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I’m very surprised that Mad Max hasn’t had any major presence at the park thus far. It seems like it would be the perfect IP for them to utilize in a big way.

This was in the GC Bulletin today (there is a digital version, but it’s behind a paywall).

They’re now painting the front of the castle. I was able to get a little glimpse inside while they were working near the entrance. I’m not sure if this is directly related to the Scooby refurb, but I noticed the speakers that were located on this lamppost (that used to play the Scooby music) have been removed. The ones on top of the castle are still there though.

Something’s definitely up with Superman, the launch cables are currently hanging down.

A couple of photos from today (I didn’t get too close, as there were a lot of workers on site).

They’re making a lot of progress on the track, there were a bunch of people working on it today. If they can keep up this pace, I think they could potentially be on track (no pun intended) to open it for the September school holidays. I noticed they’ve resurfaced the crossing near Main Street station too.

Noticed a couple things at the park today. First of all, the roof looks so much better now that the painting is complete. I also happened to notice that the park have finally replaced a lot of the old standard rubbish bins with these new proper theme park style ones, similar in design to what you see in many big parks around the world. They look great and are even colour matched to fit the theming in certain areas too. Some of the bins have been placed in front of the Remota Boats and the pool has been drained. I hope this is just a temporary thing during maintenance and they’re not retiring them. They’ve also changed the background music in Kenny and Belinda’s Dreamland. Instead of playing generic pop music, they’re now playing whimsical/old timey music which is a really big improvement and fits the atmosphere a lot better IMHO.

The lights are gone now.

Maybe, but I’m sure I’ve seen it operate during winter before. It also doesn’t actually get riders wet, so it shouldn’t make much of a difference.

Had a chance to ride WWF for the first time in a while and my God is it in bad shape. Basically none of the effects worked (apart from the geyser and the swinging saloon doors/balcony breaking away in the ghost town). There was no audio around the ride at all, no video in the turntable room and even the water tower before the final lift hill (one of the most consistent effects in my opinion) failed to activate. To add insult to injury, parked directly behind said water tower in plain view was a parade float, completely breaking all immersion. It’s honestly embarrassing that the ride is operating in its current condition.

Yeah, the track behind Rivertown is completely gone and the section near Jane’s Restaurant has been paved over.

Yeah, I have to say, I’m really starting to worry this is turning into a Sea World monorail situation (where it was “definitely coming back”….until it wasn’t). On my last visit, I noticed the sign in the Main Street station that said the train “will return to the full loop soon” wasn’t there and the announcement on the train itself about the loop returning didn’t seem to play. Plus the remaining track and infrastructure between Jane’s and the Wildlife station has been completely let go and is gradually becoming more and more dilapidated. I’ve also received a bunch of mixed responses from staff when asked about it coming back, with some suggesting it won’t ever return. Either way, it’s pretty clear things haven’t gone to plan and I really hope the park can figure out a way to get the full loop back, as it definitely needs to come back. It would be such a shame to lose yet another classic transport ride (or at least major part of it) in our parks.

It was taken at eye-level, a few meters back.

Movie World has reopened the area around WWF despite the ride still being closed. Here’s what the new fence looks like up close. I noticed they’ve cut down a bunch of trees around the ride meaning you can now easily see into the back of house maintenance areas.

Not sure if this means anything, but a large section of the car park has been closed off.

I visited the park for the first time in a while yesterday and the biggest improvement that really stood out to me was how much more immersive and complete Rivertown feels now that the old TOT building has been painted go away green. Having that big white shed sitting in the back of the land was always somewhat distracting and took away from the experience a little bit (despite how great everything else in the land was). Now that this has been rectified, it blends in so much better and really doesn’t catch your eye like it used to.

Knowing what the park’s awful management is like these days, it’ll probably remain where it is now permanently.

Nah, they were in the other tunnels on the walls (and possibly under the track as well, it was hard to tell when travelling through there so quickly).

Fair enough, I never noticed it back then. It’s definitely much more of an eyesore where it is now.

You mean Pico Play?

Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s pretty awful overall and definitely gets in the way. I would much prefer that it wasn’t there. I’m just saying it seems slightly better compared to how it looked in earlier images. Yeah, the cable running to Speedy Taxis has been there for a while now. The tree has had a bunch of electrical equipment in it for years, but has never had any noticeable wires running to it. I’m thinking something’s gone wrong with the underground cabling and the park has done this as a quick/cheap solution.

I’m not sure if this is actually new, or I just haven’t noticed it before. But during my visit the other day it seemed like they’d added a few more figures and bits of theming around the (previously blank) interior sections where the coaster enters/exits the building.

That fencing lasted until the early 2010’s, when it was replaced by the first generation of the pool fence. I remember being there in 2009 and staff were constantly yelling at people to stop climbing and sitting on top of it. I believe this is the case. When the original pool fence was installed, the park’s presentation standards were a lot higher and they still showed care for maintaining immersive theming. I doubt the management back then would’ve installed a generic black fence if they weren’t forced to. I’d say WHS required the fence to be in that style and to make it as noticeable as possible to create a “strong visual barrier” around the ride or something like that in order to meet their particular requirements. After seeing the fence in person, while it’s definitely not great, I have to agree that it doesn’t block the facade as much as it seemed like it would in earlier photos. Another less than desirable visual change I noticed during my visit though were these ugly electrical cables that are now being flown through the Loony Tunes area. They extend all the way from a tree next to Marvin the Martian to the big tree near the entrance to the land.

I remember hearing that Merlin were interested in potentially buying Dreamworld a few years ago (around 2018/19) but I doubt that’s still on the cards considering the financial difficulty the company is currently facing and the significant cutbacks they’re making at their existing parks. I really hope Coast hang on to Dreamworld as long as they can as they’re doing such a great job under the current leadership.

I’ve heard through the grapevine that the park hasn’t seen the return on investment they were hoping to get from TNT/PZ. That combined with the low visitation during non-peak times has (I believe) led to this decision. It’s a shame as it was the only all-year park in the state. As someone originally from Melbourne, this is 100% true. Melbournians really don’t like going out in cold/wet weather, especially to venues that are primarily outdoors. What other phases have the park announced? The only one I’m aware of is the on-site hotel complex they were talking about a few years ago.