DaptoFunlandGuy

Unfortunately, the gold coast parks don't advertise Parkz very much. While a lot of google searches do return parkz as one of the top results, it's hit and miss as to whether someone will find us or not. Besides, why should a GUEST who pays money to VILLAGE ROADSHOW have to come to THIS WEBSITE in order to find out what is happening to a VILLAGE ROADSHOW RIDE? Just like Eureka Mountain Mine Ride, which stayed on the maintenance list for quite some time, it took months before non-members started joining up specifically to ask the question if it were ever coming back - how long do you think people will see that sign, and dismiss it as "usual maintenance" before they as the general public realise it's not coming back??? Also, I'd recommend you actually CHECK the words used before downtreading the post. Just to remind you as to what you said - As a matter of fact IT DID......... BUDDY! ThemeparkGC, you're close, they should have had different signage, but a sign that says REFURBISHMENT when the ride is clearly not going to be restored in ANY way, and is definitely CLOSED FOR GOOD is false signage, which happens to be the intent of my original post.

LOL... amen to that Gazza...

We went in July 2010 and they only had the souvenir cups in the drink carts... so it's not a short term thing at all. One problem to that is that you can't tell what flavours they have available, and the cast member only knows based on the neck straps attached to them. As for straws, I know that back in 1996, Sea World only had paper straws, so that if they got into the water, they would not be a concern for the marine life, however, because the paper straws would collapse as they got wet, people would use more than one for every drink - and it would cost too much. Simplest solution was to remove the straws altogether, and it IS an environmental move as eating a plastic straw would not ne healthy for a lot of the marine life at the park. If you want a straw, i've no problem with them charging you for a "heavy duty" straw, that you're more likely to keep, than if they charged 10 cents for a cheap plastic one that you're more likely to throw away.

So - with River Ride being closed permanently, can't we have honest signage? "During our refurbishment of this attraction" ????

While inflation goes up and down, one thing to consider is that compared to the claw, the aussie dollar at present is almost on parity with the US dollar, as opposed to be 75-80 US cents as it was back then. So it's not that far out of our reach.... Well, The two woodies at Wonderland were both made of Southern Yellow Pine by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. SYP isn't a single species of pine, but a group of yellow pine woods that are native to the united states. (And yes, thats almost word for word wiki). I don't see any reason why it would be more cost prohibitive now than it was in 1984? I don't think the shipping would be that different to be honest.

Pretty sure the sale \ rights to the land were contingent on VRTP being successful in their DA. No DA Approval, No Sale.

So I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but SkyFortress is closed, completely fenced off, and the major entrances boarded up. There is a boom lift inside the attraction's perimeter, and workmen are walking all around the tunnels etc. I have just checked, and it does not appear on the attraction maintenance page. It would seem that the park is compensating for this by offering the SkyClimb free of charge, if you have suitable footwear. I will say I wasn't particularly interested in SkyFortress, so having the opportunity to use SkyClimb free of charge is a plus, and good on sea-world management for offering the upcharge for free while another such attraction is offline. SkyClimb is a good attempt at a ropes course, considering most people who go to the park aren't expecting vigorous intensive excercise (Adventure Parc at Mt Tambourine or Currumbin is much more suitable), but I wouldn't necessarily pay to use it - and definately not more than once. Those planning a trip to the park may want to put it off though - February and March sees almost all major attractions down for maintenance at some point. (Excluding the beach).

Woops. Theres a thread that fell by the wayside.... I've only reviewed half the park!

In all honesty though, the old "check your brain at the gate" mentality means most people don't read signage...

Honestly seems like a no-brainer ads.

But what about the scenic railway counterweight beautification round?

Given their current ride lineup, I don't think their guests will be too disappointed. Presently, they're the "dreamworld" in that picture, while HKDL down the road would be the figurative MW... theming vs. thrill.... At least the HK equivalent of Dreamworld is building a B&M and not falsely advertising showtimes.

I am referring to family groups with strollers etc who are ushered in the wheelchair gate, walk on by, and then the attendant goes to a turnstile gate, scans the tickets and spins the turnstile by hand.

WRONG No, Not backtracking - I never said JUST AS MUCH, I said he shared some fault which he does - i quote: So, what you're saying is that there is the potential for Village cast members to make these mistakes. I have witnessed gate attendants receive the bundle of tickets, tear off a section, let the family through, and then once the family has gone, scan the stubs through the machine. I have said numerous times now that there is no excuse for the rudeness, i completely agree, however, just because the business does not follow the same mantra as your own employer, it doesn't mean that they are wrong, or are not successful. Take a look at banks! Mobile Phone companies, retail warranty claims etc. We have talked many times before about how people check their brains at the gate when they enter the park. We've complained about people who do this as it has resulted in restrictions on visitors that never used to be required. Things like loose article policies that we (INCLUDING YOU RAPPA) have bemoaned, simply because these guests check their brains at the door. Now - we have an instance of just that, and because they were rude to the guest, you don't see that the guest shares some of the blame????? I agree that service based industries need to bend over backwards, but for whatever reason if a business chooses not to follow that mantra, it doesn't mean they will not be successful, or that they are any less business savvy - this is the method that they have chosen to run this business and given ongoing development and construction, it would appear to be working. To add - Any business that runs a philosophy of "the customer is always right" will be taken advantage of. I'm not suggesting that this situation involves a dishonest guest - not in the slightest, just a distracted one more intent on having fun - which is understandable. If you are telling me right now that Village Roadshow heeds the message "the customer is always right", then I intend having a lot of fun on my next visit. A much more reasonable philosophy would be to treat customers with respect and courtesy, and to consider each request, claim or issue on its merits, and give the benefit of the doubt where it is reasonable to do so.

There is a BIG difference between safety and courtesy. While Village Roadshow may have that philosophy (and don't get me wrong, it's great that they do), not all "service based" businesses have the same philosophy. Many businesses have had that philosophy in the past, only to have people take advantage of them. For all they know, they did take 6 people into the park, and then returned with 5 to pull a swift one? I think it's fantastic that service based businesses such as village, dreamworld, even mcdonalds and pizza hut etc accept that their staff make mistakes, and are willing to be upfront with every possible repairation, but it doesn't mean that a similar organisation, with a much smaller budget, and likely a slightly lower socio-economical demographic is going to do the same. paragraph removed for its extrememly offensive generalising remarks Having said that Rappa - I did say that I agreed that the service was poor, and that I would not have settled for a free ticket, and insisted on a refund instead (he's already said he won't be back, so the free ticket is a useless token, which he already paid for anyway.)

Agree with all the comments above - the service is inappropriate, however, paying with plastic has made many people complacent. When I went to school, we were taught many things about money and the biggest thing was to check your purchase and your change. Not realising you were holding 6 tickets was a fault of your own. You say you didn't check because you were intelligent and assumed they were too, and that is laughable - because it was your lack of intelligence that led you NOT to check. Now, flame me if you must, but that is my view. I disagree completely with the response provided by the supervisor, however I have visited Jamberoo as an invited photographer, and was shown a level of courtesy i've not had extended in other parks. I also know a lot of those supervisors have no decision making power higher than the plebs. They're there to manage the staff, not complaints. Poor organisation? Maybe, but thats how it is. Only high level managers can make credit \ refund decisions - and those people are generally not in the park, hence the admin phone number being passed on. Dax Eddy is the bloke to talk to, however he has a gentleman that handles a lot of their PR \ Media enquiries - who isn't part of the family - not sure what his name is these days but Dax is the guy you need to tell this story to. I honestly would not have worn "a free ticket" (because you had essentially paid for it anyway), i'd have insisted at least the extra ticket be refunded, but the unfortunate problem is that you proceeded to enter the park with those tickets. You've also got no way of knowing why the gate attendant "looked puzzled" - you can assume, but you don't know what, or why, he was puzzled, or if in fact he was at all. FAMILIES - unless your children are not capable of walking on their own two feet, wait until you get to the turnstile, and hand a ticket to each member of your party, and make them go through on their own. Then take any children through who cannot walk on their own, and hand the tickets to the gate attendant ONE AT A TIME. Bundled tickets are this incident waiting to happen. But in all seriousness - If you don't PREPURCHASE your tickets - then CHECK THEM before you leave the ticket window. Don't make this all Jamberoo's fault - you have some blame there too.

A B&M Standup, from a park that has this kind of landscape to work with? THats a whole new element of scary... THe other two pictures attached were signboards on display in the park in february 2010. I believe from the other signage in the park it was suggested a toboggan style coaster in the polar section, and the thrill section was their next big coaster plan.

Besides, paying to play what is not much more than a PS3 game inside a motion unit (which you can do at places like time zone) is a fair bit different to the HSD experience. Cost wise, V8RL, once the units have been paid for (which I'd say they'd be close to) they're covering staff, power and occasional maintenance (pretty sure these things are fairly low maintenance because they have that sort of thing in timezone). With HSD, they have the hell drivers, camera crew \ production crew (for the video), photographer, cost of food, maintenance on the vehicles (which as discussed in another thread, the vehicle maintenance costs are pretty high), fuel, and power. I realise there is a huge price gap between the two experiences, but HSD is not taking ANYTHING away from paying guests, contributes more money to the show which will allow them to keep it running (it's earning it's keep so to speak) and will further encourage more expenditure at the park (from both guests and management). V8RL on the other hand is taking up valuable real estate in the park's prime attraction area, and the cost to ride, while not prohibitive, is simply to prevent mile-long queues and nothing more (except the extra $5 for a passenger - thats pure money-making). When it was constructed, Dreamworld touted it as a major attraction - an upcharge in lieu of a more substantial investment. While we're on the subject of capitalising on existing investments, i'd like to see them offer some sort of "premium" Outback Spectacular experience - behind the scenes \ be in the show, something like that...

Besides, if we're going to argue the fact that it is a "movie themed" park, then a lot of movie sets have artificially controlled conditions - weather, light, etc. Many outdoor night scenes are shot inside soundstages etc. As for the poles, if we were to speak hypothetically and say that main street is a "movie set" then the poles would simply be themed to be telegraph poles or similar anyway, which doesn't take long to do.

Obviously there are better (more expensive) ways to put a roof in (this is Universal Singapore), but given this roof was part of the original design, and not an afterthought addition, they've thought it out well. Ok so it doesn't block the facades, but it's still a roof! The supports in Movie World do stand out, but they aren't right up against the facade, so you can still see it, you may just have to walk around a little. Photos do not represent the roof as it really appears, and in reality, when you walk down mainstreet, the only three things you notice with the roof: the sound is different under the roof all the rain falling off it near dirty harry and ricks cafe will drown you if you're standing on the edge much cooler not being in direct sunlight in the middle of summer

I wasn't complicating matters, and I wasn't talking about "selling reproductions". What I said was an article that was ORIGINALLY FOR SALE being given away in a reproduction, wholly or in part, FREELY would be an issue. Copyright on printed work usually lasts a while. A Copyright holder has up to the defined statute to pursue breaches of the act. Which is still reproduction, in whole, or in part. Thats a pretty big claim to make Spencer. I would say your agreement would come out of the benefit you would obtain rather than any educated legal opinion. I'm not trying to wield a big stick here - just trying to point out a few facts which may be useful for those who may consider doing the above. My current job is in analysing and interpreting law as it relates to a given situation. I've supplied a few facts in relation to this issue below that may be of some use. I think you will find, if anyone in the publishing house has their head screwed on straight, that within the first couple of pages, or on the back cover, every one of those books is going to say I would sure love to see a copy of such a book, however, I don't encourage anyone to breach copyright, especially of organisations with the financial backing of Macquarie Bank and Village Roadshow. Most large companies have the money and the balls to fight a breach of their intellectual property, and usually do. It is no different to downloading unlicensed music via peer-to-peer sharing programs, without paying for it. I know many people do, without thinking about it, but then - those people don't post on a public forum that WE KNOW management of VRTP view "i don't think they'd have a problem with it, let's do it!"

As usual Rappa, the park looks amazing. You have outdone yourself and the rest of the team involved have done a great job too. I can make comparisons to other parks that have made similar efforts, but given a first attempt that has been pulled off so well, it would be unfair to do anything but heap praise on the park, and it's crew. Thanks for the pics too Jordan! (all i'll say is maybe you want to get a tripod next time???) but otherwise - great coverage and good to get an advanced look - we'll be going on the 17th.

I'm with Ads. In general, your Maintenance guys would be.... performing maintenance. Where a breakdown occurs during the day, depending on who is doing what at the time, one of them would respond to the breakdown. Obviously if you have lots of breakdowns during the day, not a lot of maintenance would get done, which is why, sometimes, rides that are closed for a defined period exceed that period. (Other times its because they need parts they didn't plan for).

I would hesitate, and suggest you double check the copyright warning on such books - they usually contain a blurb regarding the reproduction by any means, and the storage of such information on a retrieval device. Particularly with regard to the current trademark owners for the GC parks, they usually defend their intellectual \ trademarked property fairly vigorously. I don't speak on behalf of Parkz, but I don't think they would be happy to see scanned copies of "for sale" articles given away freely without prior permission. Just my $0.02.

I'm inclined to agree and disagree with both views. Ben and Jerry's isn't exactly special or unique. Go over to singapore and it's like Mcdonalds or Starbucks over here. Ben and Jerry's are just the latest US chain to enter the market, and they have a very strong business plan on new territories (take a look at singapore to see what i mean). On the other side of the coin, at present there aren't a large number of dedicated stores, and it is more "licensed retailers", so supply is limited and therefore it is somewhat unique. If we were going to see more "special/unique" food, I'd rather the parks invest in a product that you CAN'T get anywhere else. Not a very strong example - but Dirty Harry's Nachos would be the kind of thing that I mean. Now I realise the parks can't invest a lot in producing their own product - pre-fab, pre-packaged and frozen, or "construction" \ "production line" style food (like the burger joints), keeps the bottom line happy while still having something on offer for guests that they like \ suit most people - but having one or two premium products over and above your standard range makes it enticing to give it a try - the potato twister things that VRTP brought out a few months ago is a unique product that sells well purely from a novelty value. Hawaiian Sno was a product I saw in Wonderland in 2001 which was also a lot of novelty in a glorified sno-cone (albeit with awesome flavours). They need niche markets - little operators with big ideas that can pull together to provide a unique product that you don't see at your local Westfield \ Centro foodcourt. If I had to list a few that really stuck in my mind: Walt's "original recipe" Mint Julep - unbeatable in my opinion Churros (well - in 1996 when I went to DL California, it was totally Alien to me...) but it was damn well made FRESH too (newsflash Aussie parks - they aren't meant to be CRUNCHY) Hawaiian Sno Potato Twisters Poffertjes (Little Dutch Pancakes) Traditional Aussie BBQ - sausages and onions slapped on a roll (Wonderland did it in Goldrush, MovieWorld are doing it in Wild West) It may not be unique to us, but to many tourists it's the first and only time they've experienced it I can't think of the name - but its a mexican dish which is like a taco, but in a tube (think mexican cannelloni) This is what I mean by unique - sure some of these products have now been around a while - so don't try them, but come up with something that makes you special, market the hell out of it, and you will get the sales - even if it is only for the curious - make it a mobile stand, and change it up every three months! If we can learn anything from Carnies - then we should know that this years next big thing is a weird looking pile of plastic that you can drink from or wear on your head will sell by the thousands - and by the time everyone is over it - you've got the next big thing lined up to take over! Well let's see.... Chronologically we have: MW announces White Christmas WnW announces AquaLoop DW announces Wedgie DW Opens wedgie DW announces Winter Wonderland DW opens Winter Wonderland WnW open AquaLoop - which is seen as a far superior product, and worth the wait. WnW commended on their efforts Movie World open White Christmas and......? (i'm sure you can fill the blanks)