Dreamworld doesn't deserve all the hate it gets.

[Reanimated35]

Don't get me wrong, they still deserve a huge chunk of it. Say maybe 70-80% of the hate we give them they deserve.

Went in there today and originally I was going to take a bunch of pics and do a full review, but instead I decided, I haven't been to the park for at least 2 years, I'll have this one to myself and next visit I'll do the pics and what not.

Car park - They had a person waving people past the first right turn into parking spots, which was fine, figured there's going to be someone at each one telling you if it's full or not. Not the case. The only other person there was a stop/go person for the pedestrian crossing. Why do a half assed job of directing traffic???

Entry - standard I guess, walked through the gates, showed the tickets and was told to go to the pass office to get the cards done by 3pm. Fair enough. Then walked through to the turnstyles (not sure why they just didn't incorporate those into the existing gates, but whatever. Got told to scan the tickets and asked if gate checked our ID. No they did not. Attendant just said to go in anyway. I guess this isn't too much of an issue since the paper e-tickets only work once anyway so it would be pretty stupid to put your name on it then pass it off to someone else.

Lockers - $10/day as expected.

Q4U - $15pp - I think that's gone up since last time I was there, but I really can't remember. We felt it was worth it. Queues on that were 10-40 mins depending on the ride and time of day.

Rides (In no particular order because I can't remember the order):

Tower of Turbines 2: The same as I remember it; fast but not as fast as it originally was. Surprisingly cool in the station considering the tin roof/tunnel. Could use a few more turbines though.

Cyclone: Now holds the title for roughest coaster on the coast. I could swear this is worse than what it used to be. This is at Sea Viper level of roughness now. Station still looks like shit, as we all know, nothing has been done with the queue. I don't think they've ever bothered to sweep/dust/clean the turbine area since it was closed. It still feels like someone's dead grandma could load the ride faster too. Instead of talking to the other ride op in the booth while the ride goes around, why not group the next batch at the doors?

Shockwave: Not that bad actually. Well, the ride isn't that bad. Not sure why they built it on top of a rubbish pit....wait, that's not a rubbish pit you say? Could have fooled me. Seriously, get a fucking broom and it would take 10 minutes to clean that shit up. It looked terrible. It was a mix of leaves, foam balls from that ball play pit thing and empty drink bottles. Again, the ride itself was surprisingly entertaining for what it is, it's a good family ride which seems to consistently have a short queue.

Railway: The same as usual, except the stupid diesel engine now, fine, whatever, you want to save money and stop with the coal train, that's ok, but get the old guy to chance his speech to stop saying it's a steam powered train, and would it have killed the designer of the ride to have put in some sort of steam pump at the top of the train just for appearance sake? (That one isn't actually a stab at Dreamworld, that's the designers fault).

Vintage Cars: It needs.....something. Not sure exactly what. Maybe a tunnel. Just something to make the walk over there worthwhile. Still a kind of alright way to kill five minutes if you're over that way and there's no line up. If there's a line up, don't bother.

Rapids: Pick a theme people! (edition 1) - Dinosaurs? A guy in a mine stealing gold....from a jail? WTF? The first time we went through the explosion jail break thing wasn't working so the tunnel was pitch black. That was in some ways better than the second run with the theming turned on as it added that slight element of the unknown. The actual ride itself was pretty good. and as expected. Can't really think of much more you could add except sticking to one theme throughout the ride.

Log Ride: Pick a theme people! (edition 2) - Ok, cool, we've got a bit of a mining thing going on here, looks good. What's that? A couple giant fucking mushrooms? WHY? Where these just leftover props from Wiggles World they decided to throw onto the grass beside the log ride track? Had they been eating magic mushrooms when they thought it was a good idea to stick them there? Oh and let's not forget the empty water bottles floating around next to the drop. Judging by the colour these have been here for months, if not years. Is it so hard to get a pool cleaner net thing and get rid of them? The ride itself was good, and this was the first time I'd actually gone on it. (Went on twice) The only downside to this ride in my opinion is that it seems to rush you through unlike WWF which seems like a more gentle cruise through the ride. One thing I've never understood really is why all the log rides (ok, at least all the ones I've seen online or in different parks) are all themed to mines. Why not theme them to an actual log cutting thing? Wouldn't that just make sense? Surely there's some designers out there who could pull it off. (Please feel free to show me some example of differently themed log rides, I'd like to see them)

Buzzsaw: Surprised me this one. Looking at it, it just looks kind of...meh. It's actually a fairly decent ride. Didn't see the queue theming since we had the Q4U, but I'm sure I didn't miss much at all. There's a saw that looks as though it should be spinning in the station. It wasn't. Not that this is surprising. It is disappointing though since this is their newest ride, you'd think a little upkeep would be done. I guess not. In saying that though, to be honest, I don't think it matters. You're not really paying much attention to it when you fly through the station. I mean, sure, maybe after a few runs through it you might get a change to take notice, but even then, at that speed it doesn't really matter if it's spinning or not. Avoid this ride around midday. The sun is right above the tower and directly in your eyes up the chain. -- Just to add to this, for most of both rides I did on this, there wasn't much time where I wasn't just basically relying on nothing but the lap bar to stop me from falling. Even with it down as far as it would go, it still felt like it wouldn't be too hard to slip out. I guess this kind of adds to the experience though as you'd have to be pretty unlucky, or trying, to slip out.

Zombie Evilution: I'd have to try this again to give it a proper review. We just sort of camped on the bridge and didn't think much of going to check out the theming. I am impressed at the level of detail of what I saw as far as the conversion from AVP goes though, so that's something. Score: 1360 (4th on team) not really concerned though - nor wanting to start a pissing match, so I don't care what scores you've had in the past.

Other points to note.

Eureka - Twice when we walked past and once on the rapids, we overheard different groups of people talking about it, or mentioning to their kids how good the ride used to be when it was operating and how sad they were to see it go. (Please don't start that debate in this thread). I would have though most of the general public/guests/whatever you want to call them (not trying to elevate myself or any members of this board - I just like calling guests general public - this includes myself, and all of you). Anyway, I would have thought they would have given up or just not known about or cared enough to comment on the history of the ride. I'd love to know what state it's in on the inside of the mountain. If anyone with actual inside knowledge knows, please post here, or if you don't want us to know who you are, PM me and I'll keep it secret or just make a new account and post

General park features - the misting fans around the park are quite a nice feature. They've been around for a few years but they've also added some new black ones out too. One of which was out, but either not on, or broken, in which case, it's hot. Don't tease us by leaving a broken fan out there

Food - Nuggets were good for lunch. Didn't eat much though. Had maccas for breakfast around 10am, a couple of nuggets and some chips around 4pm, and as I type this it's 8:40pm and I still haven't had dinner. I've had sooooo much to drink today though. Which, props to Dreamworld, the frozen coke is great.

Cleveland Paddle steamer - An eyesore. Even tucked around the back of the park. Just get rid of it. We know it's not coming back. Just somehow (not sure how, was it built in there?) get rid of it. Scuttle it where it is if you have to, but just get it the hell out of the lake. Also clean the damn water. I don't mean the water itself, it's from the creek, it can't be done while keeping it open to the creek. That's fine, just get rid of the reeds and whatnot that are slowly overgrowing the water.

It needs paint. Everywhere. Everything in the park needs some paint. Especially Turbine Tower. It's looking sorry for itself. I'm not meaning just the letters down the side, they look horrible too, but repaint the tower black, or pink for all I care, just paint it.

The tigers were looking exhausted in the hot weather which is to be expected.

To whoever designed the cage in the "lair", on behalf of the tiger in there, FUCK YOU! I mean the poor thing has been pacing the cage so much that there is a trail in the grass where it's been walking. And what about some water in the shade? The tiger in there today was panting and walking around with it's mouth open like it needed a drink, but the only water available was in direct sunlight. It's 30 degrees, give the poor thing some shade and cool water.

Big Brother house: Interesting to walk though, a nice, cool, air conditioned escape on a hot day. The only complaint with this - Dreamworld are all about cost cutting and doing anything they can to save money. So why employ a lifeguard to sit on the deck in the house just in case some idiot decided to dive in? Why not drain the pool and put a cover on it? Let's say $20/hr for 6 hours (assuming the house isn't open all day) is $120, over a week, that's $840. Surely a pool cover would be a couple of hundred at most, if that.

Toilets: A little sad to see the toilets in goldrush aren't themed anymore. Also, oh my god, you do know what an exhaust fan is right? The only toilets I've ever experienced smelling worse was Wet n Wild last time I went about 8-10 years ago.

Overall thoughts - Dreamworld should not market itself as a "theme"park. There is one themed area. Dreamworks. Everything else is just an amusement park.

Everyone is always going to compare Dreamworld to the good old days. Right back to the 80s and 90s when the Longhursts wanted an actual themepark in Australia. What we have now is Australia's largest amusement park. Sadly, for myself and many other members on here, that's all it's ever going to be with the current management. They're still pulling in huge crowds because the general public (there's that term again) doens't give two shits about theming. Hell, they probably don't notice it apart from picking but off it while they stand in line.

Food - 9/10 (not taking price into account - it is what it is - you're at a themepark, you're expecting to pay more.

Rides - 7/10 - the confusing (and/or lack of) theming lets it down.

Theming - 4/10 - They tried. I guess. Years ago. It's all been downhill since, except Dreamworks.

Cleanliness - 5/10 - Walkways are clean, food areas are clean, the ride areas though look like a rubbish tip.

Overall - Happy to give them a 7/10 overall. They're not as bad as we all say as long as you only go in there looking for thrills and not caring about what it looks like while you're there.

edit- added a comment to the Buzzsaw entry.

Edited January 11, 2014 by reanimated35

[POP]

The title of this thread, unfortunately, doesn't match the contents of it. I read through it all and the general vibe i got from it was that it does indeed deserve all the hate it gets lol.

[Reanimated35]

Not really. Plus I did say it deserves up to 80% of the hate

"as long as you only go in there looking for thrills and not caring about what it looks like while you're there."

[T-bone]

Nice review which pretty much sums up my view of the park these days.

Railway: T would it have killed the designer of the ride to have put in some sort of steam pump at the top of the train just for appearance sake? (That one isn't actually a stab at Dreamworld, that's the designers fault).

The new loco actually does have steam/ smoke generators, one for the undercarriage and one for the smoke stack. Last I heard both had broken and there was no rush to repair.

[Reanimated35]

^ Ah ok, that's good to know (at least about the design, and not surprising about the maintenance aspect from Dreamworld)

[Jay Jay The Jet Plane]

^ Ah ok, that's good to know (at least about the design, and not surprising about the maintenance aspect from Dreamworld)

Did you go and do the new Dreamworld Corroboree?

[Reanimated35]

Nah, anything that's not in the review was not visited.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1. Car park - They had a person waving people past the first right turn into parking spots, which was fine, figured there's going to be someone at each one telling you if it's full or not. Not the case. The only other person there was a stop/go person for the pedestrian crossing. Why do a half assed job of directing traffic???

2. Q4U - $15pp - I think that's gone up since last time I was there, but I really can't remember. We felt it was worth it. Queues on that were 10-40 mins depending on the ride and time of day.

3. (Please feel free to show me some example of differently themed log rides, I'd like to see them)

4. They're not as bad as we all say as long as you only go in there looking for thrills and not caring about what it looks like while you're there.

1. I believe the reason they wave you past the first right turn is that is where the majority of their mobility impaired disabled parking is. I'm pretty sure the attendant is scanning your windshield to see if you have a permit, and if not, waves you past. After that its a free for all... so I don't think 'half assed' I just think they're spending money there wisely to accommodate differently abled guests.

2. Last time I got a Q4u the 'first' person was more expensive (can't remember but maybe $45 or something like that), and then $15 per person thereafter... so if it's just a straight $15 per person, i'd say the interest in it has waned - but it would be a good way of milking extra revenue out of world pass holders who otherwise wouldn't spend money each visit

3. Log rides not themed to mines? This one is themed around a cute little story involving forest animals...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BCIfYc9r8s

This one to an enchanted forest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtGxaGbVwko

And this one - well... who knows what this one is?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFjvi1cGs18

4. The name of the park is 'dream world' and their slogan is 'so many worlds in one'. If it were just something simple like 'ride some thrilling (and not so thrilling) rides then I could wear that, but they are trying so very hard (and failing) at being a theme park. They ARE as bad as we say because they claim to be themed, and they fail miserably at it... for the same reason they keep getting slammed over MDMC - because they claim it as a thrill ride, when it clearly isn't.

Edited January 12, 2014 by AlexB

[Gary86]

I was at Sea World yesterday and Dreamworld the week before but I actually thought Dreamworld was the better park between the two.