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Everyone here knows i'm a huge Dreamworld fan, and this year I had the great fortune to spend a day with the man who built the park with his bare hands, John Longhurst. After our first meeting, I came away with a recorded conversation about Dreamworld's history that lasted over an hour and a half, and has been later transcribed into some 16,000 words of what I reckon is some honestly brilliant stories. It also goes a little bit into my own personal history with the park; suffice to say you'll start to understand why i'm so passionate about the place when you read through the article. You can find the first part in a series of stories here - John Longhurst's Dreamworld Stories - Origins - Part 1 I think the magic in this piece comes from simply reading through John's own words, so rather than spoiling the stories at such an early time i'll instead post the pictures that are seen on the jump. Comments and questions are totally welcome. Some of John's many books about Walt Disney. Mr. Day's Coomera property the day John Longhurst bought it. One of John's many books containing a series of incredible photos. Hollywood Cottage, now defunct. As former General Manager for Special Projects, Bob Tan, mentioned to me recently, "As for the cottage, it was very unfortunate. I recall a buyer wanted to take it away and re-erect it at his property on the Gold Coast, but the management of the day decided we disassemble it and store it for future use. It ended up consumed by termites." Dreamworld's Main Street was heavily inspired by Walt Disney World's Main Street of the same name.

I really, really want to support Dreamworld - i've openly and publicly defended the park up against the likes of the Daily Mail in the past, however this whole project in particular really hits home in regards to the anguish I feel about Dreamworld whenever the park comes up in conversation these days. Even with the pennies to the dollar that Ardent's giving Dreamworld to build new attractions, somehow we're still ending up with ultimately flawed concepts like this one, which is literally just placing a bunch of Dreamworks troll themed stuff, that's not actually connected to the other Dreamworks stuff, right smack bang in the middle of an ocean themed area. It's this same logic that makes placing a car attraction in Ocean Parade a great idea, or that demolishing the waterfall the train goes through instead of just maintaining it properly a great idea, or that a diesel train instead of a steam train would be a great idea, or the Log Ride with roofs would be a good idea, or modifying the Shockwave restraints would be a good idea etc. etc. etc. etc. I think the reason Dreamworld has lasted the distance so far is because of the reputation it acquired through the high standard it set for itself back when it first opened, to which I then wonder at what point do enthusiasts and the collective public say enough's enough with the "frugal" spending and constant hacking away at what made the place so great in the first place? Isn't it beyond obvious they're cramming in an "attraction" into the cheapest, easiest piece of real estate they have? Ultimately, it's just really, really sad to see the park treated with such contempt, and I think that's because the park used to be held to a much higher standard, and I really would like to see that standard back before Dreamworld's story ends the same as Wonderland's did.

Such a hit of nostalgia looking through these.. Few tears but awesome memories, looked through the photos up to 2000. Stingray - 95 Forgot the name - 95 Old fire engine near the steam train entrance - 95 When Tiger Island first opened in 1995, these guys were born in 1994. Samara one of the goldens, is the mother of Sultan, Sita, Rama and Taj. Old Candy shop - 96 Blue Lagoon - 96 Looking on at the newly completed Tower of Terror, standing on the old Paddle ship - Early 1997 Next to the old fire engine above - 97 Avalanche - 97 Steemwheel paddle wheeler outlaws - 97 Giant drop with operating chair lift - 98 Think dreamworld had redone the area near the current nick land that included a ride with dinosaurs? Memory is vague - 98 Thunder bolt - 98 98 Gravitron - 99 Enterprise - 99 Great memories

Part two is now up, which covers John building Dreamworld and the many relationships he forged a long the way. John Longhurst's Dreamworld Stories - Building The Impossible - Part 2

Just arrived back from a trip to the UAE so I thought I’d share my thoughts on a couple of parks, plus a brand new and what looks to be mostly unreported on park that pleasantly surprised. I've embedded a couple of POVs from YouTube (not mine) for context. Choosing a park to visit in Dubai was difficult - Ferrari World was locked and loaded for Abu Dhabi but, after sightseeing, we only had time for one in Dubai. I did a lot of research on IMG Worlds of Adventure vs Motiongate - both had a pretty equal list of pros and cons. IMG had a good collection of rides (the standout being Velociraptor, a Blue Fire clone) BUT I’d heard that the enclosed environment created a lot of noise and reminded more of a beautified carnival than a theme park. Motiongate on the other hand had a very unique collection in a setting similar to Universal - a powered suspended Mack coaster, Gerstlauer Infinity and a Mack launch similar to Star Trek amongst a number of flats and trackless dark rides. So, Motiongate it was... Motiongate Dubai The park was almost 50km out from the center of Dubai and is only really accessible by car. Taxis are cheap but you’ll still need to factor in ~$30 each way when visiting. The entryway is big and impressive. Desert turns to roads lined with lush greenery with palm trees leading up to the entry. The dropoff point is at the front of an area called Riverland - essentially their version of Universal’s City Walk that connects the four parks in the complex Motiongate is part of. There’s a pretty lengthy walk through Riverland to get to Motiongate (later discovered there’s a tram you can take) but it is beautiful. The area is very well done but is let down by a lack of general atmosphere. It was a quiet day so I’m not entirely sure if it’s the norm, but there was no music or street entertainment. Such a brilliantly themed area would benefit hugely by some complimenting music and a few roving entertainers. The shops/restaurants were sort of just “there”. After around 15 minutes we reached the entry plaza for Motiongate - it’s impressive. The park begins with a relatively small and short Main Street area with the standard gift shops. This then leads to a fountain which branches off to four lands - Lionsgate, Dreamworks, Columbia Pictures and Smurf’s Village. We started off with Lionsgate, so far only home to one of their IP’s being The Hunger Games. There are two rides, Panem Aerial Tour (simulator) and Capitol Bullet Train (Mack launch). The sim was first up... 10 mins was posted for the queue but it ended up being around 25. Inside the queue looked short but it was painfully slow - little did we know that this would set the tone for the day. The ride itself was average. The sim movements are very smooth but I feel this is detrimental to the ride’s story. The flight turns violent and fast paced so the vision doesn’t match the system’s movement. It doesn’t really go anywhere and has a pretty anticlimactic ending. If you were to visit on a busy day this would definitely be one to skip. Capitol Bullet Train was next which thankfully was a walk on, although I wouldn’t have minded a wait because the queue is amazing. The weird thing is the theming stops completely once you’re out on the track. It begins with a slow roll onto the transfer which then slides you over to the launch track. A countdown plays which would have been good if it wasn’t for the lacklustre launch. You sort of just roll forward for a few seconds until the LSM’s engage, even after which they don’t offer much of a kick, only sending the train a quarter way up the loop. You then pass through the launch track again (this time the LSMs properly kick in) and send you up the spike, then through the loop and the rest of the course. It’s a decent layout with a good pop of air on one of the hills but nothing stellar. Following this we headed over to Dreamworks, a massive enclosed building that is split into four mini-lands - Shrek, Kungfu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon and Madagascar, branching out from a breathtaking Dreamworks themed fountain that stopped us in our tracks whenever we walked past. Shrek was up first and we were blown away. Obviously being enclosed it’s constantly “night” - it’s beautifully lit and really immersive. We headed over to Shrek’s Merry Fairy Tale Journey, one of a few trackless dark rides in the park and the longest at around 8 minutes. It basically tells the full story of Shrek in “puppet style”. All the animatronics have visible strings and are basic however there are some great transitions between scenes and is a very good ride overall. What I really liked is that the ride ended with a scene where you’re transported back from the tale with a few “proper” animatronics - sort of felt like a statement from the park to remind that they’re more than capable of creating real animatronics. I don’t think the trackless system was necessary however as there are only really 2 alternate paths the cars take. At this point I had a great feeling about the park, the good was outweighing the bad. There was some areas that reminded me of Universal and some even matching Disney quality... Shrek lead into Madagascar so that was next. Again, another well done area. This was home to Mad Pursuit, a Gerstlauer Infinity with a 35 min wait posted. Seemed excessive for a very quiet day but we decided to wait anyway. Unfortunately this was the start of the park showing it’s uglier side. The queue was a decent length but still only looked 1/4 full with all switchbacks empty. The queue was crawling. I initially put it down to potentially a single car running but was confused when the station came into view (50 minutes later), along with the revelation that 3 cars were running. In addition to insanely inefficient SLOW operations (cars stacking for up to 2 minutes?), priority was always given to anyone in the Q Fast queue. If there was enough to fill a car from Q Fast, no one would be taken from the regular queue. We saw multiple people reriding without any issue while the normal queue stopped moving, sometimes for up to 15 minutes. A mind boggling way to manage a priority queuing system and a great way to annoy regular guests. 70 minutes later we were on. Really punchy launch with a wicked turn immediately following. The rest of the layout was good but the theming was lacking, you fly through a few static cut outs in near darkness. Missed opportunity here I feel. I’d heard great things about Dragon Gliders but refrained from watching any POVs or reviews in detail, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. The ride system I wasn’t familiar with either. This had a 60 min wait time but thankfully only ended up being around 30 - the train never stops in the station, similar to HP Forbidden Journey, so it definitely keeps ops on their toes and loading trains quick. There’s an illuminated line that, if the train passes without all restraints locked, will stop the train in the station. This happened a couple of times but was resolved within 20 seconds. The queue again is stunning, perfectly lit with some cool effects. The ride is by far and away the best in the park. There are multiple scenes with impressive animatronics that the cars stop in front of, each car rotating to view the scene. Eventually you come out of the show building and coast (at decent speed) above the How to Train Your Dragon area. It ends with a fantastic spiral back into the station as you circle around the final animatronic scene. There are a few rides that have left me seriously impressed (namely Gringotts and Forbidden Journey), this is one of them. It’s the one ride they’ve nailed from start to finish and is 100% world class. Motiongate is worth the visit for this alone. The main attraction in Kungfu Panda is Unstoppable Awesomeness which we skipped - again another line that didn’t move so we ran out of patience. By the time we came out of Dreamworks the sun was setting, so it was through Smurf’s Village - a very well themed kids area with a roller skater - and onto Columbia Pictures. A big castle with cool forced perspective dominates the area which houses Hotel Transylvania, another trackless dark ride. Very poor ride that meanders in and out of a bunch of rooms that do a bunch of nothing. It could be greatly improved if the rooms were hidden with doors, but instead you just crawl around and end up hearing the audio from each room repeating over and over. Ghostbusters next and - you guessed it - is trackless, albeit a shooter. Without question the park’s poorest attraction, the guns are flimsy, effects and interactivity bad, sound and animation average. Waste of space and time. By this point The Green Hornet (Gerstlauer Bobsled) had a queue of 40 minutes and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (river rapids) 75 minutes, which was absurd as the park was extremely quiet. We decided to try our luck with Zombieland Blast Off - a S&S double shot - but that too, somehow, had a 40 minute wait. Overall the park is good, it is so close to being great but is really let down by some of the worst ops I’ve seen in any park, along with some average rides (outside of Dreamworks) that look to be the victim of cost cutting. Visiting off-peak seems to have more cons than pros, there is virtually no street entertainment, rides are cut to using minimal cars, staff inefficient (and clearly bored) and shops/restaurants close. Clearly they want to compete on an international level and be at the Universal/Disney standard, but silly things like the above mean they won’t get there. On the other hand you have the stellar Dreamworks area that is so good it could be its own separate gate, but it’s frustrating going from a world class attraction like How to Train Your Dragon to garbage like Ghostbusters. PVRK, a new VR theme park in Dubai is up next...

Storm and JR also now have 1 hour free locker hire

Suffering a complete identity crisis, the Park continues to be soul stripped, seemingly without a care in the world. I'm absolutely loving the Longhurst interviews with @Roachie the last couple of days. Btw thank you so much for this fantastic piece of work - brilliant storytelling and I cannot wait for the next installment! Looking over this update makes me feel sad for DW and indeed for the Dream and Vision that Longhurst had for his Park. An unwavered determination and Passion that is something Ardent simply doesn't get. I hope there is a light at the end of the tunnel and the Park falls into the right hands before the dream is lost forever.

Movie World has a new 4D Experience showing in the Roxy Theatre: Emmet and his Master Builder friends return in The LEGO® Movie™ 4-D Experience®! Join the gang in their mission to thwart an Evil Secret Plot – the mischievous workings of scheming villain Risky Business. This custom-made 4-D Experience® combines dazzling, 3-D computer animation with real-world effects. https://movieworld.com.au/attractions/roxy-4d

That would have definitely been it! Found a couple more oldies from 99 - 01. Closer Look at the Shark Some peacocks with their chicks. ToT Skull Now memory is vague, but I remember around 2001 they added a bunch of what seemed like carnival rides? I had forgotten about it until I seen these, I think they were near tiger island.. Same place they would use to bring in the motorbike dome of death. June - 2001 had the Mummy walk through - First year of big brother! - Old Vintage Cars Station - Something Different - Thats all from 2001

Pretty cool night event at DW tonight and only about 250-300 or so in attendance which made the queues amazingly short/walk on. Plus had the PotBelleez, a foam dance party and fireworks (first time i’d seen the top of tower used for an extensive launch pad for fireworks)

Lol no offense but if you need to cite the designer, it's a rubbish record. News just in, Arkham is the tallest Vekoma Rollee Coaster in Australia 👍🏻 All this sort of marketing does is devalue records as a thing, like all those super niche Proslide records. Just market something for how good it is rather than some obscure fact that not even autistic super fans care about. Joz - Autistic super fan.

Pictures from today: Before and After of the conveyer belt section of the ride: (Left: February, Right: Today)

Day 1 and already a lot of stories in the media. Here's the most interesting quotes I could find: From Yahoo!7: From The Australian: From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio Australia: From The Brisbane Times: From New Idea: From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

Spent most of the day at the park with my good pals @Tim Dasco and @ABYSS. The temperature was in the early 30s yesterday and numerous staff said they had 5000 people there. Today’s maximum was in the late 20s and plenty of people rocked up later. They rode Australia’s tallest gyroswing a number of times. We went on Abyss(the ride) three times, where Boden was one of the ride operators. We spent a little bit of time in the pool, rocky rapids and Kraken. I saw the AW wombat out and about eating grass. We fought it out on Bucanneer Battle, Abyss(the guy) nearly lost it on Inferno as the ride op tricked him that the ride was over and we had a noneventful time on the chairlift.

...and over a series of three [merged] posts, Movie World visit December 10, 2005. Entry: Final touches on Superman Escape, yet to open. No Batwing, no Green Lantern. Construction fencing up. Hard to see, but Arkham Tower just a building facade, not a 'spire'. Lethal Weapon: One of LW's trains, as at 2005. Main Street: From outside WB shop. Miss those topiarys. Matrix Exhibit: Matrix Exhibit, where bumper cars/arcade stands today. Wild West Falls: Very different WWF boats paint job than they have today. Part Two: Matrix Action Show: Story is the cops corner Trinity, who fights them, until three Agents arrive, and capture her. Neo arrives, and there's a fight until Neo had an Agent, but 'Smith' has Trinity. The fight continues, and Neo helps Trinity escape, but stays to fight Smith. Neo obviously wins. Part Three: Grand Parade: These were just some of the floats/stars. There was Warner Brothers animation characters as well. Main Street: This view is great as you look at photos over the years. Today you can see: Superman Escape, Batwing and DC Rivals. Unsure if GL too, off the top of my head. End of the day, Superman escape did a few test cycles.

An application has been lodged to change the final heights of Typhoon 360 Ride and Crazy Mouse Coaster. Within this application we now know when the rides will be shipped to Australia. At the time of making the original Material Change of Use development application, the actual rides had not been ordered, so ‘typical’ heights were provided, based on the information at hand at the time. Since then, specific rides have been purchased. The Typhoon 360 will be shipped from Italy by mid April 2018. The Crazy Mouse is being manufactured and will be ready for shipping by the end of June 2018. As a result, the specifications of each particular ride are now known and there are slight differences to the heights approved by the MCU, as set out in the table below. For anybody interested on the new heights please see table. Name Approved height Proposed Height Difference Typhoon 360 (area 1) standing – 27.0m operational – 33.5m standing – 26.7m operational – 33.8m -0.3m (lower) +0.3m (higher) Crazy Mouse Coaster (area 2) 17m 15m -2.0m (lower) Heights in relationship to each other. Typhoon 360 (standing) - 26.7 RH + 36.3m SL = 63.0m AHD Typhoon 360 (operational) - 33.8 RH + 36.3m SL = 70.1m AHD Crazy Mouse Coaster - 15.0 RH + 36.5 SL = 51.5m AHD

Had an old hard drive recovered recently. In Feb 2005 I went to Dreamworld and in Dec 2005, Movieworld. Up first are the Dreamworld pics. Enjoy the park as it was thirteen years ago. Damn I'm getting old... Claw: ...note Avalanche's mountain in the background. ...note Enterprise in the background. Cyclone: White Water World? That a waterpark? Like the Blue Lagoon? These were taken from Cyclone's exterior ramp, spiraling around the turbine building. No White Water World, Flow Rider, Kevil. The concrete slabs are Thunderbolt's footprint I believe, and back of the 2nd picture you can see white coaster track. Thunderbolt's remains: Taken from Cyclone's then exit, the station and infield of Thunderbolt. The shiny area near the roof on the left inside the station was ads for (from memory) Ice Creams, other rides, and Gold Coast attractions. The green concrete slab in the 2nd picture was either part of the kiddie go-kart track on the infield of Thunderbolt, or maybe the queue. Thinking queue. Wipeout: Ooo! Shark! Steamtrain: Already posted in another thread for T Bone to enjoy. Avis Vintage Cars: Pre-MDMC. Looked much more natural in this location. Car pictured was for photo-ops. Way better ride station. Tower of Terror: Forwards facing, no tunnel. Taken from Giant Drop entry/archway, I think. Taken from exit of Giant Drop. Next time, Movie World. Remember the days before the Main Street shadesail?

Why aren't there giant billboards on the side of busses that say "Verse your commonwealth rivals on the country's best coaster? As @joz mentioned, why aren't there different countries having a race down the aqua racers for a bit of good fun and commonwealth spirit? How many other commonwealth countries have baby tigers or the beautiful native wildlife we have? Every day there should be something incredible going on with the athletes and our parks. There's an opportunity to tap in to dozens of countries and gain new influence and advertise what's on offer that's totally been wasted in my opinion. For Dreamworld, there could've been: - "Freestyle divers take on the freefall of Dreamworld's Giant Drop" - "Dreamworld helps gymnasts cool down next door with a splash with baby tigers" - "Kenny Koala and a dozen of his koala friends get cuddly with athletes at Dreamworld" - "Local and neighbouring indigenous athletes get one on one weapons training with 16 year-old Dreamworld Corroboree rockstar." And as for Village Roadshow Theme Parks: - "John Citizen & athlete go head to head on the country's best coaster, Rivals HyperCoaster"" - "The Flash takes on gold-winning marathon champions" - "What's faster? A roller-coaster, Superman, or a gold-medallist runner? We find out." - "Sea World's dolphins impart vital message about conservation to athletes in one on one" - "Athletes tour the country without leaving the Gold Coast at Australian Outback Spectacular" - "Surprised guests catch a wave with Usain Bolt at Wet 'n' Wild" And this is without considering the fact that the games are ripe for guerrilla style marketing. Where was Bugs Bunny cheering on athletes at the Marathon or popping up randomly and being part of the spirit of the games? I would've loved to see Kenny Koala pop in next door in a Model T Ford and for Dreamworld to give out a stack of free passes. Could you imagine if Dreamworld still had a barbershop quartet and they randomly popped up on the strip? Why not do a games challenge for the public? Can you do all the biggest rides on the Gold Coast? Win a free limited edition hat with all the park's logos on them. And there could be so many live events that encourage athletes and volunteers to stay after the games and take the parks up on the opportunity to go for free. The ideas go on and on hey, but what do I know, i'm just some random whinging online.

Doh’ Everybody knows storm season is over for Queensland. Running Storm Coaster in non-storm season is like running Wild West Falls in summer. What’s the point?

Corroboree was closed so I unfortunately couldn’t head down there to ask the animals after the fact. I did see a tiger and he said he thought they were GRRRReat!

What day did you ride on WWF?

I'm not sure of that, i'll ask him next time I see him. Disney did come out to see the animatronic show. If only there was land ten miles out. You're welcome. Chatting to a couple of other fitters and engineers of that period, apparently some of the wood that wasn't completely ruined wound up in what is/was the Big Brother Cafe. So, based off part one and two, what else would everyone like to ask John and any of the original engineering team? Feel free to add your thoughts below and i'll ask the best ones on your behalf.

^Zero Latency is now open in Brisbane. Tonight, I took the opportunity to visit Perth’s first multiplayer VR gaming centre - Optimus Gaming. It’s in Balcatta, less than a minute off the Freeway. It cost $50 per person for an hour. You can play with up to 8 people per game. None of us had done Virtual Gaming before, but we had experienced VR at the Singapore Science Centre. It didn’t take too long to go through some basic tutorials. We had a go at Smashbox Arena and Skyfront, which were excellent. Smashbox was a multiplayer team game similar to a hyped up version of dodge ball. Skyfront is a shooter where you can fly through various different terrain - like Ancient Egypt - and kill your friends. I got my butt kicked several times, but I’m looking forward to going back. It didn’t make me motion sick, which was a bonus, but there were a couple of times you felt like you were about to fall over. It’s definitely an experience I’d recommend if you can’t afford your own VR console.

Technically the tallest gyro swing ride in Australia is The Beast (KMG XXL). Goliath would be the tallest 'non-portable' gyro swing ride in Australia. Or the tallest gyro-swing ride in Australia that is manufactured by Intamin.

Just thought i'd add a little snippet of what's to come, if you can't picture it yet I can almost guarantee it'll be like this: This is a construction picture of Flyover Canada from Syncra Construction , an almost identical project where an IMAX theatre of a similar size was converted into a 60+ seater i-ride. If you're curious as to how that happened, InPark Magazine interviewed Rick Rothschild (who worked on Soarin' & Flyover Canada) and had this to say: I did some research about both auditorium sizes prior to their respective conversions and updates, and there's a marginal difference of approx. 50 seats or 3m of screen height between the two, with the IMAX theatre in Canada being the slightly larger one. TLDR, i'd be surprised if they don't go for the 60+ seater version, especially when it's already been done.

Not even close. I spent the day with John Longhurst just recently and had a chance to interview him about this - feverishly working through the transcriptions as we speak so stay tuned.

Fun Fact, that Graviton has been traveling around Western Australia since it left Dreamworld with Mitro, West Coast Amusements until it was sold last year.

Found an old harddrive with hundreds of photos between 95 - late 2000's love the old thunderbolt.

Paultons is a fabulous park indeed, I know the team there pretty well. If AW can emulate what Paultons have done they will be in a great place. Biscuit +Shaw Thing had a very enjoyable visit/meeting with the team at AW this week.

and for the serious answer, i'd suggest fibreglass (like most train shells) with a metal skeleton.

Great day in the park, today. Beautiful weather in the early to mid twenties. AW was quite empty, which is surprising because it’s the start of the school holidays and there’s only two weeks left in the season. No wait for most rides, except for the Grand Prix, which was up to about half an hour. Kraken was a walk on. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, including some kid who had climbed up a tree near rail rider. Someone else managed to get a mat from the slides into the big pool. Geniuses!

Let me reminded you what you said: Why aren't there giant billboards on the side of busses that say "Verse your commonwealth rivals on the country's best coaster? As @joz mentioned, why aren't there different countries having a race down the aqua racers for a bit of good fun and commonwealth spirit? How many other commonwealth countries have baby tigers or the beautiful native wildlife we have? Every day there should be something incredible going on with the athletes and our parks. There's an opportunity to tap in to dozens of countries and gain new influence and advertise what's on offer that's totally been wasted in my opinion. For Dreamworld, there could've been: - "Freestyle divers take on the freefall of Dreamworld's Giant Drop" - "Dreamworld helps gymnasts cool down next door with a splash with baby tigers" - "Kenny Koala and a dozen of his koala friends get cuddly with athletes at Dreamworld" - "Local and neighbouring indigenous athletes get one on one weapons training with 16 year-old Dreamworld Corroboree rockstar." And as for Village Roadshow Theme Parks: - "John Citizen & athlete go head to head on the country's best coaster, Rivals HyperCoaster"" - "The Flash takes on gold-winning marathon champions" - "What's faster? A roller-coaster, Superman, or a gold-medallist runner? We find out." - "Sea World's dolphins impart vital message about conservation to athletes in one on one" - "Athletes tour the country without leaving the Gold Coast at Australian Outback Spectacular" - "Surprised guests catch a wave with Usain Bolt at Wet 'n' Wild" And this is without considering the fact that the games are ripe for guerrilla style marketing. Where was Bugs Bunny cheering on athletes at the Marathon or popping up randomly and being part of the spirit of the games? I would've loved to see Kenny Koala pop in next door in a Model T Ford and for Dreamworld to give out a stack of free passes. Could you imagine if Dreamworld still had a barbershop quartet and they randomly popped up on the strip? Why not do a games challenge for the public? Can you do all the biggest rides on the Gold Coast? Win a free limited edition hat with all the park's logos on them. And there could be so many live events that encourage athletes and volunteers to stay after the games and take the parks up on the opportunity to go for free. The ideas go on and on hey, but what do I know, i'm just some random whinging online. Let me show you what you didn't say: Two corporate mascots, a bunch of Australian fauna and the Minister for Tourism stealing a photo op.

I remember the old Toboggan at Wet n Wild and how fast and awesome it was when I was a kid. They had a lift hill, so you didnt have to carry the toboggans up. I vaguely remember how heavy they were, but surprised people had to carry them up at DW.

I wish MW would move away from IPs and focus on doing more generic attractions - by not spending money on the license, they could spend more on the actual mazes \ actors and really make them pop.

You're absolutely right. One that really grates me is Mick Doohan in the bush setting and not up the end in the Ocean Parade area. Breaks my heart too that the whole Australian bush theme was destroyed with the vintage cars moving, the paddle wheeler closing and the unique bushranger show gone. Hate that ABC / Wiggles is squished into where it is too. All that should be in the larger kids area in Madagascar. On that, Pandamonium is out of place there. It should be up in Ocean Parade too. The massive waterfall off the Wipeout Wave was awesome but didn't last long after opening. And the list goes on! Dreamworld used to have tightly themed areas, and space between those themed areas, adding a sense of leaving one / arriving at a distinctive place. Now's it just one big shopping mall where every spare space had a kiosk added. If Dreamworld were a Westfield, we've got a butcher next to a clothes shop and dentist next to a fruit shop. The really sad part is that there is just no practical way to ever fix these poor decisions and lack of planning and vision #fml Ps I also hate that ToT runs through the park, killing the vibe and tranquility of Every. Other. Area. Pss Hated Buzzsaw being added to Goldrush... never felt right. I guess they wanted something to advertise to the carpark and highway but by doing so they disrespected the park further. Buzzsaw should have had a different theme and been up in Ocean Parade too. The old Thunderbolt area could have been nicely filled and themed.

After a few months hiatus, Work has finally recommenced

^see previous update

They're certainly not having an "Identity Crisis" they know their market, look, branding, presentation and definitely have an enormous care in what the do, if this wasn't the case the park would be closed or with no investment whatsoever going into it.

Did you know Goliath is the tallest gyro swing in Australia?

For sure - at this stage i'm going to let these two circulate for the next several days and then go to work on the next part. Given how many ex opening day employees have been in touch with me after I put these out, i've come up with some new ideas on how to add to this series that go beyond John's original stories.

My guess will be that the arena will be used as a live site for those in the park who want to watch the games whilst there or a specific event

Why not change up your offer to provide a point of difference? Why not embrace the fact that there are more people on the vicinity (games venue literally next door to the park) and it’s QLD school holidays, weather still good, and extend opening hours to 7pm each night? Do something to be a point of difference...

The Sydney Royal Easter Show is in full swing and we've gotten 1 new ride this year, the XScream Soundwave. The ride is Australia's first Waltzer from Fairtrade over in the UK and it provides a great, smooth ride with lot's of spinning. I mean a lot of spinning, wouldn't recommend if your not of fan of spin and spews. Other than that though, the ride looks sensational, especially at night with all the strobes and smoke machines. The ride is travelling with Doyle Jnr and Jennifer Gill, who own the Alien Abduction as well.

Yeah there's about a 50 seat difference between the theatres so Canada you're spot on that Canada's auditorium was slightly larger, however Dreamworld also have some breathing space (lobby, the now closed Boost Juice shop etc.) to fit queues etc. Interesting thought - folks just queued for Imax sessions out in Main Street, although I don't see this ride eating up hundreds of people at a time. Not even close. Here's a great comparison: (Being real super nerdy, Dreamworld's IMAX was the first in the country and had an old school GT projector.) The Dreamworld Cinema was originally an IMAX Theatre. If you've never been to an IMAX Theatre showing something on its unique 15/70mm film, you're missing out. Still to this day nothing comes close. Back in the day, traditional IMAX (by comparison to a traditional theatre) meant a giant picture in a deep auditorium, 15/70mm film (compared to 35mm film that also contained the audio waveform on it) & impressively powerful sound inside the theatre. However, because of the insane costs to running IMAX theatres, from the physical cost of huge platters of film, or the licensing fees to the super delicate consumables like lamps, the landscape of what makes IMAX has changed over the years, especially with digital IMAX (2x 4K dithered laser projects which is still arguably not as good as 15/70mm showings) superseding or taking over the majority of IMAX showings in cinemas globally. If you're in Melbourne, go to the IMAX theatre there and see something on film. It's just incredible. Quoting John,

Not sure this is about them being 'Selfless' but most definitely excellent 'Public Relations' and gives them a sense of Community. It'll come back to em in folds.

Thanks for sharing this Parkz. We love your support. I know it's not an announcement of a new B&M coaster but hopefully one day we will influence someone to splash out on one! Mark