Jamberoo Fan

From a Vivid Sydney media release (and image): Also, there is the Luna Park precinct page on Vivid Sydney's website & Vivid Sydney's own blog post on their Luna Park precinct.

Yeah, I agree @AlexB but you would just think out of courtesy they would also thank Illawarra residents via their local newspapers too. (I know they did thank them via social media and financially, it does save on marketing costs not doing an extra newspaper advertisement given it's their most loyal audience. However, that could be a sign they are starting to take their local visitors for granted)

@Levithian, no. As for the Deli, what I'm trying to say is that the Main Street plaza area, to most people, would just be a 'place to eat' - not a 'place to eat food from the Deli' and due to it being 'technically 'separate'' from the Deli, visitors would be just as happy to order from other nearby food & beverage outlets that are more of their liking and just bring their meal there to eat. If they haven't already, maybe MW could attach some laminated Main Street Deli menus to the tables? With the tables & chairs behind the Deli, like I said earlier, it's visibility from Main Street is poor. It's just a matter of theme park 'design'. Similar with Arkham Asylum, I wasn't suggesting they put a food outlet there - that was just one of the locations based on the '115 metre rule'. Like you said, there's not enough foot traffic currently. They should only put a food & beverage outlet there once a new attraction is built in the vicinity of the former Lethal Weapon queue area. The former queue area could be flattened so you get a larger courtyard for tables & chairs. Perhaps call the food & beverage outlet & the courtyard Joker's Cafeteria? @AlexB, I didn't ignore that and I did say the 7 Gotham City Cafe-like outlets could open according to attendance. If there is demand for similar food outlets down the road from MW visitors, there has to be a demand for Wild West Roadhouse. MW is likely making a strategic error - whether it's price, quality (or both) or continuing to open/opening new heaps of sub-'lunch meal' outlets in exchange for closing 2 Gotham City Cafe-like outlets for varying time lengths.This makes Gotham City Cafe the only "traditional" choice and thus, forcing prices up due to the demand it receives. However, I don't have any statistics or financial statements from MW to prove that's the case (plus I don't know the pricing of MW's other food & beverage outlets). If I'm wrong, it's most likely that VRTP just simply do not know what to do with theme park food & beverage operations at all. My main suggestion was to change their food & beverage strategy from the sub-'lunch meal' outlets to Gotham City Cafe-like outlets suited to the park's attendance and obviously, with quality food that's value for money. I agree with your ideas by the way. And I never suggested outsourcing in case you thought that. Outsourcing just reduces the quality of the overall park, which is why I dislike how brands like Domino's, Ben & Jerry's & Boost Juice are appearing more frequently in the parks. It makes the parks look more like a shopping centre food court & reduces the overall quality of the park's theming. And if MW does introduce your idea of a french dip roll, I hope they also provide it with fresh bread 🙂 @Roachie, I agree - I was discussing when Gotham City Cafe has heaps of customers not when there is just 1 customer. @Brad2912, your ideas are good too however, complex meals like steak are, for "high-yield customers", more suited to theme parks that are open at night. It allows vastly more time throughout the whole day for "high-yield customers" to order & eat these meals. Otherwise, "low-yield customers" would only purchase them as they have the time to. If MW opened until 10pm, heading to Dirty Harry's Bar & Grill or Rick's Cafe Americain & Bar would be more appealing as there is more time to eat from a buffet/grill or enjoy an alcoholic beverage. Maybe MW could do, for "high-yield customers" only, a Fast Track version that includes reserved tables & price-included meals at these outlets? So all the time you save heading to the front of ride queues is compensated by a lengthy meal? But still, the extra cost you would need to pay for this Fast Track version would need to be reflected in the meal quality. I recall someone saying that Carnivale has become more about the food & beverage nowadays. Maybe that's why the quality there is good because the food & beverage is now the (and a) reason people head there?

Yeah, with the Jamberoo/Wet 'n' Wild Sydney 'thank you' marketing, maybe @AlexB. It just seemed significant to me that Jamberoo would publish a half-page 'thank you' advertisement in Sydney newspapers & not the Illawarra newspapers.

According to Pacific Fair's website, The Patio is a "casual dining precinct" that includes Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, which MW already has. Based on that, it seems MW already has looked that way for inspiration & as a result, got Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream to open in the park. So how much worse can MW do? 😜 Everytime I've been to MW, I've visited Gotham City Cafe for lunch (Like @Brad2912 said it's the only "traditional" food outlet at MW. Also, there is a lot of undercover seating there around Gotham City Hall). Also, with the amount of rides, attractions & shows to visit at MW for, as @Roachie called, 'a high-yield customer', fast food is the best lunch option - it allows them to free up more time to visit more attractions in the limited time they have there. Whilst I agree with what @Roachie said in the quote above, is it possible that food is more expensive at Gotham City Cafe despite it's quality simply due to the laws of supply & demand? That is, because it's the only "traditional" food outlet at MW, there are too many potential customers for the amount of meals they can prepare so they increase the price to encourage the potential customers who don't want to pay that amount to head to the other food & beverage outlets? (Mind you, I don't know what the pricing is like at MW's other food & beverage outlets) This results in Gotham City Cafe's customers paying prices that are higher than the value of the food/beverages the Cafe offers. If that's the case, why not open more Gotham City Cafe-like outlets? As the problem with the tactic mentioned above is that the other food & beverage outlets are either perceived as too time-consuming (bar, grill, buffet) or the food/beverages on offer are too small to be considered a 'lunch meal' (coffee, drinks, desserts, ice-cream, meat, vegetables, dips, breads & fruit) so they head to Gotham City Cafe anyway or less likely, just skip lunch, the latter losing MW valuable revenue in the process if they don't eat until after they've left the park but it's most probably replaced by revenue from regular smaller food & beverage purchases throughout the afternoon from those sub-'lunch meal' outlets. Maybe that's why they are there? Either way, I'd prefer more Gotham City Cafe-like outlets than heaps of sub-'lunch meal' outlets. Wild West Roadhouse & the former Yosemite Sam's Diner area are perfect places to open these types of outlets (Both of those outlets are already similar to Gotham City Cafe). I've noticed these outlets are spaced about 115 metres apart at MW and based on that, other locations for these types of outlets to open include: Eastern end of Main Street DC Rivals HyperCoaster entrance Arkham Asylum area Wild West Falls observation area So you get 7 Gotham City Cafe-like outlets operating year-round (or according to attendance). Gotham City Cafe's seating capacity seems to be no more than 100 people at any one time so you'd get a total capacity of about 700 people at any one time if those 7 Gotham City Cafe-like outlets all opened. If still needed after more Gotham City Cafe-like outlets open, turn the other current outlets into 'seasonal' outlets - this would mean total food & beverage operating costs would only increase during the peak periods, when they are more likely to get the revenue they need in return. If those other current outlets are not needed at all anymore, just give them a new use. Hopefully, that would mean food & beverage prices could be reduced throughout MW so the price meets the value of the food/beverages. In a park like MW, where visitors don't have a central meeting place, finding somewhere to sit & eat is important. The Deli's location doesn't have any large areas full of tables. There are some behind the outlet (but they are 'hidden' in the park & disconnected from the actual outlet) & some inside the outlet (but not many people want to sit & eat next to a queue). MW did add recently a lot of tables & seats in the Main Street plaza area recently but they are technically 'separate' from the Deli so you're just as (or even more) likely to find people eating meals from Gotham City Cafe. Excluding it's obvious appearance in the park map, looking at Google Street View, the Deli doesn't seem to be a highly visible store - faint signs on the windows & 2 really small signs on each shopfront saying Main Street Deli. The Drinks & Churros carts next to the store are way more obvious and the Ben & Jerry's sign further down the street is more noticeable too (The 'Taxidermy' sign above the store is even more noticeable too). Maybe MW should consider putting 2 large bright signs halfway up each shopfront saying 'DELI'? That should tell visitors there is a deli there. I don't think VRTP's healthier options are that neglected. MW's park map mentions out of their 11 food & beverage outlets, 5 have 'healthy food options', 9 have 'vegetarian food' & 6 are 'gluten friendly'. They even let you bring in fruit & bottled water to, at least, MW:

From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

I believe the 'live chat' feature has been removed from Jamberoo's website at least sometime in the last month. The 'live chat' feature wasn't staffed all the time. I can't remember exactly when it wasn't staffed but evenings (which is understandable) & weekends (which is odd as that is Jamberoo's peak operational period during the season) is what comes to mind. I assume it was staffed the rest of the time (during weekday business hours at least). If it's removal wasn't because they couldn't staff it all the time, either not enough website visitors were using it or it was a website feature that was inadvertently added. That or it's temporarily off the website due to the off-season. However, here is some neat marketing from Jamberoo showing how much they value their customers. I believe DW did something similar in the months after the Thunder River Rapids incident but clearly the context is different. As most of you can gather, Jamberoo's season recently finished so they posted this on social media (Here is their Facebook post) : This wasn't just posted on their social media, it was also published on their website's home page as well as in Sydney newspapers with a half-page advertisement. As far as I know, it hasn't appeared (yet) in Illawarra newspapers so it seems Jamberoo has targeted this 'thank you' notice particularly to Sydneysiders. And with a particular competitor located in that market known as Wet 'n' Wild Sydney, whose attendance & revenues are ever decreasing, the last thing that park needs is more people visiting Jamberoo because they appreciate their customers more. Wet 'n' Wild Sydney did do something similar though (Here is their Facebook post) : However, whilst their post does say 'thank you', the image itself doesn't & thus, doesn't look like it was intended to appear in any newspapers. It looks mainly designed for marketing on the Internet. Also, Jamberoo thanked their customers for 'visiting' whilst Wet 'n' Wild Sydney thanked them for 'making this season so awesome'. If according to Wet 'n' Wild Sydney, it's the customers that are making the park 'awesome', maybe they should listen to them more often? It seems their customers know better than they do on how to run the park.

I agree but if there are long lines, wouldn't that point to a need for either: Faster checkout/cooking operations (without decreasing food/service quality)? A redistribution of visitors' purchasing times (so pre-ordering, afternoon take-away sales, discounts/offers in daily off-peak periods etc.) Larger existing food & beverage outlets (so larger kitchen & more staff and checkouts)? More new seasonal or mobile food and beverage outlets? The points above are just for reducing queue lengths. It would only really improve their food & beverage revenues if the extra revenue resulting from the increase in food & beverage demand (due to the shorter queues) boosts the total food & beverage revenue higher than the total food & beverage operation costs (which would be higher than before if some of the points above were implemented). If they make a higher profit than when the queues were long, even better. Assuming any of the points I made above aren't needed, more all-day reasonable prices would increase demand and lead to longer lines (similar to what @djrappa said) which would result in visitors not joining the queues due to their length, thus leading to less sales & possibly the food and beverage outlets losing money? If they don't lose money then it's a great idea.

Back in November 2017, the South Australian Government released a future vision for Cleland Wildlife Park developed in consultation with LKF Attractions: You might notice the above vision plan includes a 'soaring simulator'. It seems they are aiming for the exact same type of flying theatre that DW is currently building. It seems the South Australian Government are currently consulting stakeholders whilst they develop the business case for the vision. If the business case gives it the go-ahead, they will commence a procurement process. Clearly, even if the 'soaring simulator' is one of their first investments, it won't be built until after DW's has opened.That is, if the South Australian Government decides to continue with the vision's implementation when they review the business case. Here is their plan for the cable car:

The land for the Australian Reptile Park & the former Old Sydney Town was on sale in late February/early March this year. The sale has not been finalised as of 23rd April:

Do they still have a 2 day pass? There isn't a mention of it on their websites.

Thanks. For some reason, I kept thinking the 3rd quarter was January to April and couldn't figure out how @RossL was claiming the Commonwealth Games didn't impact the 3rd quarter. Either way, the trading update wasn't just about the 3rd quarter. According to the trading update, it was about the entire July 1st 2017 to March 31st 2018 period, which still excludes the Commonwealth Games: Taking the rest of the trading update out of that context though makes it sound like it was really a trading update for the same period but up to the 17th of April 2018, which includes the Commonwealth Games.

Didn't realise this until now but Jamberoo's smartphone applications for iOS & Android were also updated in January to include the Virtual Tour feature & some other small improvements. Also, Sydney Weekender visited Jamberoo in early April. They captured pretty good footage from inside The Perfect Storm (from 01:01 to 01:34) with the lighting effects (themed to lightning) seen very clearly:

From the trading update, you linked in your post: They did impact. It might have been both. It should be pointed out firstly that VRTP are in a unique position - the VRTP Oxenford property was a Commonwealth Games venue and given the lack of car parking at the Studios (because it rarely needs it), it's fair enough that people may have been put off going to the theme parks at the Oxenford property out of a fear of not finding a car parking spot due to Commonwealth Games visitors possibly parking at the theme parks instead. Hence why VRTP took precautions. However, in the end, finding a car parking spot at the Oxenford theme parks during the Games was likely possible due to locals leaving the region for the Games duration. VRTP (including SW) average attendance is 7000/day while Commonwealth Games is about 100,000/day. 22% (or 22,000 visitors/day) of Commonwealth Games average daily visitation & I believe 60% (or 4000/day) of average daily VRTP visitation is likely from the immediate Gold Coast-Tweed Heads region. No doubt if it was the latter 'choice of words', 65% of VRTP visitation by locals would have disappeared (so reducing it to 1400 locals/day & 4400 visitors/day). Adding the earlier 'choice of words', it should have resulted in nearly no one going to the theme parks but if the 65% of the population who left the region for the past few weeks stayed instead, visitation should have declined to about 4250 visitors/day. Basing it on the above 3 possibilities, the 1st possibility is the most likeliest - that is, because 65% of the Gold Coast-Tweed Heads region's population left for the Games duration (the latter 'choice of words'). The other 2 can be ruled out because locals did leave the region in the last few weeks and it's highly unlikely all VRTP parks would have been near-empty. Being tourist attractions, they would have been a reasonable amount of visitation (mostly from non-locals) to remain open even if it was less visitation. Otherwise, it would have been better to close for 2 weeks to save on operational costs. I haven't been following their pricing strategy closely but is the recently launched discounts you're referring to that 1 Groupon deal? 1 discount doesn't sound like much to say they got their strategy wrong. Currently, the future of Gold Coast theme parks are in Gold Coast residents' hands - do they want cheaper tickets resulting in likely lower quality parks or more expensive tickets resulting in higher quality parks? Just don't take the parks for granted. The best outcome from this new pricing strategy is if it brings in more customers, resulting in lower in-park costs (such as upcharges & food and beverage). However, this is unlikely. The chances of success would improve if they did solid marketing towards non-local audiences however in the current economic environment, it would be difficult to achieve a success in this. Hopefully, they could at least try to do some proper non-local marketing to test the waters (It's been a while since they've done any significant non-local marketing). DC Rivals HyperCoaster would've been the perfect opportunity to return to targeting these markets but based on how much marketing I've seen (none), that opportunity has well and truly past (at least for interstate visitation). What better way to encourage non-local visitation than promoting the Southern Hemisphere's only hypercoaster? And I doubt the Commonwealth Games will help significantly particularly since they didn't do non-local marketing in the past couple of weeks. It's not a guarantee that they will lose heaps of revenue. The next best outcome is if Gold Coast residents don't take the parks for granted and accept the new pricing strategy. If they in general can't afford it, fair enough but if they take the parks for granted, the parks quality will lower to their detriment. Accepting the new pricing strategy will allow the parks to gain more overall revenue to spend on improving the parks including adding more frequently higher quality attractions & possibly lowering in-park costs. All other possible outcomes would mean in-park costs would increase due to less attendance. Less attendance would mean, instead of expansion, more older attractions being replaced to ensure capacity adequately meets attendance. However, expansion could be an option if they can successfully increase attendance from an increase in non-local visitation & new higher quality attractions could be added more frequently if they gain higher overall revenue. The worst case scenario is if they get both less renewals & less revenue as that would mean they would lose more overall revenue, which would pretty much mean a return to discounting resulting in new attractions being built less frequently or if frequently, lower in quality. Otherwise, in the far future, the parks might as well have a 'free entry, pay per ride etc' pricing strategy instead and that would mark an interesting milestone in the history of Gold Coast theme parks. The outcome of this change in pricing strategy & the parks' reaction to that outcome could be the turning point in Gold Coast theme park operations.

The Sling Shot was in operation in 2004 so it opened at or before then. If it didn't open at the same time as the Vomatron, it's probably older.

I didn't know that & whilst that's generally good, Sunrise isn't considered part of the official Commonwealth Games TV broadcast. Sunrise might be broadcasting from the Gold Coast for the Games but how often do breakfast TV programs visit the Gold Coast (even just for weather segments)? Very often - so the tourism boost resulting from it would be nearly the same as usual. Nightly coverage of the sport is getting about 2 million viewers nationally (pre-Games prime-time programming would get no more than half of that) whilst Sunrise is currently getting about 500,000 national viewers (pre-Games would get 400,000 national viewers). Nationally, the Commonwealth Games is doubling prime-time viewers whilst only increasing Sunrise viewers by 25%. Even if the theme parks were getting promotion from Network 7 (not through commercials, that is), it might have backfired - with locals out of town, we could have been getting footage of empty theme parks particularly if any of it wasn't filmed prior to the Games starting - it wouldn't be exactly encouraging footage. Maybe that could be why Network 7 haven't being showing the theme parks? Are the theme parks bustling or are they resembling Dodge City in Wild West Falls ? In the end, Ardent Leisure & Village Roadshow (or any other tourism operator on the Gold Coast for that matter) could've at least made an 11-day TV commercial marketing campaign on Network 7 just for the Commonwealth Games targeting interstate visitors. Unless all of the Gold Coast's tourism operators couldn't afford purchasing the advertising space?

Prepare for a long post... I've always felt the hype of multi-sport events causing chaos in the host city during the event is not just exaggerated but overly exaggerated. Personally, I believe a simple way to tell how chaotic a multi-sport event will be in a host city would be if airlines/the local airport couldn't cope with the extra demand as then the rest of the city probably wouldn't either. Mind you, that's not based on scientific evidence...yet. I'm just using the logic, in the case of the Gold Coast, that if there aren't enough flights to the city then there is likely not enough public transport out of the city's airport and around the city with not enough accommodation in the city either. I haven't heard any complaints about Gold Coast Airport yet, Gold Coast's public transport has been running at 99% efficiency (Mind you, this could be because the locals have left) & there is plenty of accommodation still available. Accommodation on the Gold Coast can take a maximum of around 43,000 people at any point in time. If the Gold Coast couldn't handle that during a Commonwealth Games, there is no point in bidding for these events unless they built new accommodation. The normal occupancy rate in the Gold Coast in April is 53% (so about 23,000 people - and I'm not using the room occupancy rate here by the way). If the Gold Coast couldn't cope with a 100% occupancy rate, why build so much accommodation in the first place? (The highest it gets is around 66% in January) The athletes/officials stay in a new purpose-built village and they only number about 7000 people (about 5000 athletes). Add the athletes' families (say, 3 people each?) as spectators, that's roughly 15,000 people in Gold Coast accommodation (about 35% occupancy rate). Then add the amount of general interstate/international visitors to that figure. This is where it gets difficult. According to XX Commonwealth Games: Glasgow 2014’s Chief Communications Officer in the official report of the XX Commonwealth Games - Glasgow 2014: So essentially, locals make up the majority of ticketholders (How many of you have ever said to yourself "I'm going to <insert multi-sport event here> for a holiday" when it's not held in your city?) thus making most of the remaining accommodation likely vacant meaning the occupancy rate could be around the same as it usually is or even less than usual. For Glasgow, the 3-hour driving radius was a 200km radius which included everywhere within that radius except Northern Ireland & the Isle Of Man (as travelling between there & Glasgow takes more than 3 hours). For the Gold Coast, the same radius applies still so that would include everyone between Gympie & Grafton and out west to Warwick. Glasgow's population catchment in that 200km radius should be around 7 million people while the Gold Coast has a catchment of around 3 million people. However, that quote above was immediately followed by: Well, if the Gold Coast has significantly less people to sell tickets to than Glasgow did, that's a problem surely? So what did Glasgow do in 2014? That should work, right? Well according to Glasgow 2014's Head of Marketing & Advertising in the same report: And as it turned out, the Gold Coast did the complete opposite by encouraging the local population to leave the city for 11 days when, in fact, they would be the main purchaser of tickets. Glasgow 2014 managed to sell 96% of their tickets and the Gold Coast, as of April 3, had sold 88% of their tickets, which is a paradox - how can they sell nearly all their tickets despite their main audience leaving in droves? This could be because 'tickets purchased' doesn't equate to 'number of Commonwealth Games visitors'. You can have people purchase tickets to several events over all 11 days of the Games after all. Earlier on in the Glasgow 2014 report, it mentions: Greater Glasgow, in categorizing statistically, is the same as Gold Coast-Tweed Heads. With the Greater Glasgow population about 1.2 million, that would mean 400,000 Greater Glasgow residents were initially interested in purchasing tickets. If each person bought 1 ticket per day of the Games, they would sell triple the amount of tickets on offer! Gold Coast-Tweed Heads' population is about 700,000 and based on Glasgow's research, should mean 200,000 Gold Coast-Tweed Heads residents were initially interested in purchasing tickets. If each of those 200,000 people bought 1 ticket per day of the Games, they would sell double the amount of tickets on offer! So if there are 1.2 million tickets on offer, you only need 100,000 interested residents & 1 ticket per day from all of them to see all tickets being sold. As pointed out in the quote above, there are people not from the host city but located within the 200km radius that are interested in buying tickets. Adding these would include a total of about 1.6 million interested ticket purchasers for Glasgow (This would mean about half a million would have to attend one of the free sporting events or sadly, miss out on being at the sport all together) while for the Gold Coast, taking into account the rest of the 200km radius would see a total of around 900,000 interested ticket purchasers - meaning around 200,000 tickets would still be available, which on April 3 was pretty much the case. It doesn't help encouraging the host city's residents to leave for 11 days as due to the lack of general interstate/international visitors, there is no difference in accommodation occupancy rates and combined with the locals leaving, in turn, results in a temporary population decline of -65% for the Gold Coast-Tweed Heads region! So more than half of the host city has left due to the encouragement...leaving the city with no 'buzz' except around Games venues. And no doubt, this means the Gold Coast-Tweed Heads economy hasn't improved (which it did pre-Games & could post-Games. Well, actually it will improve post-Games as the locals will return ) or stayed the same (which is what should have happened during the Games due to population levels remaining roughly the same) but in fact, declined...massively. Thankfully, the Games only go for 11 days. Regardless, GOLDOC should explain how they got it so wrong. No doubt people would have used the Games as an opportunity to go on holiday anyway so there would have been a small decline anyway but nowhere near as noticeable. I understand traffic is pretty terrible nowadays on the Gold Coast so if there is 1 lesson the Gold Coast could learn from these Games, it is to fix up your transport network. The city wouldn't be in the position it is now otherwise as multi-sport events probably don't affect the host city as much as it is made out. It is just the pressure these events come with to showcase a functional city that results in politicians & the like trying to remove all of a city's logistical problems for just about 2 weeks. If there is a logistic problem with the host city during the Games, it's likely because the city already has that problem. No doubt, had locals stayed for these Games, the M1 traffic jams would have continued anyway. If politicians & the like want a 'functional city' for just about 2 weeks & no other time, are they really catering to their electors in the first place? They may harp on about 'legacy' but the legacy just doesn't happen except in the form of memories - no massive economic boost, sporting venues become unused etc. (due to those sports not being part of that area's culture - thankfully, the Gold Coast only built 1 completely new venue). Gold Coast 2018's 'legacy' will just be Coomera Indoor Sports Centre, the Athletes Village, the numerous sporting venue upgrades/reconstructions & maybe a small tourism boost post-Games (maybe in 9 months to a year) but as with all multi-sport events, the hype over the 'legacy' they leave are overly exaggerated resulting, in the future, the host city asking itself the question (which the Gold Coast may already be asking) - was it all worth it? The answer: Probably not. After viewing the Network 7's TV coverage over the past few days, the theme parks have received zero promotion during their coverage so far. The most that counts is a few moments of SW's monorail & Storm Coaster seen operating in the distance during triathlon events. There is even no TV commercials from the theme parks either. I don't know if international broadcasters have been visiting the parks to promote the theme parks internationally but either way, based on Network 7's TV coverage alone, there won't be a post-Games increase in interstate visitors to the theme parks as non-Queenslanders could be forgiven for forgetting there were major theme parks on the Gold Coast as Network 7 hasn't shown them. Just skyscrapers - nothing else. Anyway, after this long post, here is a theme park question - how are the theme parks coping with this temporary downturn?

Yeah, I know but it still would have been an inconvenience for someone if they used those broadcast details at the time. Yep! (Photographs below from the official XXI Commonwealth Games: Gold Coast 2018 website) Ironically, the Queen's Baton never rode a rollercoaster while on it's Gold Coast legs of it's journey. The rollercoaster depicted looked like it was based on HotWheels SideWinder (but a way better version & with plain red carriages). Now, it just depends if they do anything different in the Closing Ceremony regarding theme parks. All ceremonies of these sort are non-commercialised but I believe there was a rare 'advertisement' done really subtly at the ceremony's conclusion when a fireworks display begun (and continued after the ceremony's conclusion) around The Star casino, who are a sponsor of the Games. Unlike the other representations of tourist attractions in the ceremony, the casino's logo was visible in the TV coverage. Outside of the Olympics, seeing sponsor's logos isn't unusual but in a ceremony it is. The casino isn't that iconic globally so I can't think of any other reason of why they chose that spot for the only non-stadium portion of the concluding fireworks display. It would've been better to just leave it out or do the same fireworks display near the Festival 2018 site on Surfers Paradise Beach near Cavill Avenue (That's a globally iconic area!). Carrara Stadium's fireworks were sufficient for the occasion though. Apart from Carrara Stadium, if they are going to put fireworks on top of iconic Gold Coast buildings, utilising Q1 or a couple of the tallest buildings would've been better than a single barge on the Nerang River with a few fireworks on the casino. Melbourne in 2006 did it right (below from 26:01) but at the end of tonight's one, adding The Star casino-portion of the concluding fireworks was just tacky and worse, that addition was done tacky and possibly just for free 'advertisement' due to their sponsorship. Anyway, that's going 'off-topic' from theme parks. For the Gold Coast members of this forum, well done on the ceremony. Compared to Commonwealth Games opening ceremonies since 2002, in my opinion, it probably is in the top 2 in regards to presentation & technical aspects (That last opinion isn't judging the content of the ceremony).

This dot point was actually broadcast and was incorrect - it was today (04/04/2018) but around 9:50am to 10am AEST. I have also gotten all the Queen's Baton Relay broadcasting times incorrect by forgetting to take into account the 1 hour difference in time zones (QLD time vs. AEDT) so add an extra hour to the times above in regards to the Queen's Baton Relay only. Sorry for any inconvenience. Also, you might have also realised the Queen's Baton Relay was delayed going past Sea World by roughly an hour or two today due to a protest on Sea World Drive.

Day 1 and already a lot of stories in the media. Here's the most interesting quotes I could find: From Yahoo!7: From The Australian: From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio Australia: From The Brisbane Times: From New Idea: From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

Just some corrections/additions to the broadcast details I listed at the start of the topic (changes/additions are in red): 1 dot point was deleted as it is not being broadcast.

A better question would be how do you (and anyone else) think they will be featured/represented?

Given the XXI Commonwealth Games: Gold Coast 2018 begin on Wednesday night, here are some broadcast details of interest to theme park enthusiasts (Bold dot points are televised nationally, the rest only in QLD): 1/04/2018: 2:45pm - Queen's Baton Relay: Arrives at Upper Coomera Centre (1km away from Dreamworld) 1/04/2018: 3:40pm to 4:30pm - Queen's Baton Relay: Travels south through Helensvale (1km away from Village Roadshow's Oxenford Property) 2/04/2018: 10:45am to 11:10am - Queen's Baton Relay: Travels south through Labrador/Southport (1.5km away from Sea World) 3/04/2018: 8:50am to 9am - Queen's Baton Relay: Travelling along The Esplanade (150 metres away from Adrenalin/Funtime Park) 3/04/2018: 11:55am to 12:10pm - Queen's Baton Relay: From the northern end of The Spit, travels south along the Broadwater to Main Beach (250 metres away from Sea World) 5/04/2018: 9:30am to no later than 4:30pm - Triathlon (1.5km away from Sea World) 5/04/2018 to 11/04/2018: 12pm to no later than 9:45pm - Boxing (Held at Village Roadshow Studios) 5/04/2018 to 15/04/2018: 9:30am to no later than 9:15pm - Table Tennis (Held at Village Roadshow Studios) 7/04/2018: 9:30am to no later than 4:30pm - Triathlon (1.5km away from Sea World) 13/04/2018 to 14/04/2018: 12pm to no later than 10pm - Boxing (Held at Village Roadshow Studios) 15/04/2018: 6:10am to 12:10pm - Marathon (150 metres away from Adrenalin/Funtime Park at around the 15 and 35 kilometre mark & 1.5km away from Sea World at the finish & the start to just past the 10km mark) Netball finals & Gymnastics are held immediately behind Dreamworld but due to them being indoors & not located on DW's property, they are not listed. Aquatics (that is, Swimming & Diving) are held 1.5km away from Sea World in an outdoor venue but due to the nature of the event using no helicopter camera angles, those events are not listed above too. Check local guides for which particular Network 7 channel to tune into. It may also be seen through Network 7's official application/website for the XXI Commonwealth Games: Gold Coast 2018. Times above are all Australian Eastern Standard Time. Hoping the theme parks can be seen in the coverage of the events listed above (mainly through helicopter camera angles in the non-Village Roadshow Studios events). Does anyone think the theme parks will feature/be represented in the Opening or Closing Ceremony? And how much coverage, in the Commonwealth, do you think the theme parks will get out of the Commonwealth Games? (This is excluding any news coverage of the Thunder River Rapids Incident Coronial Inquest which begins on the 03/04/2018)

I believe that theming "addition" has been there since the ride first opened. For all I know, it could have been recently added to the signage but I definitely recall seeing it as part of The Giant Drop's logo in DW's brochures a decade ago and thought how clever it was to add it into the oil drop's reflection. It has featured at times in some form on DW's website since as early as 1998 when the ride first opened & this image from Dreamworld's current Giant Drop webpage has shown it since 2015: Good to see they've given The Giant Drop signage a new coat of paint though.

Intencity is a decade old. It has lasted longer than anything that's been in that building. It could, however, be more appropriately themed (maybe to DC Super Villains Unleashed and thus expanding the area?). Having, sadly, never been to Wonderland Sydney, I don't know how appropriate their skill games were themed (I assume they were) but if they were throughout the park from opening day then I wouldn't mind. The difference with the Gold Coast theme parks is that they have just changed with great speed. When I first visited the Gold Coast theme parks, the generic skill games were located just at DW's Game Site & MW's Blazing Saddles Fun 'n' Games - both in suitable locations. Now they are spread throughout both parks & SW, which is why I get a 'we need money' look from them all (mainly when not themed appropriately). Game Site is still in operation though while Blazing Saddles Fun 'n' Games 'downsized' to County Fair Fun 'n' Games & Intencity. If skill games are themed appropriately & have more complexity/uniqueness than Long Shot, I don't mind them. I also don't mind if the prize awarded is proportional to how well you played the game. It's just that Long Shot doesn't make that clear from the advertising alone. It would be best to rephrase the advertising. I just think skill games are targeted towards locals because an interstate/international visitor is more likely to want to visit the major attractions in the limited time that they have at the parks. Locals can skip these in exchange for a skill game more frequently because they can visit the major attractions just another day particularly when on an annual pass. Aren't they located next to a 'beach boardwalk'-themed area (The Plaza shops)? I recall seeing Long Shot at the entrance of the former Viking's Revenge Flume Ride initially. It's clearly been moved from there since then as the Street View panorama shows it was next to Penguin Encounter in September 2017 so I don't think it will leave permanently because they are starting work on a new attraction (particularly since work on the replacement for Viking's Revenge hasn't started).