Guest 239

Yes, you did, and it was a perfectly valid comment before it was depraved with personal animosity and a pathetic tirade where you attacked character over content. I wont let you drag this thread down to your level of petty insult slinging because you'll beat us all with experience. Moving on, I definitely feel like Movie World is stuck in a limbo state at the moment where they're waiting to do start some major changes. I overheard some chatter between staff members in the park that Superman Escape was running two trains that weekend because it was close to going down to make way for Arkham removal. It could just be general staff chit-chat, but considering that Arkham was completely blocked off with construction walls in the courtyard area, I wouldn't be surprised if we see demolition start soon for the coaster. If they can get construction started for their new attractions relatively soon then hopefully they shouldn't be too far off. I've seen the concepts and I'm whelmed, but I would have loved to have seen Movie World go back to their roots with an attraction similar to that at Movie Park Germany. They created a coaster experience around a fake back stage tour and it's incredibly creative and well done. This is the sort of things that I think would add a lot of personality to the park.

Your ad hominem attacks don't make look you right, they make you look desperate. Honestly at this stage Movie World may as well have killed people because their response post accident is embarrassing. The park is on the decline and it's sad. I wouldn't have gotten engaged in and worked with the staff on Village property if I didn't deeply care about those parks so don't assume that just because I like some things about Dreamworld that I'm a shill or that I think Movie World should crumble. If I didn't care then I wouldn't point out the problems that I experienced. The Dreamworld Incident had detrimental implications for the industry as a whole and it's a valid point that some of the problems that we experience today is a flow on effect from that event. The previous ex-management were exactly what you said and literally nobody is arguing against you in that regard. However, that's not how you decided to interject and instead of refuting the central point you thought it best to come in guns blazing whilst slinging thinly veiled insults for no other reason then it seems that the conversation wasn't going in the direction that you'd like. Unfortunately some theme parks will never embrace certain features of rides and immersiveness and efficiency again because some very dangerous people who ran things at a single park gave them a scapegoat. It's not the actual problem; it's the perception. The entire park is in an awful state of presentation and this is from somebody who hasn't been to a proper theme park in over 18 months before coming there so my bar is pretty low. Do you think that instills confidence into the general public that don't care for the enthusiast discourse? If I see a rusted old car hanging out in a parking lot my first assumption is not 'well it must be squeaky clean and operationally sound under the hood!'. Instead I think 'if this is what they want to show me then imagine what they're not showing me.' This was literally my exact argument that you decide to reflect with an ad hominem attack. The Dreamworld Incident is likely a fraction of the problem affecting Movie World's operations. You can't blame Dreamworld for Doomsday operating on 10-12 minute cycles, DC Rivals operating one train during Summer, Superman bizarrely operating two trains with not enough staff allocated to utilise it efficiently, and Wild West Falls only running 6 boats. Dreamworld also didn't force Village to implement an app which directly benefits from extended wait times and therefore incentivises the park to take things slow and underperform to push more people towards One-Shots.

Somebody posted in the Warner Bros. Movie World Fan Club group that I'm in that they received this email today: Looks like the automated system to remind people to renew their pass is referencing an out of date template.

Absolutely agree. For the resort to work the way they want then it needs to be a hub that makes its incredibly easy to get around Village prosperities. If they can keep people entrenched in their 'bubble' then they'll see huge success and this can be achieved by making a rental car redundant. Have a direct shuttle from the airports to the parks, have bag services so that your bags go directly to your room, etc. I think it's important as well for the resort to have rentable space for third-parties to have restaurants and bars to entertain those after a day in the parks. Chuck in a TGI Fridays, Bavarian, Steampunk Bar, etc. and you'd have a perfect mix to vibe out after a theme park day.

I would love to see something like Warehouse Kawasaki brought to Australia with classic Japanese arcade machines and coin pushers. Half our country seems to be addicted to pokies so I'd imagine that coin pushers would give people a nice fix.

Obviously I have no proof of this, but from what we can see as guests I can't help but feel like this is an extension of a culture problem within the business. I don't feel like the park is looked at as a 'package' but instead is micro-managed as individual elements so that when an issue like this arises instead of having management go 'just fix it and get it done' they instead need to figure out which department to blame for the problem, then figure out which will manage the solution, then which entity will pay for the solution, and slowly work their way up from there. This generates the problem that because each department is managed as an individual entity then instead of having an 'all for one' to create the best possible park experience they're fighting between themselves for attention, love and money which slows everything down. Again, nothing to back this up beyond experiencing the park as a guest, but its blatantly obvious that certain individual aspects of the park get far more love then others.

That makes a lot of sense but you're right that the price of most of rapid transit systems are ungodly expense. The most realistic option I can see the precinct going with is a Bus Rapid Transit system (pictured below) that could easily be retrofit into the area to provide a good transport solution. However, I can also see them just not bothering when it costs them nothing to make people walk 15 minutes.

"Barefoot says that if I put my money into a MOJO account then I could have a Cedar Fair by 2024!"

I know that the Sea World monorail is iconic, but my blue sky plan would be to take it out of the park and place it in their major precinct with AOS, Top Golf, Movie World and Wet N Wild because I just can't be bothered going over to that park and you'd get some awesome views.

12 months ago they couldn't afford Iron Gwazi but now they can afford Cedar Fair? What do they have Shamu making meth!?

I can't imagine that after almost 7 years that regulators and insurance companies turned around and forced Movie World to buy these new boats and loading mechanism. Also, no offence, but that's an extremely poor take. Regulators and insurance companies aren't saying we can't have nice things, their escalation of requirements is a response to ensure that more people don't get hurt in a culture that has a tendency to continually put profits above all else. I can imagine that the park has been put into a tough spot because of problems up the road but frankly Movie World has too many scapegoats. I just expect at this stage that VRTP has something to blame their problems on that is beyond their control and it's embarrassing. They can blame COVID and Dreamworld all they want but it doesn't change the fact that multiple rides are in an awful condition, the park is presented extremely poorly, and their operations make La Ronde look like Disneyland. If the 'incompetent f$$$s up the road' can do these things then surely so can Australia's #1 Theme Park. Also I found the picture of the mushroom growing on the Justice League sign and it brings me joy.

I finally had the opportunity to get over to the Gold Coast after about 18 months over this last weekend and it was great to see how things have changed and adjusted as we start venturing out of the pandemic. I won't give a details 1-to-1 of everything I did but I wanted to point out some of the major things I noticed after being away from the parks for so long. Dreamworld - Friday 28th of Jan We arrived at Dreamworld around 11 AM on Friday after landing in Brisbane. Getting into the park was painless with check ins, vaccination and ticket checks. I got my pass online during the drive down and added it to my Apple wallet which meant that I could just wander on in. The staff at the front were super helpful and friendly which gave a warm welcoming experience to the park Obviously the first thing we did was wander over to Steel Taipan to check it out. There was a little bit of a line and we had some others coming to the visit us so we wandered around whilst we waited. Despite this area not being necessarily 'themed' I still found that it was presented extremely well with the taipan and Australian motifs. I likened the presentation to that which you'd expect to find in a zoo and I don't feel it's out of place for a park like Dreamworld. I wouldn't have an issue if this was the style moving forward because it's effective and inoffensive. By the time our friends arrived around midday there was a queue for Steel Taipan that was around a 20-30 minute wait and it grew behind us once we got in line. At this stage they were only running one train but it wasn't long before maintenance came over to assist in getting the second train on the track. From there the park was running two trains until close and it was a walk on for the rest of the day. Whilst some may say that this is a failure on the parks behalf, personally I find this great as you can do the attraction as much as you'd like and I can imagine that many people would prefer doing that over waiting in line for over an hour. Despite the carpark being rather full there didn't seem to be too many people in the park and most lines were a walk on. Operations were efficient and there was barely a stage where I thought that Dreamworld could lift their game expect for one staff member who dubbed a safety video as 'boring' and then proceeded to sass out guests who talked during the 'boring' video. Extending from that, staff at the park were excellent. They seemed rather cheerful and energetic which is what you want in a theme park. There were a lot of characters out and about, and in the ABC Kids area we had B1, B2 and Wags hound us down for a photo. The costumed characters were great to interact with and B1 kept on giving one of our group members some sass after he tried doing wiggle fingers for a photo where the bananas pretended to get offended. Presentation wise the park is doing pretty well. The back half of the park seems to be rather forgotten about considering that the main clientele for Wild Life are currently unable to enter the country and the mood down that way is rather gloomy with demolition and a lack of attractions, but the other half is clean, vibrant and buzzing with atmosphere with the horticulture being where the park currently shines as the gardens and greenery are lush and picturesque. Food was okay. I only had Kenny's Fried Chicken which was seasoned well but the chicken wasn't the best quality in my opinion. Others in our group had the parmigiana which they all said was great with decent value. All round I had a really fun day at Dreamworld and it left me feeling good about the direction that the park is going in. It has it's problems but it seems that its actively working to improve them and I'm excited to see this park's future. Movie World - Saturday 29th of Jan We arrived at 9:30 and met our friends near Scooby waiting for Wild West Falls where we got our first sneak peak of the wonderful world of odd decisions that constantly being made at Australia's premier park. For as long as I can remember Movie World has always allowed entry 30 minutes before park open. I don't have a big problem with this except it's usually luck of the draw as to whether you can line up for an attraction or not. They were allowing guests to get in line for Scooby but not for Wild West Falls and so there was a rush of people heading this way to ride the attraction. As soon as the park officially opened we got a Virtual Queue for Rivals whilst heading to Wild West Falls. VQ is an okay system but I don't love it because it's incredibly temperamental and get's wacky when you've got a large group. Also it appears to be geared towards pushing their one-shots which is a problem that I'll extend on later. Thank goodness we did rush Wild West Falls because otherwise it was around a 60-90 minute wait for the rest of the day. Thanks to an issue with the new boats they are unable to use the first row and what was once the parks people eater is now what appears to be an operational nightmare. From what we could gather they were only using around 6 boats with the new stop-start unload things moved really slow. The staff were making the best of a bad situation here but you could tell that it was putting them under a lot of pressure and there were not pleased about it. Next up was Rivals as our VQ was ready. It was about 10 minutes before we got on but I feel sorry for those waiting in the stand-by line because it was stinking hot and that queue has very little shade. They were also blasting mist through fans to help cool down guests but that now means that your phone is going to be temperamental with it's touch screen whilst you wait almost an hour in line. Once we were on-board I was reminded once again what a great coaster this is albeit it's definitely not as smooth these days especially compared to Steel Taipan. As soon as our VQ was scanned for Rivals we booked another Scooby-Doo. This lined up perfectly with unload so we head straight there. Scooby-Doo is still a very fun roller-coaster but my goodness is that ride in a sorry state. Multiple effects and screens were just flat out not working including the on-ride photo and the only part that seemed to be in an acceptable state was the disco room. It's still as popular as ever with guests consistently crowding for it but I could imagine that rider satisfaction would be pretty low. From here the VQ system becomes less handy and the app starts to falter. Most virtual queues had become full except for Superman which was an hour and a half wait. A lot of the wait times were wrong on the app which was frustrating as you'd reach an attraction only to find that it's an additional 40 minutes on top of what is posted in the app. After struggling to find something to do that didn't require us to be in line for a huge amount of time we decided to check out road runner and it's new trains. They look and feel great and they're definitely an upgrade. Eventually Superman was ready so we got in line and had a ride which was great as always except for being a bit headache inducing on the final bends. We noticed it was running two trains but they were constantly stacking at load/unload with little happening. Throughout the day it was not uncommon for a train to enter the station, then the staff would start organising people to the gates, then loading guests in and sending them on their ride. I have no idea why they don't start sorting guests at the gate sooner but its really awkward when the train is just sitting there and it seems like nothing is happening for a hot couple of minutes. Equally as frustrating; DC Rivals was only running one train. This is the parks premier ride that is constantly getting international praise and it baffles me that they're not just running a blanket two trains through the entire Summer season. In saying this, it makes a lot more sense when you realise that the park has monetised wait times with one-shots. Why should the park reduce wait times or add more access to VQ when they're charging $40 AUD to ride DC Rivals once? I would absolutely love to see the metrics as to how many people buy the one-shots because I feel like they'd be embarrassingly low despite putting the park in a position where it needs to decide whether it prioritises those who paid for a ticket or those who will pay in the park. We did Justice League as it was one of the shortest lines of the day and I understand why; in its current state this attraction should not be operating. The first scene has a majority of it's lightning not working so you can only see the starfish, a majority of us in our group found that the lasers just didn't register half the time, one of the screens was not working and apparently hasn't been for months, the 3D no longer works, many of the sound effects and musical queues didn't work and cyborg within the queue needs a hug as his face screams that he is in constant pain. After doing this attraction and Scooby it compounded to me unfortunately becoming very jaded to the state of the park. Many of the buildings are filthy, a lot of the gardens are unkempt, the White Christmas lights are degrading to a disgusting brown colour, there are multiple dead ends with little signage to say what is going on, the park refuses to acknowledge Arkham, multiple ride signs are degrading with Justice League legitimately having a mushroom growing out of it and the villains area near Dooms Day is basically rotting in plain sight. The park is massively resting on its laurels despite being years from its 'A' game. Compounding onto this, Main Street had four external vendors operating with pitched gazebos and banner signage. This is just generally embarrassing. The presence of a Boost Juice van, Exotic Filled Candy stall, some donut joint and a custom engraved light up stand thing makes Main Street feel more like the Royal Easter show than a theme park. I am absolutely fine if external vendors want to be in the park, but at least make it thematically consistent. The first thing you see on Movie World's website is Australia's #1 Theme Park but this statement has as much weight as their marketing campaign which touts AOS as a park. It just feels like nobody at the top really cares about this place beyond the money it can generate and it's blinding them from the problems that are plaguing this park. It's a huge shame because these excellent attractions are being let down by mediocre theme park. Sea World Carnivale - Saturday 29th of Jan After leaving Movie World we went directly to Sea World for the opening night of Carnivale. The atmosphere at Sea World as great! It was a stark change from Movie World as you can tell that a lot of the focus at the moment is on this park. The food offerings are a bit lighter this year but the breaded chicken bro buns were nice and filling. I would personally prefer some smaller and less expensive selections so that you could try more because I've always found the food to be a big draw that was under utilised this year. Entertainment was great but at times it felt like there were multiple bands fighting for your attention against the park music. I didn't see the night time dolphin show but frankly I'm against the idea. Let the dolphins rest. The new show at the front of the park is spectacular and has scrapped any story elements from yesteryears. It's a fun light show with fireworks, live dancing, live drumming and lasers but I do think that they needed an opportunity for each element to shine. Often times there was so much happening that it was difficult to know what to focus on and the pacing was basically 0 to 100 in 5 seconds where it stayed for the duration of the performance. This sort of high octane experience is good fun but can get very overwhelming very quickly. I got to experience Vortex for the first time which is good fun. It's not mind blowing but it's very intense and does a decent job of fleshing out Sea World. In saying that the queue design is awful and does not assist the operators in any way. There should have been an area for them to stage guests with a number because from what I could gather they would send a group and then wait to hear how many more people they needed on their ear piece. This lead to cycles being over 10 minutes even with 4 staff members operating the attraction. I also got to do Jet Rescue for the first time in about half-a-decade. I forgot how fun it was! We got to use Virtual Queue for this but it freaked out when our group of 10 booked as some people were ready straight away and others had to wait 30 minutes despite all booking within 30 seconds of each other. Storm Coaster at night is always a pleasure. It seems that they've fixed some elements that haven't been working in years like the storm projection screen and the video just as you enter which is nice. Operations were great on this which seems to be assisted by a cleverly designed system that can accomodate so many boats/trains. Beyond VQ it wasn't worth getting in line as they were very long. I think for paid after hours events they should be doing everything in their power to keep queues down because it could be a major selling that the park has short waits during the event because beyond the entertainment and drinks there isn't too much grand appeal to Carnivale. It's great fun as an AP holder, but I wouldn't spend $60 on the event. Side note; if New Atlantis opens by Easter then I'll eat my own face because they don't look anywhere near ready enough to open in 10 weeks. The next day we were back at Dreamworld to cap off our trip and we visited WWW as well. I don't have too much to say about this day beyond reinforcing my perspective that I think Dreamworld is doing great things at the moment. Despite being a lesser version of its former self, it really does feel like it's finally got its footing and is on the up and up. White Water World is always good fun when you just want to do a couple slides and vibe out. Ultimately all of this is my own opinion but I'd love to know your thoughts on the parks. If you've got an issue with anything I've said feel free to quote it and provide your two cents. Edit: I'll add more photos later as I'm just waiting for my phone to sync with my laptop.

In @themagician's image you can see people sitting on the path in the direct sun even though the seat is right there. Sometimes people just don't do the logical thing. I haven't been here yet but if I'm gauging my bearings correctly then isn't this bench facing the East? That wall would start providing shade just after midday and you can see it just peaking over making me think it's 1 PM when the image was taken. I can imagine a lot of people sitting around waiting for their friends to do GD, etc. so the bench does make sense there in my eyes.

I absolutely agree, but this is Luna Park Sydney after all. Beyond a select few experiences, presentation has not been a huge priority for the modern iteration of the park considering that traveling flat rides have been a staple of the park for almost a decade. It is shame because when they put in the effort then they can produce some spectacular results like with Volare. My hope is that in the future something will be done to bring these attractions up to par. The park is in an awkward transition stage where it's now much closer to a fully fledged and realised theme park, but they're still treating it like the small boardwalk amusement of yesteryear. It is important for the park to realise that with this expansion and the expensive ticket prices comes greater expectations from guests and their old tactics just aren't going to cut it. I don't doubt the park will mature, but it will take time and we're basically seeing the awkward teenage phase of LPS at the moment.

I had the opportunity to ride Big Dipper 3.0 yesterday multiple times. Firstly; Wow! This coaster is great and is exactly what Luna Park Sydney has needed in the last couple of years. It packs a punch, provides a spectacular view of Sydney, has some incredible elements and its pacing is spot on from start to finish. It is easily the best thrill attraction in the park by a country mile (understandably) and I'd comfortably place it fairly close to Jet Rescue in coaster rankings. Going through the entire experience, the queue definitely sets expectations fairly low. Besides the nice murals during the stairs at the start and the old Big Dipper 1.0 coaster train, it is not a nice queue. You climb the aforementioned mural stair cases until you reach the cement platform that tumble bug used to reside on where you now have the option to go right into Foyeur 2 at the big top or straight forward towards Big Dipper. At this point you can you see the holding area for the second train which is interesting considering it's so close you could touch it (and has no covering which is kind of interesting considering how harsh the Australia sun can be) but surrounding the ride footprint are chain wire fences covered in custom fence mesh graphics which combined with the metal staircases and unpainted aluminium railings makes it look like a construction site. As you make your way up these stairs and start to realise that this attraction is not at all disability friendly, you come to the controversial metal archway bridge. Legitimately this feels like something you expect to see in a prison and it was not uncommon to hear 'dead man walking' from our group as we meandered over the bridge. You do get an interesting vantage overlooking the attraction but its definitely not nice looking and once again all feels incredibly temporary. From here you make your way down from the metal bridge into a small cattle pen that uses similar decking to what we've seen behind the park in Luna Land surrounded by further chain wire fences with custom fence mesh graphics on them. These graphics show the different iterations of Big Dipper through history which is neat but once again it feels like it should be temporary. To help assist with the guest movement they use small modular metal fences which were neatly organised at the start of the day but progressively got shoved into the corner of the cattle pen as the night went on but thankfully all guests were respectful of the queue. There is now one final ramp you ascend before the attraction and then you're ready to board! The line honestly moves fairly quickly so thankfully you're not stuck out in the open for too long. The longest we waited was around 10-15 minutes which isn't bad for the parks premier attraction. This is assisted by the fact that they make sure to stage guests as the coaster is cycling which helps to increase flow. Keep in mind that there was only one train running all day. Once you ascend the ramp you're now greeted to the station which is incredibly barebones and, considering the height, doesn't even provide a good vantage of the park because the station is almost entirely surrounded by solid walls. Instead you get a good vantage of the coaster, expect for the non-inverting loop, which helps to hype you up as you see other riders soaring around. The ride cycle is roughly 30-40 seconds so it's not longer before the next group is back and as they disembark you're ready for your own journey. Before you get harnessed in you must drop off all your loose belongings but there are no lookers are anything provided except for some coloured tubs which still had the labels on them from where they were purchased. They are red and blue which mirrors the ride vehicles but they honestly looked really tacky. Sit down, cross your arms and the second ride operator will lower the harness for you. Nobody in our group had a problem with the seat or harness and I found it to be rather comfortable! Though no time to think because before you know it the ride is moving. The first little jolt out of the station is a friendly introduction to the movement of the attraction, before it cranks things up to eleven and you hit the second launch and soar into the non-inverting loop. You don't have a lot of time to think here but the view that you get is spectacular! The forces placed on you through all the elements (on average. I'll get to this later) are strong but not uncomfortable, and you constantly find yourself surprised by how much a punch this coaster is packing. As you leave the non-inverting loop you now enter the mess of track surrounding the queue area and you fly through this area. Even riding it near five times I found it difficult to anticipate where the coaster was going next because it trashes you from left to right and even, at one point, upside down. I'm often not a fan of corkscrew like elements but whatever element is right at the end is really fun! And, before you know it, the journey is over and you hit the brake run. This is the area where people have their little 'woohoo!' moment as the train coasts into the station and you get ready to disembark. They make you keep your head back and cross your arms during this point because once the harness releases it springs up with some extreme force. I almost saw a kid get their nose clobbered because despite holding the position for a little while, right at the last second they turned around to see their friends reaction and the restraint grazed their face. I will not be surprised if this gives somebody a bloody nose one day. Gather your belongings, exit to the right, descend the stairs and check out your photo! The experience of Big Dipper is over. Overall here are my takeaways that I can't figure out how to put into a proper sentence structure: It is an incredible coaster presented fairly poorly. It does not feel like the parks premier attraction considering the queue and presentation, but it sure does feel like it when you're on-board. The ride has 'personality' and it changes through the day and where you sit. My first ride was at the back and it is VERY rough! Then our next three rides as a group were at the front and it was spectacular. Though our final ride before park close was at the front and suddenly now the front was rough and it made me feel rather unwell. If you get the choice, ride as close to the front as possible. Usually I'd say the opposite for most launched attractions but this is the exception. Somebody in our group predicted it had to do with the wheel sizes differing from front to back. Hopefully it doesn't degrade with age and operation. It goes down a lot. There were several times the ride simply was not running for whatever reason and one of those times it appeared that the train got stuck on the brake run and the guests needed to be evacuated. On top of this the ride also did not open until around midday. Operations was pretty good all day except for the end of the night where the ride operated announced shortly towards ten o'clock that they were only doing two more rides and those towards the back of the line would miss out. It came out of nowhere and everybody was really shocked. You need to manage guests expectations in this instance as the last experience of the night should not be them getting kicked out of a line that they've already waited 10-15 minutes in. The park needs an announcement an hour before close telling guests to get their final rides in and that they cannot guarantee that guests in queue will not be able to experience the attractions close to closing time. I hope that some time within the next 12-18 months that they attraction goes down for an extended period of time to improve the queue. It just isn't good and is bad show. If this is not temporary than I will be extremely disappointed as no amount of cutesy paintings will fix this and its polarising compared to the vibrant and colourful park down below. I'm surprised the second train was not running. It was not busy but you would think that they'd want to take the opportunity to get operators used to cycling two trains as much as possible so that they don't panic when crowds return. I can predict that as COVID eases this ride will become more popular and the operations we saw were good, but would struggle under standard school holiday crowds. I would argue that is easily one of the most unique coasters in the world. No where else can you soar through an iconic skyline on such a unique type of roller coaster. Seeing the harbour bridge and the city fly around your vision as you thrash through the coaster course is very memorable and makes the experience extra special. If Luna Park Sydney is listening; I want more things like this! You've got plenty of flat rides and now I'd love to see more future additions like this coaster. I have no idea where you'd put them, but at this stage it seems like your only choice is more custom designed coasters considering space limitations. I love how you can see this coaster from so many different angles. There are certain vantages obstructed by Coney Island, but otherwise you've got clear vision on almost all parts of the ride and its great to just sit and watch. It's got an amazing roar! It doesn't carry a lot which is nice for residents, but when you're nearby it really lets you know that it is there. That's all I can think of for now. I know it's a lot but TL;DR I really liked it but it's presentation is weak.

A vast majority of my family are in pedagogy at various levels from casual to executives and whilst I don't doubt that what you might have heard is false, it doesn't seem realistic. Schools have one of the strongest 'the show must go on' mentalities of any industry I've seen to the point that in the face of disaster they will still chug along at some capacity. Merge classes, throw them all in the hall, floating teachers, etc. The pressure to stay open is immense because schools going down means a lot of disruption for other workers. On that though I feel that this can be explained with Occam's razer; they just wanna keep unvaccinated children safe.

Huge shame that an iconic tourist attraction is being bulldozed for yet another tower and resort in Surfers. I remember speaking to some locals who remarked that Surfer's Paradise sits at a super low occupancy for most of the year but demand is skyrocketing because of things like AirBnB. The problem is that apparently people will have apartments that they'll use for AirBnB to make bank for the busy seasons and then just leave them empty at other times because it's not worth it. This means that that there is skewed supply where the area can easily handle the busy seasons, but for locals and off-peak travelers there is very little and it's incredibly hard to get a rental property. No idea whether it's true but it does match up with some reports I've seen of Surfer's Paradise.

The crane is there to help lift the huge amounts of public pressure to open by Easter.

How is attendance going at Dreamworld? I've seen the argument that Movie World is packed so therefore Dreamworld is doing poorly but I'd imagine that there'd be a fair few people with tickets to both properties?

I think the most realistic bet is Easter to Late 2024. No way are they going to turn around three roller coasters in 12 months with demolition, land clearing, construction and theming. New Atlantis in perfect conditions was expected to take 18 months for one roller coaster and 2 flat rides and the world is still far from perfect. Sadly we won’t hear anything until New Atlantis is finished or Dreamworld announces something big in the next couple of months. They knew the risk with announcing it to staff, but we wont get a solid announcement until the time is right for the business. Don’t even be surprised if we see work underway before an official announcement either like DC Rivals.

To be fair, theme parks are businesses. I wish our parks were more idealistic but they are not and likely never will be. If slapping down three coasters makes them big bucks even with the possible problems it could create down the track then ultimately it's Movie World who will have the last laugh.

If it's an SLC then it'd be one of three built from the ground up in the last decade with the last being in 2017. They've really fallen out of favour since the turning millennia.

I feel they've jumped the shark if they're trying to tackle capacity. Roller coasters require a lot more resources than flats (I can already see the dualling coaster only having one side running in the off-peak) but you're right that they drive gate.

Jokes aside, I don't know how to feel about this announcement. I'm sure it will be well received but I really think that Movie World has a flat ride and people eater deficit.

I heard from my Dad who works for theme park that they're actually turning the Giant Drop into a 120m tall topple tower during the refurb.