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I haven't been on it since the ride was ruined by White Water West with the new station and boats. Might head back up there one day, but with the way things are being ran I'd rather spend my money at Dreamworld lol.

They can redeem themselves if they have the Joker doing something like this

Very busy at Dreamworld today. Jungle Rush was 60 minutes from about 11am. Queued right up until the entrance.

Everytime I walk through the Wizard of Oz courtyard and Precinct, I notice new areas where they decided to save money. It is very interesting compared to Rivertown, where I find new themed details that I didn't realise where they were last time. It is just striking the difference between the two theme parks.

Just to let you know that all theming elements were in working order during the White Christmas event. It was practically the most complete I've seen WWF since opening

Because the work culture is toxic, it's a lot about groups within groups, and if you don't fit in or aren't considered "a team player" you get ostracised regardless of your work ethic or how you do your job. Throw in a shoddy EBA that allows them to pay staff drastically less than the actual minimum wage, what do you end up with? Trouble retaining employees. Especially ones that matter. IE, the ones that actually keep the place running.

Elements to a film that is within the public domain are not automatically released when the film copyright expires though. If there have been changes, if character likeness has been reproduced and utilised elsewhere since, copyrights can still exist protecting use of characters and other IP. This goes double for if the original story or character development was from literature or a stage play. Even though the film might lapse, the characters and story may still be copyrighted. Once the film lapses they could revert to their original sources copyright. You could change the likeness of a character and use it in an adaptation, the copyright would cover the likeness used in you adaptation if it was something specific enough. I think something like this happens with the wicked witch of the west. Shes presented differently to Baum's books and her known likeness is copyrighted externally to the source. I dont think it matters if something has entered the public domain in Australia if it still holds existing copyrights in another country. Theres an international accord a lot of countries signed up to, so im pretty sure those are still valid here. The original works may have lapsed and someone could use their likeness and character in a new adapation within Australia, but if the movie still holds copyright with turner, given it departs from the source by quite a lot, you can probably assume that everything specific to their movie adaptation is still copyrighted. Character likeness, names for characters, cities/locations, even visuals of the sets. The US copyright is essentially still valid here too because of the accord. Use any of their character names, location names, image likeness for set designs and characters, you are going to be using it under an IP rights agreement.

To be fare to www, the changes to the pace of the ride and the water levels were in response to the depths and the worry someone could drown if a boat was to be sunk. Wasn't from them, but internally. The station change is an absolute disaster. I wonder if they ever got it to run smoothly. Heres a good recent video. Can really see how much faster the boats travel through the troughs. It points out how little themeing elements are working. Even simple things like lighting (ambient light bleeding in is bad) levels messing up the few effects that work. Its such a shame because I know there have been a number of staff who have really wanted to make a go at fixing these things and bringing them back to a high standard and it always ends the same. Either wont spend enough money, wont dedicate enough time/labour, or won't dedicate enough support to keep the effects repaired/running when they are fixed. Its death by a thousand cuts everywhere you look and the only concerns are if the ride is physically running. The video above doesnt have one single basic effect working in the ghost town. Not even the population sign or the shot up water tank. What a waste of a ride. Especially since the site/sound system got a major upgrade too. Has the potential to do a lot with it given the control system that went in. Just have to try and convince the people that matter to approve budgets to actually get things returned to full/proper operation. You would have been working there when the attitude was still if it's part of the ride, we have to return it to service and repair/maintain it. We cant just let it sit out of service. You can say that about a lot of the park now. Must be frustrating for staff that actually care about the place looking its best.

I mean to be honest the whole area is very generic, considering we have Atlantis at SeaWorld. Yes the emerald city facade is nice but it’s very slapped together. Massive bland green walls, open areas with a few cosmetics. They did say world class, we are far from that.

Went yesterday and Dreamworld was packed. I haven’t seen it so busy in about 10 years it felt. Park gates opened about 10minutes early and all the lines at the gate moved very fast so was in the park by 10am from the back of the queue. Queue times were longer than usual but nothing crazy. Best times were from 10-11am and then from 3pm onwards most of the lines were no longer than 15mins. Jungle Rush: started at about 45mins but went down to 15 by about 2pm where it stayed. Murissippi Motors: 60mins all day until about 3pm where it went down to 30mins. Giant Drop: only running one side at about a 30-45min wait all day. The Claw: 15 mins all day Steel Taipan: two train operations had it at 30mins most of the day. Noticed that about 75% of the trains all had Tailwhip passengers. I think the pass holder discount is serving them well. Gold Coaster: 10-15mins Motocoaster: 45mins all day (how is this still so popular! Wild) Dreamland: all the rides here had a pretty solid looking 30minute wait time. Lots of kids and families in the park.

For anyone who’s curious, the slides are still in Canberra!

Flying in for disappointment when they realise the Insta filters don’t match reality

G’day folks - long time no see! As some of you may know I’m the deputy editor of First Drop, the print magazine of the European Coaster Club. Our upcoming issue (going to print in the next week or two) will have a feature on Jungle Rush in it. We’re looking for more action photos to include - basically those showing moving trains full of happy people. They need to be at print resolution (so off a camera ideally, though a recent smartphone also works if you can download the high resolution originals). If we use your picture(s) we’ll happy give you a membership of our club. The most useful bit of this for those living down under is six issues of our magazine by post, though you’ll also get access to our ECC Live series where we chat with people in the industry on Zoom. Recent participants include Neil Dwyer from Six Flags Qiddiya, and Eric Bertch from Lost Island. Shout if you can help, either here or by email to richard@coaster.club. Many thanks!

Scuse me, but that's a Parmi right there. The numbers have gotta stand out, and while theming is nice, i think what fits the theme is something brown, beige, cream, or green and those just aren't going to pop out hard enough to be seen by servers across the restaurant. We went yesterday and tried out the restaurant. Although advertised as 11:30 open, staff informed us it wouldn't open until 12. We waited around, and were the second group seated, though some of our party joined us a few minutes later. Drinks took a little while to come out (nothing too fancy) and then we all ordered food using the QR code. We watched as other groups came, ate and left. Several senior staff came in wearing their jungle rush branded button down shirts and some with dreamworld staff nametags, with groups (I assume their family) and also ate, and left. So the service was reasonably efficient. Our second round of drinks came in a reasonable amount of time given the restaurant by this time was packed. Unfortunately our food didn't arrive. Well... one dish arrived (so we knew the order had been received) but nothing else came out... We waited almost 45 minutes (we waited this long as several wait staff running food kept coming near, looking around and then returning to the kitchen, so we weren't sure if this was our food but kept the hope that ours was the next one out of the kitchen) before one of our group approached the bar to raise the missing food. To their credit, they checked our table number, went immediately into the kitchen, returned a few minutes later and advised our food was coming out the door in moments, but acknowledged that it most definitely should not have taken as long as it had. Compounding the issues they also advised they'd experienced an "IT issue" with their ordering system. They offered what was a fair compensation for the delay, but it did end up taking two hours out of our day by the time we had eaten (kids meal didn't come out with the other main meals and we had to ask another waitstaff to go check and it arrived about 5 minutes later. Putting the delay aside, the food was delicious, perfectly cooked and well presented. There was a small hiccup with salads being delivered with incorrect ingredients (one of our party specifically ordered one salad over another because the other had coriander in it. The alternate one had coriander in it but wasn't listed on the ingredients. The replacement they sent out was a different salad (the one that had coriander on the menu) but without coriander... so a little odd there, but again, resolved quickly once it arrived. I noticed Greg come through the restaurant while the bar staff were sorting our food issues. He came through chatting to folk and a few minutes later was manning the bar - nearly got a drink from the man himself but I declined his offer as we needed to speak with the staff member we'd dealt with on our food issues. We saw him moving about Rivertown throughout the day and I think it's great to see a really involved leadership team. It was clear to see the restaurant had issues, and around the time we approached the bar, the restaurant suddenly swarmed with dreamworld staff who were very clearly not the restaurant wait staff. (At a guess, I'd wager they even pulled in office \ admin team to clear plates and glasses.) Overall, while I know the restaurant had opened a few days prior, I'm happy to put it down to essentially opening day jitters. I don't believe the park has had this level of full service dining before, and the venue itself hasn't operated in over 6 years. Teething issues are to be expected, in or outside a theme park. My local had a new store open up in July this year and our first visit on opening day was a nightmare and we left after 1h20m without food - however we returned 3 weeks later to perfect food and speedy service. I'll be trying out Jane's again in a few weeks time - I suspect the team will have found their rhythm and bedded down their procedures \ ironed out any kinks. At least, I hope they do - but will update our experience when we can. ETA: I should add while all the dreamworld nods are cute, and the animatronics certainly give the place a certain life - it kinda feels jarring against the rest of rivertown. It's like it was designed by two different companies - there's a whole bunch of thematic elements that just don't fit the 'rivertown' canon. It's a great place to cool off in the heat and sink a beer by the river though, i just hope the animatronics don't end up looking like the old koalas that surfaced a few years ago - need to ensure they're maintained and kept up.

Didn't eat at Jane's today as Christmas is already expensive enough, but we did have a look around which staff were nice enough to allow. I think the only bathrooms in the land are in there so I guess they'll let people come in for that if needed which is part of the reason we went inside anyway. Theming again, is just phenomenal. All the staff being dressed up, theming elements every inch of the place. Really good size, feels like more tables than when it was Billabong but yet doesn't look crowded either The bathrooms were really nice and even themed Greg was serving guests, bringing out their food and chatting to them. Huge respect to him and his team actually getting out there and making a difference directly Really enjoyable music and general vibe to the entire place Can't wait to actually sit down and try the food, it looked pretty good and decently sized from what I saw people getting

Attended the opening of Rivertown this morning and so I can directly compare Movieworld's and Dreamworlds. Dreamworld opened the doors to the park about 9:55am (and had a small contingent of VIPs and Theme Park enthusiasts in at 9:30am) and then had up to Rivertown gated off. At 10:05am we were then escorted down to outside the Jungle Rush coaster and there was about 15/20 mins of speeches and then the ride was ready to go. From the beginning the rides were open, stayed up for most of the day (Jungle Rush had a few periods of short down time) and the experience was really enjoyable. There were plenty of staff rostered on, the area looks amazing and well themed (and i am sure there is more to come, but it looks pretty much finished) and the radio was there giving out prizes. It felt like a true 'opening'. I really like that Greg acknowledges theme park enthusiasts in his speeches and is so connected to the community needs. It's a much more humble approach to theme park management. His offsider Michelle (I believe she is Ops manager) spent the morning in the control booth of JR then went and helped serve at the Rivertown Restaurant, it is not uncommon to see Greg helping in these back of house areas, it shows that even the exec team will jump on board and help out - it's a really good look. This is in direct contrast to Bikash who was quick to scoop into the VIP fast pass queue at 10:05am for the WoZ rides. Dreamworld was alive today and it's great to see the hard work they are putting in paying off.

I’ve heard on good authority that there is certainly more to come but they’ve had delays with some shipments. We’ll see this land and attractions continue to improve over the next few months.

So time to share my impressions Munchkinland/Forecourt the entrance photo op statues look great. Little close to the brake run for SE imo, but I get they working with limited space so will ignore it. The walkway down to the forecourt is great, the rainbow effect is great and the transitional music change is really good. The theming in the forecourt is great, and in the 50mins we were there there was photo op with Wicked Witch, a Dorothy performance, and a photo op with Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion. All great, however I’d like to see how regular this becomes or even if it still exists in off peak Emerald City Lighting and design is decent. They’ll want to keep those wall projections functional (unlike other projections in the park) or it will be bland and boring. The wizard projection is quite good, though would have been fantastic to have it have more random or lengthy dialogue sets as it does get a little tedious being so short and just on repeat. Flight of the Wicked Witch The internal queue is fantastic with the room of Poppies and then the enchanted forest. You feel immersed in the story, and even my son said “wow this is like a Japan-level queue” and then boom - you walk downstairs and you are in an outdoor cattle run with no shade, and ridiculous slow ops and burning to a crisp in the sun. I can’t overstate how much the experience is wrecked by this. The immersion is gone and you just want to get it over with. You enter the castle for the final part of the queue which does look good, but it’s not air conned so there is no respite from the baking you’ve just had. They only let 1-2 groups into the castle at the time. The ops just seem entirely haphazard. The 2 cycles where I could visually see what was happening has 4-5min waits between guest disembarking and next guests being let onto the platform simply because the sorter is also the harness checker and they didn’t start sorting until the previous ride disembarked. The entrance to the ride gates is in such a close proximity to the entrance, they have to fill gates 4/5 which are directly in front of the entrance last as you wouldn’t get people past them otherwise. the ride itself is punchy and smooth, and a much better experience than similar coasters I have been on, so gets a big tick on that. There is a short jolty break mid final turn prior to the full break run which is a little strange in terms of forces, and the ride photo for mine is far too late in the ride, but aside from that no complaints. Kansas Twisters I could probably copy the same as the previous tbh.. the starting internal queue is great, immersive and fun. Then you are outside. In the sun. The grouper, who is deciding whether you get in the yellow or the orange train queue, had absolutely no concept of counting. We were told to join the orange train queue, which is on the opposite side of the station so you have to head up and over the track inside the barn. After a couple of cycle, it was blatantly apparent he couldn’t count as we were probably 3-4 cycles from getting on the orange train, and there was only 6 people waiting for the yellow. Cue us excusing ourselves back past another 10 plus people and jumping the rail to join the yellow train queue. Did I mention it was hot? And the barn had no air con or fans? Who designed this place? the ride itself is fun on the forwards cycle, but to be honest I found the return journey just too slow to really consider re-riding again. You walk off to look at chain link fencing and the 30 year old back of house offices. We’re not in Kansas anymore Toto… i also didn’t mention that there was no announcements over the speakers on either ride, no “enjoy the ride” or “you’re about to take flight on blah blah”. The only thing said by staff was yelling “don’t touch the seatbelt, we will do it up. Don’t touch the seat belt” on FOTWW. overall if they spent $100m they need their better people making the financial decisions for the park. Whilst it’s clear nothing is going to change short term, they need to drop some money into this thing before next summer to at a minimum have some shade sails over the queue line, and put some air con or fans into the internal queues. Then they need to sort out their ops. promises so much, but just misses the high mark it set for itself unfortunately. It’s not a fail by any stretch, but if it’s a 2 horse race between Oz and Rivertown - DW has is won by the length of the straight