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I imagine most on these forums would have some sort of annual pass, but I find it hard to believe a day guest would spend $110 on admission and walk away happy with the current park offering. There always seems to be at least one major ride out of action and some fairly lengthy waits on others (seemingly due to the park choosing to run fewer trains or have fewer staff present). And even of the open attractions, a few (Scooby, HWSD, JL) are in a pretty sad state these days. When Rivals opened it felt like the park finally had all the elements of a fantastic lineup in place. The ride offering isn't a problem any longer, it's understaffing and poor maintenance, and guest feedback is dismissed "because Covid".

As a shareholder of Ardent leisure, its about time that my ongoing loyalty and unwavering support of that company be rewarded Actually a surprisingly good deal. I knew there was a lot of value to be unlocked in main event but holy cash cow that's alright. Leaving the company with cash on hand and no debts also gives them every chance to succeed. I doubt you'd see every cent going into DW, but even without it there is enough capital there to get 2 or 3 really good rides in quick succession which gets them much closer to that critical mass needed to actually see a meaningful recovery.

For our Theme Parks in Australia this can only be a good thing. A debt free Ardent with surplus funds doubling down on Dreamworld really makes it seems that Ardent are highly highly confident of the position they find themselves in. This should mean continued investment in the park and the surplus land being used (or sold). over $150 million in surplus funds should allow for decent new rides but also possibly indicates Ardent is highly confident of their future plans and the park under Greg Yong.

It's a much easier themed marketplace to be in though. Westfield can afford to elaborately theme things because the revenue is pretty much guaranteed - if a tenant moves out, someone else will move in, and the rent just keeps rolling in (not even mentioning anchor tenants that will exist in the location regardless of the environment, so long as they are local enough to people for them to visit). Its a symbiotic relationship - Westfield creates an environment that brings the guests in, the shopkeepers move into those environments to expose their products to the guests, the guests buy from the shopkeepers, the shopkeepers pay rent. if the shopkeeper doesn't sell his product he abandons the location and in comes the next shopkeeper. Neither works well without the other. But in a theme park all of the risk is on the park. they must both build an environment that people not only want to be in, but PAY to enter, selling their environment AS the product.

Honestly, and maybe I am wrong, but I've always considered the 'world class' thing to be more of a joke than anything else because it lost all meaning after being used for the umpteenth million time. I doubt that anybody is actually crying foul because of the usage of the word and more so just making a mockery of it, similar to how many make light of the fact that Leviathan is advertised as 'World’s greatest family rollercoaster'. It's all puffery at the end of the day. But for arguments sake, I think the difference in your comparison is that the examples you included are referring to a 'World Class supplier' and 'world-class tourism infrastructure asset' respectively, unlike Movie World which has 'Australia's #1 Theme Park' flat front and center on their website as well as Sea World having 'Australia #1 Marine Park'. I think it does deserve some criticism when they fall short of their brand's hero message and identity. I'm one of the many that will happily agree that our theme parks fall short in all regards when compared to the world stage. PhantasiaLand is a great example because VRTP absolutely wipes the floor with them in terms of attendance, yet Phantasia turns around and laughs by creating groundbreaking, legitimate world-class products with seemingly relative ease. This has a bit to do with geography, and I discuss it further here, but because of this I don't think it's unreasonable for people to criticize the presentation and business practices of what is advertised as Australia's #1 theme park. I'm in the privileged position of having visited many theme parks around the world and my bar is pretty darn high when it comes to actually impressing me, but my metric of success as a guest comes down to something fairly simple; how successfully does a park utilise what is readily available to them to improve the guest experience? And with this in mind, I just don't believe that Movie World at the moment are successfully utilising their available resources. They are performing lots of big picture refurbishments and it's clear that they're considerate of their brand and image with things such as the Royal Caribbean deal to get guests through the gate, but once you're through those gates is when they start failing in many regards on the smaller stuff. It would be fine if it was some things here and there, but this thread alone shows that it's obvious that its not. The guest experience is suffering, and you can't ignore that for very long when you're main revenue opportunity is convincing the public to enter your premium gated venue. With their neglect towards internal presentation and a further shift towards predatory purchasing practices, are they making more money than usual? Probably! But so is Disney World, and look how their lack of focus on the guest experience is going for them in terms of public perception. The benefit for Movie World is that with my metric of success it's very easy for them to turn the situation around by placing that focus back on the guest experience, which is also why it's so disappointing that they aren't doing this already.

The sale of Main Event signals a logical end to Ardent Leisure's Dreamworld saga Ardent Leisure's sale of Main Event leaves them debt free, with a war chest of $150 million cash and nothing to spend it on but Dreamworld. But the shareholder windfall suggests the sale of Dreamworld – sooner rather than later. Click here to continue reading

Thanks for the trip down memory Lane. Loved Scooby’s! Racing my mates up the cargo nets, trying to pick the fastest routes whilst dodging the other kids. Good simple fun.

If the sale was to occur it would be indeed bittersweet to see Ardent depart. Merlin is already in Australia through several locations. They've also got cold feet when it's come to business talks about expansions within their Australian portfolio. It would be nice to see them join the industry more prominently, but, I didn't see them buying a park that requires a lot of capital to be bring it up to the “Merlin standard”. Then again, I could be wrong and uneducated. Ardent has dropped the ball, there is no doubt about that. They are however trying to do what they can currently. The park's long term future is indeed very interesting. This will just be a wait and see kinda deal now.

I think the sams diner kitchen is still there, just the front covered over like you said. Really, you could move maybe carousel and tweety cages up into that area around sams diner / front of road runner, then you would have a ton of room, but honestly, moving carousel probably isn't that great a gain as its kind of tucked back in the corner. Though I think a carousel is a ride that should really be completely visible from the center of the area. Like, if it was about where the big tree is. They always have great visual appeal for kids with all the light and sound, should be able to see it clear as day as soon as you look in the direction on kids wb from the plaza. If you moved tweety cages up to that sams diner area, you would still have room for another flat (replacement drop tower?) where the rest of the seating is. The thing is, it's an area that really should have a food outlet, not just a random food van or mobile trolley like it has been reduced to. Especially if you have more kid friendly options available. The more I think of it the more it seems like it just needs a complete, shut it down for 12 months, knock it all down kind of rebuild. Looking at the sat images, id even say it would be worth re-aligning the back road and changing the first stunt show entry damp/driveway to gain another 10m+ depth to the kids area at the back. Even maybe absorb the first aid area (temp relocate it to stars?) and toilet block and just start with a new layout that is all designed to fit together, rather than create pockets of dead space. Food outlet and seating, 4-5 new rides, id even go so far as to maybe suggest returning a low stage for a kids show to return. Would also give somewhere permanent for toons character photos that is well themed with an actual background instead of just using the tree with random people in the background. Idea of a decent playground is awesome too as they are pretty space efficient given you can build up, not just out. Makes an obvious tie in with the parents area nearby too. If im honest as a parent, I really dont care about gardens that much. Id actually put a covered area well ahead of gardens and see it as a massive plus. It's honestly probably not a consideration cost wise, but if they built a new part of the kids area that was under covered (either main street roof style or even just a regular metal roof kind of like a carport) it would be a great place to hide out the bad weather and still keep the kids amused. May mean they could utilise every square inch of space too instead of losing 1/3rd to greenery. Maybe kind of build it a bit more like an arcade/ boardwalk with a few of your ride options, the food outlet, parents room and a playground under it. Would be a lot less dummy spits and wet bottoms from my kids if we had some sort of option like that.

Despite the circumstances that make it easier for the likes of Westfield and Stockland, it's unfortunately still going to affect your potential audiences perception. You can't exactly have a sign out of the front of your park that says "Please forgive our poor presentation, operating theme parks is hard".

Within the Australian Enthusiast religion this is known as hell.

I have confirmed with the park it is only $5 to enter the park between 5 and 8pm.

I wouldnt expect anything much in the way of a complete makeover until after arkham asylum is gone and new rides installed. Could see maybe installing one new ride though since pounce and bounce was removed. Yeah, maybe they were pretty close, in the 90's too I guess. Im trying to remember what the area was like exactly. I remember there being kind of like a stage setup about where the carousel is, river ride was there and so was speedy taxis. But i cant remember what was behind them. I keep having visions of big carrots, but i think they might have been a bit later and around where the table and chairs are now? Id look at what is compact and worth keeping, what could be resold and updated with a newer version, and what just needed to be junked. You could keep tweety cages because it fits that young (not toddler) age demographic, its easily moved and a red barron is still in production today so you arent really getting anything new. Id probably sell yosemite sams train as i can see it being installed in another park or becoming a carnival ride as the train itself isnt themed. Speedy taxis might suit a relocation, you could ultise the cars within the foot print of a few other rides, even if they got a retheme themselves. Would leave pretty much everything from the big tree backwards to be ripped up. I honestly think splash zone is out of place too really, so i think it could be utilised too. Especially if it was used to relocate the entrance to driving school to face carousel and road runner coaster. Basically gives you an entire wall of the building to use for theming out the new area/rides. Everything in the middle to the stunt show stadium gets gutted. Buildings, trees, gardens, pathways. Theres no point trying to keep the desert/western kind of theme as it doesnt really exist in road runner anymore, so youve got a chance to retheme the whole kids area to something new.

I wish the modern litigious society could tolerate Scooby's Silly Stix. Still one of my best memories of a kids theme park attraction when I was growing up. It's amusingly true - that kids might ride 1-2 times and then 'get bored' but can spend literal hours playing in a McDonald's play place, and still complain they aren't finished yet when its time to leave. Don't build things that require them to stand in line for 20-30 minutes to have a 45 second spin on a mechanical device. Sure its fun, but kids like to make their own fun - give them a play structure of epic proportions and make sure its safe and job done.

Hopefully Dreamworld can invest in becoming the theme park on the Gold Coast again, it needs to spend big money on doing so though, they need to reinvigorate their younger kids area, put in a "world class" family water ride and eventually a new eye-catching roller coaster to steal the crowds away from Movieworld. It'll be a hard sell for them to do all that and spending the money considering Steel Taipan seems like its been underwhelming for getting people through the gate but they don't really have a choice at this point.

Ticket pricing should be more or less the same. They're trialling a new contactless-card system for the ride tickets this year which should be interesting. New rides are a Star Flyer type ride called Aviator alongside a new take on the classic Sizzler/Scrambler. I'll be working the Soundwave (or Waltzer) if anyone is dropping by.

Yeah all the eyewitness accounts and news reports were that he stood up and got smacked in the head when the 'horse' rose up to the top of the ride. 100% recklessness on his part and as a 12 year old he was probably goofing off. I have nothing to back this up but i'll bet he was in-park with a bunch of mates, let loose by parents who dropped him at the gate, and they were all gee-ing each other up to do stupid shit. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Ok, just remember the target was 70%, than 80%, now 90%. And now Thursday next week the unvaxxed can go anywhere. This is nothing to do with health. And there is an election coming up.