Has Coast Entertainment given up on Whitewater world?

[New display name]

What is the go with Whitewater world?  Zero effort is being put into the park.  

It's bloody summer next week and the park will not open Mon-Thurs!

Slides not ready for seasonal opening!

No dedicated web site!

 

Coast Entertainment has 100% lost the plot with Whitewater World.  How the f^&k do they think they can increase attendance, when they are closed more than they are open.

People won't buy tickets if you're not open!

 

Coast Entertainment get my tool of the week trophy.

 

 

 

 

[themagician]

37 minutes ago, New display name said:

No dedicated web site!

With the Dreamworld website refresh, it's made WWW even less obvious that it exists. On the home page, there's no obvious mention of the park (except for a small logo at the very bottom).

It has been listed as a 'world' and they have the slides within 'rides and attractions', but you have to go looking for them. And it's own park map has now been removed.

It certainly comes across that they don't want people to visit because it's hardly open and they aren't trying to sell it to make people want to visit.

41 minutes ago, New display name said:

It's bloody summer next week and the park will not open Mon-Thurs!

This confuses me too because they could at least open from lunch time until 5 or even 6 so people can go after school. The park will be open every day from Dec 15, but most private schools are already on holidays and the senior year levels at public schools have mostly finished too.

Having closed Wedgie, Triple Vortex hasn't operated for several years and Fully 6 is still Fully 4. I get they have been focusing on getting DW right, but they've really left WWW behind since they repainted all of the slides (which was 100% worth it, but that's not enough).

[New display name]

At this point I believe Coast Entertainment are confused on what to do with Whitewater World.

 

DW web site:   

They are working so hard on DW but have forgotten WWW.   The park when it first opened, was killing it.

[TBoy]

It is very obvious that Dreamworld is the priority, with WWW not getting any investments for years while Dreamworld gets Steel Taipan, K&B Dreamland, Rivertown and King Claw, as well as being hidden and it closing on weekdays. Hopefully after King Claw they give it some love instead of giving all the money to the main park. "I heard something that apparently if you invest in something, more people will come"

[themagician]

1 hour ago, New display name said:

At this point I believe Coast Entertainment are confused on what to do with Whitewater World.

I get the feeling it’s just not been their priority and they’ve really just put all their efforts into DW. Which doesn’t mean they should just let it operate with no effort to improve or make people want to visit. 
 

I really hope the company starts to focus on WWW after (before would be great) King Claw opens because it turns 20 into 2026 and it really hasn’t changed that much during that time.

[New display name]

49 minutes ago, TBoy said:

It is very obvious that Dreamworld is the priority, with WWW not getting any investments for years while Dreamworld gets Steel Taipan, K&B Dreamland, Rivertown and King Claw, as well as being hidden and it closing on weekdays. Hopefully after King Claw they give it some love instead of giving all the money to the main park. "I heard something that apparently if you invest in something, more people will come"

I heard something that apparently if you lock the gates people can't get in.

[franky]

3 hours ago, TBoy said:

It is very obvious that Dreamworld is the priority, with WWW not getting any investments for years while Dreamworld gets Steel Taipan, K&B Dreamland, Rivertown and King Claw, as well as being hidden and it closing on weekdays. Hopefully after King Claw they give it some love instead of giving all the money to the main park. "I heard something that apparently if you invest in something, more people will come"

In 2019ish WWW was in my opinion was the more polished product of the two parks, but then DW had closed a bunch of stuff they've now they're working on the rebuild there.

Fully6 is fairly new, even if two of the slides are closed

[themagician]

17 minutes ago, franky said:

Fully6 is fairly new, even if two of the slides are closed

It's already 5 years old!

To summaries the timeline of the parks new additions:

• WhiteWater World: 2006
• Little Rippers: 2007
• The Wedgie: Opens in 2010, Closes in 2021 (Officially Closes in 2023)
• Triple Vortex: 2014, Closes in 2021 (Officially Closes/Reopening TBC)
• Fully 6: 2019, Slides 2 & 3 Close in 2021 (Reopening TBC)

So since the park officially opened they have gained two attractions and one of them is only half open.

[GoGoBoy]

WWW had so much potential too! I always thought it was a mistake not to install the proposed action/lazy river, as that would have made it more of a complete park. So sad to hear Triple Vortex is not open too as it's a very fun slide

[themagician]

28 minutes ago, GoGoBoy said:

WWW had so much potential too!

And it still does, they just need to spend the money!

28 minutes ago, GoGoBoy said:

I always thought it was a mistake not to install the proposed action/lazy river

The proposed action/adventure river ride was going to the cost the company so much to build and then to operate it would've cost even more. It was never a good idea, especially in a time when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. But a traditional lazy river would do the park wonders and if they design it right, they can minimise the amount of life guards required because that's probably the driver for having not already building one.

[Michelangelo]

I don’t think they’ve given up on WWW, I think it’s a matter of a not now, there’s bigger fish to fry.

Both parks are in desperate need of attention and $$$, and you can’t do both at once.

When you toss up costs, priorities, earning potentials and likely return from their spend, I totally get why WWW has been parked/less prioritised over DW.

To put it simply… in 2023-2024 you have $$$ to spend, so either…

1) Spend $$$ on WWW = $$ return

or

2) Spend $$$ on DW = $$$$ return

or

3) Spend $ on WWW & $$ on DW = $$$ return

Then, in 2025/2026…

if you did 1) well you’re further up shit creek and into debt to try fix DW desperately 

if you did 2) Great! Now you have more $ to spend on WWW

if you did 3) you’re back at the start and likely need debt for the remaining $$ required for both parks 

[New display name]

3 hours ago, themagician said:

And it still does, they just need to spend the money!

The proposed action/adventure river ride was going to the cost the company so much to build and then to operate it would've cost even more. It was never a good idea, especially in a time when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. But a traditional lazy river would do the park wonders and if they design it right, they can minimise the amount of life guards required because that's probably the driver for having not already building one.

Lazy River is needed.

 

WWW was also poorly planed and should have been sharing DW assets.  

[Baconjack]

Lazy river has been in the works for yonks and has taken many forms. The adventure river was just the latest example.

in terms of pre 2016 dreamworld and where the entire park was at, they’ve spent the last 3-4 years cleaning up the park from top to bottom and there’s still a few rides to replace on the dry side. Of course there’s no capex for the water park because it looked quite nice while a ride on the dry side killed people. Clean up the dry park first then look to renew WWW.

[Levi]

i don’t think the park has been forgotten, i think the park is just in a good enough state for it to be left without big investments while they sort out the dry park. i mean i still prefer it over WnW, but i do hope a lazy river is on the parks radar. maybe they could tie in Dreamworlds next coaster with a new Lazy River + slide tower and have interactions like Gold Coaster and TOH tower has.

[New display name]

If this was true it would be open on Monday.

[Ashley Jeffery]

Was there ever a reason given why the stage 2 plan never went ahead? 

[Baconjack]

2 hours ago, Ashley Jeffery said:

Was there ever a reason given why the stage 2 plan never went ahead? 

No but if i were to guess the GFC probably put it on hold then the transition from macquarie bank to ardent killed the whole thing for good.

As we know dreamworld spending (both on a day to day operational basis and in terms of capex investments) dropped off after that transition and i don't think the regime at the time would have had the ambition to spend $$$ on building all of that

[Michelangelo]

12 hours ago, New display name said:

If this was true it would be open on Monday.

You have no idea how quiet WWW would be weekdays before school holidays.
It would cost more to staff than they would make.

[New display name]

I don't think you're following the conversation @Michelangelo

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

On 29/11/2024 at 9:04 PM, New display name said:

If this was true it would be open on Monday.

I don't think most of us can follow what you're on about some times. I think what you're saying is if it shared DW assets, they could open it on a weekday? 

It still costs the same amount to staff the park and in the off season, they've shown it clearly can't be supported...

[themagician]

2 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

I don't think most of us can follow what you're on about some times. I think what you're saying is if it shared DW assets, they could open it on a weekday? 

I think he’s saying because Summer has now started, it should be open everyday from today

Which I 100% agree with!

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Last day of School is 13th of December and according to the calendar they're open every day from the 13th.

I realise most schools are supervision only for the last week and many are informally breaking end of this week, so possibly a little oversight from them there, but the date they've chosen lining up with school holidays pretty much proves it was an intentional decision. 

There's lots of things our parks do that we disagree with - but that's just our opinions and doesn't make them wrong. 

[Brad2912]

I think they've erred a little here by just taking the generic "public school finishing date" as their yardstick for opening 7 day operations. Whilst that may fair well in other terms, they are losing a shit tonne of potential business this time around with private and catholic schools all finishing last week, year 12 finished 4 weeks ago, and schoolies attendees on the GC. 

Unless a bunch of maintenance is being done Mon-Thu, 7 day operations 100% should have commenced from today

[Levi]

could the weekdays be used for staff training for new summer seasonal workers? i know a lot of Dreamworld ride ops do work the slides as well so they could be operating the park for the opened weekends currently. 

[Brad2912]

3 minutes ago, Levi said:

could the weekdays be used for staff training for new summer seasonal workers? i know a lot of Dreamworld ride ops do work the slides as well so they could be operating the park for the opened weekends currently. 

even if that is the case, it doesn't explain why it wasn't done earlier to be ready for now