VR Locals One Pass - price rise coming 11/11/24

[themagician]

43 minutes ago, Levi said:

it would be pretty reasonable pricing if they had full park availability across all parks. imagine a family of 4 spending $716 on passes, $100+ per day on food and bev, with Sea World having half its attractions currently closed, Scooby Doo & Doomsday closed with who knows what else closed and WoO not open yet, Wet n Wild being ran down. would that be worth around $1200? 

Nope, but if you have the choice, don’t pay that much and visit the parks next year when things are open.

[Levi]

16 minutes ago, Jokes_on_you said:

What is ran down about Wet n Wild? 

what isn’t ran down about wet n wild? 

[themagician]

2 hours ago, Levi said:

what isn’t ran down about wet n wild? 

- The newest slide tower and splash pad

- Wet n Wild Junior

- Super 8 Aqua Racer

- Constrictor (recently repainted)

- Wave Pool

- Calypso Beach (has had a bit of love the last few years

- Black Hole (recently repainted)

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

On 09/11/2024 at 3:34 PM, TV15 said:

If I was Interstate coming up for a long break I know which one I would choose.

And that's the whole point of the pricing structure. Disney does the exact same thing - the more days you visit, the cheaper it gets - because you're more likely to spend money in park that makes up the difference. They want people to come to their property for a week, not a day. 

[westical]

Now it says the price rise is coming Dec 10th, nothing like false urgency to drum up sales.

Edit - probably should have read the first page...

Edited November 15, 2024 by westical

[Michelangelo]

I know it’s not directly related to this thread, but DW are doing $99 locals annual for Black Friday.

I wonder if VRTP will follow suit with similar discount?

[Park Addict 93]

37 minutes ago, Michelangelo said:

wonder if VRTP will follow suit with similar discount?

Not a chance, they have never done a significant discount on the One Pass.

I think their Black Friday special if there is one on the One Pass will be  to the bonus vouchers currently included with renewals or similar.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Yeah Village hasn't offered discounts of any substance in some time, other than in conjunction with ExperienceOZ promotions and the like (and even then theres a catch), but they do have a habit of 'throwing in extras' like a photo pass or loading it up with a bunch of "value" in the form of upcharges - discounts on an animal adventure, seats at outback spectacular or free membership (lol) at TopGolf. "Packed with over $500 of extra value" is the headline, but when you do the math, it'd cost you an extra $3000 to get the full value of. It's great if you're planning a big once in a long time family trip and doing everything, but not really of any use to the locals that have been there, done that.

[Michelangelo]

Here you go… https://themeparks.com.au/black-friday

As suspected, not much. Nothing for the Locals One Pass

[Naazon]

potentially because VRTP is happy with the locals One Pass customer count, they don't need to offer a discount.

[jjuttup]

13 minutes ago, Naazon said:

potentially because VRTP is happy with the locals One Pass customer count, they don't need to offer a discount.

Or because 🌟Private Equity🌟

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

por que no los dos?

[Escaper]

Village, where a “Black Friday” sale has them selling tickets based on the threat of a price increase..

Maybe it is a sign that senior management who sign off on this stuff are about to be eaten by a T-Rex, or maybe a shark.. 

 

 

*Yes, I know it isn’t a Black Friday sale.

Edited November 21, 2024 by Escaper

[themagician]

Price rise has happened and the Locals One Pass has increased by $10 to $229

Not sure how long this has been the case but it is also now the same price to enter all 3 parks (I’m sure WnW used to be cheaper). $99 Child, $109 Adult.

[themagician]

VRTP are now offering an annual pass for non-locals that is essentially their Lite One Pass. It’s $199 (which is the same price as their 7 day pass, and $20 cheaper than a 14 day pass). They say it is only for a limited time though: https://themeparks.com.au/tickets/annual-adventure-pass

Could this be their response to One Passes not selling as well because locals are fed up with the parks (maintenance, long wait times, too expensive, etc.)?

[Ash]

We won’t be renewing. Family of 5, been too Movieworld twice, Dreamworld over 20 times. Until Movieworld can improve their ride ops, vastly improve the park and feel of the parks then we will continue to support Dreamworld over Village 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Can't really say if it means anything towards locals beyond our own experience - we didn't renew and don't currently hold village passes, but as far as non locals are concerned its a much better deal. I daresay sales of non-local annual passes probably dried up at their price point and it's possible they realised trying to milk the infrequent visitor by charging so much more to someone who is going to use it far less wasn't really a smart idea. 

I know a bunch of people that time their GC holidays so that they can visit twice, 11 months and so many days apart, and get two holidays worth of use of the passes, which makes it far more affordable. A lot of those folk have been preferencing Dreamworld far more often lately.

 

From a pass overhaul perspective i'd like to see two things:

• Offer a 13 month pass. For many people the parks are a once or twice a year thing, and offering this lets people mentally assign the cost across two trips instead of one, making it appear far more affordable
• Offer discounts. The park up the road offers a minimal discount on what is reasonably priced food and merch and you feel a little better about it seeing the sub-total drop just that little bit. I'm sure Village's prices could afford to offer passholders a little off. Heck - they could jack the prices up for everyone by 5% and offer passholders discounts back down to current pricing and it would still give the mental feeling like you're getting more value out of your pass.

I don't believe Village should drop their prices across the board (though the non locals adjustment was probably the right one). The cut-price race to the bottom of the previous decade didn't help our parks much at all and i'm all for them improving the bottom line, but doing so while taking a steaming turd all over the guest experience is what is keeping us away.

We'll happily pay the premium price they're asking for a premium product when they're actually delivering one. And it hurts me to say this - i've always favoured village over dreamworld until the past couple of years post-pandemic, and I know a bunch of people who work or have worked for Village and they're a passionate group of people that are devoted to what they do.  There's just too much shitfuckery that has happened and is continuing to happen right now to turn the tide.

[aaronm]

I generally head up from Victoria 2-3 times a year, maintain a Dreamworld annual pass and legacy VRTP membership. In the past we'd probably spend 20% of our park time at SW/WnW and then 30% DW, 50% MW. These days it's now at least 50% DW because the MW operations are so dire. When everything is an hour plus wait and lines move so slowly, it feels like work and spending four hours just in queues for 2-3 attractions isn't fun.

[Oofy]

I personally had dreamworld passes last year and when that ended I got the VRTP passes for this year. I always switch between the two. I much prefer the VRTP passes with the extra theme park included and for me, the operations have never affected me much. I’ve had instances at both DW and MW of long waits and whilst DW is typically better, the higher thrill rides at MW always make me prefer MW over DW. I also find that there are plenty of rides at MW that do have good ops, it’s just a few rides that happen to have abysmal ops….

That being said I typically go to theme parks with one other person and we are constantly looking at wait times and utilising single rider lines so we always get through the queues fairly quick and efficiently. This however isn’t the same for everyone who have to wait in the long lines and are with bigger groups.

To put it simply, the experience is different for everyone and for me I’ll always prefer VRTP passes but I still love the DW passes. And for others it’s the opposite and makes complete sense.

Edited yesterday at 12:29 AM by Oofy

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

17 minutes ago, aaronm said:

legacy VRTP membership

I'm quite surprised with the price hikes that anyone retained these pass-types!

[aaronm]

3 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

I'm quite surprised with the price hikes that anyone retained these pass-types!

For non-locals it works out slightly cheaper than the One Pass and splitting the cost over 12 months is nice. The value is definitely less these days though.