WVTP Changes

[DonjaiInLA]

Its Channel 9's birthday party, with full red carpet and massive guest list full of B-Class celebrities and I believe Evermore? is playing live

[Richard]

And certainly agree with you that a large number of people will spend whilst in the park, I disagree that there will only be a minority who do not. A family of 4 or 5 going to a park once a week using the Q150 is not going to spend $100 PER WEEK on a single meal. between $15-$20 per meal at most food outlets is not something a regular visitor can afford every single week.

The problem is I don't think the majority of people who have purchased this pass will be visiting every week. Yeah there will be a good number of these people, but I'd honestly be surprised if the average number of visits per pass at the end of this was above five or six. Many of the buyers will those who were planning a single visit but saw this option and figured whether they use it again or not they'll still be in the same position cost-wise. If they find the time down the track they'd use it again but aren't fussed either way. There will also be those who were maybe planning an Easter or weekend mini-holiday and will use it a few times over a concentrated period but not after. I think the majority will be buyers who simply plan on visiting maybe a park a month... whenever they find time between other commitments. All of these groups, and a few others I didn't mention, you'll find will vastly outnumber those die-hard customers out to squeeze every ounce of value out of the pass by visiting every week. And they'd all be likely to spend $50-60 on a meal during their visit. You're right that we probably won't see any major spikes in profit from WVTP as a result, but I think they'll do alright considering at 6pm every night people are told they have no money to spend, and from all acounts Dreamworld is set to have a pretty average half-year.

[cadboy]

A little off topic here but does anyone think it will be an absolute nightmare down at MW and the other WVTP parks this Easter. With all the Q150 people and plus the usual extra tourists and interstate visitors. I think we may see some attendance records broken.....................maybe. BTW what is MW current attendance record? Cheers,

Edited March 21, 2009 by cadboy

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

You're right that we probably won't see any major spikes in profit from WVTP as a result, but I think they'll do alright considering at 6pm every night people are told they have no money to spend, and from all acounts Dreamworld is set to have a pretty average half-year.

Sorry Richard, but I don't get what you mean by the "6pm" bit....?

[Lotl_90]

My understanding was that he was referring to the news. Correct me if im wrong.

[cerberus584]

A little off topic here but does anyone think it will be an absolute nightmare down at MW and the other WVTP parks this Easter. With all the Q150 people and plus the usual extra tourists and interstate visitors. I think we may see some attendance records broken.....................maybe. BTW what is MW current attendance record? Cheers,

Yeah Cadboy I do think it will be a busier Easter than usual, although I think there will probably be more people coming from NSW/VIC and Northern QLD than from overseas. RE: Attendance records I know that at Halloween last year Movieworld stopped selling tickets at approx 8500 but I'm fairly sure their record would be a few thousand above that. I believe we set a record of 12,500 over summer at WnW.

[rappa]

Interestingly whilst the carpark at WnW is packed of a weekend I have friends who were at the park on Sunday and reported very modest wait times. They feel they had a very enjoyable day and whilst they notice staff numbers were low the staff were doing there very best to push people through. Most of the time with shorter intervals than used in peak times. This was a family group too.

[cerberus584]

You have to remember that the carpark is not always an indication of numbers in the park. Over summer the carpark was full and we had 12000 in the park. Last weekend the carpark was full and we only had 5000 in the park. Over the summer holidays thousands more people come in on buses and teenagers get dropped off for the day by their parents. I also had friends in the park last Saturday and they said they got through every ride in less then 2 hours.

[Derwan]

There has been some discussion on annual pass holders and what they spend during the day. Over the last year, I have seen the prices of my favourite meal "The Bat" go from $9.95 to $10.95 and then $11.95. Last Saturday was the first time I've been in a while and the price was still $11.95 - but it no longer includes a drink, which is $3.95 (I think) for a regular. In effect, the price has gone from $9.95 to $15.90 in about a year. That's a 60% increase. Needless to say, we will now be ducking out to McDonalds across the highway at lunch time!

[Spotty]

KFC FTW! But yeah... not including a drink is just bad... It makes Dreamworld all the more tempting...

[joz]

Its funny really, not including a drink in combos is a trick DW used for many years, as well as not letting guests take their own photos with characters, closing attractions without explanation, not maintaining themeing, understaffing attractions and charging extra for things that most would assume to be included. Oh how times change.

[Gazza]

The non included drink thing doesn't sound correct to me for some reason...Did they simply forget to give you a drink with your meal? Or is it now up on the menu (no drink pictured with the meals) with staff telling you drinks are extra?

[kieron5379]

I don't know where you get your facts from joz, but in the past six years i have never seen or heard a character chaperone tell anyone that they can't use their own cameras. Dreamworld offers the character photographer for those groups that don't have a camera or would prefer a professional quality photo. Most parents will take their own but will also look at and possibly purchase i professional photo taken by Dreamworld staff. As does Movieworld and the other parks i believe? Correct me if i'm wrong.

[S.W24]

Kieron5379 I had a feeling you would jump at this seems to me your a bit of a Dreamworld fan unlike most. I think you will find that Joz is talking about back in the older days i to can remember that they wouldn't allow you to take photos it was one of the only things my parents said they disliked about the park. This being back in the day when a lot of people refereed Dreamworld as being the Disney of Australia, What a title to have and you would think that it would be something you wouldn't want to let go of.

[kieron5379]

Yeah, i knida have to considering that i have never come across it. If it was ages ago, then fair enough, i can't really deny or confirm it but anything more recent, i could. I wasn't trying to be rude or anything, i just wanted to confirm that over the past few years i've never seen it :-)

[Lotl_90]

Just on this, I heard from a friend who went to seaworld recently, that they are now making people book in for character photos, with no personal cameras allowed. Fair enough, things are tight, but booking people in surely has to limit their sales. I know a lot of the Dreamworld character photo sales come from the people who are walking past, see the character out and get their photo, not book in for it, so im interested as to how this sort of system would work for them. Has anyone else seen/heard of this?

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Used to be a policy at Wonderland too - but only for the Shrek characters... before they moved up to WBMW that is. As the park photographer, it was a hell of a time, because, particularly when Shrek was brand new - EVERYONE was coming and joining the queue well ahead of time. Shrek was opposite Bounty's Revenge, next to Bounty's burgers, and the minders \ guest relations \ ushers just weren't paying attention to the crowd. Parents were standing on the stone wall around the fountain zooming right in on their kids. Now, I have to say here that on that topic, it was not an instruction of Wonderland management, but of DreamWorks pictures, and Shrek photos cost extra at the Wonderland Memories shop. The park paid a royalty to Dreamworks from every photo sold, and if there were too many "unauthorised" photos appearing, they would have lost the contract. Don't ask me how they would figure that out, but all i know is we were told to make sure parents did not take a photo, and if need be, to stand right in front of shrek with our back to the crowd until it was sorted out. But those early days - when the shrek costume was a round head with the features painted on... then a few weeks later when we got the rubber molded suit, and "shrek" upchucked a couple times in the heat..... "it's ok kids... thats Ogre Sweat.... Shrek is going to take a shower" (Donkey was worse however)

[Derwan]

The non included drink thing doesn't sound correct to me for some reason...Did they simply forget to give you a drink with your meal? Or is it now up on the menu (no drink pictured with the meals) with staff telling you drinks are extra?

There is no longer a drink pictured with the meal. That had me suspicious. When I asked for 2 bat meals, the lady asked if we wanted drinks, to which I responded, "Yes". I asked her, "Don't the meals include drinks any more?" - to which she shook her head. It cost us $32 for 2 meals with drinks. (One was a large drink).

[S.W24]

That would be right yes.

[MickeyD]

No offence but it sounds like the new GM there is a bit of a price Nazi! Reminds my of the days when Mark German was brought over from Universal in the late 90's to cut costs. Personally I think the Theme park's are using the looming recession as an excuse to cut back. In my experience they do not suffer a great deal at all during tough times - if anything, a one day Holiday is just what the doctor ordered to escape the blues of the times.

[BNErider]

The ice cream shop on Main Street now has a really random machine nailed just above the window. It has a small fan and it sprays like a sweet smell? I'm guessing its to entice people to get an ice cream. It's really ugly and random!

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

^^^ And its precisely what candy makers, and other confectioners do all over the world (I'm pretty sure Disney does it?) to entice people in. It's a smart move, IMHO. Subliminal advertising... works every time... it's like when you go to the cinema, and you can smell nothing but popcorn... and it makes you want popcorn... although nothing is like it being fresh hot popped in the butter... not many of them do fresh pop anymore.

[BNErider]

Well the idea of it isn't so bad, but the way they've done it is not. I'll try and get a picture next time I go, to show you how bad (and cheaply) it sticks out. I know it's not a huge issue, but if this is the kind of things they keep doing, then the whole park is going to start looking very tacky. Although I am sure some would argue that this has happened for quite some time now.

[Gold Coaster]

Disney does a very good job at hiding this type of thing. I wish the side alleys/shops near Main Street/Gotham City Hall had ambient noises related to the shops there. Do this at Disneyland and you hear singing lessons, dentist drills,etc... I'm sure WVTP could come up with thing. More general ambient noise could work in other areas of the park too and be an easy and cheap way. How often does the spray pump out and how far out do you think people could smell it from? Oh and Ash, talk on MSN hey?

Edited April 12, 2009 by Gold Coaster

[BNErider]

I didn't have a huge look. The fan didn't seem to stop, and the smell could be smelt from about 2 metres back. I really wish I got a picture now. And I also saw a switch for 'Main Street Spotlights' near it. I was really surprised they didn't hide that thing. Also I noticed that the noises from China Town (the cars/sirens) have been turned off.