VRTP Backwards Seat Pricing

[TV15]

Towards the end of July this year, following Dreamworld's addition of a second spinning gondola to Steel Taipan and a significant reduction in the upcharge experience price, VRTP adjusted their own one-shot and backwards seating upcharge prices.

Both DC Rivals and Leviathan saw their backwards seat pricing reduced — DC Rivals from $30 to $20, and Leviathan from $25 to $10. Following this change, I noticed an increase in the number of people opting for the backwards seat on DC Rivals. However, I didn’t visit Sea World, so I can't say if the same happened there.

As of this week, the prices have gone up by $5 again.

 

DC Rivals still seems to be getting good usage at the new $25 price, but Leviathan continues to go out mostly empty. What's going wrong here? While I’d love to see these lower prices stick, it feels like VRTP isn’t doing enough to let people know about the reduced pricing. Without better marketing and promotion of this price reduction, VRTP might see from their ridership data that price isn’t the issue and decide to return to charging higher, and arguably unreasonable prices.

[themagician]

28 minutes ago, TV15 said:

As of this week, the prices have gone up by $5 again.

It could be related to it being school holidays

[TV15]

Just now, themagician said:

It could be related to it being school holidays

Yep, I should've explicitly mentioned that—it's likely related to the school holidays, and I assumed most people would know that. However, I didn’t notice any significant increase in ridership for Leviathan, even with the lower price during this period. VRTP might see from their ridership data that the price drop isn’t having the desired effect, which could influence their future pricing decisions.

[Tricoart]

47 minutes ago, TV15 said:

DC Rivals still seems to be getting good usage at the new $25 price, but Leviathan continues to go out mostly empty. What's going wrong here?

Purely speculation, but I'd have to guess it's partially advertisement, and partially just how they're built. DCR had its gimmick seat heavily advertised, both when it opened and recently, whereas Sea World had the theming & 'precinct' as a whole to advertise for Levi, so it's gimmick was left relatively unknown. Also, due to DCR having it's basic station setup (like that of Steel Taipan's, which also had comparable gimmick seat advertisement), they're able to play ads for the ride/backwards experience on TV screens while people are queueing, as well as having an adjacent, separate queue for backwards riders, meaning guests in the main queue'll also see people using it. Levi, on the other hand, has neither, and in my experience riding it, most people either don't know the back row is backwards, or get to the station & don't know it's an upcharge.

Edited September 21 by Tricoart

[Ash]

Steel taipan had there spinning seat at $15 yesterday, bargain if you ask me and was running 2 trains with a 5 minute wait. 

[wikiverse]

14 hours ago, Tricoart said:

most people either don't know the back row is backwards, or get to the station & don't know it's an upcharge.

Even with people knowing that there is a backward row and that it is an up-charge, people a) don't want to pay $40 and, b) don't know how to purchase a backward ticket.

Having a more reasonable $10-15 price is good.  But there is no information on the website for how to buy a backward ride, just that you can ride it backward.  There is also no clear information in the app, and you can't find anything under 'tickets' or 'extras' in the app itself.  The link to where you can buy it is labelled as fast track and one-shot.  So letting people know that you can get a ticket in the app, and tweaking the language in the app to make it more obvious would help. 

Also, QR codes at the entrance to the ride are always a good idea - DW has them, but I've only seen them at the platform end of the queue, whereas they should be at the entrance to the queue.

[TV15]

14 hours ago, Tricoart said:

as well as having an adjacent, separate queue for backwards riders

From memory, I’m 99% sure that Leviathan has the space for a separate queue, and I think it should be instated, along with a sign out the front of the ride to advertise it. This would help streamline things and make it clearer for guests.

35 minutes ago, wikiverse said:

There is also no clear information in the app, and you can't find anything under 'tickets' or 'extras' in the app itself.  The link to where you can buy it is labelled as fast track and one-shot. 

As for the VRTP app, this definitely needs to be addressed. When you press on "Ride It Backwards - Leviathan," it should take you directly to the purchase page. Right now, it’s too tricky to buy it if you haven’t done it before, and this process could be made much simpler.

14 hours ago, Tricoart said:

Levi, on the other hand, has neither, and in my experience riding it, most people either don't know the back row is backwards, or get to the station & don't know it's an upcharge.

100% agree with the confusion about the backwards row. I’ve also found it really clunky getting on the ride with a backwards seat. One time we paid for the experience and were questioned by three different staff members if we had purchased it — turns out the grouper hadn’t radioed up to the station about it. On top of that, when people pay for backwards, I’ve noticed they walk straight to the back of the station assuming the seat is free. It’s a silly station design. Ideally, they should hold a small number of people in the cave and have a grouper at the top of the stairs for better coordination.