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I just hope we're not getting another useless empty plot of land at Sea World. It has plenty of those already!

The turnaround just now

I very much doubt I'd go to any of the parks if they charged per ride. That, in my opinion, is not a theme park. Thankfully I can't see that happening here.

Once again this morning as I entered Movie World, the guy just scanned my card whilst looking at and talking to another employee, and saying "Can you get on number 3 right now". He made no eye contact with me, let alone saying anything to me. I felt ever so slightly better knowing he's rude to other employees too, and not only to mere guest scum like myself! In a shop or cafe or bar, customer service is extremely important. In a theme park, I believe the level of enthusiasm and fun should be much higher than just customer service. It's a theme park after all, and anyone entering is there to have loads of fun (not just to buy something like in a shop or cafe). As a bare minimum, eye contact, a smile, and a sincere and friendly greeting are just courtesy and really not too much to ask. I've noticed this twice recently at Movie World. If it happens again I'll be taking notice of the name on the badge of the person, and reporting them to management as it's simply not good enough.

Wow! What an adventure! I haven't seen the movie, so I probably don't have the complete appreciation of everything in the ride, but nonetheless it's incredible. Some of the effects are nothing short of breathtaking. I especially love the part where a skeleton turns into what appears to be Johnny Depp as the pirate! Awesome. Sometimes to be honest, I'd prefer not to know how it's done, and just enjoy it as the magic it's meant to be.

Hmm. What's going on. This seems like more evidence that Ardent simply don't see much value in Whitewater World. They should! First they've started automatically including entry to WWW with all Dreamworld tickets, and now they're reducing the hours. It's a fantastic world class water park. Make the most of it!

I couldn't agree more. The last time I was at Movie World the attendant at the turnstile didn't even have the common decency to make eye contact or say anything to me. She just scanned my card while talking to another employee. Thankfully it's usually better than that. Good manners are the absolute minimum I expect in any customer service situation. This is a recreation I made of the Sea World ride on Rollercoaster Tycoon 3.

I agree and I'd love to go on it!

"Winter"? Doesn't really happen here in the Gold Coast. It's tourist season all year!

I'd absolutely hate that and hope it never happens!

As a comparison, here are the current prices for Alton Towers (from their website). I've used xe.com to convert the prices to Aussie Dollars. Theme Park On the day Adult $104.25, Child $93.85 Book 1-4 days in advance Adult $82.10 Child $73.45 Book 5+ days in advance Adult $68.30 Child $60.50 Individual annual pass $207, or $172.85 if renewing Family annual pass $165.90 EACH (3 minimum) or $147 if renewing (again, times at least 3) For additional cost, you can also get 2 day passes, and Merlin annual passes (for other attractions as well as Alton Towers). Waterpark Adult $25.90 Child $10.50 (2 yrs and under free) Family $20.75 Unfortunately the annual pass does not cover entry to the waterpark, which I find a bit odd and disappointing.

Every public pool I've been to anywhere in the world has lockers, and most charge either just a very small fee (a dollar or two) or just a deposit you get back when you end the locker hire. Anyway, not really what this is about but interesting.

Ok, but in all honesty if you go to a waterpark, you're going to need a locker unless someone with you doesn't go on any slides or in the water. I understand that does apply for some guests, but as a rule the parks should assume all guests do need a locker (as would any public pool). If there's aren't already sufficient lockers, I don't see any problem with more being added. If parks really feel they must charge for locker use, I'd be open to a system whereby you scan a credit card at the point of hiring a locker, and then when you end your locker hire you are automatically charged say $1 per hour that you had the locker for, up to a maximum of say $5.

SINGLE ENTRY PRICES: Sea World: Adult $25, Conc $20, Child $15 Movie World: Adult $35, Conc $30, Child $25 Wet & Wild: Adult $25, Conc $20, Child $15 Paradise Country: Adult $12, Conc $10, Child $8 Dreamworld: Adult $25, Conc $20, Child $15 Whitewater World: Adult $18, Conc $15, Child $12 7 DAY PASSES All Village Parks: Adult $120, Conc $100, Child $80 DW, WWW & Skypoint: Adult $80, Conc $65, Child $50 ANNUAL PASSES All Village Parks: Adult $390, Conc $325, Child $250 DW, WWW & Skypoint: Adult $230, Conc $190, Child $145

I'm interested in peoples opinions on what would be reasonable prices both for single day entry and for the various types of passes for the Gold Coast theme parks. This is not about how much you would personally like to pay, or how much you can afford. It's about what you believe would be reasonable, fair, and enable the parks to be profitable as well as to invest in good levels of maintenance, staffing, new attractions etc. Prices should take into account your own perception of the current value of entry to each park, with the attractions it currently has. Here's my own opinion: All these prices take into account how low the current prices have been so aren't necessarily as high as they might otherwise be. All the waterpark prices include locker hire as I believe that they should. It goes without saying there's a lot of personal opinion in all these calculations, so please don't have a go at anyone personally. SINGLE DAY ENTRY 7 DAY PASSES ANNUAL PASSES These are just my first quick thought on the matter. I may well alter the prices if I took more time to analyse things more deeply. Whoops! I pasted all the prices in from an Excel spreadsheet, but they don't appear to have saved in the post. Unfortunately I've deleted the speadsheet now. Maybe I'll add them in again in a bit.

I take your point, but would only be in favour of this if it was a last resort, and the choice was either Village take over Dreamworld or it closes. Otherwise, in my opinion a monopoly is usually not a good thing.

I've said it before but I don't think they're helping protect the value of the park by giving away passes so cheap. I agree about Songcheng. I'm not sure they know how to run theme parks at all. What about Wanda though? Has anyone heard if they still want to open a theme park in the Gold Coast?

If I buy a Whopper from a Hungry Jacks in Brisbane I expect it to be very similar to a Whopper I buy at a Burger King in England!

Now which should I go for? The one day pass for $65, the 7 day pass with Skypoint included for the same price, or the 35 day pass for $35? Decisions, decisions!!!

I'd love it if Merlin took over. They own Alton Towers and if they owned Dreamworld I could see them make some very impressive improvements.

I hope not. Village Roadshow is a very respectable movie company, but it just doesn't have the same level of public brand recognition when it comes to theme parks, and I think it also lacks the range of characters to appeal to all ages which Warner Brothers has. Basically I think the WB / Village partnership is an extremely valuable one and it's well worth maintaining.

I've just noticed the shops are selling stuff in very generic "Village Theme Parks" bags, rather than in bags with individual park branding and imagery. Is it really worth so much wasted free marketing for what they save in additional printing costs?

Interestingly the screens at the front of Movie World advertise a range of passes (with the usual bizarre price points), but none of them are called VIP or VIP Magic passes. Is this some strange nonsensical deliberate strategy, or another example of the left arm not talking to the right arm?

The building with west burgers in it is quite large and most of it is not related to the burger place. Also I've been watching it during the Easter holidays and haven't seen it open once. Waste of space. If they want an occasional extra food outlet they could just use one or two of the stalls from Carnivale during busy periods. The space could be much better used.