being so transparent and informative when it comes to both the construction of their upcoming attractions and maintenance/updates relating to their existing attractions. Such a refreshing change. Wish more parks would do this! The social videos are 👌🏻

Oh noooo, it's so disappointing! I was really looking forward to this as I love Splash Mountain and I felt like the bayou theme and all the critters could work well. But I agree with most of the comments from the OP. The 'story' is clearly far too weak and has too few elements to be able to stretch throughout a ride of this length. And it really does feel like it's designed for 5-year-olds with the way Tianna talks to the riders and keeps repeating the same stuff over and over. The animatronics in splash were always so well done and there were so many of them. Now it looks like all of the money has been spent on a few AAA+ animatronics, to the detriment of everything else. The critters have less movement/animation than the original splash characters. The whole overlay just feels like it doesn't suit the exisiting mountain and ride layout at all. Super disappointing from the imagineers this time. Probably a budget issue but also a big miss on the story and creative front. Damn

The photos and video are awesome. Not sure why anyone is so concerned about dates. Once again, a billion times better than DW's social efforts

I think the design looks great. A much needed modernisation, but still with a fun feel that suits a theme park

They just spent $2 million refurbishing it didn't they? Including bringing Sally back in?

Even today's social offering from Movie World is light years ahead of the horrible stuff DW is doing: a brilliant on-ride POV of Batwing Spaceshot accompanied by a perfect soundtrack, and multiple stories advertising Batman Legacy's last weekend. It's high quality and relevant... everything DW's socials are not. Update: DW's efforts actually aren't bad today, with a little montage video of various rides and a story featuring the train so far. This isn't reflective of their standard recently though!

When you say that they're getting twice or triple the engagement, do you mean some of the posts have 7-10 comments on Instagram as opposed to zero? And over on Facebook one of them got 33 likes and 4 comments, the highest one got 61 likes and 4 comments, then another one got 10 likes and zero comments. Wow, incredible engagement!! 🙄

But it was cringy and just not very good before that too

Fish burger anyone?

Has anyone checked out DW's social media recently? I assume not because it has no engagement. But it's bad, like really, really bad. It's worth having a look at just for the cringe, especially the recent videos. They're investing in their 'most expensive ever' attraction, but is the marketing going to do it justice? I get that it's hard to get engagement with organic social media these days, but if you're at least posting quality relevant stuff it can get some reach. VRTP's social media is leagues ahead, like not even in the same universe

I believe it's been mostly fixed now since the major refurb. But I just wonder why some of those issues like faulty animatronics and blown speakers couldn't have been fixed by MW's in-house maintenance team. The ride should surely be able to be kept at a certain standard, and not just have it deteriorate until the original manufacturers have to be brought in again many years later