Search the Community

The Gold Coast Bulletin has published an article about Randy Garfield (who previously worked at Disney and Universal) and his involvement with Dreamworld.

Looks like IMAX is coming back to the Gold Coast, although looks to be a 1:90 screen: IMAX® to Open on the Gold Coast, bringing a world-class experience to the Sunshine State - EVT

I stumbled across this gem uploaded by “A&A Home Movies” on YouTube. It’s an incredibly in depth look (over an hour long) at classic Movie World from 1992, containing full recordings of numerous defunct attractions and shows in decent quality. (For some reason, YouTube won’t let me embed it, so here’s a link): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4S1WKrhi8E Also found this video from “Roger Garrod” showing the park under construction in early 1991!

Just was at dreamworld and saw the corroboree theatre had a construction wall and saw that that there were workers on site. Dunno what was happening but here are some pics.

https://bit.ly/3g2GDYm Can anyone access this article and share it on here? It seems like it would be a really interesting and insightful read.

I went to the Cypress Avenue today, and the Funtime Vermatron was removed. A ride operator told me Vermatron is going to go to the Russia. Slingshot will be removed after Chrismas, but there is a new more larger slingshot is coming to Cavil Avenue, and the operator told me it would be higher than 100 meters. Whereas, operator told me the new slingshot will be built on a building.

Not sure if this has been discussed, But does anyone else think that Village Roadshow should sell Sea World to 'Sea World Theme Parks & Resorts'? And if so, does anyone actually know the chances of it actually happening? The park seems to have gotten worse over the years and it's honestly just sad, so I'm hoping that a decent company could make it 'good' again. Plus if they did sell it, then it could help Village pay off debt. After all, they sold Wet'n'Wild Sydney, so what harm could selling Sea World do? (By the way - if this has been discussed before then can someone please just link me to the thread?)

It was 2008, a fine sunny day at Dreamworld. After waiting in line for over 15 minutes, we hopped on the TOT (this was the one where you would ride forwards as it was 2008) Harnesses were checked and we were ready to go. BOOM! The ride launches. I was 13 at the time and immediately noticed that the ride was going really slow... the launch was around 1/4 the power as a regular cycle. "Mum, I think it's broken" "It'll speed up any minute" The ride continues to slow. The ride stopped in an outdoor part of the track, around 20M before the hill. I was a bit scared, wondering whether it will start working again or whether we would need to be rescued. Around 5 minutes later, two people, a man and a woman climb the ladder up to the track. We are told to remain seated and stay calm. The lady told me it'll be ok, and both of the staff comforted the passengers. Our harnesses released around 2 minutes after that, from the front to the back we had to climb down a staircase. A small crowd was there watching. The ride stayed closed for the rest of the day. We are going back to dreamworld in June, but sadly won't be able to ride this amazing ride again as it will be under maintenance. Anyway, that's just my story. Does anyone else have stories like this?

Paradise Country Review Park visited: 2 April 2017 Nestled in the bushland out the back of Warner Bros. Movie World, Paradise Country is a park seldom visited by theme park enthusiasts. We ventured out there today to see what keeps this park in business. It is of course the international tourists. And there were so many tourists. So, so many tourists. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit there, but there was a decent amount. This isn’t the park you would visit to get your fix of thrill rides or superheroes. You won’t find Green Lantern battling Parallax, Batman versing The Joker, or Catwoman taking out Arkham security. What you will find is plenty of Koalas (maybe a few too many Koalas for my liking) and cute little farm animals freely roaming around their enclosures, waiting for the next handful of food from passing visitors. I'll admit. I've been a theme park fan for years and have always avoided Paradise Country because I figured it was geared too much towards foreign tourists. I'm happy to admit that I was pleasantly surprised to find that families and local tourists can also have a great day out there. It's a laid back atmosphere and with all the trees and quietness that usually only comes from being in an isolated location, it’s incredibly easy to forget that you're only metres from the rear of Movie World's Wild West Falls, and not too far from the houses on the other side of kopps road. When you stop and think about it, Village sure does own a huge amount of land. Just look at all the possible coasters you could fit in here. So yes, the walk from the car park to the main entry may be a little long for some people's liking, and I would tend to agree if it was either hot or wet weather, but it's a nice stroll on a cloudy and cooler day. Just on the car park though, after making the speed-bump laden journey from the highway, via the rear of Australian Outback Spectacular, you’re greeted with one of the most poorly laid out car parks I’ve come across. You’d be forgiven for thinking it was designed by the team behind Westfield shopping centre car parks. I’d suggest if you do make the trip to Paradise Country, skip the first car park and head straight for the additional parking area. Whilst not bitumen, it’s a gravel car park with a much better layout. The park itself is in pretty good nick. They’re lucky in a sense that any dirt, spiderwebs, or hornets nest etc just help add to the “outback” theme. Upon entering the homestead, you’re presented with a very easily avoidable ticket purchasing counter. Note: I do not condone bypassing this and getting in without paying, or scanning your VRTP membership card, I’m just quite surprised at how easy it would be to just walk on by without purchasing a ticket. All that's stopping you is your ethics. You could pay for a ticket, or you could just wander on in like you already had one and would probably be easily missed. Especially in the current climate, I'd hate to think there's guests who would do that instead of supporting our parks, but I'm just really shocked that the park hasn't done anything to prevent this. Maybe it's not as much of an issue as it seems? The animal walkthough could really just be called a Kangaroo and Koala, and Koala, and Koala walkthough (maybe I wasn’t exaggerating about the number of Koalas earlier). With all the Koalas to look at, this sure keeps a certain group of international tourists occupied for a while. The nursery however is where the fun really begins. Now obviously everyone is going to have a different opinion on what fun is, however, while I’ve grown up in the city all my life, I love farm animals and animals in general, so it’s a nice change of pace from the thrills on offer next door. Free feed bins are located within the nursery and the animals know exactly who’s holding a tasty handful. There’s plenty of entertainment value in just watching the Goats almost knocking over visitors to get the food. Side note for parents of younger children - the Goats can and will make attempts to jump up and knock you over to get at the feed you’re holding. Now go back and read that last paragraph again. Especially the first couple of words. Or even just the first word.... That's not a typo. Paradise Country provides free food for guests to hand out to the animals. FREE. Not $5-10 per cup. No additional purchase required. This isn't some animal upcharge like you might find at a certain Gold Coast marine park, and you don’t need to buy a fancy wristband to open the food box. This is free food that adults and kids can enjoy handing out to the animals who are always more than willing to accept it. Who doesn't love free stuff? Not only can you walk through the enclosure with the Goats and Sheep, but inside the nursery you’ll find Chickens, Cows, Piglets, Guinea Pigs and Alpacas all within arms reach. It’s certainly entertaining for all ages. While geared more towards kids, there’s also the options of opal mining and gemstone panning to take part in. The lunch options aren’t too bad, and they’re priced exactly as expected for theme park food. The buffet will set you back just under twenty bucks. The eating area provided a nice spot to sit and relax after walking around the park. On a Sunday you'll find local musicians playing in the dining area which adds a nice atmosphere and isn't overly loud like you might find at a pub. Well priced food, a comfortable dining area and free music. What's not to love? Along with the endless Koalas, the tourists and locals alike are also treated to the traditional outback experience of a sheep shearing demonstration and brief intro to a few different breeds of sheep. And what would a show be without some audience participation? I must give Village credit for this. Both this show and the Hollywood Stunt Driver show at Movie World have managed to include some form of audience participation without making it horribly cringe worthy. The show is certainly worth a look, even if it is just to fill in time in your day. There is a stock horse show, and a sheepdog demonstration along with a Lorikeet feeding. All of these make for great photos. Or at least I can confirm the Lorikeet feeding does as I missed the other shows. They are certainly something I will make the trip back for at a later date. You could spend a full day at Paradise Country if you enjoy all the shows and walk around at a leisurely pace. Taking into account the target market (international tourists) and the fact they’ve managed to provide a full day visit with a fairly small number of attractions, I’d have to give Paradise Country a solid 6.5 out of 10. Pros: Good shows Great for families and tourists Decently priced food Animals of course Cons: It could use a little more variety in the animals they have on display The carpark is a bit of a walk from the entry The carpark itself could have been better designed The translation service played over the PA during the Sheep Shearing show was painful. Some guests were wearing headsets with what I assume would be other languages being played to them, so why not do the same for more languages on a different radio channel instead of breaking the flow of the show by pausing every couple of sentences.

Hi there! I haven't visited the gold coast since 2010, and I'm thinking about returning for a trip later this year in December. Could somebody please offer a quick summary of the current state of the parks there? I'm specifically interested in Dreamworld/White Water World, Warner Bros. Movie World, Sea World and Wet n Wild. Those are the parks I'm most familiar with, but I'm sure there's way more worth visiting on/around the coast. So if you could offer what your experiences have been like recently, it would be very much appreciated. What's the best? What's the worst? Looking into other forum posts, and the recent news articles - I've got the feeling Village Roadshow Parks isn't doing so hot lately. But maybe I'm mistaken on that, what do you think? Thank you for your time.

Wet N’ Wild, Seaworld & Movieworld Theme Parks Gold Coast Trip Report Early November 2016 We hadn’t been to Wet N’ Wild nor Movieworld for over 12 years, nor Seaworld since Nov 2011, and our crew all enjoyed a visit to each last week. Firstly, we mostly used public transport during our week in & around the Gold Coast (using QLD transport Go Cards we’ve had for years), and it was great – the new light rail tram from the Uni/Hospital to Pacific Fair is excellent, those theme park buses e.g. TX2 are great, the airport 777 coach was excellent, and it all cost a fair bit cheaper than a few years ago for some reason. Also, these days we always plan a less-busy week to visit the Gold Coast & theme parks, i.e. out of NSW/QLD/VIC school hols, not during a big race event nor schoolies weeks etc., AND try & get to theme parks during the Mon, Tue or Wed during weekdays. We managed this for Wet N’ Wild & Seaworld (Monday & Tuesday visits when seemed OK), but couldn’t get to Movieworld until the Friday – and it seemed noticeably busier. --- Wet N’ Wild: Wet N’ Wild on the Monday was quite enjoyable, few queues were longer than 15mins especially after ~2pm. The park entrance was pretty good – a large shaded area & welcoming staff to assist before heading to the gates themselves. They opened the processing booths ~5mins before official opening time of 10am which is good, thereafter the turnstiles to actually enter the park were a bit of a bottleneck – they could have opened a couple more of those right on 10 to help. There seemed to be a fair amount of shaded areas (much more than I recall last time) which is essential, also quite a lot of lifeguard staff around, most of whom seemed fairly friendly. - Calypso Beach: Big gentle river float was nice for the little ones, though there was a bit of rubbish/litter throughout which should’ve been cleaned up regularly. - Black Hole: Slides were good, though not dark nor long enough for mine, would be far better if longer, darker 7 perhaps with a couple of scary-type face shapes lit up partway along. - Kamikaze: Never did it myself but family reports indicated it was fun. - Tornado: We did it ~10 times later in the day with no queues which was great (& a pretty good workout carrying the large inflatable up those stairs). - Mach 5: Fun, kids loved it, though the exit should have a safer quick option straight back to the inflatables when it’s not busy. - Jetstream Bodyslides: Pretty cool if short, did them several times whilst carrying the inflatables up to the Mach 5 for the kids. - Constrictor: Never did it myself, family reports indicated it was OK but a big queue. - Aqualoop: Awesome. Did this several times with barely any queues, even got most of our less-adventurous crew onto it for lots of laughs. Quite like the back-strapped board etc. Would love a taller/longer faster version with double-loop or something. - River Rapids: (4 waterslides with 2 enclosed, 2 open): Longest queue I found, thus only did it once, pretty cool. Would’ve done it a few more times if there were no queues. - Skycoaster: We all had a look, but couldn’t bring ourselves to strap-in for that insane freefall. - Surfrider: Never did it myself (looked too intense for me honestly), those in our crew that did enjoyed it. - Family fun areas: Pretty good, thankfully pretty varied. Though the restriction for much of it to not wear any eyewear / goggles is ridiculous (many kids benefit from swimming goggles etc.) The toilets were mostly fairly messy, they should have more regularly cleaning etc. The overall layout seemed basically OK, those zipline cables running from the River Rapids to near the Skycoaster looked like a flying fox ride thingy – I don’t know if they are/were but they should be and it should be open, looked pretty cool. The exit through the shop was a bit dodgy – much tiled flooring that got slippery when wet etc. but no biggie. Overall a better experience than I expected, especially when using a good-value pre-purchased multi-park multi-day pass or something. I’ll look forward to taking the family back there in a couple of years on a nice warm sunny day again. --- Seaworld: Seaworld on the Tuesday was also fairly enjoyable, moreso than I expected. The park entrance was a bit dodgy as usual, a mess of people about the place, with little shade. Staff to initially assist & direct you as you approach, from say 9:30am to ~11am) should be implemented. We followed somewhat unclear signage & queue arrangement to the left into some weird processing area, had some token photo taken, then moved to a booth actually fairly promptly. The staff at the booth were pleasant and fast, and we got through the turnstile pretty quickly actually, which was good. There were a few shaded areas about the place, but it could do with more. The new big animal models about the place looked great – shark, kraken, dragon, whales, with informative plaques, sounds & movement etc. the kids loved, good to see. - Monorail: Would’ve liked to ride it once to get across the park & relax a bit in (presumably) cool aircon, but it seemed to travel so slowly and infrequently with no apparent schedule nor signage indicating ETA etc. we just bailed both times we tried. Shame. - Creatures of the Deep: Pretty cool. Some faults with some of the interactive items should be fixed. - Polar Bears: Sad. That’s no place for such creatures (except for genuine rescued/treatment situations etc.), we didn’t see any bears, but just browsing the enclosures made me kinda sick. - Shark Bay: The huge underwater tank viewing is always pretty cool, kids loved it. Some of the plaques need replacing. - Ray reef: Also pretty cool, kids enjoyed petting some etc. - Nickelodeon Land: Good idea but layout’s a bit of a mess, queues were a bit nasty, the kids roller coaster boat was enjoyed greatly by some of our younger crew. - Castaway Bay: Actually pretty good, I expected it partly closed, but those pirate ships with water cannons are great fun for all, & the kids climbing fortress is great too. - Storm Coaster: Some big queues, for a damn short ride. Did it a few times later in the day with barely any queues, still: seems like a fair effort to design & construct wasted in part for a ride so short. Pretty good ride though. - Jet Rescue: Impressive! We quite like the similar Mick Doohan Motor Coaster @ Dreamworld, but this Jet Rescue almost blows it away – ended up doing it too many times, started really shaking us up. Good stuff. - Dockside Tavern: Love the idea, the fact it serves alcohol & good-looking food, and we enjoyed a refreshing beer or 2. When we were there it was under-staffed, and the wind really affected the balcony tables – perhaps some kind of roller sheets or something to roll down when it’s windy to help? The Dolphin, Seal & Jetski shows seemed OK, fairly well-organized amphitheatre seating for the animal ones etc. Some of the overall layout seemed a bit messy, with lack of clear signage etc. but not too bad. I’m unlikely to return there again for several years. --- Movieworld: Movieworld on the Friday was also fairly enjoyable, again moreso than I expected. The park entrance seemed ok with a fair bit of shade, and we got in quite quickly with our 7-day multi-park passes, good stuff. Staff to initially assist & direct you as you approach, from say 9:30am to ~11am) should be implemented. The grand impression & design within the main gate is pretty good, leads to a sense of excitement etc. There were quite a few shaded areas about the place which is good to see. - Junior Driving School: excellent idea, nice big layout, seemed well-organized with lots of shade. Queue was hefty when we first got the kids onto it, and once they were finally all on the cars and they all started off, it seemed only around 1 minute later they all stopped and that session was over! Ridiculously short duration! We later revisited it with far lesser queues & thankfully they run the sessions longer then. - Loony Tunes 4D Theatre Show: Pretty cool. - Road Runner Coaster: Kids seemed to like it, cool. - Kids WB Fun Zone: Some good stuff, little kids loved the Train & Taxis. - Stunt Driver 2 Show: Pretty cool, good to sit down for a while, though it was busy/popular. - Wild West Adventure Falls Ride: Very good, though the queues through the busy period were horrendous. Nice ride. Again later in the day revisiting with hardly any queues was great. - Scooby-Doo Indoor Coaster: Excellent. Again queues through the busy period were horrendous. Nice ride, & later in the day revisiting with hardly any queues was great. Kids loved it. - Batwing Spaceshot: Didn’t ride it ourselves, but it looked cool. - Superman Escape Coaster: Awesome. Massive queues through busy period, revisited when quieter later, want to do it more (could only fit in 2 rides on it this day). - Arkham Asylum Coaster: Awesome. One of the best rides I’ve ever done. Only did it once late in the day with hardly any queue, will revisit it and am keen to pay extra for it’s VR experience. - Main street entertainment, characters etc.: Pretty cool, Batman with the Batmobile looked awesome. Superman, Supergirl, Wonderwoman, Catwoman, Green Lantern, The Flash, The Joker, Marilyn Monroe all looked great, and most of them interacted with the crowd later in the day pretty well. Similarly the cartoon characters Tweetie, Bugs, Scooby-Doo etc. were cool. The Green Lantern Coaster was closed whilst we were there (we knew it would be), I’m definitely riding that thing next time. The Doomsday Destroyer was closed, didn’t concern me as it looks a bit nasty for mine. Overall a better experience than I expected, especially when using a good-value pre-purchased multi-park multi-day pass or something. Lookin’ forward to taking the family back there in a couple of years on a day that’s more mild than hot hopefully, again, where we’ll definitely hit that Arkham & Superman coasters multiple times again! --- Cheers.

Dose anyone know what is going on with the Super 8 Aqua Racer at Wet n Wild I have seen it is missing its slide all that is there is framing.

What do you personally consider to be the most intense ride on the Gold Coast? I expect to see a lot of people saying either Giant Drop or Superman Escape but I actually consider the AquaLoop water slide to more intense, standing on that trap door and awaiting the drop is terrifying (but the anticipation is half the fun), and then there is the actual drop and the loop.

Dreamworld & Whitewater World Early Nov 2013 Trip Report: We returned here for 2 days during our time in QLD again this year, the same as this time last year, noticed some improvement, some disappointing aspects, but overall had a good time. My first positive impression related to the easier walking routes & access between some areas – last year/years past I recall it being quite confusing or offering little obvious easy access between certain areas, this year it seemed better, including signage – e.g. from Wiggles World to the Tower Of Terror II / Tigers / Madagascar area, also from the Wildlife area to Wiggles World. I also noticed seemingly less unattractive closed/blocked off/maintenance works/untidy areas than last year, and less areas appeared very dated/aged, which is good. The access to/from Whitewater World through the Flowrider shop is a bit of a pain, the old nearby gate area was far better, worse however was it closing at 4pm since things apparently close in Whitewater World then – that’s too early not only for things to close (except in Winter), but for the access to close as in my case I merely wished to get a good view of my family on the Cyclone Coaster. Speaking of opening and closing times, every day they are open regardless of school holidays or not: - The gates and some various attractions should open at 0930, - ALL attractions should open at 1000: I see they list various later opening times for various attractions on their website (e.g. Log & Rapids Rides 11am (Ridiculously late!), Motorcoaster 1030 etc.), but honestly that’s very poor, - More attractions should remain open right up to 5pm, including various aspects of Whitewater World (except, perhaps during winter), - The main Dreamworld gates, on the weekdays we visited, had plenty of Ticketing windows open, the staff opened them several minutes prior to the advertised opening time of 10am and seemed very friendly, and other staff actually opened the access entry gates a few mins prior to 10am as well – all of which was good to see (Last year we used the Whitewater World entry which, by comparison, had only 1 or 2 ticket windows open with few staff, which didn’t open until very close to 10am and the entry gates in didn’t open until a few min after 10am, which was disappointing at the time). All ticket windows that are scheduled to open on any given day should open 10 mins prior to opening to start processing customers, and all entry gates should open a few mins prior as well. The food choices overall weren’t too bad, though some was over-priced. The Humdifier/Mist spray devices around the place were a welcome addition (can’t recall them / as many last time), though I noticed some of the garden hose-driven ones seemed to have the water turned off whilst the fan remained on later in the (warm) day which was strange. With water saving/restrictions this is understandable I guess, though I would hope such a facility would use lots of water recycling/environmentally friendly systems. Sun shade seemed pretty good too, a fair effort was obvious to add certain shaded areas either via trees or man-made shades – during past visits I recall thinking some areas could do with more shade, but didn’t seem a problem this year which is good. Most toilet facilities seemed OK, though some of them could have more than 1 cubicle toilet. We still struck some hefty attraction queues, due in part to many school kids there 1 day who seemed to be permitted to just wander in front of some queues. I guess not much can be done about queues in general, other than open more attractions earlier and close more later to stretch the day for customers, I shudder to think what it would be like during school holidays / long weekends. I really like how closed-in shoes are not required AT ALL for anything, so we could just wear thongs – (seems popular in QLD?), good stuff. Smoking didn’t seem too much of a problem this time, and whilst it’s good to see much “No Smoking except in designated areas” signage I still copped wiffs of filthy smoke in certain areas – it’s time these kind of theme parks banned smoking completely within all of their grounds, providing areas only well outside the boundaries away from entry gates / bus stops etc. Most of the staff seemed quite friendly, helpful and seemed to at least look like they were enjoying being there including funny banter between other staff – good stuff. Onto the various attractions & rides: - Zombie Evilution was pretty much as expected – similar laser tag to Alien Vs Predator Vs You which we did last year - The same guy was hosting as last year for AVPX and he’s great – stern & somewhat serious, which is good! I honestly found the internal area a bit underwhelming and drab inside – but still fun. - Rode the Tower Of Terror II for the first time ever and, even after watching it many times, knowing exactly what was going to happen, how it flew out backwards etc., both my sister & myself once strapped in, in our excitement were both convinced we were about to jet forwards – resulting in an even more terrifying experience! It was pretty intense, and we agreed a bit too much for my 7yo kid (who’s not so keen on some scary activities) – next time he’ll have a go. We found it pretty awesome. And it’s shop was good too. - Rode the Cyclone coaster for the 1st time in ages (since it was the Thunderbolt?) – was pretty cool. - Mick Doohan Motorcoaster: A favourite of my son’s and a well-designed ride, sometimes a fair queue but nothing can be done about that, and at least one of the attendants was really cool & funny. - Wipeout: Looked insane, I’m not going on that thing. - Pandemonium: Looked pretty wild, again not for me these days. - Madagascar World & Shrek Areas: Very good, the younger kids loved much of these areas, it all seemed pretty tidy, complete and well-designed – vastly improved from last year. - Buzzsaw: Rode it 3 times, was excellent, if even more unnerving the 2nd time! - Giant Drop: The most intense ride my son (6yo at the time!) has ever done, it was 4 second of terror, shook him up a bit and one which he definitely didn’t want to do again too soon. Good stuff. - HydroCoaster: One of the best rides in the entire facility, sadly the queues for this seemed almost constantly huge – I’m glad I got my son onto it for a ride, and wish we could have done more, they should examine the staffing & equipment for that to try and increase the boats per minute safely deployed, or build an additional even bigger one! - Green Room: Did it for 1st time, was pretty cool. - Wedgie: Also did it a couple of times, was pretty cool. - Blue Ringed Octopus: Good idea, a bit more rougher a ride than I expected adding to the excitement for me, but I feared my son may get knocked around on it a bit if he went on it (yet), good fun. Many of the “cons” listed would be fairly trivial if the entry prices were more reasonable – sure it seems kinda consistent with other theme parks and not over the top, but it’s still hefty. With planning, prior research and visiting multiple days however, I’m still really glad to have taken the family there 2 years straight now.