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GOLD Coast’s Sea World will tomorrow unveil a “game-changing” new visitor attraction city leaders have been desperate for: a $50m new thrill ride precinct. Village Roadshow Theme Parks, which operates Sea World, will reveal three new adventure rides in a new 1.5-acre zone being added to its Sea World park in the next 18 months. Village Roadshow CEO Clark Kirby, in an exlusive interview with the Bulletin running tomorrow, says it plan will be a “game-changer” for the city and create a whole new destination. A Village preview of tomorrow’s announcement, to be attended by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, says: “Village Roadshow Theme Parks is set for an exciting 18-months with $50 million dollars scheduled to be spent, including thrilling new attractions for the Gold Coast parks, enhancing guest experiences, and maintaining Village Roadshow Theme Parks’ high standards of animal welfare, technology and plant integrity. Village Roadshow Theme Parks CEO, Clark Kirby will be joined by Queenlsand Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk at Sea World tomorrow to announce the new attractions.” The investment is Village Roadshow’s biggest since it unveiled the new 1.5km hyper coaster at its Movie World theme park at Oxenford in mid-2017. The Gold Coast Bulletin will have full details of the new Sea World precinct and the first images exclusively at goldcoastbulletin.com.au from midnight Skeet needs to buy more beer on the way home so he doesn't run out before 12.

I want the monorail to breakthrough a big ass waterfall as it enters Atlantis.

F-me I'm sitting here having a beer and toasting Village on their commenment and love they're giving to the parks. Village is investing in Australian parks like we have never seen before in this country and I can't believe somebody is being negative Nancy without even knowing the details.

It's worth pointing out that the coaster layout shown in the artist's rendering is not the final product. There were three iterations of the coaster layout by Martin & Vleminckx / Gravity Group. The finalised layout is the one depicted in the scale model: https://www.parkz.com.au/photo/19332-Leviathan_model/gallery/sort/newest/location/ride-4166-Leviathan/offset/0

VILLAGE Roadshow will build a new $50 million Gold Coast theme park with three cutting-edge thrill rides at Sea World in a game-changing 18-month redevelopment plan. The centrepiece of the 1.5 hectare addition to its Main Beach site will be a one kilometre wooden roller coaster – with a pair of backwards seats – that travels at 80km per hour. Village will roll out the first of the rides – an 18-metre giant pendulum swing similar to Dreamworld’s recently retired Wipeout attraction – by December. It will be followed by a 52-metre high ride that spins guests at 36km per hour high above The Spit in April, 2020. The new roller coaster will be operational by December, 2020. They are the key features of what Village Roadshow is calling The New Atlantis, a “utopian precinct”. It will also promote Sea World’s extensive marine conservation work. The new roller coaster will be 1km long and travel at 80km per hour Village Roadshow Theme Parks CEO Clark Kirby, speaking exclusively to the Bulletin, said the investment had been two years in the planning and would revitalise one of the country’s favourite theme parks. Mr Kirby, who will officially unveil the development this morning alongside Premier Annastacia Palasczcuk at Sea World, said: “The New Atlantis will be a game-changer for Sea World and become a destination in its own right where our guests can experience the myths, mysteries, quests and challenges located within this new multimillion-dollar utopian precinct. “The New Atlantis has been designed as a fully immersive precinct with the rides complimented by sleek, eye-catching and architecturally aesthetic theming including waterfalls, fountains, statues and hanging gardens to take guests on the ultimate Atlantean adventure.” It is Village Roadshow’s first big outlay since it launched Movie World’s new $30m DC Rivals HyperCoaster in Oxenford, the longest and fastest in the southern hemisphere. Mr Kirby said it had been encouraging to see Queensland’s Government investment in The Spit Masterplan which was key for Village to green light The New Atlantis. “We pushed the button on this because The Spit masterplanning – which we are actively involved with and working with Government on – was one of the catalysts. “Sea World is a beloved property here on the Gold Coast and across Australia. “But there was some ageing infrastructure that needed to be reborn. What we have come up with is true to what Sea World is all about – in terms of conservation, having fun and something really dramatic that will stand the test of time.” The new wooden coaster had a life span of 100 years and Mr Kirby said extra additions to the precinct would also be revealed when under construction. Village Roadshow Theme Parks chief operating officer Bikash Randhawa said The New Atlantis would be visible from Southport’s Broadwater and become a skyline icon. “I can see every promotion of the Gold Coast which features the Q1 tower now also featuring this. What we have here is world-class,” Mr Randhawa said. The New Atlantis will also draw more attention to Village Roadshow’s conservation work carried out by the Sea World Research and Rescue Foundation. It will feature an amphitheatre for shows, presentations and activities to educate guests on how they can help protect and conserve the ocean environment. Mr Kirby said it was time Village made a bigger deal of the marine conservation work which includes rescues of 60 sea turtles and relocation of a humpback whale. The foundation has also donated millions towards marine vertebrate research. Sea World staff are also on call 24 hours a day, every day of the year for marine animal rescues. On top of its Sea World revamp, Village Roadshow will also boost blockbuster theming at Movie World later this year. In November, Warner Bros. Movie World will host set pieces, props and costumes from big-budget films The Great Gatsby, Mad Max, Wonder Woman, Shazam and Suicide Squad. Cat and mouse duo Tom and Jerry will also be added to Movie World’s life-size character line-up from September. Gold Coast leaders across council, tourism and business have been crying out for new attractions to reinvigorate the city tourism profile since last year. Mr Kirby said Village Roadshow were happy to oblige with its megabucks Sea World investment. “We can see there is so much potential for the Gold Coast and it is wonderful to have such strong leaders at all levels of tourism,” he said. “Destination Gold Coast is doing a fantastic job of promoting the Gold Coast and we are giving them further tools to do their job. “The Gold Coast is world-class now with incredible restaurants, incredible shopping while beaches and theme parks are still synonymous with the Gold Coast and that is what drives tourism.”

Video's now live. M&V are essentially the project managers (like Intamin back in the 70's & 80's where they'd manage a lot of projects rather than make rides in-house) and and have engaged The Gravity Group as their design partner. In the case of wooden coasters it's important to have a middle-man to ensure the local engineering and fabrication firms get it bang on perfect as it's not pre-fabbed and then shipped like steel coasters. Side-note: I’ve noticed in a few other videos and places that the facts are a bit off for Leviathan. Can confirm what’s in the above video is confirmed by the park.

Gravity Group Confirmed ✅

Village Roadshow Theme Parks Announces Multi-Million Dollar Investment into Gold Coast Theme Parks Village Roadshow Theme Parks is set for an exciting 18-months with $50 million dollars scheduled to be spent, including thrilling new attractions for the Gold Coast parks, enhancing guest experiences, and maintaining Village Roadshow Theme Parks’ high standards of animal welfare, technology and plant integrity. Click here to continue reading

The best thing about this is how open VR are being with the announcement. Early dates, pictures, names, cost. Not ignoring the big pink thing in front of the park... Hopefully we find out the manufacturers soon which should be telling and then hopefully DW follow with an open announcement, no more hiding. Also if this is $50mill and DW have $80, hopefully theirs should be killer.

Fifty million is more than enough for one to be shit hot.

Well there you go. Not surprised by the ride selection, but the fact it's all one themed land is nice (Not calling it a precinct). A couple random thoughts: - Thrill ride next to dolphin pools. Particularly when you've got a massive mountain/waterfall thing on a plot of land which would happily house a topspin away from them. It's not cruel or anything dumb like that, but it's a bad look. - Backwards in the backseat of a wooden coaster sounds actually awful. - Love the idea of having a theme that isn't 'Sea World Institute' (what I call Jet Rescue themeing) and instead is something more abstract and fun. Dare I say more 'theme park'. I hope they can leave that part of the park non educational. - I think 2 more rides is enough 'Critical mass' to get the park back on track. Really need to throw a lazy $5Mo at the Flume though. - Did they shoehorn Paw Patrol into the Rivals announcement? Can't SW just have a moment? - Wasn't sure about the Trident originally but I think it'll grow on me. - Can we replace the pointless Thunder Lake set on the Island with just palm trees? Would look way better from both directions. - An easy way to at $5M to the project but a Monorail station would be sick. - If this is based of Aquaman's version of Atlantis then everyone who works in a creative capacity should show themselves the door. I don't think this is unbeatable for DW, and it does at least give them a benchmark of what they need to be doing. I would suspect that having all this announced now is good for them. But it hopefully should give SW the shot in the arm it needs. With all this, it's really only a flume ride away from being a complete park again, and there's still some space on the Corkscrew site for something too. Hopefully this is all a big success. Well done for not just moving Surfrider over there and actually putting is some effort.

I think the problem with this event is what people think the motivation behind it is. The comments seem to say that this won't turn the park around and it's not what they need to do to fix the park long term. I agree with this sentiment, BUT I think DW do too. I think someone from DW/Ardent must've come to their senses that all the plans they had were all shit. I mean Lazy River? Amphitheater? A small coaster in a shed (Craig hinted about this publically when they were still hoping to fix Eureka)? Yeah none of that is good, none of that will turn it around and will also coat an arseload of cash. Better to throw those plans in the bin and start again, particularly given they had a slow summer after SV and don't need to be wasting money on mediocre attractions. But what do you do in the meantime? Just fiddle with your dick for 2 years? I think when you view these events as trying to bridge the gap until the bigger stuff gets signed off/comes on line it makes sense and absolutely is what they should be doing. And they can get a surprising amount of traction with these things. Cosentino was a good move. I've never heard of him before and was scratching my head a bit when they announced it, but a lot of people have heard of him; they had a very good Easter holiday season because they had something to market (good weather certainly helped with that too). Doing another event to try and have a good June/July is also a no brainer.

Even if Dreamworld had already committed to spending 20+ million on a coaster today to be built in 2021, they've still got to do things this year to capture the general public's attention. I reckon this is a wise step in realising that people have been yearning for reasons to revisit in the same way Fright Nights & White Christmas give Movie World guests a reason to revisit. Dreamworld were doing these kind of activations/events in the 90's and I see no reason why doing it again should be seen as a bad thing, especially when they're included in the ticket price (unlike White Christmas).

May as well post this here given Greg’s move has already been discussed in this thread DREAMWORLD MAKES KEY EXECUTIVE CHANGES TO DRIVE FUTURE OPERATIONS MAY 27, 2019 ATTRACTIONS / SAFETY / TOURISM /WATERPARKS As part of a move to implement global best practice in all aspects of theme park and attractions operations, Dreamworld has announced significant changes in its executive team. The changes see the Gold Coast theme park’s Chief Operating Officer Paul Callander move into a newly created role as Chief Strategy Officer for Ardent Leisure Theme Park & Attractions. Callander has held various roles within Ardent Leisure over a long period of time and with his knowledge and understanding of the business, he will lead the development of a new masterplan for Dreamworld. The role will also include overseeing the implementation of a number of strategic growth projects and continue to have executive responsibility of SkyPoint and the Sales and Marketing function for theme parks and attractions. Taking on the role of Chief Operating Officer for Dreamworld & WhiteWater will be experienced theme park professional, Greg Yong. Yong has been described as “an asset to Dreamworld with an extensive background in the theme park and entertainment industry”. Yong, a board member of the Australian Amusement, Leisure and Recreation Association (AALARA) was previously Chief Operating Officer - Asia & Executive General Manager - Theme Parks for Village Roadshow Theme Parks and Australia’s first Topgolf. In his new role, Yong will oversee all theme park operations, food and beverage, retail, security, cleaning and grounds and Life Sciences. Announcing the appointments, Dreamworld Chief Executive, John Osborne stated “these recent executive changes have been designed to allow us to focus on future planning, managing key strategic projects and bringing new initiatives and attractions to the park. “They will also bring key guest facing roles together under one reporting line and will ensure a more integrated approach to the overall guest experience.”

With the new area being built, surely this calls for a new boardwalk/walkway. It would definitely improve the flow of crowds & make access to Atlantis so much better.

The highlighted above were my initial thoughts as well. They're going to cop flak about that Top Spin being so close to the Dolphins. Personally I consider even Pandamonium to be too close to Tiger Island, and this Top Spin is even closer to the dolphins. More current movie exhibits goes a long way to keeping the movie in Movie World. 👍 Going by the artist's image, I can't see the woodie extending as far into Sea Viper's footprint as I thought a ride would. The paths from Viking's Revenge station through to Jet Rescue sorely need fixing. I often had to help direct first-time visitors to Jet Rescue. This. The buzz this site had during the whole time DC Rivals was under construction was awesome. Can't wait to see that here again. We've been bickering and whinging here too much.

Oh I bet it was!

Winterfest is Coming 29 June - 21 July Skate into the coolest place this winter. Dreamworld will be touched with a snowfall of wonder as the first EVER Winterfest toboggans into Australia’s biggest theme park between Saturday 29 June – Sunday 21 July. Pull up your winter woollies and get ready for the best winter experience on the Gold Coast! Visit bit.ly/2vVxKoE for more information

We've had a few already. But yeah, happy for a modern woodie being built. Also, here's a link to a much larger version of the rendering of the Atlantis Land.

Not sure how that is relevant.

Winterfest Nights. July 6. Well that makes sense.

That's the word on the street but neither Greg nor Ardent have made any announcements yet Aaaand just as I post that, Greg goes and changes his Instragram. I guess it’s official now

After Outback Splash’s post yesterday, I was keen to get up to the park and check things out. @Tim Dasco also managed to meet us for lunch and go exploring. Luckily for us, they had their slide bits littered all over the place, in plain sight. It’d been awhile since Tim had been there and he really noticed how faded the original water playground is. The park was really quiet, despite the beautiful weather.

It's not as if Dreamworld didn't already have its work cut out for it, but they must surely be emotional wrecks seeing that Sea World is building these new attractions, and to rub (much deserved) salt in their wounds, that includes the new Wipeout! Meanwhile, Dreamworld is planning a shaded seating area! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Come on Ardent, it's well past time to play!