Leaderboard

AIM Pinnacle Award Winner for Customer Service Excellence Adventure World was last night awarded the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) Pinnacle Award for Customer Service Excellence at Crown Perth, acknowledging the theme park’s outstanding results, leadership, and commitment to excellence in customer service. This latest accolade comes immediately off the back of Adventure World being awarded the Training Initiative Award in October for the third year running and thereby qualifying for induction into the Hall of Fame at the AHA – AON Hotel and Hospitality Awards for Excellence. Adventure World were also finalists in the WA Perth Airport Tourism awards and based on Trip Advisor ratings for the past two seasons, has been the highest rated major Theme Park or Water Park in all of Australia* Mark Shaw, Adventure World CEO, stated that it was an honour for the park to be judged as a leader across all industry in WA. “Delivering a consistent and high quality guest service experience is something we are all passionate about at Adventure World. We believe the hard working people of WA deserve to be welcomed by warm, attentive and engaging staff every time” Mr Shaw said “We generally recruit about 1 in 7 attendees to our auditions and interviews which means we can hand pick the really lovely high energy people, the kind of people who get a kick out of seeing others having a fantastic day out. Team members receive approximately 30 hours of training and inductions followed by on the spot coaching. Positive behaviours are rewarded with strong recognition programs. We also actively engage and empower every team member to take ownership of our common purpose to ‘create happiness and magical memories’ for our guests.” The accolades come at a time when the park is preparing to launch its newest attraction – “Cirque Extreme!” a high adrenaline 30 minute** show under the big top, with 2 free show’s daily*** for guests to enjoy, kicking off on 18th December through to the end of the summer school holidays. Work is also quietly progressing in the background on the secret $7.5m “Mi3” world class attraction coming next September.

I don't think we will see a memorial appear until after the summer holidays. Not being disrespectful to the victims or their families, as I think a memorial is essential, but they need to spend time figuring it out to get it right. I think DW need to focus on getting the park up and fully running so its ready for the big rush and then afterwards put their focus to other things like the memorial, removal of river rapids, etc.

One that frequently derails at every corner?

It actually sounds like a rather awful mishmash of tacky stuff that doesn't go together.

I think this marks some very exciting times for Aussieworld and the surrounding precinct. The original Designer of the Pub even welcomed the re-design to bring it into a new Era. . Personally I think it looks terrific and the big surrounding Verandah gives it a 'Queenslander' look. It's pretty clear that with changes like this and the removal / replacement of certain attractions, the Owners are serious about Aussieworld's future. Definately looking forward to seeing this happen

An artist impression of the Songcheng group’s planned theme park at Carrara. Imaged supplied by Canford Property Group Entertainment Developers moving on $600m stafe one of new Gold Coast theme park Kathleen Skene, Gold Coast Bulletin A CHASM through a replica of Uluru opening up to an indoor land of snow and ice is just the beginning of a businessman’s plans for a new ‘world’ on the Gold Coast to be built on his $55 million new block of land at Nerang. Songcheng Group chairman Huang Qiaoling plans to immediately begin work on development approvals for the $600-million first stage of his Australian Legends World after the sale of the land, from fellow Chinese theme park group Wanda, which settled yesterday. A ferry service on the Nerang River from the park to Metricon Stadium and Surfers Paradise is also part of the plan. Canford Property's Roland Evans with Moncrieff MP Steven Ciobo, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Songcheng chairman Huang Qiaoling and CEO Huang Hongming. Mr Huang’s company operates theme parks across China, centred around dramatic dance, music and hi-tech, circus-like performances on transforming stages of lights, water and sound. Australian Legends World will have three key performance zones, including a main theatre and a more immersive experience named Phantom of the Gold, which tells stories of the gold rush. Precincts called “Mysterious Orient” will be created, which include a Tibetan section and replica of a village in southwest China known as “Kingdom of the Women”, where a tribe called the Musuo trace their ancestry through the women instead of the men and where females are head of the households. A performance based on the arrival of Captain Cook to Australia, featuring a replica of the HMS Endeavour, will also be staged at the riverside park where the chairman also plans to build an “Aboriginal Cultural Village” and a small Australian wildlife park, “The Colour Zoo”. Mr Huang is the self-taught chief director of all his shows in China and masterplans all his theme parks himself. Through a translator he told the Gold Coast Bulletin the parts of the development themed around indigenous Australian culture would not be based on any specific Aboriginal tribe or nation. He said he had respect for Aboriginal cultures which would be conveyed by what he created.“We have been to Aboriginal and cultural villages in New Zealand and Australia and thought they didn’t go deep enough to discover the culture,” he said. “Our creation department has already in different cities gone to the museums to learn the stories. “We met with the Arts Minister (Mitch Fifield) and the Prime Minister (Malcolm Turnbull) yesterday to seek their support. “We will look into the cultures deeply to make sure everything is right.” Theatrical performances about Australian soldiers and their experiences in foreign conflicts, as well as a story of how modern Australia evolved, are also planned. “We won’t compete with the current theme parks on the Gold Coast because we are totally different,” Mr Huang said. “We have ability to build rides and water parks the same as Sea World and Movieworld but we don’t want to do that but we want to do something that has never happened on the Gold Coast.” Songcheng has recruited Gold Coast Canford Property agent Roland Evans, who sold the land to them this year and Wanda in 2013, as an adviser and buyer’s agent for this and future investments in Australia.

Nothing can replace the Wild Mouse for me. I'm hugely disappointed that they scrapped it given that there are only four others left now.

I think it's the opposite, it's a good move. Whilst I'd happily jump on TOT2 or BS tomorrow, many people will be conservative on their ride thrills at the park for a little while, especially when it involves their children, and to me that's completely understandable.

Recently Universal Studios announced their partnership with Nintendo to bring a Nintendo theme realm into Universal Studios Orlando, Hollywood and Japan. As a Nintendo fan, I am genuinely excited to see the progress of there realms, hoping to see a Rainbow Road Rollercoaster!!

Thats the right sort of positive press they need at this point - although Kim lost a son and a daughter. Not two daughters.

Dreamworld victims' mum will revisit park December 1, 2016 12:03pm Darren CartwrightAustralian Associated Press The mother of Dreamworld ride victims Kate Goodchild and Luke Dorsett has no issues with the Gold Coast theme park reopening next week and plans to revisit, says a family friend. Sandra Brookfield, who organised a crowd funding page which raised more than $67,000 for Ms Goodchild's two daughters, told AAP Kim Dorsett will one day visit Dreamworld, which reopens on Saturday December 10. "She's all good with it, she's fine. She does plan to revisit at some stage," Ms Brookfield told AAP. Dreamworld's reopening coincides with the first day of Queensland's summer school holidays.

Are you really leaving yourself that wide open?

Maybe you should learn to read.

Now that the land has been developed behind AW it will be interesting if it gets the same resistance that MW is getting. I don't know where to stick this: Aussie World has lodged a Fast Track Approval for this. Typhoon 360 (replacing Octopus) Crazy Mouse (replacing Wild Mouse)

My pass is about to expire. I'm certainly happy it's now going to last an extra 6 months. I'll be heading down to support the park with f&b sales.

See this just proves to me that you only read what you feel like. When someone makes a pretty definitive statement, like 'already ruled out' - maybe you could either take their word for it, or go back and read what you've skipped over? And in case you can't be bothered clicking on it: That isn't as absurd an idea as it sounds. It wouldn't be hard to construct a stage on the fairway.

Doubt it. That area has needed something done to it otherwise It's just a re-themed overflow line that will never get used. No idea if the containers are staying where they are but I'm guessing they will be making some changes to that particular area.

I think people massively over estimate the amount of international visitation an Australian theme park gets. There is a reason that Paradise Country has been going after the local market so hard lately, and that reason isn't an over abundance of international guests. When you talk about how many international visitors a park gets a day, even a park like Paradise Country, most days you're talking about a couple hundred, not a couple thousand. Everyone thinks Outback Spectacular is sustained by internationals, and I'm pretty sure that was the goal when they built it, but from everything I've seen since it opened Australians make up the vast majority of the audience there. I'd be surprised if 20% of the other parks attendance was made up of international tourists. So the idea you can get enough Chinese tourists to an attraction in Australia based on Chinese culture to sustain a $500million investment I think is a massive departure from reality. Unless there is a traditional theme park buried in the plans somewhere to get the locals involved, this will fail. On the other hand I'm not totally convinced that the plan is to actually build it either.