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It’s full zoom on the phone already 😂

Main/Middle Screen is gone!

6/3 update

You've obviously never been on Justice League - Alien Invasion: 3D at Movie World.

The first part of the counter weights have been installed (Photo TPSN)

The market on the whole has experienced huge losses in recent weeks so that's what we're seeing with Ardent to some extent. Few examples however have been as dramatic as Ardent. They've slashed about two-thirds of their market cap in the past month and they're one of the 'biggest losers' on the ASX in 2020. Inquest findings and growing coronavirus fears obviously play into it but inquest findings are not unforeseen and Ardent's share price losses outpace the rest of the market amid coronavirus uncertainty. Remember too that investors at the time of the accident completely wrote off Dreamworld in share price losses. Ardent also wrote down its book value of Dreamworld to the point where the land is presumably worth more than the entity. Dreamworld's value to investors is strictly in terms of potential, not performance. The half year results were not great. Main Event is floundering in a supposedly flourishing US economy. That business hit a wall several years ago and seems lifeless as ever of late. Dreamworld saw a 2.9% attendance growth off the back of Sky Voyager and a concerted effort at special events. That kind of negligible growth from historic lows following major investment and a more focused marketing strategy than we've seen in years is a big red flag and I wouldn't be so quick to say that the park is back on track because they've painted a few things and held some nice events. It looks like there are wider confidence issues surrounding Ardent Leisure. Three years ago a property developer and a corporate raider joined forces, bought up about 10% of Ardent and waged a public war to gain control of the Ardent board. Their pitch was that they knew how to fix Ardent with a three year plan to deliver $1 billion to investors. They got their board seats and now three years on about $700 million in market cap has disappeared. Their own investment in the company has lost them somewhere up near $70 million. On the plus side they've learnt a valuable lesson that just about anyone could have told them: you can't flip a theme park. Anyway that's the short version of the article I would have written in recent weeks if I had the time/inclination. Just throw in a bit more sarcasm and some big words.

one side up today.

The old Big Brother cafe bulldozed today.

Well Vikings revenge has been waiting a long time.... But remember a world class attraction will replace Vikings Revenge in 2019! Oh wait..... At least Vortex will open in December 2019.... well Trident will open in April 2020...... oh wait.... maybe Leviathan might meet its deadline?

Latest update, probably hasn't changed since these photos because of the rain.

I took this about a month ago while picking up one of the brother's from work, they've been stripping the old baldwin apart, fingers crossed these are the first signs of seeing it back on the tracks on day. 👍🏼

Well done MW! Now please give that facade some love - after decades covered, I can still see the brick slot just above the Planet where Lasers projected for those once epic parade's/light shows. All the same, this is such a great improvement.. Please keep it up!

When the park floods again, atleast there will be the ability for them to do Dive in Movies!

Indeed I have - i mentioned this on the forums last week when we were discussing how recently the Log Ride signage had been removed, and I mentioned i'd been in the park on the 23rd of Feb - the day before I went with @Jdude95 to the Brisbane Magistrates Court to live report the inquest findings. Keep up @MickeyD! Ok - Magician points out a lot of good things that have happened in the parks, but given he bumped an 18 month old thread to do so, I figured he was directly referencing the things that @Slick had mentioned. Many of the eyesores remain. Before: After (taken February 2020) Unfortunately, I'm not really one for photo trip reports. I also don't see the point in taking photos of things that haven't changed. So I can't really refute each and everyone of @Slick's photos that were taken more than 18 months ago. But I DO visit regularly since getting a pass again at Christmas. Probably 5-6 times since December? SO rather than quote each pic, here's a breakdown of Slick's post 18 months on in dot-point form: Main entrance facade - looks like fucking garbage. Its a great first impression. White facadeland is gone, mainly because the ride is open. no great surprises there. Now that the sky voyager facade is complete, and the goldrush signage removed, we instead have a tight pinch point where a ride exit feeds onto a narrow street that is also intended as a thoroughfare to another ride, which is barely open, so why bother, right? The next 4 pics were of cinema\skyvoyager construction, rather than a particular fault or issue. Charging station, featuring now closed attractions that don't belong. There are STILL a literal fuck-tonne of references and promo and marketing pictures around the park (the kodak shop wall, the height measure up sticks around the park, various walls - including the jingeri\welcome gate beside the main entrance as shown in the pics above Next up, Hollywood House. I guess, since they bulldozed it last week, we can technically say this has been 'resolved' - but only just, and it took 18 months to 'resolve' it Then we have the 'half removed walkways' over rocky hollow. they remain 'half removed' on my last visit. Giant Drop still has 'rustic theming' disintegrating in the elements. Posts from abandoned walkways (see half removed walkways above) remain. Crappy, poorly maintained kopper log retaining walls littered with conduits, and covered in dead leaves that haven't been cleaned up in milennia - yep, still there. Fencing with 'green leafy facade' vinyl hung on it to hide the back of house BB studios area - still there. Unkempt and hazardous tree matter surrounding the train shed - still there. Ooooh! there's something that has changed - the fencing surrounding the TRRR site. Previously, it had a nice, well constructed, completely un-see-through red metal fence! Now it has temporary, see-through, covered slightly with printed marketing wrap but still totally see-through-able material, so now you can see the weeds, dirt, random piles of junk and garbage left to sit where they fell. I never thought i'd say bring back the red fence! Then we're onto super duper silver lining stuff like Claw reopened looking good, trolls area open and looking good I'm sorry, but practically every single issue raised by Slick in his original post is still as yet unresolved, and looks exactly the same. Have they taken mad steps to fix other stuff? Of course. Is it great that MovieWorld's most passionate leader is now employed by Dreamworld and is kicking goals left right and fucking centre? Fucking Hell yes! But to bump THIS PARTICULAR thread, and say SO MUCH of what was pointed out 18 months ago has been resolved, when almost NONE of it has - is bullshit. Kudos to Dreamworld for: WWW park wide refurb (inside and out) "for the most part" Facade repaints on Main Street "which they started recently" Giant Drop exterior refurb and additional path to cut out the stairs and ramp "even though there was already a path there that they could use" Refresh of the path between Tiger Island and ABC Kids "because the prior plain brick tunnel gives you such 'getting mugged' vibes that this is something they probably should have done way back when the tunnel was first constructed, and let's be honest, they painted a fucking tiger on the wall - they didn't exactly refresh the entire path' Refurb of path between Rocky Hollow and Corroboree 'i'm not sure exactly when the rainbow serpent was installed, but i'm not sure it was before or after this thread started. I'll give you this one though, on the off chance the rainbow serpent actually went in in the last 18 months. ' I am excited for what is to come for Dreamworld, and its clear that they're taking on some large refresh projects to spruce the park up, but unfortunately the bright coat of paint only serves to be a HARSHER contrast with the derelict and rotting remains in other areas. As a first impression, the main entrance building needs a total refurbishment. strip the crappy years of conduit out, hide the air con units better. get rid of the moving head light-and-dome combos that you never use. bring that building back to A1 condition. This park was built to be Australia's Disneyland - so let's just walk through the park and think about sight lines. back of house areas. things that ruin the magic. How can we fix some of these? The failed ampitheatre, and the failed adventure river are both eyesores. do something to improve the visual. the trip around behind blue lagoon on the train is pointless except for the grade the train requires to climb the hill. even a nice forest planting in this area, tidied up, with a spiel of the native trees, or animals, or hell - built a diorama. i don't care. do something with it so it doesn't constantly take you for a trip of 'what used to be, the ride'. i've had enough ranting. maybe i'll come back later for some more.

Can’t be to long now till the structure starts going up. Unwrapping more of the ride component today. Also appears someone’s put the boot in as workers now there on Sunday and still there at 5:10 today.

Ah, the classic can't refute that eventually turns to being pedantic about specifics. To be fair, I should have expected it on here

Oh wow that looks about 1000 times better! Wow

Woah, Alex said something positive about Dreamworld? Are you okay? Did you get Covid-19?

The gold rush theme is dead. The whole dilapidated look is dead. There is a high chance that Buzzsaw will be changed to reflect this. The only question is when.

It's interesting to see how they are painting it in such a random sequence

I missed that part, unfortunately I haven't had a lot of spare time for things like Parkz of late. @themagician you should get back to DW as soon as you can - same goes for everyone else on here! A lot has changed/improved with the likes of SV most definitely worth an annual pass purchase alone.

Just came across this 1997 park map of the park too that shows the train

Here’s one taken today

I think it’s safe to say that the rides theming will not look anything like the concept art

It’s normally the kiss of death for a trip report if you post it at time when bigger news is happening, so after waiting it out, it’s time for the next instalment from Japan. Parue Espana – Shima Spain Village https://www.parkz.com.au/parks/JP/Shima/Parque_Espana_-_Shima_Spain_Village/ (over 200 pics published in the Parkz gallery) This place is in a bit of a pain in the butt location at the bottom of a peninsular on Ise bay about 90km South of Nagoya as the crow flies. However it’s over a 2 hour train ride because its so mountainous. I got to the town of Ugata (the station used to reach the park) the night before after my day at Nagashima Spaland. I did this by getting a bus from Nagashima to Kuwana, then using a Kintetsu limited express train to Ugata. The train is a bit pricey because you have to purchase both the base point to point ticket, plus an additional surcharge ticket to cover the fact its limited express. A word of warning. If rain is forecast, you’re probably better off rescheduling if you can. Neither Pyrenees nor Gran Montserrat run in any sort of rain or spitting, so you’ll end up doing a lot of waiting around if the weather isn’t good. In hindsight, if I was planning on doing this again, I probably would have based myself in Nagoya and daytripped rather than trying to work in a loop through destinations / parks and had a spare day. Would have meant the option to shift things around, plus return to Nagashima for re-rides (A subject for a future trip report) The park is quite good, and if you are going here, there’s really no need to visit Lagunasia. The main reason for Parque Espana is of course to ride Pyrenees, a superb B&M inverted coaster. There was a brief break in the rain earlier in the morning so it was testing when I arrived. However it started raining again so no dice. The day started on Iron Bull , an indoor coaster with some over the top restraints and a couple of lift hills. Moderate drops and helices abound. At the midpoint you come to a stop in a boiler room themed environment where there are a few special effects and flashing lights. Kiddy Montserrat was my 600th coaster since still no Pyrneees. I did like the Gaudi theming. The park did seem to make an effort to stay on point. The section it was in was probably the emptiest feeling. Batalla Del Alcazar Adelante was nearby. Like that magic powder ride at Lagunaisa, its a revolving dark ride, except the vehicles always stay facing towards the middle, where there is a big diorama in the middle of the ride where you shoot killer centipedes. What set this apart was the way the vehicles could slide back and forth on the spot, bringing you closer to the middle of the turntable. There was also an Alice in Wonderland walkthrough where you were given a magic wand to interact with some rudimentary effects. Credit to the girl running it for reading out a full english instruction card for me! Illumination Ride Nutcracker was also up this end of the park. The classical ballet soundtrack gives this ride illusions of grandeur, in reality its a detuned version of its a small world, with 2D sets and lots of fairy lights. Had a chicken katsu curry here for lunch: With no signs of the rain abating, I made my way down to the lower section of the park. The place is quite impressively themed, and carries that mid 90s vibe when theme parks seemed to be at their peak. One hidden gem everyone bangs on about is the Escalator ride. Flashing lights meets spanish pop music. It was ok, and yes probably unexpected for most guests. Down the bottom is slow boat ride called Feliz Cruise. It used to lead into a full on dark ride, but they chopped it short and now it's just outside. As well as big sets it had some funny dioramas too. There was a ship you could have a wander around in. There was a low key funhouse called Choquy's Mystery House. Not much in terms of physical obstacles, but plenty of optical illusions. One i thought was cool was a false hallway that actually turned out to be a prisim type shape pointed towards you when you got a bit closer. The main attraction at the lower end of the park turned out to be Don Quixotes Magical Flight A peter pan rip off, and probably of similar length, with some good production values. I decided to hoof back up the hill, where you pass through a Spanish Village. If i had been smarter i probably would have gone downhill through the village and come back up via the escalator. One of the buildings had a trick art exhibition. Back at the top of the park and still no sign of Pyrenees opening, so I delved further into the park. Grabbed some Pizza in the main street. Japanese style with Teriyaki chicken, seaweed flakes and mayo, This section was an entire indoor kids area. More Gaudi stuff I saw there was a 360 cinema, and here I got a proper dose of Japanese eccentricity, being treated to the most surreal kids 3d movie i have ever seen. I had no idea what was going on. It was a couple of kids wandering around in a spooky forest with seemingly random wierd stuff going on. It was all in Japanese of course, so even more baffling. I thought perhaps that would be the end of it, but a couple of weeks ago, I found who produced the film, and there's an english dub! https://www.thejuice.com/#https://www.thejuice.com/portfolio/hansel_gretel/ The linking seems to be wierd, but its the 45th movie in the portfolio: Skip to about the 4 min mark to see how im not lying about the wierdness. Hmmm, what else to do in the park. I was gonna wait till the very end to make sure i got on Pyrneees. At one point it seemed like the rain had stopped and they had commenced testing, but nope they got a few laps in before halting again. Arrrrgh. I had a good look around the Spanish museum in the park. The highlight was a cinema showing 80s stock footage from Spain that had evidently been produced just prior to park opening and never updated since. I did a re-ride on Don Quixotes Magical flight.... (Photo not good enough for database, but at one point you went under the sea) I also took a wander through the Fairytale village they had. I had been keeping a keen eye on the rain radar all day, and it looked like the last of the rain bands had passed over the area, and right on cue Pyrenees commenced testing, so I parked myself at the entrance...If i was gonna get a ride, i wanted to snare the front. After around 45 mins of testing, and with about 90 mins of park opening time to go, Pyrenees opened, to some high fives with a couple of locals and the attendant who had seen this funny foreigner waiting out to ride this thing. In the end I got 3 laps (front row, a back row, and then another near the back) until i had to leave, would have happily done more, but beggars cant be choosers, and i was thankful to have not missed it, the memories of missing both Eejanaika and Ultra Twister still there. As for the ride? It's mental, and lives up to the hype of being one of the best inverted coasters. Steel first drop, a loop that whips you around, a good zero g, another tall, but tight loop with plenty of force. The ride then really shines when it takes a downhill left turn at full speed into a trench and does a cobra roll with plenty of kick. From there it does a forceful helix, almost like a horizontal loop. The latter part of the course is a bit more drawn out, but still fast, doing a corkscrew along the way. For good measure theres actually a bunny hop right at the end that gives a good bit of air....enough to elicit a few screams on the train anyway. So there you have it, i came, i saw, i conquered. Last but not least i got a single lap on Gran Montserrat. Again, would have liked to ride more, but i had also been closed all day, and with the time till i had to get my bus it was either another go on this or a 3rd go on Pyrenees. Normally mine trains are slow and crap, this one isn't. It was built by mack, and just blitzes through the course at high speed, with heaps of helices. The only other that comes close is Mine Train Ulven at Bakken. I skipped the flume that runs through it due to the cold wet weather. As the sun set rapidly i got a night ride on Pyrenees before heading to the exit. So yes, definitley try to get here. Its worth the trip. Pyrenees is one of the best coasters in Japan, and the rest of the park is good quality (Abeit a little stained, though in better nick than Lagunasia) In normal circumstances, i think you'd be done here in 4 to 5 hours if its quiet, though with my bad luck with the weather i stuck around all day and spent a bit of time sitting around.