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Visited the park this morning to ride Leviathan and check out the whole precinct now complete. LEVIATHAN Arrived at the park for opening at 9:30 and headed straight for Leviathan. They had set up a temporary extended queue area to the left of the rides entrance. We queued here until 10, when the ride was supposed to start operations. However they did move us into the main queue area in the centre of the attraction. I was surprised that this was the only permanent queue area. Considering this is the parks headline attraction, the queue footprint isn’t that big. However, the outdoor section of the queue is impressive. The rockwork, planting and story setup that happens is very good. The shade structure while isn’t anything special, it’s definitely needed as this morning it helped protect from the heat and then the rain. But the true magic happens once you pass through the sliding door. The internal walk through area is the best themed ‘queue’ in the country. The use of planting, theming, lighting and audio was fantastic and VRTP should be highly commended for how great this part is. It’s a shame you don’t queue in this part, but the way they are operating the attraction it currently works as it has more of an impact than if you were standing in there for an hour. It also removes the chance that people will ruin it like we’ve seen in Scooby at MW. And then the station experience… WOW. While it was slow loading because of the need to wait for the show to begin. Once it does, the story being setup and the way the Leviathan moves between screens and ‘interacts’ with you is awesome. And the way lighting and smoke is used adds to this whole experience. The storage compartments were simple but effective (and should work well during 2 train operations). The trains design is great and they are very comfortable. The restrains were similar to those of BuzzSaw, without the seatbelts (thankfully). And as someone who is 185cm, good leg room too. The audio played as you climb the lift hill and just before the first drop is also a nice touch and probably more reliable than the onboard audio we’ve seen with Green Lantern. The coaster itself is more thrilling than I expected. I managed to ride in the back row, and the amount of airtime and near miss moments were great. This was my first wooden coaster, so I didn’t ever understand the appeal. And while it was tougher than a steel coaster, the way this coaster manoeuvres through itself was a great experience and one you don’t really get on steel coaster. After exiting the station, the theming in the stairs down continues, which is awesome. But then as soon as you exit through the door, unfortunately it becomes disappointing. The blue walls were a shame as it would’ve been great to continue the rock/greenery through here. Even if it was a simplified version. Maybe it’s so they can remove these walls during maintenance because it is very tight moving through the coasters structures. However, it is great being able to walk under this very immersive and technical structure. Overall, this is an immersive attraction. The level of theming though the majority of the ride is fantastic. And the story and experience created in the station alone blew me away. The park are still learning how to operate the ride efficiently and these high wind speeds haven’t helped that. Hopefully they can get the loading/unloading and technical issues sorted before Christmas so they are ready to go in time for the peak period. This coaster is definitely in the top 5 for the Gold Coast. The coaster itself isn’t the top, but the queue and station experience alone is the best we’ve seen on the coast in a long time and might even be the best ever. It’s definitely worth checking out (once these winds clam down) and I definitely look forward to riding it again. TRIDENT The precinct has a whole has come together nicely. While Vortex is still a missed opportunity, they have done a great job with Trident. The theming and design is overall simple, but they have executed it really well. There is some great detail in the queue area, with a minimal colour scheme that is very effective. OVERALL PRECINCT The precinct as a whole has come together well. The gigantic statues are very impressive and their scale can’t be appreciated until you see them in person. It’s great they continued the themed floor colour/pattern throughout the area. The waterfalls around Leviathans entrance are a nice touch I wasn’t expecting. And it’s nice they’ve continued the language of the arches introduced at the entrance to the area throughout the precinct. I do wish there was more large scale planting, but at the same time, the grasses areas they’ve created allows for people to sit and watch the attractions around them. And The Garden of Cyphers is another great vantage point of Leviathan. And while the connection between Atlantis and Nickelodeon looked tight during construction, in reality it wasn’t as bad as I thought. SUMMARY As a whole, The New Atlantis is a fantastic addition to Sea World. But it was also a necessity. For too many years, the park was heavily lacking in rides and this precinct has finally got their ride count back to a more expected number. A couple more rides are definitely needed, but they’ve got the room for that in the future. They’ve still got the large site that Sea Viper was on, the Vikings station and potentially the castle site too. While it wasn’t a great start with Vortex and some very lengthy delays, Leviathan proves that Australia can produce a fantastic attraction that has extensive theming and a story. It’s truly an experience to ride Leviathan, something that I haven’t had at an Australian theme park in a long time. And while it’s not perfect and not at the Disney level (mostly because of their efforts with the exit), it definitely gets me excited for what VRTP will do with the Wizard of Oz at Movie World, but also sets the bar high for Dreamworld to ensure that they produce something great with Rivertown. Congratulations to VRTP on what you’ve done with The New Atlantis and congratulations to you for making it to the end of this lengthy read. PHOTO DUMP

Oh yes, I see where it says it will be free for passholders 😬 TBH as much as I'm sure they've probably said this to be true, I really don't expect them to know or commit to a rigid pricing structure this far out. It's more than a year out, it's the spitballing phase.

I got on a couple times yesterday. I will say - Wow. I'm so happy we finally have a decent woody down under and they've done a great job with most elements of the experience (those exit walls though). The station experience is really cool, I do wish there was more time to experience it as I feel a lot of the detail is lost due to the rush to get loaded while the second train bakes in the brake run. The opening day crew were struggling at the beginning, but by the afternoon (even with all the wind stoppages) they had hit their stride and found the right rhythm. My personal opinion - Backwards seats aren't worth it. You can't see the headchoppers, and the airtime elements aren't the same facing backwards. the thrill of a woodie is seeing all the nearmisses and going backwards I just felt like a ragdoll. Out of the three gimmick seats we have on the GC, i'd rank them Taipan first, Rivals second, Levi third. I want to discuss the show without giving too much in the way of spoilers. I also want to be clear that this is just my thoughts on what i'd prefer, and I have absolutely no direct knowledge of whether this is the case \ whether my suggestion is possible and\or how hard it would be to do - call it a wishlist item? I got the impression that dispatch wasn't possible until the show scene completed, and I think this is going to hurt in peak times. I like the idea of a loop of interaction scenes that repeat (but have more scenes than necessary for the time you'd spend on station) and then a method for ops to skip to the last scene on dispatch - so the show tailors to the Ops tempo, rather than Ops tempo being limited to the show. I think the speed of Ops would be greatly improved if they could have a second group on the station while the first group is being loaded, and I feel like the above is what you'd need to do so as not to ruin 'show'. Not seeing the loading procedure before you get there has always been a way to cause delays in load - as there is no monkey-see monkey-do. This isn't a criticism of the show as-implemented. Those elements are fantastically done - I just felt it could have been done differently to improve ops. Hopefully at a park like Sea World after the initial hubbub dies down, it won't impact nearly as much.

I actually thing the various park departments (remember different people are responsible for all these things) deserve some props for co-ordinating to get all the various projects completed the same day and open with Leviathan. To have the Nick refurb work, dockside and Leviathan all open on the same day was a very nice touch. Could easily still had rides closed and the tavern being worked on which would have made for a much less polished day. Good on them I say

[[SPOILERS AHEAD]] Just got off my first walkthrough/ride of multiple today, so I’m far from an expert on the topic, but I’ll try my best to cover the bases. Theming The whole theming of the area is great, for current-day Village. There’s still some pretty open areas, and as the concept art shows, it could use some more trees to make it feel less empty. Garden of Cyphers is a nice place to sit down, but I’d imagine it gets loud, due to… Leviathan The queue for Leviathan is split up into 3 distinct sections: Queue (the blue shade structure inside of the helix), a sort of Holding Zone, and the walk to/station. There is no single-rider queue, and a mention for a disabled entry, but it isn’t the main queue or the exit. Starting with the Queue, it’s pretty and is mostly enclosed in the helix. I’m sure this will be fine once it’s been open for a while, but it’s certainly caused a lot of overspill now. As for its theming, it’s surrounded by faux rock & plants on all sides, with the ride itself being just above said walls. It’s certainly good looking, but I can’t help but think it’s a bit too short (and, just quietly, the ride isn’t quiet, and people were already getting irritated at the near-constant ride noise from being surrounded by the coaster). The Holding Zone is pretty self-explanatory, after being advanced from the queue, you’re put into a little hallway and wait to be allowed into the station. If you’ve been to Fright Nights, it’s basically just the wait between the queue and entering the maze. If you haven’t, it’s a mixture of Scooby Doo’s post-warehouse queue, and the second boarding row in Steel Taipan’s station. Not much to say about it’s theming (it’s just a hallway), but I noticed there are names on the bolts on Levi’s supports, which is cool. Last queue section, the walk to/station. Seeing as this is completely indoors, it’s definitely got the best theming of the 3. You enter through the sliding door, and are surrounded by faux rock and cool blue lighting, as you advance up the staircase to the station. The station is where it shines, smoke-filled with faux rock blended into the advertised screens, where Leviathan swims around and tells you off from time to time. This is, by a decent amount, the best theming I’ve seen in Australia. (Sorry for blur in the photos, it was completely indoors and I had to keep moving) Now, the ride itself. As you dispatch, more smoke billows out in front of you. Small dip, lift hill, Leviathan says ‘Ride With Me’, then you’re in the layout. Being a wooden coaster, the layout is (as expected) far less forceful than the likes of Superman, DCR, or ST. Thus, it’s more fun and rerideable than insane and physically tolling. Also, being a wooden coaster, it’s not the smoothest thing ever, but it’s luckily far from uncomfortable. I didn’t notice any big potholes, nor did I feel scrambled after riding like you would on Cyclone. It’s a great, rerideable, fun, family-thrill ride, from the drop to the brakes. I’m not skinny by any means, but I’m not the heaviest person either, and it was a bit of a squeeze to fit, so if you’re overweight you might have some trouble getting your restraint locked (and there’s no test seat, so you’ll have to queue before you know). In case you’re interested, here’s its vertical and lateral force graph. Once done, Leviathan tells you you’re worthy and you exit through a similarly-themed staircase to the one you entered through. Then you’re spit out into a maze of tight painted work walls, walk through the ride photo booth, past the main queue area, and are spat out the way you came. Vortex Vortex hasn’t changed since it originally opened, so if you went on it then, you know the experience. If not, it’s just a decent flat, a worse Wipeout with rather generic ‘ocean’ theming (though it fits in more now that the whole area is open, ofc). Also, they may have dulled its squeaking? Idk, but I haven’t heard any. Trident As discussed elsewhere, Trident wasn’t open due to high winds, but the ride experience is pretty predictable if you’ve been on a swingchair before. The theming is a step above Vortex, with a colosseum-style ride platform, some nice murals/detailing work, and Big Man. All in all, the details are good (but the trident at the top should’ve been larger).

An app called ‘Ride Forces’. Also, Levi’s thrown a fault and is currently completely down, after already intermittent operation yesterday (wasn’t under operation for a large portion of the day, and around 30+% of trains sent were empty from what I saw. Supposedly was only due to wind yesterday, but with the actual faults today I don’t buy it), and further intermittent one-train operation today. I was on the last train of yesterday, the ride threw a fault then and we were gonna get evac’d, but they eventually got the second train to dispatch and we were able to slowly roll into the station and unload. Something’s definitely wrong. I’ll wait in the queue and update when there is one ig.

.. so nothing new then? 🤣

There are dolphins in the nursery pools and have been almost the entire time of the construction process It didn’t take long

Pretty embarrassing day for SW. Lev closed at 12 but before that 1 in 3 trains sent empty because of problems. Trident not open at all and Vortex didn't open to 3:30pm. This is why you have soft openings.

The photo lab at the front of the park doesn't have on-ride photos - so if you want to get ride photos you need to go to dockside.

After years of the entrance to the park being ruined by entry photos, it has finally returned to its former self. Patricks Jellyfish Frenzy has reopened The Dockside Tavern has reopened and they have a takeaway menu downstairs, with a bar. The photo lab at the front of the park has reopened, but they also have this one under the tavern too, which is where you buy backwards seats for Leviathan and some of the merch And they also have this sign shown the height requirements for all the attractions First time I’ve realised this, but kids can ride Trident before they’re allowed to ride the carousel!

Latest pics from the Big Banana Water park sees the new slide tower nearly completed!! This will be ready for action by Xmas and should prove a popular addition to the water park!!

I think the main reason to have the separated branding from launch is if it wasnt successful, or if they decided not to continue it it wasn't "Dreamworld's" markets that failed. Now its successful, integrate it into the banner...? Agree, claw is a no brainer at this stage if they're going to run rides, but the wave swinger has to open too. You can't have that sit in the middle of the markets and not open it.

The ride was down for most of the afternoon, but finally got back up and running around 5pm. The staff said they'd make sure everyone in the (long) queue would all get a ride, which was great to see. I got a back row ride this time (rode on the middle row before) and the experience was significantly better. Very, very fun. I didn't really notice the airtime before, but this time I did! Can't wait to ride it at night at Carnivale. That thing is likely going to haul like crazy at the end of a hot day!

\ With New Atlantis opening the signs have been updated.

Project Zero delivers the visual wow-factor for Gumbuya World - towering over everything else in the park. It brings the "pre-entrance hype" as it can be seen from the highway and carpark/entrance. I'm also really digging the space retheme. The black truss support structure looks like a rocket launch tower; suiting the theme perfectly. Also, the white tin shed station and queue reminds me of Wonderland's Space Probe 7. It'll be interesting to see how reliable the ride is after the relocation/refurb, and how it rides. For more pics see here: https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/project-zero