DaptoFunlandGuy

I guess because it's offering to upsell something that is no use to him - like ordering a large big mac meal, and having them ask 'would you like fries with that?' instead of recognising there is already fries in the order, and instead substituting with 'why not try our new banana caramel pie?' Honestly though it depends how much you want to nitpick over stupid shit that doesn't have an impact on your experience. So you bought the premium product and have no use for the poor man's upsell... whoop. The additional amount of work it would take to have accesso recommend a unique upcharge experience that would compliment whatever is in your cart, instead of just a bog-standard upsell product most people would be interested in wouldn't be worth the hassle.

For Disney, yes. Universal on the other hand has shown an interest in creating smaller properties in tourist hotspots... Universal opening year-round horror experience in Vegas: What we know (usatoday.com)

Just to be clear, there's no if. The whole discussion has been about an international park chain building locally. That's even the title of the thread. Yes, it could. But as i've already said, most of those parks were built and established in a different time. As for the population You've said this before: The problem I have with these figures is - building on the site of 350,000, with a further 700,000 to the north of it, while having the 5 Million from Sydney around 90 minutes away (or more for the southern areas) doesn't make sense. It isn't "smack bang" in the middle, its on the northern fringe. Building out near Badgery's, or somewhere near Castlereagh would make more sense - build near the 5 Million locals, not the 350,000 locals. The difference of course being that in both population migration numbers and tourism numbers, people want to be in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. I don't even know many sydneysiders that want to be in Gosford. I buy this if you build in the sydney basin. If you build 90 minutes away, then you also need to include the Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, half of the Lockyer Valley, Somerset, Noosa, and half a dozen other council areas. The population is still smaller - but again it isn't a fair comparison and what you're suggesting is akin to counting all of greater brisbane when you're building halfway to Gympie. Bahahahahahahahhahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaha Don't make the mistake of conflating a need with a want. The state has managed fine for 20 years without it. Even when the likes of Ammar Khan proposed it, few MPs gave it more than lip service. Outside of an enthusiast viewpoint, I don't think NSW "needs" a theme park, especially one the size of Wonderland. Wet N Wild Sydney never made its target numbers. While Raging Waters may be doing better, its arguably because VRTP took the loss on the establishment in the first place. Plenty of locals visit that park. Plenty of others avoid it like the plague, and it's in the centre of the catchment. Dreamworld do it too. Why else? because the $99 passes showed both companies that people won't pay $400 for an annual pass, but will pay something less than that. They drop the price to get people through the gate because people just weren't coming at the higher price points. Those who holiday on the GC typically stay less than 30 minutes from the parks. Nobody is staying at North Lakes for their GC holiday. And those who don't have cars fly into the airport and use buses, which are also 30 minutes away. Objection your honour, asked and answered. They had existing infrastructure, it was already an attraction - it was just upgraded. Big upgrades yes, but it was not a greenfields site. If Wonderland was opened in Somersby, I would argue it wasn't targeting 6 million people. I'd honestly call it a fools errand. Unless it had a significant IP behind it, it wouldn't work. You're stacking the pros, but you're pretending that the cons don't exist because of what other parks did 40 years ago that wouldn't work today. The cons have been displayed for you pretty clearly. they also stack up. Perhaps its a balancing act and the line between them is a thin one, but other places, better positioned near international airports, in the centre of 5 million people instead of 90 minutes away from them are far more likely. I do think your bias has shown a little too strongly and you need to acknowledge that may be playing a factor. Universal has recently been playing with the idea of smaller experiences and facilities. I think the main reason people are fielding the universal idea is that they've already shown an interest in doing so. Wow, and both of these options were very close to established major airports, weren't they?

We go next week. We've been up to our eyeballs in research for the past year. The one consistent thing we've come across is people underestimating what Disney has to offer. Followed by people who have actually been Everyone i've spoken to who has been says the park (TDS) is unmissable. Everyone. TDRExplorer did a video a few weeks back showing the morning crowds, and with timestamps he did a few loops of the monorail to show just how quickly all those crowds dispersed. Universal has the same crowds, but it is made worse by the fact that they don't open at the hour advertised. See this part just doesn't make sense. Your family think the queues at Disney are too much, but you're planning to get to Universal that early... SMH.

In your own words, you said you couldn't find it. Any reasonable person would take that to mean you had searched. And if you want to know the answer to something, generally the solution is to search for yourself, or to post a question on your local neighbourhood facebook page so someone else will give you the answer. Since you don't use facebook, I guess we know where that leaves you, right? I didn't actually notice the absence of the operating hours. Since its separately ticketed, i'd assumed a 5:30 start in order for them to clear the park of day guests like they have done with happy halloween, etc, while corralling people near the main gates if they hold tickets. We rarely make it to closing when we go to these events so the end-time didn't really phase me, which is why I hadn't noticed it.

Did you try the ticket purchase section?

Sure, most families aren't going to book a spur of the moment weekend away at the GC, but they are more likely to book a week up there, hit the 4+ Major Attractions and get value out of those flights on a per day basis that far exceeds that of a 3 hour round trip to Gosford for the day. Jamberoo and Gumbuya are out of the way, but they've also established themselves in a different era. Less than an hour is the yardstick I would use for the most part. Heck i'm about 90 minutes from the GC parks these days and I rarely visit unless i'm catching up with friends and family who are in town on a holiday. The 'if you build it they will come' mantra checks out, especially if its one of the bigger players in the game because their reputation is known - but conversely, the bigger players have shown that they want to sit closer to major transport infrastructure, and gosford is never getting an international airport to make that viable.

But also a different time. The drive from Sydney Central to Wonderland would have taken around 45 minutes down the Great Western Highway and Parramatta Roads (which google confirms when you avoid highways and tolls). By contrast using the major highways (as that's really your only option) getting to Somersby would take around double that time, with google showing 90 minutes to arrive on a Saturday morning. So you're already comparing apples with helicopters. But go further - in 1989, flights to London were around $2300 return, which is about $5800 in today's currency. And this was at a time when the average adult weekly wage was $536.50 Today you can get flights to London for around $1400, and the average adult weekly wage is now $1958. So to compare costs - something that used to cost more than 4 week's wages can now be bought in a week, with your entire 1989 paycheck still left over. My point is - Wonderland grew at a time when local entertainment was sought after as foreign entertainment was simply unattainable for the average person. Flying to the goldcoast was a treat in the 80s, with most Sydney based families opting for the 12-14 hour drive up the pacific highway, stopping at Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Kempsey or another mid-NSW place on the road trip to the GC. Now, at a time when you can get flights for under $100 to the GC and be there in less than the 90 minutes it would take you to drive to the Central Coast - its a big ask to think people are going to head that far. Parks that established in the 80s have created the destinations around them, but newer operators tend to spring up closer to the services that support them. But this would be a major player in the park game. Disney, Universal would have the pulling power to get people to drive \ travel that far, right? 2024 - Sydney to Somersby - 98km 1955 - LAX to Disneyland California - 55km 1971 - Orlando Airport to Walt Disney World - 27km 1983 - Tokyo Haneda to Tokyo Disneyland - 21km 1985 - Sydney Airport to Wonderland - 40km 1992 - Paris Airport to Disneyland Paris - 44km 2016 - Shanghai PVG Airport to Shanghai Disney - 26km 2005 - Hong Kong Airport to Hong Kong Disney - 18km 2011 - Singapore Airport to Universal Singapore - 25km 2021 - Beijing Airport to Universal Beijing - 37km The problem with your comparison is that the argument to be made today for Somersby as a site of a major international tourist destination is based out of what worked for a park built almost 40 years ago (and closed 20 years ago), and a lot has changed since then including the proliferation of cheap flights making international destinations more attainable, in some cases for less money that it would cost to holiday near Gosford. And while even if the location having all the benefits of the mid-80's going for it was sufficient of an argument... (which it isn't) it still lies more than DOUBLE the distance from the closest international airport when compared to all the big parks that have opened in over 50 years.

To be fair if an attraction of the size we're talking got built, the PT would materialise.

I guess it depends on how often people visit.

Ahem: Middle of nowhere No infrastructure an hour away Come on mate, I know you've got a bias for the region, but its a poor choice. Put it 30 minutes from a major international airport with substantial accommodation options next door and several other attractions within a 15 minute drive, or no deal. This isn't Adventure World we're talking about.

I would have thought that the timing would be fairly obvious - They wanted the focus on Flash. Now Flash is opened, they've moved onto the campaign for Oz. Honestly using pictures from March are the smart move because it shows the three tracks unobstructed. If you look at the recent video, the entire site is covered in scaffolding and isn't the sexy glamour shot you're looking for I 100% agree with you on the park's current contempt for guests. change takes time, but we are seeing positive change. I'm prepared to give praise when they do good as much as I will pour shit on the bad stuff and call it how I see it, but I do believe if we shit on the good stuff, they won't bother to do the good stuff because "why bother?". Management definitely needs to change, and the trust needs to be rebuilt. 100%. Forgive me for the corny analogy, but - ...Toto is currently pulling back the curtain on the man behind the curtain, and we're seeing a side of the park that they've almost never given us before. That to me is positive, and i'm going to applaud it to encourage more of it.

First we're complaining that one park doesn't take enough angles and the next it's that the other park's photos are... not taken recently enough? Fuck me enthusiasts are fucking dog shit. These photos are the 'sexy' shots enthusiasts salivate over. Our parks have never gone to this sort of effort before, and instead of being 'wow, that looks great, I can't wait to ride it' we're just gonna shit on them for the effort? Fuck off. And then First - I can't see what you're talking about so maybe we need a clickbait circle or arrow to point it out to everyone? (There is a small blur in the first photo at the bottom, and i'd say maybe they've cloned a vehicle out of the shot or something but that really doesn't detract from things...) Second - maybe they need to hide things. I saw all the 'secret' shots of the leviathan station taken by one of the tradies working the job, and i was still 'wowed' when I first entered the ride. Maybe there's things they want to keep a surprise, or maybe it has people, or companies that did not consent to being filmed? And so what? the photos are meant to get you excited about the three new rollercoasters they're building - and you can see all of that, right down to the fucking track joints. So just shut up. say thankyou and be fucking grateful someone in that company actually made a fucking effort for once. Because lord knows, they didn't have to.

@New display name calling @ShakeShack wise...

I assume you meant to say they never announced the reopening? And hopefully at some point in your life you will learn that just because you didn't see it, doesn't mean it didn't happen. (and in the alternative, maybe just double check their socials before running your mouth?) To be fair the video they put up explaining why DCR was reopening early \ why Superman was down, they did say "we look forward to sharing the reopening day of the DC Rivals Hypercoaster on our website and right here on our socials in the coming days" - so the expectation that they would announce it was set by the park, and they did exactly what they said they would. His expertise is limited to being behind a keyboard.

There's always going to be things that happen after a ride is officially opened. Check out TT2... The other thing to bear in mind is that we rarely have ride grand openings in cold and flu season either. Chances are they're working on opening crew and haven't had a chance to upskill other operators yet. One critical person gets sick and the whole thing can fall over. What they have learned from Levi is that grand opening in a less-peak period means the impacts are not felt as hard, and they've got plenty of time to iron out the kinks before the next school holiday period starts.

I'd love to hear where exactly you heard this. it sounds like you just made it up. (for all the reasons already explained in the thread) Intamin are quite a large company. They have different 'classes' or 'grades' of rides. They don't just have one technician that knows everything about every ride they've ever made. The team that would need to work on Doomsday would be unlikely to know anything about Superman, etc etc. Also they're multi million dollar rides. A return flight from Europe to Aus is a drop in the maintenance ocean. Yes. Because the maintenance team working on the ride may not have been able to give a firm date when they'd be ready to sign off? Because they've been told 'get it open as fast as you can' and they've done that, but promising a date that they miss because something isn't ready looks bad, and saying it'll open on May 29th is stupid if its ready a week earlier? They frequently run two trains, and as a matter of fact were running two trains on the weekend. As for scooby, as has been pointed out numerous times - it was a forced closure and their time in the build pipeline is not yet here. There is no point gutting the ride now only to let the stage sit empty for x months. When the new parts arrive, bring in the machines, do it all in one go and save some cash. I tell you what - for someone who claims to be such an expert in how to run a theme park you have no fucking idea about how anything in a theme park actually works. You really aren't. What exactly are you referring to? Everything in this thread has made perfect sense except your whinging.

Lol. Which one of you are brave enough to admit being so, so wrong?

A friend sent me this on the weekend, and I lol'd.

Which is funny, given the reaction the locals had to the VRTP proposal, can you imagine their reaction to a bigger player? Truthfully, Disney would never be possible due to the government funding that Disney would ask for. I do think Universal would be willing to partner on a project if there were a local willing to pay for it - ala Resorts World. So if someone like Gina Reinhart lobbied to build a 'precinct' that included a casino, entertainment precinct, hotels and a Universal park, I reckon she'd get the gaming licence and permission to build and boom. but thats a lot of big 'if's Sydney-born here. It's a Harbour. And plenty of people care, but Sydney as it stands is built out. Your options right now are either next to the second airport (and land has become stupidly expensive out there for obvious reasons) or you have to leave the basin - cross the mountains, or head down or up the coast. All of those options are very poor choices. Sydney had the makings. Wonderland was part government owned at one time, but the Taft split ultimately forced the sale and the rest is history. There is no longer an opportunity to build ground-up. that ship has sailed.

This area is wholly surrounded - between tiger island, the ToT building etc - the entire area is a construction site, so its probably not 'as' easy to get a random marketing person with a camera into all the various different angles, though granted MW even had a camera mounted on their crane. It's lower effort, but then, they probably can't afford the dedicated marketing team given their rides are actually running at the moment...

After the removal of Buzzsaw, the whole area between the fairy shop and the taipan entrance signage is a dead zone. Whatever they're doing, I hope they make it more relevant again.

And not a single collar amongst them. The issue with your samples here is they wouldn't work on a polo as vinyl print. (You could Dye Sub them, and they wouldn't look too bad) but I just couldn't wear the bottom one as it simply wouldn't breathe.

Because everyone watched the video except you. If only you sought to educate yourself a bit more. Someone who actually understands the message! Bang on. I'm usually one of the first to bring out the pitchforks when the park fucks up. The locker upgrade is general trades work. they could do this pretty much any time of year. There's no specialised skills (by this I mean like ride engineering, etc) so it could literally slot in whenever there was an opportunity. If there is a mechanical fault with the launch - which of course is completely understandable given the likes of TT2 and XCelerator, (the ride is getting on in years), and Intamin have said its going to take X period of time to fix \ ship parts \ send techs out to look at it - if you already had this in your back pocket for, say - once Oz was open - why wouldn't you bring it forward?

They've literally painted a section of the ride every year for the past several years in the downtime. After the first year, we were all like - what? it's not finished. then they did another section in the second year and we were like 'ohhhh, they're doing a bit every year'. So on that alone its fair to assume they were planning on painting it again this year.