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Sorry to hear that @Laridae. If Rivals had opened a year ago I probably would have had trouble getting on myself. Visiting the Parks regularly alone since has proven a great little exercise program for me. It's something I find enjoyable and motivating. When DD opened I struggled to squeeze in. Still rode but found it quite uncomfortable. A few weeks later I went on the Claw and felt rather embarrassed that I couldn't get the seatbelt to attach. The Attendant again squeezed me in and the ride experience was just awful on my shoulders. With a fake smile painted on my face and trying to hold back the tears, I couldn't wait to get off. Today I am about 15kgs lighter and can ride (and enjoy) them all, Claw included!! Of course everybody is different but I do hope that if you have the opportunity to one day experience Rivals for yourself. It would be a fantastic reward for you and I know there are plenty of people here that would love to hear from you when you do😃

So at this point I am actually thinking Dreamworld should realistically consider moving to weekend only and school holiday opening. Keep white water world open mid week, and use the side entrance to bring the tour groups in to get their Koala photos (if these haven't all moved on to Paradise Country and Currumbin). I get the opening every day to reinforce the impression of being open for business but they aren't, half of the park is closed anyway. Reduce the overheads of having casual staff working weekdays with no guests. Your holiday makers will visit the Village parks and still visit on the weekend anyway, and your locals aren't making you any money mid week anyhow. That would free up staff and money to get these refurbs done quicker or more stuff open. And on that note, why take their time with log ride? Throw some money at it right now and fast track the rebuild. It's the same cost anyway as dragging it out and just makes for a better image overall.

I was driving through Mt Gravatt yesterday and caught a billboard for Rivals, and it struck me that the image they use - the CGI train ontop of the CGI non-inverting loop twist does nothing for them. It seriously looks no different to the Buzzsaw hero shot that used to be at the top of the Parkz forums. For a layperson, you could forgive them for thinking it was buzzsaw with a new colour scheme. I'm sick of these close up hero shots that show people on the train photoshopped to within an inch of it's life. Even the members here who have spent hours sitting out in the carpark taking shots at various times of the day - their photos would be a much better marketing - the skyline, the sunset. Nothing conveys the sheer size of this monster (and the white outline as @Roachie rightfully points out does nothing for them either). Look - i'm sure that VRTP management read Ben's posts with a liberal addition of salt, primarily because of some history, but they need to recognise that whilst some of his motivation and emotion may come from the history, there is nothing incorrect, false or inappropriate with what he's saying. It's true. They've botched this badly. It shows when most people have no idea about the attraction. Go back and find an ex-rental videotape from the 1990's and you'll find almost every tape associated with VR or WB has the Wild West Falls video trailer. Sure, you can't quite do the same thing with Rivals - 1 there isn't the same story to pitch, and 2 nobody rents videos anymore - but the online \ social \ digital market is what has replaced it. I wanted to end this little rant with a youtube video of the above WWF commercial, but i can't seem to find it.

Atleast our themeparks aren’t like American themeparks and adventure world, atleast they stay open all year round and if it means they have to close rides to make sure all the rides are open in summer so be it!

At least with Easter you get hollow eggs that for some reason seem to taste better than normal chocolate. Plus there's no annoying songs or decorations that appear two months out from the event.

Not any photos or anything interesting in this addition to the thread but I would just like to share a little recap of my AW Fright Nights 2017 experience. I started off the evening coming down and arriving at AW 5:45 only deciding I was going to come down with a mate about an hour or two earlier. Lines were quite long for both prepaid tickets and normal entrance and since I didn’t know I was coming down I didn’t have my tickets bought online. Walked over to the normal entrance queue which was about half way between the gate and pre paid tickets to about where bounty used to be. It was funny to see the scare actors up against the hence screaming and trying to scare guests as they were queueing and it was a good way to entertain guests waiting in line. This continued throughout the whole night while queuing for rides such ad Goliath and rampage which have an exposed queue race. I had my first ride of the night on Goliath and waited about 20 minutes to get on after getting into the park at about 6:15. It started to sprinkle as I was on and it wasn’t too dark yet. It was fun to experience the ride while it was sprinkling and the flames were just such a great addition to the ride. I can see why people like X2 MM so much now! I than went on Abyss front tow after waiting about 40 minutes and once again the flames were a great addition. It was very dark whilst I was on and seeing the bright lights shining to what seemed like the roof of the sky was a highlight whilst on the climb to the crest! When I went on the Inferno, there were two little girls behind my mate and I in line and once we go to the ‘ride gate’ the operators told us not to pull our harnesses down. They than opened the gate and let us on. We all sat in or seats and the countdown started straight away scaring all of us and making one of the little girls behind us in line scream and run off the ride in fear. I went on the Rampage after that and the queue was around 25 minutes I believe and it went quite quick as we were queueing with some very energetic (Tipsy) late teens. Rampage was very rough but nonetheless very intense and a great ride to do at night. Overall my favourite staff member for the night was Boden, working on Rampage who was dressed in a fairy costume and he was alwsys making us laugh. Boden is always a stand out operator when I visit AW! Overall the night was great I did all the dry rides once each except for Black widow and did Goliath 3 times. I loved teasing the scare actors throughout the night and thought the atmosphere was great! Havinf it being my first fright night experience, I really enjoyed it and will most likely be going again next year! Keen to go down to AW again this weekend for what will seem like very short queues compared to last weekend which were still all very worth it! Thanks for an AWesome night AW!! -Michael

Tbh, for any guest that complains that there are Xmas decorations up prior to Halloween I would support managements decision to swiftly remove them from Park, on the proviso they be given free Easter themed merchandise on the way out.

They never replaced the slides they simply repainted them blue form the original green. I found a video of the slides from 1995. I haven't been able to find when they opened but they have been there at least 22 years since 1995.

Plus: Backside of Giant Drop Upstairs of ball playground (the fun part for hitting people) Merry-go-round Of course the log-ride and all of Gold Rush country One daily show at Tiger Island and most other shows No face painters (have three young girls) Flow-rider (I think) And the Tower or Terror II and Mick Doohan's Motocoaster were both closed on the weekend when they weren't listed as such 20 minutes spent (wasted) getting pass photos taken Plus all the closed rides listed above Piss take much?

Long-time lurker, first-time poster in many years. Went to Dreamworld yesterday for the first time in two years... it would have been quicker to write a list of the rides and shows actually open (seriously). Quite an eerie no-people-around feeling, which to be honest I didn't mind. Thank fully it was a day for the little kids and every ride they went on was "next on / no queue" and some you could just stay on. Feel sorry for the place. They're at a cross-roads... they need some serious investment from people who get themeparks, or from I saw, the future looks bleak.

So I went to FN Friday night and overall it was a really good night and was an improvement on last years, but there is still something missing for me, which I'll explain in detail through my review below (which may also contain some small spoilers about the mazes) Myself and a small group of friends arrived at about 5:30, where there was already quite a crowd gathered around the front of the park. At about 5:40 they dropped the rope and allowed people to move up Main Street and head towards the Rival. The popularity of Rivals was insane, and had the longest queue out of everything all night (Until rides closed). This was great to see, however I felt like it detracted from the atmosphere during the opening show for the night. The opening show I thought was really good, and that truck down Main Street with the fire was awesome. However, the crowds used to be massive down the whole street in previous years, but this year it wasn't (Largely due to Rivals, so I wont judge this). But, they didn't have all the scare actors run crazy through the crowds like in previous years. They really only had the actors who were on Main Street during the night, which wasn't that many really. I am still disappointed they dont have even more actors chasing people up and down the street and other areas of the park. There always used to be actors scaring people in the queues, and everywhere you looked there would be actors. We made our way through the 'Evil Within' Precinct, which honestly was a bit disappointing. After how amazing the maze was a couple years ago (And I know a precinct wont have the same impact as the mazes), but it was just two actors, who weren't that scary, and an even narrower path because of the fences in place. Last years precinct here, despite its simplicity, every time I walked through it, I got scared. The outfits were very cool and detailed however. We then made our way to the Halloween Maze. This was one of favourite maze of the night, mainly due to the large amount of jump scares and the detail throughout the maze. The actors were never in positions I expected them to be (Which was something I noticed in both the new mazes this year, so massive well done to the team there), and would manage to scare the whole group and not just the centre couple of people. The scene that had me on edge the most was the one with all the sheets hanging up because (The way they did the lighting) you couldn't tell where the actor was and there were so many places for them to jump out. It was very simple but very effective. I was very surprised about how many Michaels there were, and it seemed like that is all there was. There were a couple of other types of actors throughout, but not many. So I feel like that was a missed opportunity where there could've been even more actors for even more scares. Overall the maze was really good, but compared to some previous years, doesn't quite compete with the mazes they've done. And despite the maze sharing a building, the maze didn't seem overly short, mainly due to the sets being quite small in some parts. Overall I'd give the maze a 7.5/10 We then went to the From Dusk Till Dawn Maze. The maze was almost the exact same as last year (Some of the actors positions or characters used might have varied), which was a shame, because it just isnt scary. I jumped a couple of times, but the majority of the time it just felt like I was at a night club. The maze does start out with it being like a night club and ending as if it had been terrorised, but there was so much potential to add some great scars throughout. Because it used one whole building, some of the sets were massive, and there would only be one scare actor in there. Why didn't they have multiple coming from every angle running towards the groups passing through. Could've made for some great scares, especially with the amount of smoke there was. The best parts of the maze were those smaller spaces because the actors were able to scare you then. I really hope what ever maze does there next year they use full advantage of the large shed, and they put a maze that is well detailed, with large sets with large scares. Overall I'd give the maze a 4/10 We then went to SDSC which had a reasonable queue (Probably about 40 minutes) Afterwards we past Gothic Hall, which was completely pointless. You wouldn't have even known it was a precinct if you didn't have a map. It was a small booth/cart, which was playing music. No DJ, no band, nothing. Just pre-recorded tracks. Come on Movie World. We then passed down Main Street, which did now have a reasonable amount of actors (It was about 8pm). The costumes were really good, and the people chained up really scared a lot of people. But it still wasn't the same FN that I remember from a couple of years ago. There used to be constant screams and running around, but it felt like there wasn't that. Around the fountain was much better as there were larger crowds here, more smoke and tonnes of actors chasing, hiding and scaring. We then made our way back to the mazes to take on the Jigsaw Maze. This was the maze I was most nervous for, but also had the highest anticipation/expectations for. I was aware that MW only had to previous movies and the trailer to go off, but I was interested to see how they went with that. Firstly, it was a good maze, a reasonable amount of scares, and some well detailed spaces, but overall, it didnt meet those expectations (Please note there will be a couple spoilers here). First walking in and Billy the Puppet came in on his tri-cycle, looked at you funny, and that was it. A bit, meh, really. Walking through there were scenes with the people captured with the bucket style things on their heads attached the wall. And one seen made it seem like one was being killed as 'sparks' flew off the saw as it made contact with the bucket. The biggest jump for me (because I didnt see it coming at all) was the pig headed character jumping out and the loud sound of a pig squealing. The strobe effect tunnel always freak me out because it messes with your vision and throws you off for the next scene, but there wasn't an actor there to do. Instead a plain black wall corridor. No scares, nothing. Why when there was already little space, are these 'dead spaces' being made. Surely a scare actor or two could be placed behind these walls. And even though I thought it had finished, there was one more actor with a chainsaw chasing you out. I will give the designers some credit because it must've been hard to design a maze only based off a trailer, which doesn't give overly much away. But some more terrorising scenes were the people are being attacked, chased, just something would've been good. Rather than this disconnection of, oh these people have been captured, oh thats the character who has done this work, and here is some other stuff. There were some good scares, but I feel like they could've done more with it. I hope next year they spend some time adding/improving this maze and taking it to its full potential. We criticised the park for the original Wyrmwood maze a couple years ago, and when it returned last year, they actually improved it and made it a great maze. Overall I'd give the maze a 6/10 It was about 9pm at this point, so we made our way to the Conjuring 2 Maze. This was my favourite last year, and remained my favourite this year. I love the build up there is in the queue before actually entering the maze. The posters, street lights and music are all great touches and really add to the experience. Once again, the maze had some great set designs, with things we haven't really seen before (And unfortunately didn't really see in the new mazes this year). There were some real great scares throughout too, which is what makes it such a great maze. Overall I'd give the maze a 8.5/10 After this we decided to leave because we had done all the mazes pretty quickly, and weren't bothered about the 'party' at the end. It may have come across pretty critical, and in some areas I have been, but that is only because I know the potential Fright Nights has, and this year and last year MW haven't done that. I definitely enjoyed this year more than last year probably because they didnt have tonnes of extra things going on, and instead focused on the scares and entertainment. Despite missing out and on watching it, having a major show in the Stunt Driver arena is great to see. I am going to assume that the massive focus on Rivals this year has effected the budget of FN, and what they did was really good, but I didnt walk away scared. Once I exited a maze it was like I was back at Movie World just at night with a couple things going on, which really isnt what you want FN to feel like. I do hope next year they can nail the mazes because the team can do some awesome stuff as we saw with the Wolf Creek 2 and Evil With Mazes (They were freaking awesome and you walked away scared but amazed). The first year of the precincts (2015) was awesome because there were so much detail in them, and the popular franchises had recognisable characters/elements, but this year they fell flat. Overall I did have a really good night and was scared and always love the effort the team puts into this event (Probably a lot more than we realise), but I think it should be taken to the next level. Invest more money, have more actors and more elaborate maze scenes. I'm giving this years event a 7.5/10

you're getting all the sneaky peaks before they end up on socials. Feel spesh?

A few from Friday night.

I'd expect GCB to thoroughly ignore the fact it was a weekend and go on a tirade about poor safety at the park. Geezus - find a sense of humour people!

That doesn't make it look like they're putting in any effort - not a workman or tool in site, and the ride missing crucial safety devices. Can you imagine how GCB would spin that?