Leaderboard

Yeah the watering down of the new deli menu was a big step back. The sandwiches on offer like the Reuben were authentic and as good as you'd find at any bar or cafe serving this style of American food. The lazy answer is they didn't find much of an audience for this style of food in a theme park setting, but you also never see much of a crowd there ordering the usual fare of pies and premade wraps/sandwiches so you tend to wonder if the venue just doesn't get the foot traffic and promotion it should. I think ideally it should have been built as an extension of the coffee shop where it'd be a much better companion outlet than the pointless combination of a modern deli next to Ben & Jerry's. No objections to the prices VRTP charge for F&B generally speaking -- it should be premium prices -- but I think they are incredibly foolish to not be modernising their staples. They don't exist in a bubble and McDonalds are no longer the benchmark; every major shopping centre foodcourt offers ample high quality, modern and fresh fast food. The burgers on offer, even at seemingly premium outlets like Dockside Tavern run the gamut from average to embarassing. The business model for the parks relies on repeat visits; I suspect bean counters are happy so long as the key outlets are doing good business with little regard for the fact that other would-be major outlets are almost always shut, operate for reduced hours or simply under-perform. Someone probably met a KPI by shaving a few cents off the cost per serve with those cardboard fries. All the while there's countless TripAdvisor reviews urging people to steer clear of the food on offer. And then how many passholders quietly decide "never again" on a daily basis?

Its a pitty we havent seen any further developments of the lakeside precinct idea. It could have meant a few new food choices that could be open during lunch service too without added pressure on the park to staff another eatery. The other school of thought is you dont need a lot of choice at a theme park (especially the size of aussie parks), you just need to do it right. Everyone expects a fast food option. Given the cost and the relatively small serving size (overloaded with chips to make up for it) theres no reason to get burgers and fries, fish and chips, and chicken tenders/strips and fries wrong. I suspect its fallen into the trap of every single ingredient being processed. No fresh or prepared ingredients, its all out of packets, fridges and freezers. The cafe crowd. Its one thing thats actually pretty good at the village bean. Im not a coffee snob, but ive been happy with what is provided and a slice of cake or muffin. The healthy choice. These days you cannot operate any food related business without catering to meet these demands. The poor quality of your other choices is only amplified when this is neglected. Every village park falls flat. The boutique. They have dirty harrys extension which probably doesnt get the business it deserves. You can probably only sustain one of these in a park the size of movieworld though. It makes sense they went with the mexican/tex mex options as theres lots of profit in it. Because of the size of the park, this ties into below; Rics is a let down. No, its more than that, its really a disaster when you think what it could be. Everything it offers could be provided anywhere in the park, and what it offers is not that great. So here you have a themed international class restaurant pushing out greasy pizzas and stodgy pasta. It should probably be the premium dining service and bar. Push the rics setting more as a bar experience and use the legends dining room for food service. Nobody really needs all you can eat pizza and pasta at a theme park. Pizza hut nearly went broke doing it 20 years ago, why is it here? Im thinking you could have a set menu giving you maybe 3 or 4 options that you could purchase with your entry. So you have a proper sit down lunch with a fixed cost. If thats not exciting enough, you could tie it in with some sort of executive "celebrity" chef menu if you wanted something exclusive. Rotate it though every 3 months so the menu is always fresh. It might free up some of the kitchens a little to help improve some of the other food options in the park instead of relying on outside providers to do all the work. When you think about it, theres 2 full commerical kitchens plus maybe 6 quick service/fast food sized kitchens in the park. Does the current output represent the facilities they have on site? Everything feels far too packaged to me, kitchens just sitting idle or closed up.

What Paul said.

Guess it means no more referring to them as "Another Major Fuckup" when they drop the ball on things of a non social bowling nature.

Wow - so many good points. I liked a lot of Push’s too, except the projection mapping. Just get the basics right, because if you don’t it will take years to turn around your reputation. I always thought that giving away the gate encourages crappy operations and expensive food. Why should they load rides quickly when you’re a season pass holder - you can always ride another time. Why not gouge the food prices to cover the lower entry costs? So often we judge our theme park experience on what we eat and what’s available to eat. It’s always sad when a park goes backwards.

Push I like most of your ideas but the “enjoy or refund” would not work and couldn’t even be considered. When your target market is teenagers and very young adults, I think you under estimated the “few” people who would abuse the system for free food - it would be literally hundreds, everyday.

Here's what I'd do at Movie World. 1. Covert the deli into a crepe cafe (goes much better with adjacent ice-cream shop, and they're quick and very cheap to make). Because they're so cheap to make, a very substantial profit can be made without guests feeling ripped off. Also I'd extend the cafe seating area by enclosing the outdoor area behind the shop, and make it into a nice comfortable dining room. 2. Greatly improve the quality of Gotham burger bar, probably best achieved by getting an established external party to run it. I'd also make it part of their contract to have the Wild West burger bar open whenever the park is expected to be busy enough to make it worthwhile (agree on a fixed minimum level / number of guests). 3. Refurbish and reopen the building near the front of the park that used to be "Stars bar" as a new restaurant (could still be licensed) selling high quality, but fast service asian meals. Again this would be best run by an outside business, but I'm sure if the food was good and the prices were right it would be extremely popular. 4. Review the menu at Ricks and evaluate whether it should be changed or not. I'd give all pass-holders a 10% discount on all food and beverages. That would serve to encourage pass-holders to eat in the park rather than outside it. I'd look carefully at each of the dine-in restaurants (not only at Movie World but all the parks), with the aid of the appropriate specialists, to see if there's opportunities to theme them, adding some fun elements. The best example I've seen of this is the projection mapping technique similar to the one shown in the video, but that's probably best suited to a more formal restaurant, perhaps like the ones at Sea World Resort. Elsewhere, more simple but still effective themeing / entertainment could potentially be added. Lastly I'd launch a very well publicised money-back guarantee on food quality at all food outlets in Village parks. It would be simply "enjoy your meal or your money back"! That should give guests the confidence to try eating in-park, as well as put pressure on the operators of the outlets to ensure they do provide a high quality meal to every customer. Yes there would be a few guests who would abuse such a guarantee of course, but if the quality is in fact good, the benefits of such schemes far outweigh the costs.

New park comes to Village Haikou is another to their park stable Better than the Sydney one