RossL

Well that is because management are trying to avoid blaming themselves and making up rubbish. If things went well, it would be their wonderful management (not the wonderful weather or the record number of tourists visiting the Gold Coast). And because things haven't been great, blame the weather and blame the games which weren't even in the period.

$99 for a 7 day pass at Flight Centre.

But the games didn't even impact their third quarter. And March is always wet on the Gold Coast. Let's go back to what they changed, their pricing? Is that really still successful? They've just launched some discounts to it? And here's their update: Renewal rates are not going to be great unless they roll out some discounted VIP passes, so yeah, expect to get slaughtered on some of the expected revenue in May and June.

Just tacky.

Not sure about other benefits, doubtful you get digital photos for $10/day. Hack is obviously to just buy one onepass and then the rest at a cheaper price point. If you're not planning on returning inside 12 months, a 7 day pass at $149 is probably still better value unless you want to visit Paradise Country.

4-Park Pass is now $169 for 12 months on groupon: https://www.groupon.com.au/deals/village-roadshow-theme-parks-21 Obviously excludes White Christmas and Carnivale entries unlike a OnePass but still, discounting is here.

Just never believed that it was truly doubling the price as some claimed or that it makes the pricing less confusing or that they won't be tempted into discounting on them... Average ticket price is up 30% in January....revenue up 24% in January...that puts sales down in total numbers. Not even close to great on onepass sales numbers to non-locals seems pretty obvious. Probably quite a few 2-day passes at $119 and onepass to locals at $139...the rest probably not a great performance in total numbers. Many tourists would have locked themselves into trips prior to November. And that is on the period that is mainly post the Dreamworld tragedy. So maybe not a great result. Actually, admissions revenue is up 4% from November 1 to January 31 from what the annual report actually says according to the annual report. So November and December were actually down for admissions revenue. http://villageroadshow.com.au/-/media/VRL-Corporate-Media-Library/Documents/ASX-Announcements/Latest-Announcements/VRL-Half-Year-Report.pdf So how about a theory of lots of locals waited to buy until January with the aim to be using it through to the end of December and then giving it a break for 12 months? Plausible. Oh and this gem on their new annual pass tickets in the presentation: "Entry to White Christmas & Carnivale are included in new annual pass - major value add for visitors" .... so knocking off some of the revenue into tickets rather than having this as a separate purchase. (Yeah I know they used to give one of them away regularly to VIP pass buyers but still, could also contribute to that average ticket price being up.) Attendance across the GC parks down 5.8% in the first half for FY18, drop was 3.6% last year for the first half of FY17 and 13.8% for the second half. Revenue down $5.1M for 1H18 vs revenue down $24M for 2H17....all the more reason to suspect admissions revenue in January wasn't an amazing result....if you took 20% off in January last year and then put 24% on this year you are in the same position. Still think discounting will happen when it comes time for them to renew a lot of the passes that run until the end of June....there'll be people nervous to sure up admission and revenue numbers.

They say plastic about 50 times in Seal Guardians too. Not much more worth saying beyond that really.

The sneak peek thing is really just a demonstration of behaviours they have been teaching the animals..it isn't too bad. Actually if they demonstrated a few more things and explained everything as in-depth as they do in this "preview" then it would be decent. I expect the actual "show" to be worse as it apparently emphasises how we should protect the environment by recycling etc. Saying you should recycle 100 times is not educational...this is one of my huge criticisms of the affinity dolphin show. They don't actually tell you any facts about the animals, in that case the dolphins but over-emphasise a sound bite without giving you much to relate to. Not very memorable. Hopefully Seal Guardians is better and does actually create some memorable moments....

Come on, doesn't it just look awesome!!!!!!!! How many logs have they actually installed this on? This isn't going to be opening on Tuesday....probably not even in January...

The other point I have is TOT part of a line up of a successful Dreamworld in 10 years time? I don't think so. Giant Drop, Wipeout and Hot Wheels also fail this test for me.

But plenty of trick art museums in Japan and some parks over there also have trick art rooms in them. At a guess the trick art museum in Odaiba (tourist attraction central) is probably more popular than the haunted house also there. Either of those is well down any Odaiba bucketlist, just like a trick art museum on the Gold Coast.

AFAIK all Star Tours worldwide were updated to include The Last Jedi. Beauty and the Beast I'm pretty sure is what you're referring to. The tip is for a fantastic e-ticket attraction. Big Hero 6 is also going in there somewhere too. https://nerdist.com/beauty-and-the-beast-and-big-hero-6-coming-soon-to-tokyo-disneyland/

Well time for Merlin to buy Dreamworld then.

I believe it is meant to be a trick art museum...slightly better than just a place to take selfies. Trick art museums can be pretty fun even if you don't take a lot of photos.

Is backwards included in the FastPass? It should be at $149. Really backwards is a very cheap way of getting a fastpass on the ride and an intensely good experience.

So I think we've now established this isn't really a price increase to $200. More like to $139 for locals and maybe $169 for visitors but that's really $149 now. The groupon $169 deal now includes a $20 giftcard to be used in park. Also given consultants were used, this makes it even more likely demand based pricing is in play here. Onepass really just replaced memberships-why did they take away monthly memberships? Probably because they weren't working, maybe too many people doing December to January for 14 months and then cancelling or too many payment issues?

My point was....why try in the first place? "We're going to invest in new, modern and safe ride systems" sounds so much better than "we're going to try and restore some rides that weren't in working condition (that everyone knows are not really safe to operate in their current state, hence the need for a long maintenance period)". It is credibility issue. Just get rid of them now, rather than try and see if they're viable.

Warner Brothers Studio Tour. If you're interested in how movies or tv shows are made or like some particular WB movies or tv shows then it should be a pretty enjoyable couple of hours.

Should say it is not worth waiting for. My real hope is @pushbutton gets to visit Japan and ride some monorails that are actually useful! Here's a show just about Japanese monorails for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m25RgamOpe4

Operated like that during the soft open when 2 trains were running and a dedicated operator lining people up for the rows. Would always take 2 for the last row essentially and more if there were odd groups. Very single rider friendly. How many ride operators? There were four loaders, one allocator and one person pre-queue to check height etc when I was there in September. Plus I guess one in the booth. Not cheap top operate but a good operation-I mean I guess they could squeeze it down to 2 where they had 6-just two people loading and one of them forced to allocate people and also load.

Not surprising-why the CEO last month sounded such an optimistic message on it I have no idea. Didn't look likely to happen then, would be better if they called it that way-if they want the public to have trust in them having safe rides. This is the same reason I don't get why they're trying so hard to make wipeout work again. It is an old ride, tell everyone that and take it away. Safety and an image of safety is way more important to the park than some nostalgia.

Already the VIP magic pass is down to $169 on groupon...this is likely to be the pass that is discounted rather than the onepass which is really just replacing $12/month memberships at $139 for locals. Seven days at $149 is still cheaper for most tourists though for now. VIP magic passes will almost certainly be discounted after school holidays...although I hadn't really thought about the Commonwealth Games...

They've just pushed the price up because it almost school holidays. Bet the price comes back down at least a bit in mid-January to February as it is outside of the holiday period.

Pretty funny that a $2 gouge for each time you want to ride superman is bad, but $4 more to use fast track once is way too much! I still believe it should be bundled with other fast passes. Can't believe backwards isn't also forced into a larger bundle. That'd put the cost of a visit up $50 every time, rather than just $19. Wouldn't use fast track for a forwards ride anyway, but would definitely pay more for backwards.