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After spending five years closed, with the last two years in limbo following the construction of the New Atlantis precinct, the Monorail has finally been officially announced as closed after being temporarily out of service. The Monorail originally closed in late 2019, and just two years ago, the COO of the company assured us it wasn't going anywhere. Unfortunately, those promises have now been broken. This day was inevitable, but it’s still disappointing to see the Monorail officially gone. What do you think the park will replace it with?

With Flash/Dreamland open WOZ and Rivertown to open in the next few months, we soon will have all the lands announced for the parks. The question is, what is next for our parks in the next few years? For 2025 I can unfortunately see it be the first year in some time without any new rides for our parks. Village and Coast both just spent $50m+ each on WOZ/Rivertown/Flash/Dreamland, and they will need to recoup the cost before spending on anything new. Overall the only significant thing will be the Scooby refurb. Based on a 2-3 year gap between new areas for each park, I can see Dreamworld possibly investing in something for 2026, but I have a feeling they wont go for a whole new land this time, either an individual flat ride or coaster. I can see Village go to Sea World for investments this time, they seem to alternate where one park gets the main investment for new rides while advertising the previous investments at the other park. It was MW's turn from 2016-2018 (Doomsday, DCR) Sea World's turn from 2019-2022 (New Atlantis) and now it is MW's turn again with Flash/WoO, so based on that Sea World will probably be next for capex.

Sounds like it will just be a rewards program. .

Village seem to have quietly dropped a cheaper locals One Pass recently. The One Pass Lite - priced at $179 - is $40 cheaper than the normal Locals One Pass (and $120 cheaper than the full priced One Pass). The lite version of the pass has: No White Christmas No Carnivale No Spooky Nights BLACKOUT DATES - From Boxing day to January 15th. For me, we rarely do the night events, even though they've been included in our passes for some time. We will go if friends are going, but mainly because we've got them for free. The current 'value' of the night events shown on the locals passes (ie $89 for WC, $69 for Carnivale and Spooky Nights) is not a price i'd pay separately. But considering we rarely use the night passes when we do have them this is an easy way for us to save over $100 on the next renewal (assuming we renew). We tend to avoid the Christmas holiday period entirely. The parks are stupid at that time of year so the blackout dates don't impact us at all. Overall, its a bit of a coin flip for us. If we went to just one night event it would pay off to buy the higher priced pass. If there were a bigger price gap - even marginally more, it might tip the scales for me - but at the very least its nice that they're finally offering locals a product that just gets them into the park regularly without bundling it with night events and resort stays. ETA: as long as they stick by the blackout dates this time. Back in the VIP days, they offered VIP with blackout, and VIP gold without blackout, and the first day of the blackout dates they had a bunch of families try to enter with VIP passes and caused a stink when they weren't allowed in - so the company folded and quietly deleted the blackout dates. Here's hoping the new investment firm have more of a spine.

An overnight update of the VRTP theme parks app states in the version history for version 1.238.5: Not sure if this means virtual queue has been completely eliminated from the park, or if it is simply a rebrand to refer to VQ as FT? Ironically the update may have removed all references to VQ from the app, but the App store listing still mentions it in several places, including an app update only 2 months ago where they enhanced the VQ system... Pictures to come...

Hello everyone! I am planning to go to the Gold Coast in 2023. I come from Bendigo, Victoria so cannot go often. This is my third time going to the GC parks, me going before in March 2015 and August 2022. However, I am planning to go again in 2023. The question is, when? I don't want to go before June (dont want to risk SE/DD/BS/DCR/WWF being closed) and will be willing to drop Scooby as it is closed. I also cannot go during September because I am going to Thailand. I am also going with another person who doesn't want to go during November and December due to the heat. So it leaves July, August and October. I am hoping to go in the latter as most rides are open as well as Fright Nights. Could you give me some suggestions? Thanks.

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.

If green Lantern were ever to be removed what coaster/ride would you put in its place? Please be realistic with what could fit in the plot of land green Lantern uses

I have thought of a possible scenario at Movie World. What if Warner Bros and Village Roadshow decided to cut ties with each other and Movie World was forced to be rebranded to non-WB items? What would it rebrand to, and would it have a generic theme or would they go with Sony Pictures etc.

Seems odd that the Flume ride has no reopening date for maintenance? Last week it said 20th November....

Operating Hours at Wet'n'Wild Gold Coast Monday - Wednesday the park will be closed. Thursday operating as it has normally during off-peak (10-3) Friday-Sunday normal operating hours. I will be surprised if they keep Wet n Wild open through Winter this year. It struggles through winter on a normal year, and during those years there's always plenty of debate on why it's open, I'm sure there's plenty more support for that debate this year. All I'll say on that debate is that you're extremely lucky if you get close to 1000 people (a day) through the gates, there are many days where 10% of that is hard to reach. Good weather days during the holidays are exceptions to the 1000 people rule, but they don't justify months of operation. --- Opening Hours - Plan your day at Sea World Gold Coast Warner Bros. Movie World Gold Coast operating hours I'm expecting that both Sea World and Movie World will reduce weekday operating hours through winter as well. Especially noting the conservative date ranges currently shown. (and once this happens, Dreamworld will obviously follow suit; if they don't announce it first) --- Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if COVID sees our parks completely adapt their operating schedules. Weekend operation of our main parks, Seasonal operation of the water parks. There are plenty of logistical issues with that, especially with contracted and salaried workforces. So it's not super likely to happen, but I can't say I don't see them moving closer to it. I know most of you are going to jump to "That doesn't make any sense, plenty of people still go to the parks during this time." As enthusiasts we have to understand that what we THINK makes sense, and what actually makes sense, are in many cases very different. Reducing hours means that you're increasing density of guests on the hours/days you're actually open, which means you're far better justifying the minimum number of staff you're required to have there anyway. Doesn't mean it'll feel any busier, especially without international tourists being here, and it goes without saying that a large majority of locals spend far less than interstate and international tourists, which is the part everyone seems to forget when talking about operating hours. this is all talking about off-peak, I'm not suggesting they'll change anything during the peak September-January season.

AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW › Annotations Village Roadshow investor day sends stock crashing MYRIAM ROBIN JUNE 11, 2019 Village Roadshow fell 9.1 per cent on Friday afternoon, despite an initially muted reaction to an uncontroversial strategy presentation it posted in the morning. The falls coincided with a 2pm sit-down Q&A theme parks boss Clark Kirby held for two dozen of the company's large holders and analysts. For many, it their first substantive interaction with the executive. Combining the share price reaction with our other sources of intelligence suggests he didn't exactly impress. Kirby is the presumptive CEO, anointed by outgoing chief Graham Burkeas his "preferred candidate" when he announced his own retirement after 30 years in February (Burke was absent from the investor day). Kirby is also the son of the company's chairman Robert Kirby, and grandson of its late founder Roscoe. For Village Roadshow – a company that discloses its purchases of bikinis from Burke's daughter Lisa and decorates its offices with artwork rented on company dime from the Kirby family – this is more or less par for the course. Village Roadshow heir Clark Kirby's first major investor briefing was accompanied by a 9 per cent share price plunge. AFR But the company – 42 per cent owned by the Kirby family and its allies – still saw fit to hire top-tier recruiters Egon Zehnder to conduct an extensive if probably redundant CEO search. Asked how much the company was paying, the response given to investors on Friday was that "Egon Zehnder doesn't come cheap". Well, of course they don't. And neither do the stretch white limousines the company hired to ferry said investors around. If any were unsure why the company spends so much on corporate overhead, now they know!

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?)

Village Roadshow has posted results for 1H17 this morning, with the presentation to happen later this afternoon. For those interested, the slides from the ASX are posted here. So far my favourite bits are: (No one can tell it's a watermark if we flip the image ) And of course the interesting font use for the new campaign: (EDIT: Oh hey 2000th post, go team.)

Hello! I decided to make this topic purely because Sea World aren't doing too great at the moment and are in need of some new ideas, SO, share them on here! Personally, i think that they should be focussing on expanding the park and adding new attractions, while removing old ones. Have fun!