Theme Park Worldwide Announce Australian Tour

[New display name]

23 hours ago, TBoy said:

And the Project Zero actually gets queues unlike Buzzsaw. 

Buzzsaw got queues at the start too but as DW found out, the ride is a onetime ride.

23 hours ago, TBoy said:

Yes when the gondola spins freely it is very intense and everyone coming down to ride the new coasters should try it out IMO. Gumbuya actually have broke some records in terms of G-Force with Project Zero being the only coaster with 5Gs and Rebel also being the only spin-n-spew gyro swing with 5Gs. I can see why it is 14+ to ride.

Why is this a record?

[WalleyWorld]

51 minutes ago, New display name said:

but as DW found out, the ride is a onetime ride.

This is not true at Gumbuya (for now), as I saw and spoke to many people who rode multiple times in one day. The jury is still out on whether it will stay this way.

[New display name]

There is no other thrill coaster for people to ride so of course people will ride it multiply times but the second they install a descent thrill coaster; PZ will be a walk on.

[Slick]

Here's the reality - there was nothing wrong with the coaster. Because if there was, it would've been scrapped instead of sold, and instead of thriving with very minimal downtime, it would've had the same kind of opening that Leviathan had.

Buzzsaw's issue was that people didn't want to do thrill rides that seemed psychologically scary right after the incident. This continues to be the park's problem and why Giant Drop has had minimal ridership post-incident. It also doesn't help that Buzzsaw's position was essentially metres from the incident. The nail in the coffin was that the ride needed some ten-year maintenance (read: major work) at a time when the park's management thought that the only way out of their pandemic-exasperated fiscal woes was to contract the park's cost-base by any means necessary. Was it necessary? Prior to the government intervention/funding, maybe. But the on-flow effect of transforming the park from "The Biggest in Australia" to the opposite of that in 2023 is that demand for the Village offering has soared while Dreamworld's demand hasn't kept pace with general market demand.

[TBoy]

1 hour ago, New display name said:

Why is this a record?

Project Zero is the only coaster in Aus to reach 5Gs and Rebel is also tied with SX360 at Aussie World as the only spin-and-spews to reach 5Gs.

Edited January 30, 2023 by TBoy

[Guest 239]

8 minutes ago, Slick said:

Buzzsaw's issue was that people didn't want to do thrill rides that seemed psychologically scary right after the incident.

Makes sense considering the parks shift towards a family-oriented experience. Do you think this same thrill ride aversion has affected Steel Taipan considering it's placement and thrill factor? 

 

[TBoy]

50 minutes ago, WalleyWorld said:

This is not true at Gumbuya (for now), as I saw and spoke to many people who rode multiple times in one day. The jury is still out on whether it will stay this way.

Yes I know many people who rode it multiple times. I rode 3 times and my sister 5. TNT had more queues however but Mining Race Coaster is basically dead.

[Slick]

44 minutes ago, Guest 239 said:

Makes sense considering the parks shift towards a family-oriented experience. Do you think this same thrill ride aversion has affected Steel Taipan considering it's placement and thrill factor? 

 

Oh so many reasons why Steel Taipan hasn't been the success they wished it was. Firstly, in answer to your question - the general sentiment shared seems to be that it's not as scary as Giant Drop or Rivals (height plays a factor psychologically for most people, which checks out) and most people don't have a fine-tuned awareness on where everything is in a park (especially when there are no indicators in that area to suggest that's where the ride or incident was) so you can logically conclude it's not intensity or placement.

I've openly shared in previous posts that had the pandemic not happened the park would've returned to profitability in 2020 (the 2020 HY release hints at this). It's because strategically the only way is up - if you close attractions and don't replace or expand, austerity will inevitably kill any amusement park. Ergo, constant capex is the only strategy to maintain profitability and why 18 months of nothing post-incident did no favours for Dreamworld's return to profitability efforts. Dreamworld's marketing & strategic efforts understood the grim reality the organisation faced and knew it had to double down, or else the gap between Ardent and Village market share would continue to increase, hence the "Biggest Pass" campaign and the 50M spend.

Then the pandemic happened and the park changed strategy and comms. Ignoring the inevitable long-term macro-economic forces at play and Village's tripling down on capital expenditure, the new park strategy was about contraction both physically and fiscally in a new play to remain viable post-pandemic. Does a 30M+ capital project still make sense with a park that's trying to count pennies? Absolutely not, but at that point with all the hype garnered and pieces on site it would've been worse to not build than to simply crack on.

So we've got a park with a coaster that doesn't make sense with it's current strategy that hopes to capitalise off the same magic Rivals had in bumping Movie World's attendance, revenue and reputation, but without the marketing budget, notable IP attachment or landmark differentiation that were major antecedents in accelerating Rivals' flywheel to success. Then the park has it's 40th, and instead of spending every penny on getting Steel Taipan out there, it splits the budget on marketing both it's birthday and the park's biggest ever investment, during a time where every dollar is being scraped. This is also at a park that has (at least in the general public's mind) a reputation for closing many beloved thrill rides and has nothing fresh beyond what people already know from their last visit, which is important when you considered the following:

Iif you're an interstate nuclear family itching to travel to the Gold Coast for a holiday after the pandemic and you want to have the best theme park experience possible, do you risk your 5-10k holiday on saving a few hundred bucks on theme park passes and go with the smaller, contracted, shell of its former self Dreamworld that has one new ride, or just get the more expensive passes that appear to have "heaps of parks" and "stuff to do?" Well, the proof is in the pudding, and people voted with their wallets on whether or not Dreamworld Light was a good idea or not, which is why the park is now course-correcting again with announcements on similar sized projects to Steel Taipan.

Really the question is if Sky Voyager landed with a thud, and Steel Taipan didn't generate the revenue they were after, is three times a charm?

Also, not sure where you got that the park is shifting towards a family-oriented experience. You could at best assume that's the case given their recent announcements, but as always, correlation does not equal causation. They've clearly identified that their attractions mix is still severely lacking and this is their best attempt at fixing that. But make no mistake, hyper-regional parks like Dreamworld languish when they hyper-focus on one market segment and ignore all others. You can do that for a marketing campaign, but not at the strategic level. Sea World is a great example of how it plays out - when you don't give everyone in a family group something fun to do, they go somewhere else, which is precisely why they built Atlantis.

Edited January 30, 2023 by Slick

[Guest 239]

The family-orientation was an assumption based on their recent announcements plus other park changes but you're right that it's likely just expanding the line up to ensure that everybody has something to do.
 

1 hour ago, Slick said:

Really the question is if Sky Voyager landed with a thud, and Steel Taipan didn't generate the revenue they were after, is three times a charm?

Genuinely, I'm not sure. I still think that Steel Taipan was a good call despite marketing woes, and I believe that the new expansions accompanied by proper marketing should create an enticing package when it's all completed, but I guess time will tell. 

I wonder what example they could follow by overseas, but I've been thinking a lot about how people on here mention that the Gold Coast is a completely different beast compared to the rest of the world, and the more I think about it the more I genuinely believe that's true.

I think the Gold Coast theme parks in their entirety are in a weird place thanks to the one-two punch it experienced over the last decade. The incident looked to have forced a lot of expensive change alongside a dramatic reduction of capacity across the board, and then the pandemic came along and basically hit them whilst they were down. Now we have parks sent a decade backwards in terms of capacity that are trying to keep up with modern experiential spending demands. 

Not only this, but the Gold Coast is becoming more expensive to both live in and travel to, and the closer that price gets to international travel prices than the more likely people might be to consider just going overseas instead. As an interstate visitor I've seen prices continually hike year by year and whilst luxury options continue to pop up for people to stay in the area the affordable options are becoming worse and lesser. 

If it becomes a choice between the Gold Coast parks or somewhere like Tokyo Disney than I know where I'm going. 

[New display name]

2 hours ago, Slick said:

Buzzsaw's issue was that people didn't want to do thrill rides that seemed psychologically scary right after the incident.

That would make sense if the Rapid Rides was a thrill ride like Buzzsaw was.. 

[Slick]

10 minutes ago, New display name said:

That would make sense if the Rapid Rides was a thrill ride like Buzzsaw was.. 

General public sentiment was unequivocally "if they died on the mild ride, I'm 100% not going on the much scarier rides which look and feel far more dangerous."

[New display name]

Yet more thrill rides remain, so what you are saying is nonsense.

[Slick]

18 minutes ago, New display name said:

Yet more thrill rides remain, so what you are saying is nonsense.

As someone who was on the coal face for a long time and was a part of the team that saw guest feedback first hand I can sleep soundly knowing you’re wrong on this one. Even despite that fact, how is it nonsense? Would rather you articulate a post of value instead of flinging mud. 

Edited January 30, 2023 by Slick

[New display name]

DW investing millions on a 390ft drop tower, one of the biggest in the world, tells me all I need to know on what DW thinks guest think of thrill rides.   Not everything is an attack on you, and I couldn't care less you once worked for DW.  You weren't at DW when Buzzaw was removed and had no part in it.

[joz]

Fwiw, as an outsider on this topic I don't really see a contradiction between what the two of you are saying @Slick @New display name

 

 

[New display name]

Don't feel like an outsider @jozYou're always welcome to the party.🥳

[joz]

🥰

[Slick]

20 hours ago, New display name said:

DW investing millions on a 390ft drop tower, one of the biggest in the world, tells me all I need to know on what DW thinks guest think of thrill rides.   Not everything is an attack on you, and I couldn't care less you once worked for DW.  You weren't at DW when Buzzaw was removed and had no part in it.

 

20 hours ago, joz said:

Fwiw, as an outsider on this topic I don't really see a contradiction between what the two of you are saying @Slick @New display name

 

 

Context is key. I didn't say they don't care about thrill rides, which is what @New display name is inferring. In fact I've said the opposite - when replying to @Guest 239 I mentioned that parks like Dreamworld need a mix of attractions, because if they don't attendance dips, and pointed out that Sea World did exactly this.

What I said was that post-incident public sentiment was risk-averse about the park, and rightfully so, but it isn't the sole factor, which is what old mate is trying imbue on my end. In fact, as myself and others have pointed out, Buzzsaw in particular was sold when the 10-year mandatory major rehab came due. I'm absolutely sure someone did the maths and decided that a bunch of factors (including ridership and ongoing costs) didn't stack up under the current strategy. Meanwhile, with Giant Drop, could you imagine if they closed that too? It'd be the final straw for many, and so in spite of present low ridership, I'm sure they realised it's worth the long-term effort. That strikes me as a sound call as well if the intention is to eventually sell the park. Also doesn't hurt that the depreciation rates the ATO provides specifically for The Giant Drop are pretty great and would do a lot more to help cashflow than doubling down on a 10-year rehab.

Edited January 31, 2023 by Richard

[REGIE]

6 hours ago, Slick said:

As someone who was on the coal face for a long time and was a part of the team that saw guest feedback first hand I can sleep soundly knowing you’re wrong on this one. Even despite that fact, how is it nonsense? Would rather you articulate a post of value instead of flinging mud. 

Gotta agree on that one. I know a lot of family and friends who every time I mention DW say stuff like (I can’t believe it how could it happen on the family ride” “the safest ride”. People do in fact think that since an accident happened on a mild ride then thrill rides are more dangerous. But thrill rides drive gate (when people feel safe) park of me thinks the update we are getting to the park now should have come before ST but ST was needed to keep DW on the map. Yes people are scared but thrill rides attract attention good or bad. So yes it’s not none sense it’s firmly based fact unfortunately. I wish it was not the case and everyone got over the  DW thing and realised they are going to be more safe now. I mean with the SW helicopters I know heaps of people who told me they thought seaworld was the safest place to ride a helicopter and now never want to ride a helicopter. on the other hand I think know is a better time to ride one because safety standards will be higher… 

[iwerks]

 

[Noll_57]

Coaster Studios are arriving next week. Sucks they’re not only going to miss out on Superman, but Scooby Doo too. 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Noll_57

[New display name]

Why does it suck @Noll_57?  I'm sure they have been around long enough to know, if you go to a park during its low season, rides will be closed.  

[Noll_57]

It just would’ve been nice for them to experience both of these attractions and get their opinions of them. Plus Scooby wasn’t announced as being closed when CS first organized their trip. But yeah, I’m sure they were expecting some additional closures. 

[Rivals]

1 hour ago, New display name said:

Why does it suck @Noll_57?  I'm sure they have been around long enough to know, if you go to a park during its low season, rides will be closed.  

Scooby was announced as closing for refurb 3 days prior to its closure.

I will say it sucks they won’t be seeing our parks at their potential, MW will have Batwing, Superman, Doomsday and Scooby down (who even knows what GL will decide to do), DW will have half the kids area closed off for refurb + GD and SS, SW will probably have Trident and Vortex down for technical issues. It’s a shame.

Hopefully they return after 2024, once the half pipe, WoO, Dreamland, Dreamworld Flyer, Rivertown and Ocean Parade expansion are all opened up. 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Rivals

[REGIE]

Well maybe TPWW have a point. Visiting parks in peak season is not always a bad thing

2 hours ago, Noll_57 said:

Coaster Studios are arriving next week. Sucks they’re not only going to miss out on Superman, but Scooby Doo too. 

Ahaha it always makes me laugh when people not from Australia think all kangaroos do is beat up people and that koala “bears” are acutely Bears