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Have MW changed the opening hours? 6pm-11pm (rides ‘til 10pm)

If you go to the fright nights website and click "The Experience > Rides", or go to the ride fast pass option it tells you which rides are open.

Comparing Surf Rider to Vortex is like comparing a washing machine to a dishwasher, sure they kinda do a similar thing but they are nothing alike for what they actually do.

I did hear a lot of complaints about IT having no actors and feeling like they tried to make it more “world class” with the animatronics but i’ve heard it felt “lacking.” will admit my group of friends including me that went, we all have a fear of Zombies and walked straight into the maze at the end of the night so might be biased as we all quite literally ran out. HOK imo was amazing in 2018, but they moved it to a smaller shed and we were at the back of the line so it felt boring and all the scares were already done by the time it was our turn. * do agree Annabelle or ‘The Conjuring Universe’ as a whole will be a maze. The character in the end shot which shares the scene with ‘Annabelle’ looks to similar to the demon in the fist conjuring movie, where Annabelle does make a cameo in a scene which also is shared with the saud demon. (side by side shown below - in the movie the demon does have yellow eyes as well)

When it comes to the precincts there is only so many ways to “theme” an area full of zombies, clowns, vampires, demons, bloodied doctors etc - so to expect no repetition I think is setting a standard that just can’t be met. i don’t think we were ever to expect a massive change in the maze lineup, I honestly wasn’t even expecting we’d get 5. By all accounts the mazes have remained largely set up since 2019 as whilst planning for 2020 would have been well underway, construction wasn’t before covid hit. given the ridiculous queuing in 19, the first time I’ve ever not got through all the mazes in a night (non-fast pass) since FNs started, I’m not surprised at the price rises and hope it’s been aligned in a way to strategically drop nightly attendance whilst still hitting their revenue targets - that will only be a positive for everyone.

Shame the Ultimate Terror Tour isn't back, that was what made the event for us. Hopefully the maze quality is bumped up to match the increase in prices, 2019 was a fairly lazy effort.

Maybe some people that just don't know it's a relocation from WnW and see an announcement as a new ride entirely, but no matter how many people that is, it'd be considerably less people than a new ride would.

Expect WB Kids to be closed. WWF has been closed in the past - likely will this year too unless the upgrades changed anything. Most of the big thrills at the front of the park are open, and scooby. Expect ride queues to be stupidly long - including Scooby for some weird reason.

Usually a few of them are open like rivals and superman

Absolutely agree the park probably won't reduce the number of tickets available unless forced to by covid or other requirements (unlikely), but you're spot on - I am saying the higher price might reduce the number of people. Fright Nights is no longer included as a freebie in the annual passes (Memberships still get this though), so it will be interesting to see if they continue to sell out, or if they struggle and drop their prices...

Where the cows go 'bong' ?

SW by nature, will always attract families. So how many rides should SW have with a height restriction of 140cm? 1. MAYBE 2? You really don't want many more than that as it will never be a ride heavy park, so you need to keep it accessible. You move Surfrider to SW, that's your 2, and in the context or a dry park, they're both shit. It's filler that excludes large chunks of the audience, so when down the line you say 'Next big coaster; B&M Dive Coaster' that's 3 and your attraction mix is up the shit. Surfrider and Vortex should both be at WnW where they work as big headliners/ a point of difference. Yeah they're dry rides but so what? They seem pretty wild which strikes me as being on brand.

Word on the street is that the castle isn't in the best of condition, which makes sense given it was built on a budget in the late 70s. As much as I'm nostalgic for it, I think it's ok to let it go. The room the castle and Flume station (and south of the Flume station too) is pretty big, but not absurdly so. It's also an awkward space. Even so, one thing I liked about that area as a kid, and something I like in general, is rides that go through each other. Skyway's station was built in the middle of the Flume, which itself went over the 3D theatre and under Bermuda. Was rather interconnected which for my taste made things more interesting. I'd like if they could tightly squeeze a couple of coasters in that area, including going through storm; something high end thrill and smaller like a mouse. I think the argument that SW is a family park and shouldn't have high end thrill rides is pretty silly. The thing about parks specialising and only doing one thing well is pretty new all things considered, and I think treating SW as a park only for families with small kids has been a big misstep. In the old days, these parks were for everyone, which means stuff the family can do together, but also a few proper thrill rides as well. If you balance out the attraction mix at SW with some more thrill rides, you would massively improve attendance. Don't neglect the families with small kids obviously, but don't ignore the older kids/adults too. FWIW though, Surfrider and Vortex are both not good fits for SW. The only rides at SW with 140cm height restrictions should be one or two super headliners. In the context of a dry park like SW, both those rides are filler. Adding them limits what your next rides can be, while also not gaining you anything in terms of drawcards. In the context of a park like WnW however, both those rides would be 'big' thrill rides and a point of difference between WnW, and all the other water parks out there. Not only should surfrider not go to SW, Vortex should go to WnW. Vortex should then be replaced with a super low impact, quiet, family ride to give an aerial view of the dolphin pools/ski lake. Observation Tower, floating Island or Ferris wheel, take your pick of which it should be.

I'd retheme Dorothy's Rosy Tea Cups to the Ning Nang Nong. Perfection

Unsure why there's so much uninformed talk about unsafe working at heights ... we're talking about bringing in employees from overseas who do this for a living. Unrestricted climbing happens ... without handrails... only harnesses.. every single day.. even in Australia! Unsure how this is a problem stopping parks here have reasonable close times.

Just because international raptors are extreme thrills doesn't mean a custom SW one has to be. The benefit of a custom layout is you make it what you want. The benefit of a raptor is its small footprint, and narrow tolerances allowing it to operate in tight spaces. But as I said, realistically a flat would work better for the areas.