DaptoFunlandGuy

Saturday just gone had tickets available on Friday night...

But that can also be debated - with the high number of VIP passes entitled to free entry to fright nights, I don't know that they would make an INSANE amount of revenue - Certainly it's profitable though. Also - Capex is short for Capital Expenditure... expenses of a capital nature. Capex is a roller coaster, or even just a new train for the coaster. It's purchasing a long-term asset, which must be depreciated over time (ie: you can't claim an immediate tax deduction against it in the current year). The costs of establishing these mazes would mostly be non-capital in nature, as the costs of the individual items for the mazes would be below capital thresholds, or alternatively items hired in on a temporary basis (as I imagine things like the cattle rails and the temporary fencing would be). Although I don't know the inside details on how VRTP finances Fright Nights, purely from principles of good business, I cannot see that much of Fright Nights would be capital expenses when they are by nature temporary attractions...

This night-time illuminations means the varied and haphazard colour patterns we were seeing on the slides makes a lot more sense... Retrospective changes to the pricing admits they got it wrong. I personally don't believe they did, but I guess buy 3 get one free is the same as up here for the VIP pass, and it's still $130 a ticket... so better than nothing really.

Which is kinda funny when you think about it - Construction - Movie World usually puts the mazes together about a month before hand or so (going off when the scooby maze begins construction) DreamWorld shut down AVPX what seems like 6 months ago Operation - Movie World will run their mazes for about 5 hours a night, for about 8-10 nights Dreamworld ran their Evilution scare maze every day for a month, and will continue to operate the maze as themed (with minor changes and modifications) as a laser skirmish maze for at least the next several months. Ranking Despite the far more temporary nature of the Fright Night mazes, the effort, detail, theming and finesse, by all accounts, everyone I've spoken to who has 'done both' declares similar to the post above - that Movie World has better detail, as well as better scares. The only thing that counts in DW's favour in this particular comparison is that DW offers Evilution as part of general admission, and not as a separate gate night-time admission, so I guess that's part of it, but the counter argument to that is that as a permanent attraction, rather than a seasonal one, it probably should have had more time, money and effort put into it.

Me thinks someone got metric and imperial mucked up and it was meant to be quoted as 100ft. I've a feeling there will be, my only thought is maybe they haven't finished and decided to keep the media - literally - in the dark?

Re: the park hopper. I recommend it - DCA you can knock over in a couple of hours, but you may want to go back there at night for World of Colour. If you suss out the night-time shows (ie: when is fantasmic on fireworks on etc, and go to DCA on a day when neither DL show is on, you might get away with spending all day at DCA, but otherwise if you do Disney on a non-nighttime show day, then you may want to use that day to head back to see WOC. DL usually requires more than a day, and even after 2 days, you may still find there are things you've missed, or want to do again - the hopper will let you do that. We actually bought the SoCal CityPass which gave us the 3 Day park hopper at Disney, and Universal and SeaWorld as well. Even if you weren't particularly fazed with SeaWorld, it still worked out a good deal, but SW was worth the trip for Atlantis and Manta, which are two very solid attractions, and very well done. Pretty much no matter what the season, SFMM is going to be pretty busy, and you're generally not going to get everything in inside a day - it needs more than a day to do it all - The Platinum Flash Pass is pretty much essential if you're only doing a day, but bear in mind that the shuttle tours etc won't be from park open to park close, so you're cutting your time even shorter. Also - SFMM has a very inefficient entry system, from Ticket booth to Metal Detector to entry gate, so be prepared to lose 20 - 30 minutes just queueing to reach the entrance.

Since they've already trialled the process at WnW GC, and have, to a degree 'ironed out the kinks', i'd suggest they're likely to make it available on a whole array of their bigger attractions, because they have been able to design queues and gates with that in mind, whereas the GC has had to ad-hoc it on rides they could work around in. Pricing based on height is reasonable, so long as the array of attractions that become available at the 110cm mark is the full adult range... Perhaps they should have a pricing based on height AND weight - because a 7 year old 110cm kid is probably going to be too light to ride aqua loop... and that's why it's fairer to have an age based pricing.

To be fair, they've been pretty flat out putting this thing together. We've seen them handling 'themed rock castle wall' facade... I haven't seen it outside anywhere as yet - we don't know whats inside the shed, but we're still a little while away from opening - plenty of time for additional things to be set up around the shed.

(Those of you that know me know i will sometimes come up with a long response. Some of you don't like reading more than a paragraph. For those of you who wish to do so - continue scrolling now - the bullet points are probably all I needed to say.) I too remember the toll booths at Wonderland but I think that was a throwback to the American park model, with massive sprawling parking lots, and shuttle buses that took you to the front gate as it was such a long walk. I also remember that those booths were removed somewhere around the year 2000. Wonderland's biggest problem there was that most people had to drive there, because the public transport arrangements were pathetic, and pre-purchased tickets didn't include parking fees, which was an unpleasant and unexpected surprise for many first time visitors. Hopefully WnWS has a much better arrangement with local bus companies, and perhaps connection to Blacktown, rather than Rooty Hill or some other backwater station. I don't know that paid parking would have been mandated by the relevant government authorities. I certainly know the relevant authorities would have insisted on sufficient parking being available... I see the 'payment' aspect simply being a way for the park to recoup some costs... They couldn't introduce it on the GC now because everyone is so used to having free parking, it would shock people to have to suddenly pay for the privilege, but a new park that sets it as the status quo, why not? It would certainly cut down on some of the chaos we see at WnWGC in summer - with people parking anywhere... grass, road verge... wherever they can. I think Sydney is more used to having to pay for certain things - paid parking is common, but the difference is the rates are usually reasonable. The operators installing it in Brisbane are moreso setting their prices to recoup costs of implementing it, and it's unpopular because nobody is USED to it up here... but with paid parking being installed at Chermside, Garden City and Carindale westfield centres, all reports suggest it hasn't impacted on revenue or visitation numbers... the only thing i've noticed as a visitor to both Chermside and Garden City on a regular basis is that parking is more commonly available in peak times (in other words, the turnover of cars every 3 hours is helping with parking availability - 3 hours is free so people rush to make sure they're out in that time). But I digress... Obviously WnWS isn't going to have a 3 hour turnover, so you're looking at all-day parking, with a limited number of spots, in an area (western sydney) that is renowned for scorching summers that will act as a magnet to the park in peak times. The 'pre-paid parking gold passes' have got me confused though - are they going to reserve a spot for each and every person who buys one of those for every day of the operating season? What happens if i'm a gold-pass parker, and i turn up at 3pm for a quick dip and there are no parking spots? All that aside - parking wise, I can see a lot of parents who will drop off their kids at the park (i'm condoning teenagers... not primary schoolers), so hopefully they have designed a good 'kiss-n-run' area that doesn't impede the flow of guests intending to park (like the GC does)... In summary, i'm all for the higher-priced ticket, the charged parking, and any and every other issue that has so far been raised. I'm happy for those penny-pinching people to say 'we won't be going'... GOOD. Less rude, obnoxious, poorly behaved brats in line in front of me (or pushing through the queue behind me) to dampen my day. I'm happy for the ticket price to be triple-figures - that means less self-involved people who feel that a ticket with a name like 'VIP' means that they are different and entitled to better treatment than the other 10,000 people who hold the same ticket. I'm happy for the paid parking - it will discourage people from abusing the privilege - such as those motorhomes and caravan tow-ers that take up two or three parking spaces on the GC, or those families with one child each, who take two cars, (or more) between families, when they could carpool and only take 1 van or tarago (if they had one). And all of these things mean the park is likely to be more self-sufficient and profitable, and far-quicker will it be able to expand and build new attractions, rather than stagnating after it's initial opening like WWW has. As for parking on the street - they can easily make the whole street a clearway Friday PM to Monday AM or something like that so that the industrial park workers have parking, but that the cops can make some revenue on the weekend. I guarantee there will be parking cops out there policing it and making a mint. And one last word on the public transport debate - but unlike the GC's Surfside buses, the blacktown bus company that would probably do the shuttle-runs aren't that well off, and most likely won't provide air conditioned buses. The worst thing about visiting a water park without your own car is sitting in a stiflingly hot bus, with sunburn, on vinyl seat covers that everyone sticks to. (because you don't send a bus with cloth seats to a water park, otherwise, the seats are constantly saturated, and the bus cannot be used for anything else. Public transport to a theme park is one thing, but for a water park, nothing beats getting back to the car wrapped in your sodden wet towel, and then folding the towel up over your car seat to sit on for the ride home in your semi-dry swimmers. </end rant>

I know it's kinda hard to come up with a storyline for a laser tag challenge where the 'bad guys' are just other guests from the park, but really - the setting is different but the storyline is IDENTICAL to last time. Hopefully the re-designed maze is enough for the attraction to last until the next re-theme.

Reading the full statement in context, i put that down to part PR spin, and part from the qualifying statement of 'world first' attractions. That, along with many water park staples going into the park is justifiable to say 'best' on the grounds of the newest and world first attractions. As far as biggest - if you count the greenspace and carparks, maybe they DO have the biggest land space... which would entitle them to say biggest... So while in a worldwide poll, (such as a hawker type poll) they probably wouldn't make 'best' by a long shot, it is a statement they could probably qualify if they had to.

Friend of mine was boarding in Brisbane last night with Virgin at 8:15pm.. flight was delayed - he boarded at 3am... so it's not always Jetstar thats the problem!!! At the end of the day, the biggest problem with doing a park the day you arrive is if anything goes wrong, you've lost the day to do that park... and if you're doing that, you probably don't have another day to fit it in - have a 'standby' day or a 'rain day' spare in your trip, and if something goes wrong with SW on day one, you can go back there on your 'rain day'...

Pretty sure I said that... Yep, I did.

Honest question - but where do Dreamworld have the space to put in a blockbuster without resorting to the carpark, or taking over Big Brother area that has been signed on with Ch9 for another couple years? Blue Lagoon comes to mind - but anywhere else would impact on the AWE... What could they fit into the BL space?

Bear in mind that WnW GC uses the catch phrase 'Biggest n Best' which is their marketing campaign against WhitewaterWorld - who were much newer, with some gimmicky slides, but a lot smaller. My guess is they're just continuing the branding of 'biggest n best'. I don't necessarily believe that they're saying 'in the world'

I think its really disgusting that Dreamworld will publicly delete all the comments made by people making criticism, and then reply to them privately. Dreamworld needs to make their replies public - what are they trying to hide?

You don't think almost a decade of Big Brother broadcasts AUSTRALIA-WIDE has made everyone aware of the existence of Dreamworld? And you think a piddly $15million joint advertising campaign will? More likely - with more money in Ardent's bank account, they can finally pay out a half-decent dividend to their shareholders, and install another mediocre flat ride to appease the masses.

Come on Gazza! A single metal stake won't hold those big statues! You have to use concrete sealer on them all the way to the ground!

I have just one question... Whatever happened to old Neb?

Maybe they have so many in case one of the statues falls over in the wind and the hollow concrete shatters, and they need to replace it?

If his profile is deleted, will it delete all of his posts?

Enough horn blowing RWC. What Jobe has posted is interesting, but no more rumour than the crap you came forward with a few months ago. I made a visit there several years ago with similar discussions had and similar details revealed. Until I see them start work on it, it's still just a rumour and nothing more. On a different note Jobe - the big thing to remember with the old railway is it used to be the only mechanised method of descending into the valley. Making it non-stroller friendly killed much revenue opportunity - so naturally they would accommodate it on the train. The Cableway (isn't it still called the Sceniscender?) Provides a better, safer option for the strollers, and therefore when they redesigned the train, they didn't allow for it because they had an alternative. Only issue I see is that now instead of having multiple options for strollers in case of maintenance or breakdown - now if the sceniscender breaks down, there is no option for strollers. As far as the cruddy weld, I'd say it's been hit nail-on-the-head... So long as the track is complete, the attraction structure is too... This coaster is stuff of legend, and i'm sure scenic world has already approached Katoomba council for permission to demolish and start again with modern technology and manufacture. I assume they're wanting to preserve some heritage idea of the coaster (holding a record for taking the longest time to open i guess only stands if it were actually to open one day?), but my guess is the same - they've done a dodgy weld job in order to keep it 'complete'

It really is the most bold-faced and shining example that theres no sense trying to prove a point and reason with this retard. Is there anyway we can set up a bot to 'autoreply' to any post he makes with two words ("you're wrong) and just leave it at that? then no matter what he says, he always gets a response that says he's wrong without anyone else having to waste their time on it? Better yet - Just set the forums to auto-delete? I'm sure theres a few things we could do. On another note - did anyone notice it started out as 'obviously the launch event tent' and ended as an 'event style tent'?

I thought the exact same thing... Although a few people made those suggestions, I think you're setting yourself up for failure with a name like that because (rightly or wrongly) comparisons will be made "that's not a rampage!" etc. I also think that VR haven't chosen it, regardless of any popularity in the name simply because it doesn't really fit - given the duality of the attraction - both relaxing and turbulent options, calling the entire attraction a 'rampage' doesn't paint the picture of a relaxing paddle in a gently flowing river... for both of those reasons, and i'm sure a few more I can't think of right now, it was right for them not to include that option as a finalist. Didn't Jamberoo have something called boomerang bay? Or was that Billabong Beach? All this aliteration (?) is doing my head in. I think the winner has to be The Lagoon... or perhaps that could be tacked onto by calling it 'the lagoon + rapids' or something?

An apt summation of Dreamworld, Mr Pin.