Whitewater world expansion

[saberon]

Hey guys, while I was talking with people at guest relations yesterday while my aqua max card was being done. the service person ( possibly service manager) mentioned that expansion of white water world was approved and it will be expanding in east direction. I guess where the rear carpark (east of whitewater world, boardering dreamworld south) probably is the area to which she was refering. I don't know anything more about it, just going on what the person said. exciting, although not surprising that they probably will expand, as it has turned out to be a successful and very enjoyable themepark

[dreamworld_rulz]

WOW that's great news for WWW. Thanks for posting that.

[GoGoBoy]

My WWW source told me something similar. Although this person is no longer working on the project (finished up when construction finished) he managed to get a bit more info before he left. From what he was able to gather he thinks the expansion will actually be happening this year. All of his info has been totally accurate so far. However this is somewhat contradicted by one of R-C.com.au's latest articles which mentions there will be no expansions in the near future due to no capital being set aside. I also haven't seen any references to it in any of Macq Leisure's reports and financials (although they don't specifically mention DW's new coaster either).

[Richard]

One of the key operating benefits of the WWW/DW partnership is their close proximity and ticketing ties to each other, means that both parks can leverage off capital investment. There is no point in them competing against themselves for the same attendance by opening two attractions/expansions in the same year. The company's stated goal is to be able to invest in one park and drive the other park's attendance through World Pass sales, similar to how WVTP have operated for the past decade or so. Dreamworld has a confirmed thrill ride for this year. Having just spent $56.4 million on a water park, the possibility of investing further into it so soon, despite no knowledge of how successful it actually will be in the long-run, is slim-to-none. The fact that is WhiteWater World is far too new to be in a position, financially or attendance-wise, to be going ahead with further investment. With under three months of operating experience and the effects of their advertising expenditure not yet apparent, it's simply not logical that they go ahead with any expansions at this stage.

[saberon]

Well I certainly wouldn't rule expansion out. The park has to compete with its larger competitor WetnWild which is a great, big park. So whitewater world certainly shouldn't stay stagnant considering its successful opening peak season. You gotta spend money to make money and new attractions will create greater interest and also will increase return attendance. The themepark market is changing, it is moving much faster than it used to with huge capital being forked out to keep attendance up. This transition I hope will attract even more attendance and therefore in turn have even larger capital spending. Appart from that MLT may have had it on the cards for a stage 2 development and it may only just have been approved, I don't know but it would be great to see it happen.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

The only problem I have with that statement is "stay stagnant". The park is nowhere near stagnant. Macquarie leisure could work off their current set up for more than a year. I guarantee less than half the membership of this site has visited WWW to date, and most people who holiday up there yearly may not have had time to alter their holiday arrangements to include it in the last holiday season. The statement of "we'll do it next year" would have been uttered often by those holidaying over the christmas break quite often. The park will see itself through the next year without a problem. I'd say the earliest expansion we will see of WWW will not begin until this time next year. Richard's statement on the CapEx sharing of the two parks should be spot on. We should see DW and WWW alternate attractions each year, with the occasional co-inciding attraction every few years to really WOW those holidaymakers. I can't see any of the gold coast parks making any bad decisions to date. They are all doing a very good job with new attractions, additions and so on, and there isn't any more that any of them can do at the moment to one-up themselves against the competition, at least without going into extraordinary debt.

[Morphix]

Why do all the parks compete with each other? Don;t most people who go on holidays on the goldcoast do all the themeparks anyhow? and maybe local residents have a annual pass to one or two of the parks...

[Flea]

Why do all the parks compete with each other? Don;t most people who go on holidays on the goldcoast do all the themeparks anyhow? and maybe local residents have a annual pass to one or two of the parks...

Basically it's all VR parks vs. Dreamworld. Sea World, WnW & WBMW aren't in direct competition with each other since they're all owned by the same company.

[lisalila]

Not everyone who goes to the GC visits all five parks as well. I haven't been to SW since 2004, I only went to wnw in November because my friend hadn't been there in 5 years. I only really go to dw, mw and now www. wnw and sw don't interest me.

[Gazza]

Why do all the parks compete with each other? Don;t most people who go on holidays on the goldcoast do all the themeparks anyhow? and maybe local residents have a annual pass to one or two of the parks...

I wont be going to DW on my visit, perhaps if DW had tried to compete more and had built a new ride I might have gone back One other thing to consider is that 43% of Dreamworld's visitors are from within Queensland, so many of these people would be locals heading to a park for an occasional day out, or would be season pass holders who might have settled for one park. Therefore by being competitive you can capture visitors who might only go a single park for a weekend outing, or "lock in" visitors with an annual pass by offering them more than the competition.

[Guest]

I reckon that MLT will be trying to push WWW as far as possible in the first few years especially. I do see an expansion likely in the next 18 months. Basically because MLT could only invest so much into WWW before it became a risk of not earning back the money. Perhaps we'll see one ride every 12-24 months from WWW. The park can essentially double in size because it definatly has space to do so. Also eventually if space becomes low, it can build over the carpark and put parking underground instead. Perhaps a lazy river around the east half of the park, or a slide slotted into a portion of space near the CoW.

[Churros]

Well, I think White Water World is great, but yeah, I can foresee an expansion on the horizon. I can't speak for MLT, but I am pretty sure that they will look to expand into the area that the Thunderbolt use to exist. That area is primed for expansion. There are a huge variety of things they could put in an expansion. Just look at the lengths they went to to the newest and best waterpark attractiosn when they opened. I would expect a couple of new little things open up toward the road side of the Cave of Waves. Maybe some more family orientated 'Things', like maybe a BBQ area or something. To White Water World I say, "Surprise Me!" hahaha! I think after that there is everychance they will expand into the carpark. But that will be a long time away. If I were in the shoes of either MLT, or WVTP (as was discussed in the possible MV expansion forum recently) I would look to play the carpark expansion card as a long term prospect, and come up with a means of recreating another carpark or whatever. I mean, you look say 20 years, Coomera will be a monster hub, and the Gold Coast as a whole will really need parks possibly twice the size of what they are now to accomodate the demand and keep a decent worldwide status. I think maybe, if Dreamworld can find a new place ot build a carpark and entrance, the whole existing one can become the park. Pie in the sky stuff I know, but you its worth thinking about.

[TheMightyBoosh]

agreed. perhaps another DW entrance facing the coomera train station after that area has been developed?

[Guest]

Yeah definitely. Since when the Town Centre is built the distance from urban area and the park will be considerably smaller since a lot of Dreamworld's excess land is being turned into offices, a small scale shopping centre and possibly an aquatic and leisure centre. One of the problems with WWW at the moment is, despite the whole park being in easy walking distance, its still unnecessarily long. Since the entrance is at one end of what would become the L shaped area of Whitewater World, its forming too much of a linear development style as opposed to a radial design. Also I would be interested to see if Dreamworld ever puts its car parking underground. I can dream.

[Churros]

This is probably a really uneducated response, but from what I gathered after reading the Coomera Town Centre plan information on the web, they will build an access bridge between the town centre and the northern side of Dreamworld which is intended to link the two.