Movie World really is a half day park!

[rosscoe]

After eight long years, i finally went back to Movie world yesterday ( Monday 14th July ) I think this must be one of the only parks world wide that allows to you enter the park and then keeps you waiting anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before any rides open. After riding Superman ( great coaster ) Scooby Doo ( which had most of the effects not working and then having a fire alarm go off which closed the ride for at least an hour ) Batwing, Shrek4d, Lethal Weapon ( which needs to be over hauled or pulled down ) and wild west falls. I was having trouble finding things to do, while others may be interested in seeing Batman fight, iam not. I just found that after 3 hours in the park, i had ridden everything that was worth riding and most of them twice or three times. I was all set the spend the day, but really this is a half day park at best IMO

[MickeyD]

^ That's your opinion but I am sure many would disagree. I visited the park a few months back with friends from melbourne. We were there from opening till close. The only attractions we got to do twice were Scooby & Superman but then again, we did go on everything and saw all of the shows. I guess when you are visiting by yourself you can zip around and visit just the things you want in no time but when you go with a group, your hard pressed doing everything in the day. Sounds to me that there were a few attractions that you decided to overlook? Personally I would rather visit a Park like MW any day than stand in line all day long waiting for rides that have poor capacities

[Richard]

I think anyone visiting on a day with an average crowd would be hard pressed calling the park anything but a half day park. Most of the street performances are very thin at best, so without Police Academy the park is more or less a handful of rides. Queuing for 20-30 minutes each even and you'll still have everything ticked off by early afternoon -- and for much of the year you'll be lucky to queue for 15 minutes for most things. Yeah of course it's quite possible to spend a whole day there, and with Australia's best collection of rides it's certainly not hard, but it's not a park that you need a full day or more to do everything in. Sea World has its wide range of shows and exhibits that easily fill a day. Even Dreamworld in addition to its dreadfully low capacity rides that eat up most of a day has a good range of minor attractions and animal exhibits that make it a full day park. Yeah it's a good park blah blah blah, but at the end of the day (i.e. 3pm) you're short about half a dozen more major and minor rides to really balance out a day, even with a major show in the park.

[rosscoe]

I skipped the shows as they held no interest for me, and while i missed some of the rides ( kiddies one ) i still managed to do everything in less then two hours and then started to repeat rides. While during the hieght of the season it could take a whole day to do the park, it really is limited it in what it offers ( ride wise ). And for something that is based on Movies, there really was no people eating Movie based attraction anymore.

[SuperYoshi]

I know this may sound dumb... but did you mean that the LW is getting Removed or was it your opinion? Im coming up this christmas .... been up 5 times and never once have i been on that ride. Wanted to go on it this year

[ShadowXL]

Speaking to a lot of guests recently, majority of them feel the way you do. With out a major show such as Police Academy the number of things to do in the park feels like it has shrunk dramatically even tho its one attraction. One major complaint is that fact that there really is nothing at movieworld that is based on the process of making movies. Sure all the rides are loosely based on movies that have been released. But without the studio tour and the special effects show it has nothing. Then again this is a topic that has been talked about many times on this forum. If anyone in any decision making position were reading this board they would have caught on this fact before.

but did you mean that the LW is getting Removed or was it your opinion?

Pretty sure it was just his opinion. Edited July 15, 2008 by ShadowXL

[rosscoe]

Re Lethal Weapon only my opinion. But that ride is one rough mother, people talk badly about Cyclone, it holds nothing on LW. The thing that still gets me is, park opens 9.30am, rides open 10.00/10.15am. weird!

[mickey_079]

Some guests from what I have seen take advantage of the 30 minutes with all attractions closed by taking snaps around the park, which personally I think is a good opportunity considering you can then ride all day and enjoy some of the shows.

Edited July 15, 2008 by mickey_079

[Gazza]

I think this must be one of the only parks world wide that allows to you enter the park and then keeps you waiting anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before any rides open.

Some parks do it. I remember at Disneyland the gates are opened early, but at the central hub they have ropes up at all the portals to the different lands, and when the official opening time rolls around the ropes are dropped and the rides open. So at MW It really doesn't matter anyway because the opening time is advertised as 10am, and that's when the rides open so you aren't being misled or whatever. The way they do it is a good idea, because wandering around the park before start the time is more fun then crowding around a front gate. You can get a locker, wander around and get your bearings, see the opening festivities, and get a spot near the ride you want to start on. So back to the topic. Yesterday I was actually at the park with a few friends from uni (We'd been talking about heading to MW, finally got around to it now) and it does end up taking all day (Though we probably wasted some time with Superman waiting for a breakdown to be fixed) though had the stunt show been open it would have evened out) We did all the main attractions once, except for Superman (Twice) and Scooby (Thrice), so if your in a group, and not a familiar visitor then it can take up more of the day, even more so if you spent time shopping. However, I would agree with most of the points raised, the park does need more attractions to flesh it out. DW does take up all day because it has a few more filler attractions, the queues are slower, and there are extensive animal exhibits. SW takes all day because it has 4 major shows, a water park, plus exhibits you can spend a while at. MW does have a few high quality rides which obviously is more preferable to me (and many others on here by the sounds of it) so I guess there is a bit of a factor where you'd actually want to ride them a few times to be satisfied with your day. But there are only 2 (well, 1 presently) major shows, and nothing in the way of exhibits (and it is here where they can fill the gap of not having behind the scenes movie stuff). The fact the park often becomes very empty by the end of the day is pretty clear evidence, that, for the majority of visitors there needs to more on offer. This is the major downfall of their strategy of removing one attraction for another (It's happening again with police academy) I think by next year it will be high time for the next major ride, but I'd like them to look at a few low cost additions to help fill out the park a bit more. Get a proper show (ie have it scripted/designed externally like AOS) to make use of the Show Stage...that right there is an underutilised feature. Open a movie making exhibit. Another thing could be to have a second well themed family ride area where the blazing saddles/boot hill area is, but with an older age focus (An idea I had were those less 'kiddy' 3D animated characters..Shrek, Kung Fu Panda etc) and more energetic rides that suit this (Eg Zamperla Disko, Premier Shoot, Tilt, Drop Tower etc) Things like this would be nowhere near the investment of a major ride (and ideally would open in the years between them) but would do quite a bit to enhance the park. However, my biggest issue is that Movie World tickets are now up to $69, which makes it (along with SW) the most expensive park on the Gold Coast, and in fact at a price comparable with some of the worlds biggest parks. Granted a lot of people would be using myfun offers, and not paying full price, I do think the recent price hike was unjustified given stuntdriver isn't open yet, and, as people have said, it isn't really a full day park.

[rosscoe]

The thing was i had no idea the park opened at 10.00am as there is not a single sign anywhere with that information on it. Myself as well as a few other guest's where trying to figure out the opening time. I had a great time at the park, Superman front row on the first train of the day was outstanding, my last ride before i left was in the back row ( wicked airtime ). But after 8 years, the park seemed to have better attractions, but still the same amount and Gazza is right the park needs more energetic rides. I had no problem paying the price charged, i just wanted more.

[Gazza]

The thing was i had no idea the park opened at 10.00am as there is not a single sign anywhere with that information on it. Myself as well as a few other guest's where trying to figure out the opening time.

You could have just approached a staff member. Anyway, IMO if you are going to a theme park you should actually already know basic info about it beforehand, websites are usually good for this. It can be quite important for instance with parks that aren't open every day of the year, or have different hours of operation throughout the season.

Gazza is right the park needs more energetic rides.

You've sort of missed what I was referring to.

[Derwan]

I've said for a while that Dreamworld is actually better value-for-money. There's more to do there to fill in your day - even if you don't go to any of their shows. Depending on crowd levels and who I go with, my day at Movie World often winds down around 2 - 3pm. With regards to gates opening before opening time, this is a great idea. It takes ages to pay and get through the main gates. If they started letting people in the park at 10am, you'd be waiting for ages. By letting people in before 10am, rides can commence right on 10am when they drop the ropes. Here are the park hours: http://movieworld.myfun.com.au/Park-Info/Park-Hours.htm

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Progressive park openings also work too. Wonderland did this with Goldrush. I have to say as far as opening hours it isn't really the best to have the ENTIRE park area open prior to attractions open. Last time I was at Movie world, the ropes were around the Roxy area. The problems with the whole park being open is it costs you money - You have to have staff in attendance at every stall and attraction, to prevent guests getting where they shouldn't be. For Wonderland, as a staff member, I loved being in the Photo lab, because it was the earliest start for park staff. Retail plaza \ wildlife staff started at 8:30, but park staff (other than goldrush) would start at 9:30 to be on deck before 10:00am. I think the same was for attractions - staff didn't start till 9:30, which meant they had to get their keys and radios, and make it to the attraction, check the maintenance signoffs, and cycle it before the gates opened. In some cases, Bounty's was still in cycle check when the gates opened. Roping the area inside the gates, but before you hit an attraction is a good idea - a few retail staff members on duty in a sales area works well - you might not make a sale, but it forces people to look, which means they might see something they like and come back for it later. Disney does this for a reason - roping off at the hub opens all the stores on Main Street, without needing all hands on deck everywhere else, and it provides for more income. Opening the whole park means you have no concentration of guests, you need to have staff at every corner of the park to supervise the little darlings, therefore - you're spending more money on wages, and not making any in your shops.

[rosscoe]

You've sort of missed what I was referring to.

Gazza, I got what you where saying, I should have used better words. The park could use a Topple Tower, Disko or some other smaller ride, as for not asking someone who worked at the park, i was by myself and first in line for when one of the ticket booths opened and apart from the Guard at the main area, there was not another staff member to be found any where. But we could go back and forth all day, but it still brings us back to the fact that Movie World is really only a Half Day Park

[cadboy]

Something like Crazy Surfer in Germany would be great alothough rather large and a topple tower would be fantastic. Dreamworld has Vortex and Reef Diver as family thrill attractions so why don't MW get these two keep up the compitition.

[saberon]

Movieworld is ABSOLUTELY a half day park. Especially with the stunt show done, it's not hard to ride and see everything in 3 hours maybe 4 hours if you take your time.

[revolutionx]

I dont find MovieWorld to be a half day park, whenever I've gone, we've got there before opening, and left as late as possible. And sometimes we've gone back a second day. There may not be as many rides, but personally, I find the rides better than Dreamworld. Quality, not Quantity.

[cadboy]

I dont find MovieWorld to be a half day park, whenever I've gone, we've got there before opening, and left as late as possible. And sometimes we've gone back a second day. There may not be as many rides, but personally, I find the rides better than Dreamworld. Quality, not Quantity.

I sort of agree with Revolutionx on this one. If you are only going to do the major rides once each and skip the shows and miss out the fantastic WB kids zone the MW is definitley a half day park. However if you are like myself and think that MWs ride are superior then you will ride many times and see the shows, ride roadrunner and river ride then soon enough the gates are closing and walla you've just spent a day a Movieworld. I agree that Movieworld need to increase the ride count in the future to make less re rides but it all comes down to the person you are. If you re ride lots and don't get sick of it then you'll be at Mw for a full day but if you like to only ride once or twice then it is a half day park.

[Gazza]

^I think part of the factor for it being a 'half day park' is that frequent visitors (which includes us) will find it harder to fill a whole day just because they know the park well enough, and are unlikely to get caught in any traps (Eg wasting time on a bad show, joining a ride queue at a time it is known to be busiest etc) and I guess also there is not much of an incentive for them to try to spend a day there (A holidaymaker can stay all day because they can, a local might leave early because they can always come back, or they have other commitments) Some degree of re-riding is necessary to have a good day at MW (If you only got to ride Superman once, you'd be left wanting more for example) but still a 'full day park' in its strictest sense doesn't have this opportunity. Not being a full day park isn't necessarily a bad thing (Just look at California Adventure, Animal Kingdom, Whitewater World etc) but it would be better if there was more to get through, though a side effect of a rides based park where everything is a 'major' ride means less rides all up and not a lot of opportunity to build filler rides.

[dreamworld_rulz]

Every time i visited WnW it always opened at 10am. All the other parks opened at 9:30 inc DW. So why can't WnW?

[Gazza]

It would be purely a safety thing, since DW, MW and SW dont have pools people can drown in unsupervised, but WWW and WnW do, so they cant let people in without full staffing.

Edited July 27, 2008 by Gazza

[rosscoe]

You know i had a great half day, i just wanted more. If it came across that i was saying the park was in any way bad, thats not what i meant. The rides i went on where for the most part world class, the staff friendly, helpful, the park was clean and looked wonderful. I am looking forward to going back later this year, but another couple of major rides would not hurt and maybe five or six minor ones would be great as well. A Kick ass River Rapids, Topple Tower, Runaway Mine Train, Dark Ride ( Themed to whatever ) the list could go on.