Noll_57

I definitely agree, it is Gold Coast standard and miles ahead of what we got for DC Rivals. I forgot to mention in my previous post just how smooth TNT is. It’s smooth as butter and the lack of over the shoulder restraints allows for a very free and pleasant ride experience. I also need to give massive kudos to the park staff today. Everyone was incredibly friendly, helpful and professional. While we were waiting in the hot sun for the ride to open, one staff member handed out complimentary bottles of water to everyone in the queue, a very nice gesture from the park that was very much appreciated. Great job Gumbya! About 50 mins (depending on traffic).

Well, after having had many rides on both TNT and Project Zero throughout the day, all I can say is wow! What perfect additions to the park. Gumbya have really taken things to the next level with these additions. Starting with TNT, it’s a lot more intense than I was expecting and is actually quite forceful (the back row is the most intense). Though it’s just the right balance so that families with children can easily ride and enjoy the attraction too. The first drop is really spectacular, plunging you straight down into a tunnel (complete with an explosion sound effect as you pass through) follow by a fantastic near miss element with the giant target. There are actually a lot of great near-miss elements throughout the attraction such as the factory fly-through and the “brick wall” in the second trough (which has a great sight gag where it looks like someone has previously run into the wall and left an outline). The ride has a fantastic sense of humour throughout. The basic storyline is that a group of brothers named Tony and Terry (“TNT”, get it?) own and operate a very dodgy demolition company known as “Thunder Demolition Bros” and you’re taking a tour of the factory. The history of the company is proudly displayed in the office (or queue line). (If this is too blurry to read, I can re-type what it’s saying.) A lot of other signage in the building gives you a good idea of the kind of company Thunder Demolition is. As you can see, these guys really like rock and roll. Here’s the “head office”: Lots of other audio gear is scattered throughout the factory: The ride itself! All in all, a fantastic new addition to the park with great theming and a well thought out and executed story to boot! Now on to Project Zero… The storyline for this attraction is that the “A.S.T.R.O” space facility is having an open day and are allowing visitors to take part in testing their innovations. The queue as once again very heavily themed to sell the idea of it being a research/testing facility. As for the ride experience, well…. It’s Buzzsaw, just as intense and rough as you remember (though to be fair, it did feel slightly smoother today than it did last time I rode it at Dreamworld). Still, another fantastic addition to the park with some spectacular views over the countryside as well. Gumbya World have really knocked it out of the park with these two coasters and I’m now confident in saying that this is by far the best regional theme park in Australia now, beating out Adventure World by quite a margin.

Update, queue has opened!

*Pic heavy post incoming!* I’ve made it down to Melbourne for opening day and am currently at the park. The rides haven’t opened yet, but I’ve been able to check out the surrounding area. It looks fantastic! They’ve really gone all out with the theming with lots of little details added throughout the area. Love the company truck parked out the front and the in-universe signage scattered throughout the attractions. A full review to come….

Victoria already has 4 theme parks, plus a bunch of theme park esque attractions such as Legoland Discovery Center, Fairy Park, Sovereign Hill and Kryal Castle. I’d say other states like South Australia that currently don’t have any theme parks are far more deserving of a new park than a state that already has a pretty thriving scene.

I personally would want to help any of the smaller parks around the country to improve their experience/ride offering (Aussie World, Jambaroo, Funfields, Adventure Park, Outback Splash ect.)

The steam locomotive in WWF is definitely the old Sea World train. As for where in the park other remnants of the railway can be found, the old tunnel still remains under the seal stadium and some railway track can be seen along the back of house service road behind the battle boats (where the waterslides used to be).

The path next to the ride area has been reopened for White Christmas.

So did the ride open to guests today? Great news is so.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up at Sea World where the old Vikings Revenge station used to be.

The ride closures are back in the media again. This was on page 2 of the Courier Mail today:

Despite all the negativity, one positive thing that could come out of all this is that it should prevent Village (and all other theme park operators for that matter) from fumbling their new attraction openings in the future. While the issues with the ride are clearly out of their control, it really hammers home the importance of soft openings/technical rehearsals and communicating effectively with the general public. So much of the backlash Sea World is currently receiving could easily have been avoided if they simply hadn’t jumped the gun on marketing, claiming that it was fully open right out of the gate. They should have expected there would be teething problems and factored that in. Such a shame as a ride with such incredible theming like this deserved a smoother opening.

I’m so sorry to hear that. You don’t deserve to be treated like that, no matter what the circumstances. When I visited on Tuesday, the staff were simply excellent, very professional and trying their absolute best to calm some very disgruntled guests. You guys definitely deserve all the praise you can get.

7 News GC did another report on the Sea World ride closures tonight. They even had a live cross to a reporter outside the park. According to the report, SW can’t guarantee when Leavithan will reopen, while the park was aiming to have Vortex open “by the end of the week”.

I decided to visit Sea World today, just to check out what was going on. Indeed, the entire New Atlantis percent was completely closed off: Interestingly, it seemed that Vortex was having some fairly major work done, with a tent and tarps placed over the ride and even a crane was moved into the area: Leviathan was testing throughout the day without riders, while Trident began testing with water dummies around midday and staff were let on to the ride just as the park closed at 5pm: I really felt sorry for the staff at the park today as there were a lot of very unhappy guests. The most recent Google reviews are pretty scathing too.

They were a couple of days ago. A little while ago they cleaned some of the track and installed new lights/cameras on the support beams near Leviathan. So I’d say there’s still some hope it might return.

I’m wondering if Luna Park has brought on this new CEO as a reaction to all the investments from other VIC parks, realising there’s now serious competition in the area? Perhaps this is their first step in rejuvenating the park after years of stagnation. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

According to 7 News, an announcement will be made on Thursday.

Oh right. It looks so similar to the original Intencity facade that I honestly didn’t even notice a difference. I just assumed the “Fun House” was part of Intencity’s branding. Image from Google Street view, taken in 2018.

Considering most of the building is still advertising the Fun House which hasn’t operated since 2019, I’d say it could stick around for a while.

Drove past the site earlier today. Apart from a few mounds of dirt, no progress has been made unfortunately.

TBH, it doesn’t look that bad in person. A lot of the park looks pretty unflattering from above.

Night works are being performed on the tower tonight.

Having two significant coaster additions open up at the same time in a single park is pretty hard to beat (especially in a place like Melbourne which hasn’t really had any major coasters until now). But this is still an impressive addition to Funfields and will help them compete with Gumbuya this season. Right now Funfields absolutely blow Gumbuya out of the water (no pun intended) when it comes to water rides as GW’s current water park offering is pretty lacklustre IMHO. I think it’s smart for FF to continue to invest in and push the “Water Park” aspect of their park as it could give them a decent competitive advantage over GW going forward. Meanwhile, Adventure Park is the park I fear will struggle the most. Now that the bar has been raised by GW (and to some extent FF) I don’t know if it has the same kind of budget the other VIC parks do to be able to complete with them. Hopefully they’ve got something up their sleeve.

Update from yesterday, letters have now been painted orange: