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The YouTube channel ‘Coaster Studios’ have announced they have made a new documentary about the challenge with building roller coasters in Australia, with a particular focus on Leviathan. The documentary comes out this weekend. “Surprise! We made a new documentary For our next project, we wanted to cover something we'd never really seen discussed before. Most people know building a roller coaster is no small feat- but did you know some countries make it more difficult than others? Australia is known for having some of the strictest regulations in the world, which can add stress to what might be an already difficult project. We sat down with @thegravitygroupllc and Martin & Vleminckx Rides to find out what it took to develop Australia's only modern wooden roller coaster. Leviathan is unlike anything the country had ever seen before- which meant an uphill battle to bring it to life. On Friday, we will share that story with you through interviews, custom music, and never before seen pictures!” https://www.instagram.com/p/DKLCQWAJzO6/?igsh=N3R6NTN4cWc2MnIz

Ok well I was waiting to have a minute to post but I will chime in here. I finally got to visit Rivertown last week… To say I was impressed would be an understatement. Easily best thing, or certainly most complete thing any park has built in a very long time. The entire area is immersive and detailed and just so on point. The detail in the theming and hidden touches just top it all off. Retheme of Vintage cars - amazing! Jungle Rush Coaster - what a perfect choice for the family demographic, and genius use of a relatively small footprint. Fun and thrills for all ages. As for the comments above, so off the mark. Yes I definitely feel the money must have run out in the turntable chamber, and it’s what turns this possible 10 into a 9. But is 10 year old me gonna notice? No As for the interior queue, it’s almost Disney level, there is nothing that anyone visiting a regional park in Australia should be complaining about in here. …and this is from the most critical old bastard that has never been backward about criticizing Dreamworld. Oh and for bonus points, all the staff were smiling!

I know it is off-peak season, but running only one train on your duelling coaster despite the line going the whole through the barn, outside and the whole way back to the stairs outside indoor area with Dorothy’s house is ridiculous… so too is that we’re still at 5-6min dispatches on Wicked Witch despite 6 people working the ride, which just means they chat in bigger groups between cycles.. only letting one cycle worth in the castle and everyone out in the sun is even more anti-guest experience

You have got to be kidding They take the actual most amazing vista in the park which has as much appeal offride and onride and they go and destroy it with probably the most stupid fence ever known to man Who is the absolute liability clown thats advising these people on these ridiculous safety measures Its bad enough you have FENCE-The Ride over at wizard and now they have this shithouse attempt Totally lost the plot

I was cautiously optimistic of the ride returning to the opening (of the ride) standard when this was announced, but after Oz and various visible maintenance/upkeep issues around the park I don’t have faith anymore. I’m not even confident it will open this year tbh.

The wedgie is no longer, from driving past the only piece visible from the highway is the trapdoor entry, crane still on site

Its a hard pill to swallow when a rollercoaster can be built in a year, but it takes 3 years to rebuild. From what I understand, they had planned on upgrades with Mack and had booked their build slot - which I believe was supposed to be after WoZ opened - but the ride had to be closed earlier than planned - the build slot couldn't be moved up, so the 3 years has just been waiting on Mack to deliver in the timeframe previously locked in. I believe they've taken the time to improve other bits and pieces (and all the cars are getting replaced too, I think?), so there is a lot being done - but the time it has taken is much longer than actually required - which may set some false expectations.

Update: The Track Piece for The Vertical Lift that was found outside Kansas Twister's Station has been Reinstalled back inside.

More stuff like this would seem to be a good fit in the dark ride sections. From what I've seen so far the indoor sections and the promised 'show scene' seem pretty underwhelming. Still a great ride and well presented, but I was hoping for a bit more from the indoor parts

Continuing conversation from this reply i've put down my current thoughts on a WB Kids refresh. What WB Kids needs is to be gutted and refreshed. My ideal first plan would reclaim the other half of the old LTRR soundstage from maintenance - maintenance might need to relocate entirely if they've outgrown their own space. Put in a new kids area into the soundstage building with multiple attractions similar to Mermaid lagoon at disneysea, or USJ's Sesame Street Fun World. It doesn't need to be immersive, just an indoor area out of the sun with some rides and activities for the little kids to blow off some energy. The reason this is the first plan is it provides the opportunity to refresh the rest of the land without dropping the kids offering in the park. Once this is open, move to refreshing the rest of the land: Remove speedy taxis. It serves no purpose with the introduction of JDS Find a new home for the parents room that doesn't occupy prime attraction space and demolish Taz' Rest Stop along with the original Marvin facade to make space for new attractions. You could potentially provide parent's room facilities as part of the new indoor stage space if you planned for it. Consider the longevity of both Sam Train and Tweety Cages and perhaps remove them in place of new attractions If this whole corner of the kids area can be cleared, then also consider (controversial I know) removing the giant tree. It's a gorgeous old tree and it's been there for a long time, but it occupies prime park real estate and is a major blocker to expansion If the tree comes out, tweety, sam train, taz and the old marvin area are removed, you're left with a huge plot of land you can close all at once, which allows greenfield planning for a new install, with the added benefit you can actually run power to the character stage and bury the cables rather than flying them through the trees suspended on wooden poles. Update JDS to bring it current to today's park lineup (remove arkham, add WOZ, for example - and does it have DCR?) Turn the JDS arcade (is that still there with the new kids arcade?) into a JDS themed gift shop to bring more opportunity for merchandising into the land instead of the laneway entrance most people walk straight past. Reopen the restaurant with a new offering and re-establish a covered (umbrellas) seating area for parents to chill while the kids run their energy out. Probably a bit much especially for BGH's current attitude toward the park, but that's what i'd love to see. WB Kids currently offers a disjointed experience. There are 'rides for babies' plus road runner. So the slightly older kids that have outgrown the 'baby rides' but haven't graduated to hypercoasters don't have a lot of middle ground, so there's an opportunity with this level of expansion to provide some 'middle of the road' attractions - a lot like what Sea World offers in their nickelodeon area.

The gondolas arm has arrived and it’s scale is insane!

Just when you think it can't get any shittier over at Movie World.

Very pleased to report that during today's showings the emergency signs behind the screen are interlocked with the front barrier lighting and as a result now extinguish before the barriers lower and illuminate after they re-raised.

If WoO had more than just rollercoasters, then yes. Kids that age need to fill a whole day too. Right now, their options are all coasters (including Scooby) and maybe WWF if it's operating. Rides with small footprints like a Nebluaz, Condor, or ABC Interactive tower, would all have been solid additions to WoO and could easily have been themed to suit. It will be hard to add them later because so much space is wasted on the emerald city queue lines.

I don't think this is going to be received too well by the general public if after almost three years of downtime the net benefit (from a perception point of view) is a couple of extra doors and light theming changes. Most aren't going to notice or care about a new ride system/cars. Hell some think Wipeout moved to Seaworld. I'm looking forward to it reopening regardless; I'm waiting for it before we visit again.

Think that nail has been very well hit by dapto there

The fence looks awful in my opinion WWF was my favorite ride but in the last 5 years its fallen apart and most of the effects don't work anymore so this is just another stab to the heart.

Don't think so, here's a pic from Coaster Studios' tour after it closed

i mean that’s true but it’s been closed coming up to 3 years (even if it wasn’t planned to close as early as it did), and it’s meant to be opening in the coming months… i hope they’ve touched more theming then we can see.

This feels to me as insurance costs $1000000 with the old fence and only $200000 with the new. Either that or they decided everyone should suffer due to the patrons that would rest children on the fence/don’t adequately supervise. There’s been a couple of times where I have seen west staff literally yell at people from load due to stupidity.

Cheers for asking was a great success! Even Greg and his family came and played which was fantastic for see.

As many have said on this forum already people need to stop going and giving them $ otherwise they will continue to do it. Go to Dreamworld where they actually care about guest experience. The general public needs to learn that.

The audio in that room is solid. My nit pick is the transitions between tracks are jarring… should flow better. But that could be playback system limitations, programming or audio composition (hey hire a good TD ) But otherwise audio is good

I would love to see what risks they did identify, because someone standing up on a character seems like an obvious one to me?

the thing with only opening Friday-Sunday, we will end up with the shit show that is Movieworld and their operations, which imo would happen because they would be relying on younger staff/new causal hire to only work the 3 days instead of having staff that have been there many years working a full weekly shift. Just my opinion

The monorail track has been completely removed from the eastern boundary and over the carpark

I visited both parks in July last year. It was definitely busy that time of year, but I imagine it gets much busier later in summer too. Both parks are huge though, which helps spread out the crowds; the biggest queues I encountered were for Voltron at Europa Park (which had only been open two months at this point) at around 90-120 minutes for the normal queue (I used the single rider queue every time). I was visiting by myself, so I made pretty extensive use of single rider queues, so some of my advice might not be totally accurate. Efteling roughly forms a circle, which makes it easy to move through the park as the day goes on. The big high-G rides there are all concentrated in the same place out the back though, so you might find yourself going back and forth, which can take a bit of time. If your partner is happy doing indoor roller coasters, then I'd highly recommend Vogelrock, as it wouldn't be any more intense than Jungle Rush, and honestly it was one of my favourites there. The grounds and gardens and random attractions all over the place are also really worth seeing, so definitely take your time as you walk through the park. The layout of Europa Park is far more chaotic, and I'd say it's probably impossible to see everything in a one day visit. I've gone twice now, and there's plenty of things I haven't tried, and probably some areas I haven't even walked through yet. It'll be pretty easy to balance out high-G rides with smaller/dark rides, as they're all pretty evenly distributed around the park. Down the front of the park you've got the Eurosat CanCan Coaster that's in the big dome. Both trips I've been surprised by how much I enjoyed it, and it's not too intense (probably similar to Jungle Rush, just a bit longer). Silver Star (the B&M hyper) is right there too, and that's a solidly enjoyable ride, but it often has some of the longest queues in my experience. Unless you're desperate to get on a B&M hyper, I'd prioritise several other rides first. If you've been on Steel Taipan, then you can probably prioritise other rides over Blue Fire (it's still a great ride though). Arthur is a really fun and pretty tame ride, that's definitely worth getting on because of how unique it is. And obviously I'd recommend Voltron as a must ride, there's pretty much nothing like it. My recommendations for must-do rides at Europe Park would be (in no particular order): Voltron, Blue Fire, Eurosat, Euromir, Arthur, Silver Star, Wodan. I've just then visited other rides/attractions as I've walked between those ones. I don't have any great recommendations for food at either park, because I've never gone out of my way to find food. For accomodation, I'd recommend trying to stay close to Europa Park. It's fairly straightforward to get there from elsewhere, but it can take a while on trains + buses (I was staying in Heidelberg and had a 2-3 hour trip each way last time I visited. Freiburg is only about 1-1.5 hours away, and is where I'd recommend if you don't want to stay in Rust itself). Efteling is also quite accessible, and it's much closer to big cities like Amsterdam or Rotterdam. Personally, I found the longer vlogs from Coaster Studios and Theme Park Worldwide to be really useful for getting a sense of what's in each park, and roughly how to get around. Feel free to fire away with any additional questions you've got too!

I was gonna say, that was 100% not there in 2012 when I worked at the park and did regular morning track walks of Scooby. So yeah, part of the next gen "upgrade" to tie in with the lift sequence ft. Scrappy Doo.

This is an awesome video that gives an amazing insight into the entire process from start to finish for the coaster. It reveals a lot of details many of us didn’t even know about and why there were so many delays in its opening. About halfway through the video it also gives an insight into the incompetence of VRTP and why they sometimes make poor decisions, or thinks take so long to get done!

I guess it's also another way for them to bleed $ from people as well because you won't be able to get a photo of anyone coming down without paying for the on-ride photo. How does it not cross their mind to paint the fence as a bare minimum though this place really has gone to shit.

if they had to go with a metal fence for insurance/risk aversion - at least choose a non-jarring colour that matches the surrounds, like a brown ffs

like - even *not black* would have helped.

nothing says "western town" like black steel posts....

We all found Africa beyond underwhelming. The resolution is awful, the soundtrack lacks impact or ‘heart/feels’ and the jump scares are forced. Sorry but it was a meh for me

As part of their increased focus on making Jane's Rivertown Restaurant a dining destination for locals on Friday and Saturday nights - starting tomorrow night they'll be launching a Friday night Trivia Night. Hope people get along and have some fun with family & friends. It's been a pleasure working with the team at Dreamworld to get this off the ground 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19NTJW7aT5/

The supports are now in the carpark

I think because they were working on the assumption that most people would understand fence = don't enter... Unfortunately it doesn't matter how many fences or signs you put up - some people think they don't apply to them if they just need to retrieve their hat.

Fence is finished. Looks the same as before but taller. Photo TPSN

To be clear, it wasn't machinery the kid was actually stuck in, it makes it seem like he was caught in some big machine. He stuck his head through the ceiling rose and when the pole moved it pinned his head against the fibreglass opening on the ceiling. He wasn't just standing up on a character when riding, but literally climbing up the character and standing on the seat itself, sticking your head up against the pole. It's not a fast moving ride in the slightest, normally you would expect someone would see the roof coming close to them and duck down, not stick your head through the opening. There is absolutely no way to enclose the hole the poles come through, you have forward/backward motion of the crankshaft, plus some lateral movement due to alignments that have to be allowed for it to function. As said, they normally install this nylon brush stuff as a deterrent, but it's not something that actually stops you from sticking a hand (or other body part) through the ceiling.

Finally had a go on this last week. Very impressive.. only nit pick would be to enclose the bit of track from the station to the turntable room, add add more lighting effects and haze to the turntable room .

Dreamworld posted a short video of JR going from the turntable, forwards through the track and back to the turntable with Front, Rear and face cam of 2 riders. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKVj-1jsOfq/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Pretty standard nothing much here, but it does have a not so subtle dig at their neighbours in the comment/description.

I was done being an Australian theme park enthusiast long ago, but this shit is the final nail in the coffin. I lived on the Gold Coast for 21 years, but I'll never visit again because there's no reason to. Doesn't matter that AirTimeThrills raved about DC Rivals or Steel Taipan. Nothing's going to get me to cough up a dollar to visit these parks.

When I heard about the updated plans being paper of PDF and that they were worried about coffee spilling, I knew right then and there Village was at the helm

Really ties into the Western theming…

All projections were working on Monday They are pretty high end DLP laser projectors and most are in environmentally controlled housings FWIW

Did the Dr put the stick up your bum or were you born with it? 🤣

The Rivertown area could do with a few 'themed billboards' put together out of ramshackle junk and old timey lights - "kind of like the highway signs of "just 2 miles until you reach...."

Absolutely. The 40mins in JR was far less of a slog than the WoO queues were in the sun

Another sure way of not making money is to open a park that nobody attends.... If WWW was even close to profitable during winter it would be open

If Merlin wanted a legoland, they'd 100% build a greenfields park. You wouldn't buy dreamworld and then knock everything down to build a legoland park. legoland typically shoots toward a younger demographic so you'd have millions of dollars of thrill-rides that wouldn't suit the park style. Merlin also owns Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington and Gardaland, and none of those became Legolands. If Merlin bought dreamworld I could see them putting in a third gate style park, or redeveloping space inside the park into a mini legoland, but Dreamworld would stay.