DaptoFunlandGuy

So, just to be clear, the person who was crying the park closed an hour early... is now suggesting the park should close in the off season instead? Just for the record - the 2024 annual report indicated attendance had increased by 14.3% from 2023 to 2024. On average, that's an extra 478 people in the park each day*. I am willing to bet that the opening of rivertown will have boosted this number again. Are there likely to be some days with low attendance that eat into profits? Yes. Does it make sense to shutter the dry park entirely in cold months? Not at all - events like winterfest are a hit and people are willing to visit a dry park in colder months - in fact the lower attendances make it a nicer visit for folk who prefer lesser crowds. Additionally the park being open midweek opens the opportunity to have school or tour groups drop by. International tourism is still increasing in the sector so offering a wildlife product to compete with Paradise country is also a source of additional profit. If they close the park entirely due to low visitation on some days, they give up the opportunity to turn a profit or welcome tour and school groups which supplement the park income. They also decimate their full-time employees who are no longer able to fulfil their contracted hours - which then leads to staff shortages in peak seasons and 3 hour waits for a hypercoaster.Nevermind wrong park. Does it make sense to shutter a water park in colder months? Yes it does. You're unlikely to make a profit, especially if you're competing with another one down the road. period. *Yes the group reports attendance across all properties including Skypoint so this isn't precisely indicative of park attendance. I'd like to say 'you get the point though' but I suspect you'll ignore it.

A reduction to zero is still a reduction. Yes, one stays open over winter, the other doesn't. See, a different perspective on this is the locals who have been many times who drop in for an afternoon after school, get a couple of rides, stay for the night market on those days. By putting the new thing in the morning, and having it stop before school lets out, those afternoon visitors HAVE to attend the park in the morning, when the kids are typically in school - so that ends up being a weekend visit for the school kids, and well, we're already here dad, can we go on other rides too... etc etc. Dreamworld doesn't want to put their hand in your pocket for a measly cent - they're going after the families having to make a special trip and likely to spend the day once they've been. Its the different demographic of the park though - Universal Hollywood guests are not typically dropping in for a single show and leaving, whereas most folk stopping into dreamworld are likely to spend at least a few hours (and a few dollars) while they're there, so bringing them in at a time they otherwise wouldn't have increases spend for normal people. I still say you'd get more money with a second eatery. No brain no pain. But it's also acclimatisation. I grew up in an area that regularly got temperatures below freezing. top temperatures rarely went above early 30s except a few days in the peak of summer nosing up to 40. When I first moved to QLD, I visited WNW in the winter, and everything was a nice walk-on. the wave pool was a bit chilly but everything else - because we didn't stand still in a queue - was pretty warm (I do miss the whirlpool springs being heated though). Almost two decades on, i've acclimatised. You won't catch me in a pool post-easter. For parks that we well know rely on the locals to support them in the off-season, expecting a bunch of folk acclimatised to a south east queensland climate to go swimming in winter is a bit absurd. The only feasible way to make it appealing is to build a dome over the park like they do in countries with cold climates so it becomes a greenhouse oasis. Unfortunately that means in Summer it becomes an Oven. And truthfully, I don't think anyone could agree that an all-weather dome over a park that big would be a practical and sensible expenditure. A winter attendance of 3-400 in a waterpark dropping due to rain = practically zero guests. A winter attendance of 3-4000 in a theme park dropping due to rain = still hundreds of guests.

Yeah if they've got a risk assessment that says that number is needed, i'm not going against it. I've seen the lifeguards and the aquatic trainers, and the constant view scanning they do, the frequent fatigue changeovers... much like the requirements in Australia for seatbelts and supplementary restraints on rides, i'd prefer overstaffed lifeguards than dead kids.

Well that's a relief. You've been banging on asking everyone and sundry why they're closing a waterpark in colder months and why they're operating less hours for the dry park midweek, so I figured you mustn't have understood the concept. And as has already been pointed out to you - WNW is open likely because there is no competition. Nevertheless, they're still running reduced hours and you're not crying about that. Do you want a waterpark open during cold months when patronage is low, and bleed money through payroll and ops costs? Just because WNW has some people attending - doesn't mean its a profitable exercise to open BOTH waterparks - you're likely just splitting the existing patronage even further - making it even LESS profitable to open the park. Honestly if you start pushing the idea of turnstiles and complaining about seatbelts, we won't have to stick a fork in you - we'll know you're fully cooked.

I think we're all well aware of your position. Nonetheless it was nice of you to concede that the concept does save money, and given current climate all round, as well as the park's particular journey toward profitability, i'm ok with them saving money in non peak times by running one train (subject to other attraction uptime) or closing an hour earlier than normal, or shuttering a predominantly summer attraction in the colder months. I don't think there's anything further to discuss.

If Merlin wanted a legoland, they'd 100% build a greenfields park. You wouldn't buy dreamworld and then knock everything down to build a legoland park. legoland typically shoots toward a younger demographic so you'd have millions of dollars of thrill-rides that wouldn't suit the park style. Merlin also owns Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington and Gardaland, and none of those became Legolands. If Merlin bought dreamworld I could see them putting in a third gate style park, or redeveloping space inside the park into a mini legoland, but Dreamworld would stay.

We are definitely in the dry season, which is typically colder - but Winter doesn't officially start for almost another 3 weeks, we're still in Autumn. I hadn't realised WnW ran reduced trading hours. I wonder why someone isn't banging on about how they should be open for a full day mid-week regardless of the business sense it makes...?

You've always been able to see the emergency exit signage through the screen. It's not a reflection - it's behind the screen. It has always bothered me, but i've just discounted it as being the price you pay for "cheap soarin'" Some theatrical installations have been able to get exceptions allowing them to have emergency lighting shut off 'during performance' and automated so that they kick on in an emergency but I suspect that there are hoops to jump through which may be too expensive or labour prohibitive to implement here. Great to hear the new film is well received. Have they posted an end-date to the film yet?

Are you really holding up a village business decision as something to aspire to? or is this one just because it suits your particular position on WWW being seasonal?

Have they though? My understanding is people were still lining up at the trough while Village continued to coast on their previous reputation? Have guest numbers finally dropped significantly as a result of the guest experience? or are the numbers dropping due to the current cost-of-living climate? Any potential investor will see current figures and assume financial climate is the reason for the downturn, so they get to keep shitting on the guest experience and blaming lower profit on 'the environment'. Say it with me folks! PEOPLE. DON'T. WANT. TO. VISIT. A. WATERPARK. IN. WINTER.

You don't say? You mean a theme park with an attached waterpark wasn't worth as much as a diverse cinema, themepark and entertainment conglomerate? #this-just-in. It's not about the pricetag, it's about the worth.

Disney formally announces things every year. They're the kings of announcements that never eventuated.

I don't see why not. like whitewater mountain you only need one attendant at the top and one at the bottom. set up your traffic lights and people tend to self-load without an issue. I thought you were joking but they actually wrote that. Shit - why not go all in and say 'the southern hemisphere's biggest almost 20 metre slide tower!' Also (and it's their typo), a metre is a length of measurement - a meter is a device that measures. In the US they use METER for both - but that isn't a standard to aspire to, especially right now.

Yeah - I understand it's a night event but the train rebuilds have to happen at some point and this is off season for them. Outside school holidays and heading into winter is when you can afford to drop some of your capacity to get things done. Clearly taipan was popular which is good (especially since tailwhip is getting so much patronage - looks like charging less for a seat actually DOES work! (cough, village, cough))

I think that's extraordinarily unlikely at this stage. Dreamworld's flag is on the rise and the valuation right now wouldn't be the bargain that those sorts of investors like to take on.

Anyone who didn't think BGH was going down this road from the beginning was fooling themselves. The entire strategy for them is to streamline business, find 'efficiencies', cut costs. Improve the capital value of the park to make it more attractive to a buyer (in whole or in pieces) and flip it for maximum profit. They don't care about the guest experience. they care about reducing costs to maximise profit.

I'm going to buck the trend here and welcome the addition of some new, modern body slides. Too many slides in previous years have relied upon a gimmick, or a raft, and lately more attractions have specific group and rider requirements making a waterslide a much more cumbersome experience than the old days of WhiteWaterMountain - especially for single riders who can't experience some of these without partnering up with some random. Sure these ones have the new translucent sections which make the body slide more of an experience than it used to be - these sorts of slides have existed at van parks and resorts up and down the gold coast for more than a decade so it's great to see WNW finally entering the new Milennium.

What part of didn't you understand?

In such a free democracy you can bet the people would be loudly shouting in the street if there were...

Disney cares, but only until it affects their bottom line. Agree - but also the middle east knows the oil money isn't going to last forever as more EVs, more renewable energy sources etc. The whole concept of dubai, 'the palms' and 'the world', Saudi Arabia's 'the line'. They've been exploding their tourism opportunities while the cash keeps rolling in to try and establish tourism industries that will support their countries economy when the oil platforms they were built on are no longer required (or required to the same extent at least). So this is kind of a win win for both parties - Disney gets a lot of money from the new venture, and Miral gets a non-fossil-fueled venture with a licence to print money (possibly). This is still just agreement phase - there's no designs or concepts yet so the sky is literally the limit on what they build. But there are also plenty of Disney plans that made it to design and concept that never got over the line - so don't book your flights just yet.

I think there's still a bit of a psychological barrier for them in bringing a water attraction back to the park. Further - Rocky Hollow's area is essentially greenfields at this point and can coast by unnoticed. The GIANT WALL blocking out Troll's Village is a much bigger sore thumb in the current lineup. When King Claw opens, the people who have focussed on the new attractions - (Dreamland, Sky Voyager, Taipan, Jungle Rush and Vintage Cars) will return to Ocean Parade (seriously, I can't recall the last time I entered OP proper. Shockwave, Tailspin and GoldCoaster haven't been much reason to draw me to that dead end). With the focus on King Claw, I do think Dreamworld needs to tidy up the end of OP. Whether that sees retirement of Gold Coaster, installation of a new flat into FlowRider's space, reinvigoration of the 'worlds' gate between the two parks, replacement of trolls village with something new and hopefully permanent - i've no idea, but i think that area will have more eyes on it than Rocky Hollow has in the near future - and it's where they should put their attentions if they want to convince people to keep coming back. Rocky Hollow can be an entire world expansion with multiple attractions when the time and the budget is right.

The clock on the world's reliance on oil has reached the eleventh hour. Tokyo was so successful because OLC spared no expense, knew their local population, and knew what would make money. I worry about the middle east parks. There's been plenty of them planned that have not eventuated. Unlike other successful parks that are based in major population centres with a supportive local population, this park will need people to fly in from all over to support it, else it will only cater to those super rich tycoons that can afford to splash the cash on lavish VIP experiences. It does demonstrate to anyone who thinks a park should be built in Australia that the only way it gets done is if you pay for it yourself. Disney isn't footing the bill for this park - all their non-US parks have struggled for a significant part of their lives.

The two don't have to be mutually exclusive. both parks could utilise parts of this space. Remember - it was a dry park plot first. There doesn't have to be a net gain, though you're looking at it quite simplistically... Adding in Galaxy's Edge to Disneyland is a big, needed capacity expansion for a park as small as disneyland, but on the other hand take a look at some of the moves Universal is making - closing older attractions and zones for the next big thing - In Singapore, part of Madagascar became Minions, and the rest will also become Nintendo land in the future too. In Gold Coaster's case as Naazon mentioned - you can get a lot more bang for buck taking out one old rollercoaster that is getting on in years, and replacing it with several attractions as part of a masterplanned expansion that capitalises on the overall space and is designed cohesively. Remember Cyclone was essentially placed where it was because it 'fit'. It had to work in amongst Thunderbolt, and was designed for a landscape that Dreamworld didn't have, so the entire thing had to be massively elevated. So much could be done with the plot underneath - just look at what Luna Park had in and around the coaster when it existed there!

Disagree. Dreamworld is already pretty damn big. there is plenty of space inside the current park envelope for them to expand without needing more. Thunderbolt. Troll's Village & FlowRider. Rocky Hollow. There's also opportunity to do something with the Murrisippi and the island as long as they preserve the waterway. As time goes on you start to see other attractions due for refurb or retirement - Motocoaster is 18 this year - maybe they invest in a retheme and refresh to give it another decade or maybe they decide to pull it in favour of developing the plot into something else? (lord knows the dead zone between Giant Drop and Main Street Station could use something to liven it up). There's also potential to slip something inside of Taipan's footprint, or Buzzsaw's plot, and cyclone\gold coaster can't have much more life left in it, surely? I'd love to see them take the convention centre building and turn it into an indoor attraction complex with an ocean-related theme to tie-in to Ocean Parade.

and maybe when that part of the park comes up next for redevelopment and renovation they can consider it. The fire station wasn't part of the Rivertown budget. So they have to allocate resources. There is a safety need for them to exclude people from the fire truck, they made a permanent fence, which is inoffensive and doesn't break the bank. i'd rather they did this than skimp on ops expenses like not running their second train on rides to save a few bucks...