Jamberoo Fan

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).

@elemist, if it isn't just due to a 'cruise ship packages offer roughly the same services for less cost & more convenience' factor but the overall lowering of international travel prices factor, then I'd say the theme park industry in Australia would be slowing down (in terms of unique attraction development) in my opinion as like you say: Theme parks build new attractions to give people a new reason to visit. If it's guaranteed that interstate visitors aren't going to return regardless of what they build then the long-term focus would be more on locals (who will repeat visit) and international visitors (who, even if they only visit Australia once in their lives, are visiting in consistent numbers. Losing consistent international visitation would mean a theme park's value for money would have dramatically plummeted). And like I said earlier, focusing on locals & international visitors should mean the theme park industry's attraction development would slow (in terms of uniqueness) reducing the overall quality & 'need to visit' wanted by potential interstate visitors. Things like Fright Nights, cheap annual passes, Long Shot, Domino's Pizza & upcharge attractions become more prevalent to target local visitation while rare but massive investments in attractions like DC Rivals HyperCoaster & Dreamworld Corroboree are there to target international visitation. This would all be until travelling internationally is more expensive than domestic travel again. Regarding adding the 'cost of living on holiday' into, at least, the figures I posted previously, I didn't take into account non-theme park attractions such as tours & Ripley's because I wanted to focus on purely a theme park-only holiday. However, SkyPoint (Q1) is taken into account as it forms part of DW's ticketing options. Regarding food, I believe food is not included for some cruise ship packages (hence why I didn't compare food prices) but if it is for all, then that's another point of difference in favour of cruise ship packages (except AOS who has dinner included also). Cruise ships & theme parks both have upcharge attractions hence why I didn't compare the cost of those as well.

Given 9News were given video of the stoppage "exclusively", it seems Dreamworld visitors are sending the news to them.

I wouldn't mind it if it was in a themed dedicated gaming arcade but the way Long Shot is presented in that Street View panorama just gives a 'we need money' look particularly given the target market for it is just people who happen to walk past & that "everyone" gets a prize regardless of how good they are at throwing basketballs into the hoop. The lack of aesthetics also adds to that look. For a non-local, Sea World should look like a marine theme park not an agricultural show (Agricultural shows probably wouldn't even have a concept like Long Shot with the way it is done in that Street View panorama. As I said earlier, throwing basketballs at a hoop like that is something people can do at home). If Sea World had a themed dedicated gaming arcade, say in The Plaza, with one of those gaming arcade machines where you pay to throw a certain number of basketballs at a hoop in a certain amount of time in order to earn points and thus tickets, which, when collected to a certain amount, win you a prize, it would've been much better. Maybe prizes could include free meals & tickets to upcharge attractions? Dedicated gaming arcades in theme parks are perfect for local visitors as they have more time to aim for a prize. But if they kept it the way it is in that Street View panorama, at least have the staff dressed up as penguins (not full character costume, just white shirt/shorts with a black & orange hat), have the fences themed to ice walls, have the basketball hoop 'frozen' & maybe add a picture of a penguin spinning a basketball on their flipper?

Just for simplicity purposes, using 1 day general admission adult prices, compare prices: Dreamworld + SkyPoint = $85 Warner Brothers. Movie World/Wet 'N' Wild Gold Coast/Sea World = $207 ($69 per park) Paradise Country = $25 Australian Outback Spectacular = $100 Accommodation for 6 nights* = $1055 ($176 per night) Total Holiday = $1472 (or $245/night) + Travel Costs Adjusting for adult annual pass prices: Dreamworld + SkyPoint = $129 Warner Brothers. Movie World/Wet 'N' Wild Gold Coast/Sea World/Paradise Country = $199 ($49.75 per park) 1 Australian Outback Spectacular show = $100 Accommodation for 6 nights* = $1055 ($176 per night) Total Holiday = $1483 (or $247/night) + Travel Costs Whilst similar, it's actually more expensive by $2 per night or $11 in total. DW & SkyPoint don't have a 2 week pass but if the 1 day general admission adult prices were adjusted for only the VRTP 2 week pass, a Gold Coast holiday is cheaper by $9 a night or $64 in total: Dreamworld + SkyPoint = $85 Warner Brothers. Movie World/Wet 'N' Wild Gold Coast/Sea World/Paradise Country = $179 ($44.80 per park) 1 Australian Outback Spectacular show = $100 Accommodation for 6 nights* = $1055 ($176 per night) Total Holiday = $1419 (or $237/night) + Travel Costs However, this is a 5 day holiday using a 2 week pass. It's cheaper overall but the full 2 weeks isn't utilized. Utilizing the full 2 weeks: Dreamworld + SkyPoint = $85 Warner Brothers. Movie World/Wet 'N' Wild Gold Coast/Sea World/Paradise Country = $179 ($44.80 per park) 1 Australian Outback Spectacular show = $100 Accommodation for 16 nights* = $2816 ($176 per night) Total Holiday = $3180 (or $530/night) + Travel Costs *Average takings per room night occupied in Gold Coast Tourism Area, July 2015 to June 2016. It is relatively more expensive than a cruise of the same duration. Travel costs include a 'commuter cost', that is a cost in travelling between your accommodation & the parks, which varies based on how far away you are staying from the parks & a 'destination cost', that is a cost to travel to/from your destination (the Gold Coast). For cruises, your 'destination' is the port of departure. The average cruise is around the same cost for all but the last Gold Coast trip detailed above but cruises also have no 'commuter cost'. The 'destination cost' is also different for cruises as there are many ports of departure around Australia. Having more theme parks around Australia is a nice idea (to meet the 'more ports of departure' difference) but the more theme parks, the lower quality they will all initially be compared to what the Gold Coast currently is. Over time (and I mean, a really long time), they will reach Gold Coast-quality then USA-quality. The crucial difference between theme parks & cruise ships is on-site accommodation & integration of it into the wider facility. Sea World & Paradise Country have on-site accommodation. Sea World's is integrated via the monorail, a souvenir shop and a short footpath to the park. Paradise Country is integrated by short footpaths. If a 'cruising is better than theme parks' scenario occurs, maybe these things could improve theme parks (in order of priority): Opening new high-profile attractions regularly Building accommodation Adding combined park + accommodation ticketing options Integrate the accommodation into the park - Not with small footpaths through fences so they are effectively still separate from the park (like some currently are) but full integration - maybe have the accommodation inside the park at various locations? Or around the park's edges? Simply, make the accommodation part of the park so there is no 'commuter cost'. Extending park opening hours - maybe even 24/7. At least until midnight. This doesn't mean all the rides have to be open at night (They do need a daily maintenance check at some point anyway). If there is such a low demand for something at night that doesn't justify opening it then clearly close the attraction or area until there is demand (unless there is no demand at all). It could mean different things could be open at night instead such as nightclubs, fireworks/laser shows, cinemas, ten pin bowling, laser tag, dinner shows, golf driving ranges etc. Like Downtown Disney but instead of being outside the park, it's inside & spread around the park so there is a 'day park' & a 'night park' embedded into one & if it is all themed, even better. The last 2 dot points are the main things that will bring a cruise ship's strengths into a theme park and are only necessary to implement if theme park operators want to bring back the interstate market to theme parks if that market is leaving theme parks for cruise ships because they offer roughly the same services for less cost & more convenience. If interstate markets aren't a concern, then focusing on locals is the way to go and that's probably been the case for most of the past decade in the Gold Coast. Locals bring in revenue through upcharge attractions, franchised stores, carnival games, annual passes the cost of general admission tickets, specialized night events etc. However, the theme park's overall quality in the eyes of interstate visitors drops as a result. International visitors, well, given they are rarely in Australia, if the theme parks are value for money then they'll purchase a ticket. But clearly, high-profile attractions & Australian experiences is what they want.

After saying "the Gold Coast theme parks should take note of" Jamberoo's online park map upgrade, it seems it was the other way around but just for one aspect of it - the virtual tour. VRTP since September 2017 have allowed Google to add Street View of their parks. However, integration of this into their online park maps hasn't happened...yet (nor a live chat feature to their websites ). A list of links to access all the main attractions are below, which can be convenient for future reference. Note: If you can't move in a certain direction, refer to Google's map as they do not have Street View everywhere. However, the map's detailed routes can be conflicting with where you actually can go in Street View. Paradise Country Production Drive Parking Farmstay* Entrance Former Warner Brothers. Movie World Studio Tour Trams Homestead Clancy's Opal Mine Lorikeets Dingoes** Wildlife Photo Centre/Walk Koalas Animal Nursery & Walkthrough Stockman & Sheep Dog Arena*** Billy Tea Campfire, Stockhorse Arena & Wagon Rides**** Gold & Gemstone Panning Shearing Shed Farmhouse Restaurant *This is the entrance to Farmstay. Follow the road/signs to reach the actual Farmstay reception/accommodation. If you turn right at the 1st intersection of sealed road (which you can't in Google Street View), it takes you to the Native American Camp scene in Wild West Falls, which is around 100 metres away. **The Dingoes exhibit can be seen in the distance behind some trees. ***This view is from the road between the entrance & the Homestead. The entrance to the Stockman & Sheep Dog Arena is behind the bins on the left, which is located next to Wagon Rides. ****Billy Tea Campfire is the undercover area to the left behind the water tank while Wagon Rides is the undercover area to the right. Stockhorse Arena is in the centre. Australian Outback Spectacular Parking Building Entrance Ticket Gates Shop Bar Waiting Area Unfortunately, there is no Street View of the show arena. Wet 'n' Wild Gold Coast Parking Entrance Entry Plaza & Wet 'n' Wild Junior Super 8 Aqua Racer & AquaLoop River Rapids & Constrictor Calypso Beach Whirlpool Springs SurfRider & Extreme H20 Zone Giant Wave Pool, FlowRider & SkyCoaster Mammoth Falls Sea World Theme Park/Cruises/Helicopters Parking Cruises & Helicopters (Out Of Theme Park) Theme Park Entrance Guest Services & Animal Adventures Check-In Centre Jet Stunt Extreme Penguin Encounter (External) Penguin Encounter (Internal) Monorail System Main Station & Creatures Of The Deep: Deep Discoveries Helicopters (In Theme Park) Creatures Of The Deep (Outdoor Section) Our World Of The Dolphin Dolphin Nursery Fish Detectives Nickelodeon Land The Plaza Jet Rescue Polar Bear Shores Ray Reef Shark Bay Storm Coaster Spongebob Squarepants 3D: The Great Jelly Rescue Monorail System Mid-Station Penguin Point Seal Harbour Affinity & Dolphin Beach Castaway Bay Resort Entrance (Theme Park) & Monorail System Resort Station Resort Entrance (Parking) Resort Parking It's a pretty sad sight seeing Sea World resort to cheap ways to make revenue such as Long Shot. Throwing a basketball at a hoop? It's something people can do at home. It's also in such an open space, making it look tacky. And the advertising is odd - "$5 for 3 balls. Everyone wins a prize". "Everyone"? So essentially it is 'Prize for $5'? Having not visited the Gold Coast theme parks in over 5 years, using Street View really shows how much the parks have changed with the now-targeting towards locals & an over-reliance on carnival games etc. to make revenue in most parks through repeat-visit locals. Warner Brothers. Movie World Parking Entrance Grand Archway Fountain Of Fame Green Lantern Coaster Batwing Spaceshot Justice League: Alien Invasion 3D DC Rivals HyperCoaster Superman Escape Arkham Asylum: Shock Thearpy Guest Services Looney Tunes 4D Starring Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster DC Super Villians Unleashed Wild West Falls County Fair Fun 'n' Games, Bumper Cars & Intencity Hollywood Stunt Driver Kids' WB! Fun Zone

Vivid Sydney 2018 was launched today & will feature Luna Park for the 1st time. Vivid Sydney is making the most of the lighting upgrade to The Ferris Wheel but they've added a projection show, The Spirit Of Fun, to Coney Island for good measure. From the Vivid Sydney 2018 media launch's main media release: From The Spirit Of Fun webpage:

I can't link the source as it was a word of mouth conversation. Whilst they are completely different services, in that one is about rides while the other is about sea travel, cruise ships are like a floating amusement park/hotel/shopping & dining precinct while theme parks are the same - the main differences of theme parks to cruise ships (apart from theming & not floating) is that you have travel daily to and from them & there is no on-site hotel. These differences don't apply to Sea World though as it has it's own resort. Cruise ships can also provide something new everytime - you can visit a different location each time. Up until September last year, in the past 5 years, theme parks in Australia haven't provided much new that is attention-grabbing regularly and when put altogether after a few years, makes a notable difference to a person's previous visit. For non-locals, DC Rivals HyperCoaster is the only new attraction in recent Australian history that justifies a new visit just for 1 attraction. Wet 'n' Wild Gold Coast is also losing it's uniqueness due to so many waterslides appearing nationally at places like water parks, local aquatic centres & even cruise ships. @jjuttp's earlier comparison shows that, for an interstate consumer, they are economically very even already and @CruiseSF's quote below pretty much sums up why I thought cruise ships could be a competitor for theme parks in Australia: The question that should be asked is are Australians increasingly replacing theme parks (particularly the Gold Coast theme parks) for cruise ship packages mainly because they offer roughly the same services for less cost & more convenience?

I've heard that Australians are less attending theme parks (in particular the Gold Coast theme parks) and instead purchasing cruise ship packages instead. What does everything else think? I'm assuming this started, if true, prior to the Thunder River Rapids incident but after the mid-2000's.

The Courier-Mail is reporting (subscriber-only article) that the coronial inquest will begin on Tuesday the 3rd of April.

From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The article also features a video on China's One Belt, One Road initiative.