Latest Airport/Westfield update..

 

 

In regards to what people have said about the choice of an airport theme, the airport theme could have worked if they put a bit more thought into it. Being in Main Street, Dreamworld, Queensland, I would've themed the 'terminal' by using the design of the 1940's-built (but 1930's-designed) administration building of Brisbane's Archerfield Airport, the main QLD airport in the 1930's, as inspiration. On the outside of the DW version though would be 1930's-styled advertisements (from a fictional airline called Dreamworld Airways) saying 'See Australia from the air!' etc with each advertisement having a different picture of an Australian landmark seen on the ride. The cylindrical part of the building would be on the corner of Main Street with the rest of the building 'being folded' so to head north and east respectively. Towering over the corner of Main Street would also be an air traffic control tower, inspired by the one which used to be on top of the Archerfield Airport administration building (1940's-built but 1930's-designed). It can also be seen in this photo, which gives an idea of how it would look in Main Street with people wandering around.

You walk into the building, under the air traffic control tower, into a room which contains the queue line & access to a souvenir shop. The queue's theming would be inspired by the interior look of the Archerfield Airport administration building (again built in the 1940's but designed in the 1930's), which is rather plain. The staff members would have uniforms inspired by 1930's fashion. At the end of the queue, you are directed to your seat (which may require staircases to access). When you reach your seat, rather than seeing a blank screen, the first frame of the film is already shown - the runways and taxiways of an airport (The real 1940's-built/1930's-designed Archerfield Airport administration building literally is right next to the taxiway - and still is). The film opens with you lining up on a CGI runway and taking off. The flight then begins, with a change of locations occurring when you fly through clouds. The first set of clouds appearing a few seconds after take off transporting you to the Gold Coast skyline. After more Australian landmarks, the film concludes with the plane landing at Dreamworld (again, on a CGI runway) & parking outside the 'northern side' of the 'administration building' (though you can't see it when you actually hop off the ride as you are again facing the taxiways on the screen - it is the same thing you see when you hop on the ride). The 'adminstration building' briefly seen whilst taxiing after landing is CGI too. You then exit the ride (taking the staircases if needed. There are both entry & exit staircases to increase capacity) via the souvenir shop, which also contains tourist brochures for the landmarks featured in the ride.

Edited September 15, 20187 yr by Jamberoo Fan

If only Dreamworld had access to someone with your imagination, Jamberoo Fan!

The one major thing I hope DW do is the staff get special uniforms for this ride to really enhance the experience. If it’s just the standard uniform then that’s definitely a missed opportunity 

I Ride Update

 

 

I'm surprised the Gold Rush sign is still standing. It looks weird now the building to the right is gone.  

when on the giant drop it appears that that bridge with the Gold Rush sign on it is a walkway that was used by staff possibly. it was an open hole but is now covered by that red metal.

22 hours ago, Gold Coast Amusement Force said:

I Ride Update

Thanks for the pictures! it was great to see an update without needing to take dramamine first!

47 minutes ago, AlexB said:

Thanks for the pictures! it was great to see an update without needing to take dramamine first!

I didn't forget

 

Gold Rush sign is now gone

Sad to see it go, but it really was expected and meeded

There's a lot of people crowded around that construction site - would be great if they followed the trend for other theme parks and major tourist destinations and put up some faux-facades so it wasn't such an eyesore.

Update 19/9/18. You can see the Gold Rush sign in the last photo.

1 minute ago, Gary86 said:

Update 19/9/18. You can see the Gold Rush sign in the last photo.

That last photo is really interesting, I wonder what on earth is going on there, particularly in regards to the space sorrounding Buzzsaw.

44 minutes ago, Slick said:

put up some faux-facades so it wasn't such an eyesore.

Why waste the money on building a fake facade only to tear it down again?

Also, the park isn't very open with photos of the demolition...

50 minutes ago, Skeeta said:

Why waste the money on building a fake facade only to tear it down again?

Many theme parks, from smaller players like Shima Spain Village right up to Disney (not to mention popular tourist destinations and even local shopping centres) will place hoarding up with a wrap or pre-printed mesh around construction works. If Dreamworld and Ardent would like to be known as an international player in theme parks then this is the standard that's expected in order to maintain not only an aesthetic in the park's busiest space but to maintain the sense of escapism that's expected from the title of being a theme park.  Here's two Disney examples of both types of cover (because they're the easiest to find.)

57 minutes ago, Skeeta said:

Why waste the money on building a fake facade only to tear it down again?

To enhance the guest experience during the construction period. 

Yeah look - i've seen these hoarding facades done by disney, both down HKDL main street and also their castle. The main street hoarding was nice (pretty much just as you see in Roachie's post above) but the castle hoarding looked horrible:

 

Even the mouse uses "plain" (figuratively speaking) hoardings in some areas... this was the redevelopment of fantasy gardens and surrounds at HKDL in 2015... and it was only standard hoarding height (just as DW has) - it didn't mask the excavators or other stuff on site:

 

I kinda lean towards Skeeta's argument though - why waste money? The mouse certainly can afford a custom wrap \ print for all their works, but in the cases highlighted by Roachie, those facades covered existing buildings that look identical to the wrap. Work is done on the facade behind the wrap or hoarding, and is reused every time they do maintenance on them. The hoarding can be attached physically to the structure.

In the case of the i-Ride \ DW Cinema, the existing facade was to be removed. The new facade wasn't built and is far too complex to be represented by a static 2D wrap, but finally - if the hoarding were to be built to the height of the building - 2-3 stories tall, as it couldn't be attached to the building for support (due to demolition) it would need to be free-standing. Thats an incredibly tall SAIL that could catch wind and risk toppling over onto guests. It'd require significantly more investment of time and money to build, and would need to be SIGNIFICANTLY anchored to prevent it from falling over - meaning it would likely need to be spaced even further out from the building, which would in turn occupy more park space.

And while its been mentioned, i'll address the cost point. Sure - small parks and big parks do it. But not parks currently bleeding money and writing down the book value of their park to the bare cost of the land alone. They need to recover, and to do that they need to build something to bring people back, but they also need to do it without being wasteful. This doesn't mean the quality of the attraction should suffer, but it does mean unnecessary things - like completely covering a 3 storey building with a standalone structure (when the dogs balls that is the back of the theatre and other buildings previously hidden by Eureka hasn't been mentioned at all) - is simply an expense they could (and should in their current circumstances) do without.

47 minutes ago, Slick said:

Many theme parks, from smaller players like Shima Spain Village right up to Disney (not to mention popular tourist destinations and even local shopping centres) will place hoarding up with a wrap or pre-printed mesh around construction works. If Dreamworld and Ardent would like to be known as an international player in theme parks then this is the standard that's expected in order to maintain not only an aesthetic in the park's busiest space but to maintain the sense of escapism that's expected from the title of being a theme park.  Here's two Disney examples of both types of cover (because they're the easiest to find.)

 

 

1. I don't know one Theme park in Australia that does it.

2. DW just made a 90 million dollar lost.

3. The faux-facades examples you show serve a purpose because it’s scaffolding safety wrap.   The wrapping would have been there regardless and Disney print on it to make it look nice.

4. Disney run fences like DW too.

5. Scaffolding cost.  $2800 for 4 m metre scaffold, 1.3m wide x 2.5m long

A. DW would require 63m (I’ll round it down to 50)

B. 50/2.5x2800 = $56000.  (did I mention that’s a week)

If DW required scaffolding with wrap for a long period of time they might do it also.

49 minutes ago, Skeeta said:

1. I don't know one Theme park in Australia that does it.

 

I remember that MW put up massive scaffolding and art in front of Justice League while it was being built to hide their mess when retheming from the Batman Sim.

Its not something I would expect from Dreamworld though lol. 

39 minutes ago, ejpdtd said:

I remember that MW put up massive scaffolding and art in front of Justice League while it was being built to hide their mess when retheming from the Batman Sim.

Its not something I would expect from Dreamworld though lol. 

I don't believe they erected the scaffolding to hide the mess.  They erected scaffolding to re-theme the building.

 

 

This might be the art you remember but it wasn't connected to scaffolding.

 

Somebody might have a photo of when the scaffolding was up.  I'm looking at you @themagician that might show what you are talking about.

 

Edited September 19, 20187 yr by Skeeta

I looked through my archives and couldn’t find anything. I do remember the entrance was covered in scaffolding and sheeting, but don’t remember the print of Wayne’s Manor being on it

Mine Ride remains 

10 hours ago, Skeeta said:

I don't believe they erected the scaffolding to hide the mess.  They erected scaffolding to re-theme the building.

This might be the art you remember but it wasn't connected to scaffolding.

Somebody might have a photo of when the scaffolding was up.  I'm looking at you @themagician that might show what you are talking about.

 

I looked through my old photos from when I was hitting MW weekly in high school. This is the big cover up they used while retheming.

Edit- but as you mentioned this is just safety wrap too which would have been there regardless

Edited September 19, 20187 yr by ejpdtd