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Forgot to mention, the hi-strike/exploding bank in the Doomsday precinct has been fixed! It now automatically activates as soon as you press the plunger and the old wristband reader has been completely bypassed. Same goes with the other effects in the area, they now just activate automatically as soon as you walk over to them.

Here are some close-up shots of the area. These “Ride” markers have now been placed in various locations around the area: This appears to be the location of the operator’s booth: Some of the existing speakers have been removed and one of their protective housings has been dumped near the former Marvin attraction: Existing electrical cables are also in the process of being removed: Some more general shots of the area:

I managed to get some photos of the area the other day and it looks a billion times better IMHO. The Carousel looks like it’s just about ready to open too.

It’s pretty easy to see who the target market is just by looking at the design of the place. It really doesn’t scream family theme park hotel. It just looks like a generic, modern, corporate hotel plonked down at the front of the park (though it is aesthetically pleasing).

Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t the spark effects and associated infrastructure on WWF custom made specifically for the ride? Pretty sure I remember hearing it took a lot of R&D to implement them and they were designed specifically with the space in which they were being installed in mind. I don’t believe commercially available “off the shelf” components/systems were used. If true, it would be pretty difficult to reinstate the effect today (as great as that would be).

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but Movie World really needs another decent dark ride much more than it needs a new coaster right now IMHO. The park already has a pretty solid line up of coasters (plus it’ll be receiving 3 more when WOO opens up), but highly immersive, themed attractions are what it currently lacks and what I believe VRTP should be looking at in the future. I know many who still miss the likes of LTRR and Gremlins, an updated take on those sorts of attractions would be a great addition.

I too am pleased to see that VRTP have followed through on their promise of a well themed area and they should be praised for it. TBH, I was starting to become a little worried that the company had forgotten how to do decent theming (aside from perhaps the Doomsday precinct) and their parks would continue to slowly steer away from their thematic roots and become like Six Flags over Gold Coast. Glad to see this isn’t the case and I hope they continue to provide quality theming going forward as it certainly helps elevate the experience overall (looks promising with the announcement of WOO). Even though it’s still early days, from the small glimpses we’ve seen so far, you can tell the queue line is leaps and bounds ahead of what we got with Green Lantern and DC Rivals and it’s great they actually thought about presentation instead of giving us another basic Stratco tin shed with a few murals. Can’t wait to experience it fully in person. Of course, the big question is will the old Leviathan animatronic from Creatures Of The Deep (that was spotted being stored back of house a while ago) make a reappearance? While I also love Scooby, I would say this is a much grander entrance and has a lot more spectacle to it overall. Though I do admire what Scooby pulls off.

Quick update on the area. As you can see, several plants and trees have now been removed and it looks as if the speakers and lights are about to be taken out as well. There’s also something piled up in the middle of the seating area, but I can’t quite make out what it is.

Odd, I swear I’ve never noticed it before. Perhaps I’ve just been incredibly unlucky and it’s never activated correctly while I’ve been riding. Where exactly did it used to play from? The speakers on the lift hill that play it now are definitely new and weren’t there prior to the recent referb.

I’ve been on WWF many times since 2008 and I’ve never heard it before.

Turns out the “new” audio on the WWF lift hill isn’t really new at all. It’s actually a restored effect that obviously hasn’t worked for a very long time. If you look at this old POV from 2003, the sound effect can clearly be heard playing at 2:02: Pretty impressive that MW went to the effort to install new speakers to bring this long lost effect back.

Just stumbled upon this YouTube channel called Greggy Gilgen, which is a gold mine for videos of the parks in the 90’s and early 2000’s! Some highlights include a POV of the Gremlins Ride complete with the entire blooper reel pre-show, a full ride through of the original Batman ride and a Wild West Falls POV that includes parts of its pre-show as well as the original “expanding barrel” finale! Take a look: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUMX5clFDUE8ynDOZ4MzO4Q/videos

It’s very hard to hear, but I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be a group of guys claiming they’re “Mountain Police”, to which a second character replies saying “If you’re the police, where are your badges?” No idea why it’s there or how it relates to anything, but I’m quite certain that’s what it says. Also, not sure who else has noticed but the original lift hill audio that used to play in this section (a very short loop of music about 30 seconds long) has for some reason become the main background music for the entire queue line as well as the splashdown area and constantly plays on repeat. Not sure who’s bright idea that was. Drove me nuts last time I was on the ride. I feel sorry for the staff who have to sit and listen to that all day. Bring back the original 1 hour long music loop with Will Smith any day!

Anyone know why there’s now fencing around the tree? Seems odd considering the “stage” only just opened.

Putting the ride where the big tree is would block the main thoroughfare into the area and potentially cause a lot of congestion. I think the spot they’ve chosen is the best. That area has desperately needed some attention anyway.

Was the smoke in the broken pipes working as well? Apparently they fixed that effect the same time they restored the outdoor misters, but I’ve never seen it actually work.

Went to the park the other day and noticed what appeared to be some senior staff members looking at/discussing this seating area directly across from the site of the former Marvin attraction. Could this be the area designated for the new ride? If it truly is an SBF Swing Tower as rumoured, would it fit in this location? If so, it seems like a good fit. The ground is already level and all Movie World would theoretically need to do is remove a few shades, plants, trees, lights and In-Ground Speakers and the area should be “good to go” for a new attraction to be built relatively quickly without the need for major ground works. It’ll be interesting to keep an eye on. There still hasn’t been any changes made to the former rocket ride site either.

It’s by far the best park in Victoria now and I would honestly even go as far to say that with these new additions (and given the rate of expansion the park has seen), Gumbuya could even become one of the biggest/best parks in the country (at least outside of the GC). I think with a couple more additions, the park could be on par with Sydney’s Wonderland and may even surpass it, provided they continue to invest the way they have so far. I’m so glad Gumbya have stepped up their game, as it’s great for the industry as a whole. I’m personally looking forward to seeing how the other parks respond, as they’ll certainly have to if they want to keep guests coming back. I regards to your trip, I would say Funfields is still definitely worth checking out IMHO, as it’s a very nice and enjoyable park with decent attractions and theming (it currently still has the superior water rides, even though Gumbya may be a better overall “package”).

Isn’t it true that Disney Imagineers once rode Lassiter’s Lost Mine and were blown away with how good it was (especially for the price of construction)? Lassiter’s was before my time, but Bermuda truly was “world class” (along with many of the “classic” VRTP attractions such as LTRR and WWF). Wish VRTP were still regularly building fully immersive attractions with great storytelling like those today. Still have my fingers crossed they’ll return to form for WOO and can still pull out some kind of magic for Atlantis.

It’s been pouring on the GC tonight, hoping it’s not another failed attempt.

It’s disappointing to hear that both Scooby and Wild West Falls are having so many issues with their effects, considering the fact that they had major refurbishment works not too long ago.

Seems that VRTP have updated their advertisements to show Superman Escape instead of DC Rivals (have noticed this on multiple advertising boards recently). This particular billboard used to have an image of DC Rivals before the incident.

I imagine they’ll be more reluctant to operate the ride on windy days now, meaning more downtime overall.

A stand-alone Disney hotel should do pretty well here too.

Looks amazing! Seems like the station might even be themed too. Can’t wait to check both attractions out when they open!