joz

The bigger mystery to me is why they need a labour intensive costume character show with strictly limited appeal which accommodates only the smallest number of people. What further compounds this mystery is that the costume characters make a lengthy appearance in the Star Parade, making a separate show seem even more redundant. Seriously, if its not a desperate attempt to use that queue house then I don't know what is. Personally, I'm quite liking what the park is doing with its street theatre, at a time when DW and SW more or less scraped their offerings, MW is actually added performers and different skits are performed during the day. I'm not a huge fan of the Star Parade (not enough room for the audience and having the parade floats turn around limits the number of floats you can have in the show, and really limits how good it can be. Plus the way its more or less a show spanning the street means you miss half of the action) but people seem to like it (go figure) so I can't really complain. I've not seen Bat Attack or the Matrix fight scenes, but I'm not expecting all that much out of them the day I do. The official Matrix Exhibit (and Harry Potter) scream of lost opportunity. I don't think its the quality in these attractions that presents a 'problem', more so the way its presented. Think of Tomb Raider at Dreamworld, and then think of how that could work with one of the sets, and more emphasis on being right in the middle of the action from the movie. Even if there is a 'crew member' trying to help you escape, you could put together quite a cool attraction. Have all the sets in an exhibit type thing next door and you've got all your bases (and demographics) covered.

I'm told to 'watch this space', but we'll just see what develops. Though the creative department might be a bit busy working on SW's next new show.

There were show elements where people would leave the trams to enter a set (Riddeler's Lair was once displayed in this way), and the train would meet them around the other side. This was one contributor to the problem, and to pull that bit would leave the tram tour was pointless at best (Indeed even when it was open most of the comments were negative). Add to that the fact that the Village studios aren't the busiest studios in the world, and are needing to build up their reputation, these sort of things would be far from ideal. I'm no studio expert, but I can't imagine that the park would take out a popular attraction unless it was to be replaced or the park really had too. To me it either wasn't popular, or the park had to remove it. Think about it, the attractions you point out; Western action, Gremlins (and you can throw Young Einstien's Gravity House, Harry Potter and the old 3D movie in as well) were removed to be replaced. Maverick wasn't pulling its weight in the park, and neither were Superstars - Live in Concert (I still thank god I watched that show that time) hence they got cut. If the studio tour went for reasons other then what the park has said, then it wouldn't have been popular. Don't get me wrong, I'd love too see the studio tour return (and how about using it as a transport ride and dropping people off at Wild West?) but that can't be done unless you get rid of the Selly's-no-more-gaps Looney Tunes Musical revue, which now looks like a pretty solid stadium, and buy the trams back from Aussie Zoo (I swear ther're the same ones ). As for the park being a rip-off, well, no I don't think it is. I think the problem is its not as re-visitable as it would like to be. Afterall, on your first visit, you can watch Police Academy, the Special effects show, Marvin the Martian and the parades (and kill a good 2 hours doing this too). As you visit more and more, you stop watching the shows, stop going through the walkthrough/s, and being picky about the rides you ride. The stuff is fine, and all the attractions are good in their own right (though Special effects despratly needs some new special effects).

Upgrading Bounty's sounds like they could be trying to make it more sellable, same with the components on Snowy River (Can't sell a lift moter if it don't work ya know). Not that I don't wanna believe, but its a pretty optimistic conclusion to jump too.

Aussie World offers quite a bit if you like flat rides. It actually surprised me how many flat rides the park has in its arsenal. Add the fact that they all look well maintained and your pretty much in flat ride heaven About the studio tour: It was closed because guests were leaving the trams and walking onto 'hot' sets and wasting crews time. Apparently people just didn't understand it was a real studio.

Put it this way: I'm glad it was last year and we don't have to go through that again anytime soon. The park wasn't bursting at the seems, but last year is easily the quietest I've seen the park for a long time so its hard to say. I don't think its redundant because of WnW. After all, when guests are at SW, they can't just slip out the door to WnW. The water park is more of a pacifier rather then a huge draw (Though I'd wager that does make the park more attractive), and getting rid of it would be more trouble then its worth. There are some stories floating around about the replacement, and one version has the water park taking a somewhat drastic change of form (and don't even bother speculating because I guarantee you won't guess the current rumours :confused: ) which I would be happy with. Getting rid of it all together though IMHO isn't a good idea.

Don't be surprised if both parks do something drastic to there parks in the next few years. There's some talk of removing SW's (speculation, probably not worth mentioning). Personally I hope they don't do this until after those huge tracts of land which haven't been utilised to their full potential (Near the lighthouse, next to Bermuda (both sides) and the old Thrillseeker site for example) are more developed. Personally, I like SW's, just because of how much bigger and more open it is compared with DW's. Not too mention all the 'thrill slides' and hugely superior kids pool. The only thing DW's got on its side is that dodgy tube slide, which IMO is still one of the most fun rides in the park.

Eh, every park has different names for their departments. SW up until recently had a department called Marine Mammel & Entertainment, and the old Food and Merchendise departments are common in the US. Nothing too unusual for one department to do two jobs which are only narrowly related. BigMal: Just on Wipeout, I have to say thats one of the better rides in the park for short queues, although this possibly has something to do with the small queue house, which has the virtue of making the queue seem longer then it really is. Also, for all my other points, read Wonderbuss's post, whose pretty much summed up what I was going to say :-)

The thing is, it wasn't mechanical failure that turned people away at DW. Nor were guests made aware that queuing may be a waste of time. The guests that were denied on FF were denied because of preventable reason. Guests could have been made aware that the park will close the ride soon (The same way people are made aware about height requirements), and some people may miss out. If this had happened then you could hardly have grounds to complain.

Why didn't you just post it dude?

Sounds like a Zamperela patch job (as if their new rides weren't good enough ), very interesting in a low key sort of way. It does amuse me though that DW hasn't added a new kiddie ride since Kennyland despite adding a whole kiddie land.

Thanks man, thats the nicest thing you've ever said on this forum :-)

Man, I just finished downloading (sorry, I mean "acquiring legally" :-) that Wonderland song by 911. All I can say to those ex-staff who had to hear that song all the time is sorry. Its like the worst bits of all boybands joined together to make one ultimate song. I thought the elevator music I had to listen too everyday was bad, that song just rewrites the crap music book.

...and what a good 'stood and watched from a distance' it was too Nice call Rich

Not a chance. There's nothing wrong with ToT, so why would DW want to change it? Also DW doesn't care that much about bragging rights, so why would they spend the millions of $ required to make the ride just that little bit better? Not a chance.

There's no reason to limit the number of attractions in the park because of its size, just look at Blackpool which is crammed up good and proper. As for the 47 attractions, well, if the park gets popular and needs the extra capacity, then why not?

I'm working on a new park at the moment. So far its home to a Wild West (with a Wooden Coaster, boat ride and Impulse coaster), Technology centre, (3 launched coasters and a variety of flat rides) Spooky theme (Intamin Jr coaster and two haunted houses) Beach Party (B&M Invert, MACK wild mouse) & Jungle theme (Terrain Floorless). Its also home to a railway, monorail, tree lined plazas and all the other stuff you need to keep the peeps happy

Richard is correct and studies released have proven this. This was done some time ago, but the just of it was that if the parks added a new attraction it would have minimal effect on the number of people on the Gold Coast. It would require something like a new theme park would be required to greatly effect visitor numbers.

Parking: What's wrong with the land in between the road and the beach? And Don't tell me it can't be done because its council's land as SW's carpark past the monorail is council land. It can't be that difficult to make it accessible either. Demon: Not worth the relocation costs for a ride which has little if any appeal in Sydney. Bush Beast: Get ride of it and install a ride which uses its footprint better. Don't worry about spending half a mil to re-track, but buy something new and appealing. Park infrastructure: Repave where necessarily, but don't go crazy wasting budget on stuff which is more or less good. Admin/ Back of House: Well, if everyone's version of 'Mini Wonderland' cuts off after Snowy, then what about putting those sort of facilities around the near the back half of Snowy? People won't need that area as passage way any more, and stuff could be relocated there. New Stuff: Replacement Wooden Coaster, and a couple of flats around the old Sky Rider station and replace the Great Race (or whatever they were calling it at the end) with some kiddie rides. The beach could probably also do with a new slide, but not vital. Also, with regards to stuff coming off riders on Corkscrew: The forces on corkscrew are such that loose items (except hats) are not coming off the ride unless they are thrown. Your pretty safe with stuff in your pockets, and if something does fall out of your pockets it'll just sit on the seat next too you until the ride finishes. Really a ride like Corkscrew doesn't even need restraints for normal operation.

What do you mean be thankful I can pay $58 to go to a place and queue for hours on end? Why should I be thankful for that? I pay to go on the rides, when I spend money and spend half the day in a queue, then that's not good customer service I'm thankful for the atmosphere and the fact that its not too busy in winter, but I don't anyone can be expected to give praise for a service which is delivered at a semi-par standard. With the way Dreamworld delivers their product (IE by making people needlessly stand in line for a long time) I don't think I should be praising them for this. I praise them for having good rides, but the fact they are run so poorly wipes off the majority of that praise. Also, if Dreamworld were smart and built high capacity attractions (a big show, another walkthrough exhibit like Tiger Island or a ride that could handle something around 1,500 PPH) then the higher number of guests in the parks would be offset by the increased ability to cater for said crowds.

Substitute Koala Country for River Town (Koala Country became part of AWE in 2001) and you have Dreamworld's 10 'themed' area's. Though River Town and Gum Tree Gully may as well be the same area since there's nothing really remaining of Gum Tree Gully which IMHO was once the nicest area of the park (better then the old Country Fair and Village Green areas). For me, I'd have to go Gold Rush Country. It seems to be the only one of the older areas that's not been either overrun or destroyed visually like what has happened to Rivertown and Rocky Hollow. Ocean Parade is nice but to me it appears as though its purely the themeing of Wipeout that make it so. The main entrance plaza and Blue Lagoon are each looking a bit on the sad side. Nick Central is pretty good but since I'm not of that demographic I can't really get too excited.

Better question, what are Dreamworld's 11 areas?

You'd need to go a week either side of each of the other holidays, and I'd say from mid Dec to mid Feb, because you do get allot of people saying just that (that they can't find time to do everything). Most people can't get the parks done in a full day even at this time of year (hard to believe I know, but true). When ever attendance is around the 4/5000 mark then you can feel the park being busy. During this time, you hear quite a bit of the "Too much to do, and too busy too do it". Even though there's quite a few attractions (SW particularly) that don't require you too queue up, those attractions that do demand a queue of anything over 30mins present a problem to most guests. If you can supply a tool that makes life easier, I'd go for it.

Fox was too expensive for visitors and had bugger all attractions. It was small, and had only limited appeal. Thats not at all like a Gold Coast park.

Matt Shirvington the lunch box Like I said and everyone else has, Mini Wonderland wouldn't work because there is no future expansion, rehashed attractions of limited appeal, is in a now crummy area, and is missing some of the most important things that kept Wonderland ticking over. If Wonderland was to be reopened, it would have to be the whole park, and then some. Also, I don't know why you guys think a Gold Coast sized park couldn't survive in Sydney. Wonderland did, and was still surviving. Sunway just decided that they didn't want to own a theme park in Sydney when they could own industrial stuff. I'd be surprised if it wasn't at least making a profit, and with proper invest could have been booming.