joz

Wow so many interesting points here, just going to have to randomly dive in here: * I think the retail division is getting a bit of a bad rap for the products it sells here. They tried the experiment several years ago of trying to sell 3 park branded stuff, and that didn't work, so now, almost everything at the Village theme parks is unique to the park that's selling it. The shirts are mostly designed in house by an incredible graphic artist, and there are some good bargains to be had. I think what axltk421 said about offering more of the sort of stuff that VIP pass holders want is probably right. The thing is, it's not quite as easy as introducing a new product. There's designing, testing, storage, finding the shelf space, and all sorts of other things, so to make it worth while, there has to be some volume to it, and I wonder if collectible stuff would go out at the volume needed to turn a profit (not arguing or disagreeing, just thinking out loud) * Alex mentioned how everything at Wonderland had a 'W' on it, well mostly everything at the Village parks has an appropriate park logo. Compare it to Dreamworld, who've gone more in the direction of having named surf brands and that sort of thing. A huge amount of their stuff doesn't actually Dreamworld written on it. If you haven't noticed, go to emporium at Movieworld, and have a good look at the merchandise, then do the same at Dreamworld; you will notice the difference. * As for Skilled Park, well from my experience, I can say when I'm drunk, there's no price I won't pay for some chips and a pie, and you are a captive audience there. May only be there for 3 hours at a time, but drinking does make you surprisingly hungry, and it's a long walk if you want to wait till after the game for something. It does sort of go along with what I saying though, you aren't a captive audience at the parks any more, it doesn't matter if you 'waste time' going over the road to eat. I suspect that were they to introduce a no pass out policy, you'll just eat before or after your visit instead of in the middle. * I also don't think our parks have to match Maccas, but the prices do need to be more reasonable. Like it or not, they are competing against them, so they can't gouge like they always have done and expect to keep all their customers. * DC parade WAS well done, still think they could have sold more flashy crap, but otherwise perfect. Same high marks for the Xmas and Halloween retail efforts, but I feel I need a need to ask, what happened to the small flashy or glowing crap that used to exist? Why do they only seem to have those giant bloody swords these days?

There is a clause that states they can close entire parks without notice or compensation. I'm looking at you WnW... Obviously, the problem is they've sold a butt load of these VIP passes, and now no one is spending money in the park, and the company almost seem surprised that this has happened. It shouldn't be a shock though, It's long been known that season pass holders don't tend to buy much in the way of souvenirs, so that leaves F&B as the main revenue source in the park. Unfortunately for VRTP, when people can come back any day they like, the captive audience pricing model goes out the window. All of a sudden guests aren't turning up early and staying all day, they are stopping in for a few hours, and eating either side of their visit. Movieworld's F&B is effectively competing against the McDonald's, KFC, and Subway across the road, and when it's $10 for a burger and small chips it's not surprising that it's not going well for them. Solution? $150 for a VIP pass, ($99 is simply too cheap) improve the value, efficiency, and quality of F&B, and include an additional 10% discount on F&B, retail and special events for pass holders. I think those few tweaks would go a long way to fixing things. I don't think the situation is hopeless, but I do think that fleecing the few people who are still spending in the park, while and reducing hours, and the number of attractions on offer is (to put it at its mildest), a short sighted recipe for disaster.

VIP pass holders are full paying customers too. It's not the guests fault that WVTPs have it in their heads that $99 for unlimited entry to the parks is a good idea.

Do you guys really want ert though? I mean most people on this site are locals, and have passes, go on an overcast day and it's pretty much the same thing.

Yeah, I could give you a fairly lengthy list on why that sort of thing doesn't happen here, but here's basically what it comes down too; 1. We don't have all that many many active members 2. The members we do have are unlikely to want to pay money for any privileges, and it wouldn't be cheap to do. 3. Although we've never asked, I think it's a fair bet that we don't write nice enough things to inspire the parks to overlook points one and two and do it for free for us. Having said that I know my opinion is totally for sale On occasion, this site (as a media outlet) has been invited to attended media events, as what we are to the parks is a small media organisation, that's it. For what we are we get quite a few views, and a heap of those are people planning their holidays to to the Gold Coast, and this is where the die hard fans are (even if it doesn't seem like it), so we aren't completely invaluable to the parks, but to me it's doubtful at best that our relationship with the parks will change from 'small media outlet' to anything else in the near future. The other thing I'd say is they DO listen. They may not take our advice that they need to add a new ride, but there are examples of things that have changed in the parks because someone took the time to post something on here. I'm not at liberty to say what, but trust me when I say it IS the case that posts on this site have led to direct changes in the parks.

Damn, I was looking up the page to find where I posted in this thread that I thought it sounded like it could be an Aquaplay, so I could smugly quote it and gloat. Of course I didn't post and now no one will belive me Anyways, I think this will suit Adventure World. They seem to have had a good deal of success with the water park attractions since they are continuing down that path with this. As an aside, do we have any members in WA who can supply photos for an update when the park opens?

lol I've been a very naughty boy haven't I! But yeah, if they don't want that thread cluttered with other stuff, then that's fair enough, 'tis their site after all. I don't think it's a moderating fail, just the way they want their site to be, and that's something I can respect. It looks that way, but they actually did SW, WnW and AOS in one day, and DW the day after. WnW might be worth a full day in summer, but given the weather and how deserted the park would have been, a few hours would be enough to sample everything they wanted to. Shame about Aqualoop and the Zipline still being closed.

I've moved the relevant posts here, since TPR are all about theme parks, and this is the theme park discussion section after all. Enjoy

^ I think that's a sign of good themeing, and the details on the ride are one of the intangible reasons that so many hold the ride in high regard. With SDSC, there are so many details that you just can't ever hope to see when you're on the ride. I mean watch the video closely, did you realise there were that many skulls, rocks and skeletons through out the ride? Probably the best example is after the on ride photo, where there is an entire themed room, with half a skeleton (evidently who'd been chopped in half by a blade), a bunch of skulls and bones and another blade on the ground. Is the ride weaker because you can't see them? Not at all. Is it cool that there's all this detail you'll never see? Hell yes!

TPR are in Aus, an there exploits can be followed here: http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic...f=2&t=58546 Even if you aren't fans (which I am incidentally) I'm sure there is still plenty to enjoy about seeing our parks through new eyes.

Yeah, I'll second that, Kenny (even if only occasionally) has posted a couple things around here, better than nothing for sure. I expect to hear from you more frequently when the new rides are about to be announced though As for the plans, TBH it's not for me. The lions are something I'll definitely check out next time I'm at the park, and not just for the sake of the update either, I WANT to have a look. But really, all it is for me is a pacifier, not a motivator. Having said that, temporarily displaying lions is certainly better than nothing at all, and it seems to me a good and worthwhile idea to get all those people with free tickets to come back again. So yes, usefully I have no strong opinion one way or the other

There was talk that they were going to start cutting hours again soon and it's sad to see it happening. While I'm glad to hear that it's only two rides, and it's true that each of those rides may see less that 50 riders in the first hour, I think it's worth saying that all those people who want to ride are still paying guests, and if the park is open at 10, the rides should be open at 10.

^ The sad thing about it is that if it were true, it wouldn't be even a little bit surprising.

I'm impressed with the effort you put in to find the old topic Yeah it's a tamer cycle these days, Spotty summed everything up perfectly (also with a couple nuggets of info I wasn't aware of). I'm sure someone will complain that they neutered the ride because they weren't maintaining it or something like that, but before they do I just want to get in quickly and say I quite like the fact it's running a different cycle. I love the original cycle, and to me Wipeout in one of the best flat rides around, but changing the cycle to keep the ride fresh seems like a good idea to me. When they get the new motor I'd love to see them up the intensity again, but with a different program.

Nah, I meant do a winter parde for Movie World's 20th like they did with DC's 75th last year..

Sea World opened in March 71 as 'Ski Land'. The name changed to Sea World in October of 71, so no matter which way you look at it, the current site has been in operation for 40 years. Speaking of milestone years, Movie World's 20th 8irthday is on June 3rd. So if they start planning now they can do a nighttime parade for Movie World's 40th in the middle of the year.

Again though, the only thing we have any clue about is the budget (and that could change as well). If the ride turns out crap then we'll see that when it opens, but it's a bit pointless talking about how dissapointing it might be when we don't know what it is. In the meantime I'll give them the benifit of the doubt that they know what they're doing.

Depends how they went about it, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they found the perfect ride for the park and it happened to only cost $7million, rather than deciding $7million was the budget and trying to find something that they could buy with that. So what's good for $7mil? About the best thing I can think of coaster wise is a mid size unthemed Euro-fighter, but that's about it. Over at the house of Intamin $7million will buy you a rocket coaster about the same size as Kanonen. Also within the budget is the distinctly 'meh' looking S&S El Loco, the -there will soon be one of those at one of the most popular overseas parks that Australians visit- Windseeker or a Wild Mouse. So what else is there? Inspire me here people!

Well Superman has been closed for nearly a year now, while ToT was closed mornings for a couple of months, and closed proper for only a few weeks, so that could be a large part of the answer. The rumour is that once it's all working over there, the upgrades to the system will be implemented here, but I'll believe that when I see it.

I think the general consensus is it wasn't well maintained, and I agree with that. Making things worse, a clone of Bush Beast exists at Great America. According to Mitch Hawker's wooden coaster poll, Grizzly is currently ranked 181, out of 181 wooden coasters, and it's been in the bottom 20 for the past 10 years, so it's fair to say Bush Beast wasn't a great example of a wooden coaster.

I reckon this thread needs a bump. Interestingly at the time of bumping, the poll in this thread stands at 25 votes each. Let us know what you think, and to help with the context of your answer, tell us what your favorite wood coaster is. My vote is till for steel, and of the wooden coasters I've been on, I'd say the best are Roller Coaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Blue Streak at Cedar Point. They were the best for me purely because I didn't get beat up on them, but I am yet to ride any of the good modern wooden coasters.

I think all the one up-manship stuff is getting really lame, no matter whose doing it. Whether it's MW shoving lasers into their nighttime entertainment in a sad attempt to not be out done by Illuminate (which as far as the lasers are concerned, they are) or WWW adding Wedgie in an equally sad attempt to not be outdone by AquaLoop, it's getting a bit sad. FWIW, the only 'stolen' ride that I think works is Jet Rescue. Partly because JR was in development before MDMC was built, but mostly because MDMC was such a dismal failure of a ride. So I really hope that they don't aren't considering adding a Castaway Bay type attraction, (or a Pirate themed high dive show. There's already one to many of those on the Gold Coast) but they instead do something original. It doesn't have to be an unproven world first like MDMC either, there are many, many proven rides out there that would be an Australian first that would fit the bill nicely. Of course the only thing making people suspect a Castaway Bay style attraction is a pirate flag. While it wouldn't surprise me if it was in some way related to the theme of whatever they're adding, it is a huge stretch to say pirate flag = Castaway Bay copy, or pirate flag = family attraction, or pirate flag = coaster, and so on.

Awesome, we need 'like' buttons here.

^ What the caption refers to is that you can't buy 600ml bottles of soft drink any more from the vendors, and can only buy $10 souvenir bottles. Aside from making people who want a drink pay $10, those bottles are potentially filled 30 mins before sale, by which time the drink goes flat, and the ice melts. "Evil money grab" is perhaps an exaggeration, but what's happening here certainly is not environmentally motivated. This is a money grab, and not one that I think is customer friendly.

Yeah something's not right here. Seems that statically speaking, things are most likely to fuck out when people are looking. We're hoping to have it fixed real soon.