aaronm

I imagine most on these forums would have some sort of annual pass, but I find it hard to believe a day guest would spend $110 on admission and walk away happy with the current park offering. There always seems to be at least one major ride out of action and some fairly lengthy waits on others (seemingly due to the park choosing to run fewer trains or have fewer staff present). And even of the open attractions, a few (Scooby, HWSD, JL) are in a pretty sad state these days. When Rivals opened it felt like the park finally had all the elements of a fantastic lineup in place. The ride offering isn't a problem any longer, it's understaffing and poor maintenance, and guest feedback is dismissed "because Covid".

Agree the risk level is not really any different from sporting matches, which were largely operating "as normal" until a few weeks ago. Unfortunately as we're seeing in Melbourne it doesn't take much to go from normal to outbreak lockdown at the moment, which is why I'm surprised that Village are powering ahead. Regardless, has been too long between haunts for me, glad this year's event is going ahead and hope to make it up there!

Bearing in mind that a good portion of the target market (under 30s) are unlikely to be fully vaccinated by October, I’m surprised this is going ahead. Seems an ideal environment for a COVID superspreader event and much harder to enforce social distancing than during the daytime.

Unless it's one of the smaller dive coasters, I tend to agree that B&M's offerings are probably too big for the market. Something like Vekoma's Lech Coaster or a Gerstlauer Infinity coaster would be about right size and budget-wise.

Still 60+ minute waits for Superman, Scooby, GL. I guess Rivals being closed doesn’t help but it’s definitely not quiet.

I might be misremembering but didn’t they start out with 7 trains when the ride was new?

Green Lantern only running 2 cars today as well, is this a Covid thing or are there other reasons why the park has fewer trains running on the coasters?

Bumped out again to 7 May now

It’s a hard choice, probably Leviathan for me as a brand new woodie is always worth getting excited for. No doubt Steel Taipan will be a great ride, the blue fire layout is very very good, especially the final inversion which always seems to come as a surprise. Big Dipper is a bit of an unknown, looks good on paper but Intamin prototypes can be very hit and miss. Hopefully it’s at least as good as an RMC Raptor. All three will be worth a visit, 2021 is an excellent year for new rides in Australia!

New theme looks great, much better fit with that corner of the park and the whole Ocean Parade/WWW area.

Also true, I was more surprised at the inclusion of Africa, not a region I'd typically associate with the idea of Carnivale.

“One of these things is not like the others...”

That second week of March with both Jet Rescue and Storm Coaster closed on the weekdays... ouch!

By "separate spinning gondola" I assume they're just talking about the spinning car at the back, a la Time Traveler's whole train, or I have missed something?

Unless they manage to snag a secondhand Batman clone I don't see a B&M going in as a replacement. If not an RMC Raptor maybe a Gerstlauer Infinity would be a good fit. Would be great if they could somehow integrate the track layout with Superman's helix and make a better use of the space back there too.

Genuinely excited to see a decent woodie being built here, hopefully borders are opened up once it’s ready to go.

Sea World have done a nice job with this ride, ok it's no Talocan but definitely more than the bare minimum.

Shareholder and customer. Frustrated on both fronts, but mostly as the former.

Good point, we should all just keep pretending VRL is a charity, they deserve money for nothing. Not to mention the board is also currently in the process of screwing over its shareholders by flogging the company off at bargain basement prices.

Fright Nights cancelled, half the rides shut, entertainment cut back.. Ignoring that the border is shut to Victoria indefinitely, I'm definitely wondering why I continue paying for a membership...

That final roll always took me by surprise on Blue Fire, such a great finale!

For me the lighting fixtures look ok, but the fairy lights seem somewhat tacky, especially when they're only used for a handful of nights each year. That big white canvas would be great for nighttime projections though...

It seems unlikely that the Florida parks won't follow suit and close for at least a few weeks. They'll be harder hit because it's a vacation crowd whereas Disneyland is predominantly locals. I've seen a few emails from Six Flags, Cedar Fair etc this week assuring that their parks will open as planned and they're taking extra precautions but that could well change in the current environment. All Broadway shows have just cancelled for the next month, so it's hard to see theme parks opening on schedule. As for the Gold Coast parks, some kind of short-term closure is probably likely even if it's just a cautionary measure.

Nice to see that old screen gone, while it served a purpose it was definitely getting a bit old and did nothing for the aesthetics of the street. Would be great if they were able to integrate the screens into the facades somehow - WB World Abu Dhabi does this particularly well with screens as "billboards" coming to life when needed.

Just wait until after the April school holidays, when Rivals, Superman, WWF and probably Arkham are all out of action for at least a month. I guess Green Lantern will be the headline coaster! That said, I appreciate the park being so open about its maintenance plans so I can plan around this sort of thing, just feel bad for the guests who don't think to check before they visit.