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Here’s the view of the The Gold Coaster from WhiteWater World yesterday. It appears that repainting has basically been completed with only some small areas that still require a repaint. Also I think that the queue line is also being repainted to match the new colour scheme judging from this shot.

Won't lie the coaster is looking amazing from pictures I've seen within WWW.

Great to see Sea World looking like a theme park again and not a glorified Aquarium!

It’s been almost four years since I last visited Dreamworld. After my pass expired in late 2016, I didn’t see value in renewing my pass at the time. The park was at an all time low and while I of course want to support our parks, at the time I didn’t want to renew. But with the $50 deal on passes, I couldn’t not get one. So today (for a couple hours) I finally got to step foot back into the park. Wow it’s changed. Last time I was there, River rapids were still there, plenty more rides were open and SkyVoyager was no where to be seen. Arrived late afternoon and the park was pretty busy. Carpark was nearing full and most rides had decent queues (SkyVoyager being the longest). I mostly just walked around the park to see how it looked and get a feel for it all once again. The park is looking great. Most of it is looking fresh, clean and bright. The thing I noticed most was not that there were less rides, but the dead ends. The fact that TailSpin was as far as you could go felt strange. Obviously with Sidewinder reopening soon, that will change, but with the Trolls Village and Flowrider no more, there will definitely be a gap. Walking through Tiger Island felt great. I love what they did to the area and it really transforms you to somewhere else. Once the Giant TOT tunnel is gone, it will really complete that area. And the touches and music they’ve used for the transition from Tiger Island to ABC Kids World felt great. It does appear that the noodle food outlet is no more too ABC Kids World... needs some work. With only 3 minor rides, it definitely needs this refurbishment/expansion. A lot of the flooring paintwork has worn away and there wasn’t any more activity within the area. Does anyone know if the store that was the Big Red Car ride exit still open? Shame the lack still looks like grass though Walking towards Giant Drop, this was the first time in person I’ve seen the cleared land. The only thing I noticed that was possibly new, was some pipe work. The fact they painted the back of SkyVoyager white looks good, but the back of the candy store/ice cream parlour hasn’t been, makes it an eye sore. Hopefully if they construct the rockwork for the coaster that they’ve shown in the concept video happens to hide it all. I did notice these markings on the floor alongside the construction site, which I assume will be the coaster supports. (See the coaster forum for those photos) Also, what is this building There was some technical issues with SkyVoyager, but decided to queue in the hope I could finally ride. Thankfully they got it going again and wow what a ride. The indoor queue area was really nicely put together. The staff were fantastic and explained the boarding experience well. The theatre was also really well presented and the vehicles were very comfy. I can see why people would have issues with the seat belts, but still a pretty simple system. I was in gondola 4 (top left), so I knew it wouldn’t be the best view, but wow. The ride brought me so much joy. I loved it. Well done Dreamworld. It’s probably the best attraction (that isn’t a coaster) in the country. The footage was really well done and the audio suited it well. The effects were also really good and there was no glen20 smell effect, just the water and wind. I think the video quality could have been higher, but maybe it’s more noticeable when you’re on the edge. It’s also a shame the screen doesn’t go over the roof, because it does somewhat extract from the experience when you’re at the top, but it’s great that it covers the floor. I would have liked to have seen DW itself included in the video (maybe at the start to make it feel like you’re leaving the park to travel the country). Some of the transitions could have also been better. It’s also a shame they decided to close off the rides exit store. I can understand why they made that decision, but it would have been nice to have kept it. Overall, what a fantastic ride. It was definitely great to be back at the park. Still a long way to go to make it feel ‘full’ again, but it’s on a good path.

Do we feel that our parks need to embrace a different season pass scheme? I find it surprising that both Dreamworld and VRTP only offer very basic season pass offerings unlike a lot of parks overseas. Personally I'd be interested in seeing some more expensive passes introduced with discounts, further additions and benefits. I believe the easiest way they could implement this is to keep the current season pass as the base offering so that the general public doesn't lose their minds over increased prices and then add 'levels' above that with increased benefits. For example you could leave the base One Pass at $250 which just includes entry into the parks, then have a Gold pass with 10% off food and merchandise for $350, and perhaps a platinum pass for $499 which includes unlimited entry into events such as FN & Carnivale, 20% of food and merchandise and some other exclusive offerings. This means that their offerings essentially remain the same but for those wanting to get more out of the parks they can pay for it. Also I wouldn't be against them adding a cheaper Season Pass with block out days for weekends and holidays which could eventually become the base pass. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think our parks are fine the way they are or do you think they should start offering tiered passes?

Apparently

I always assumed they just pulled the name out of a random word generator

100%. Our parks struggle to even break even. I am all for this method. I hear people mention sometimes things like extending the pass for two years etc. That does not benefit the company tho. Only the pass holder. Different companies go about this differently. VRTP could easily do this seeing they have multiple sites across the GC. This could also include accommodation and even cheaper movie tickets. Consumers want benefits. You don't get them with a cheap pass. A company sells a cheap ticket knowing they've just lost a lot of money. They have then inadvertently ensured you don't spend a whole lot of cash within their property (potentially) because they passed on a cheap ticket. So having these different levels of memberships is a great idea. It shows exactly what benefits one would get and why. Dreamworld I feel do this slightly better as you get the F&B cheaper discounts along with merchandise. That's a small win for any company. Why VRTP has not followed that in recent years I don't understand. The biggest issue is we saturated the market with lower prices and people get the shits even when the price goes up by a small amount. If you live on the GC great. You get locals pass. Being interstate I get slugged with the expensive version but I don't mind it honestly. Because I know the true value of the ticket. I don't also visit regularly so maybe that's why I appreciate my pass a little more. I think two simple tiers would work well. Unlimited entry to standard operating days and events with a small discount (10%) on f&b and merchandise. Second is unlimited entry to all standard operating days and events and five special events with (25/30%) f&b and merchandise. These two tiers have a massive price chance tho. The first option stays around the $200 range and the second would be around $400/450 given you get the specials events included. Sounds a lot yes. You need to look at the big picture tho. Obviously, I don't see parks wanting o up the prices for at least another year at this stage. All the parks need all the ticket sales they can get currently.

They also brought POS trains that destroyed the track... Yes it required a bit more maintenance due to the sea air and the age of the ride, but I think if they hadn't replaced the trains with the Kumbak ones it would have lasted a while longer. I know the Python at Efteling got the same Kumbak trains in 2005 and then in 2011 were replaced with the Venom trains again like we currently see on Sidewinder. Interestingly most of the track was replaced and rebuilt by a different builder in 2018 as well. Wonder how much damage the Kumbak trains caused lol

Isn't that what happened with SeaCorkViper? They did a heap of work to it only a few years after the retheme, only to find it beyond economical repair?

I imagine the station will be themed to a 90's Surf Life Saving Clubs tavern interior. Not deliberately, it will just end up looking like that.

@Jay Jay The Jet Plane yeah that definitely makes sense haha I didn’t realise that’s where the escape rooms were going to be

If you look at the left side of this photo from yesterday, you can see they’ve placed hay and pumpkins for Happy Halloween behind the fenced off area. So it seems they will have this area open at some point while the event is going on. It will be interesting to see if they remove Flowrider before the area reopens, or if it will be walled off. Same thoughts for the store to the left of Flowrider too.

@rappa fair point, but that was kind of the reason for most of the photos. To show the poorer parts I discussed

I think its safe to say that whatever happened around that funding, it isn't available anymore. No matter what they build, it will never be a 'new' wonderland - tastes and styles have changed, and any attempt to replicate what was won't be the same, so at most its going to be 'new' in name only - and to be honest, there are far better options for a new park to be themed and named without trying to piggyback onto a decades old concept. I think our best chance of a 'new' park in NSW is likely going to be coming from a larger chain - Palace, Six Flags, Cedar Fair, for example, and history has shown that long distance management doesn't seem to work too well for most of them (Palace being the exception). 'New Wonderland' is never going to happen.

It ain’t coming... not in the next decade anyway by which point it’s relevance in theme/linkage to wonderland will be long gone.

An email just came through about VRTP summer news and offerings, vortex isn’t mentioned anywhere

Not things under maintenance

Air conditioning won’t and can’t be added as the monorails don’t have enough clearance in some stations and in their maintenance bay

SW monorail will now be closed until Leviathan opens

Oh right, I forgot they had removed the supercar area from the map and added HWSW back to Ocean parade

Claw, Shockwave and Tailspin?

The area only has 3 rides now, but it used to have 6. A new attraction in the trolls area would be great. If Gamesite isn’t making good money, get rid of it. Reduce the size of the flow rider store and remove the briefing building of the laser skirmish and that doubles the available land of Ocean Parade, that could really get a great flat ride or something better. This area was once thriving and now I feel it’s the weakest area of the park.

The tower is going down as we speak... So long Ranger, another great HUSS machine!