Leaderboard

Hey guys today I flew up to sea world today to finally ride vortex and I must say that it is amazing I also had a quick peek at leviathan

New containers have arrived on site (credit to tpsn)

For those who aren’t already aware, Mike Croaker, the head of entertainment for VRTP began a podcast at the start of the year caller ‘Park Life’. Each episode he interviews someone WHO go has in some way been involved with VRTP. The first episode starts with a very insightful interview with COO, Bikash. Since then Mike has interviewed a wide variety of people that include those who involved with park operations, entertainment, merchandise, film studios and the Aquacolour Lightshow. There’s an episode out every Friday and I have thoroughly enjoyed every episode so far. Mike doesn’t just focus on the theme parks, but sometimes a wider spectrum of the persons career, influences and passions. If you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend you do so. Love to hear everyone’s thoughts on it too.

ReviewTyme also do a fantastic podcast. Not sure if we're even allowed to say their name around here anymore though.

Gotta love those (NOT) bagging the efforts to fundraise for one of those koalas. This Parkz site has become so vicious and unprofessional and unmoderated towards anyone who has a different opinion to theirs. It’s a theme park enthusiast page. You should be praising those who love theme park history etc. I have noticed ALOT of Dreamworld baggers on this page.

Sea World tried to a couple years ago (more on the lines of day activities in the park) and while it had some really good elements, I don’t think it was a massive success

Wasn’t the government funding the Future Lab though? I saw that as a really important element (not just for the park) for the city

@AlexB even the ice cream store in the western area is open

Unfortunately the park have already confirmed it will be a shaded seating area

Rest In Peace wipeout wave, you were a great piece of theming (1993 - 2019) 😞

Also, some slide pieces have been moved into the park where it’s being constructed

Looking through all of the comments, the event is very popular with families

The biggest complaint about the last park after dark event. Remember this post you made? Dreamworld have responded and sold less tickets, which I think is great, especially since it was focused for kids. The train experience sounds awesome and from photos I’ve seen, overall it looked pretty good. Not something that is amazing, but worth the money and the kids all had a good time. The park after dark/scream world events I’ve been too, they have alway just opened the gates at 6. They should definitely look at opening them at 5:45 and keep everyone around the globe or just on Main Street with some roaming characters to keep it entertaining to a certain extent, have a quick small show/even launch and then let everyone go

@Brad2912 I would recommend doing the 3 new mazes first, do a couple rides, go back do the other previous year mazes and then finish off with any other rides

My partner and I went to Fright Nights last night and thankfully the rain stayed away for the majority of the night. I'll start with the overall positives and negatives and then go into detail for each maze. POSITIVES Overall I thought this year was pretty good, the last couple years have been a bit hit and miss (particularly with some of the mazes), but this year there were some great sets within the mazes, some really good scares and overall it was well managed by the park. The increase in security was great to see. With more and more twelves coming to the event, somethings had started to get out of control. Last year there was a definite presence of weed smoking in the queues and line jumpers. Last night there was non of that, security was all over it. And the increased security at the park entrance with metal detectors and thorough bag checking too. And great to see traffic control at the start and end of the night. It was good they controlled people when the event began and slowly moved everyone together so there was no running, pushing, etc and security would stop anyone that would try to do so. To finally have 5 mazes was awesome and I can assure you, it is possible to do all of them with plenty of time to spare for other things (will go into more detail later). It also seemed like they had more scare actors on the streets too. At the start of the event they said there were over 230 staff members on every night this year too. And finally, there was more variety of food offerings too. Opening food trucks like this western grill is great, despite it not seeming to be overly popular. But the food was really good. NEGATIVES The mazes, were overall good, the increase in animatronics, while can add a cool element in some instances, but other times were so ridged it didn't appear scary at all. And if the timing wasn't right, it was pointless. And the mannequins. In Doll Haus they were great because of the set design and the way they were dressed up. In some cases you couldn't tell what was and wasn't real. But in zombie land and IT (if I remember correctly) they were just placed and didn't add anything to the story. While the live music had some great performers, it didn't really fit and match the event. I would much rather they had a live arena show or use the money for more scare actors and just play music instead. No one ever really stood and watched it and most times I passed the fountain stage, there was no one there (most likely poor timing on my part). Now that it has been a couple years since they've done one, I think its time they explore the arena shows once again. Or have smaller stage shows (like they have done before), but advertise the performance times. The precincts themselves had some great costume design and the un-offical precinct around IT with the clowns was great. As to were the zombies in Dead West. But there was a lack of theming. A part from the usual facades around WWF, some more props that they could interact with would be great. The Doll Haus setup under SE was really good and the actor was awesome. So many people wanted photos with him and the girl in the alleyway next to Roxy. People seem to want these prop setups because they create great photo OPs, so I definitely think they should dress Main Street, etc to match the precinct. And finally the opening show. The performers are great... well done to them. But it's getting a bit boring. The talented guitarist coming out doing his thing and then everyone released. I much preferred the truck or the gate keeper (if I remember correctly) from a couple years ago. It added real horror to the night and setup the releasing of the actors. MAZES We managed to do all 5 mazes in 2.5 hours with no fast tracks. If you want to get them all done and have time to do other things. Definitely try to get to the front left corner to get to IT first. This queue was nearing two hours within 10 minutes of the event starting. Then head to Doll Haus (it was surprising how popular this maze was, but for good reason), then Zombieland, House of Kain/Leatherface. From here there may be some spoilers. IT - 7.5/10 For years many people have been asking for this maze. Was it worth the wait... yes... did I hope for more... yes. The story was there, they featured some of the iconic moments, some really good set design and costumes. It was probably too reliant on animatronics though. The two actors at the end in Pennywise costume were terrifying, but some awesome. I wish another one or two of these throughout the maze would have been good (especially in the first quarter of the maze because there was a couple of long corridors that needed something. It was great they played with the twisted reality of this franchise, but I feel like it could have been taken further. Doll Haus - 9/10 Movie World have become really good at doing their own original mazes. And honestly I wouldn't mind if one year they just had all mazes as originals. There is no limit to it, they create the story and do the sets how they want to. This maze had some awesome set design and scares. As mentioned, at times it was difficult to tell who was and wasn't real. The use of sounds and lights made some scenes quite intense too. I'm someone who gets scared quite easily, but my partner doesn't. However even she got some really good scares and also thought this was the standout maze of the night. Zombieland - 5/10 Honestly, a bit disappointing. This actually had one of the shorter queues of the night, but was also one of the shortest mazes too (whether it was or not and it came down to how quickly we moved through it, I'm not entirely sure). They could have just made this a zombie maze and not had any IP link with it and it probably would have been much lower expectations. There was nothing that really stood out to me that made it link to the franchise other than zombies. There were plenty of actors in here and they did have some good jump scares, but I couldn't really see a story. I was really hoping for some actors to be dressed like the characters, but unfortunately not. Leatherface - 7/10 It was pretty much the same as last year, but still had some great scares. There were plenty of Leatherface characters throughout the maze and gave some really good. The sound was quite out and obviously pre-recorded at times (mainly with the chainsaw), but otherwise still an enjoyable maze. House of Kain - 8/10 Like Doll Haus this is a great maze, that has a really good story line, set design and actors. The laughing receptionist at the beginning adds a sense of fun, but as soon as you enter the first room you realise how twisted the hotel is. I felt like there were some lighting issues with the maze last year, but this year there didn't seem to be any problems with that. You could fully appreciate the detailing and the use of flashing lights and sounds add to the atmosphere really well. OVERVIEW As mentioned, the precincts had some great costumes, but didn't really feel like anything special. But I found the unofficial precincts for the clowns and Doll Haus to be really good... creepy and fun. Overall, I definitely think is a stronger year when compared to some of the previous events. The last Fright Nights that I loved was in 2015. That was the first year where they had precincts (and the awesome and well detailed Zombieland precinct) and still two of the top mazes they've ever done, Wolf Creek and Evil Within. I thought 4 out of the 5 mazes were really good, but Zombieland just didn't have anything special and didn't really match with the IP as I thought. Well done MW with the event as always, especially to the scare actors and staff, but I still left the event hoping for more. Overall I give this years event 8/10

I’m hoping with the maintenance happening on Batwing Space Shot, and it may be far fetched, but I’m hoping they extend the tower to make it taller, and add the new S&S Spin Shot seats. this will bring new life to the ride!!