Trip Report - Evening Function at WBMW

[Joe]

Hi all, I went to an evening function at Movieworld on Friday 16 September, the night before Shrek 4D opened. Pretty interesting - perhaps not quite as exciting as we had hoped for, but good all the same, even though the wind started howling and quite a few people got pretty wet moving between venues in the park! But more about that later... We arrived at the park on coaches around 7pm for the "ATA National Awards Ceremony Dinner" - we all had Printed Tickets (link to image) which had to be flashed at the entry gate. There were a couple of characters hanging around, took a quick glance at the new Superman track in the darkness at the entry (looks AWESOME), then up the main street to gawk at the Roxy Theatre, which looks very much the same from the outside - it would seem they have no plans to change the "Roxy" facade, although major changes may have taken place inside. The doors of the theatre were open, just a red queue rope across the door - Shrek 4D posters in the poster frames on the outside (one of them was wide open!)... It looks kinda themed inside, a smell of fresh paint, but I didn't get to see too much. Everyone was heading up to the "Spooky Castle" (queuing area of the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster) where we all had drinks and canapes. This lasted about an hour, but there isn't a whole lot to look at in Spooky Castle really. So we quaffed a few beers and enjoyed some of the snacks being served by the staff in there. Getting back to the characters, they were pretty thin on the ground - there was one guy dressed in 20's gear that looked like a newspaper reporter or something with an old style megaphone; a cop from the Police Academy Show who stopped people and searched them against the wall "get against the wall NOW M'aam"; and a zany hairdresser type with a huge wig on, who commented on peoples hair and fashions (this was a black tie event, and some of the women had pretty formal outfits on)... After this hour, we were taken into the old Maverick/Magic Show arena - not sure what they use this for now? There were about 400-500 of us, so we fit in here nicely. The stage was all set up and the awards part of the evening took place. (Unfortunately our company didn't win). Then we could hear the rain driving down on the roof outside. OK - so here is the disadvantage of putting 500 people in Maverick and then expecting them to get across to the Rick's cafe area in the pouring rain... hehe... So they gave out 500 poncho's and everybody puts on the ponchos to run across Movieworld in the dark, to the function room near Ricks... follow the crowd! I'm not sure what the room was called, but it was off a courtyard, and was set up with banquet tables (a pretty tight squeeze) to feed all 500 people in one sitting... It's after 9pm, and people are pretty hungry... So here is a Copy of the Menu (link to image) that we ate... It wasn't too bad at all - certainly plenty for everyone, and heaps of staff working to keep the drinks flowing. Some people had staggered in completely soaked - there were still some major downpours happening. After a short time, some people had discovered these colourful elastic fabric things used to hold the chair covers on, and in no time at all there were men using them as bandana's or g-strings, or boob tubes... It got pretty wild there at one stage - I think someone even tried to remove a sparkly red tablecloth... OK, enough is enough, we scoff some nice cakes for dessert and head back outside. The evening slowed down at this point. Spooky Castle was opened up again, and a band had been set up inside - quite a few people headed back into there. They also opened Dirty Harry's Bar across the street where we all hung out and had a good chat. All wine/beer/softdrinks were incl. but spirits (rum & coke) were $4.95 which isn't too bad. We were in no mood for dancing, so we kept the barkeep busy in Dirty Harry's until the function closed around midnight. We piled back onto our coach and headed back to Jupiter's Casino for a little pokie fun! My conclusion - in organising a function at Movieworld you get what you pay for! This function utilised very few characters, and no rides at all, so it was basic in that respect, but still far, far better than an awards night in a hotel ballroom or something like that... I know Movieworld have many, many options which include rides, etc. but obviously they cost 000's of dollars more, and that cost has to passed onto the participants ticket cost (unless your boss is a millionaire!). The food, drink & service level was very good. A very enjoyable evening overall. Cheers, Joe.

[GoGoBoy]

I'm sad to hear that the Roxy facade has not been re-themed for Shrek. They had a great facade when Marvin 3D was playing in there... why not do something even more special for Shrek?

[jcgoldcoast]

They may replace the facade in time, the attraction was completly changed over in what, a month? That is a very quick timeline for totally overhauling an attraction of that size. Here is hoping that it will be changed in the near future!

[matty_o_911]

I don't really want to see the Roxy Theatre facade changed anyway - it would look really strange if it didn't match the rest of Main Street. I did however like the way they had it themed for Marvin though - that looked quite good but I can't really think of something like that they could do for Shrek.

[GoGoBoy]

All I was hoping to see was something similar to the Marvin signage and artwork. I don't think they should make any major modifications to the Roxy facade (because it's great as it is) but even just a 3D version of the Shrek Adventure logo coming out of the 'Now showing' display at the entry would be better than nothing. And again - why was this attraction rushed so heavily? If time is the problem then why didn't they allow more time for construction?

[joz]

I don't think it was really rushed, but a good reason for rushing it would be having to do with having the venue show closed for as short a time as possible. Personally, I'm with Matty, the facade doesn't need to be changed, and looks fine as is.

[taronga]

I know we have gone off topic but, I think they rushed it so it was ready to open for school holidays.

Edited September 23, 2005 by taronga

[joz]

Thats ok, everyone's entitled to be wrong