The Journey So Far...

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Well after a completed week here at the Sunny Gold Coast we finally had our first sunshower, and other than that no rain in sight. We have so far covered the Warner Village Parks and DreamWorld is set for tomorrow... Thanks for all the updates on the Claw Richard, its been exciting to keep in touch and see the progress and tomorrow I will be there to see for myself. TR's will be posted on all the parks on our return to Sydney, and overall so far every park has more than an 8 out of 10. I have a few photos here and there but nothing too spectacular, however - I will be posting On-Ride Videos of a number of the big coasters when i return. A new innovation since I did Demon and Bush Beast, I have to offer a thanks to the guys at XDA www.myxda.com who were able to provide a lens extension, for safety, enabling me to carry my portable video recorder on a secured fastener around my waist, and film the ride using an optical cable attached to my wrist. no music, and plenty of loud noise on these videos, but still amazing to watch. The List So Far - Corkscrew Lethal Weapon Still to come - Tower of Terror Giant Drop Cyclone In Doubt - The Claw. Can't wait to get back to my broadband connection as dialup sucks! See you all when i get back, Alex.

[joz]

Good to hear your having a good time up here Alex! Keep us posted on how you get on tomorrow.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Ok - well now that we have recovered from Dreamworld, and we have also done a Shark Snorkel today (recommended - it was great) I have completed my notes on our trip. I will be typing up a full report on each park when i return to sydney (friday morning approx) however to summarise: Ranking: 1. Movie World - service was great, queues reasonable, and overall an entirely enjoyable experience - our group gave it a 8.5 out of 10 2. Sea World - as above, a fraction less in the service department, overall a wonderful experience... on BOTH days, an 8 out of 10 3. Wet n Wild - queues lengths were a bit long, but as it was the first day of school holidays it was to be expected. its been 10 years since my last visit so WnW has improved enormously, WnW scored a 6.9 out of 10 from our "panel" 4. DreamWorld in last place scored a dismal 5 out of 10. Backing up Richard's comments on capacity, we found the majority of Dreamworld's rides had too long a queue, and staff were hardly as friendly or helpful as those at Warner Village. Dreamworld would have scored a 4, however the addition of the Claw picked it up some. After my last visit, DW had high standards in my opinion, only to be let down with the addition of a large crowd (my last visit was on a weekday, with forecast for bad weather). Not only is their capacity shocking, but our group experienced more than TWELVE separate instances of QUEUE JUMPING, with one COUPLE eventually smuggling in over 10 people into the queue of Cyclone. The Claw is well worth the visit if you haven't been in a while, but it was disappointing given my previous experiences at the park. Look out for a full report on friday. Cheers! Alex.

[T-bone]

I agree with you alex. Something has to be done about Cyclone's Queue. It's to wide, and to easy for those queue jumpers to jump the queue and wreck the whole day for everyone. They either have to 1. Restrict the size of the queue (ie:the width of the path) or 2. Have park people standing in the queue to catch out tose queue jumpers. I am really sick of those people. If everyone else can stand in the line, so can they. I always tell people off when they do that and send them to the back of the line. It's funny because 90% of the people back me up and 10% just say nothing. Anyway back to the point. I don't (or my parents ) don't pay almost 200 dollars for a day of people which queue jump which leads to you missing out on a couple of other rides because the day is made longer by people who queue jump.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Ok so heres the final wrap up... Warner Bros Movie World - impeccable service, highest quality of rides, if not a little disappointing with the patch up job on WWF. SDSC is still probably my favourite ride in QLD for thrills and theming (combination of both). with the exception of the matrix exhibit, WBMW on a whole ranks our number 1. Sea World - its always nice no matter how old or young you are to check out some really cool animals.the shows, while starting to stale a bit, are still imaginative and allow the trainers to show off the animal's natural abilities. I didnt include it in the TR, but when we snorkelled with the sharks in shark bay it was amazing, and this only enhanced our feelings of sea world as a whole. I think the only problem with SW is their lack of space, and the bottle neck once you head down towards shark bay and dolphin cove... one pathway from quest for the golden seal to dolphin cove is a bit hard to navigate when the park is operating in peak seasons. staff at sea world were superb, no complaints whatsoever. Wet N Wild - capacity and staff attitudes are my only problems with WNW. its a good concept park that is just a little too big for its britches IMHO. not much else to say... they have some great stuff there but its just not possible to do it all in one day. DreamWorld - a disappointment to say the least, queue jumpers, cast with bad attitudes, poor capacity, poor queue design, poor attempt at raising more money with sideshows... poor choices when it comes to food...poor poor poor. 2 separate rides broke down at least during our visit at DW, one of them broke down twice... the other was their BRAND NEW ATTRACTION LESS THAN A WEEK INTO SERVICE! and while its completely understandable, Nick Central was designated smoke free. i know this only affects us smokers, but i had just lit one after getting off the claw, and had seen no signage to the contrary. now here in sydney, they try to say all train stations are non-smoking, but if you can look straight up and you can't see roof, the smoke free environment act can't touch you... so heres nick central, a completely roofless world... and its non smoking... and i was so looking forward to riding reptar too. all in all we didnt go on half the rides at dreamworld as a result of queue times, capacity, ride cycle times, operator levels and attitudes... it just wasn't worth getting up at 8 in the morning for... THE END (on ride videos within a week, photos in a month or so)

[Gazza]

Alex, i think you should send a complaint to DW about all the things that marred your day, in fact, I think everyone on this board should send what they think of DW to them, and maybe a barrage of complaints would make them pick up their game.

[ray]

Complaining to dreamworld is a very good thing to do because they actually listen to you. recently i went to dreamworld with my parents and because of some stupid employees they ruined an otherwise good day. So when we got home my mum sent a letter to complain about there employees and about a month later we got a letter from the guy running dreamworld saying that the matter had been investigated and action had been taken to make sure it never happens again. Then the letter says because of our bad experience he wanted to make up for the incident and invited us to be official guests of the park. All this means is that we all get in for free next time we go.

[Gazza]

Well that settles it, who wants to send a letter of complaint to DW?