VRTP's New Uniform

[Guest 239]

VRTP have recently discontinued many of their old uniforms and replaced them with a simple dark polo and khaki shorts. They've apparently been trialed at Sea World but as of Monday were phased into Movie World as well. 

Picture from a recent Theme Park Ogre video that shows the new uniform.

I'm on the fence about them. They look professional and comfortable, but they also look like something I'd expect BOH crew to wear. The teal accents on the old uniform made it obvious as to who you could go to get help where as these blend in a lot more. Thoughts?

[REGIE]

They aren’t bad. You can still tell they are staff. Would be harder to tell if they weren’t in a group though. I don’t really care that much but I think the older ones were slightly better. These ones look like they might be security or something.

[mba2012]

All the ride uniforms have disappeared at movie world now too, all the ride ops are just wearing this new uniform. I think it looks very bland and having the blue on the old shirts made them much more recognisable.

[Dean Barnett]

Even on rivals?

[mba2012]

Just now, Dean Barnett said:

Even on rivals?

Yep, as far as I'm aware

[Dean Barnett]

So they're moving futher away from Disney/Universal level and heading closer towards Six Flags

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

The loss of the ride specific costumes is a sad day, but it does make operations easier as staff don't have to change if they get reallocated, and you don't end up with a Justice League Host assisting on the parade (or even JDS!).

But I agree about the choice here - there's nothing wrong with the tan coloured pants, but the bland, uninspired polo makes them almost invisible to guests.

Dreamworld has (as far as I can remember) also moved their staff to a standard polo, but theirs being bright blue with yellow accents does stand out as "I work here - you can ask me for help".

It feels like a missed opportunity to get a really nicely designed dye-sub dri-fit polo with some level of village-level branding (if they have to have the rake, at least do something nice with it) that would stand out as "I don't wear this in public, i'm an employee".

[Gobbledok]

This is pretty sad

Individual themed uniforms really add something to selling the experience

Bad enough they cant have different for each ride but even park to park is the same

You cant call yourself World Class with that. At best youre Regional Class

[Naazon]

22 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

It feels like a missed opportunity to get a really nicely designed dye-sub dri-fit polo with some level of village-level branding (if they have to have the rake, at least do something nice with it) that would stand out as "I don't wear this in public, i'm an employee".

I initially read this as tie-dye and was 100% onboard with the park wide scooby theme.

[red dragin]

Wasn't the new owner an investment company? 

If that's true, these are expenditure cuts to increase profits (probably explains the poor appearance of the park too) 

[Park Addict 93]

Honestly don't mind the general new uniform/look in general but 100% think its a poor decision to take away specific themed ride uniforms, I think it detracts from the overall themed environment experience.

Sure have uniform the same across front gate/retail/food and bev. But let the "Metropolis Rapid Transit" employee check my superman restraint.

My understanding is Roxy is the only attraction that is retaining the "old" uniforms.

 

 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, red dragin said:

these are expenditure cuts to increase profits

If that is the case then the ride-specific costumes could make a comeback once flipped in a few years. I remember when Wonderland cleared out, they still had several ride-specific costumes in Wardrobe that had long since gone out of use - Presumably VR's wardrobe department won't just destroy the old ones so hold tight to the dream and maybe one day they'll come back?

[Rivals]

Does anyone know if Superman’s ride uniforms will be staying or are they going too, they really do add to the experience.

I will say from what i’ve heard staff aren’t very happy with this change either, the old uniforms were a lot more comfortable while these are more skin gripping, i can’t tell how well the coloured pants will work in certain departments either but they do look nice. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, Rivals said:

Does anyone know if Superman’s ride uniforms will be staying or are they going too

From what I understand, they're gone. Roxy is apparently the only attraction costume that remains from what i've heard.

[Noll_57]

6 hours ago, Gobbledok said:

You cant call yourself World Class with that. At best youre Regional Class

Even Gumbuya World in Melbourne have ride specific uniforms for TNT and Project Zero. 

[REGIE]

7 hours ago, Gobbledok said:

You cant call yourself World Class with that. At best youre Regional Class

 

37 minutes ago, Noll_57 said:

Even Gumbuya World in Melbourne have ride specific uniforms for TNT and Project Zero

In some ways you’re more likely to see more effort put into a Regional park. The smaller parks do the little things as they can’t all way’s afford big things. But larger chain parks chose to simplify things that wouldn’t seem like a big deal to them.

I feel like at least a cap with the ride’s logo on it would be nice. It’s pretty easy to switch hat’s when moved to different locations around the park.  
 

I do feel like it would be nice to at least have themed outfits for scooby and SE . And maybe even Levithan considering the voiceover calls them “guardians”

[Baconjack]

10 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

The loss of the ride specific costumes is a sad day, but it does make operations easier as staff don't have to change if they get reallocated, and you don't end up with a Justice League Host assisting on the parade (or even JDS!).

I don't really get this from an operational standpoint. Surely it takes about 5 minutes tops to go into a staff room and change a shirt. Or wear an MRT polo over the top of the existing shirt.

What makes this more bizarre is that it's not even specific for each park. Surely it's not that hard and not that more expensive to make a MW/SW/WNW specific polo with the park logo instead of a generic Village one. Some rides are affected by this worse than others. Superman and Scooby are the big ones pointed out previously but Justice League, Storm & WWF can be added to the list. You can probably get away with it on Lantern, Rivals, JDS and most of the shows.

LPS have specific operator shirts just for Big Dipper, I would like to imagine Village Roadshow who charge a triple digit sum for a day ticket would be of a similar standard.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Baconjack

[Naazon]

8 hours ago, Baconjack said:

Some rides are affected by this worse than others. Superman and Scooby are the big ones pointed out previously but Justice League, Storm & WWF can be added to the list. You can probably get away with it on Lantern, Rivals, JDS and most of the shows.

You can take Storm off that list. They look exactly like a boat crew. Just add a "high vis emergency" vest and maybe a hard hat and its perfect.

[TBoy]

If specific ride shirts (Superman, Scooby etc.) are being removed that is disappointing. It removes some of the feeling you are actually inside the MRT station. Even more disappointing that Village aren't even bothered to make park specific shirts and just use the one VRTP shirt.

7 hours ago, Baconjack said:

LPS have specific operator shirts just for Big Dipper

11 hours ago, Noll_57 said:

Even Gumbuya World in Melbourne have ride specific uniforms for TNT and Project Zero. 

I am also pretty sure Adventure World in Perth also have jackets themed to rides like Dragons Express.

It is embarrassing that parks like Gumbuya World, Luna Park Sydney and Adventure World can use themed uniforms for certain rides, yet Village who is supposed to be the biggest theme park operator in Australia can't be bothered to.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

9 hours ago, Baconjack said:

I don't really get this from an operational standpoint. Surely it takes about 5 minutes tops to go into a staff room and change a shirt.

Consider that they have to leave their current position, make their way back to wherever their locker is (or wardrobe if they don't already have the costume) - get it, then go and get changed, put their current set away (or return to wardrobe) and then head to the new position. I think it would be reasonable to allow up to 10 minutes for this to avoid rushing or unexpected delays (like being waylaid by a guest on main street).

But here's the kicker - they have to do that while they are on their own break time - so they lose break time having to get changed for the next ride.

9 hours ago, Baconjack said:

Or wear an MRT polo over the top of the existing shirt.

Doing that type of physical labour in summer, wearing multiple layers is not conducive to heat stress management. And a ride specific polo =\= a ride specific costume.

 

9 hours ago, Baconjack said:

What makes this more bizarre is that it's not even specific for each park.

This I agree with. While they do occasionally share staff across parks (mainly for events) I can't imagine it would be a huge impost on them to have different shirts for different parks. Buying in those numbers the bulk pricing shouldn't vary too much between 1 park or 3.

 

6 minutes ago, TBoy said:

It is embarrassing that parks like Gumbuya World, Luna Park Sydney and Adventure World can use themed uniforms for certain rides, yet Village who is supposed to be the biggest theme park operator in Australia can't be bothered to.

It's sad, but in the scheme of things, many big parks are changing to this format, and while I don't like it, its a necessary cost saving measure on a scale the little parks don't have to worry about.

Cedar fair have colour coded their staff depending on their role, and looking at this, i'm ok with that as the shirt stands out, and the colours enable you to clearly identify the role those staff are fulfilling.

 

I'm sad we've lost most of the ride specific costumes, but it's costumes, not just 'ride specific polo shirts'. My only complaint about this direction for Village is that the shirt is uninspired, boring, and blends in too much with the average guest to make them stand out as a point to go to for help.

On my recent trip to the US, I made a point of showing my son what the staff were wearing each morning, so that if we ever got separated, he knew who he should approach for assistance. Fortunately that never occurred, but to tell him - "find someone with one of these namebadges" would have been a lot harder for him to spot in the spring break crowds we had each day.

I wonder how well crowd control during summer is going to go for them...

[STRAWS]

Movie World has got into the trend of cutting corners losing the themed uniform is poor also considering how rude staff can be it all seems downhill from here. hopefully ride operations are a bit faster now though.

[REGIE]

It feels like lately village road show have been pushing for getting the village name more involved in the parks.  Unless you’re an enthusiast you’re not really going to know the name of dreamworlds parent company. While village has been pushing the village name into their parks a lot more.
This seems like another move to get their name in the parks. So that when people think of SW, MW and WNW you think village roadshow . 

[Gobbledok]

There was once a story about the then Warner Village CEO having a series of caps in his car and would actually change hats depending on what park he was visiting

But given village staff couldnt even manage to change their name badge when going to another park i feel like changing uniforms per ride is expecting staff to give way too many shits than  they are prepared to do

[Stevie]

On 02/05/2023 at 10:53 AM, Guest 239 said:

VRTP have recently discontinued many of their old uniforms and replaced them with a simple dark polo and khaki shorts. They've apparently been trialed at Sea World but as of Monday were phased into Movie World as well. 

Great, now we get to play the, do they work here or is that just a dad, game. 

2 hours ago, REGIE said:

It feels like lately village road show have been pushing for getting the village name more involved in the parks.  Unless you’re an enthusiast you’re not really going to know the name of dreamworlds parent company. While village has been pushing the village name into their parks a lot more.
This seems like another move to get their name in the parks. So that when people think of SW, MW and WNW you think village roadshow . 

For the longest time it was "Warner Brothers *insert park name here*" so moving more towards "Village Roadshow *insert park name here*" seems like a natural change now that their parent is Village.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

25 minutes ago, Stevie said:

For the longest time it was "Warner Brothers *insert park name here*"

That's not a thing. Nobody ever said 'Warner Brothers Sea World' or 'Warner Brothers Wet and Wild'. 

Previously the park branding remained separate, or was grouped under 'MyFun', the 'themeparks.com.au', branding and things like the '3 Park Superpass'. (My word they've had a lot of online portals and presences, haven't they?)

27 minutes ago, Stevie said:

now that their parent is Village.

Village Roadshow has been a partner in the group since Movie World was first conceived back in around 1989. They bought Time Warner out in 2006 so have been the parent company for around 17 years now.

29 minutes ago, Stevie said:

moving more towards "Village Roadshow *insert park name here*"

Unless they rebrand Movie World, nobody is going with 'Village Roadshow Warner Brothers Movie World'. The rake is ever present, but that doesn't mean they're going to start renaming parks.