aaronm

With Ardent flogging off the bowling centres, perhaps some of that $160m will makes its way to Dreamworld? Or am I just too optimistic?

Families spend money, and often bring grandparents who spend even more. I've often thought Dreamworld could use a heavily discounted seniors admission (i.e. $20 or even free with a kids ticket), given they're mostly going to watch the grandkids go on rides, and then buy stuff for them that the parents won't.

Yes but Funfields doesn't have the SBF Spinner!

The Kung Fu Panda ride at Motiongate (not quite Soarin' but similar motion-base simulator attraction) has two theatres in a pretty tight space, something like that might fit.

Great spot for a Gerstlauer Bobsled, be a solid family ride as well.

Surprising they aren't doing some kind of variable pricing with fast track - i.e. first 50 are $79, next 100 are $99... and so on. Otherwise at $149 I doubt they'll be selling more than a handful most days outside of school holidays (although you'll always get the odd group that have more money than sense).

Oh I get why they do it, but I think Village have missed an opportunity here to have a cheaper pass with blackout dates around school/public holidays. They could have kept the $99 price point and wouldn't even need to restrict it to just locals either.

Remind me why locals get a discount? Surely they're likely to visit more often and get additional value out of the pass... if anything it should cost more!

I kind of agree that the quality this year wasn't quite there. It was most noticeable in the lack of scare actors in some mazes (think I counted eight total in Conjuring on Saturday night), basically the maze just becomes a stroll through some foggy corridors. Ultimate Terror Tour was solid as always, but is it just my imagination or has the event become a lot shorter - I thought it used to wrap up around 11pm, not 9:30?

Visited on Sunday and managed about 90 minutes there before we left, which included a fairly leisurely stroll through the animal enclosures. 5 of the "big 9" rides out of action, which is pretty appalling. I've got friends coming from the US in a couple of weeks, they are into theme parks but it's almost at the point where I'd tell them not to waste their money on Dreamworld admission. Sent some written feedback to the park as well, received a stock "sorry not sorry" response. Honestly seems like Dreamworld either don't understand why mass ride closures would annoy guests, or they simply don't care.

Ardent were looking at selling some vacant land outright to fund investment, without any leaseback. So any developer could buy it and build whatever they want on the site. Village are selling their land with the intention of leasing 100% of it back for the next 90 years, so they'll keep using the site for theme parks and a movie studio. Lots of companies do this kind of thing - you'd be surprised how many big corporations don't actually own their head office buildings, they just lease them from a third party.

A better solution might be to have the unlimited fast track include a single ride on DC Rivals, similar to how Six Flags manages the Flash Pass queue for its newer rides. I don't mind them having a fast track option if it means they can afford to staff the ride properly.

Already edited my post, but thanks for the correction

If you're sticking to the "over 200ft" rule, DC Rivals won't be in that category either. But both are definitely hypercoaster-style rides. Edit: my bad, 61.6m is indeed just over 200ft. Hollywood Dream still follows the hypercoaster pattern though, despite its lack of height.

Hollywood Dream has some backwards-facing seats, though I'm not aware of any others.

Perhaps the back row will be an upcharge option?

Eejanaika would be my pick of the 4D coasters, they are all good but this one is just flat-out insanity. Dinoconda is a little tamer but still pretty intense.

Expedition GeForce for me, though Karnan, Intimidator 305 and Wildfire aren't far behind.

This is true, especially considering that they are using any spare capital to expand the Main Event business in the US. As long as that arm keeps propping up the company any large-scale Dreamworld investment would probably be viewed poorly by shareholders.

The article doesn't have much in the way of sources, but I wouldn't be surprised if Ardent are considering a sale. Their Main Event business is doing reasonably well and for any spare capital the potential return on investment would be far greater from opening new Main Event locations compared to expanding Dreamworld. Seems there would be two possible outcomes from a Dreamworld sale: - Songcheng/Wanda/Fantawild/Merlin etc step in and buy the park with the intent of investing enough capital to start drawing crowds again - Property developer or investment bank buys it for the land, and Dreamworld goes the way of Wonderland.

Looks like they've taken a big hit to make sure it's only a once-off impact, seems like Ardent are being very conservative here as well. I'd expect to see this adjusted in the full year results depending on how the park trades over the second half. Reading the detailed numbers though, seems like the park has been doing OK. Still making money, attendance is down but not by as much as you'd think (probably 10-12% after you factor in the closure period) so recovery might happen sooner than people expect. Only disappointment is no hints of any new attractions in the works anytime soon. Would have at least expected a "we're working on a plan and will announce it in the next x months" sort of comment there.

It opened 6 days later ?. From what I've heard it's worth heading back for, though Phantasialand is a great park anyway.

My top "new to me" coasters this year were: Expedition GeForce Wildfire Karnan Lost Gravity Troy Wodan Blue Fire Black Mamba Pulsar Krake

^Incidentally Adventure Park have also added a spinner this year, from the pictures it looks like a Mack model, though I could be wrong about that.

It couldn't look any cheaper really. Reminds me of the studio tour ride at Disney Studios Park - just a bunch of theming sitting on the lawn... or in the flowerbed.