RossL

Ardent did. Dreamworld was a significant percentage of that. Want to restate it a different way?

That $16M would be SkyVoyager. Water Park? Who knows. Maybe they can blow up an inflatable waterslide with a couple of inflatable pools in 6 weeks. Or re-locate a tacky "ski park".

IANAL but they do hold a trademark... "Nurry Brothers (insert any trademark here)" is probably an issue for any trademark holder.

The potentially more annoying version of this, is to do a win back offer. Encourage you to visit the park on a certain day for a certain deal. Not sure why they don't do that, there'd surely be plenty of pass holders that don't actually visit monthly (or only visit a single park) and they'd have data to push those offers. Then again, their F&B is very sub par so not really very tempting..maybe the Sea World Resort is better than the average. Or they could offer discounts on other things.

Yeah but supermarkets don't force your path like Ikea because it is way too annoying if you do something regularly...imagine having to weave through every aisle of a supermarket? Being forced through a store at the end of a ride generally feels forced and often a garbage experience. Happy for them just to strip it back to photos you can collect and put the shopping part elsewhere. They may also find that rushes of people trying to get out just forces everyone out, resulting in nobody really purchasing. Also, is the store changing a sign of HWSD on the way out soon too?

I think they'd regain some public confidence from actually deciding to get rid of Wipeout, ToT and HWSW. The rides have had a good lifespan and put them out to pasture. I don't even think they need to build anything right away to replace them although they do need another attraction by late 2019/early 2020 after iRide. I think they could even get away with a basic wild mouse. Family friendly with safe attractions. It is their strength and Village's kind of weakness at the moment.

According to signage in the park Seal Guardians is now only once daily at 2.30 with the 10.15 presentation being a "behind-the-scenes". Is the "behind-the-scenes" any better??

Not aware of anything that prohibits this at all. You're a customer so consent is inferred and that's pretty much it. Generally online, to collect data of people under 13 parental consent is required but you have also provided that in this case. They're required to respect your opt-out if you do chose to opt-out though.

Yes, not everyone can go to LA and most things on instagram are rubbish, if it isn't good enough for a filtered photo, then what is it? There is just no way that this is going to be a world first attraction as it was spun. Maybe you'll have some interest in some props for five minutes but in all likelihood an underused facility that may as well be an air conditioned room with some comfy sofas. Well aware they have working studios next door....are they going to give the general public a tour and let them in more? If so great, not what was suggested in the spin. An actual research facility? Not like other aquariums don't collaborate or research either...and the aforementioned is the world leader in breeding jellyfish-don't think SeaWorld is going to claim that title overnight. I've got low hopes of what the "interactive research" will be like.

But it is so elegantly spun! If they're about events send Carnivale back to MovieWorld. And create another event. If they want to improve food, spend some $$ somewhere on it....rather than closing refill stations. I expect the "museum" to be boring and not at all unique in the world. If you want to see props go on the Warner Bros Studio tour in LA-you can see all the props. And you know, actual working sound stages. The standard really would be a replica set that you could walk on....if it isn't instagrammable it is rubbish. Citing the new seal show as a success is ridiculous, it is crap and worse than the last iteration...it is not even close to being up to scratch. And I think we'll be lucky to see any new major attraction coming to SeaWorld before 2021...more likely to see something else close first. Not even sure the SeaJellies will actually be world leading either...pretty sure this aquarium will still have it beaten: http://www.jellyfishaquarist.com/largest-jellyfish-tank-world-opens-kamo-aquarium/ And that's hardly the only aquarium in Japan with a lot of Jellyfish.

Pretty sure this is all just standard social media management 101. "Keep an eye out for updates" literally just means that, not that anything is going to be done. There is zero reason for them to say that it will not be done in the future when someone is being positive about the park. Anything more negative they give the "Thanks for your feedback" response.

Nope. There's a fair number of guests in the park on any given day that do not understand English and they should be welcomed.

Attendance in the second half was down 9.71% for their Gold Coast operations. Their yield on tickets improved 16%...it was tracking at 30% in January and they've claimed their yield in July is up 35%. Expect that to come down and attendance to fall again in the first half. I don't buy what they're selling about their season pass sales. If they were good they would have made very different statements. If your ticket revenue was truly up 56% in July you'd be celebrating that a lot harder...don't think that is going to hold for the entire half at all-they were up 8% in the second half of FY2018.

Ok, would JL3D be better if it was like Midway Mania? It would be lame, you can shoot at a screen in your own home. The only IP that Dreamworld have that would be close to Toy Story in popularity is Shrek but the Shrek universe is nowhere near as pervasive on TV as Toy Story is. Some the best attractions didn't have IP sure. But some do-Splash Mountain, Tower of Terror, Tron and on and on. What about a space dark ride? Space Fantasy at USJ is well regarded generally as well. They wouldn't even have to keep the lights on to make the theme ok. If they want a low bar to cross, this would be really hard to screw up. Not saying it would be great if they did it, just relatively easy to keep operating-they'd only need a single train operating unlike the multiple trains that run on Space Mountain.

I agree with most of your points. Except I think it is the IP that makes the attraction rather than anything else. Add some nothing or minor IP to what you have described and I think it will be crap and unpopular. If you strip the IP of the best attractions, then they're still good...really don't think Midway Mania stands up at all once you remove the IP. Imagine if Dreamworld maintain a Midway Mania knock-off as badly as they do for that Wiggles ride. The game will start when you're leaving and you'll arrive to blank screens. And you'll be spun so you're not actually facing the screens. And the cannons will not have the string to pull. It'll be atrocious with less redeeming features than even that Wiggles ride has in whatever terrible state it currently is in. You must assume they'll maintain anything they put in much better than their current standards otherwise there is almost no point in putting in anything.

Midway Mania? Please no. I understand that it is popular but I just thought it was crap. Large screens with a basic game and a basic track that vehicles go around. I've ridden some pretty old crappy attractions of similar point and shoot nature-I'll take the old crappy without video screens everyday. I'll take JL3D over Midway Mania any day. Less seriously...Russell Coight's All Aussie Adventure Ride, think of the Indiana Jones rides.

Probably a poor business decision. Businesses get pricing wrong all the time and just straight taking away the current option is poor form really. Leave people on their current plan and then introduce new options is generally best practice. Even Telstra generally does this, they don't just axe your old plan-they let you remain on it and introduce different ones for new customers that you can switch to. Would it really hurt them to let those that are currently members continue to pay for another year? Yeah maybe DebitSuccess transaction costs are too high for them (maybe 20% at a guess vs 4% transaction costs on any other ticket). But the amount of revenue they're going to lose offering this deal is very high is a significant percentage. Let's say 5% of those who pay in July cancel every month until the end of next June, so you only have 95% paying in August and 45% by next June you'd still get an average of $77.50 per current member which I think is a low estimate for revenue. At best here they're getting $69.50 per member assuming 100% conversion. If they get 80% conversion which I think would be high it is $55.60 and at 70% it is $48.65. So probably a $30-$40 revenue loss per member before you subtract out some visits too. If less than 10,000 members maybe this is ok. If there's more than 30,000 it seems just a good way of pissing people off and refusing revenue that you would otherwise get. People could also be annoyed because Dreamworld offered the same passes cheaper a couple of months ago. But if you only signed up to be a member in February and had a year contract, you're not going to buy another pass for $40 for the last 4 months of your year. Or maybe you intend to cancel at the end of December, so you only had to pay another $50 for your year vs the $69.50 they now want. Of course those that want to can their membership do benefit from this. So for some people this is a better deal but certainly not for all and I don't see what Dreamworld really gain by doing this either-they're definitely getting less revenue and visits because of this.

Not exactly but that is part of it. If theme parks are meant to transport you to another place, then VR arguably can do that much better. Easy to imagine wandering around Looney Tunes land and interacting with virtual Looney Tunes characters-admittedly this kind of thing could also be introduced at home. I mean full VR rides and games. And I think it is a step up in entertainment value from a Timezone or an iPlay. And Timezone is more fun than SeaWorld for $25 at the moment anyway in my recent experience. I'm not talking about this taking away all their business but it only needs to reduce attendance by 10% to have a significant impact on their business. They're howling about revenue being down a few percent post the Dreamworld incident. To say technological change could not wipe out a few more due to new competition is naive I think. Personally I don't think VR is that great or exciting for the most part but there's definitely plenty of potential for it to capture some people who would otherwise visit a theme park. I mean when I eventually go to VR Zone in Tokyo that will basically be replacing a day of going to a theme park for me. If that was on the Gold Coast it would be far more compelling to visit than SeaWorld for me for example.

So that change in ticketing strategy resulted in people paying less per ticket on average? That basically means visits also dropped, which would also have dropped in park spend-particularly on F&B. Basically, lower total revenue without really lowering any costs but they're still blaming it on Dreamworld. Guess this will be the case for at least another 6 months. Attendances in June were inline because attendance is hardly that high in June normally and for many people it was their last month of having a pass. What they do not comment is pass sales, bet they do not match prior years at all. Also they're blind if they think their theme parks are not at risk of technological disruption. There's every chance that a VR amusement centre gets built on the Gold Coast in the next 3-5 years. VR has to be a huge threat to any theme park.

That press release is barely acceptable. Where is the statement saying that every ride has a working e-stop that is tested daily, that every operator and maintenance staff member knows how to use???

It is pretty clear that each witness has their own best interest in some ways as well. Operators blame management and management blames operators. It is a natural conflict. How Craig Davidson is still CEO is a very good question though.

For it to even be debated whether the e-stop was implemented correctly or not, is pretty damning to be honest. How many other Dreamworld rides do (/did) not have a clear e-stop?

No, because they scrubbed it for 3 days at $119 but it was only 2 days until recently. Further 10% off that price with Groupon is also new. Why the change? Because they want people to visit for more days.

Maybe. I don't think $139 is unreasonable for locals, especially for what one pass includes and that it is 12 months rather than locking until June 30...but this is how they could end up with less revenue. Pretty sure most locals could happily take a 6 month break, no need to directly continue your pass. So they're getting $139/18 months rather than $99/12 months. The kicker here though is about holiday makers. Pretty easy to buy the VIP pass for $99 and then let the kids go to the parks 5 out of the 7 days on the Gold Coast. Now, you buy a two day pass for $119-stuff paying the extra $80 to make it $199. What have the parks lost? 3 days of revenue, probably $40 a day for $120. They gained $20 at the gate, to lose a heap through F&B...less food sold, makes the food operation way more marginal. Where they used to spend $300, they spend $200 and then spend $100 elsewhere. No shortage of other activities that will happily take your $$$ on the Gold Coast. Or you buy the 12 month pass and visit a week earlier next year, so they get $199x1 as opposed to $99x2 at the gate. Less visitors, means less need to spend a lot of time in the park-low ride wait times, also meaning no need for anyone to buy fastpasses. There's plenty of potential pitfalls in their new pricing strategy and I'm guessing they've fallen into a few-it doesn't appear to be a slam dunk move to be profit accretive. Most of the 'consumer surplus' is captured in the first visit to a park. I'll pay insanely more to visit a park for the first time, than to repeat visit.