Wizard of Oz - Movie World Arkham Asylum Replacement

[New display name]

Could be less too @Brad2912  DW footprint has shrunk and the wildlife area was shut.

Edited February 12 by New display name

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

19 hours ago, New display name said:

Example: 1

DW couldn't sell out an Afterdark 

The afterdark event was open to members only, and the second event might not have sold out, but it was certainly PACKED. We went and never even set foot on Ocean Parade

19 hours ago, New display name said:

Example: 2

DW now runs as a night market, to make money.

From the get go, the night market was always a way to attract people to come back and see what had changed. Many people hadn't returned since 2016 and covid did nothing to help that - but so much has changed in the park and inviting people to come in and just SEE it for $2 while enjoying some entertainment and cheap eats was a quirky idea to try and attract people back - and it looks like it has worked to some extent.

I'm glad that it also makes money because while running a loss campaign to improve attendance is good in the short term, if the campaign is also profitable then it's more sustainable long term. As a shareholder, I'd presume you'd be happy with them making money, but it does seem like you being happy with what they do these days is rare.

19 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

Movieworld gets very little of my money. I buy a one-pass each year, sure, but I never buy meals at Movieworld as I see no benefit to spending an entire day there with their operations so I’ll take my son early for a couple of rides on opening, or late for a couple on closing. With the exception of the white Christmas buffet, MW hasn’t got a cent from me outside of the initial upfront on the annual pass in about 3 years. 
 

I’ll do full days at SW and WnW however, and that’s more so for the reason I purchase an annual pass 

^Ladies and gentlemen - the problem in a nutshell.

19 hours ago, New display name said:

considering the amount of guest who are pass holders, the gate should sell out.

But why? Unlike Carnivale and White Christmas events, this event wasn't free to attend. It required an additional payment. Further the first event was in the middle of holidays - a time when a lot of passholders tend to avoid the parks, and the second event was put on with relatively short notice compared to the first one as a make-up event. 

I held a village membership for years that included fright nights tickets every year and I used them maybe once. Just because a passholder is invited to attend something, doesn't mean they will. They could very well be similar to Brad's situation above - dropping in for a couple of hours after school or whatever. Not everyone who is a passholder is going to attend every member event on the calendar. 

17 hours ago, New display name said:

DW footprint has shrunk

Yeah we're getting into the weeds on this but if it's just a matter of how much space is available to fit people into, DW wins even with the 'shrunk footprint'. There's still a few holes in the DW lineup which i'm sure they have plans for. All I can say is we went both passholder nights, and while we got soaked on the first night, it was still pretty busy - could not find a table anywhere for food, and people were out riding rides with consistent queues despite being soaked.

The second night, queues were pretty consistent, with plenty of crowds throughout the park. We opted for the queue express 5 rides, and other than an early ride on Murrisippi Motors, the only other rides we did all night were via express queue and they were well worth it. (We did also eat at Janes, so that took up a large chunk of the night - notably although we got to Janes by 18:30, they were full and turning people away, advising folks to come back in around half an hour. They were right, and just after 19:00 the place had settled down and walk-ins were seated with minimal wait times. 

We were in the queue when Taipan went down, and credit to the maintenance crew for getting it back online as fast as they did. The ops crew working Taipan were absolutely pumping people through all night (truthfully, the crew at Jungle Rush were doing even better) and all of the Ops crew we interacted with throughout the night were amazing and did a great job.

The nightscape in Rivertown is gorgeous and I can't wait to attend more night events in the park.