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Absolutely. Just as it's premature to write off an unfinished building, I'm certainly not going to defend it just yet. I'll be the first to call it out if the end product falls short of expectations. The only thing I was asked not to photograph or discuss in detail is the final theming, but there's probably a few things I can say: Vertical gardens will feature prominently around the ride as per the concept model. Hopefully real, not fake. Maintenance/inspection requirements will limit what they can do with bare patches on the slab. They need to be able to crane in boom lifts etc. The concepts I have seen for the pre-ride/station area are surprisingly fully realised. I'm told everything I was shown is now locked in and most of it has been fabricated/rendered.

Honestly with water rides I feel much safer with looser restraints, the ability to wiggle out of the lap bar gives me much more peace of mind if something were to go arry in the water. IE see the Splash Mountain incident a few months back wheere the boat started taking on water and everyone just got out of the boat. Anyone else feel like this?

Brave of them to put those screenshots on their website

Nope. Plain and simple once identified, it'd be tagged out until inspected. Some safety webbing can have a certain tolerance of failure - so minor abrading and fraying doesn't necessarily compromise the entire strap, but I'm not sure that applies to seatbelts and it would be a case of 'not picked up' one day and then 'tagged out' the next when it is identified. The fraying could be very minor, but if it goes beyond an acceptable tolerance, its no longer safe. One doesn't need to wait until the fraying reaches ' weeks and months ' to tag something out. I know an operator who tagged out a gondola on a flat ride because they noticed it was sitting higher off the ground than the others. Maintenance attended, and determined the cause was - the ground was lower at that section (the ride was level, the ground wasn't) and everything was fine - but it is far better to err on the side of caution. It is far better to take something out of service until maintenance signs off on it, than to think 'it's probably fine' and end up killing people.

I finally managed to get out and head to LPS for its first official day of trading plus attend Halloscream for the first time. The park was at its covid safe capacity and it was great to see many people enjoying the new offerings along with the classics also. It's hard to judge everything based on it being the first operational day running of the park. Naturally, some things could be better but I put some of this down to new staff finding their feet. Once I picked up my Annual Pass and checked in I headed into the park to meet my friends. The check-in was slightly odd, from talking to the guest relations person, they are using a new ticketing system and staff ars still having to get used to it. To me, that's not a supermassive issue but I was fairly patient also. From the ride lineup it seemed the carousel was not running all day, Wildmouse was not running and the same goes for Sledgehammer. I did manage to get onto Little Nipper, I was on it when it went down and the things mentioned above are true and accurate about it going down. Luna Land to me feels great. While the theming you'd expect to see at Movieworld is not present the colours selected to make this area vibrant and great for not just families, but anyone. The interaction Boomerang has with the area is great. I can't wait to see Sledgehammer and Big Dipper 3.0 interact with this area. I’ve read some people say the temporary “bike fencing” looks cheap and tacky. It does, but it’s temporary. Outside of peak operation I’d expect to see this removed and sitting inside the Big Top for storage. The crew running Boomerang was on point. The average dispatch time was approximately 1:40 at the peak of the day. It's great to see such a high throughput. All the new rides allow adults to ride with or without kids, that's right. If you want to ride you can, Got me some cheeky new credits that are for sure. Loopy Lighthouse is my personal pick. Big Dipper is looking great. It's odd seeing it in the flesh inside the park. Still trying to figure out how the exit stairs will work, I believe you'll exit next to Coney Island/Funny Land. I also attended Halloscream, I'm not much of a Horror fan but for this being my first event it was alright. You can tell Covid affects the performers in what they can do and it's a shame but completely understandable as everyone's health is important. Some of the random shows/acts didn't seem to make a lot of sense tho. This could be due to the fact I'm not into horror or the stories being told just didn't engage the audience enough. I'd like to think the second and was the case as it seemed a little too much “cheerleader” dancing was occurring and it had me slightly confused. Overall it’s nice to have the park open again. The rides looked good and over the next few weekends operations will get better.

Headed along yesterday for the reopening day and Halloscream event at night and was lucky enough to ride the 7 new attractions that were open (before Little Nipper broke while we were on it and Maintenance seemingly just gave up on it). It's a real shame they couldn't get Sledgehammer opened as I've seen videos with it testing whilst guests were on it, hopefully it's up ASAP because with it and Wild Mouse closed and Big Dipper not yet to open there isn't much on offer for even a moderate thrill-seeker. A number of the rides are individually presented well but there isn't much tying the new area together, with temporary construction fences as queues and a number of smaller things such as the Boomerang station being unfinished truly making it seem like they ran out of money right near the end. The standouts of the newly opened rides have to be the Boomerang Coaster which packs a surprising punch for a family ride, especially on the backwards parts as well as Loopy Lighthouse the perfect stepping stone for those not quite confident enough to ride the Hair Raiser. Halloscream itself was good but just missing some refinement to become truly great. They tied the entire event together with a "Sydney Witches" storyline which could have worked well if it was developed, but then had them just singing and dancing to pop songs as the main show of the event. While it was great to get some nights rides on the new attractions the real reason to attend the event was the three scare mazes. The first we tackled was "Rain Dead" and although this one had an interesting backstory where acidic rain essentially turns people back into a primitive state the sets and props didn't carry this theme through the maze. The actors within did the best they could with the material but it felt like there was nowhere near enough of them, with areas that clearly should have had actors left bare. An interesting concept but unfortunately a lacklustre maze to start the night. (Thanks to Will for the heads up in the thread it was the weakest so we got it out of the way first. Next up we entered into DecayMart 365, a sequel to last years DecaryMart and just like last year this maze did not disappoint. This maze sees you step foot into an abandoned supermarket overtaken by bloody thirsty zombies. While this may sound cliche, the great mix of talented actors, detailed sets and unique scares all culminated in a maze that was the standout attraction for the event for everyone in my party. I walked out with a heart rate of 165bpm so that's as good of a review as you can give a scaremaze. Our final maze for the night was Outback Slaughterhouse where you step foot into an Australian butchers barn where it turns out you might be the next thing hung up and turned into sausages. This maze's intense performers, confined corridors and special effects made this another don't miss attraction that's close to my heart as it's essentially a sequel to the maze I worked at the event a few years ago. With a large number of guests let in it felt like 5 hours wasn't quite enough to do everything satisfyingly, with queues for each maze being around 40 minutes consistently throughout the night. Still, it was great to get back to the park after almost 9 months of downtime, get on seven brand new attractions and get some good scares. Ultimately was it a perfect reopening? No. Is there stuff that could be improved both easily and more difficultly? Of course. Am I glad the park is back welcoming guests with some long overdue new experiences? I sure am! Enjoy some other photos I took over the day that didn't quite fit elsewhere!

At the end of the day, over a period of a decade, in order to save money on paying an artist every few years to update the cool cartoon maps of old, they’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on a mapping CMS. That’s not just a slight on Dreamworld’s map, it’s a slight on any park who chooses a 1:1 realistic 3D or isometric map and thinks guests will prefer it. 😂

Not too sure if it's been mentioned already, but these guys are the culprits: https://www.mappedin.com/industries/theme-parks/ Although this topic is pretty much irrelevant now, thought I'd share

Yeah its the 11km from Kiama to Jamberoo thats the problem. **** I'm surprised they are using temp crowd barricades, normally you'd have stanchions you can drop into holes in the ground for temporary overflow.

Village deserve scepticism on what they will deliver.

So you're hoping for the default station from No Limits 2 then?

Look, hold on, that's not really fair. It's actually pretty on point for its original concept.

A YouTuber posted a sneaky preview.

given the current state of everything, and the fact that many people are holding their breath waiting for changes to signs, bridges, theme elements, etc - temporary barriers are probably a simpler off the shelf solution for what is likely to be a temporary problem. Crowds are only ever a problem during major (NYE) events that having a huge stash of stanchions and sockets to put them in (which is likely the more expensive part to do) is probably not worth it.