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Good enough for me! Have a wonderful day everyone (like not even being sarcastic, ACTUALLY have a good day. Locking this thread is my gift for you so you can go out and enjoy the sunshine) 😊

I just want to ride roller coasters.

I'm all for soft openings (not passholder previews), but I don't think Brad's point can be over stated enough. 'Grrr the ride is closed!' 'Did you read the A frame' 'Oh OK I'm happy now!' - No guest interaction ever.

Rivals soft opening done right.

And you haven’t? Because I seem to recall, only yesterday, you deciding that soft openings just don’t exist, that SW did everything right, and that all complaints are for nothing.

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

ok just doing the maths. It's $48.00 for 6 mid-strength at SW $48.00 x 10% = $4.80 $25.00 / $4.80 = 5.21 5.21 months it will take me to get the $25.00 back.

Surely you could buy 6 up front and just ask for them when you're ready?

Oh you know what, I thought it was a subscription. Yeah there are times in my life where I'd throw $25 with zero expectation just to see

I don’t particularly get it either. Just figured for $25 it may be worth it down the track in some way, and willing to risk that if it’s not. Yep, but village passes don’t get in park discounts

Mitty theme parks also has some nice testing footage and a look at the continued site/theming works

That’s because GW is a regional park, and them building those coasters shows that gumbuya management is going out of their way to deliver the best experience that they can offer, compared to the size of the park. I can’t say much about Buzzsaw, but MW buying two children’s coaster, when they already offer two in Scooby and Road runner, and then slapping on the WOZ theme that honestly imho deserves an immersive dark ride experience if they were to go with that IP, just seems a bit lazy of them. MW is supposed to be the international standard park of Australia, Gumbuya is meant to be a scaled down family park for locals, which tbh I’m perfectly fine with.

Don't you get those discounts every visit at DW with an annual pass?

I was really worried how the transition between Levi and Jellyfish would look from the construction updates we got, but seeing it in person, i think it works really well, so I don't think theres a need for any sort of deep planting beyond what is there already...

How many of those do you think there are? If it's more than 2 I'd be totally shocked. The 'travelled for opening day' is a made up genre of a person that you just don't get.

I dunno. There's a difference between being totally literal and a reasonable assumption. (link) Like when a new supermarket opens you understand that to mean its open for you during normal trading hours not open at that very second. ' Re guests understanding of what a soft opening is on the day and how well they accept breakdowns, I'll leave that for those with frontline guest experience.

You can't have a A-frame up telling people it's a technical rehearsal when you have already told people it's open.

Wow. They should have gone with the tradition and had official opening on Boxing day. They should have opened when they did, had signs out the front like the rivals tech rehearsal signs to manage expectations if it didn't open or went down. The opening crew did a bang up job, and really hit their stride by the end of friday, but they were very green at the start of the day, and tech rehearsals \ soft open would have eliminated that without placing unfair expectations on the crew. If some guests would have ignored the clear signage stating tech rehearsals, and gotten angry anyway, then shame on them. But opening "officially" without that opportunity - it's shame on the park. No, I think they're mad that the park announced a ride as 'officially opened' that isn't, and another that is 'officially opened' that can't even operate a full day.

My thoughts are it should have had an unadvertised soft opening period, but VRTP decided on a date and after countless other delays they weren’t willing to budge on it. I think managing expectations is important, knowing it didn’t have a soft opening period and the teething issues I wasn’t disappointed only getting one ride forwards and one backwards on Saturday but certainly many guests were. If you have the signs as shown above realistic expectations are set. It was on the news last night it was open! The park even with Atlantis in my opinion is not operating to the standard of a $129 day ticket (gate price). I want to give credit to the ride ops/on the ground staff however, they have communicated to guests well. I was actually on the train that had issues before the ride went down the rest of the day on Saturday, and on the last train of the day yesterday being evacuated from the break run. I have had a few ride delays/breakdowns before but none that went as smoothly as that did.

I drove up from Sydney on Friday morning to experience Leviathan. Here are my thoughts: Queue: I really enjoyed the queue experience for this attraction. The entrance façade is excellent and does a great job in funneling your attention towards the ride. Once inside you're pushed through a series of rockwork hallways until you get into the central atrium which is where you will spend a majority of your time. The rockwork and design here is great, and being within the ride envelope helps to build your excitement before you get into the indoor section. If you have sensory processing issues the outdoor portion of the queue may be a bit difficult as the coaster is very loud. Also the theming relies a lot on plastic greenery which is within easy reach of the guests. It was not uncommon to see these scattered around the ground and there were a few areas that have already started falling off. I don't believe these will age well, especially in the harsh Gold Coast sun. Once you've made it through the central atrium you'll be grouped to enter the interior queue. This is the final stretch and you will fly through this section to loading. The interior theming is very well done with faux cave rockwork, vibrant lighting, and an atmospheric soundscape. Before you know it you're in the loading area where you will be allocated a seat to board. The loading area is a simulated cave with a vast amount of screens around you where the Leviathan swims around and taunts you. This is very well done and is unlike anything else in Australia, but it's hard to process as whilst you're being taunted you're also managing your group, getting your belongings together, getting instructions from the operators, and taking in the scenery. Ride Experience: Once ready, you board a surprisingly comfy seat, however, it was not uncommon for guests to have issues with these due to their size. This is unfortunate because there is little to suggest this will be a problem. If you are of a larger size I would recommend using the test seat out the front to avoid disappointment. You dispatch in sync with the audio and visuals. The Leviathan will continue to taunt you up the lift hill which adds to the intensity which I enjoyed. You get some excellent views from the spit as you climb the lift hill until you turn the corner into the first drop which is absolutely excellent. This coaster flies! It's incredibly fun and soars through it's many twists and turns. I didn't notice much airtime but others in our group did so that's probably just a me thing. The second half of the coaster starts to get a little underwhelming but this a problem that many wooden roller coasters have. Once you hit the final brake run, you're done! Again, a very solid experience and incredibly fun wooden coaster but nothing mind blowing. Also expect to sit on the brake run for quite a bit which in the morning means a lot of harsh sun blasting on your head. This wasn't an issue in the afternoon. Exit: The interior exit is excellently themed and matches the rest of the interior queue, but once you're outside it just becomes mostly basic sheer blue walls. You get some great glimpses of the coaster, but it does admittedly feel like you're walking through backstage. There is a small section to view your photos within the exit, but in the three times we experienced the attraction, not once did this sync properly with our train and it always showed other riders which was unfortunate. Overall Leviathan is a great addition to Sea World with some interesting quirks. There were some decisions on guest management in the queue that I don't agree with but otherwise it's one of Australia's best presented attractions and really puts Sea World in a great place with other strong coasters like Storm. Sea World is a dark ride away from being Australia's best 'themed' park in my opinion. Opening Day, New Atlantis I'll be honest - I expected a little bit more for the opening. It felt like just another regular day at Sea World. It's a missed opportunity for Village to reward their most loyal and dedicated customers. The actual New Atlantis area is nice, but nothing groundbreaking. It desperately needs more greenery that isn't plastic and trees or structures to provide shade. Though this could be deliberate with Dockside so close because then the kids can go ride the coaster whilst the parents hang out and have a beer in the shade. Trident wasn't ready and apparently wont be for a little while so I can't comment on it. Sea World & Dockside Precinct Despite the addition of New Atlantis - Sea World as a whole is in a bad way at the moment. It is awful to navigate, many of the attractions frequently go offline for extended periods of time, the SBNO attractions are becoming a major eyesore, and a vast majority of the park requires a desperate coat of paint and sun bleached signage to be replaced. I was also unfortunate enough to be at the opening of the downstairs Dockside Precinct around lunch time. Their systems were simply not ready with EFTPOS not processing on some terminals and their purchasing software having problems that prevented certain orders from going through. I've worked in IT, these things happen and I'm patient, but despite this I have never had a worse customer service experience within a theme park in my entire life. This was not the front line workers fault, but what appeared to be a stressed manager who thought it was best to treat both his staff and the customers like absolute burdens. I don't appreciate being sighed at, being given the side eye, or you getting frustrated and angry with your new staff because your system is having problems. I expect this kind of treatment from a fast food take away like Maccas, but not a theme park where your guests are paying to be there and you're offering your food at a huge premium. This park is going to be the focus for many new and returning guests over the upcoming holidays and despite Leviathan being excellent, I will be surprised if many are impressed with Sea World as a whole. This is extremely unfortunate considering how much of a connection I have to this park.

Having watched the full Jaggs breakdown/walkthrough video, my main thought is that the shortcomings scream so loud. The exit walls. They look tacky and the path looks so thin even Miranda Kerr would have trouble fitting down there. If possible, i would have kept the mockrock flowing and made the photo area into like a grotto. Garden of Cyphers. Again, use mockrock or just barricade the area off. The area looks poorly done and could be better utilised. Merch. Why are the 2 coolest things on sale plush or pocket sized? You hype up the idea of a trident by using atlantis, then give us no way of owning one of the few you inconsistantly designed. Inconsistancy. Queue/exit, trident in Russell Crowes hand/trident outside Trident. Pick one and carry the idea. Trees. I get that things need to grow in, but there doesnt seem to be many if any high growing plants for shade meaning youre always in the weather. Vortex. i've said it before and ill say it again, remove that tacky gate even if it is the only thing from the concept art thats come across exactly as intended. Nitpicking. The security camera above the photo op, either move it higher or paint it to match the wall. Also, the area doesn't seem to borrow from Atlantis' more well known concepts that could have been intergrated really well like the hot and cold streams.

Every ride has to be tested & looked over a certain amount of times before opening, Levi has been opening late (assumedly) because of issues arising in that pre-opening period, and closing early because of the issues compounding once guests are boarding. Also, ⬇️ We know about as much as you do about how opening schedules are managed, they managed it wrong and other examples already given have managed it right. The only ‘example given on why things are like that’ that you’ve given pulling from a highly technical, innovative ride from Disney that goes down a lot, trying to say that it’s not right to complain about Levi going down as that ride does too. When, in actual fact, the main discussion about that ride is that it goes down a lot, because people inevitably get annoyed when that happens. And, with the other actual examples given for better managed opening schedules, a lot of Levi’s issues could’ve been smoothened out by opening with a soft opening/passholder preview, possibly negating most of the complaints entirely.

They can put up as many signs as they like but it doesn't change the law. Drones these days exist in a grey area of diminishing common sense. The more bad apples that pick them up, the more CASA will have to continue to create new sub-sets of regulation and training to ensure someone throws common sense to the wind and either ignores the rules or does something clearly dumb (like flying it too close to a coaster).

Being fully commissioned means all checks, testing, and ride components are in place and operating as intended, no one can ride until a ride is fully commissioned which is why people only started riding on the employee preview the same week as the ride opening. I did allude to this in a reply but didn’t know i needed to actually fully explain it. Dreamworld - had a soft opening to iron out the technical issues which arose with the Tailwhip seat, allowing them to open the ride with very little issues. Seaworld - Opened a ride with only one preview day and no time to iron out any kinks, resulting in them opening a ride with very bad teething issues. so when you look at it, it does appear that Seaworld weren’t prepared for circumstances they knew could happen. Soft Openings are done so they can fix issues, so saying Dreamworld didn’t handle the ride perfectly, even though they held a lot of staff and public previews to iron out issues that could arise to create smooth operations upon opening, doesn’t really make any sense at all. have you ridden the ride? the whole exit pathway is temporary walls, which don’t match the rest of the rides theming and you can tell that they aren’t meant to be staying there for long, people have been saying since opening day that it appears the theming isn’t finished.

Hopefully with the winds speeds dropping today they have a good day of operations

Looking at videos I agree. It looks like one of Australia's smoothest coasters, the only ones I could think that could beat it are the ones at LPS. I wonder if MW will change their coaster, seeing as another park in the country has installed it? Also one thing I have noticed: GW and MW are getting the same coaster, but the feedback seems to be different. I have heard people praise Gumbuya but dislike Movie World for their coaster choices. Same with the former Buzzsaw. Lots of people hated it there but now suddenly everyone loves it at Gumbuya.

exactly my point. Rivals was commissioned then had employee ride nights, previews and a couple leeway weeks of testing before opening, all while being advertised as opening soon. Same thing with Taipan, except only around two weeks of leeway testing but accompanied by a soft opening, all being advertised as opening soon. if ST’s opening went how this weekend and process has gone, they would’ve been torn apart as “unprepared, unprofessional and management needs help.” which did kind of happen even in a soft opening period, so i really want to know what’s different?. The theming around the ride isn’t finished, the ride and employees don’t seem like they were as prepared as they could’ve been to take on so many guests, and they never had a leeway period to conduct extra testing or testing while also leaving room for normal issues. no matter what anyone says, it’s clear they needed more time, some sort of technical rehearsals and a period to accompany this.

Comparing Rise of the Resistance (arguably the most advanced technical ride in the world) with a gravity woodie... train go up hill, train go down hill... is a stretch 🤣 Not surprised operation are terrible.. this is village we are talking about here

Leviathan wasn’t fully commissioned when they announced the opening date so they had no idea what issues could’ve happened. They should’ve waited for both rides to be fully commissioned, then decided and announced an opening date with either daily employee previews, soft openings or pass holder previews. No one’s saying it shouldn’t be having issues, it’s a new ride it’s expected HOWEVER a period of time to allow for daily operations with whoever should’ve been done. Comparing a brand new ride advertised as now opened after years of delays to a normal ride that’s been open for a while and having a technical issue in normal day to day operation doesn’t make sense.

You realise Movie World and Sea World are the same right? Its the one company and management… How about maybe there just wasn’t time for soft openings? If they had announced dec 02, and then ran into problems and pushed it back then people would complain about that. What if people booked a trip and then a week before they said no, not opening? Those people would then be upset. Like there is no perfect way to do this and at the end of the day 100s of happy guests have ridden it already. Its a bloody theme park ride. The hyperbole over what a catastrophe it is because it hasn’t been smooth sailing is just ridiculous. Do you know how many people a week queue for an hour or more for Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland only to have it break down before their ride and they be offered no expectation on when it might open again? And that ride has been OPEN for years.

At the park and seen they were testing TNT today, it’s super quite and smooth!

[[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).