Dreamworld, Sea World, & Movie World Trip Report - Jan 2022

[Naazon]

16 hours ago, themagician said:

And then they can widen the pathway too so it doesn’t feel like you’re walking down a back alley to get to a major attraction. 

I dunno about you but I find walking down back alleys in the GC an attraction in its self.

[themagician]

SW no longer displays character appearance times. It’s all in the app now 

[themagician]

Sea World was also insanely busy yesterday, with over an hour wait for Storm and JR and about 40 minute for vortex. But again the operations were insanely slow. Vortex was up to 8 minutes between cycles and JR was 5 minutes. But, the worst part was Nickelodeon Land. That has got to be the worst designed area of any theme park when it’s busy. Every queue area is so small that the actual queues weren’t controlled and just went everywhere. Some queues overlapped each other so it make unclear what ride people were supposed to be lining up for. 

[New display name]

Parks under prepared  for or unexpected influx of interstate visitors?

[themagician]

Bit of both I think. We’ve see the parks have slow operations for at least the past year (and for a while the Covid, uncertainty card could be played), but they should have been more prepared and have system in place to help organise crowds better (this is mostly for SW). MW had tape on the floor to organise the queues, and they were using all areas of each rides queue to accomodate the crowds. JL had a two hour wait and they were using the full external queue area. To my understanding (while it wasn’t operating when I was there), they are using the full extended queue for WWF that extends to the boat storage area. And for Rivals, the queue extended to the left of the entrance into the viewing/waiting area. But another form of evidence that Rivals operations are so poor right now, I have seen it’s queue extend towards JL before and it’s what was 2-2.5 hours. This queue was much shorter than that, but it’s wait was 4 hours. If they had both trains operating, then they could have almost halved that wait time. But if it’s in maintenance and waiting for parks (or whatever the reason may be), the turnover for the single train should be so much faster. Are they just understaffed, not wanting to pay for extra staff to be on, or have they not noticed this issue.

[Rivals]

if Superman was on two trains, i’d say they are either waiting for parts for the second train or just don’t want to run it. For rivals too be that far back with that wait time is horrible. You’d expect 4hrs for the line to look like Fright Nights 2017 (wrapped around towards the entrance to green lantern) 

[Baconjack]

59 minutes ago, Rivals said:

if Superman was on two trains, i’d say they are either waiting for parts for the second train or just don’t want to run it.

Didn't MW get Superman's second train rebuilt relatively recently? I don't think this is a maintenance thing at all to be honest

[Rivals]

1 hour ago, Baconjack said:

Didn't MW get Superman's second train rebuilt relatively recently? I don't think this is a maintenance thing at all to be honest

sorry i worded it kinda confusingly.

i meant if Superman was on two trains, then for Rivals i’d say they are waiting for parts for the second train, cause normally when both rides have both trains available, they are ran at the same time. 

but who knows, i wouldn’t be surprised if it’s simply just cost cutting or not wanting to run it, cause they do have the staff for it.

Edited April 17, 2022 by Rivals

[Gtmichaels]

We had just visited Movie World yesterday, was only able to get GL quickly, and a virtual queue for Scooby. Superman and Rivals were up to 3 hour waits each, with an attendant at the SE line not allowing anyone else in until crowds lessened. WWF broke down while we were in line as well. And Fast Tracks sold out in less than 4min according to the staff. Horrible day  The crowds weren’t managed very well in our opinion, with only one train on Rivals, and after visiting MW for over 16 years, this was a low point. At least the food was good! Also enjoyed the Batman Legacy showcase, pretty impressive. 

[New display name]

With wait times like those MW are ripping people off.

[pin142]

There was a time I would refer to Movie World as Six Flags over Oxenford but wait times like that are an insult to Six Flags operations. The parks lack a sense of urgency when it comes to loading and unloading a ride. Sure there are some exceptions but it is a shame. Heard they sold out of the now single use Fast Track in minutes so it seems all that matters is the money and not guest experience on a day like that.

[Rivals]

1 hour ago, New display name said:

With wait times like those MW are ripping people off.

some of my family went yesterday with younger kids, only got on 2 kids rides (JDS and RRRC) and the stunt driver show within their 5 hours of visiting the park, they were waiting for superman but that broke down. 

considering they didn’t have a pass and payed around $99-$109 each, 100% a rip off 

[franky]

We were at SeaWorld today. We arrived at about 1pm (we went to Paradise Country early). Park was busy but we managed to get 2 rides on Jet Rescue and 2 on Storm (Storm rides were right before close).

Operations on Jet Rescue are frustratingly slow. When the ride finishes, the passengers dismount but they never move the train to reload until every single passenger walks 25m to the photo room and closes the gate. Only then do they move the train up to loading.

Now that the train is now in loading, it's time to start assigning people to rows, why can't someone be doing this while the ride is running so they can load straight in?

I get it that the unload procedure is a safety thing, but why not rework the unload station so the gate is much closer to the train? Everyone was dawdling to the gate and it just prolonged the cycle time.

On what everyone is saying is one of the busiest weekends, why only one train? (does JR even have two?), Why not have another loader/grouper?

In saying all of the above, riders were just as to blame for delays but could have been helped by another loader/grouper. People were locked in and had to be unlocked as they still had hats/glasses etc on.

Storm was great but only appeared to have 3 boats, not sure if this is normal or not. Two seemed to sit in the station while one was on the course, they'd dispatch one as the previous one was rounding the corner to unload.

This is our first trip to the GC in 3 long years and the first trip really since I've been paying attention to how rides operate. I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed fingers crossed the crowds get a little better after tomorrow.

Bonus image of our park today, we were in the overflow of the overflow carpark

[Moderator]

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