VRTP Membership Changes

[Ashley Jeffery]

Is there a reason why every thread on this forum turns into a shit fight?

[Brendo88]

Media is loving the price rise. There was just a story on it on Sunrise this morning. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

15 hours ago, Jules C said:

it makes no sense to me to charge more for non locals who are not going to use it as often.

let alone charging that much for it. 

 

@joz has given a very accurate explanation to answer this - but one final thought:

Locals are more likely to visit more often, but they're also less likely to spend in park on every visit.

If they feel like they got a cheaper deal to enter, they won't hesitate as much about spending in-park. They've already saved money, so a little in-park spend is ok... every. single. visit. If they just refill their unlimited refill sipper on every visit (about $9) they're making $8 additional profit. Kids want to try that new donut milkshake? cha-ching. There's a new hat-graffiti-cape-embroidery-latest-gimmick store open on main street? try it out.

9 hours ago, aaronm said:

I don’t have an issue with the locals pass but I think they’d be better off swapping out the postcode restrictions for blackout dates (i.e. school holidays) to help manage crowds during peak periods.

no, the postcode restrictions are necessary, for the reasons already mentioned above by Joz - tourists will pay more, locals will be more likely to visit if they have cheaper passes.

Most locals won't go near the parks in peak periods anyway, so blackout dates won't change much. (Back when all passes were $99, blackout dates would have worked for a tiered system, and they tried it, and then quickly backed down on it - rewarding the cheaper pass-buyers by allowing them to enter christmas week, while stiffing those who paid the extra for VIP Gold, making the extra money paid essentially worthless.)

27 minutes ago, Ashley Jeffery said:

Is there a reason why every thread on this forum turns into a shit fight?

1. People have different opinions
2. Tone doesn't come across well in written text
3. Absent the tone that might imply humor or sarcasm, many people misinterpret intention and react to that misinterpretation.

Also - some people are stupid, and because you can't smack some sense into them, they keep coming back with ridiculous unrealistic proposals, and won't accept being told it won't work by logic, reason, or experts in the field. (But that doesn't relate to this current thread).

[Gobbledok]

GCB article otherwise known as they trawled facebook and selected a few negative comments from whiney community pages

Dont worry tomorrow they will be back to reporting on Tammy Hembrows latest boob job

[LethalWeapon]

7 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

@joz has given a very accurate explanation to answer this - but one final thought:

Locals are more likely to visit more often, but they're also less likely to spend in park on every visit.

If they feel like they got a cheaper deal to enter, they won't hesitate as much about spending in-park. They've already saved money, so a little in-park spend is ok... every. single. visit. If they just refill their unlimited refill sipper on every visit (about $9) they're making $8 additional profit. Kids want to try that new donut milkshake? cha-ching. There's a new hat-graffiti-cape-embroidery-latest-gimmick store open on main street? try it out.

 

100% correct. We visit Movieworld at least once a month thanks to the $12/mth deal, and as a local I'm more likely to spend on popcorn, drinks, donuts in the park for my kids.

Our plan is to cancel our memberships and potentially take them up on the $189 peace offering.

$288 however is out of the question.

Given the hefty levels of ride maintenance this year though, I don't think it's worth the price hike. A park operating at less than 50% capacity of its main attractions isn't good optics.

Another option for us is simply to renew once the Oz precinct is up and running. 

[Brad2912]

I've cancelled our 3 memberships today. 

I'll purchase 2 of their reduced one-pass offerings for my son and I, but wont be bothering for my partner who only attends 1-2 of the night events each year. 

The 12 months doesn't start until your first visit - so safe to say i'll be waiting until later in the year to activate given the number of rides down at present. 

[Mooman82]

As a member of about 7 years I have been more and more Disappointed in memberships as time has gone on.

When we first joined the had some great member only early access to new attractions (like a exclusive hour on rivals before opening).  And in park discounts that made it attractive.

Those days have long gone and I have I have not been happy with the membership since.  The only thing that has kept me from cancelling has been the price until now.

 

 

[Ogre]

I've only done locals One Pass, so not that experienced on the other offerings. What was the previous membership deal exactly? $9 a month for unlimited access to the parks, with an included Fight Nights ticket?

Edited May 20, 2023 by Ogre

[Park Addict 93]

4 hours ago, Ogre said:

I've only done locals One Pass, so not that experienced on the other offerings. What was the previous membership deal exactly? $9 a month for unlimited access to the parks, with an included Fight Nights ticket?

$9/$10 per month entry, depending on initial sign up.

$12 per month entry and 1 entry each year to White Christmas, Carnivale and Fright Night, later purchases excluding Fright Night.

$15 per month, as above + Wet n Wild Sydney access.

 

[themagician]

[Naazon]

Using the thumbs up as a response to a 'survey' produces false results as its the default "like".

Edit: They totally know that though, and want the results to be as sensational as possible to match their story narrative. 

Edited May 21, 2023 by Naazon

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Mildly relevant to this topic given the earlier mention of closures, but this is the maintenance board out front this morning, presented visually:

(I realise this map still shows Pounce n Bounce, but it doesn't show Marvin ride, so still pretty representative of the lineup today. I've excluded Showcase since it's a static walkthrough rather than a ride or show. There is literally no reason to turn left at Main Street as that entire wing of the park is a ghost town)

Sourced from TPSN.

[Naazon]

Honestly, its disgusting to charge full price for that.

[aaronm]

2 hours ago, Naazon said:

Honestly, its disgusting to charge full price for that.

The template VRTP response would be that the park offers much more than just rides, with entertainment and magical experiences for the whole family... I wonder if they actually believe this? 

The bare minimum would be to have some sort of "buy one day, get another day free" offer when this many rides are down. 

[Park Addict 93]

For what it’s worth they do 20% off 1 day tickets at the front gate (unadvertised) when there are this many rides down. 

Frankly the only time I think the park is worth the one day ticket cost is during the holiday events with extra entertainment (DC H&V, Hooray for Hollywood)

 

[themagician]

2 hours ago, aaronm said:

The bare minimum would be to have some sort of "buy one day, get another day free" offer when this many rides are down. 

But if they did that, they would need it to have a one year expiry date because if it was only a month, there is a chance just as many rides would still be closed. And if people have travel interstate or internationally, a free day wouldn’t cut it because that would mean there would be need to pay for flights, accommodation, etc.

If this is discount offer is still current, then it’s definitely good they do that. But most people are buying tickets online before they’re visit, so what are they getting as compensation.

42 minutes ago, Park Addict 93 said:

For what it’s worth they do 20% off 1 day tickets at the front gate (unadvertised) when there are this many rides down. 

[aaronm]

I suppose they could also spend enough on maintenance so this sort of endemic downtime doesn’t happen. I can’t think of any other park that has so much trouble keeping its rides open.

[Dean Barnett]

They're gonna need a bigger board soon.

[joz]

1 hour ago, themagician said:

But most people are buying tickets online before they’re visit, so what are they getting as compensation.

I mean hopefully if you're buying tickets online, you're also looking at the page that tells you what's closed, at which point you can still back out. Much harder to back out when you load your family in the car and rock up at the gate though.

[New display name]

I love how people put it on the guest to solve the parks problems.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

13 hours ago, joz said:

I mean hopefully if you're buying tickets online, you're also looking at the page that tells you what's closed, at which point you can still back out. Much harder to back out when you load your family in the car and rock up at the gate though.

Incoming waffle. If you want the TL:DR it's this:
There is nothing wrong with their current approach, but they could do a better job than they currently do at pointing out their closures.

You've been warned. 

 

There's a reason that Australian Consumer Law requires things like surcharges to be just as prominent as the advertised price. Now before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, i'm not suggesting Village is being misleading or breaching any law - i'm just making a comparison.

The reason for the law is that consumers don't necessarily read everything in the fine print, because the big ad shows them "PRODUCT" and "PRICE" they should have a reasonable expectation that they get that, and if there's a good chance that's not what they get, they'd rightly feel misled.

To put this in Movie World terms, any ad that were to feature Scooby right now would be misleading, because the company knows Scoob is closed for a significant time period.

Ok, now that's said - take their main landing page -

• 'Buy Now' is the first menu item on the left (the natural starting point for reading)
• 'All Tickets' in a contrasted button on the right
• Page heading 'Australia's #1 Webste for GC Theme Park Tickets
• A giant banner image of a roller coaster, with much of the content hidden lower down.

Now take a look at the next part - what happens when you scroll below the banner image:

• Over 115 rides, slides and shows
• 8 Theme parks and attractions + accommodation
• best online deals to save you time and money (with a call to action to buy online to save money at the gate!)
• Ticket options presented - again with the call to 'buy online and save'

But the big issue here, is what is missing from this screenshot. Did you notice the blue and red bar in the first image at the top of the banner, just under the menu? Yes - that banner with the smallest font on screen that says 'Announcements - Important information' that you have to physically click on to show?

What could be hiding there? (Bear in mind, this is zoomed in)

Ok, so finally we have a reminder to check the maintenance schedule prior to visiting. This is better than nothing, but still could do better.

Now, if we check out the maintenance link - Scoob isn't included in the list... unless you scroll all the way down. For an infrequent, non-thoosie visitor, you could forgive them for checking 'currently under maintenance' prior to today's visit and assuming scooby would be open.

And this choice is deliberate. While all other attractions show a 'maintenance' banner in the attractions list on the website, scooby has been pushed to the bottom of the list, below the Looney Tunes Splash Zone, JL 52 Batmobile (that's an attraction now?) the HWSD2 upcharge experience, the New York Film Academy Hot Sets (select days of the year only) and the 'Coming Soon' Wizard of Oz precinct.

Sure, it's a long term closure, but it feels deliberately hidden beyond where most average punters are going to check to see. Clearly when something is under maintenance its easy for them to swap out the ride pic for one with a maintenance ribbon on it, so it's odd that they'd deliberately relocate it to the bottom (and in the case of the maintenance page, create an entirely new banner just for it)

 

Now, in fairness, I visited Dreamworld's page as a comparison. Noteworthy points of comparison are:

• The Dreamworld website has a similar 'ride maintenance info' banner at the top, which disappears as you scroll.
• Their ticketing offers are repeated, and prominent
• They should definitely improve on this - at minimum, make it bigger, contrast with the rest of the page (village does this better with the red bar) and don't let it disappear the moment you scroll - keep it showing on every page as part of the titlebar.
• One thing different is that their long term closure for major refurbishment - giant drop - is shown right at the top of the maintenance list as the first ride:

 

[downunder]

I'm just a member of the general public, and it seems logical that eventually this reputational damage is going to hit them where it hurts. There were so many better ways to handle the objective of winding down memberships than jacking the price up exponentially. 

I'm going to the GC this weekend, mostly because my GF is speaking at a conference. I thought about going to Sea World on Sunday, but I'm not going to bother - why spend all that money when I only want ride Leviathan, and who knows if it will be up. Compounded by Jet Rescue under maintenance, which at least is known. First time I've visited the GC and not gone to at least one of the parks. Definitely did not consider heading up Maintenance World in Oxenford. 

[Park Addict 93]

1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

(and in the case of the maintenance page, create an entirely new banner just for it)

Interesting that there is a difference on the main website vs app they chose to list it under current maintenance in the app.

 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, downunder said:

Maintenance World in Oxenford. 

Ouch.

[rappa]

Has a nicer ring to it than Memorial Factory in Coomera though