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Had to take a leak and get a coffee, so I stopped in at Dreamworld to see how things are. "Theming" (don't worry, keep reading and you'll see why this average first impression and degradation of an iconic building bugs me.) This new precinct, dubbed WhiteFacadeLand is coming together nicely. Guests will be stoked. This is a good execution of continuity for the new WhiteFacadeLand as it starts outside the park and continues inside now. Jokes aside, i'm sure all these panels will eventually get wraps on them but to have your first impression when you enter the park be this is pretty piss-poor. If regional theme park operators like Six Flags don't miss details this glaring this then so can Dreamworld, a park that was once known for its attention to detail. Also, the whole Buzzsaw area is now closed. More WhiteFacadeLand construction. Stuff is definitely happening for "unknown i-ride #1." After taking a leak, I noticed this. Can you guess what picture doesn't belong? If you guessed #6 you guessed correct! Speaking of Peter Brock's Garage - they've wasted no time gutting the place and putting up bollards near the sliding doors to keep guests out. Does that stop them from advertising it in park though? Hell naww! That photo was taken outside of their brand new "Designated Smoking Area" a.k.a. Big Brother Cafe a.k.a. Hollywood Cottage (no shit, that building there is 100% Hollywood Cottage and played a pivotal part in Dreamworld existing in the first place. They would actually be nuts to demolish that building given it is such an integral part of Dreamworld lore.) Currently the whole space is very inviting and "themed." Half removed walkways more theming. Super flammable foam disintegrating more rustic theming. Posts from abandoned pathways more colonial theming. After walking down and seeing Log Ride unexpectedly closed, I jumped on the train to see what was left of Blue Lagoon. While I was waiting I got to take in this scenic theme park vista. (Below is what it used to look like.) It used to be awfully pretty. But leaves are too hard to sweep up so it is what it is. Nothing to see here. Definitely nothing to see here, like unkempt and hazardous tree matter. Nothing to see here either apparently, even though it's the only thing you can see. Definitely no dangerous fences to be seen. On my final walk around, I stopped to admire the maroon theming that's been in place for nearly two years now. Theming. I'm definitely in Australia's Disneyland right now. You thought seeing this from ground level was bad? Check this out - if my theme park went through a globally seen incident people then i'd probably avoid giving influencers a great vantage point of where we're trying to pretend like nothing happened hey. On a positive note, after The Claw's random extended downtime (it's okay, we'll gloss over Buzzsaw's extended downtime, the West side of Giant Drop's random down-time earlier in the year, the east-side's current un-announced down time and just a total myriad of unplanned maintenance because the park is super duper safe) the ride has re-opened and it's looking really good. This was a tiny silver lining from what was otherwise a super depressing visit - the signs look great (both the one pictured above and the entrance side have been really well taken care of) and the new surfacing and paintjob is very well done and should be the standard for the whole park. I don't care for upcharges attractions that are forced into areas like this. You couldn't have just chucked all of this into Kevil Hill and connected it via the current passholder centre? You know, i'm just saying that if you did that, then the Trolls IP would be connected to all the other Dreamworks IP. And you know, if you did that, then the whole area would be air-conned and then when it closes (because you said it was temporary except first it was 12 months and now it's 18 months so who knows) then there'd be no impact visually for guests? Because you know, no parent wants to have a toddler crying because they see Troll stuff but they can't actually DO any troll stuff. And you know, then you wouldn't be chucking more conflicting themes inside an ocean themed area. Because, you know, you're a theme park and people expect that kind of hindsight. Because you know, maybe you should've learnt that when you tried to jam car stuff into an ocean themed area? Because you know, it's an ocean themed area. Dreamworld was successful because of John's attention to detail and nothing else. Today's Dreamworld is not even remotely detail focussed and I think it shows. Those who reckon there's no money to keep it to some unrealistic "Disney" standard couldn't be further from the truth - poorly-placed attractions and mis-matched themes are the result of bad management, not a lack of funds. Same goes for rides that continue to be down with little to no communication on why or when they'll re-open. Same goes for letting iconic facades get knocked over, spray painted and then lets design aesthetics be ruined by a dozen and one poorly integrated conduits, crap paint jobs and air-con boxes. You folks tell me - looking at the pictures below that were all taken in the 80's and 90's, has the park really improved?

I'm not, I drink beer.

Can't wait to see the Dreamworld Tower finally painted.

On the plus side, if we mandate stripping down the paint every ten years the parks might stand a chance of looking a little better...

Believe its a local manufacturer somewhere in Aus? Unsure of exactly who.

I think of it this way - a pizza shop had a boss who was pretty chill if you rocked up late or hungover and let most things slide. Then one day someone got food poisoning, the old boss got replaced by a newer, stricter boss, and then all of the staff's tardiness and extra-curriculur activities were glaringly pointed out.

Long story short Dreamworld are telling us all porkies that Buzzsaw is closed because of I-Ride.

Even putting aside the question of whether the park has improved since those photos of the 80's and 90's, I even wonder whether the question could even be set at the lower bar of has the park aged well? Real, proper genius is hard to manufacture. But if the tide is out in the talent pool your only other option is to preserve and maintain what you've got. Seems like they did neither.

Showmen's Guild supplied the rides most of the time, there was a few years (2 or 3 I think) when an external company (KayDee promotions) supplied the rides to the show. Fairly sure that all changed when the show was moved to the turf club instead of the parklands.

I am not an engineer but my best guess is either for rainwater drainage from the land around (and north) of it, or they have an exciting new Mosquito Breeding exhibit planned for 2019.

Hot dog stand and ice cream stand can be seen in the blue lagoon on the concrete pad/old pool from the giant drop.

Well on the bright side, they've got IRide coming in December, Trolls village is a hit with the funhouse having a decent queue. On the downside, lots of maintenance going on, TOT was not testing, the park was quite empty with no atmosphere, lots of theming not working like the water at madagascar and the oil rigs outside GD. I mean it wasn't the best experince but I guess they need time to fix the park. I'll go to Movie World next and nitpick there although honestly the park is in great shape so not much to complain about, that should be rather positive.

Part 2 comes from Discoveryland… or Discovery Kingdom… or Kingdoms of Discovery - I saw all three names in and around the one park (RCDB goes by Discoveryland so let’s stick with that). I didn’t know much about this park. It was reasonably close to where I was staying for the majority of my time in China and me and a couple of friends decided to check it out one day. Came in with a pretty fresh mind and not very high expectations. To start with, it’s a very Chinese park - i.e. very weird compared to our Western standards. It’s hard to really explain what makes it weird, you need to experience a Chinese park yourself to understand. It's actually quite a pretty park - a big lake in the centre, and some areas were really well-themed (although some were also a little bare). The medieval section of the park was the best-themed in my opinion, even though it looked like it came from a video game. We started in that section, and picked an attraction that had “4D” on the sign. We were expecting some sort of 4D dark ride, but ended up in a haunted house walk-through. More laughter than screams because of the horribly fake-looking theming, although the Chinese locals seemed a little terrified. Next up we saw a ride called “Thunder Chariot”. We walked in having no clue what it was, and ended up on a Zamperla Thunderbolt coaster! Actually a really good ride! Was also nice to know it was a pretty reputable manufacturer (this was after checking the ride on RCDB) so we were in safe hands. Pros Great drop Reasonably forceful Fun inversions (the zero-G roll was the highlight of the ride for me) Very smooth (unlike the other coasters at the park - I believe this one only opened a few months ago so if it wasn’t smooth I’d be a little concerned) Cons Operations: they had 3 cars on the track, but were only using one at once (i.e. they would load, cycle, and unload a single cars before moving to the next one). Didn’t make much sense to me since they had the staff available to be running all three at once. (warning: operations will be a common complaint) Rating - 8/10 Rides that followed after that were a 4D show in Chinese (the seat movements and effects were more painful than fun though, especially since they didn’t align with the video very well), a pirate ship, and a Zamperla Discovery (seems like the park had a pretty good relationship with Zamperla as there were a lot of their rides around). No need to properly review these because the pirate ship and frisbee were pretty standard rides. We then saw a stunt show, which was surprisingly quite good. Clearly the Russian stunt actors were ready to pull more risks than any stunt actor in an Australian show. Would rate this show an 8/10. We then took on a shot/drop tower. The shot was mediocre… pretty forceless… but the drop caught me off-guard and was really forceful. 7/10 for that ride. I made the mistake of deciding to do what I would say is the literal representation of a “spin-and-spew”. It’s hard to explain the ride properly, basically just a series of incredibly slow multi-axis rotations which had me upside down for the majority of the ride. Not a pleasant experience. 1/10. After dodgem cars and carosuel, I was regretfully talked into another spin-and-spew, this one being a Zamperla energy storm. Not nearly as bad as the other spin-and-spew, but still nothing I would want to repeat ever again. 2/10. Up next was a rapids ride. A few second-thoughts for this one seeing when I was there the Dreamworld inquest had only just occurred a week or so ago, but overall wasn’t a bad rapids ride. Operations were very slow, with only a couple of rafts going at a time. 5/10. The next ride we did was Dizzy Love and Whirling Passion - definitely the coaster with the strangest name I’ve ever been on. This was your typical Chinese knockoff SLC that you find at a lot of theme parks around the country. A knockoff SLC has always been on my bucketlist of things to do, and now that I’ve checked one off I don’t plan on riding another anytime soon… If this coaster had better trains, smoother track profiling, and a lot less of a rattle, it would probably be a 9/10 coaster for me (as would be the case with any normal SLC as well). However, this is for sure the roughest coaster I have ever done. The ride experience starts with a gentle climb up the lift-hill (utterly terrifying though as I knew what was about to come). Then comes the drop, which actually isn’t too rough (nothing worse than your typical Vekoma SLC drop). But as soon as you reach the bottom of the drop, the ride’s rattle becomes close to unbearable, and stays this way through most of the ride. You rattle your way through the loop, and into what I think was meant to be an airtime hill. I don’t remember if I actually got any airtime going over this hill, but I do remember the pain I was in at this point on the ride. The next element, an immelmann, actually started okay, but the exit from the element was profiled horribly - very jarring. After a turn that really could’ve used some more banking was the most painful part of the ride - the double inline twist. The inline twist on Arkham is bad enough, but the profiling on this one (it’s worse than the immelmann’s profiling) felt like a heartline roll a newbie would make in Planet Coaster. At this point, the ride had lost most of its momentum, and it crawled through the last part of the ride (a helix and a short stretch of track into the brakes). Fortunately the low speed meant this part of the ride wasn’t actually too rough. Pros The concept is good (the execution however results in nothing but pain) Makes Arkham feel like a B&M in comparison Cons Slow operations (again) Harnesses are bulky, unconfortable, painful, and overcomplicated - think your traditional Vekoma SLC harnesses plus a few extra seatbelts that go over your torso and waist before you pull down the harness The ride loses almost all its momentum and speed very quickly, so you literally crawl through the last half of the ride (could be seen as a good thing though because it makes it more comfortable) Incredibly painful Overall rating: 1/10 The last new ride of the day was Flying Dragon, a Chinese knockoff of a Maurer spinner. This one’s pretty easy to explain. Think of Scooby Doo’s coaster section, however with the maintenance lights on (if you’ve done the Star Tour or seen TPR’s Scooby POV you’d understand). Then replace the cars with spinning cars, and give the track a rattle. This ride does have some major problems though (see below). Pros Less painful than the knockoff SLC (not a lot less though) Cons Theming was bizarre - medieval theming at first, then futuristic theming, then no theming once you get on the ride I don’t even know if the harness was secure - it moved a lot during the ride. The seat belt felt like the only thing holding me in There’s a fairly major rattle This was my big problem with the ride - every set of brakes would abruptly stop you. Not only did this kill the ride’s pacing, but it also was so abrupt that it was very painful, especially when you stopped facing sideways. This one major issue turned the ride from an average spinning coaster to a bottom-3 coaster for me Overall rating: 1/10 The rest of the day was spent on the park’s only operating coaster that was enjoyable to ride. There was actually a fourth coaster at the park, but it’s been SBNO for a while now (did see it cycling during the day though so maybe they’re trying to reopen it?). So, an overall review of this park… I definitely did enjoy the park a lot more than I think I would. The park was actually quite nice, it just didn’t have a whole lot of good rides. The GC parks are still a lot better than this one (even in the current state some of them are in) but it was still a fun day. Would I come back? I certainly wouldn't plan a trip around it, but if I was in the area I'd definitely consider it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I didn't get to do the version in Paris when I was there, so have nothing to compare it to. I think I would've enjoyed this ride a lot more if it weren't for the technical difficulties. Also probably would've enjoyed it more if I hadn't just done Pirates a couple of hours earlier

My first ever visit to DW was probably 5 years after this photo was taken.. thanks @Roachie it proves once and for all a 'SuperTrooper' ride nearby where 'Wipeout' sits today. What I find most interesting is how enormous the Queue for IMAX was, stretching right back to the Front gate. Meanwhile a forgotten Spinner ride didn't get anywhere near the level of attention, yet somehow it became the benchmark of rides for the Park in the Future.

Oh, the “we almost had a DW moment” spot, except that was before the whole TRR thing so it would have been the other way around. Then the industry really would of been f....

The castle is undergoing a repaint. You can really see the difference in the last photo. And the rides information and safety board is gone too.

How long are they going to blame their failures on TRR, instead of the fact that they are a poorly planned and poorly run park with boring and unreliable rides? There are better parks with better rides, better water slides, better animals, and better experiences. Dreamworld's unwavering commitment to relics TOT, Wipeout, RHLR and HWSW seem more like a desperate attempt to cling to the nostalgia of when the park was in its prime and wasn't a confused mess of cheap, mediocre 'thrill' rides dumped into any available piece of land. People don't hold that nostalgia. Dreamworld is not Disney and anyone under the age of 30 is too young to remember any of those rides being new and exciting at an age when they would have been able to ride them. Young people - the people that you want coming to your park - don't care about how 'classic' RHLR is, they only know that WWF is better. They don't care about how 'iconic' Wipeout is, they care if it is open and can actually make it through a complete cycle instead of just rocking them side to side for a few minutes. They don't care that TOT2 launches you backward, if you can get a faster and better launch on SE. And the sure as hell don't care about a rickety and painful old steel coaster made by a company that went bankrupt in 2001 - when they can ride a brand new Hypercoaster, and a rickety old Inverted coaster at a different park for the same price. The TRR incident is not the reason people aren't returning to Dreamworld. In my opinion, when they closed for several months, people (like me) realised that we didn't really miss it when it was closed, and when it reopened there really wasn't anything interesting or exciting worth going back for. There still isn't. And that's the problem.

^Thanks Roachie - if people focused on good content instead of a desire to boost their YT views, we'd have been able to see that the first time!

change.org/p/remove-word-moist-on-parkz