DaptoFunlandGuy

The castle is a holdover from a simpler time when things were built in house. there is a wooden walkway that goes all the way around the eastern side of the castle that got closed off a few years back - presumably because it was starting to fall apart. With that, the cessation of the 3d theatre, the closure of the flume and the removal of the skyway, the entire zone is completely dead. Whatever the plan is, I hope that the next time it's SW's turn for development they plan something fully fleshed out for the area (ala Atlantis) and don't just bulldoze a flat pad wherever it fits for an off the shelf flat...

Yeah the South Island Line has really changed getting to the park. I visited in 2010 and 2015 and both times required a bus from Causeway bay through the Aberdeen tunnel, and the bus still dropped off about a kilometre from the park gate. Agreed it was beautifully smooth in 2015. Hearing about the closures and the roughness (as well as the financial woes) is making me second guess whether to go on my next trip to Hong Kong. It sounds like they might be slipping on maintenance too. Yeah it was. nothing else to say it was great. Pre-covid i'd have answered "it depends on when you visit" as the weekends (friday included) saw a lot of "mainlander" visitors. they would flood the park every weekend and mainlanders are notoriously lacking in manners and etiquette. By the sounds of those who have visited more recently, that isn't so much of an issue anymore - but even on a friday with mainlanders present 1 day is still plenty enough - even with Dragon, Mine Train, Eagle, enterprise, flume and the spaceshot towers open (which by the sounds of things many are no longer) I think this is their biggest issue. I was there in 2010 when they had just started construction on the summit. The south end of the park, including dragon, mine train, eagle, etc were all very stretched out and lots of construction walls, but it was nice enough. It was exciting to see new stuff coming, but the new stuff all lumped in one area, which seemingly ignored all the older attractions, which in turn lead to a further loss in popularity for those. Rather than the one big expansion I feel like if they'd removed one and replaced one over a decade, the park would still be pretty darn awesome (although covid and the riots are still wildcards that are impossible to quantify) I'm glad you enjoyed the park but its very sad what is becoming of it.

I still reckon surfrider was headed there before the Scooby hit the fan.

I don't know what he did at Movie World, but here's what the coroner said about him: Dreamworld inquest: Chris Deaves lacked knowledge of fatal ride | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

Credit where it's due - this is perfectly suited to sea world and still ride generic so can be reused - its a lot better than the green green grass. (damn that's an earwig right now) I still detest this temporary fence system as tacky.

He didn't say it was because of the keyring. I don't know the backstory - because as usual @Dean Barnett doesn't fill in the whole story - but i'm assuming from the context that some senior guy named Tony who is involved in the project (and who knew what colour scheme they were going to change to) had some keyrings produced with the colour scheme and was handing them out to sort of 'drop a hint'.

It is actually. Disagree. Sea World contemplated Gorillas and Hippos. And they already had animal attractions so it's not like sticking a rollercoaster in a waterpark. The mix of attractions at the park already included animals so it's not like just having big cats is that big of a stretch without the interactions. Unfortunately "that's the way we've always done it" isn't a good enough reason to keep doing something that is no longer best practice. Many captive animal facilities around the world have had to change the way humans interact with them. If this has a negative impact on the animal then we must do everything we can to minimise that impact, without compromising the principles behind the non-contact processes themselves. I won't pretend that I know the inner workings and reasons behind what happened here, but the official public line was he was made redundant. Only the park or Patrick could definitively state the specific reasons here.

Thanks for the additional info mate. No doubts about your statement, just that the park hadn't made mention of it - they specifically mentioned sword swing would retire, but were silent on gingy, and i guess we all assumed with a flash new coaster coming into play that it'd be going - since every other attraction in the land had a theme announced - carousel, jungle jam, EFM, even Pandamonium - so in the absence of them on the list, it was fair to assume it was going. I wonder what theme they'll go with...

I haven't seen any pics of this, but from the sounds of it - it sounds like your usual Aussie WH&S requirements due to fall risk.

Not likely to be many waterpark updates over winter... perhaps judgment day will wait until after the september holidays.

I had heard talk Batman would fly the zipline down mainstreet again, but had assumed he'd go over the old stars cafe. This crap has no place on the sidewalk of main street and just smacks of being lazy. They could have themed it to look like the building was undergoing works... it's not like that's a new idea...

Honestly the footprints required for either of these don't really make it too difficult to find them a home. It's difficult without knowing exactly how the new BRB ride will fit in, but here's a rough cut of the envelope for the ferris wheel and a bunch of places it could "probably" fit. (Bear in mind i've drawn around the entire footprint where it sits which has a platform over the murrisippi - chances are the area behind the mast could be reduced to fit in odd areas, so this is the maximum space the ride requires, so tight fits aren't necessarily an issue)

I mean, they're building a new BRB ride, so hopefully the theme can be suitably reconfigured. Rock'n'tug style attractions are good for the younger demo, but IMO that particular version is so restrictive and difficult to load, i'd wish they'd have just gotten rid of it.

This is a first - they haven't announced any sort of retheme for the attraction, and I guess we'd all assumed since it wasn't mentioned, it was gone. That's a bit out there in left field... if they close the bilby exhibit do they need to build a Mack Wild Mouse to justify it? You mean - elsewhere such as most other tiger exhibits across the world that are non-contact?

Here's an idea of that footprint overlaid on the rides it will replace. Looks like a realignment of the pathway which gives less of a dead-end feel near carousel...

On second thoughts.... Where is the outrage? Plain black walls without so much as a vinyl sticker? This needs more lynchmob.

thanks for the reminder. Google actually has street view in Movie World - Looks like we may have lost the pencil pines over the back but the big bushy trees near the front look like they're still there. The big pine right beside the hut is obviously gone, and i'm not sure how I feel about that. It gave some great shade in that area, and was likely an original park planting... i'm keen to see what they are planning for this area...

It's nice to see this area getting some love.

this is over the steps - but what is the rest of the hoarding? just plain white wall? wayfinding signage? a giant QR code? fair enough they've provided a 'best attempt' photo opportunity (disney castle renovactions get similar substitutes) - but is the rest of the wall plain white?

Agreed. This should have been bare minimum day one, but kudos to them for realising the mistake - either through their own observations, this community, or elsewhere - at least they recognised they screwed up and tried to fix it. This is at least plan 'D' in the process - but hopefully something they learn from and add to their "future works checklist"

on the contrary, black backgrounds would be perfect to stick vinyl snowflake stickers in white or silver - TBH black would be one of the better colours for that, so I wouldn't imagine that the sudden change is for that reason (if it was indeed made white for winterfest, being that it only went up 2 weeks ago, you'd think they'd have planned it that way rather than changing it so quickly, no?)

then they picked the wrong park to visit, or visited a half day park intentionally to ride something specific.

Yeah - mourning for this ride started a long time ago. Now it's just rubbish that the park has let sit for way too long, and it's good to see them tidying things up, even if a ride or install isn't planned for the area. I don't follow his page, but looking at these (and taking into account how often his content is reposted here and elsewhere) I can't blame him for such a bold watermark. The fact that the colour changes based on the background, and the placement is different in each one to place it in a spot that doesn't obscure anything relevant to the shot is good. If I can still see the entire image \ not missing anything covered by a watermark, I don't really see a problem.

There could be any number of reasons why it didn't go in one hit, but now that we have one i'd guess that the rest are going to appear pretty fast.

I'm keen to see what they do with the space - this wasn't part of their Oz\Marvin announcements so it sounds like a park refresh more than a new ride - but i'd be ok with a seating area as WB Kids does lack a nice spot to sit while the kids run amok (the area next to tweety was never big enough, and Marvin took out the little space at the back, so it's needed now more than ever) I'm wondering about the wall though - what was in front of it before, that it wasn't painted like the rest?