Dreamworld's New Water Park

[The Theme Park Master]

Let me get straight to the point. The only advantage of putting a multi-million dollar top-of-the-class water park in Dreamworld is that maybe, just maybe, Dreamworld will get more people. What happened to Wet 'n' Wild, being only 5 minutes down the highway? What about the fact that really, Dreamworld is wasting money? And what about the fact that, as much as Dreamworld tries to hide it, DREAMWORLD IS NOT A WATER PARK. Now for those of you who agree with the idea of a water park in Dreamworld, good on you. Yes, it will be an extension to attendance numbers in the park and wil make Dreamworld rich. (Aren't they rich already?) Dreamworld, from my point of view, is not...just not the park that is suitable for a water park. That's exactly the same as putting a ride themed on Bugs Bunny in Under Water World. It just doesn't make sense. Dreamworld is Australia's premier thrill park, not Australia's premier water park. Why don't we leave anything watery to Wet 'n' Wild, who is five minutes down the road? This idea will cost Dreamworld many millions of dollars. By the way, I'm not taking sides or being bias. I just think it's not...well, a perfect idea to put a water park in Dreamworld. But then again, that's just my opinion.

[dreamworld_rulz]

No DW is not a water park,but come this time next year it'll be a water park and a thrill park.Now all pass holders have to do is think on weather they get a pass for DWWP and DW or just stick with DW.

[joz]

I think putting a $56million water park IN Dreamworld is indeed, a stupid idea, which would be hard pushed to generate a decent return. However a $56million stand-alone water park (which is what this is) will make plenty of money. It probably won't be the premier water park; I really think that Wet "n" Wild will hold on to that title. Not being Biased, but when you think of all the infrastructure that needs to be built from scratch (Fast food outlets, Toilets, shops, paths, as well as filtration and the like) the amount left for actual attractions becomes quite small. Wave Pools certainty can’t be cheap either.

[Slick]

This is incredibly hypocritical for people to even suggest they have negative feelings for this new water park, especially when their reasons are based of how much income a "feat" of this nature will raise. Seriously, I hear alot of poeple going "it doesn't matter if an attraction doesn't make alot of money, provided it's awesome" whereas now I hear you guys going "there's this quite large park being built, it's going to have tonnes of themeing but it's not going to be a good idea because it won't make enough money." Can we give up on this yet? Because of fact of the matter is most of you don't even know what it's going to be like. How in holy hell are you going to place a biost judgement if you haven't even seen it or know why specifically it's going in? Heck, half of you don't even know where it's going yet, so we can give that a rest I suppose. And for those who think it's a good idea, let's look at it this way. Wet 'n' Wild currently has a large stronghold on the "water" market, and considering how many people, including myself want to cool off instead of go to a theme park during a heat wave, why should a park like Wet 'n' Wild take a 90 percent stronghold on a virtually stale market? With a secondary park introduced, we're making more competition, and most of all, it adds into Dreamworld's large scale idea to make a haven style "area" where people can sleep, play and enjoy the suburb in a way that Disney would be proud of. Yeah, from what I've heard and seen it will be that good. So, let's recap, new park, more options, more competition for new attractions and we still have something like 40 hectares if not a hell of a lot more for future thrill rides. What are you guys so worked up about?

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Agree with you on that one Slick. In recent years, DW and WVTP have competed on new attractions, hence the current rush for DW to bring out something new to compete with Superman. But WnW have had no competition. As I've said before, another competitor, so close to the market centre will encourage BOTH parks to continuously improve, upgrade, renew, and add attractions to their parks. This can only be a good thing for enthusiasts and tourists alike. Rather than them both buying the same ride at the same time - like when WL built probe, and then DW built GD, I forsee one park building one type of water ride, and the other park building something COMPLETELY different. On Joz' comments about a wave pool, Looking at the board at WnW on how the wave pool works, I can't imagine it being THAT expensive. a standard construction on a pool, with a sloping bottom, high walls, but nonetheless a standard pool construct, with giant fans etc at one end. See http://science.howstuffworks.com/wave-pool.htm for a better explaination..

[joz]

Hey, I'm looking forward to it, but I wanna see what it is first before I commit. In the meantime, I'm speculating, deal with it The point on the money: WVTPs were going to spend $50mill on WnW on the Sunny Coast, and gave the impression that it would be substansially smaller then the original. When you take land aquisition and pre-exisiting infustructure into account, that means DW is spending probably $10mill more on their water park which I have no doubt will translate to quite a bit. However, $56 mill to me doesn't sound like a great deal of money for a whole park. History may well prove me wrong, but until I see the park thats impression I get. I also am not saying I'm against the idea, I'm just putting the other point of view out there for you all (though I do feel as though this will "thin the crowds", not create new customers), but having said that, I can't imagine that the Gold Coast market couldn't support two (or three) water parks in the longer term. Slick, comments like that are better not to listen to, though I really can't see this big outcry about how bad this park will be your talking about. I mean, there's like one post in the other topic, and one in this thread from someone who has no idea what they're talking about. Perhaps you should save the "I know stuff" rant for later.

[The Theme Park Master]

See what a little bit of debate can do? Not saying that I have completely changed my mind about this water park at Dreamworld, but the people who have decided to post something against a thought have turned the whole thing around. Good on everyone. Keep smiling. Off topic, I'm going to sound a little strange to some people, but I would like to congratulate Richard on his remarkable efforts to keep roller-coaster.com.au up and running. He has let us all in on what is truthful and what is...more truthful than the truth. Thanks Richard. Back on topic, this is a serious question: Where does everyone think (or know) where the water park will be constructed?

[tom]

When I was up there last, in middle November, I asked at guest services what is going in where the Thunderbolt used to be and I was told it was going to be the new water park. Hope that helps

Edited December 8, 2005 by tom

[Slick]

Lol. I never implied "I knew everything" I just said from what I've seen, read and heard it looks to be something very promising. And the argument of "there was this like post in like the other like thread" thing isn't working either. You kids at r-c need to take it easy aye. Anyway, my point is I think initially it won't draw an extensively new crowd out to the park, but like what Joz said take alot of people away from other parks or better yet draw the crowds out evenly. More so, as a long term investment, this is a superb idea considering there will be a resort and monorail system (from what i've read atleast, right joz ) that will link patrons seemlessly from one park to another. One big happy place would be a good way to coin it, especially when families can stay, shop, dine and play all in the one place. Kind of like something Disneyland would do, don't ya' think.

[Gazza]

The point on the money: WVTPs were going to spend $50mill on WnW on the Sunny Coast, and gave the impression that it would be substansially smaller then the original. When you take land aquisition and pre-exisiting infustructure into account, that means DW is spending probably $10mill more on their water park which I have no doubt will translate to quite a bit. However, $56 mill to me doesn't sound like a great deal of money for a whole park. History may well prove me wrong, but until I see the park thats impression I get.

What you need to remember is that there are no land buying costs for DW, but WnWSC has to pay for land in what would be an expensive area. Also, waterslides are fairly cheap, according to NGBSs website, a master blaster can range from US$500,000 to $1.5 million. Keep in mind that a master blaster is basically the upper end of what you can spend. At the other end of the scale, a simple short slide for use in a kids area (like the one in blue lagoon) would cost AU$500 - $1000) For a regular flume body slide, the cost is around $1000 per meter. So overall the costs of building a waterpark is much less than a theme park, so it would not be too bad.

[rappa]

Just on the wave pool thing... I doubt they are going to go for the older technology "WnW Style" wave pool. If they are trying to kick but I am guessing they will go to the newer technology which involves extremely large water movement as opossed to a moving wall as is used at WnW. Basically massive tanks behind the back of the pool fill with water and once full, dump their load into the bottom of the pool through a small opening. This sudden surge of water is what creates the wave and results in the large 'surfable' type waves you would see at Typhoon Lagoon or at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas. Now I'm no expert but that kind of system can't be cheap I'm sure.

[joz]

What you need to remember is that there are no land buying costs for DW, but WnWSC has to pay for land in what would be an expensive area.

Just to clarify, that’s what I'm saying; even though DW are spending a total of $6mil more, when you factor in land and existing infrastructure then its probably closer to $10mil more.

[Gold Coaster]

I think it'll be brilliant and create a strong lasting competition between DWWW & Wet 'N' Wild. WNW won't want to be beaten at their own game. I'd definitely buy a 2-park annual pass as I think that would be extremely good value. To be able to go between parks all day would be easy as they'll have the proximity of California Adventures <-> Disneyland & Universal <-> Islands of Adventure. Ideally there would be some kind of interior link so you don't have to go out of one park exit to get to the other ... like a monorail or chairlift or something that you show your ticket (whether it's a 2-park day pass or a 2-park annual or whatever) and can then get on.

[thunder001]

Ok, after reading all the above posts, let me redirect your heads for a second. Instead of looking at money, let us look at crowd size, which as many of you might know is a major problem for Disney Hong Kong. I have been down to WnW many times over this summer taking shots of the new construction, and every time I am there, the amount of people within the park is enough to turn me away from buying a ticket. Now just imagine for a minute, that the amount of people at the park is halved with the opening of the DW water park. This would allow for more people like myself, with small children, to consider going into the parks on those days. This would lead to both the parks getting large crowds and therefor providing a choice on the parks. At the moment it is like only having MW on the coast without a DW in site...no choice on which park to go to. While I have my own theory on why all the parks are doing all this construction of late (cough "Disney" cough) just remember that it will only improve things at both sites for those of us that visit the parks. So, in my own mind, the addition of the water park next to DW is going to be a step in the right direction and I can only hope that we will continue to see positive moves from the parks in the future. EDIT : I just realized that I agreed with Slick about something....WOW!

Edited February 19, 2006 by thunder001