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

[westical]

Yup. 

[Santa07]

Not too long to go now... very excited

Will I receive an email or a text tonight with some details?

[Reanimated35]

They should have called you by now or soon this arvo if you're doing it tomorrow. 

[westical]

Correct.

[Santa07]

43 minutes ago, reanimated35 said:

They should have called you by now or soon this arvo if you're doing it tomorrow. 

Nothing? Should I panic an wave my arms around now or just wait a bit? Should I shoot them an email/FB message or something, although I doubt anyone would be online now?

[Theme Park Girl]

I never got a phone call. Just a text message the evening before. 

[Zanstabar]

17 minutes ago, Santa07 said:

Nothing? Should I panic an wave my arms around now or just wait a bit? Should I shoot them an email/FB message or something, although I doubt anyone would be online now?

Don't panic too hard just yet. When I went on my tour I received my text message a little later into the evening (around 8:30pm). 

[Reanimated35]

Yeah maybe it was because it was the first one. One of the park reps called me to confirm parking and arrival time. Then I got an SMS. They mentioned an email but that never came. I put that down to teething issues. 

Just show up at 0715 and you'll be right. 

[Santa07]

Alright, thanks for the help guys  

Literally leave my phone for 10 minutes and I miss the call

Got the text and everything now  

[jcgoldcoast]

I'm still a bit confused as to where the VIP Parking is - I'm assuming it's in the highlighted area, is anyone able to confirm?

 

[Reanimated35]

^ yep

[westical]

3 hours ago, westical said:

Correct.

To further confuse things, I replied to the wrong thread. Wasn't agreeing with reanimated as I only received a text message, no call.

[Theme Park Girl]

Glad to know I wasn't the only one who missed out on a call then, @westical?

 

 

[JaggedJanine]

1 hour ago, jcgoldcoast said:

I'm still a bit confused as to where the VIP Parking is - I'm assuming it's in the highlighted area, is anyone able to confirm?

 

Since this can also confuse people like it did on the first day, haha, it is the parking on the left in that circle facing the public carpark.

[Santa07]

Wth am I doing up at 6am  

Just me and Richard online... no idea what he's doing up at this awful hour on a Saturday too.

Edited September 23, 2016 by Santa07

[Santa07]

Wow, what a day. Absolutely worth the price, if not three times it. Review to come soon (maybe tomorrow I'm dead tired) but I need to thank Greg and the team at movie world, most importantly our guides (Matthew and I'm forgetting the other guy's name, jc help me out here  ). Thanks as well to the rest of the group, although probably only two of you will see this (@jcgoldcoast). Every part of the tour was absolutely fantastic, there were a few things I don't think the past guys did which was awesome, Doomsday and the new area is amazing, and VR on Arkham blew me away, more to come on all that.

[jcgoldcoast]

@Santa07 The other guide's name was Scott - I'd forgotten Matthew's name, haha. Agree, the tour was definitely worth the price and I had a great time - I'd love to do it again!

We were lucky enough to have Lynn from the Studios on our tour, she had a stack of tidbits about the studios, which were fascinating to hear about!

[Santa07]

Part 1 of what I was going to try to make a short review, but I guess its length just proves how jam-packed and amazing the day was. The first half of what's below you probably already know if you've already been on the tour or have read one of the fantastic reviews on these forums already, but the content in last few paragraphs you probably won't have seen.

Wow. I have so much today and probably won’t be able to spill my emotions out in this single review - those being positive emotions of course. Here we go, let’s try to get this all done.

Greg and the team at Movie World have created an absolutely awesome experience that anyone - theme park enthusiast or not - should definitely give a go. I cannot express my thanks enough to the great guys down at movie world. 

The day started off arriving at movie world at around quarter past 7. Waking up at 6am, or 5:30am for some of the other tour members initially is a pain, but the day is so jam-packed you never have the moment to realise you’re tired. You meet up at the front with the two tour guides as well as the rest of your group, and spend a few minutes setting up - filling in some paperwork on meals, receiving our name badges, and distribution of earphones so we can hear the guides at all times, as some of the parts of the park (in particular Scooby) are very noisy.

I’ll take this moment to thank the tour guides, the director, Scott, and his ‘Assistant’, Matthew. Poor Matthew was being payed in peanuts by Scott, or so he said. These two guys are friendly, knowledgeable, funny and especially great at cracking puns (although I think one guy actually took Scott seriously when he said they forgot to check the crushed car in Justice League for people inside and the water on the floor was blood). I couldn’t have asked for better guides.

The tour group was very mixed. There was JC and his mate, an older couple who had apparently won the tour somewhere, as well as Lynn and her assistant who actually worked at the studios, and of course me. Despite our differences, we all got along really well.

The tour started with the Arkham Asylum coaster climb. Before going up, Scott gave us a bit of an introduction to some of the ride procedures, some fun facts, and introduced some new terms such as LOTO (Lockout Tagout, I’ve been learning ). We were told about the variety of loose items that have entered the ride envelope, including an eyeball… a prosthetic one, that is. Superman has also had someone lose their dentures. The view from the top of the coaster is phenomenal, I’m not kidding when I say you can see everything from up there. We got a great view of the whole park as well as the studios, and with the new Thor movie currently being filmed there, we got a few peeks at some of the outdoor sets. Our photos were also taken up there by our private photographer.

Once we were down from the climb, we went over to have breakfast/morning tea. The park was dead quiet, apart from a few cleaners, maintenance men, and cooks getting ready for the day. The food was great, just make sure you don’t eat too much because plenty more food will come. Books were passed around with photos of Movie World and the Studios’ history, and the guides didn’t have to speak here because Lynn knew absolutely everything on this and went into a lot of detail for us. Near the end we even got a visit from Batman, lots of photo opportunities here.

Next up was the Justice League track walk, with firstly a quick peek behind Batwing and an explanation of the ride’s system. We got to see the park’s 3D glasses cleaning facilities and got to go on a track walk of Justice league - plenty of photos taken here, as well as lots of fun facts, easter eggs, and targets you can hit for massive points (HINT: shoot the rat). For me it was a bit rushed, but that meant we had more time later on for other cool things.

Scooby Doo was after that, we were taken underneath the wild mouse section of track. Very noisy in here, so the earphones came very useful. This was a particularly interesting section of the tour, getting to see exactly how the ride works - plus discovering what remains from Gremlins.

From here the tour is a bit different to what you might already have seen.

Because of Fright Nights fast approaching, we were lucky enough to be shown through the Friday the 13th maze for Fright Nights. We learnt a few things about how things work behind the scenes for fright nights. I think this part of the tour was pretty confidential - but I’m hoping since this is one of the retuning mazes this year you guys already know a bit about it.

We had a bit of time on our hands before we were due for the Superman tour, so the tour guides decided to show us around the new DC supervillains area, giving detail into some of the effects there and a bit of information on how the models were created. I’ll do a full review of this new area later.

It was then time for the back-of-house Superman tour. They didn’t tell us this was a no-photo zone until a little bit in, so I may have snapped a pic or two, nothing for your eyes though . It was really interesting seeing the details behind the ride system and witnessing the staff’s startup procedures for the ride. Fun fact - the rumbling you hear in the station isn’t solely for theming - it actually lets the ride staff know if the train is sitting on the launch. We got the first ride of the day which was awesome, as well as a few guests who were trickling in below wondering how we got on the ride when it wasn’t even open hahaha xD . Afterwards, the guides took us into the bunker below the launch, where we got to witness the engines and hydraulics in action - a particularly interesting section if you’re into that stuff.

I think I’ll end part 1 here, part 2 to come tomorrow.

[Santa07]

Second part of the tour was definitely not as fantastic as the first, but while it didn't fully appeal to me if definitely did appeal to some of the others in the group.

We then headed to the kitchens where we met some of the staff and showed us some of the equipment. A short visit, but something most guests don't really get to appreciate. We then headed to HWSD 2 where we met some members of the crew including Neil Fanning (Scooby-doo) who showed us around the backstage, told us about the vehicles, as well as their careers in both acting and stunt-driving. Again, not my favourite part of the tour, but it was for one guy in the group. We then got VIP seating for the show, even a shout-out mid-show from the crew. I have to say this version of HWSD 2 is better than the last one I saw... at least the fireball ties into the storyline more now. After the show a few of us went to the control booth at the back - this I did find incredibly interesting, seeing the software they use and hearing about what they used in the past (including when the Police Academy show was running).

Lunch was great (although a bit messy), with visits from Superman and Bugs Bunny. Had a good chat with the other group members and the guides. We then got bags with photos, our fast track band, and a few other things, and headed our own ways to do whatever we wanted for the rest of the afternoon.

It was great to find even after the tour had concluded other members of the MW staff still treated us like VIPs after seeing our Star Tour badges (either that or decided that they were considered loose items and made us get rid of them >:( ). Although now I do have more of an understanding of their loose items policy, as Scott was saying he once witnessed one person almost get hit by a high-speed mobile phone someone took on superman. Shout-out goes to the guy in the VR booth for Arkham who I had a nice conversation with while waiting about the Star Tour.

And before I knew it the day was over. But it was a truly fantastic day, and something I'd definitely consider doing again if new parts to the tour were added. Definitely worth the money and if you do have a spare $300 (or $350 if you're not a pass holder) it's something you should give a go.

[Theme Park Girl]

So glad to hear others are enjoying so much! I agree it's definitely well worth the money. I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I could afford to ❤️

[Santa07]

One thing that made me laugh was the positioning of the speakers on the female JL animatronics... ahahaha.

[Reanimated35]

3 hours ago, Santa07 said:

One thing that made me laugh was the positioning of the speakers on the female JL animatronics... ahahaha.

Well, it is a speaker "box"

[JaggedJanine]

Has anyone done it twice yet or already booked a second day?

 

...Other than @reanimated35 and myself.

[rappa]

If you're into ride tech I would certainly go on the tour/go back to see the Superman Launch system in action. Probably one of the coolest bits of machinery you will see. 

[Santa07]

29 minutes ago, djrappa said:

If you're into ride tech I would certainly go on the tour/go back to see the Superman Launch system in action. Probably one of the coolest bits of machinery you will see. 

^this

It's really amazing seeing how fast everything happens and how complicated it all is. It is quite literally an octopus as they described it yesterday.