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they weren't maintaining the victorian facades to the standard required. I've often sat at central station looking up at the ice cream shop wondering just how much the paint was holding together. They already ruined other facades - the new exit to the parkway, the gaudy paint job on some other buildings. Ironically, since these buildings were inspired by Disney - I encourage you to "let it go". Clearly the park is in a state of change right now. The areas you could include as 'main street' would include areas as far east as the train line, south as far as Claw, north as far as the construction fences - and we've got the bloody fairy shop, a modern airport, a giant modern roof canopy, a super modern looking Kodak and Lego store frontage, parts of victorian buildings that are falling apart. The time to lament the loss of Longhurst's Disney Main Street was long before the thunder river incident. It's not the wrecking ball of progress, rather it is death by a thousand small cuts. Rather than blocking an opportunity for them to install a lower maintenance facade, and an amazing new attraction, perhaps this is just a sign of things to come as they slowly replace old, awesome, but hard to maintain facades with those that are simpler, and easier (read: low maintenance). At this stage, i'd welcome a reimagining of all the shopfronts within the main street precinct, rather than try to cling to some shred of a forgotten era by insisting that the slowly rotting facades be left untouched and in service until they too fall down and kill someone.

What flavour did you choose?

Dreamworld have slightly extended hours from the 27th, from the e-news sent today.

There's suddenly a lot of whataboutism going on when your original argument and my reply were awfully specific. Walt Disney is dead but whether it's new rides or the fundamental ethics of the Walt Disney Company, folks both inside and outside the park care deeply about what his opinion would be, so the "he sold it" line doesn't work as an excuse on meeting the minimum standard of expectations that's been eroded for 20+ years at Dreamworld. But you're right, Disney isn't the only template for success, in fact both Dreamworld & Sea World owe a lot of credit to other successful operations like Busch Gardens. Both Busch & Universal (another highly successful chain) do a great job in catering to thrill-seekers and less of the "family unit" that Disney does. Same goes for Dollywood & Hershey Park. Noticing a trend here by the way with those parks? They're all successful parks that look after what they have (what's that? They still have all their steam trains? What a coincidence) and don't do really, really basic things you wouldn't even do in RollerCoaster Tycoon like, say, plonking a space-themed ride in a western area or, maybe, I dunno, plonking an ultra-modern facade in a Victorian-era main street.

At a fundamental level, the Victorian-era facades aren't tired, otherwise Disneyland wouldn't still be printing money in multiple countries. As to what @AlexB said above - there's definitely some truth in there - Longhurst's Dreamworld is well and truly buried (figuratively and literally at that) and trying to hold Ardent to the same bar that Longhurst had ends in major disappointment.

This building looks terrible. It does not fit the style of Dreamworld, or have any unique theme beyond generic 'airport' or possibly 'shopping mall'. This design is going to date quickly and the glass windows housing the stairwells already look like a dated early 90s office block. Dreamworld increasingly seems to be treating their park like a shopping mall where each store has it's own unique brand and fit out and there is no continuity from one attraction to the next. While I get that there were no airplanes in the late Victorian era, to theme it to the surrounding buildings, there were ideas for flying contraptions dating back to the 1500s (DaVinci, etc). It's not difficult to come up with a concept that allows you to create a theme park attraction, instead of a generic 'flying' ride. We've all been to an airport, we know what they look like, and we don't go to Dreamworld to see a cheap copy of one. The theme of the building doesn't have to represent the concept of the ride, but the story attached to the ride and Dreamworld could have made that story anything. Even if you wanted to theme it to an airport, there are many Art Deco and historic airports from around the world that could have been used to create better theming, that would have sit closer to the rest of the main street look. Liverpool: Kallang Airport (Singapore): Newark: LaGuardia (New York City): Jacksonville Florida: Swan Island: The building could have been designed to fit the rest of the area and simply had an air traffic control tower element added, and all of the art deco designs would have suited a Sky Voyager theme much better than a modern airport. To be honest, I'm going to be disappointed with the current Dreamworld design if there are not metal detectors, x-ray machines and 40 minute security lines to get on the ride. If they're going to theme it to a modern airport, why not go all the way?

And just like that, everything Gold Rush and TRR is now completely gone and filled.

Dreamworld's style is tired and is overdue for an overhaul. Blah Blah Blah, you don't like change.

There's a SkyVoyager branded kiosk in Westfield Coomera at the moment. If you buy an annual pass there, you get a pass for 13 months (same as online) and also a $20 Westfield gift card. The guy there told me: - The new development for next year is an adventure river in Whitewater World, which will include things like Waves and waterfalls. - They are NOT planning a dark ride for 2019, but it might be happening in 2020 or subsequently. - They are considering a new coaster also in coming years. Most importantly, boxing day is still the planned opening day of SkyVoyager. It just can't be confirmed just yet due to construction activity, which of course can be a bit hard to predict. Exciting times!

I don't think so - I think everyone is going to always yearn to step into a bygone era of yesteryear and nostalgia, and the proof is in the fact that people are still just as fanatical about Disneyland today as they were when it was "new" decades ago. And shock horror, part of that continued success is caring deeply about the guest's sense of immersion, however subconscious and minor the detail is. People know the difference between a living, breathing steam train and a John Deere diesel engine, and to say folks don't is why Ardent is in the predicament they're in - really caring about experience instead of holding the customer in contempt would go a long, long, way here. John Longhurst got this, and it's why Dreamworld was such a hit. Now we've got a FlyOver America from Mall of America facade industrial park facade rubbing up against Victorian-style facades, a diesel train, a totally disjointed Ocean Parade filled with trolls, car theming and an exhibition hall.... is it any wonder they're still struggling?

I'm absolutely positive it wasn't the phone's fault.

Another day closer!

exposure. and being annoying AF.

I was there last weekend with my 11 year old nephew. I pointed out this monstrosity as we walked past, and said "look over there. That's Sea Worlds new ride!" He didn't even pause for a second and just completely ignored it. and that's the reaction of a kid!!! Try harder please Sea World. You used to be amazing!

Most of the hardcore train nuts though red never liked the Baldwin or Perry, too “americanised” as they would say,. Push, in a sense yes it is a train, just like a coaster train is a train, just running on different rails. What we have here is a diesel John Deere tractor (that sounds like it too) pulling carriages around a theme park, and doing it rather poorly too. That thing has done more damage in its short lifespan than what the steam engines ever did in their 30 something years of operation at the park. I get it, the park wanted to dieselise for whatever reason (cough B Tan) but what they replced the steam engines with adversely affects the performance of the attraction, with the fact it is frequently “broken”, full because they are only running 1 or 2 carriages, or heck even in the way it looks. I saw it today, and it really looks like shit, even by its standards! If they just to go diesel, they should have looked at a company who had built trains before like Severn Lamb (http://www.severn-lamb.com/) who produce some very nice “diesel” locos, or you know just looked at a better firing system which would have saved them money. On the reliability side of things, When the park had the steam engines running it was very rare that a day went by without the train running, only really stopping when track work was being done, these days its about as reliable as my Italian made watch. I could go on about the current situation, but it will just fall on deaf ears. So I’ll leave on this note, You know how Joz mentions that the train sits at the station for 8 minutes? Well back when the steam engines ran it used to sit for closer to 12 mins at Central Park (the timetable was faster then, but atleast they could meet the timetable!) which was enough time to do a full lap of the park with all stops if no one was boarding on and off. Sadly these days with the John Deere they wouldn’t be able to keep to schedule without the rest break at Central Park station, which at times today was only 2 to 3 mins.

Hotdog fans rejoice, for the stand has returned for the summer holidays. For @Slick and other fans of just the tip a

Which is exactly why in almost every Magic Kingdom they have a knock-off diesel tra.... oh wait. I feel bad for theme park management - their biggest fans always complain that the parks "aren't what they used to be like" but shrug their shoulders and remark things are "fine" when a change happens. It's how we end up with skydancers at Sea World.

It looks like a train, and feels like a train, so it's a train to me. I'm pretty sure it's a train to 99% of riders! I'm grateful to have access to such things. If you were born in Queensland, you probably don't realise how lucky you are. Closest thing in Adelaide was Greenhills adventure park (which is now a construction site for new homes). About $40 each and every time I went. They had a "Tractor-train", and that's what it looked like! Operated 2 or 3 times a day, and forget about the possibility of any entertainment during the ride. Again. We have it very good here!

Heres the official TVC for the ride. I think it’s great and marketing idea is pretty cool. Not so sure the music choice was right though.

We've covered ad nauseum the reasons why Disney isn't going to take over an existing theme park - you can forget Dreamworld ever becoming a Disney property. The only outcome if they were to buy the park would be purely for the land value, as they would likely bulldoze everything. I just don't see that happening. Yes, there is the remotest possibility that they are looking, and looking specifically at Dreamworld - i simply can't rule it out 100% without sitting in the Disney boardroom - but it is highly unlikely they're considering anywhere in Australia at this point in time, let alone Coomera.

No grape's, no cherry's. FFS's CocaColaAmatil - will you's just pull your fucking finger's out and bring out freestyle's already?