Movie World bemoaned poor service as Village Roadshow brushed aside claims of business woes

Warner Bros. Movie World is under fire for ride closures, massive wait times, and high ticket prices.

After a series of disruptions, the Gold Coast theme park announced Wednesday that its Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster would be closing for “a multi-million dollar upgrade” at the end of the school holidays.

The closure comes after three recent ride closures and irate visitors have complained of three-hour waits and rude staff.

On January 19, several people became trapped on the Wild West Falls ride when it came to a sudden stop in the middle of the track.

A Movie World spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that the ride had to be stopped “due to guest behaviour”.

In December, more than a dozen riders were dangling upside down more than 20 feet in the air after the Doomsday ride suddenly stopped midway through

“Our well-trained operations team has CCTV of the entire ride envelope and identified a guest who lowered their child into an outside section of the ride to retrieve a lost item,” said Bikash Randhawa, Director of Operations at Village Roadshow Theme Parks.

The day before, two other popular attractions – Green Lantern and Doomsday – were forced to close while mechanics carried out maintenance.

Movie World said the rides closed early on Jan. 18 after staff found “mistakes” during routine inspections.

The theme park also said there were minor delays to the opening of its Superman Escape and Scooby-Doo roller coasters.

In December, more than a dozen riders were dangling upside down more than 20 feet in the air after the Doomsday ride suddenly stopped midway.

There’s been a flurry of negative feedback from fed-up Movie World customers, with recent online reviews highlighting anger and disappointment.

Warner Bros. Movie World has recently come under fire from frustrated customers over ride closures, long queues and rising ticket prices

One customer said their trip to the theme park in January was the “worst day” of their family vacation and several major attractions were closed.

“Super busy and queues of more than two hours for most rides,” they said.

“Rude staff and obvious lack of maintenance staff left a few major attractions open.”

Another said the queues for rides were “40 minutes plus, and everything was an extra cost, including the ice rink.”

“We loved the pre-2022 movie world, but the numbers need to be capped. Greed ruined our experience,” they said.

Movie World visitors should also take to social media to share their frustrations, with one woman claiming to have waited an hour and a half for the Wild West Ride.

The Doomsday ride at Movie World had to close last week while engineers performed maintenance

Last October, families complained that they had to wait up to three hours for a one-way ride at Movie World while paying hundreds of dollars in admission fees.

A one-day pass for two adults and two children costs more than $400 – while a single skip-the-line Fast Track ticket costs $179 – making a day trip to the theme park a costly affair.

A spokesperson for Village Roadshow Theme Parks said the recent closures of rides, queues and prices do not point to deeper problems facing the company, which also owns other Gold Coast adventure parks Sea World and Wet’n’Wild.

“These are not problems, it’s our ride control systems and team members doing what they were designed and trained to do,” the spokesperson said.

“We understand that theme parks are getting more media attention, but ride shutdowns are proof that our rides and operators are doing what they are designed and trained to do to keep our guests safe.”

The spokesperson said guest safety was the “top priority” and Movie World had a “dedicated technical team conducting rigid and comprehensive inspections on all rides before opening each day.”

They also said the company was “constantly reviewing” its offerings and ticket prices.