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Geeze you lot love a winge about anything you can find. Who cares what 'spin' marketing use? Clearly it's not for any enthusiast (or any of your friends) because you already know about the ride. It's for people who literally see theme parks as a maybe activity in their 'normal' lives. I totally appreciate this is a theme park enthusiast forum so people here will base their opinions around the own person perspective, which is fine. But time and time again these posts come up along the lines of "they are stupid, NO ONE would want this, bla bla bla" and that's just not the case at all. Part of having an interest in the business side of theme parks is understanding the perspectives that are out there that differ from our own. And that does't just mean the perspective of 'people you know' because just by association they are going to be skewed towards your own opinion. I couldn't give a toss if they advertise "World's first coaster with 28 wheels instead of 26", if it sells a couple tickets, great! I'm concerned with what the final product looks and feels like. But mostly just happy a company is continuing to invest big dollars in theme parks in our own backyard.

Farup Sommerland Tuesday 12/07/22 https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/farup-sommerland The Monday I went to Legoland I stayed in Aarahus that evening. In Aarahus they have Tivoli Friheden, so i went there for couple of hours and indeed rode Cobra 4 days prior to the accident, but I might just skip over that park for the time being. The following day I went to Farup Sommerland, which is right up near the northern tip of Denmark (Only a couple of km from the coast in what seems to be an area that everyone goes for their summer holidays, (like Lakes Entrance or Forster) The park is quite a long rectangle shape, in an area of woodland with several small lakes. Entering the park is like going to an old Drive In theatre, where you drive in and pay at a series of booths, with the car park inside the compound. This means you can come and go from your car to get stuff out of it, and the park is pretty open about this, and has huge bbq areas, so already you can see the mindset of the park is more about hosting a day out than squeezing every penny (Or Kronor in this case) but that said the F&B offerings were good too, with a mix of sit down and takeaway places. Most of the park had this rustic forest theme, so a lot of rough timber looking buildings, barrels, crates, logs and rides themed around forest animals. If you wanted to sum the park up, its this: It’s summer peak but wait times were still fine, worst I waited was 30 mins for Fonix in the middle of the day. I wont really do a play by play because I did certain things a few times anyway and it was a long day. In terms of strategy, the park has a wait time app. I think the only thing I gleaned from it checking in the days prior was that the spinning coaster Flagermusen seems to get long waits, so I think I started out with Fonix, Flagermusen and Orkanen and then from there just floated around doing stuff. So, onto the rides. Fonix x5 Really bloody good. Next gen Vekoma is as good as people say. It just has a really solid layout that has a heap of elements and nuances crammed into it, so literally not a single dead spot and heaps of cool elements. The station is quite aesthetically pleasing with stained timber and steel, banners, stained glass etc. A steep first drop gives heaps of air, followed by that cool 'stall loop', which provides extended floater at the top. Things get frantic with sideways airtime on the following element, and then a heartline roll that feels as crazy as the one on steel taipan, but add in a real pull to one side. Yet more airtime with a double down and twisted hill, then a smooth corkscrew through the station. The remainder of the ride is yet more airtime and twists, so heaps of excitement. The final turnaround has a 'wave turn' which is like a turnaround that has a inward bulge/bump built into it, so you get a cool pop of air going around that too. Fast pace, decent level of intensity, always perfectly comfortable...Hope we see one in Australia. Flagermusen Standard Reverchon spinning coaster. Head on down to the Ekka this week or up to Aussie World if you want to know what these are like I did like the misty cave at the entrance, so bonus points for that. Lynet x3 A Gerstlauer launch coaster with compact little 6 seater cars. Bit of a crash compare to Fonix. On paper it sounds good, quick launch, top hat, airtime hill, zero g roll, a few turns and a corkscrew, but Gerstlauer tend to do quite harsh transitions and coupled with the hard restraints, it takes away some of the re-rideability. Eg if there is airtime you are slammed upwards, if there is a corkscrew you are slammed sideways. When you consider what every other manufacturer is achieving, it's dissapointing. The queue line was just full of barrels and crates....t h e m i n g. Orkanen x2 So im sure many of you are anticipating this one considering what's coming to Gumbuya and Movie World. Happy to report its a good ride, with zippy pacing, but that's perhaps its only downfall, since its a short layout taken fast, so its over and done with quite quickly. Going up the lift hill I had a giggle at the automatic lawnmower doing its thing under the ride. Decent first drop, a very short tunnel and then into a suprisingly forceful overbank. You then speed down a bit of a straight with a tiny bit of airtime, then two tight helices that are actually a bit dizzying. The pace continues with a u turn and a little twisting dip in a dark tunnel, and then the ride is over. The last turn is so dynamic i unintentionally swung my leg up and you can see why Vekoma suspended coasters have warnings about keeping your lets down! The theming looks nice too, a lot of old boat shed type stuff so a high level of detail, even if it's just 'junk'. So for sure, looking foward to having this in Australia since its one of the best family coasters designs out there and very comfortable. Falken x2 A wooden coaster that's fine as long as its going in a straight line. When it does the turnarounds at the end of the course it shakes like crap. The layout almost felt a bit RCT. On the straight bits it had drops and airtime hills, which were well executed. The turnarounds were pretty standard banked turns, with the final helix being a bit of an endurance test. Pindsvinet Standard model Zamperla kiddy coaster like the one at SW, but with a super excited looking hedgehog on the front of the train. This had birch trees growing close to the layout you could easily reach out and whack if you wanted. Mine Expressen Standard model Vekoma roller skater like Roadrunner, but with a bell that jingles the whole way around. What made this one cool was that there was a ramp that went up to the 2nd floor for no reason, then ramped back down to the station, so they built it purely to make the queue more interesting and to give good views of the load station. I like it. The setting was nice too. Saven x3 They have another Vekoma family coaster but this one is a boomerang model. Unlike most boomerang models, they've stretched the layout out, so its a few hills and gentle turns in a row, so it slaloms over and under pathways, and even has a water splash effect. Its 'fun' though, a bit more spirited than a regular family coaster, and looks damn nice too. Raevens Hule I like funhouses, and this one was done like you were in the underground burrow network of a fox, but you'd hear sound effects of buzzing flies and farts (foxes are dirty animals?) has all your usual funhouse stuff like moving plank floors and spinning tunnels. It has a really good final room built at a tilt (like young einsteins) and it genuinely did throw your balance off a lot. I wish we could have these in Australia. Skattejagten A great place to f yourself up. A very long ropes and obstalce course that had everything. Cargo nets, bridges, rafts you had to haul yourself across....a full sized pirate ship! Would take a solid hour to do if you did it honestly and did every obstacle, but would also be exhausting. Many obstacles were over water, so you can fall in if you fail. Totally unsupervised so relies on the common sense of guests, but nobody was doing anything stupid except for one bloke taking his dog through it. My favourite bit was the bouncy platforms. Farup Rafting A rapids ride by ABC engineering, but it didnt really do anything noteworthy. A standard layout through generic woodlands. They did have a few water jets on timers so occasionally rafts would be in the firing line, but a lot of the time they were shooting at nothing. Probably the longest wait of the day. Motorbollen I've never done this ride type before (Or maybe I have, since I've been on the Wasp at Aussie World, but this is nicer) Its like a more mechanical version of a flying scooters. You sit in a motorbike, and when you twist the throttle, the arm your bike is on swings out all of a sudden, creating the sense of a speed boost (because now you are going further/faster since you're following a larger circle) Skovturen Did it for the sake of it since I wandered over to get a pic and it had no line. I was attracted to it because it had one of those "arrows with distances pointing everywhere" type signs, and noticed they were all theme park related (Eg Distance to Legoland, Liseberg, Vekoma HQ" All the theming was fairly 'pleasant' and 'cute', including a recreation of the burrow home of the park mascots. Toget Needed to sit down towards the end of the day, so did a lap around on this. Mostly follows parallel to regular pathways, i think the only place it got off the beaten track was when it goes down the back of Mine Expressen. Traestammerne (Literally "Tree Stem" ) A log ride (Which as I discovered many parks in this region have this layout). Almost felt like a bigger version of a travelling flume they had themed up a bit to make it fit in better. Didn't really have any wow moments, but definitely leaves you damp (lucky I did this at the end of the day) I think the one thing I missed that I wouldn't have minded doing was the 4D Cinema, because they were playing planet SOS and I haven’t seen that for years. The park also had several separate boat rides (Canoes, paddle boats, motorboats etc), one of which was right in amongst Skattejagen but ran out of time for that in the end too. Overall a really friendly, enjoyable park. The staff were good, they got stuff done and kept the lines moving without being drill sargeants. There was one guy single handedly running Falken for example, and he was running it efficiently without stress. Overall staff were happy to joke around it seemed, were good with kids and seemed happy. Likewise good staff on Fonix, and i ended up on the last train and they gave us a 2nd lap when everyone started chanting "En til tur...en til tur" I did also like how the park seemed mostly focus on creating an atmosphere of a good day out. Heaps of people having BBQs, you could bring your dog, but at the same time the regular food outlets were well priced and had plenty of customers too, so i guess its all about making everyone "fat and happy". And lots of kids play areas too, so for them it would be heaven. I ate at the Chinese place, and had a Fransk Hotdog at some point. I also tried a local specialty, "hotsnacks", these are like warm versions of those wierd salted snacks you seem to only see for sale at IGA, except i accidentally ordered the wrong size and had to bin half of it: Also they had a ride called Nut Swing As for how to improve it. Maybe more 'medium' sized rides, since it seems like a lot of kids flats even though they have the audience for more medium sized ones. Could also do a dark ride. Coasters are well covered in every respect, but I guess they'll keep building bigger. Definitely head up here for Fonix and a great day out if ever in Denmark.

If covid had not have occurred causing the park to close for months, there is no evidence to suggest the Koala centre project would not have gone ahead. With them bleeding money due to closure, and then no interstate tourists, in my opinion it was prudent and smart management for DW to ask the QLD government if the funds could be repurposed. The QLD Govt had the option to say yes, no, or "just give us the money back". You can have beef with the QLD Govt for saying yes, but the park has done nothing wrong here. There is no harm in asking a question. If DW had just spent the money on ST without asking, then thats an issue, but that didnt occur. I feel it was a completely responsible request and avenue to take to help the park rebound out of covid.

Just getting article now - Opening 2024 - Two new rides (but really 3) - Wizard of Oz Precinct - "like nothing we've ever done before'" - new Marvin the Martian ride in Kids WB coming in 2023 "Gold Coast Theme Park Movieworld is taking a journey over the rainbow with plans for the world's first Wizard of Oz Roller-Coasters. Featuring two new rides, the Wizard of Oz Precinct is the theme park's first major addition in more than 5 years and comes with sister park Seaworld in the midst of a multi million dollar revamp for the New Artlantis Project. It will feature two family-friendly rides, including a multi launch coaster, capable of reaching speeds of almost 70 Km/h around a 454m track and a racing coaster where thrillseekers will travel simultaneously on two 220m tracks reaching speeds of up to 58KM/h. Height restrictions will apply but the rides are geared towards families and kids as young as five. Clark Kirby Quote "This precinct is going to be like nothing we have ever done at Movieworld and we are working closely with our partners to make this one of the most beautifully themed precincts in Australian theme parks. Crews have spent the last few weeks hauling away track and equipment to make way for the new Oz Precinct. Movieworld is also building a brand new kids ride in the Kids WB! Fun Zone in April 2023 featuring theming inspired by Marvin the Martian. Credit: Gold Coast Bulletin

Legoland Billund Monday 11th of July 2022 https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/legoland-billund for plenty more photos. So I’ve just returned from 3 weeks in Scandinavia. The first park I visited was Legoland Billund. Normally I’m not that into Legoland, I went to the one in Windsor because it was included in the Merlin Pass I had at the time, and I went to the one in Japan because I had an unexpected free afternoon (and basically wanted to ride the Mack Submarine Ride) , but they are just ‘okay’, a bit expensive and not really that engaging unless you are a kid or a real Lego fan. But, it almost felt rude to be doing a theme park trip in Denmark and not pay a visit to the original Legoland. This one is actually better than the rest and has a few rides that make it worth a trip even if you are a thrill rider. I arrived at 9 and stayed till 4, but would have had no problem staying right through till close at 7. I had a hire car to make this part of the trip a bit easier, its about a 3 hour drive from Copenhagen, with a spectacular crossing of the 18km long Great Belt Bridge. But you pay accordingly for using such a big piece of infrastructure, the toll works out to $50 each way. Intentionally left early so I could hop out and have a look around. Still I arrived well before opening time. The park has a wait time app and I’d already looked at it a couple of times in the preceding days to see what got bad waits and started my day on those rides. Flying Eagle is a Zierer Family Coaster with nice theming and cute little animals everywhere. As a coaster its pretty good, maintains it speed, and had this one bit with a few S bends. If I was after a standard model family coaster this would be it. It’s just a shame it has only one train, because it gets smashed with crowds. Next I kept moving towards the back of the park, but saw X-Treme racers had no line so I ducked into that too. It’s a larger model of a Mack mouse, so starts off with a big drop, does a few switch backs, couple more drops, couple more switchbacks and then done. Fine for what it was, but it’s just a mouse right? The cars do look pretty cool with their Lego Technic theme. Next door to it is the Lego Movie World, which is quite new and looks great. Apocalypseburg Sky Battle is a flat ride (but seemingly a popular one) however again I was ahead of the crowds so no wait. It’s what you’d get it you crossed Tailspin with an enterprise, so you are simply spinning around, with wings you can tilt to make your seat flip. It felt a bit harder to get it to work, but you can usually get a couple of spins in one direction before it runs out of momentum, and then tilt the wings the other way to get some more spins. The main attraction is Emmets Flying Adventure - Masters of Flight A flying theatre like Sky Voyager, but the difference is that instead of the seats being pushed out towards the screen, you load facing the back wall and the whole row rotates to face the screen. The ride takes you out of cloud cuckoo land (complete with vanilla scent) one Emmets “Triple Decker Flying Couch”, but then the Duplo aliens attack, so cue a chaotic flight through various lego movie scenes. Great fun, but it definitely has a lot more movement than your usual flying theatres where you are gently flying over landscape. This had much more diving and spiralling. I didn’t ride Unikitty Disco Drop, but loved how it looked. By this point I was at the back of the park at one of my most anticipated rides, Polar X-Plorer, a Zierer ESC with a drop track. The theme is like an Arctic base where they are investigating animals, and there are various panels on the walls with scientific information, environmental messages etc. The ride is a bit more punchy than you’d expect! It carries momentum like a full sized coaster, with good speed off the first drop, pops of airtime and forceful turns. You then come around into the ice mountain seen in the middle of the ride (And they didn’t bother doing rockwork inside, they just painted all the framing and mesh black). Overhead is a screen with lego explorer people hammering into the ice, when all of a sudden you hear a crack and the whole section of track you are on drops about 5m, and stops at the bottom, linking up with the rest of the track. From here the track comes out of the mountain, but its basically at ground level now so all it can do is some tiny dips till it gets back to the station. But on the way as you re-enter the building you pass some windows looking into the Penguin exhibit. Which I decided to check out next. Ice Pilots School originally opened as Power Builder, and is a robocoaster ride. They made an attemp to theme it like a Hangar you’d see in some remote location for arctic flights which was nice, but overall the attraction doesn’t scream at you from the outside. Are they trying to avoid it getting overcrowded? It does seem like it could run into capacity issues. Here, you use a touch screen to program a motion sequence for your arm, get onboard, and try it out. Of course i picked the most extreme ones i could, so the arm is catapulting you all the way over the top, or spinning around on the spot whilst making your seat twirl too. It probably only goes for about a minute, and some of the movements are a bit forceful, so the cycle they give you is enough. Looping back towards the front of the park I passed the Temple. Every Legoland has this and it’s pretty meh. Imagine something like Buzz Lightyear with rotating cars and laser guns, except the sets are just bland lego egyptian themed and the guns work poorly. But it tends to just be a walk on most of the time due to the capacity of the ride system so fine for a diversion. I think at that point I opted to eat early (Park opened at 10) sinceI heard food places get bad lines (Which turned out to be true walking around a couple of hours later): Found a place selling the signature “Lego Fries”, which tasted about as good as they looked. I got in the queue for Vikings River Splash the river rapids ride. This is another ride I’ve seen and been interested in, since it it has a vertical lift and splashdown. As far as rapids go, its fairly gentle, and you wont get wet. Most of the theming was viking related humour that would appeal to kids (Eg 3 stone statues singing “We will rock you”). The lift hill comes halfway through the ride on this one, plus of course the vertical lift at the end. It’s just a shame the final drop doesnt spin you like the one at Califorina Adventure. Overall a good fit for the park though. Dragen had a bit of a line so I went for a lap on the monorail and got my bearings for the rest of the park (It’s in a bit of an L shape) I try to do observation towers around midday since it means the sun is out of the way for most of your photos and the tower itself isn’t casting strong shadows across the park. LegoTop is it, but only about 30m high, so it’s good for a view over Miniland, but the actual coasters are at the other end of the park so you dont really get a good overview of them. However up there I spotted Ninjago and realised that was one of my other priorities to ride. Ninjago is a Triotech dark ride with 3D glasses, but instead of guns you swipe your hand above a sensor and use that to direct your shots. Felt like it had a moderate level of control, though quite a few stray shots. It can be finicky, you have to hold your hands 10cm above the sensor, which can feel unnatural and some kids struggle with it. The queue was a series of interconnected dojo rooms, which carried through into the ride itself. The story I wasn’t really familiar with, but at each screen there were hordes of skeletons or bad ninjas and even dragons you were shooting at. A couple of scenes used projection mapping onto rockwork. There were still a few more things I wanted to ride. Ghost - The Haunted House is a fairly kid friendly haunted house walkthrough, with some interactive dioramas and a mirror maze. The finale of the ride is actually a little drop ride (High capacity frog hopper really) where you are ‘levitated’ by a mad professor and then dropped. Seems like is a Merlin special, becuase a lot of the Dungeon attractions they run have this ride, as well as Sub Terra at Alton Towers. Visually it’s nicely done overall but could have been a more coherent experience Piratbade is one of those Mack towboat rides that actually goes through a substantial enclosed dark ride. Quite liked this actually, it was mostly static with the odd lighting effect, but nice and relaxing and quite popular. More parks need the slow scenic boat rides IMO At that point I was over near Dragen, the Mack powered coaster, so waited about 30 mins for that. I’ve heard mixed reviews of this one but I thought it was pretty cool! It starts off with a dark ride section through castle scenes, eg the kitchen, the jesters court, the wizards lab and of course an encounter with a dragon. It’s a powered coaster, so once you reach the dragon it actually picks up speed along a long straight (I guess the closest thing to a family launch coaster with 1997 tech), climbs a bit of a hill then does some helices in rocky area with shrubs and vines. The coaster portion was short but you know what I didn’t mind and thought this was better than the other Dragon coasters at other Legolands. At this point I was getting close to the time I had to leave. I went back to Polar X-Plorer for a second go at the back of the train, still good Back at the front of the Park is Atlantis, one of Merlins Sea Life aquarium, but with an entirely too long pre-show where you watch an average 3D animation of you going down below, dragged out by the fact all the story telling has to be in 3 languages (accomplished by the 3D interior of the sub having cartoon speakers labelled with the Danish, English and German flags) The actual aquarium was well themed and larger than I expected, with many gummysharks and tropical fish. I do wonder about the messaging of having all those lego models in the tanks…plastic in our oceans I rounded out my visit at Miniland. This one was mostly focused on Denmark, with a bit of Scotland, Norway and I think Germany, they also had a section of worlds tallest buildings with model of the Burj Khalifa, Shanghai Tower, Mecca Royal Clocktower. Really nicely done, I liked the oil drilling rig, and the working port with the various moving boats. A lot of the other usual world wonders you’d see at Legoland had been spun off to be located along the Minibade self drive boat ride, but you can still see them from the walkways around that ride. I wouldnt have minded doing the Lego Canoe flume ride but the sun was beating down a bit and I didnt feel like waiting 40 mins. Overall, I had a good visit despite the crowds and got a fair bit done there. The one thing they needed to fix was the F&B lines. They were spilling out everywhere, and to add insult to injury a lot of the vending machines were broken so I couldnt just grab a drink that way. As for what I’d do to improve the park? Tough to say, it’s quite complete as far as family parks go, they have enough water rides, enough dark rides, enough flat rides etc, and enough in terms of unique flagships. I filled up several hours, and of course if you are kid you are going to want to do the splash battle, more of the flats, the driving school etc. Maybe a really small duplo coaster like the one in Windsor to take pressure off Flying Eagle? As always, you can see more detailed photos of the whole park here: https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/legoland-billund After finishing at the park I drove an hour up the road to check out Elia, which was once featured in a Tom Scott video. From a distance the steps look normal sized but they are more like climbing the tiers in a grandstand. Its supposed to let off a jet of fire once at random times, but didn't when I was there.

Some pics from yesterday. Good catch on that Vortex maintenance connection, Rivals!

Well something is definitely happening today

I found this thumbnail image on Goldcoast bulletin when I searched for movieworld! Emerald city, the farm house and the wicked witches castle! This looks incredible, seems like the next level theming we were hoping for! I cannot read the report because I have to pay, if anyone is signed up read and share!

Wild will be open first.

Cool, glad you think that. But, standards as to whats "Safe" aren't standard globally, so height limits do change. Not just in Australia, but globally.

Feel free to delete my previous post, as I cannot do so myself. Photo dump: Went on the 12th, got some photos of any construction updates. First thing's first, they've added footers on either side of the entrance pathway, and 'completed' some footers for Trident. Also, they've got white walls around various different paths (and Trident), which is assumedly for concrete pouring. As far as Leviathan goes, workmen were on a large crane, seemingly inspecting the joints. But, most notably, and I don't know how or why, but it seems very much to me like this is some form of clearance testing (just without the train, for whatever reason) Also, I forgot to mention in my original post (and I completely understand that this has near to zero credibility, nor does it necessarily mean anything, but) even staff at Sea World told me not to get any hopes up for an opening this year, despite the current 'set' date and the work that's being done.

Leviathan has begun testing https://www.facebook.com/283591200581/posts/10166548025460582/?app=fbl https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cg1DOBpDzER/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Absolutely not, no way, nup, never! Not only is it a park institution, but actually has a connection to an A-List Hollywood legendary super star from opening day, and when was the last time one of those visited the park? Don't touch Dirty Harry Bar!

I typically look where I’m going and then hitting my head gets harder to accomplish… If you didn’t learn to adapt from the actual experience and pain of hitting your head multiple times, I doubt some form of verbal announcement is going to change anything

Genuinely excited if it is Wizard of Oz-themed and hugely relieved they're moving away from DC Comics. Ties in nicely with their recent efforts to capture the spirit of the "golden age of Hollywood" as well. My money's on (and fingers are crossed for) a fully themed Oz precinct (yes, the dirty word) headlined by the new coaster/s, with a couple of small, family-friendly attractions in the supporting cast. Despite the apparent foreboding pessimism of the Parkz community, I'm stoked to find out more.

Movie world have posted about upgrades and repairs to the justice league ride

Trident has been topped off, looks like the ride itself is nearly done. https://www.instagram.com/p/ChJEBQYvPT2/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

People online are way more excited it involves Wizard of Oz over some new coasters.

Wizard of OZ is screaming dark ride. MW ending up with the same ride as Gumbuya World is a tad embarrassing for MW management.

Bought the article myself, full-res concept image:

I zoomed in on one of the recent photos and found this.. Termites A termite infestation is to blame for the ride not opening...

I've been making it this argument for years and honestly people just need to accept that it doesn't matter. Pent up demand post-pandemic means that guests are flooding the park in record numbers despite all the concerns such as continued criticism from the general public and enthusiasts, rising costs, lowered operational capacity, poor attraction upkeep, and it being almost five years since they added a new attraction. Cash flow is likely to remain positive for the interim because of this, and despite a visibly obvious poor guest experience, we wont see any changes until that cash stops flowing. Sadly, Movie World has been cashing in on decades worth of positive experiences and nostalgia at the expense of consumer trust. Much like a certain mouse celebrating an anniversary in Florida. If you've ever been scorned by a brand then you know that it takes a lot to build trust, and very little to lose it. This business mentality is great for short-term monetary gain, and it's going to bite them on the ass in the future - Especially when the world comes to Brisbane in 2032 and all the park has to showcase are a couple decent rollercoasters.

Here is a quick update regarding both Trident and Leviathan (photo credits: https://youtu.be/GsQLqZBD43c.) - Trident has had all of its seats installed onto the gondola. - Panels around and inside of Leviathans entrance are starting to go up. - Rock work is also starting to be installed within the queue line which is hopefully a good sign for decent theming / landscaping. even though the September opening has now been moved, i think with how fast they seem to be working it’s a great sign it’ll be open by Boxing Day (fingers crossed🤞🏼.)

The caption at the bottom of the ad is a classic 🤣

And I think that, in of itself, is part of the problem. Whether that reputation is "Dreamworld not safe" or "Dreamworld has no water rides" they kind of just need to bite the proverbial bullet and do a new water based ride and be damned to all the ~bad press~ that'll come from people saying "too soon". I've lived in Melbourne for 12 years now but for the 22 years I did live on the Gold Coast I visited Dreamworld dozens of times a year (when I was old enough, obviously), and I can't imagine the place as being enjoyable to people like me (who don't do water parks) on the kind of hot Summer days that make up such a big part of life on the Gold Coast. I can't speak for everyone (because there are people who do like visiting the adjacent water parks) but a theme park not having a water ride is pretty much a deal breaker for me - especially in the Queensland climate.

DW really needs a new "log ride" type water based attraction. [Seaworld too for that matter].

I appreciate what you're trying to say but I doubt that anybody is actually upset about their marketing. Others are free to chime in, but speaking for myself, I was taking the piss because if you're even remotely in the know then Village's marketing is simply hilarious. My favourite example is that their hero statement for their announcement is that this is the world's first Wizard of Oz land. It's not.

Just gonna be 10 of these in the corner, for $2 a ride. Spared no expense,

Why do people keep thinking Roadrunner will be made redundant by the new rides? All 3 new coasters will be WAY more intimidating than Roadrunner for young/scared visitors. Plus having something to do whilst younger siblings ride the kiddie rides will always be a thing. One does not replace the other.

I mean, maybe Village Roadshow have been cleverly laying the groundwork for the past 5 years by subliminally marketing WOO land to us? This is the longest rollercoaster teaser campaign we've seen since Leviathan!

"Hemisphere’s first multi-type coaster"🤣 Man they suck at promoting.

https://movieworld.com.au/attractions/wizard-of-oz Website is live

TL:DR - Return To Oz is owned by Disney and it's unlikely you'll bring those characters to Movie World. If you don't want to read a century long history of the land of oz, skip the rest. If you want to read a page long rambling summary of the even longer Wiki article then settle down and read on... (Don't complain and say you weren't warned. If I could still use spoiler tags I would have.) All of the original L Frank Baum stories entered the public domain throughout the 80s and up to 1995, although several other writers have written Oz based works later than that, 27 of them (including Baum) are now public. There are still 19 different stories released later that are still protected by US copyright, with the last to expire owned by a still-living author, which won't expire until 70 years after they die. All that said, since the original works are out, so long as you stick to the concepts presented from the originals, you'd be fine, but any imagery from film adaptations that is a trademark of the film may still be subject to protection - which means no Green Wicked Witch, and no Red Ruby Slippers. (it's why Winnie The Pooh can now be used by artists at will, but not if he has a red shirt, which is a disney trademark still protected by law). The first films for Oz were silent films, all of which entered the public domain by 1954. Imagery from the MGM 1939 film (Judy Garland) was renewed in 1967 for a 95 year term, so won't expire until 2035. The Disney film 'Return To Oz' mentioned above wasn't even the first sequel - as 'Journey Back to Oz' (1974) was an animated sequel loosely adapted from one of Baum's original sequels. Disney owned all the film rights to Baum's books (except the original Wizard Of Oz). Like many of the current live action films we're seeing produced by the mouse house, the Return to Oz film (1985) was an attempt at extending their rights to the stories by producing further derivative works. It was a critical failure and so they abandoned further Oz films. Disney even used Ruby Slippers - which aren't in the original Baum story, but were a creation of the MGM 1939 Judy Garland version, but by 1985 the Ruby Slippers were so synonymous with the story that they paid MGM for the rights to portray the ruby slippers in their film. Likewise the Wicked Witch of the West is portrayed as a particular shade of green, despite her not being green in the books. (And interesting side note, but I learned just recently that the Margaret Hamilton character was portrayed on an episode of Sesame Street - I think back in the 70s, that aired once to much controversy and was buried by the childrens television workshop, and it has only just recently been released to the public after almost 50 years locked in the vault.) As for the James Franco 'Oz the great and powerful' (2013) by Disney - it was billed as a 'spiritual prequel' to the original 1900 story and loosely based in the world 20 years before the 1939 film. Disney had no permission from MGM or the rights to use the still-protected works or imagery - so the film retained a copyright expert to ensure that the wicked witch's green was distinctly different from the protected shade used by Margaret Hamilton. The Emerald City had to be distinctly different also. While WB and Disney didn't directly battle it out over this film, they did file rivalling trademarks to the name 'Oz the Great and Powerful' however the US patent office suspended WB's attempt as Disney had filed a week earlier. I know. it's tenuous at best but I knew the Disney film was still protected and off-limits to Village for use in the park, but in researching and fact checking this I found a far more interesting story with very complex rules and dates for various different written and film works, and I find this interesting, and thought i'd share it in case others found it interesting. If you did actually read this far - let me know by a reaction to the post! All that said, clearly the park has licence to the characters in main street, but as we've discovered, IP rights in parks can vary, and roaming characters, and ride themes, and shows can all be very different licences. The copyright on the film adaptations (those for which MOVIE world would likely want to attach) are a little complicated, so I would suggest which characters and what elements are used within the rides and theming would be very carefully curated and controlled.

Other than some small kids rides in Kids WB and the Junior Driving School in 2013, the last non-DC attraction was Scooby which opened 20 years. Great to see new attractions will finally be themed to something else. I’m already thinking about how they could do this. I’d love to see the original Lethal Weapon entrance reopen. That alley becomes the yellow brick road and leads into Main Street and it create a fully immersive area with the attractions. I’d be happy to see them close the access from Superman to achieve this. That keeps the DC area seperate from this and creates an exciting journey into this new land.

The statue makes it look like he's trying to avoid being poked in the butt.

Crash Bandicoot Spinning Coaster. You know it makes sense.

Justice League: Next Generation? *shudders*

Have you never heard of Magnum?

Think we know by now that MW just say whatever they like regardless of factual inaccuracies. one prominent member of management claimed on his socials that Leviathan is the biggest, fastest and best wooden rollercoaster in the world

Because it's Adelaide? That should be reason enough between the shit wine, Port Pirie and the locals.

She's a politician... it's basically in their job description

The vortex we got is what they'd planned for? Really? Because both artist render and model were very similar, and very little like the end result. We went from this: Which was very similar to the 3D model shown at launch: To this: The fact that you've seen final theme gives you that confidence but I can't fault anyone who isn't privy to those concepts to be doubtful of anything else presented in the render or the model. This was the Leviathan artwork: I'm certain we all took this with a grain of salt - especially given the substantial rockwork - and given the model differed from the artwork: But as we've all seen - Vortex did not come out as originally announced - and looking at Trident in the shot above, it isn't going to come out the same either given those giant columns surrounding the ride-base. So while i'm happy to accept your word as truth given what you've been given access to - i'll continue to remain skeptical of the end result until I see it with my own eyes... and I do look forward to being wrong...

Jamberoo and LPS both had new rides going in over the last 2 years?

Woah this blew up. I have a background in applying for and using government grants for admittedly a non-profit company but similar situation. Over the last few years both state and federal grants have been extremely relaxed about usage of funds. In the climate we are in, getting approval for extensions or even wholesale changes to the purpose of the funding hasn't been hard. Does it look bad from a #koalasmatter point of view. Yeah for sure, I don't deny that. The comment about autism is not needed nor indicative of what should be acceptable communication here and I sincerely doubt it will stay up much longer.

Take Dreamworld and roller-coasters out of it for a second; if the Government today announced that money previously earmarked for a stand-alone Koala research facility had been re-allocated to helping restart Queensland's badly affected tourism industry post-Covid would you still have the low-tide brigade on social media bitching about it because "Koalas are cute"? I'd wager you would.

Bad faith argument. Comparing Taipan - a landmark attraction designed to aid the park's financial recovery to a personalised licence plate is absurd. A better example would have been 'mate needed money for mum's surgery, but lost his job for 2 years and needed to use the money to pay his electricity instead to keep the lights on' Damn right he's still my mate. And I'd never have asked him for the money back (and neither would the government - that's not how grants work). You wanna hear worse optics than spending koala money on building a rollercoaster? Bankruptcy. The park is open. And people are going to return to the park because unless they were personally impacted by these negative events (ie: friends or relatives were killed, or are koalas) when it comes time to decide where to go over the school holidays, Dreamworld's giant orange rollercoaster gives a lot of families reason to visit regardless.

Looks like you got what you wanted to me.

You might be looking at it the wrong way. The family that was looking for a Disney holiday might have to settle for a Dreamworld holiday.