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Good news!

Track work around Rivertown is now fully underway @gcthemeparkgirl

MW have the opportunity to have the number 1 family coaster on the coast again. How this ride turns out, will tell us the real state of MW.

Noticed a couple things at the park today. First of all, the roof looks so much better now that the painting is complete. I also happened to notice that the park have finally replaced a lot of the old standard rubbish bins with these new proper theme park style ones, similar in design to what you see in many big parks around the world. They look great and are even colour matched to fit the theming in certain areas too. Some of the bins have been placed in front of the Remota Boats and the pool has been drained. I hope this is just a temporary thing during maintenance and they’re not retiring them. They’ve also changed the background music in Kenny and Belinda’s Dreamland. Instead of playing generic pop music, they’re now playing whimsical/old timey music which is a really big improvement and fits the atmosphere a lot better IMHO.

Seeing the photo of just the light post reminds me, those light post are the cream of the crop in what a theme park should aim for with light post.

Love the new logo and so glad they got rid of the next generation name. Fingers crossed the original entry sign returns (or something just as good). And their choice of wording saying ‘the original spooks’ gives me hope. Not going to hype this up to much for myself because Village are known to hype things up and then disappoint.

MW isn't the standard DW should be setting.

@franky it’s been open for almost 4 years and you’re right in saying it pretty much hasn’t had a long maintenance period (I think the longest was a month around the time of the Giant Drop refurb). To my understanding the park were able to develop a maintenance plan with Mack Rides that ensure the ride does receive its proper maintenance, without compromising the guest experience. Checks happen out side of park hours, and they ensure they have a sufficient amount of stock for all the parts they may require so it doesn’t delay reopening. The biggest maintenance job is generally on the trains, but they schedule those to have maintenance completed during school terms, so they can continue to operate it with one train. I’ve witnessed first hand how some of these checks occur and it’s certainly an impressive, thorough and effective process.

They realised that it would improve the guest experience and they didn't want to break their current streak of "that will do".

@DaptoFunlandGuy I agree, but that still doesn’t give them a pass on painting large walls a solid green or making your queue area an unshaded cattle pen. It just demonstrates a lack of care or effort.

Perhaps you could share the photos? There's plenty of world class theme parks that use festoon lights for night lighting certain areas. I doubt they're all sourced from bunnings though, and not necessarily a cheap option for sure... In Rivertown's case, given Murray built an entire bush-mechanic's workshop, is it that unreasonable to think that maybe they figured out how to string up some lights? Honestly - without even seeing it, it's a far better option and fits the atmosphere of Rivertown. If they wanted to be cheap they could have just mounted a few LED floodlights on the existing buildings and ruined the feel of the area entirely. guarantee they'd have been cheaper too. I'll wait until I see it in person but given your recent post history i'm inclined to reserve judgment.

The seats are now fitted

So I have just returned from a trip to Europe where I was able to sneak in 3 parks, Europa Park, Phantasialand and Legoland Billund. I was able to spend 2 days at each park. I'm going to start off however with something that really really p*ssed me off on this trip at the parks. I travelled on my own for this portion of the trip so of course was going to use Single Rider lines. Europa Park has about 6 rides and Phantasialand has 2 that have a Single Rider line. I have absolutely nothing against single rider lines, you run the risk of waiting long to get onto a ride as they're only used to fill empty seats, all good I accept that. What really p*ssed me off however was at both parks a staff member stood at the entrance to these rides and, as a single rider, I was forced to use them, which meant I couldn't queue for the front seat if I wanted to but also the staff member wasn't stopping groups from using the single rider line, which they did. A LOT. Now in credit to the loaders I saw none of them allow groups to be seated from the single rider line, even when asked they held firm and detailed the rules for the Single Rider line, but as stated above I was p*ssed that I was forced to use the line when groups could choose to use it. OK end of rant, onto the TR! Europa Park I wanna start by saying that this park is absolutely massive, I honestly think it would have to be one of the biggest parks out there. Themed around European countries overall the park is really well done. The theming is great, it's clean, their app works well (except for directions) and there is plenty of free wifi. The food at Europa is also top notch and cheap. Currywurst or Bratwurst in a roll for under $10 for example. Europa was also fairly easy to get to by train and when you get to Rust there is a free bus you can use to get around. Unfortunately when I was there it was the middle of Europe's summer holidays however operations at Europa are on point. I don't think I waited more than 30 minutes for any rides. Voltron This is the newest coaster in the park from MACK. This thing GOES. From start to finish it just does not let up. 4 launches, 7 inversions and some epic airtime later and you'll be running to reride it. 10/10 would definitely ride again. Being a single rider I was lucky to get rides in the front and back and it just slaps wherever you are. My only complaint with this was that by the end of the ride my thighs were a bit sore from being thrown into the lap bar so much. I really liked the operations on this ride. First off in the main queue hall if you have loose items you are given a keycard for a FREE locker for all loose items before you head to the station, interestingly if they catch you with anything after this point they will make you go back, put it in a locker, and go back to the end of the queue. When you get to the station the trains don't stop, the station is in constant motion and is loaded quickly row by row. The only time I saw the station stop was when a disabled person needed assistance, and even then the stop was minimal. Arthur OK this was an interesting ride. It's a family suspended coaster and its got some decent g-forces associated with it. Operations were similar to Voltron above with free lcokers and a constantly moving station. What struck me as really surprising however was 1 section of the ride, where you go through a bug city section indoors. The ride has onboard sound and during this section they've selected a portion of a Hip Hop track, not my cup of tea, but it fits with the section of ride. Now on my first ride I thought I'd heard something, second ride I specifically listened for it and by the 3rd ride I confirmed it. Now call me an old man but choosing a section of Hip Hop song that contains 2 racial slurs (N word) and the F word may not be appropriate for a kids ride, but that's just me. blue fire Megacoaster The OG Steel Taipan. Now I haven't ridden ST yet (I've been to Europe twice in 6 months, so haven't been able to afford to go to the Gold Coast), but I was pretty impressed by this. Lots of great speed and force along with some good airtime. I can see why it is so popular. Euro Mir This coaster was an interesting one. I've wanted to ride it since I first saw pictures of it way back in the 90s not long after it was built. When I finally got to ride it? Hated it. Hated it with an absolute passion. Typical of wild mouse lots of force going round tight bends at heights in front of mirrors and yeah, definitely not my cup of tea. Hated, hated, hated it. Wodan A fairly standard woodie, but was an awesome ride. Eurostat - Cancan Coaster Europa's golfball coaster. Pic above is of the model. I don't know why but I really liked this one. Really smooth, dark coaster. Silver Star This is a fairly standard B&M Hyper. Good speed and some great airtime, but nothing I haven't ridden before. There is a bunch of other smaller coasters like Pegasus, Schweizer Bobbahn, Matterhorn Blitz, Poseidon and Atlantica Splash which were all fun as well. Phantasialand OMG I wanna start by saying that this park is absolutely beautiful, I honestly think it would have to be one of the best themed parks out there, even as a former Mouse House employee, this place beats it hands down. The theming is out of this world, it's clean, their app works well but there is a real lack of free wifi. The food at Phantasialand is also top notch and cheap like Europa. Interestingly though it was cheaper to buy beer here than a coke. Phantasialand was also fairly easy to get to by train. Operations were also on point again never longer than about 30 minutes. Black Mamba No picture of this one, it is so super well hidden through theming but also it is mostly a ground hugging suspended coaster from B&M. Again this was on my list from very early on as it looked amazing and it lived up to the hype, unlike Euro Mir. Most of the course is through canyons and tunnels and it's a great ride. F.L.Y This is a flying coaster from Vekoma and damn it is amazing. Interesting operations as you load into a seated position and are then turned into a flying posting just before the launch. There are 2 launches and both pack a great punch. This was definitely a highlight of the trip. Taron Another launched coaster, this time from Intamin. As with everything at Phantasialand this is themed to the eyeballs and it's great. Lots of great airtime and some great forces. Raik Raik is a family boomerang that weaves in and out of Taron. Not a bad little ride. Colorado Adventure A family mine train roller coaster this could have been great. Great length, speed and layout but this has got to have the most uncomfortable seats on a roller coaster ever. And I've ridden Time Warp at Canada's Wonderland. Crazy Bats An indoor VR family coaster. The coaster itself wasn't bad, but when I rode it my VR was off and I had to turn my head to the side to make it look like I was going forward which was disappointing. Winjas OK this was interesting. 2 tracks, Force and Fear, and you can choose which one to go on, in a mass of people however this was difficult. Spinning Wild mouse coaster with some great drops and theming. Was also, for a wild mouse, surprisingly smooth. Talocan Not a coaster, but most people will recognise this Top pin after it went viral when it was built. This thing was amazing. Legoland Billund No pics for this one at the moment. This was a fairly standard Legoland. My biggest complaint however about this park was definitely the cleanliness. This park was filthy. Everything was dusty/grimy. For a park that closes for a few months each year it definitely needs some TLC. The park is of course aimed at families so there aren't many major thrill rides. It does however have 4 family coasters, 2 of which are mild thrill being X-Treme Racers (Standard Wild Mouse) and Polar X-Plorer (Which had a nice little drop surprise at the end). The food at Legoland wasn't bad, though expensive, but then again everything in Denmark is. I can recommend the ribs at Legoredo as they were pretty amazing. As an AFOL I really enjoyed all the builds and how they incorporated Lego into the park, just disappointed with how it was maintained. If you are in Billund you also can't miss the Lego House, this is more like a discovery centre/museum of Lego, but with lots of opportunities to build things and interact with them. You can also watch bricks being made and even eat in their robotic Mini Chef minifigure restaurant which was a bit of a novelty, but the food was pretty good. Overall across the 3 parks I got a really good mix of everything and was really pretty happy with my choices overall. I would definitely recommend Phantasialand if you get the chance, it was really so far out of this world with the theming and the rides were top notch.

They’re now painting the front of the castle. I was able to get a little glimpse inside while they were working near the entrance. I’m not sure if this is directly related to the Scooby refurb, but I noticed the speakers that were located on this lamppost (that used to play the Scooby music) have been removed. The ones on top of the castle are still there though.

Yeah that's fair. It's clear the park is slowly modernising \ refurbishing every section of the park but it does take time... and unlike other parks nearby - I can see that they're actively working on stuff so i'm prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt that something that looks a bit shitty is going to be temporary, and eventually rectified.

Doctor who did it first

They’re making a lot of progress on the track, there were a bunch of people working on it today. If they can keep up this pace, I think they could potentially be on track (no pun intended) to open it for the September school holidays. I noticed they’ve resurfaced the crossing near Main Street station too.

The zipper is appearing at North Lakes from Friday. https://www.facebook.com/BNEthrillfest/

I can confirm that's what they are doing.

like I said - 'I hope'... nothing would surprise me these days.

Is it called that because people puke on it?

Looks more like something is definitely down. Anyhow - this doesn't point to anything sinister - regular maintenance on the launch system can include de-tensioning the cables.

Take one stroll around movieworld at night and then tell me there is anything worth complaining about in rivertown when it comes to lighting

A couple of photos from today (I didn’t get too close, as there were a lot of workers on site).

The lights are gone now.

DCeased is the worst maze I have ever walked through, and I'm not just counting MW mazes. I would rather Dapto kick me in the jiggly gems, then experience that maze again.

I liked it! people here can be brutal sometimes lol

I had a similar experience recently... yours actually sounds worse, which is surprising! It's such a shame seeing the ride in that state. I don't think so, as the geyser is still on which is probably the wettest effect on the ride

Had a chance to ride WWF for the first time in a while and my God is it in bad shape. Basically none of the effects worked (apart from the geyser and the swinging saloon doors/balcony breaking away in the ghost town). There was no audio around the ride at all, no video in the turntable room and even the water tower before the final lift hill (one of the most consistent effects in my opinion) failed to activate. To add insult to injury, parked directly behind said water tower in plain view was a parade float, completely breaking all immersion. It’s honestly embarrassing that the ride is operating in its current condition.

Anyway back to the thread title. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1CZAN7zq9a/

From when I worked on Wild West Falls in the early 2010's, 99% of downtime was due to guest behaviour (i.e standing up on the turntable, or filming) when a ride stop would be initiated. Then when it came to restarting, the ride would chuck a tantrum and instead require a full evacuation. However like every ride, it occasionally had its issues but overall it was very reliable when it was in its original state. The new boats, station etc have pretty much destroyed the ride for reliability and capacity as well and honestly I kind of wish they would have just put it out of its misery. However we know that any replacement we would have got would not be up to the standards that the ride originally had anyway. In regards to the post about the pumps being shut off to do an evacuation, that was always the procedure. A ride stop normally could be reset and was used to stop the ride for a mechanical issue. Anything involving a risk of drowning (or water related) would be an emergency stop which automatically shuts off all the pumps. An evacuation was not required for a ride stop as the ride can be restarted (normally). But if the E-stop was pushed, the pumps would drain and it would instantly become a full ride evacuation.

But if the boats still bottom out through the flume section of the ride, I definitely don’t think things have been ironed out. It makes the experience so uncomfortable and turned this ride from a ‘must do’ into a ‘if the queue isn’t too long’.

I believe they reprofiled the flume too, so the heavier boats don't exactly 'float' so much as they bump & roll down the trough. I don't know if this effects the reliability in any way, but i'm pretty sure it's another thing they did in the "upgrades".

Was horrific footage to see, but you cannot compare the shoddy workmanship (can you still say workmanship?) that is apparent there, and what we will have with King Claw. One’s a Chinese manufactured carnival style ride in a country with what I’d imagine to be fairly lax govt or industry body oversight, and one is a permanent Intamin manufacture, installed and to be tested under the rigours of Australian safety and operational practices. the apparent ride op running out the gate and away from the accident rather than attending to the injured also fills me with confidence about the quality of operations at the park…

The ride is manufactured by Sinorides, and appear to be a chinese company, with a very extensive portfolio. https://www.sinorides.com/360-large-pendulum-rides/ This seems like a complete accident and should be investigated extremely thoroughly because for the ride to snap like that, multiple welds and reinforcements have failed. (This is the smaller model of the ride, i'm assuming the one in the video is the same scaled up as there is a boxy panel covering how it attaches to the axel/swingy bit) The scope of these rides are very very different. One of them is a permanent fixed attraction and the other one looks like it could be moved to a different park each week. King Claw is manufactured by INTAMIN, whereas i've never heard of—and i'm sure no one here has heard of— Sinorides. Most of these gyro swings are manufactured by Zamperla and INTAMIN, both are very reputable companies in the Amusement Ride and Coaster Space. The new one opening at Six flags Qiddiya is Zamperla iirc. It won't stop me from going on gyro swings, I've been on a bunch and always felt safe. But everyone has their own reactions to events like these happening.

I doubt Dreamworld are providing anything for free and in fact the park is probably making decent money from this partnership and they’re getting a lot of advertising. If the Friday Night Games are indeed returning and occur within the park again, then it’s a way to show the country how good the park is looking and that people should return.

Big Brother is officially returning to its spiritual home, with a brand-new house set to rise from the ashes at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast. In an exclusive reveal producers confirmed the 2025 reboot of the iconic reality juggernaut will be filmed at the very site that made the franchise a cultural phenomenon more than two decades ago. After months of speculation and calls from diehard fans for a nostalgic full-circle moment, production company Endemol Shine has locked in Dreamworld as the official location for the show’s revival — complete with a purpose-built house. “The demand for a reboot of the original format has been deafening, and we have listened,” SVP of Content at Paramount Australia Daniel Monaghan said, promising the reboot will honour the raw, unscripted spirit of the original series. “With a brand-new house built on familiar ground, this season will be centred on real people with real stories, talking in real-time.” Fronting the revival is The Cheap Seats star and Nova radio host Mel Tracina, who described the hosting gig as a “pinch-me moment”. “I’d love to be able to recall the exact moment I got the call but my brain stopped braining from excitement,” she said. “I was simultaneously trying not to squeal into the phone and pass out at the same time.” Tracina, who watched the show’s very first season as a teenager, said: “The Big Brother house is synonymous with Dreamworld, so bringing the OG format to its OG location feels right. We’re excited to be home (and in a new house that hopefully comes with an air fryer).” “I was excited when Queensland was confirmed as the location because I knew fans of the show would be wrapped. Personally, I’m also happy because I’m a Melburnian who has Jon Snow’d through winter so I cannot wait to swap my MacPac for Havaianas.” Dreamworld CEO Greg Yong said: “We’re beyond thrilled to welcome Big Brother back home to Dreamworld. This iconic show holds a special place in our story and in the hearts of millions of Australians.” Supported by the Queensland Government through Screen Queensland’s Production Attraction Strategy, the production will employ 95 local crew members and offer four paid attachment positions. Casting is now open at bigbrothercasting.com.au. The new season will air later this year on 10. https://www.couriermail.com.au/entertainment/big-brother-returns-to-dreamworld-on-the-gold-coast/news-story/385a067b4ef357c443176eae58a1980c

Dreamworld just posted this and said they haven’t forgotten about the big announcement And maybe this is a coincidence, but Big Brother just posted this at the exact same time Considering DWs original posts about the big announcement had the same glitchy effect, I think it’s almost safe to say it’s this

Live in hope, but it could end up just being another main street performance like Wonder Woman/Catwoman

+ OZ isn't the immersive theming they promised.

I think what you meant to say is that they’ll shoot themselves in the foot if they take the Village Roadshow approach

Considering the ride is currently being tested, my money is it will open.

i think they will just be using the gate behind wwf as well as the doomsday gate, i won’t be surprised if the entire area is sectioned off, especially since there is no scare precinct up that way.

Maybe, but I’m sure I’ve seen it operate during winter before. It also doesn’t actually get riders wet, so it shouldn’t make much of a difference.

At least they put a bit of effort in and painted it go away green

Indeed.. JWB Constructions Manager...

Looks as though DW has started (re)construction! Credit: https://www.facebook.com/GCthemeparkgirl

The castle should be repainted to the original paint scheme.

Just as likely it isn't an announcement at all and it's just the website going live, with a bunch of things locked out for later reveals.

I don't think he got it.