Star Tour All Access Pass - Behind the scenes at Movie World

[MaxxTheMonster]

1 hour ago, UpperCoomera said:

The police cars were sold off. Neighbour bought one and had it in his driveway for couple of months, was weird and cool to see it parked at someone's house and not at Movieworld

Guy across the road from us bought one as well and did it up as the Blues Mobile...  Guy also has a Monkees Vehicle and a hearse...

[rappa]

Yeah screen is there but projection equipment obviously no longer in use. 

[Theme Park Girl]

A couple more of the group shots from Sat's Star Tour.... 

[Jay Jay The Jet Plane]

stop making the rest of us jealous ? 

(5 days until my tour)

[JaggedJanine]

11 hours ago, Theme Park Girl said:

@andrewt92 yep, I actually talked to Greg about this on the weekend and he confirmed the old Gremlins cinemas are still there. They are used for staff orientations and what not now. The Lethal Weapon one apparently still stands as well And yeah it's the same hallway that used to have the cackling Gremlin hanging from the light on the way to the carts lol

 

11 hours ago, AlexB said:

I've been in the cinema\training room that used to be a gremlins cinema for a future of fun focus group. It certainly doesn't look as glamorous as it used to, but it lives on.

 

5 hours ago, djrappa said:

Yeah screen is there but projection equipment obviously no longer in use. 

I can confirm the room has been stripped bare and has those chairs with fold away desks. 

The screen and projector are still there and are still used during group interviews and orientations.

[Brad2912]

Have to say the more I see of the superman costume the more I see a cosplay costume at Comic-con.

It doesn't fit the guy, it makes him look like he has a shrunken head, what's with the weird neck piece?

[rappa]

1 hour ago, JaggedJanine said:

 

 

I can confirm the room has been stripped bare and has those chairs with fold away desks. 

The screen and projector are still there and are still used during group interviews and orientations.

Correct, obviously not the same old vintage (nowadays) projector. That thing would have run on laser disc back in the day. 

Some of our younger members might need to google what that is LOL

[jjuttp]

It's a Frisbee used for burning multiple retinas at once isn't it.

[MaxxTheMonster]

8 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

Have to say the more I see of the superman costume the more I see a cosplay costume at Comic-con.

It doesn't fit the guy, it makes him look like he has a shrunken head, what's with the weird neck piece?

 

10 hours ago, Theme Park Girl said:

A couple more of the group shots from Sat's Star Tour.... 

 

Depends on which of the two are playing the role...  It does look weird on the guy from the Star Tour but not on the other...  Perhaps he actually does have a smaller head?

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

19 minutes ago, Wyncenuros said:

Depends on which of the two are playing the role...  It does look weird on the guy from the Star Tour but not on the other...  Perhaps he actually does have a smaller head?

[Reanimated35]

So a few of you had been asking why I hadn't posted a review since coming back from the tour. 

That's because I'd been working behind the scenes with @Slick to get something happening. I now not only need to say thank you to Greg Yong, Nathan and Matthew for the absolutely amazing tour, but also to Ben for letting me work with him and get the review up on his site. 

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It’s been around 15 years since there was a tour on offer at Warner Bros Movie World (not including the special event tours for Fright Nights), so barring the promo video, I had no idea what to expect from the park’s latest offering. Let me just say up front, it is absolutely worth every cent of the $299 asking price.

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I need to give a shout out here to a few people who have made this possible. Firstly, to Movie World General Manager Greg Yong for dropping in, introducing himself, joining us for the morning section of the tour (and maybe sharing a secret or two, or three). Also, thanks to our expert tour guides Nathan and Matthew, and to my lovely wife for not only getting up early with me to get to the Gold Coast on time, but for letting me drag her along on the tour as well.

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From an enthusiast point of view, the only the only down side to the tour, whilst completely understandable, was not being allowed to take photos of certain areas of the park (Scooby-Doo for example). Otherwise, and maybe it was due to the pure excitement of being able to have such an experience, I couldn’t find anything to fault.

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Overall I’d give this tour an outstanding 9 out of 10 and I’m already looking at booking another one.

 

You can check out the full review and the photos here.

[rappa]

Great review and really good writing too!

[Reanimated35]

6 hours ago, djrappa said:

Great review and really good writing too!

Thanks!

[Santa07]

Very solid review, and great photos reanimated.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

6 hours ago, djrappa said:

Great review and really good writing too!

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From an enthusiast point of view, the only the only down side to the tour,

LOL. For those outside the circle - @reanimated35 usually hyper-analyses @Slick's articles on OurWorlds for spelling grammar and punctuation, so it had to be done!

On topic - given that the tour was designed with Superman Escape in mind, and given the maintenance schedule has it out until almost the end of the current tour schedule, am i the only one thinking it'll be extended?

[Santa07]

No, because I think the GL tour replaced Superman.

[MaxxTheMonster]

On 01/08/2016 at 8:13 PM, Theme Park Girl said:

Grrrr... Stupid quote box issue is still an issue - Wyncenuros - right now

While everyone is saying that value for money is fantastic, being an ex Night Auditor I work best with facts and figures...

Going to borrow from @Theme Park Girl's review and instead of running heaps of quote boxes will put info from her review in italics...

 

You start off your morning at 7.20am, where you drive into your VIP parking spot at the front of the park

Unknown dollar value (nothing really)

Your tour immediately kicks off with your first of many back of house experiences- a strenuous climb up to the top of Arkham Asylum's lift hill, ...

... before a group photo is taken (no personal cameras allowed to be taken up) ☺️

Unable to price as not otherwise available

... you'll be whisked off to the Village Cafe to recover from your climb with a delicious morning tea, plus a private visit and photo opportunity with the Dark Knight & his Batmobile. We enjoyed fresh fruit & baked pastry/muffin platters with our hot drinks ordered earlier on, which were personally labelled and delivered to us ☺️

Photos shoots with characters are $20 each during the day, drinks from Village Cafe up to $5, most items of food up to $4 as well

Next up, the Justice League track walk.

Unable to price as not otherwise available

Back out into the park again, and it's a short walk over to the rear entrance of the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster building, ...

 Unable to price as not otherwise available

... we were instead treated to a sit through of the Green Lantern rollercoaster going through its morning safety check procedures. This was followed by a visit down underneath into its maintenance bay to learn more about its trains, and more interesting ride and park facts. You'll also get to enjoy the very first ride of the day, once the safety checks are completed and she's good to go! 

Unable to price as not otherwise available

Your tour group will be taken into the STARS building kitchen to be introduced to some of the busy kitchen staff, and taste test some of the lovely treats being cooked up. 

Unable to price as not otherwise available

Next, you'll be whisked down to the track of Stunt Driver 2, to check out the back of house areas and meet some of the talented drivers of the show. When the first Stunt Driver show of the morning begins shortly afterwards, a roped off VIP section of seating will be waiting for you and your tour buddies in the audience seating area, complete with cushy padded seats and a prompt visit from a mobiles attendant to deliver you a fresh cup of popcorn. Now this is watching the show in style ?

After the show and just before heading off to lunch, the tour Director will take you up to the control room to meet the SFX staff and see the technology used during the Stunt Driver show. 

This is about half of the perks of the Behind the scenes pass for HWSD2 which is value of $179...  Lets call it $80 and be generous...  Popcorn is approx $5.

Now it's time for lunch at the Dirty Harry bar! A formally set table will be awaiting your arrival, and jugs of water and soft drinks delivered whilst your lunch of choice is freshly prepared. Expect a couple more exclusive special character visits in the meanwhile (in our case, it was Superman and Bugs Bunny!) and more photo opportunities. 

Average meal from Dirty Harry is approx $15, plus drink $4, 2 more photo shoot opportunities $40 (2x $20)

memorabilia bags are handed out, and wristbands for both fast track rides and unlimited ride photos individually handed out. After lunch, you'll be briefly escorted to lockers to store your belongings whilst you enjoy these benefits at your own leisure for the rest of the afternoon, along with a VIP section reserved for the tour group at the 3.30pm parade. 

Fast track rides $60, unlimited photos $40 , locker for day $10

So that pretty much wraps up what to expect with the Star Tour! 

 

So...  $283 approx of items you can purchase in the park normally...  Then add to that the extra behind the scenes stuff that you cannot do...  Worth well more than the remaining $16...

 

* I did not calculate park entry as either way you already have a pass and don't have to pay, or you don't have a pass and have to pay for park entry, and this is a requirement for the tour and not a part of it...

**  Now just to get my wife to read this so I can do the tour 

 

As an aside to this post...  And for anyone else wondering...

Spoke to Guest Services regarding the ride fast pass...  While I am wanting to do this tour my wife does not and I then have no interest in the rides afterwards...  I asked if it was possible to (after the tour was completed) give the fast pass to my wife as she will have been looking after our son all morning while I am on the tour, and I would look after him and she can fast pass rides all afternoon...  They confirmed that this is able to be done...

Edited August 2, 2016 by Wyncenuros
Additional information

[Theme Park Girl]

Don't forget that they have to pay wages to the three staff (2x tour hosts, 1x photographer) that look after the group as well... the photographer is there on demand to take the character group photos. In our case, she also came with us through the Justice League track walk too, taking photos - although it's unknown what the purpose of these were for, we haven't seen them since they were taken.

However the two hosts/guides are by your side 24/7 for the entire 5 hours of the tour to present it in the best way possible, and cater for your every need. 

So they definitely come as an expenditure for MW as well. Even more evidence as to why this tour is such great value ☺️?

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Although there are many things you couldn't price up - not being available otherwise - there are comparable things to look at too - things like bridgeclimb (Storey or Sydney) are obviously a much higher and more elaborate sort of thing to this - taking you to the top of a structure that you would otherwise never be allowed to go, so even if you think of it as half the price of a bridgeclimb, you can still give that a tangible value which takes the total well over the ticket price, without even looking at any of the other experiences.

VIP parking overseas at places like Universal and Six Flags are between $10 and $50 for the day - so split the difference, call it $25 and you're up in value again.

The kitchen tour can't be priced, but the cost of the items can be - and you can safely add about $10 worth of bakery items consumed to the price as well.

Theres a few other things you could attach a tangible price to - for example drink costs - chances are with jugs delivered, you would probably have more than just one drink while dining... stuff like that.

 

On another note, the more I think about this tour the more I can't wait until I can do it - but it got me thinking about some of the other things the park has around that might be interesting. We know, for example, that the park stores the parade floats either out the back behind intencity, or in some cases inside the old LTRR building. We also know that the park has several worksheds where they create \ maintain theming - some of them are on studio property while others are behind LTRR. It would be cool if they added (or used as substitute when certain other parts of the tour were unavailable) an opportunity to perhaps stand on a float for photos (as this isn't usually available) or see some of the 'behind the scenes' work that goes into creating theming objects such as they use for white christmas (the 'snow' blocks placed around main street buildings for example). I don't know whether its entirely practical, but just an idea, and its the sort of thing I think would be a cool addition to what is already a fabulous (and definitely well worth it) tour.

[Theme Park Girl]

@AlexB you'll be happy to know that Greg mentioned if the Star Tours are popular with guests, they intend to explore more options to add to them and make them even bigger and better, especially as the park expands over future years. There's a lot of potential for something like this. So I wouldn't cross any possibilities off the list ?

There was a lot of pun about the Batwing tower being the next climb, hahaha ? 

[Ryno]

Why not have two tours. The one that is currently on offer. A second tour could incorporate SE, WWF,  the old western show stage and Looney Tunes ride warehouse area. Sounds like you guys were not rushed through the tour and was nicely paced so instead of trying to pack more into the tour and possibly ruin the experience by rushing through, create a second tour. Will encourage plenty to come back on another day to do what they didn't see. 

Edited August 3, 2016 by Ryno

[Tim Dasco]

37 minutes ago, Ryno said:

Why not have two tours. The one that is currently on offer. A second tour could incorporate SE, WWF,  the old western show stage and Looney Tunes ride warehouse area. Sounds like you guys were not rushed through the tour and was nicely paced so instead of trying to pack more into the tour and possibly ruin the experience by rushing through, create a second tour. Will encourage plenty to come back on another day to do what they didn't see. 

That is a great idea however they won't get as much of the GP to do 2 tours. The GP might fork out $300 for the tour. But if you want the GP to pay $600/person for some backstage tour it won't be likely. They should see the value in doing one tour as it can be marketed as a behind the scenes look and come behind the magic. But the GP would see no point in paying all that money again for a second tour. Unless the second tour was a movie studios tour. I.e. a set tour like they do at WBS in America.

[rappa]

I think you've misinterpreted. I read the idea of an A and B kind of thing. Maybe every second week the A tour runs and the others the B tour runs. If you don't care (ie general public) then you just book one one tour ($300). But if you enjoyed the tour and want to come back, or are an enthusiast looking for alternate experiences you specifically book the alternate tour to the one you did previously.

   

[Ryno]

Sorry if it got lost in translation.  Yes exactly how djrappa saw it. Alternate from week to week or month to month.  The GP will book whichever one is running for that week. Enthusiasts will do both at some point in time.

[iwerks]

They could always mix it up by doing different rides on different tours, so no one tour is the same.