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This was my first visit to Sea World in about 4 months, so I was interested to see what else has happened throughout the park since my last visit. Firstly, they’ve finally removed some of the walls and trusses from the parks entrance. It’s a shame they haven’t all been removed, but it’s a start. And already it feels so much better and inviting. It’s a shame they couldn’t move this into the exit store and completely open up the entry once again. The Lakeside food outlets are undergoing a refurbishment The Dockside Tavern is closed for refurbishment. Most notably, there is heaps of work happening underneath, perhaps Atlantis related. Vortex is closed for maintenance and some of the panelling has been removed and it appeared they are doing so touch/patch up work too The Carousel remains dismantled and the reopening date has been removed Patricks and Ninja Flyer are closed. Is this mesh around the fence of the flyers new? And there hasn’t been any further works on the flume station site. But despite there being construction fencing, they’ve wrapped it in a black mesh, which makes it look ‘nicer’. But it makes me think it’s going to be there for a while.

https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/kokpunkten Kokpunkten was a place I found out about a year or so before my trip on Blooloop. In a sentence, it’s an old power station that has been turned into an indoor water park and hotel, and given an ultra modern renovation and lighting package. I love it because someone clearly had a clear big vision in their head about what it was going to be, put together a couple of contrasting things, and the result is really cool. As a water park, it's not all that big, with only 4 major slides, but there are a few nice spas, whirlpools and interconnected pools you can explore. There's also an outdoor pool on the roof, and the option to do a "VR Dive" in the main pool. It is located in Västerås, about 100km from Stockholm. I had stayed there the night before, so i was able to sleep in and spend the morning there before heading to the capital. The park has free go pro rental if you sign up to their "Club", though you are asked to come back to the counter a little while after opening after they have cleared the entry crowds. As for the rides. Black River Never in Australia. The slide is more of a channel, with about a 30cm deep flow of water that is quite turbulent, so you are carried by the current. The layout felt like a bunch of quick s bends with the occasional longer turn. What makes it wilder is that its essentially in a big dark room, so you are just being tossed and turned, bumping against the walls. No rafts or anything, it's like canyoning. The ride alternates modes, lights off is pitch black and not for the unconfident. Lights on is still mostly dark, but you have the odd bit of pipework and uv paint that is illuminated. Even getting out of the slide exit and paddling against the backflow is an effort Inside out is one of these "Magic Eye" tube slides. Essentially an oval shaped cross section and a fairly shallow gradient, so its more about length than speed. In some ways it feels like the child that comes from the marriage of a lazy river and a raft slide. Had some cool daylight rings on the way down as well. There is the option to ride with a waterproof VR headset. The way it seemed to work is that there are transponders at various points on the slide and they are used to track your position. Boomerang This was a Boomerango type slide, but built by Wiegand rather than Whitewater West Just like their toboggan runs, it's made of stainless steel. This was the highlight, felt quite speedy. On other types of this slide you go down the drop, into the quarter pipe, over a little hump and then glide to a stop. On this one you carry heaps of speed over the hump and get funnelled into a couple more turns before the splashdown (also done at high speed). Hard to describe, but if feels almost scary the speed at which you hurtle into the last bit, almost like if you were going slightly off angle you'd smack into the walls or flip yourself. But of course the precision engineering has you 'threading the needle' quite well. And of course, you can't beat the setting! The other attraction is Double Racer Another stainless steel Weigand slide. The low friction means you build up heaps of speed, so can make the ride as wild as you like. Having drops at the start helps make it fast from the get go. Note too the LED neon strips. There is a timing system and the LED strips glow green over the lane of the rider coming first at that point in time. Transparent section too, but barely noticeable. Overall, it's worth a look if you are in the area. A few more slides wouldn't hurt of course! I had wanted to combine it with my day at Skara Sommarland which would have been perfect, but on the days i was there the opening hours didn't quite line up. Photos here https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/kokpunkten

I'd love them to reconfigure the queue/station to get more capacity. Add pockets to the train for phones.

With VRTP finally announcing an opening date, I thought it was time to renew my pass after not visiting the park for several months. Wow. The scale of everything is very impressive in person and it’s really coming together nicely. A few things to note before my massive photo dump below. The scaffolding is down for Trident and they are currently building a wall to hide those hideous services behind Vortex.

Here's a quick comparison of 1 day admission prices across the 4 major parks in Victoria for the 2022/23 season. From most expensive to least expensive (online purchased): Gumbuya World Off-Peak (LEFT). Peak (RIGHT). Funfields Adventure Park Geelong Luna Park Melbourne

New extension of Looney Tunes Village to Sea World confirmed. Introducing.... THE TWIDENT!

Update from yesterday, letters have now been painted orange:

Visiting the park today, it seemed pretty clear that the Dreamworks license is about to expire. The most obvious thing being that the gift shop has now been completely gutted. The area is in pretty desperate need of some TLC right now and considering Dreamworld are usually pretty good with their presentation and upkeep, the fact it hasn’t received it seems like another clear sign it’s days are numbered. At this point, I’d say it’s almost certain that this is where the new area will go.