joz

[guote]Where's the SeaLion theatre in those ones sorry?

As far as a ride line up goes, here's what I remember Ghost Train Carousel (Looking at the picture it's the same arrow model that's at both SW and DW today) Tilt a Whirl (Now Mozzie Musta at Aussie World) Bumper Cars Dragon Wagon (I think it's pretty much identical to The one at Grundy's might have even been my first coaster ) There was also the water slides which I think were built in the mid to late 80's and closed only a couple of years later. They were a source of great controversy at the time. Lots of "they're ugly!" and "Why build water slides when there's such a good beach across the road?" And I can confirm 100% that Grundy's was where Timezone is now. For the most part, Grundy's really was just an arcade with a couple amusements thrown in. There was also a mini golf course on the roof outside of where the bowling alley is now, but admittedly that side of the building is very hazy to me. Part of me swears there was a bowling alley up there in the 80's, that was later done up to become the glow in the dark bowling, but I'm really not 100% on that bit.

Great photos! Pretty much all of them are new to me, and I must say I never realised that the park had Helicopters so early in it's history! Also of note for me is the picture of the Adventure Island ferry in the 4th pic down. Weird to see it without the canopy, I thought they always had them, learn something new everyday! Another thing I can't help but notice is how ambitious they were right from the get go; what is now the Sea Lion theater appears when there was pretty much a train ride and a Ski / Dolphin Show. Now just think, the Sea Lion theater can seat about 1800 people but that was built at a time when there were barely any attractions in the park, but even so it's capacity has (just about) kept up with the rest of the park as it's filled out into a proper theme park. It's still today one of the biggest theme park stadium's in Australia (Off the top of my head only Dolphin Cove, the Show stage and Ski Stadium are bigger), and is a great example just how visionary John and Keith were when they started the park.

^ I think you may have missed Originals point a bit.. No one's suggesting the VIP tickets aren't a bargain, but rather that the cheap deals are doing more harm than good in the mid/long term. The argument is two fold: 1. The cheap tickets are in a sense "training" the public to expect dirt cheap tickets. How are they going to get people to pay a premium again? 2. The parks are now busier, but everyone pretty much got in "for free", and so the budget to run the park can't grow and is indeed being cut. A good example of this that people on this site are talking about is that when Movieworld is busy there are still only 2 HWSD shows a day. It's also why blatant money grabbing is going on all around the park to such an unbridled extent; because they have to make money somewhere, even if that means pissing off a bunch of customers to do it. With the quality of the parks being diminished they're brand is being greatly harmed. My answer to point 1 is that they can get more out of the gate (duh) and keep high attendance, but the ticketing needs a big shake up. I think VRTP's would be wise to bring in a *4 Park Annual Pass and abolish the one park passes altogether. Price it around the $150 mark for locals and $250 everyone else, since people from out of town wouldn't have bought one anyway, and it creates the perception of taking good care of the locals, a reputation you really can't buy. They also for the love of god need to add a 10% off F&B perk to it. Isn't the whole idea of giving away the gate to get those people to spend money in the park??? Why not give some real incentive to spend rather the rather pathetic things they've come up with (I mean spend $50 on nothing and we'll give you 10% off everything else? Seriously?) and promote the pass like they have been with the VIP passes and they'll do well. As for the out of town folk, VRTPs should really take a look at how Disney do it in Orlando. I'd love to see them partner up with some local hotels and do something very similar to "Magic your way". Actually, I'll go a step further and say they should steal the whole bloody system. To the point where you can include AOS, and Meals at local restaurants as add-ons to your theme park tickets, with VRTPs getting a cut of course. I'd say that if they employed what I said above then most of the effects of 2 would be pretty much negated, since they'd be making more money per head on admissions from the get go, and they'd be constantly selling them, and they wouldn't get to this ridiculous position they're in now of having no one buying one of the best value tickets they've ever had and having to make them even cheaper again. I don't think the current short term fix to everything is the way to go. Rather then having a solid long term plan on how to grow the business, they are just being reactionary and pillaging their hard earned brand to have a good looking shareholder update this year. Guess what guys, the new business year is only 3 months away. Get a real strategy in place! * Paradise Country should be included in a local annual pass, because it needs a boost, and they've had trouble in the past getting the most out of the park. I really think including it in passes in this way is it's best bet and I'm certain they could make some good easy money by selling those awesome lunches they do and having PC feature in their advertising. Heck they'd probably only go once a year and buy a photo too. Imagine how much extra money they could make by having PC act more as a forth gate and increasing the F&B and Retail per-caps by 200,000 guests. I'm sure even with the higher price tag Marketing could get allot of mileage out of an extra park included with the ticket and in-park F&B discounts.

The thing I've often wondered is why all parks aren't like Disney. Why do so many parks stray so far from industry best practice? They do just about everything right, the from rider requirements of the rides, to bag storage, to live shows to 3D movies down to the level of staff required to keep the street clean. There are a few exceptions to be sure, but for the most part just about everything they do, they do faultlessly. So why is it then that every other park in the world doesn't do the same? Obviously, I'm not asking "Why don't our parks have $100million rides?". The answer is pretty obvious; Disney are the most visited parks in the world, and even with that investment level our parks are unlikely to ever get a similar number of guests. But the things Disney do can still be employed on a smaller scale. They improve their rides so people who come back still enjoy the park and get some extra surprises. Our rides and attractions can be improved and plussed too, indeed there's some great new technology that's come along since 1994 and could go into Bermuda and make the ride great. Disney also replace the ride vehicles and don't feel the need to paint the ride red, slap a new name on it and call it a new ride. Disney parks aren't ad-hoc like our parks, and have a coherent design and feel the whole way through. Our parks (particularly in the newly created 'Revenue' department) is competing with itself for our attention till you just wished everyone would piss off. A great example of this; on a recent trip into Seaworld there was an obnoxious guy on a megaphone trying to sell photos or something. Not exactly sure what since at the same time I also had Food and Beverage staff trying to sell me an "all day" meal deal (since when is 11 till 3 all day? And why is the food in the picture not what actually comes with the all day meal deal? And why are drinks extra? What's the bloody point of the all day meal deal?). I don't think it'd be a good idea for our parks to do things on a Disney budget (and indeed if Paris and Hong Kong have taught us anything, it's that Disney shouldn't do a Disney budget in all markets). But I do think that taking the Disney approach of maintaining the parks, making them better and not having utter contempt for you customers not only makes sense, but is the only way you can have a successful park in the long run. It's quite sad that the people in charge of Village think they know better then the people who invented the industry best practice, and our parks are left to rot.

I don't have a problem with alcohol, I love it! But yeah, I think we're pretty much all thinking the same thing, add something that will have either some impact or have a positive point of difference with WnW, hence my suggestion of dark mammoth, swim up bar and a (better than Calypso) lazy river. Of the stuff from the stage 3 plans, I will say that given the park already has three bowl slides and a Tornado I t think a tornado alley or a similar duel slide would not make the best addition to the park at this stage, but any of the attractions I've listed (and indeed many, many more that aren't listed, Boomerango for example) would be the better direction to go.

A swim up bar heads my personal wish list, I know it's possible since some biggish water parks have them (Oceans of fun comes instantly to mind) but I don't see it ever happening. If it did happen I'd buy a pass, but I know it never will. As for the whole 'win' thing (and I don't want to get bogged down here in one of those arguments that goes in circles) what I was more getting at is that WWW at least have a chance of a positive point of difference with the year round lazy river thing, rather than like with the Wedgee, where they know full well what they just added will be totally overshadowed before they get any sort of return on it. And hey, if WWW just make their Lazy River better then there's a point of difference right there.

Well not that I'm baging them out buut:

Oh no! A ride broke down! It's unsafe! The visa group are responsible for Big Bird Bounce at Seaworld, and (I assume) Tweety and Sylvester's Tree House at Movieworld. I must admit that this comment is a few days late, but that coaster looks horrible. Zamperla look like Intamin compared to that thing, at least Zamperla have a couple of decent stock rides. The fact it broke down doesn't bother me, but it really does look like crap. If it makes the trip to Brisbane I'll give it a go so I can be 100% sure, but on face value it doesn't look even a little bit fun.

To be fair, I think a lazy river would make a great addition to WWW, and is right up there on my wish-list for the park along with a Dark Mammoth slide and a Swim up bar. I also think advertising that the park has a lazy river thats open over winter might even be something of a draw card. It would also allow them to go after WnW in a way they might actually win.

^ 100% agree with you on that. I did post this elsewhere but I think it still stands: I don't think it was the right addition for the park. That's not to say it's not a good slide. Far from it, it looks like a real hoot. I just don't see any point to it, as it's not going to boost attendance, isn't substantial enough to see any real in park effects and except for the middle of this winter, won't provide any sort of marketable advantage over WnW. And good luck turning that exclusive new product into anything over winter at a water park.

There's a big difference between Snowy and a lazy river. If someone falls into the water at Snowy the only thing you can do is press the e-stop and see where the body, er, guest ends up. With a lazy river if a guest needs attention you can't just e-stop and leave your post if someone needs help, since there's still guests in the attraction and there's still the chance more could happen while attending to the first guest. I doubt that cameras would be as good at making the guests behave. I also would doubt wether the chemical you suggested (and the levels required) would be a cost effective fix considering the cost of the chemicals, what the could do to the filters and labour to administer

OK this one has run its course. "Ladies and Gentlemen, this thread is closed due to safety concerns. Please feel free to enjoy other Parkz threads."

I think it's a shame it's come to this, expect something on Myfun in the next few days. There's a big meeting for all the staff in the Roxy this afternoon, should be interesting.

I'll start with the positives: 2 Shows? Open till 7pm? Cool! And onto the rest... Whats with having no rides open? I like that they're opening later, but without rides whats the point? I mean I know the bumper cars, a kiddie ride and AVPX are open, but if the idea is to keep people in the park longer why not use a couple of the big rides to anchor the event? I think they're making a mistake by not leaving Claw, Cyclone, Wipeout and Reptar open at least to 6pm to give people a reason to hang around and wait for the shows to start. Also I assume more shops will be open than just Surf Central. You'd think that the 'give a crap about surf brands' crowd will leave when all the good rides close leaving the families who probably want more Dreamworld/Nick related gear lingering. Given the whole idea is to keep people around spending money you'd think The Market Place and Emporium as a minimum would be open, with perhaps Nick Stuff and the Ice Cream parlour also staying open later. Anyone else have any thoughts?

The 3 statements at the end mean I still hate the GCCC.

Somehow I think you might like

A bit of an update on Matilda: http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2010/0...coast-news.html *sigh* Not only does the Gold Coast City Council have something called "The council community and cultural development committee" but they're also a pack of morons.

Well, Facebook is pretty much a marketing tool, if I were DW PR I'd delete comments that didn't fit with the 'message' I was trying to get out as well. While one could argue that it's misleading advertising, I wouldn't encourage people to post negative things on the park's facebook. Afterall Dreamworld's facebook group is, on balance, pretty damn good. It'd be a shame if they were to back away from releasing more stuff online because of the negative reaction that goes with whatever they do. Or what would be even worse, is if they went the VRTPs route of just using soulless PR talk instead of doing anything with personality. A good example of that: BTW, I was amused to see someone post my quote from above on DWs facebook page. That's not a negative comment, that's an in joke

Good to see that according to Dreamworld's definition of a loop, the article on this site was accurate That's really disappointing that they are calling it a looping water slide. Despite it being a rather uninspired addition, there are so many genuinely good things to say about it. I mean it is Australia's first trap door water slide, and Australia's first 'next generation' speed slide. Surely there's enough there for a marketing person to work with, but no, it has to be advertised as something it's not, just to annoy people. Good work Ardent!

I love these 'official' park history things, it really serves to show just how annoying marketing talk has become:

The thing is that the Corkscrew train was pretty comfortable to sit in, the new trains are not. Even when you're in the station in the new trains the seats have random bits of plastic and metal that randomly jab into your back/side. They're not nice to sit in when you're stationary, the sad thing is that means now when you're going around the track you can now feel the jolts that have always been there but the train didn't pass on. Perhaps next time Kumbak design a new train someone should sit in them, just to see if the seats by themselves are comfortable to sit in, rather then just making sure they look cool*. * I don't think that they do look cool, nor do I consider "Sea Viper" an upgrade or an improvement. I used to think Corkscrew was such a marketing icon it was pretty much untouchable. Now I think that Corkscrew's footprint, combined the plot of land that used to house the Pirate Ship, as well as some of the lake is plenty of room for a BIG new coaster.

Hopefully it means Dreamworld is looking at extended trading, perhaps by having it run Saturdays during part of the year and perhaps nightly during holidays (or something similar). I hope it works, and I hope Movieworld steals the idea. I think with all the characters and the possibility of projecting on the roof the sort of shows they could do there would be amazing. Although one could argue that DW are stealing the concept since it's been out in the open for a while now the idea of MW doing it's Xmas stuff. I think this could potentially be the sort of thing that Dreamworld SHOULD be adding. I wasn't expecting anything like a big family ride at DW this year, and I can't really fault the idea of a night show. Well, apart from the mystifying decision of making Spongebob as the star.

Send me what ya got and I'll help you out with what you need. I got about 1/3 of the way through my own SW recreation a little while back (with a few pics of the work in progress here). Sadly I lost interest after this stage since there was so much cleaning of the park to do, and the effects in Bermuda couldn't be recreated satisfactorly so that zapped some of my energy. But now Bermuda has no effects and someone else wants to do the nitty gritty I'll help ya out. The above park is of no use though since I lost it when my hard drive died a painful death. Also, if you haven't done this already, be sure to grab DasMatze's Parkjet monorail, which is the monorail the game should have come with. I've included a shot of it in my current park:

Aw, no Rocky Hollow Log Ride love here? Maybe I'm the minority on the site but I actually quite like the ride, good old rustic themeing, been there since the park opened, bit of a classic to me. It's one of those things that makes Dreamworld the place it is, along with the train, Imax theater or rapids ride. Doesn't surprise me if the log ride did has the highest ridership, it's got a decent capacity relative to allot of the stuff at DW and appeals to people right across the age groups.