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I disagree. I'd rather a park honour it's history than turn it into storage sheds.

I've been working on this for a while and this topic seems like the best time to share it. I've put together a bit of a wish list mock-up masterplan for Ocean Parade and the Thunderbolt plot. Ocean Parade: Bring the water back to Ocean Parade, start with running the bulldozer through Trolls Village and Thunderbolt's station. The space could be opened up to make room for a new battle boat attraction, theming it around fishing trawlers with a twist of fantasy - Imagine Kind Claw's tentacles rising from the depths, interacting with the boats. One of the trawlers could be suspended mid-air by a tentacle. The ride station is the newly advertised "K&B Brown Ocean Parade Boatworks" teased on the wall beside King Claw. This attraction would set itself apart from the Battle Boats at SW by incorporating themed rockwork tunnels, show scenes and a unique immersive experience. While we're at it, put some tentacles breaking out of the ground down near SS and the dodgems, I think this would be a great way to finally give Ocean parade a cohesive tie from one end to the other. King Claw has arrived and is wreaking havoc through throughout the area. The area would also get a wharf theme (think the original Pacific Wharf at Disneyland or Mooloolaba Wharf for something more basic), with an accessible kids dry boat-themed playground (similar to the former SS Feathersword in Wiggles World) between the battle boat harbour and Gold Coaster's entry. The Kevil facade would be retained and repainted to resemble a fishmonger's loading dock, acting as the entry to a new hero attraction: a dark ride themed to the ocean depths. I'd love to see a river ride return to the coast or a trackless dark ride here with show scenes that bring guests on a journey through the underwater world, potentially with inspiration from Jora Vision's concept work for VinWonder: Various facades that suit the wharf village theme line the park border and create a backdrop for the battle boat attraction. The boardwalk leads to the dark ride exit store which also acts as the internal gate between DW and WWW. WWW: Adjacent to the new internal gate, a sorely needed F&B outlet overlooks the new WWW expansion. This is themed as a tiki bar that draws on old-school Australiana (Tangaroa Terrace meets Banana Bender Pub). A purpose-built BB house on the southern side of the property returns the DEC to dreamworld for year-round use. The mock-up shows the original BB house to scale complete with internal yard. Direct entry to the house from both parks for production as well as post-season tours. The DEC will become the live show auditorium for subsequent seasons. BB Production facilities are all back-of-house. The Shell is to be relocated to the Eastern side of the Thunderbolt site to allow for a new slide tower featuring a Boomerango, Tailspin+Rattler Fusion as well as a family raft slide. The mock-up features the Boomerango/Tailspin+Rattler compact layout to scale from Aqualantis and Gumbuya World. The main expansion to WWW will see the long-awaited lazy river. The mock-up uses a scaled replica of the lazy river from Four Seasons Orlando Resort which features lush greenery and theming. This will be WWW's answer to Murrisippi Motors - rockwork, animals, lighting for night events, waterfalls and bridges across the river to secluded grassed areas and seating throughout the area. I believe if the theming is well done, this will blow Calypso Beach out of the water (pun intended). The area is a huge people eater and once gardens have grown in it will provide a great chill-out area to get out of the sun. Back of house: The shed located to the east of the Thunderbolt plot will need to be relocated behind Kevil and some realignment of the BOH roads is required; however the majority of the back of house facilities will remain unchanged.

Dreamworld is still lacking a dark ride, a water ride, a second major thrill coaster, a second inverting thrill ride and an adults-only space like a bar. They're also lacking shows - especially shows that aren't for little kids. Most importantly a second themed land. Rivertown is it. Goldrush, Rocky Hollow and Ocean parade used to be themed lands (even if they got a bit crap toward the end), and Ocean Parade is currently a dead end with a Big Brother set. Dreamworld needs to replace Rocky Hollow with a new water ride. They need to fix ocean parade from the Wipeout plot around to Kevil Hill and completely remove Gold Coaster - which is a janky painful experience - and tightly integrate a new internal entrance to WWW - maybe using the land to weave coasters and slides together. DW doesn't need to 'replace what was lost' because they also lost the chair-lift, the paddle steamer, the Tiger Island presentation, Thunderbolt, and ToT. They need to build out new themed lands and have a good balance of attractions for kids, families and thrill seekers. They also need to remove Motocoaster and Gold Coaster - which is honestly more of an opportunity than a loss - They don't need direct replacements, but a second family coaster, and a second thrill coaster are definitely things they'll need.

It's a detail that people will either notice or they won't. I don't think anyone is going to look at the old claw and be disgusted by it, nor have they sacrificed any quality in King Claw's presentation just to shoe-horn in the reference. It's literally hurting no one. At the end of the day, in this case it was probably so easy for them to add a little monument to the old Claw that they had no reason not to. The theming was already there, and it fits fairly well tangentially into the new theme. It would have been just a matter of keeping it instead of turning it into landfill. Really, I see no reason to complain. If nods, Easter eggs and references are not your thing, they're not your thing, but they aren't hurting anyone by being there. I'll come back and agree with you when they come up with some convoluted excuse to force in references where they don't fit or ruin immersion, but for now, they're doing it subtly enough, so why not?

https://www.thehotelconversation.com.au/properties/2024/10/24/townsvilles-proposed-550-million-waterpark-burgess-rawson/1729736199 https://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/about-council/news-and-publications/media-releases/2025/october/townsville-waterpark-site-gains-preliminary-approval This one has flown under the radar a bit. The site is here, looks like whitewater west job, with a wall runner family raft slide, aqua play, 180 degree flowrider, wave pool and all your usual body and raft slides.

Yeah I feel like someone played around with wordart in microsoft publisher a little too much. The one day holiday tag will always be synonymous with Dreamworld, especially since they re-released the original jingle a few years back - though I don't think they're still maintaining that trademark so it's probably fair game - but they should have gone instead for 'the happiest place on earth'. I definitely like the old logo better.

For reference, this was the former logo I think the new one is quite the downgrade and that marketing image is very messy.

DW is in a different phase to village though. They're still selling bargain basement passes with all the inclusions, akin to the VIP pass that included all three parks, plus paradise country, plus 1 free entry to FN, WC and Carnivale. Village reduced the offering and increased the prices because capacity was at its limit. Dreamworld is still trying to convince people to visit so naturally they still include as much as they can to boost the value.

Jesus Christ - you went back 13 months to quote this? There is only one possible argument that Dreamworld is a half day park and that argument is that their ops are efficient enough that you can actually ride everything. The confronting truth is that while village might have the bigger blockbusters - they don't have enough to spread the crowds out, and tank their operations with slow load and unload procedures that blow out queue times to several hours. It is ridiculous on a stage of worldwide theme parks that a little Mack HyperCoaster on the gold coast consistently drives wait times as high or higher than the biggest and most popular theme parks in the world.

I'm glad to hear Jungle Rush is doing well operationally, it definitely presented itself as a ride that could go either way when I visited twice earlier this year. First visit was fantastic on 2 trains and seemed to be running super efficiently. Second visit was on 1 train and slow operations even considering the reduced capacity. It's a ride with the capability to chew up crowds, and our Aussie parks have a tendency not to take advantage of that, so I'm glad to hear Jungle Rush is doing that, even if that's the bare minimum really. Sky Voyager is always slow, it's decent capacity per cycle but long gaps between cycles, which is honestly worse because you stand in the same spot in queue for so long.

My family and I were there on Saturday, we found one of the few car parks left down the very far back of the car park, haven’t had to do that in many many years! The park was heaving, the atmosphere was awesome! And thankfully the rides/staff kept up! The longest we waited for jungle rush was 25mins (that thing is an absolute people eater when operated well) sky voyager never dropped below 60 so we missed that one, and I agree with the train, it was unbelievably slow, both stations took at least 10mins to unload/load. We couldn’t work out why, but it was painful. And a lot of people being turned away because it was full. All kids rides were either a walk in or one ride wait. Couldn’t really fault them overall for such a busy day! My last trip to MV was mid week with not many guests, and we waited at least 20-30 for a basic kids spinner! A great day dreamworld! Noticed A few nice new pieces of Rivertown merch as well!

The park had a great atmosphere, it was really buzzing. Wait times varied quite a lot for each attraction, but in general the operations were fantastic. Jungle Rush in particular was a standout. It had an advertised 50min wait, though it only took me around 35mins to get on. They were getting the trains loaded up and dispatched extremely quickly. It was a similar story with Steel Taipan, the staff were doing a great job trying to get the trains out as fast as possible. I think the attraction with the slowest ops and longest wait time in the park was the Dreamworld Express. For some reason, it was taking almost 10mins to load/unload guests at both stations. It would definitely be good if the park could look at speeding that up a bit.

For those that don’t have Paramount Plus, it is also available on the 10 app now to watch, and will be broadcast on channel 10 this coming Saturday at midday

https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/how-did-they-fix-that/ Recently, how do they fix that? a mainly american/canadian based TV show published an episode on Dreamworld, giving insights into park operations, the construction of rivertown and behind the scenes looks!

Nobody is making shit up - there is literally photographic evidence of the issues i've mentioned. So if i've got this straight, a proper job would use quality paints and sealers - and therefore if it peeled, it likely didn't use quality paints and sealers (or quality methods). - Sounds like corners cut to me.

It certainly explains why there's a bunch of rivertown themed stuff still sat out the back of rocky hollow and no progress on JR has been made in a while - I guess we all assumed they were finished, but there's still a bunch of stuff out there so... who knows. I hope Pico does continue to work with them - they've produced the best looking stuff on the coast in a long time. but I wouldn't blame them if they didn't. I guess it also explains why they put in such horrible queue rails in the JR queue

I think he just likes to complain. He's the Robb Alvey of Parkz.

You wouldn't know how WnW operations are because you don't go to WnW because you don't like to walk remember. You can keep making up excuses for WWW but the fact is, winter is over and the park should be open. WWW are also good at making excuses, but not good at growing the business. The only time you will reach 110 past DW, is when DW is closed. 😄

Just thought I would suggest a listen to Dane's Theme Park Life's podcast interview with Greg on the Motocoaster topic. He directly asked Greg about the future of Motocoaster, and while obviously Greg confirmed nothing specific, he did clearly state that plans for Motocoaster are front-of-mind for Dreamworld, and that they eventually want to incorporate either the ride itself or the land into Rivertown. Greg discussed wanting to set the park up well for the future, and considering the approach that was taken with King Claw, which he directly refers to when answering the Motocoaster question, I doubt that involves keeping the ride around in its current state. A 20-year-old Intamin prototype with a laundry list of operational issues is not exactly something I'd say is a good asset for the future of the park. So I think judging by his answer to that question, the very least we can expect is a substantial overhaul of the ride when the time comes. And considering that The Claw was considered end-of-life at 20 years old, when it's an Intamin product that isn't a prototype and doesn't have a totally one-of-a-kind restraint system, I think we should keep an eye on that part of the park in the next couple of years or so. Moto conversation occurs at about 31:30 in the episode if you want to skip to that specific section. Dane has actually had Greg on his podcast twice and both episodes are thoroughly worth a listen.

I used to think that the best option for motocoaster would be a re-theme, but my opinion has shifted firmly to outright removal. The cost of new trains and new theming would be so high that it would be better to sell the nearly 20 year old ride and put all of that money toward a better ride(s) in that area. A better ride with immersive theming will have a better ROI, even if it costs more. Rivertown sold passes and draws pass-holders back. King Claw will sell passes. Putting lipstick on the motocoaster pig is a lot of money for a 'boring' filler ride. It won't sell day passes or annual passes and the ride will likely need replacing within the next 5-10 years anyway.

DW should not be factoring Big Brother into any of their plans. This current series starts in Nov and ends in Dec. It's only going to be a 4-5 week run and the 'house' set will be gone before Xmas. DW need to focus on their own core business of theme park experiences and putting in fully immersive, themed lands. BB might bring in some short-term cash so I don't hate them doing it, but if they want to have a TV production precinct (not a terrible idea) it should be on the North end of the park as part of their rezoning/development plans, and should be designed for many different shows so it can operate year round.

Was in Coffs Harbour for work and decided to stop by the Big Banana to see the progress of the Plantation Coaster! It’s looking very good and I think it has a good chance of being open by Christmas. This will be the 2nd Alpine Coaster installation in Australia and it will be the most accessible given that the other one is located at Thredbo on the ski fields of NSW. This one should be a great ride but it does appear to be a little short. The installation appears to have 2 lift hills. I thought that originally it was meant to loop behind the water park and back around but it’s actually very compact. It will certainly give a great reason to stop at Coffs Harbour and I think it will be a great success for the park when it opens! Hopefully this gives other Aussie parks the impetus to consider installing one of these as part of their lineup- Jamberoo/Funfields I am looking at you!

Great find @Gazza Townsville is a great location for a water park.

Unlikely a themed overlay would be added the first time it’s open straight out of the gate (Scooby that is). As for WWF not being planned to be open, that would be odd given they spent money to add a lighting package just so they could open it for FN and WC. That lighting package also has different overlays for both events.

Park still closed = don't agree with you. We have both been in agreement that WWW needs sprucing up and refreshing, the only difference has been the timing. If they are starting to turn their minds towards WWW, perhaps they are pleased with the progress of the dry park. I still think the dry park is short a few key attractions, given how many were gutted from the park in the last 10 years, in reality they have added Sky Voyager, Taipan, Jungle Rush and Flyer, refurbished the vintage cars and upgraded the claw. Does that make up for the loss of TRRR, Buzzsaw, Rocky Hollow, Wipeout and technically Eureka? I'd say it's pretty close - so maybe they are ready to start work on WWW after all?

Which always confused me - people riding a dark ride during a night event makes zero sense.

I think it’s foolish in such projects to assume or decide that issues are the fault/blame of one party. That’s simply not the reality of how things happen.

New Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster announcement Sunday, 26th October 4pm

I really feel like this is a massive miss. The park is a hidden gem, which always has a high quality feel to it, this takes all of that away imo. The new logo feels so cheap and nasty, wouldn't be surprised if it was cooked up by ChatGPT. It also feels extremely confusing, with a different colour on each logo they've posted so far, just feels MESSY. If they want to be taken as a serious player in the game, ripping off one of the biggest players in the country really isn't the way to go about it.

@Spotty it is a HUSS

Might explain why the temple room hasn't been touched since Greg's interview with Dane about some big pieces were still to go in... But have yet to go in, and you can get an idea on what those pieces might be based on some of the concept art was released. Hopefully we can see some nice extra pieces added in the future soon.

I would say this is a lesson to both Coast Entertainment and Pico to narrow down their contract terms and wordings.

I wouldn't say that. Companies that work together often have disputes over contracts and deliveries, and they continue working together. In future they just make sure that the expectations, communications and dispute resolution procedures are more clearly defined in the contract. Given the large amount of future expansion Dreamworld has planned, it would be foolish for Pico Play not to offer to rectify any problems and repair the relationship to get future work.

New theming elements including the ship’s sail have been installed and the ride was recently running full test cycles for the first time! From Perth Theme Parks on FB.

when are you not complaining about something chile… it’s mile better than what’s down the road so why are you nit picking.

The theming is looking good! Photo taken from Dreamworlds Facebook

We’ve got more theming! 🌊🦑⛵️- Photo from Dreamworlds socials.

I believe Parque Warner Madrid updated their logo a year or two ago to something like this - from what I know the archway and globe there still have the old logo. Same with the WB park in Abu Dhabi - the logo on the water tower and the logo used on socials/in park don’t match. If the other two WB parks have different logos on signage compared to everywhere else I doubt the one at the entrance will change. The new logo isn’t designed by Village - they were likely forced to change it to this to adhere to design standards by WB. Parque Warner Madrid’s logo also looks nearly identical as you can see here, the only difference apart from the text is the inside of the shield and the Parque film strip is slightly longer. The shield from the old Movie World logo looked a bit uneven - can see why WB wanted the one unified logo used for both parks as well as everything else they own.

Totally here for a reimagined logo to match the updated WB logo. But this looks bad. I’ve worked in graphic design for many years and this just looks not very well considered and lacking detail and character.

With village operations, this doesn't prove how busy the park is, only how efficient their operations are.

Probably too early to tell. But the tide is slowly turning.

A Tiny Tease they just gave out. And from what I can Tell, They Probably have a New Lighting Display for the Spooky Castle at Night, but IDK, just pure speculation..

Yea I did, we walked past several times in the day and rode twice, the wait was advertised 15mins most times, at one point it said 30 but we got on in 10. Incredibly popular ride, and seems to be an absolute monster with riders p/h

This is my favourite line though. Oh no... In Queensland? Above 25? Crazy.

I’d forgotten this was actually happening. I hope it is finished for the summer holidays, would love to give it a run on the way down to or back from Sydney

It's scheduled to be open, but like last year could be pulled from the ride at any time (a day or two before).

OR They haven't got their eyes on the prize and been too distracted by DW. At this point Coast Entertainment should be renamed to Dreamworld.

Maybe don’t look at it as them leaning into nostalgia, but more that it’s forming part of King Claw’s story line. The larger more dominant creature (King Claw) has attacked the smaller creature (The Claw) and has left some of its remains amongst the carnage of the dock.

Motocoaster was a prototype and is approaching 20 years old. it's copped a lot of hate it's whole life. I'd love to see them consider other options for the site than simply retheming the ride - though if they can improve on the restraint design as part of the retheme that could revitalise it.