Just received an email and VTP has added some "perks" for Premium Annual Passholders. Those being:

• 20% off dining

• 20% off merch

• Priority line entry at front gates

• Priority line entry to Spy Chase and One Dolphin performances

• 20% off fast passes for Wet n Wild

These are available until the end of January

Credit to VTP, they do cop a lot of heat with the way things are being run currently (including from me - don't get me started on them closing 80% of the park at 5pm on their "extended operating times" at WnW), but this is a good addition.

I'd like to see some of it retained ongoing - such as priority entry to the park and shows (lets be honest, annual passholders are unlikely to watch the shows on every visit, so they are not big part of your audience) and an ongoing F&B discount like that offered at Dreamworld would be welcomed.

Definitely appreciated and I may actually grab some things I otherwise wouldn’t have.

I do feel it’s only because numbers are down both for the pass itself and general numbers this holiday period.

Hopefully they look at making the f/b and merch discount a general one even if they put it down to 10%.

For comparison the majority of staff only get 20% off merch at VRTP

We went Wednesday and yesterday with the family, Premium pass holders que to the left near the exit at the gates and are let in 5-10mins earlier. A few other groups and us said this is the first time it’s ever happened, now we know why.

21 hours ago, Ash said:

A few other groups and us said this is the first time it’s ever happened, now we know why.

Early entry used to be a perk for VIP Gold passes, so not the first time it's ever happened.

Absolute garbage offer to start spruiking one week into the month. "Buy an annual pass and we'll give you perks for the next 3 weeks during our busiest time of the year!"
Nah. Up the road offers year long discounts on food and merch and they charge less. It's a step in the right direction, but 3 weeks of 'extra perks' isn't enough.

It's an indication that things aren't perfect over there though.... they'd have been better off pushing out a better black friday sale if they wanted to bump the numbers.

1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

It's a step in the right direction, but 3 weeks of 'extra perks' isn't enough.

I feel that this is them testing the waters to see if it’s worthwhile for them to offer it all the time. Of course from a customer perspective it is, but maybe they’re wanting to trial it from a business perspective. I know there were a few changes in upper management last year and this may be the start of more changes to come.

I don't think it's a great plan to allow for stuff like early entry for pass holders. There's nothing worse than spending top dollar on a trip to a park somewhere in the world and knowing you're stuck waiting in line behind pass holders who could go any day. You want to find ways to encourage your pass holders to see value in attending on days where your attendance is soft, rather than providing them with enticements to visit when you're already struggling with throughput and capacity.

5 hours ago, themagician said:

I feel that this is them testing the waters to see if it’s worthwhile for them to offer it all the time

I’d imagine the annual pass holder to single day/multi day pass holder ratio is probably lower at this time of the year than at any other time, so it’s probably not a great time to run a test of annual pass holder buying tendencies.

The issue is that you're only capturing those who are due for renewal, or those who don't already have a pass. Increasing the number of passholders when you're already suffering a capacity crisis is a shortsighted move.

A long term plan would see whatever perks you want to offer given to all passholders current and future, on an ongoing basis - and then assess the success of the additional perks based on your retention \ renewal rates.

This just screams short term cash grab - probably because holiday numbers aren't as high as they forecast and they're trying to bump them up by enticing people to visit before the end of the month.

ExperienceOz ran a sponsored piece on News.com.au today where the headline was that prices were SLASHED on theme park passes.

Clicking through the link showed village passes offered at a 'discounted rate'

...which is great if you're looking for a bargain... except

It's absolutely nothing special, and the prices are identical to the usual 'buy online to save $10' standard pricing.

Not exactly what i'd call 'slashed' that's for sure.

For balance, ExperienceOz also has an offer for Dreamworld, marketed as "Family passes into Dreamworld have also been given the chop with entry down to $74.25 (was $99) per person when you buy four tickets." which is another way of saying 'buy 3 get one free'. They also mark this in their header banner as 'last chance' despite the offer page reading "limited time offer valid until October 12!"

Village have extended this offer until June 30 and they’ve added access to an exclusive Sea World Resort stay offer, with rooms available from $249 per night, including buffet breakfast for up to two people.

Hopefully they've seen benefits in extending the offer and will make it part of their regular pass offering into the future. When the mob down the road is offering passholder discounts at $99 ($89), surely they can afford to offer their loyal passholders something.

Probably in response to VRTP adding perks to their passes, DW have responded by adding even more perks to their annual passes for the rest of this month.

Why are we going backwards DW?

Financial Year	Per-capita guest spend
FY2025	$62.11 per guest
FY2024	$62.36 per guest
FY2023	$68.70 per guest

Losing a couple dollars per guest but gaining more guests is a perfectly acceptable business strategy.

If the guest spend drops by $15+ then alarm bells might ring.

Anyone can fill a park. The trick is filling it with people who buy lunch because a park full of people looks good in photos, but a park full of people buying churros, plush toys, and $12 soft drinks is what the accountants frame on the wall.

You’re adding all these new attractions, so the last thing you should be doing is discounting tickets to get people in. If the rides are doing their job, the marketing department shouldn’t have to dress up as a clearance sale.

They're not discounting the tickets to get people in. They're enticing people who have already paid for a pass to come back and spend more money. Money they will not make if people stay home.

Do you think they're not making a profit on a $15 slice of pizza, and extra scoop of ice cream or some more hot water in your coffee?

DW are still very much discounting their passes.

Sent this offer the other day.

and DW yearly 149 pass is really $99.00 if you take off the $50 they give you back in food.

Edited March 13Mar 13 by New display name

Bang on - they're reducing their margins on products to encourage increased passholder spend. They're literally trying to increase the per-cap spend by offering incentives to do so.

2 hours ago, New display name said:

You’re adding all these new attractions, so the last thing you should be doing is discounting tickets to get people in.

Nobody is discounting tickets to get people in. Stop with the fucking strawman arguments.

Offering perks to passholders to encourage extra spend is a new thing in Aus as our passes have previously been "you get entry, and maybe some night events" and that's it. Nobody wanted to pay extra for premium perks when passes were $99. Now prices are going up, people are looking for 'what's in it for me at the higher price' and rewarding folk with "discounts" that ultimately get them to spend more money than they otherwise would have is just smart business.

It's why Village have for years offered a bunch of "extra value" when you buy a pass that ultimately ended up being "$30 off dolphin swim" and "adults at kids prices at outback spectacular".

1 minute ago, New display name said:

DW are still very much discounting their passes.

Sent this offer the other day.

This isn't their front page offer which is $149, and renewal offers on the website also require a code \ be renewed within a set time period.

The fact that your email offer which also has a unique barcode proves its targeted marketing not broad brush discounting - it's a Customer retention strategy because they already have your contact information to send targeted marketing.

They're aiming to retain customers because everyone knows it's cheaper to keep an existing customer than to get a new one. (Which by the way was the same thing Village did when they offered $149 passes as that wasn't a widespread campaign either)

As an aside - Disneyland's magic key offers the following benefits to passholders which are simply discounts off full price products and services:

1. Discounts on disney parking lots (highest tier is free)

2. Discounts on dining (highest tier gets higher discount)

3. Discounts on merchandise (highest tier gets highest discount)

4. Discounts on lightning lane

These discounts encourage the passholder to spend money on these services that, if a regular visitor, they might otherwise avoid.

But Dreamworld = bad according to Skeet.

27 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

But Dreamworld = bad according to Skeet.

It's not even that. It's that he seems to want Dreamworld to become expensive and unaffordable so that it does fail.

Between $99 passes and $149 passes with a $50 food voucher, I've personally convinced 8 people to get passes so we can all go to Dreamworld. Without those offers, I might have convinced 2. All of those people are buying food at Jane's, Drinks, Coffees, and tail whips multiple times a year.

In addition, food vouchers and in-park discounts require you to scan a pass. This data collection gives DW a lot of valuable insight into who their best customers are, who spends where, when and how much. They can send out targeted and personal offers to individual pass holders to encourage them into the park with something they know appeals to them - whether it's Food and drink, cabanas at WWW, game tokens, snacks, or live events.

That data helps DW build a better park with better experiences that people actually want. Something that is more important given they're still in a state of renewal and transition.

If I wanted the company to fail @wikiverse I wouldn't have shares in it.

24 minutes ago, wikiverse said:

That data helps DW build a better park with better experiences that people actually want. Something that is more important given they're still in a state of renewal and transition.

Coming up to 10 years and people are still using that as an excuse.

1 hour ago, New display name said:

If I wanted the company to fail @wikiverse I wouldn't have shares in it.

Coming up to 10 years and people are still using that as an excuse.

Using what as an excuse? Decades of bad management and a lack of investment? Because that didn't start to change until Greg was appointed CEO in 2021. It hasn't been a decade since then, it hasn't even been 5 years.

If your expectation is that Dreamworld is going to just double their pass prices and rake in profits with record crowds, you should consider selling your shares now. Dreamworld has at least another decade of investment, renewal and transition before anyone is going to consider paying that much. They're still in the process of removing old attractions, let alone building new ones.

Ten years later, and the park still needs to discount to sell tickets. Spare me the sob story about the recovery.

32 minutes ago, New display name said:

Ten years later, and the park still needs to discount to sell tickets. Spare me the sob story about the recovery.

What is your point? You seemed to be suggesting that there was no recovery to be had, that DW should just be increasing prices and that it's been 'a decade'. But now you're saying that the park still needs to discount to sell tickets - which means that the recovery still hasn't taken place, while also claiming that the same 'need to discount' is a sob story.

You've complained that the park doesn't have enough attractions with MC closing, but still think they should increase pass prices (and based on your comparisons to previous pass prices to more than $300), and that their proposed investments will cost too much, but also that they haven't replaced all of the rides that were removed.

You've complained that per-guest spend in-park is down, but the discounts you are complaining about have generated an additional 257,000 guest visits in 1H26 compared to 1H25 - which accounts for almost $16M in additional revenue. If you compare the 2024 and 2025 numbers you've posted above, it's a 25 cent drop. If DW had sustained the same visitor numbers across that time it would have been a $198,000 drop in revenue. So those 'discounts' on in-park spend are actually worth somewhere around $15.8M.

Clearly, DW have figured out that if people can spend a little less on a single visit and feel like it's good value, they'll visit more often and end up spending more across the whole year - hence the incentives to get people to show up.

Parks that constantly run sales start to look like an outlet mall rather than a premium attraction. Once guests see a park as “cheap,” it’s hard to push prices back up.

Cheap tickets can pack the park. That sounds great until:

1. ride lines explode

2. staffing costs increase

3. maintenance gets heavier

After the 2016 accident, attendance collapsed. To get people back through the gates, the park leaned heavily on very cheap tickets and aggressive annual pass deals.

Attendance slowly recovered, cheap annual passes brought locals back

The market has got used to very low prices and revenue per guest has stayed weak and dropping.

The park had less money to invest in major new rides

So now when attendance has improved, the park isn't swimming in cash. It’s like filling a bucket that has a few holes drilled in the side.

My view is, DW has reinvented itself as the Aldi of theme parks, you only go because it's cheap.

VRTP have updated the terms of the premium pass to remove the validity dates for the general discounts/express entry (billabong excluded)