Sea World ride hours changed?

[rappa]

I recon the sword thing is an easy one. Parents will usually buy kids one thing, and they nearly ALWAYS give in. So if the kid wants a nice big high profit sword then you'd be a nutter not to sell them over $1 glow sticks. NO idea if that's the reason, but it's what I'd be doing. Funny with the food stuff, everyone knows the high profit item anywhere (cinemas, sports games, theme parks, fast food) is Post Mix soft drink. Second is probably fries. But most people seem only concerned with the price of things like the burgers, which really don't have as much profit sitting there that I believe a lot of people think there is. Add to that every idiot seems to want a bloody Angus patty these days (seriously you take the worst cuts of meat and squash and pound the crap out of them into a burger so why do you want premium meat) and you quickly end up with a $15 burger sadly. What I'd love to see if a proper sit down restaurant with table service. I'd much sooner pay good money for that in a park than anything else. Sell cheap burgers and have your good food offering in a table service restaurant. I think the dirty harry nachos prove there is a market between outlets and Ricks Buffet. My favourite was always when the Broadwater Cafe restaurant was open at Sea World over summer. Hell Disney manage to pull people into the park JUST to eat. That's a great way to go for VIP passes, have them come into the park JUST to spend money on food and then leave again without even going on any rides. That's what you want.

[joz]

^ Couldn't agree more with the last 3 sentences. F&B should (and has been shown overseas, could) be an attraction in it's own right rather than just a source of revenue.

[axltk421]

Ha - DJ, your line about people going to the parks just to eat is so true. When I lived in England, we moved to Kent (South East) to be closer to DLP. One day, (because we could), the wife and I drove through the channel tunnel, down to Disneyland Paris, went in the park - rode Space Mountain, then left the park, went to Festival Disney (to the Steakhouse), spent four hours having a most awesome meal - and then drove home. Incidentally, we have also done that trip to buy a couple of limited edition, Paris only, Halloween beanies. Since I arrived on the Gold Coast five years ago, I have always thought that the place is crying out for a Rainforest Cafe or a T-Rex Cafe or similar. I think they would make a fortune! Cheers! Axl

[Gazza]

On the topic of T-Shirts, MW needs to sell a version of this T-Shirt: http://www.laughingplacestore.com/ShowPic.asp?ProductID=15157

[S.W24]

merchandise doesn't interest me, but for people who make the trek up once a year and would generally buy something, they aren't going to buy the same thing they saw last year and bought last year. I agree no company has been able to replicate the brand loyalty of Disney, but Looney Tunes and Batman has always proven to be popular, instead of Mickey ears, maybe Bugs ears?

Request Bugs ears and you shall get! For those of you who may not have been in the parks as of late, well Movie World. Bugs Ears have hit the shelves along with may other novelty items. Its quite surprising when you look around the amount of people wearing them for fun while in the park. Its also good to see the interaction the characters do come up with when they come across someone with bugs ears on.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Movie World used to have these really classy Polo shirts. These I would buy... now, all you can get are screen printed t-shirts with a slightly more childish print than something an adult would buy.

Bring back a more mature offering - i've a number of polo shirts that I bought from WVTP properties back in about 2001-2004. They simply don't do them anymore in favour of the iron-on transfer t-shirt. I can tell you that i'd buy at least 1 shirt per visit (and more if they were good value or in a buy-one-get-one-for-XXXX combo) so long as they weren't the same shit that had been on the rack for the past 4 years!

I took a trip down to SW and MW on the weekend. I'm pleased to say that the WB shop on the corner of mainstreet now displays POLO SHIRTS... IN THEIR FRONT WINDOW! They're a new style of shirt - all cool-dry fabrics, a lot lighter and more wearable than the traditional cotton stuff that was too heavy for QLD conditions... MW featured 3 designs - bugs+logo, taz+logo, and the standard WBMW logo, on various colour combinations - each design had two different colours, black and white, black and grey, blue and red, blue, black... Sure they all fit on one little rack in the middle of the shop, but it's so refreshing to see that kind of classy "i'd wear that to work on a casual friday" style merchandise. Sea World isn't left out either - they have similar shirts of the same make, in a couple of different colours, with the standard SW logo. The only difference was that these were $29.95 rather than the $49.95 for the ones at MW. For a shirt that you can pick up in K-Mart for $15, I can justify doubling the price for the stitching and trademarking... but $50 is still a little steep for a cool-dry polo... even with a WB character on it (the standard WBMW logo was the same price). All in all though, it's good to see that kind of product back on the shelves in the parks, and yes, I did pick one up (from SW though...) Re-reading this topic i noticed someone said that Dreamworld has drifted more toward the generic Ripcurl \ Quiksilver brands etc... Sea World have also leaned in this direction - but at least they have a bit of a reason for it (and i'll slap anyone that says ocean parade is a good enough tie-in) Lastly, On the topic of merchandise, Sea World and Movie World both are now selling souvenir books for each park, full colour glossy, with some information about the park and it's attractions, and loads of photos. Didn't buy them this time round (looked like a few recent changes such as bermuda \ looney tunes river ride hadn't been updated yet.), but i'm sure to pick one of these up having seen how sought after this kind of product is later in life... Edited May 2, 2011 by AlexB

[rappa]

I notice DW had these books too. I probably should pick them up given I have nealry 20 year old versions of the same in my cupboard.