MW review 21/06/2012 including street performance times

[MacPark]

haha well said.

[pin142]

Did they meet your hand by greeting their face with a visit from it? From what I can tell they are like the Kardishaians, "famous" for no reason at all. Oh well they best make the most of it as in a few months they will be has beens.

[Randy23]

I think Movie World wanted money $$$ haha because why would they host the "Janoskians"? Like WTF? Usally people go to Dreamworld?

[kujotess]

If no one has saw it yet, this is the Catwoman from Arkham City.

[Gazza]

I think Movie World wanted money $$$ haha because why would they host the "Janoskians"? Like WTF? Usally people go to Dreamworld?

Its no different to when they got that Neighbours actor turned singer doing shows at the park.

[Gazza]

Just recalled his name.....Sam Clark:

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

that Natalie chick who sung that awesome song Torn"... her last name is friggen hard to spell right,

*Imbruglia

[squid]

Went to Movieworld for the first time in a few years today, so thought I'd leave my impressions here. And yes, we knew it'd be very busy today, but we just bought VIP Passes, so we didn't mind since we can come back anytime. That said, we only got on 4 rides, waiting for over an hour for each. - Scooby was first, and it's as great as ever. 9/10 - Next was Green Lantern, my first ride of it. The queue and themeing was ok I guess, nothing special and not quite up to MW standards I think. I quite liked the ride itself. Having only a lap bar felt weird and the first drop and upside down sections felt scarier because of it! The audio wasn't working though, and it felt a little bit slow. To be honest, it felt a bit like a Six Flags ride, whereas most MW rides feel Universal Studios-like. 7.5/10 - Arkham Asylum was next. The updated ride and themeing are great! I could focus on the experience instead of my sore neck/ears! Some nice themeing in the queue as well. Because of the update, this is now a must-do ride. 9/10 - We finished off the day with Superman. With the long waiting time and uninteresting queue, I wasn't super excited when I finally got on, which was about 5:40 by then. Once it started though, I remembered how awesome this coaster is! And then once we were shot out of the tunnel, it was night-time, which made for a completely different and very cool experience. Australia's best ride IMO. 10/10 Experiencing Superman at night and then seeing Main Street and the rest of the park lit up, it made me really wish MW had longer hours, or regular Screamworld-like events. I guess they need a few more attractions first, to make it a true all-day park, but that last 15 mins was so awesome! Overall, it was a tiring day full of queuing, but still a lot of fun. I'll have to come back in a couple of weeks once school holidays are over to go on the attractions I missed today.

[kujotess]

Yeah, but I think the 14+ nights a year of White Christmas & Fright Night do the job.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Kujo - you seem to take quite a negative slant on a number of issues discussed on the forums here... have you been to White Christmas andor Fright Nights? Have you attempted to ride some of these attractions during those events? In total, through 3 Hallowe'en events and 2 Christmas ones, i've ridden TWO rides total - once I got on superman (early enough that it wasn't dark and therefore wasn't anything out of the ordinary) and once on Lethal (which was JUST dark enough, but wasn't the most enjoyable ride at the time). This doesn't count the corporate christmas party I had there last year, where I did get to experience superman in the dark TWICE, and batwing twice in the space of an hour. I think the point of Squid's post was that if the park had more regular night-time events, more people would be able to experience the additional thrill of riding some of our fantastic rides in the dark. Whilst I'm sure there are plenty of riders - few people feel like queueing for 2 hours to ride a roller coaster when the event is only open for 4 hours or so. Most people go to the FrightNights mazes, or the Christmas 'special' attractions as they are something new and unique - Squid is calling for a run-of-the-mill night-time opening (or extended trading day) like Dreamworld does with their Screamworld attraction... and if it were regular enough, it wouldn't necessarily be a capacity crowd reduced operation & staffing type situation. By now i'm sure that you've stopped reading because like you've said in reply to one of my other posts - you've read it, but forgot it all - if you're going to comment, then you should read the responses - and if you're going to respond, then you should address the argument, not restate your own, and ignore those points raised by the respondent. In short - the simple statement was that more night-time openings were needed, that weren't just 'special events' or 'limited time only' type deals - just the same old park, open in the dark - with maybe a little fancy lighting and a special night-time show, or parade, or something. Your statement about frightnights and white christmas being sufficient is therefore invalid, moot, ridiculous, and pure 'fail'. Now - ignore that.

[kujotess]

Just seeing your username and the starting line made me cringe. You're annoying, get off my back and shut up. Maybe shorten your stories too, because I seriously don't understand what I am reading. Yeah, I have been to White Christmas and Fright Night and it was fantastic! I am negative, am I? I am the one stating the positive here. I am bored now, and i ain't writing anymore, goodbye.

[Gazza]

You just got a VIP pass squid? Shoulda held out just one more day, because everyone elses passes would have expired....Come back in a week or two once the holidays are over.

Yeah, I have been to White Christmas and Fright Night and it was fantastic! I am negative, am I?

think AlexB makes a valid point. Haloween and White Christmas are more about the theme of the event. What he is getting at is that MW could perhaps have a few nights per year where the park is just open late to allow more night time riding...No different to Screamworld, or the way WnW runs slides etc whilst the dive in movie is on. I for one would support say a 7-8pm closing time in busy periods...Gives you a bit more time to see everything, and in summer you could enjoy the cool of the evening to do stuff. Many other theme parks have longer opening hours for parts of the year, with calendars that tell you the times.

[Park Addict 93]

I think they should extend the opening hours during the Summer Holidays but as somebody else mentioned in another thread have themed night events around once a month. The other benefit to the park if they are open later a heap of families will purchase dinner

[Gazza]

I also however think the park's opening time should be pushed back to compensate. If last entry is 7pm, the Park should open at 11AM instead of 9:30. If the last entry is 5PM, park should open at 10:30AM.

I don't think that really makes sense. At all. The whole point of a later closing time is to give people more hours to see everything on the busy days. Queue times, longer lines for food and slower movement through the park eats up more time, so an extra hour or two or more stops people missing out on stuff. It also spreads the load a bit, as people don't necessarily have to arrive bang on 10am to get a decent amount of time in the park..... So if you push back opening, you take that away from them...and for what? The 9pm closing at WnW is perfect in summer, because that place gets rammed. Notice when the park closes at 9pm (4 hours later than normal) they don't push back opening by four hours (to 2pm)...Because that would be dumb. Edited July 1, 2012 by Gazza

[CruiseSF]

By the way, most theme parks that use seasonally later closing times usually compensate BY OPENING LATER(either as standard or as part of the temporary operating times) or keeping the extra hours very low. Take Luna Park Melbourne for example, they open at 11(seasonally and non-seasonally) and simply wack 2 extra hours on at the end(during the school holidays).... Opening earlier than 11AM on days when you intended operating rides to 8pm is inevitably going to cause management headaches with the staff in terms of hiring staff to fill those hours and also organising more shows(with potentially contracted performers) to fill that extra time too.

There is a reason they do that though. The parks that do this are usually small, and therefore are not destinations within themselves. These parks also do not get the sales figures that the larger parks get. So what happens is the parks open later in school holidays because they want to get more people into the park and the later hours of the day are usually the best times to get local residents into the park as well as tourists who view the sites then in the afternoon go to the park. So in these parks they will notice a larger amount of guests as the day progresses. With the low income (in comparison) these parks get it become quite costly so therefore in order to have park close later then need to have it open later as well. On the GC the situation is different the parks are the major attraction on the GC so no matter what time they open there will always be a stream of guests waiting to get through the gate at opening. So if they open the park later you are just making these people wait longer and spending their money outside the park when they could be spending it inside. Edited July 2, 2012 by Cruiseshipfan

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

A predominantly casual workforce, who are already well paid with casual loadings will fill any stop-gaps. If you have any contracted workers with specific hours - you give them a choice of working early shift, or late shift - and then fill the holes with casuals, or in the case of non-essential services, such as harry potter shop, you just don't open it for the full day. I've seen a theme park do extended hours, and seen how their staffing was adjusted to compensate. Point is - those that actually have contracted hours - can still work their normal run. You hire in extras to fill the busy period. If the park did a late-trade once a month, most staff would be used to that, and it wouldn't be hard for each contract of employment to have a new clause entered into it at renewal time. Casual everything - from F&B, Retail street sales of flashy crap - to performers would be on call - know their dates etc. Point is - guests won't know if there is supposed to be six or 8 dancers in the parade - so if you get some no shows, no big deal? Most attractions have 'variable' staffing - being able to operate an attraction with 2,4 or 6 staff (and so on), so it's always adjustable. There is no need to change the start time... just the finish. Offer $5 after 5pm (obviously at a higher price than that) to pull locals in for a night-time trip to the park too - if you keep the park operating after 5pm, rather than closing at 5 and reopening at 6 or whatever like is done for fright nights etc, would keep guests IN the park for Dinner, rather than giving them an hour or so to head to Maccas... you make your extra money on F&B, and guarantee that flashy crap continues to sell well... it's a no brainer on extra costs, and staffing isn't hard - theres plenty of UNI students happy to pick up an extra shift outside of study hours.

[squid]

Yeah, I don't know much about how MW could make it work, but I would love to see it. Superman was a very different experience at night and I bet Green Lantern, Batwing and Arkham Asylum would be fun at night as well. Screamworld seems to be popular so you'd think MW could make it happen.

[CruiseSF]

How would they be waiting longer if they knew the new starting time? Surely they wouldn't spent 1.5 hours waiting at the gate and would just timeshift their scheduled day. And the reason it becomes costly is because of the dang staff issues I mentioned, which would be, and probably is(hence their sticking to a ridgid 9 to 5 timetable), the same problem that Movie World would face concerning longer opening times. These parks have to take on extra/new staff during the holiday extended hours periods to cover the extra days and hours.

For example if the parks open at 11 (close to lunch) most people would have lunch then go to the park. If it opens at 9 or 10 people (who have no method for leaving the park just for food) will need to stay in the park for food.

[Gazza]

How would they be waiting longer if they knew the new starting time? Surely they wouldn't spent 1.5 hours waiting at the gate and would just timeshift their scheduled day.

Not necessarily waiting at the gate, but its just an hour people would kill doing other stuff in the morning rather than being at the park. AlexB is right, the workforce is casual, so you can make them work whenever. If they can organize shifts for Halloween and Christmas, (Or illumnaite at DW or Dive in Movies at WnW) they can do it for other days too. Furthermore, the periods of longer opening would be in the school holidays, and this when they have the temporary seasonale workers anway, so you can staff it that way.

[MaxxTheMonster]

Update for some shows: 1:25pm - Wonderwoman vs Cheetah fight - Near lockers behind photoshop. 1:30pm - Tweety & Sylvester song - Under big screen main street.