Movie World Halloween Fright Nights

[Gazza]

I do hear that, but i'm too much of a Disney fanboy to spend time at Universal when I can spend time at Disney. Mind you though, a trip to SFMM is ok, it's a pretty radical park.

I can see where you are coming from...But halloween is one thing Universal does better than Disney.

[T-bone]

Whilst I have absolutly no doubt that it is very well done (the Horror walkthrough was amazing) I myself wouldn't sacrafice Disney-time for Universal time on such a short trip. That's me though, i'm a Disney freak through. If I had more time over there, I'd certainly do Universal Haunt, but for a short trip that's me. Back on topic though...

[downunder]

^I'm not a that big a fan of Knotts, but their Halloween looks awesome. I'm staying down the block from Knotts because Halloween goes very late into night.

[rappa]

Disney halloween really doesn't rate a mention, nothing is different from the day time/normal night time with the exception of the already altered attractions and park dressing. The only Halloween 'even't' is targetted at kids. Knott's is barely 10 mins down the road and offers an amazing halloween experience until very late at night. IMO you would be crazy not to go when so close. Universal offers an unparalleled haloween (however I've only been to Orlando which is much more mature and highly regarded than the relatively new hollywood offering) experience to any other park IMO. However the huge numbers mean I recommend going on a RIP tour. But please back on track all.

[Spencer]

I went to movieworld today and it looks prety much the same as far as decorations go. exept the big "scary cat" sign/ opening on the lethal weapon lot. But alot of it looks sorta recycled from last year...like the spiders and webs hanging about. I'm not sure if i wanna go know as it looks a little crummy...then again it does stay open till 11:00..so I may change my mind.

Edited September 30, 2009 by spencer

[T-bone]

Well fron what I can recall, last year at MW wasn't all that bad. I'm looking forward to it. And Clint, I know Disney do t really do a "immersive" Halloween with only a different fireworks shows and some overlays, and I do agree that Universal seem to know what they are doing when it comes to the Halloween stuff, but all I said is that in my opinion, if I was going over to LA, I'm not terribly fussed with the Halloween decorations, mazes and extra crap, but If I could score a short trip like downunder did, I'd be making the most of being within close proximity of Disneyland. I am a big fan of Walt, Disneyland and Disney as a company, I had 8 days at the parks when I was last there, and I came away craving more. Anyway, me = complete Disney freak/ fan. You have now nearby something new. Back on topic though, do we know how many mazes MW will be operating? And does anyone know if the attractions in Kids WB (most importantly Road Runner and Looney Tubes River) and Shrek will be operating?

[S.W24]

Look ill be honest here even im confused at the moment as to how the maze situation is going, i have been told that the zombie Kill Zone which has been advertised as part of the night, was going to be laser skirmish like last year. Though as of late i have heard it will also be a free of charge maze. At this current moment there are two actual mazes in construction using flats like our over seas parks do which is a first for us, both the china town area and half of the inside Que at Scooby are currently in construction with mazes. Shrek 4D i would assume will be in operation as for WB kids there is a fair chance it wont be seeing this years event are targeted at the older audience.

[Gazza]

Fun House Freaks Maze, the Torture Chamber, Dragon Alley and the Zombie Kill Zone will operate until 11:00pm plus restricted Freestyle Moto X shows.

That's four mazes right? As in a lot of cases, the official site is best source of info. Edited October 1, 2009 by Gazza

[T-bone]

Shrek 4D i would assume will be in operation as for WB kids there is a fair chance it wont be seeing this years event are targeted at the older audience.

that's what I've been thinking also, as it is aimed as an "older" audience, however the parks website does state that ALL rides will be open, which they can't really say if there are some rides which won't be opening, which is the reason I asked due to the nature of insiders on this board.

[New display name]

WARNING: 1.....The event contains intense experiences and is not recommended for children. 2.....We strongly recommend that all children be accompanied by an adult who shall be solely responsible for their care and conduct whilst on these premises. No refunds are payable. This is what I don't understand 1. saying no kids 2. saying kids with adults. What is it kids or no kids? Was the problem that to many kids where getting dropped of by there parents.

[Spencer]

I hope its more like last year than people think. I really liked last years it was really fun. I might go. I can't be sure if i want to though.

[cerberus584]

I think the point they're trying to make is that they think the whole thing might be a bit to scary for kids. You're still allowed to bring children but if you do, for whatever reason you have to stay with them. Parents do have a habit of dropping their kids off at the parks for the day, often not picking them up for an hours after closing time and I guess they're just trying to make sure this doesn't happen. Spencer, I have no idea of the details of this year's Halloween but I disagree. I really hope it is much more adult oriented; much scarier etc. There's just so many ways the nights could be done and every now and then it's good to change.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

So out of interest, do folks go in costume on all nights? or only on the 31st?

[Spencer]

I took a costume last year and decided not to wear it. A LOT of people were dressed up..go figure. I wont be dressing up becoz i think it would be uncomfortable..but its up to you. There were ALOT AND I MEAN A LOT of people dressed as the joker, some with only the face paint others well...you had to be there...

[pacino]

We've bought tickets for saturday's fright night. the only problem is how do we get back to Surfers? As there isn't any public transport or schuttle services for that time of the night.I've contacted Movieworld and they've suggested car hire or taxi. A bit pricey? Why haven"t they organised transport?

[cerberus584]

It's weird surfside isn't putting on any buses. I would've assumed they would've put at least one or two on considering the money they'd make. If not maybe a taxi to Helensvale and then a bus to Surfers?

Edited October 2, 2009 by cerberus584

[MaxThrust]

Halloween Saturday 10 October 2009 is now 9.95 for myfun members.. won't last long.

[Gazza]

Cerberus is right...you'll have to go to Helensvale station, where there is a bus interchange. Its a 45 minute walk, or a $13 taxi ride. At this stage though on the Saturday night, it looks like the 715 bus (Sea World) leaves at 11:34, 12:34 and 1:34. If you want to get into Surfers you'd have to get off at Tedder Ave, wait about 15 minutes, and then get bus 700 which runs right down the gold coast highway. www.translink.com.au has a journey planner, so if you have somewhere more specific you want to get to then you can punch that in there.

I would've assumed they would've put at least one or two on considering the money they'd make.

Public transport makes money? Edited October 2, 2009 by Gazza

[cerberus584]

Public transport makes money?

fair call! depending on how many people you're going with you could consider a maxi taxi, even if you have to share with another group. That'd cut the price into surfers as there are bound to be others if no buses show up.

[jayw]

For the love of sanity! Does the way movieworld are handling the pricing of this year's event annoy anyone else?! They start with tickets for tonight at 24.95 they drop em to 9.95 then they decide to jack em back up to 24.95 and drop the prices on next week's event...but the tickets to the week after that are the same price still..will they drop? won't they drop? will they sellout? If you buy early you get penalised, if you buy late you get penalised, if you buy when the moon is at the right place relevant to the 6th planet from the sun at midnight, you get a cheaper price! It's as bad as buying airline tickets and makes getting a group together to go a nightmare, because you tell people one thing and that they should come along and all of a sudden, the tickets are more than twice the price. The whole damn thing is screwy and will surely start to leave a sour taste in people's mouth... Just have some early bird prices limited to a certain number of tickets and then put the price up or at least do something people can understand and has some reference to something other than movie world wanting to scrounge the most money out of every persons pocket!

[DonjaiInLA]

It would have something to do with the number of tickets sold, tonights event musnt have been selling very well so they made the tickets cheaper, at a certain point they reached the minimum needed tickets for the event to be effectively profitable and the price went back up. Its not about ripping people off, its about a business being profitable

[Intamin]

I went to whitewater world today and when I was driving home at about 5:30, I decided to check out what Movieworld looked like. When I was there I saw the main entrance, which looked quite good and there was a couple of smoke machines there. They had projectors on the roof of main street and bats and spiders everywhere. I also managed to pick up a park map. I am going next week by the way, that's why I did this mainly. They opened the gates at 5:45, so remember to get there early if your going. In the map it shows all the mazes that are there which include Fun House, Dragon Alley, Bedlam Manor and Zombie kill zone. There are the two lives shows Bloody Moto X and Les damned De Burlesque and a movie where Shrek 4d is called nightmare house. On the map it doesn't label any of the WB kids zone attractions, so I assume they won't be open. I hope this clears a few things up about the nights, I hope you enjoy it if you are going. Please Note: The guy I got the map off said it may change in the later weeks because this is their first night they may want to redo some things. Intamin

Edited October 3, 2009 by Intamin

[jayw]

It would have something to do with the number of tickets sold, tonights event musnt have been selling very well so they made the tickets cheaper, at a certain point they reached the minimum needed tickets for the event to be effectively profitable and the price went back up. Its not about ripping people off, its about a business being profitable

Yeah I understand the logic behind it from the parks view, but it's annoying for customers! And if you drop the price and get a sudden surge of sales, perhaps that's a sign that the price is too high, not to jack the price back up to what it was, so that you sell the remaining tickets at whatever the customer will pay. I almost had two tickets to go, and was going to get at least two other people to come along as well, and had I bought two tickets only for the other people I invited to have to now fork out more than twice the price is crazy....and had I forked out 24.95 two weeks ago to come along, only for them to drop more than 50% I'd be pretty peeved too. Hence my suggestion to just come up with a system that gives the customer some idea of what's going on....drop a certain number of tickets to begin with at a reduced price then go to the full price after that, give people some idea that the cheap tickets are limited and will then return to full price meanwhile still achieving the ends of having a profitable, well attended event. Jay

[DonjaiInLA]

Any chance you could scan in the map for those of us who will not be able to attend, but want to look what the set up is like?

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Having just returned from tonight Fright night, I have to say it is an admirable job. Being my first ever Movie World halloween, I can't really compare it to anything, but i'd say it was a fairly good night. I ran into Michael Croaker early in the night, who was in the middle of main street trying to coordinate a lot of things at once. He mentioned that they had done many new things this year and were still working out some teething problems. Queues were the main issue in my opinion. Bedlam Manor in the Scooby queue obviously had the spillout queues to use, but the main queue for scooby was redirected to the left side, and into the seating area for gotham. Dragon alley had no queue at all, and cast were madly running up and down the line trying to keep the queues hugged around the gardens in the middle of main street, to prevent impeding traffic. Zombie kill zone was the same, but I didn't get near fun house. All the major attractions had quite large queues, and Lethal's queue was closed off well in advance of the 9pm shutdown. While all rides were advertised as being open (and WB Kids did have some running) there were a few attractions which weren't open, which was quite a disappointment - LT River Ride being the main one. The Freestyle MotoX is the same show you've seen at every Ekka and Easter show for years, although Movie World did give it a little twist - Spoiler Ahead...

The story is pretty simple - the Movie World Master of Ceremonies has captured Garry and the MotoX team. The team are led out by saucy little vixens in chains, and cracking whips. The show starts with a short jump, and the Master tells everyone that the MotoX team will not be released unless the crowd are suitably entertained. The crew does make a break for it half way through the show, but are captured by the WhipCracking vixens and returned to the set. The finale involves backing the landing ramp well across the other side of the arena, with a length, jump to jump of about 75 feet. After some more of the usual ramp jumping, and over-excited commentation by Garry, the crowd is cheering, before the vixens retrieve Garry and the riders, lock them back into chains and drag them off, whereby the Master says that he is breaking his promise to release them, and they must perform again soon.

All in all, it was pretty good, but nothing really unseen. All the cameras in the arena are utilised, however in my opinion, the director could have cut to different shots during the jumps to give a better idea of take-off and landing, as the shot that is used while the guys are in the air is from the motorised camera in front of the crowd, and only gives the same perspective we can all see anyway. The lighting and smoke in main street was really great - not overdone, but really set the mood. I didn't see a single white light, except in the shops. It did help to create a real eerie feeling, although WB Kids was lit up like a runway. This is another great reason for the new roof over main street (which isn't exactly new anymore), as they can rig intricate lighting systems without worrying about weather, etc. The crowd was apparently about 6000 according to Mr. Croaker, and in 3 hours, we'd had one ride, one maze, and one show. We didn't spend all our time in lines though, as we both went in costume, and it would seem I had the knack of scaring the crap out of people, or otherwise, being quite popular for people to take photos with. I've attached a photo of the costume. If anyone out there happened to get a photo of me at the park, please send it to me or post it on the site, as I wasn't able to carry a camera around, and I'd really like to see the look I had going in the park. In closing, I'd say it was a great night. For $9.95, it was top value (I probably spent more in petrol to go there and back), and I definitely had a lot of fun - well worth the trip (but please - leave the kids at home... a lot of little kids were present, and were totally freaked out). I had begun to lose faith, and all I can say is Well Done MovieWorld