GoGoBoy

We now have no dark water rides in Australia. In fact we now have very few dark rides. Not looking good

I find it interesting that we all allow our parks to get away with using the excuse that "the ride is too old and maintenance has become too expensive so it must be closed down". Disneyland opened in the 1950's and yet to this day they STILL have many of their original major attractions operating. Rather than closing them down they just replace what needs to be replaced or conduct upgrades and modernisation programs. Movie World has no excuse considering the park was built in 1991. Looney Tunes is the signature original attraction and something that was ideal for people of any age

You just can't beat the atmosphere that Looney Tunes had. Floating through the river on that boat with all the accompanying sounds and lighting. It really was well themed and sometimes it actually felt like you were floating along a real river somewhere. I personally found it relaxing and yet at the same time it had some thrills with that fantastic final sequence. The waterfall and then the big lift and drop were so unexpected for all new riders - always very impressive

^ What Spencer said! Worst decision ever. That ride was magical for kids. The elimination of 2 dark water rides (Bermuda and now possibly Looney Tunes) is very worrying. These were rides that helped to make the parks as successful as they are today. Please don't forget Village you are running THEME parks - it's hard to take guests on a journey or give them a really special experience without the use of decent dark rides

Gee I hope you're right! There is no doubt DW needs a major new ride that will expand the parks boundaries. This has been needed for some time. It's time to get bigger instead of just always in-filling. Amen to that!

While I understand what you are saying I have to say that is a very short-sighted view, if that is indeed the view the parks have adopted. Dark rides really bring something special to a park and create a true THEME park. They obviously have wide appeal otherwise we wouldn't see theme parks around the world continuing to build them. If our Gold Coast parks no longer create new dark rides, it is quite possible we actually will begin to see some of the new parks in nearby Asia begin to take market share

I agree Wazza1 and I think I know who you are talking about. It would certainly complicate the case. And yes, I agree it would be extremely, extremely sad if this turns out to be correct

'Dreamworld Cinemas'... it seems to me this is yet another step in the direction of Dreamworld evolving from a THEME PARK into an ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE. A strategy which has led to attendance and revenue declines but yet they seem intent on pursuing. Theme parks are supposed to be all about fantasy and escape but it seems DW is doing its best to become just another shopping centre-style entertainment complex. Boooo!

Seems like almost everything Dreamworld does lately is kinda shit (except perhaps for the ToT2 upgrade). And look how dodgy and small the temporary stage looks. It is REALLY temporary. A bit sad considering the Summer Funomenon shows are supposedly the big drawcard these holidays. It's this half-assed way of doing things lately (while at the same time basically surrendering to Village Roadshow) that encouraged me to finally sell my Ardent Leisure shares and just cop the big loss. Still glad I did it

So what's the point of that roof? It doesn't even seem to cover a large area

So have we determined whether the Dreamworld Cinema and the new pirate movie is going to be 4D or not yet? In the preview video for the pirates movie (which actually looks quite good) it briefly mentions 4D. But I haven't seen Dreamworld say anything about this. I hope it is 4D as it's meant to be, otherwise Dreamworld is pathetic. And if it does turn out to be 4D then Dreamworld should be advertising it more! It'd be more like a new attraction rather than just a new show

The guy that made this video is an idiot. All of those 'problems' he talks about are pretty minor and can be found in just about any theme park in the world (except maybe Disney)

Why does it seem like the Village parks are just doing EVERYTHING better than Ardent lately? This White Christmas event looks like it's one thousand times better than Winter Wonderland. You had so many people complaining that they were disappointed with Winter Wonderland and yet with White Christmas people are loving it. Then there's also Halloween and all the great theming we saw at all the Village parks with that. Not to mention all of the new rides. I wonder if it's got something to do with the American theme park execs Village hired recently? Most probably. Ardent are going to need to pull out all the stops next year to match this level of quality

I agree it does seem like a funny coincidence but my understanding is the sale doesn't settle until sometime in January. So my guess is that there is nothing more to it

So White Christmas was originally scheduled to finish tonight? Why didn't they plan to run it right through to Christmas and possibly beyond? I find it interesting that both DW's Winter Wonderland and MW's White Christmas have attracted such massive crowds. The words 'overwhelming response' were used by both managements to describe the events. We don't hear that very often from the theme parks, particularly at the moment with the downturn in consumer spending. I am really surprised that snow seems to be such a big attraction for people but either way it is obviously working for the parks

I'm still don't quite understand why Village spent all that effort and $$$ in acquiring Sydney Attractions Group only to sell at a couple of years later (at a slight loss too)... any thoughts?

Interesting that people are still choosing the VIP pass even though the DW/WWW pass is now $30 cheaper for the same amount of time (6 months)

I will be pleased if this means that Village plans to focus their efforts on theme and water parks even more now. It seems like this is the direction they are heading in with the parks overseas and the announcement of the very promising Wet 'n' Wild Sydney. A Legoland or 2 might be a good addition to their portfolio. I note that Legoland in California recently opened a lego waterpark as an addition to the existing park. I think Village could do this very well

Really strange. I wonder why they pulled Spongebob? I thought that would have been more of a crowd pleaser

This is an interesting move. Link to the article is here - http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-busin...1217-19039.html

Today Ardent Leisure will be relaunching and rebranding Q Deck as SkyPoint. I'm not quite sure why they decided to change the name (although I think I read something about them wanting to show their independence from Q1). They have also supposedly spent some money on refurbishing the attraction including turning it into a sort of 'mini museum' for the Gold Coast so that it becomes a 'must see' attraction for all visitors and locals. They have said phase one of the changes begin today with a second phase before Christmas and the last phase to hopefully include the new Skywalk sometime next year. They have also built a new kitchen for corporate events. Here is a link to the preview article - http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2010/1...coast-news.html

Thank you... I love these updates. Very impressed with just how transparent the Aqua Loop slides are. We've never had a slide of this type in oz before, despite WWW's claims

I'd agree with that... HOWEVER sound stages do not have white canvas roofs held up with big poles. So in other words it looks nothing like a soundstage roof

Can someone remind me again what that roof was for over Main Street? It just looks SO bad. What is the point - unless you are going to cover the whole park with a roof and make it an indoor park? Why does Village do random stuff like this with their Aussie parks? It totally ruins the feel of a 'main street' in a Hollywood backlot and I notice the poles even block some of the building facades

Jobe you might have missed the article I saw. Here is the relevant quote: 'The good news is that the operations of the actual amusement park seem to be ticking along well enough, with revenue up 7 per cent and revenue from events improving by 9 per cent.' Here is the link to the article - http://www.smh.com.au/business/famous-faca...1202-18i8p.html We don't want people thinking this is yet another Sydney theme park failure when in fact the amusement park component of the business is running well. It is my belief that theme parks can definitely succeed in a big way in Sydney if run properly, as we will soon see with Wet 'n' Wild