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The trend for Disney and Universal is to go bigger not smaller. They don't want to just build parks, they want to build resorts. They want to make 100% of the revenue you spend on your holiday from hotels, food, drinks, parking, airport transfers... etc. They want to build destination parks that keep you on company property for the entire duration of your stay. When they build parks, they're usually joint ventures that are majority owned by local governments. No Australian govt (state or federal) want one of these companies consuming 100% of an international/interstate tourist's spending. They want them to spread it around the local communities, so they will never support a large scale park in Australia. The local population is too small to sustain a park of that scale anywhere in Australia, if it could, Dreamworld would have expanded to fill their available land and done a licensing deal with one of the major studios (like Universal). As for international tourists, Australia is really, really far away and expensive to get to. Our nearest neighbours are generally poor/developing countries, and the ones that aren't already have Disney and/or Universal parks (Singapore, HK, China, Japan). A Korean or Vietnamese person wanting a Disney or Universal experience isn't going to come to Australia, they're going to to an Asian park or make a one-in-a-lifetime trip to the US. I personally like that we can have parks like Dreamworld and Gumbaya (even Aussie World) that are smaller and have their own unique vibe. I'd like to encourage them to to better themed experiences and tap into unique Australian stories and experiences that you can't get in the rest of the world, rather than just cloned experiences from a park 6-10 hours flight away.

European gondola ride? naa… just Tokyo DisneySea

While I agree with everyone in saying that Disney would too be my first choice as their Japan parks are probably the best in the world (DisneySea is in a league of its own being probably one of the best theme parks in the world). And while Disney does have its classic dark rides, it has so much to offer and has some rides that you can’t find anywhere else in the world. However, if you and your group would rather more exciting thrill rides and appreciate the thrill more than the theming, then Universal is the way to go. Not to knock Universals theming because the Wizarding World is insane and all of the rides have been done very well, however Disney just takes it to the next level. These were my first B&Ms too. Flying Dinosaur is an absolute must, I’d pick this ride over anything else in the park because of how insane it is. Hollywood Dream is fun, but if the queue is too long (even with Fast Track) I’d prioritise other things first because I didn’t find it anything amazing.

We go next week. We've been up to our eyeballs in research for the past year. The one consistent thing we've come across is people underestimating what Disney has to offer. Followed by people who have actually been Everyone i've spoken to who has been says the park (TDS) is unmissable. Everyone. TDRExplorer did a video a few weeks back showing the morning crowds, and with timestamps he did a few loops of the monorail to show just how quickly all those crowds dispersed. Universal has the same crowds, but it is made worse by the fact that they don't open at the hour advertised. See this part just doesn't make sense. Your family think the queues at Disney are too much, but you're planning to get to Universal that early... SMH.

wow *yawn*...

This is the bottom of the turn table as seen on the test track.

saw your video this morning. theming looks good. Murrisippi motors is also coming along well. the website has not updated the reopening date for the ride, so vintage cars may possibly reopen one more time, but it is still debatable. overall i think dreamworld will definitely be able to bounce back with this. I have passes to both Dreamworld and Movieworld and Dreamworld is gaining visitors at a faster rate than MW. Overall I feel like more people are anticipating Rivertown than Wizard of Oz land, most likely due to the fact that Dreamworld has been doing more development than MW over recent years, with Movieworld's last Big development aside from Flash/Woz being DC Rivals (I may be mistaken though).