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Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Yeeeeeeesssssss. Ardent are not in the theme park business. They own a theme park, but it isn't their core platform for profit. From the article: "There were no plans to close the park or redevelop it into residential buildings, she said." They just have a Town Planner doing a feasibility study and making a plan for what such plans might look like, if they were to plan the thing they're currently not planning to do. Looks like they're not in a hurry to redevelop Goldrush or anything north of it. Me being a bitch about it aside, I wouldn't be surprised if they concluded that there was value in building a multi-level shopping mall/hotel in the carpark and calling it 'Dreamworld Plaza' or something, and then having the Theme Park be the anchor of it. Kind of like how Lotte World has Lotte World Mall, Avenue L, and the 123 floor Lotte Tower (offices and hotel) in Seoul. I hope they don't reduce the footprint of the park itself though. Land-locking Dreamworld from any future expansion would be a mistake.

Actually, if you look at the the track profile, most of the sharp turns are placed at the high points in the ride (so far), so the coaster will actually lose a lot of speed at the top of the loop, at the top of the Stengel Dive, and just before the turnaround which will reduce the lateral G forces on those twists to what you would experience on Jet Rescue at Sea World. So far, the High-Speed turns (like the S-Bend) are profiled to have heart-line offset banking. So, the G-forces look more forceful than your experience of them, because the coaster 'turns' on the z-axis at your chest height, not at the track height. The forces are more like Slalom Skiing than a chair tipping over. (That's probably a crap analogy, but it's the best I can think of). It also is hugging the ground a lot, so it will feel faster than it is. Force wise (based only on the build so far), I believe if Superman Escape and Jet Rescue had a baby, this coaster would be it.

@Slick I've worked on TV ads for Movieworld. So you're not the only one that has worked with them or continues to work with them. MW are making the right decision to not advertise this early. It would be a risk, not least because this is a brand new custom coaster and there is no guarantee that it will even open in time for the September holidays. Ride testing might reveal problems that could delay the opening by weeks. A shipping container carrying a piece of the track might end up in the ocean during rough seas (which is common), meaning that it may need to be re-made and re-shipped. The coaster trains might need modification... There are a whole number of things that could push back the opening by weeks or even months. Advertising this early when they could take a much more conservative strategy and do an ad Blitz during September ramping up to Fright Nights, Summer Holidays and White Christmas - all of which would roll out while the ride is operational - would be too much of a risk. There are massive differences between overseas parks, and overseas ride advertising and what is appropriate for a park in Australia. Especially when overseas parks might miss an opening date by a few weeks but still open in the summer season, and MW missing their opening date by a couple of weeks and completely missing the School Holidays.

@Brad2912 It doesn't matter when people make their decision to visit the GC, it matters when they make their decision to purchase Movieworld tickets. These are not the same thing. Most people going on holiday don't purchase their MW tickets before they leave their home. They do it at the hotel, or at the MW front gate, or online after they arrive. Also, if what you're saying is correct and MW is the determining factor in deciding a trip to the GC from interstate, then from MW's perspective it doesn't matter if they advertise now or later. If the leave is requested 9-12 months out, then advertising to those people now won't net a return until at least Easter holidays next year. If the coaster is a determining factor for interstate visitors, it doesn't really matter if they come in September or Summer or Easter. MW will get the same result from marketing 6-8 weeks out from opening.

@Slick People planning a family trip to the Gold Coast would be planning a trip to the GC. Not a trip to ride on one specific rollercoaster at Movieworld. For those people already planning a trip to the GC, the coaster might be a determining factor as to whether they choose to make a trip to MW over another park (or any park) - but that decision will more likely be driven by a local & national campaign within 6-8 weeks of the launch. VRTP know exactly when and where people purchase tickets to their park, and how soon after those tickets are used to gain entry. If people aren't purchasing tickets to MW until after they arrive at the GC, then concentrating the majority of their marketing spend on a local campaign will yield a better result than a national campaign 4 months out from the coaster opening. There is no advantage to MW to start spending money to advertise this early, or to put a stop to all the rumor and speculation that is happening by giving people answers. MW will likely push an intense campaign immediately prior to opening, ramp up into Fright Nights advertising featuring the coaster, and then transition into a summer holiday campaign... All of this at a time when they can actually leverage the ride because it is open. Otherwise they're just shooting themselves in the foot because people will defer their planned MW visit until the new coaster opens and attendance will be lower during the Winter school holidays. If (as you say) people are planning trips to the GC because of MW, they too will defer their holiday until September holidays when the ride opens - which will cause a lot of short-term pain for MW. Many European and US parks don't have to worry about lagging winter sales prior to a new coaster opening because they are closed over winter, so they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by marketing as early as possible.

@Santa07 VRTP don't advertise individual rides internationally. A 6-8 week local/national campaign will be enough to get the word out locally with an imminent opening date. Also, A lot of those parks only open seasonally and close during the winter, so it is an entirely different situation. Movieworld will be at capacity during the September school holidays when this ride opens with locals and international guests, even if they do a 6-8 week run in the lead up to Opening day. Opening day media coverage will see the coaster featured on the front page of every news site in the country, along with morning TV shows (Today/Sunrise) broadcasting live from the park. If the ride is themed to Wonder Woman as people are speculating, then the earliest they would start an advertising campaign would be the same week that the movie launched in cinemas - booking screen time before every screening of that movie across the country. There is no advantage for MW to make announcements and advertise this early. This coaster will not me a determining factor in Family Holiday plans to the GC, or to MW for interstate or international guests.

@Brad2912 The marketing for this coaster won't start at least until after the Mid-year school holidays. The speculation about theming is what will get people talking, and the more of the coaster that is built, the more the media will start to speculate and talk about the ride. They will essentially get free advertising and exposure from media outlets this way. The less information they give about the ride, the more people will be interested in it. I wouldn't expect any official advertising to commence until 6-8 weeks before opening.

I agree with @AlexB it's not so much about a 'pre-show' element, it's about having that pre-show and the queue be the same thing. You can put small interactive elements along the way that build up parts of a story, and then give the staff at the ride a bit of a script to help you feel like you're a character within it.

"HEY FELLAS, LET'S GO RIDE WONDER WOMAN!"

My favourite part about this section is the precision German engineering. I wonder how they figure out how to shoot the train off the end of the Dive loop and have it land on the S-Bend so precisely without track like that. :^)

@AlexB I think you need a combination of both - especially with open-air coasters. Use the technology to build a story/drama/suspense before getting on the ride, and use the staff to play a role (and help the riders play a role) in that story. It's almost impossible to bring back 'movie magic' with the DC stuff - since the rides themselves are themed to the comic characters, not the movies. So a happy medium is to treat the ride like it is a movie - complete with VR and narrative built into the queuing as you described. They could even make the ride queues a little more 'movie' related by using key vehicles or props from the films. Maybe they're not doing it because of language barriers, but using wristbands where you can program themed elements to respond in someone's native language when they activate something is a good way around that problem.

Just to bring the conversation back to the thread topic: I will add that introducing technology does sometimes introduce more things that can stop-working. But when it does work, it can greatly improve the ride experience.

It doesn't always have to cost as much as building new rides though. The wrist-band concept they put in the Doomsday area could be expanded throughout the park. Earn points on the 'Hero' rides, and spend them on the 'villain' rides - or vice versa depending on what character you want to play. Collect videos of your interaction to share on social media - which basically creates free advertising for the experience. Even something simple like adding VR to GL - the number of points you have could result in multiple endings of a 3D animated character experience. It is much easier and cheaper to a new VR animation every couple of years than to build an entirely new ride - you could even animate them in batches with interactive elements in the queue area - so the ride is literally like a new GL comic book every visit to the park. The wrist-bands could even let you put it into different languages. These are just a couple ideas off the top of my head. I'm sure MW could come up with much cooler stuff. There is a lot of potential in this technology. But even without digital interaction, A lot of the audience participation stuff really just comes down to planning your queuing areas to visually and aurally separate people from what is coming up, and then adjusting the script that the staff use when they welcome people onto the ride. Dreamworld even do it with Kevil Hill. Little changes like that can completely change a ride experience, and can be updated over-time so the experience doesn't get too stale for local pass-holders. The 'magic' part comes from attention to detail which can be designed into the ride experience, through scripting and staff performances or through technology. Rides shouldn't remain the same forever and focusing on those details would be a great cost-effective way to improve the park. Hopefully MW does a lot more of that over the coming years since they've basically done a major capital investment with the new coaster.

I think the thing everyone is tapping into isn't nostalgia - it's the 'movie magic' theme that used to be a part of every ride at Movieworld. Every ride (Batman, Gremlins, Police Academy, Lethal Weapon) had a clear story element to it, or at least a connection back to the movie. It wasn't a loose 'if you pay attention you'll get it' thing like with Arkham Asylum, they genuinely made an effort to make each ride a journey from start-to-finish. The rides were immersive and had unexpected elements that would surprise you along the way - like the usher running into a theatre screaming on the gremlins ride. The staff played roles. They were an integral part of that story and experience. Whereas now, the only thing you're likely to hear from a staff member is 'make sure you have everything out of your pockets'. The guests at the park were mostly treated as active participants in the story of the ride - not just passive observers/riders. It is much cheaper for MW to license the DC cinematic universe than individual films and the characters will last much longer without dating, but hopefully they can expand their digital interactive offerings in the future to bring back some of that participation in a way that doesn't require lots of expensive performance staff. Movieworld is still a great theme park and they have a lot of opportunities to introduce a new kind of 'magic' in the future.

The bands just need more interaction throughout the park. Why not let me use them to collect points from shooting Aliens on the JL ride (or for riding any of the superhero rides), and then spend them in the Villains unleashed area... or vice versa. They could also do a Scooby-Doo mystery with clues or interactive puzzles around the park to solve. The interactive stuff can be a lot of fun and it definitely separates MW from most other parks. There is definitely a lot of potential to expand the wrist-band concept throughout the park in a much more clever way that adds to the overall experience of existing rides.

Probably not the 'best in the world', but T-Express at Everland, Seoul. It's just a really well designed Intamin Woody. Basically, imagine all the air-time and smooth banking of Superman Escape, but in a wooden coaster. Not too intense, just a really enjoyable ride. I'd rank it as one of my top classic woodies.

We know that it won't be a winged coaster, but... Winged seating means the seats on the inside of the banked turn experience negative vertical G forces, while the people on the outside receive positive vertical G forces (both also receive positive lateral Gs). The further you sit from the centre of the train the higher the forces at a given speed. Just take a moment to look at the photos of the Stengel, Turn around, S-Bend and twisty bit, and then imagine being forced into and out of your seat at high-speed when the banking changes direction. It would be crazy.

WWW doesn't get enough attendance to justify it's own brand-presence. Website maintenance, advertising, digital marketing and brand development are expensive exercises. Also (according to the digital agency that runs DW's website and digital marketing that I work with occationally) DW is trying to compete with the VRTP VIP passes - which include MW and WnW. Also, DW just lost two of their major family rides and their only two water-based rides (TRR and RHLR). I suspect (and this is just my thoughts) that DW will continue to incorporate WWW into the DW branding at least until the entire Goldrush area is redeveloped - which could be 1-2 years. I'm not sure if that triggered their decision to join the branding, but it seems like a legitimate reason they will keep it that way for the foreseeable future.

No one suggested building 3 rides every twenty years. No one suggested not building anything new for 5 years. Dreamworld profits have been subsidizing the building Bowling Alleys in the USA, it is not unreasonable for Ardent to use the profits from those to subsidise the re-furb of Dreamworld, given their current circumstances. Also, this thread is called 'Wishful Thinking', not 'Small-Minded, Short-Term, They'll Never Do It Anyway So Why Bother Mentioning it Thinking'.

Who cares? Dreamworld isn't closing down in a year. If re-investing 3 years worth of profit (~$90M) increases park attendance and generates a profit over the following 15-20 years that those rides could operate, it is a worth-while investment. Besides, Ardent are spending DW profits building Bowling Alleys in the USA when they could have been re-investing into the park to expand and improve it.

That's he beauty of Hybrids. The RMC track doesn't actually need all of the wooden supports. The S&S FreeSpin coasters are a better example. They're built from the same RMC track as the hybrid woodies and have very few steel supports. It would be possible if it was engineered from the beginning to be like that. But it's all just wishful thinking anyway. I think having an RMC that shoots out into the DW carpark could be built into a visual feature at the front of the park - like MW did with GL - but better. I think my suggestions and ideas are more what Disney or maybe Universal would do. DW has become a bit more like a SixFlags park - where it's all about just getting on the rides - and MW has really headed in that direction too. I think DW has a lot of potential, but they need to include more things that surprise and delight people beyond just the ride itself. A visually stunning ride increases the enjoyment and excitement for me, and a story can trigger my imagination and build suspense - as well as giving me something unexpected.

Kevil Hill - at least as a temporary measure until they build more permanent storage facilities.

My wish list: - First, tear down the old Mine Cart and TRR. - Then, I would build GoldRush into a fully immersive experience by merging 3 rides together: An RMC Hybrid Woody A Family-Friendly wildmouse (not a spinner) A Water-Based dark ride similar to the old LooneyTunes or Bermuda Triangle rides at MW/SW. The RMC would be the showpiece, it could even weave through Buzzsaw, and hug the terrain where TRR was. The Wildmouse and Water based ride would share the same entrance area - with effectively the same story elements. I would open the ride with a show-style element where miners are led down into the mine. Then I would have a mine collapse element where the only way to escape was to jump in the mine carts, or to try to get out through the underground rivers. I would even consider building alternate endings to each of the rides, since they're both family friendly you would be able to keep all your stuff with you and wouldn't need to worry about returning to the station. This way you have a reason to ride each one more than once, because the stories will be different each time. The old Titanic attraction at Fox Studios had a similar multiple-ending idea (well, two endings - you got on a life boat or you sank). I would build both rides around each other with head-chopper elements - potentially even having them interact with the RMC. If there wasn't the space for all three, I would replace the water ride with a 4D simulator that had the same story with different endings. Lotte World in Korea has 3 different simulators and they're a great break from all the spinning on the other rides. The Goldrush area of the park would then have 4 rides in total. Ideally I would blend it a bit more with Rocky Hollow/GD to transition from Mining to Bushranger to Corroboree, and have that entire half of the park be 'Australian History' themed. Down the line, I would update RHLR to have more of a story to it - probably something actually historical like the Eureka Stockade. I strongly believe that having a narrative to work to greatly improves ride theming and concepts. I'd also introduce one or two kid friendly rides to that end of the park, so that parents can do a parent-swap and one of them can keep the kids entertained while the other goes on the rides.

This is what SeaWorld considers a 'World-Class Attraction' now.

I went to Seaworld recently. I had not been to Seaworld for about 15 years so I was keen to see how it had improved. With the exception of Castaway Bay, it was one of the most depressing placed I've visited. I probably won't go back for a while. Maybe if I have a spare hour and i'm in the area I'll go to ride JetRescue, but other than that it's definitely not a warm or inviting space that I would ever want to spend time.