Dreamworld Ride Opening Hours

[buzzkill13]

Agree, if they don't do something soon I see the park closing in the near future. It would be hard to compete with VRTP

[T-bone]

Oh, but the only reason their attendance is down along with profits is due to the weather, and nothing to do with their recent mediocre ride line up, didn't you know that? I just love how after 30 years of operation the steam trains are suddenly too expensive to operate. Bad decision Dreamworld. We say to ourselves time and time again (especially recently) that surely they can't fuck the park up any further, them they prove they can. I am starting to think a bunch of monkeys could run the place better than these clowns.

[Linus1995]

Just going to chip my two cents in. I obviously find it so disappointing, like everyone else, the way Dreamworld has been in decline over the past few years. I know that being a Brisbane resident I can say I'm very lucky to have such good theme parks all within an hours drive, compared to other capitals that do not have any fully fledged theme parks (Sydney soon!!). Yet I find it so disappointing, that maybe five or six years ago, I could be excited at going to two world class theme parks if I wanted a thrilling coaster experience or a very well 'themed' amusement park. Now? Theres MW. Why would I even consider wasting my money on Dreamworld, when I can't even experience what I payed for THE WHOLE DAY. It is very disappointing to have gone from picking my brain with friends thinking "should we go to Movieworld!?" "no lets go to Dreamworld it has______!!!!" and so on... Now it is simply a no brainer, Movieworld. That's not saying I'm disappointed in Movieworld, I absolutely love Movieworld. I just miss the fact that we used to have two competing parks, fighting to be the market leader, which gave us amazing attractions, and I would be able to spoil myself with both. It is just disappointing isn't it?

[New display name]

On Dreamworld's maintenance page. "Vintage Cars and The Train are closed for maintenance on Weekdays" LOL Quick question, what passes are people getting this year? Personal I’m getting a VIP pass this year. I have not had a Dreamworld pass for 3 years and nothing make me want to go back. Before I stoped going to Dreamworld I had a yearly pass for around 15 years straight.

[Brad2912]

To be honest, the only thing that keeps me buying DW/WWW passes is that I actually prefer WWW to WnW due to more shaded areas/better kids area, never as busy and I live in Coomera. If it was purely for DW id give it a miss this year

[Gary86]

This year I'm renewing my VIP pass but not my DW pass which goes till November. I haven't been to WWW yet so I will go around November before my pass expires since I won't get another one untill Dreamworld improve which may take a long time!

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I've stated previously that my two year pass for DWWWW expires at the end of June this year, as does my VIP Gold. I intend on buying the new discovery pass for VRTP, and I don't intend on renewing my DW pass. FWIW - the two year platinum pass for DWWWW was my first DW annual pass... and will most likely be my last. Bit of a left of centre idea - but if the value of the park drops enough, wouldn't it be a bit of a wild thought that VRTP might step in to buy it? They're obviously interested in expansion, and with DW and WWW being their major (only?) competition, buying them out would see them wrap up the tourism dollars on the GC. They of course would close WWW - and move any of the top end slides over the WnW (they have the space) and then use that land to significantly expand DW with a large-scale coaster to begin returning the park to the quality it was a decade or more ago. This would enable them to focus their thrills in DW, their themes in MW, their animals in SW and their slides in WnW.... just a thought (pipedream... but still...)

[Brad2912]

Ardent would never sell it. They see it as the cornerstone of their portfolio, and as a publicly listed company, they would be a less worthy investment opportunity, not to mention less attractive without DW

[Richard]

I do like the way that Ardent put it in their latest ASX release:

Range of operational initiatives underway to create greater flexibility in the cost base to maximize operating efficiencies in off peak periods outside of school holidays.

To be fair, Village Roadshow aren't very different:

Careful cost controls and operational efficiencies resulted in a decrease in expenses, mostly due to a reduction in labour hours on the previous financial year.

Meawhile, here's what the annual report of another international operator who obviously don't know how to run a theme park business have to say about the topic:

Higher operating labor was driven by new guest offerings, labor cost inflation and higher employee benefit costs. The increase in cost of sales was driven by higher volumes. Operating expenses also increased due to costs associated with resort expansion and new guest offerings including investments in supporting systems infrastructure.

[Original]

Ardent would never sell it. They see it as the cornerstone of their portfolio, and as a publicly listed company, they would be a less worthy investment opportunity, not to mention less attractive without DW

Stranger things have happened, ColesMyer completely folded with Myer being sold off and Coles going to Wesfarmers, the company wasn't broke financially, just broke operationally. But their answer was to just sell it. The further it (DW) goes down hill, the more money will be needed to bring it up to scratch, especially VRTP scratch. They may get to a point (if they did ever look at buying it) and go "nah too much money needed, costs outweighs the benefits we would gain", then who knows, Clive Palmer? Mack? In terms of ride operating hours being reduced the way they are is deplorable along with everything else that parks has been doing for so many years I've lost count. NOT counting Dreamworks; however, I get the feeling if Dreamworks weren't so strict who knows how that could have turned out

[rappa]

GREAT post Richard... And you don't even need to say who the third statement was from, I love that.

[westical]

I hope we're not comparing the operation of Australian theme parks to, I assume, Disney.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

They may get to a point (if they did ever look at buying it) and go "nah too much money needed, costs outweighs the benefits we would gain", then who knows, Clive Palmer? Mack?

Well - they could really do with getting into bed with Mack - the whole place could do with a refurb...

I hope we're not comparing the operation of Australian theme parks to, I assume, Disney.

But why not? Disney is the first 'true' theme park - they set the standard that everyone tried to emulate... albeit on lower budgets. The contrast in those quotes is stark... put simply - our parks are reducing their costs to improve their bottom line by cutting hours, cutting facilities to find 'efficiencies'... they're not efficiencies - they're reductions to the previously offered guest experience... sure - certain rides, or shops don't get much patronage at certain times of the day... but thats not what is important - what's important is that one guest who might want to shop there, or ride that at that time now can't, because the company wants to save $20ish a day. In contrast, the final quote shows that they're increasing their costs, reducing their margins in order to increase guest offerings, which in turn increases volume of sales. The old adage 'you've got to spend money to make money' rings as true today as it ever did. Having just returned from a USA trip, seeing the little things that Disney does in park, without expectation of return is in fact what encourages you to spend more money. Two examples from my own experience: 1) when in a store, the cast members will engage with you - talk to you about your day and the reason for your visit etc. They try to find any opportunity to give you a badge ("button") for you to wear showing the reason for your visit (ie: anniversary, birthday, just married etc) and freely hand these out in almost every outlet and store in the park. They've already got your admission fee, and giving you a button isn't a pre-cursor to you making a purchase, or anything else for that matter... so why do they do it? For no other reason than to improve your guest experience. On top, most cast are eagle eyed enough to spot the buttons, and to give you their best wishes for your special day also... (ie "congratulations" or "happy birthday"). I challenge anyone to show me how these buttons (which are a cost, albeit a minor one) are associated in any way with making money... after our three days in the park, we had about 8 buttons between us (including two of the 'cars-land' buttons they were handing out in the area). now even if the button costs 25 cents in manufacture etc, thats $2 for us - or $1 per guest. Judging by the people in the park wearing a similar number of buttons - thats hundreds of dollars a day in buttons... and for what? Nothing but guest experience. 2) our other experience is a little more personal. After discovering on our first day that my favourite ride - Space Mountain had been shut down for unplanned issues, and that it wasn't expected to be open before we left LA, we discovered, at around 7pm on our last day that it was in fact open. Since we still had the fireworks and fantasmic to do, this altered our plans greatly as we most definitely had to ride this one as my Wife had never seen it before. After having spent more than 6 days straight at other parks, my wife had hurt her ankle, and spent our final day in disney in a wheelchair. Between 7pm and 11:30pm we managed to get 2 rides in. After visiting the photo booth and finding both photos were 'not the best' for various reasons, we were cut, but decided to buy the cheapest version of both photos - a digital download, which cost around $30 for the two. We got chatting with the cast member at the photo booth and explained that this was our honeymoon, that SM was our favourite ride, and that the closure had been the worst news of the trip, with the late reopening being the best news we'd received... but that the ankle injury had impacted on our enjoyment of the park. After also trading a pin or two with the cast member, she asked us if we'd like to ride it again to try for a better photo. We said we'd have liked to but the queue was too long for us to get through again before closure. She called one of the leads for SM, back-doored us into the Wheelchair car (i'll talk about this later but i have to say an amazingly efficient way of assisting disabled guests without disrupting the main queue), we were on in less than 5 minutes, and coming back out at 11:40, just in time to see the third of our photos spit out of the photo printer (with the first two behind it), which she promptly placed into separate photo wallets, took my digital download card to upload the third one onto it, and then refused to take my credit card, telling me that the photos, a space mountain t-shirt, and a Disneyland keyring that she'd placed into a carry bag were a belated wedding present, and their way of trying to make our day. So in short - our $29.90 digital photo download purchase turned into a free-front-row ride, $60 worth of photos, another $15 digital download, a $45 t-shirt and a $9 keyring. $130 RRP just to make our day finish on a good note... and at that time of the day, there was no chance the park would recoup that from us (we'd spent way more than that in the past 3 days but they weren't to know that)... but that experience left my wife with a great impression of Disney, and guaranteed that we would immediately begin planning our next visit... again - i challenge anyone to show me how this interaction was in any way about making money, instead of just improving the guest experience...

[www worker]

Just as I thought they were starting to do good again if a few quality additions they go and do this stupid shit! Anyone thinking DW is about to go the way of wonderland?

Edited May 10, 2013 by www worker

[Brad2912]

DW had a big contingent running around the AALARA convention on the Gold Coast yesterday. Speaking to ride manufacturers including Intamin.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Of course they did - as one of the top two buyers for the AALARA market - they'd be sure to be well represented. doesn't mean they're buying anything decent... more likely they were digging through the discount bins for last season's seconds.

[New display name]

When I last went to Disneyland LA. My granddad had problems with his legs and after a couple of days walking around he had kankles. We went to guest services to hire a wheelchair. Disneyland gave us a special family front of queue pass so he didnt have to wait in line anymore. I also think the special unload and load area for Space Mountain for the disabled is cool.

[rappa]

I attend pretty much every industry trade show in my profession. I will stop, chat and drink with the major players there. But that's mostly catch up cause we own much of their product. Doesn't mean I'm buying anything. Plus if you are a big player you don't need to make purchases at trade shows, they come to you.

[JacobSibbald]

Hey AlexB, I believe the reason do this, as well as to improve guest experience - is to ensure repeat customers and keep their reputation high. Whilst you may think there is a multitude of other possibilities that ensure repeats, this can definitely add to it. You always have to think of Disney's sole objective, just as any other organisation - with the exception of Not For Profit - is to make a profit. Through this experience customers receive, they can go and share their stories, as you have just done, and advertise Disney through word of mouth. Whether this has any relevance, I don't care Just thought I'd share my reasoning behind the badges and other things which I'm sure is shared by many other members of Parkz.

[Gary86]

The main reason Dreamworld is failing right now is that lost the vision. The reason DW was built was to be a Disneyland style park in Australia.(Watch the start of "Young Talent Time | Dreamworld Special | Part 3" on Youtube for a interview of John Longhurst) Some of the original buildings and attractions reflect this (entry building, Main Street train station, paddle boat, Gum Tree Gully, Avalanche). For Dreamworld to be on top again they need to stop with the flat rides and build something to the quality of Disney parks.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Gary86

[Gazza]

^But I think the thing is, being Disney is a bit deeper than having just buildings that look like Main St USA and a paddlesteamer...Its a total experience.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Hey AlexB, I believe the reason do this, as well as to improve guest experience - is to ensure repeat customers and keep their reputation high. Whilst you may think there is a multitude of other possibilities that ensure repeats, this can definitely add to it. You always have to think of Disney's sole objective, just as any other organisation - with the exception of Not For Profit - is to make a profit. Through this experience customers receive, they can go and share their stories, as you have just done, and advertise Disney through word of mouth. Whether this has any relevance, I don't care Just thought I'd share my reasoning behind the badges and other things which I'm sure is shared by many other members of Parkz.

Of course - it's 'goodwill' but it isn't a direct action taken by the park to increase revenue. Goodwill and reputation solidifies their position and encourages both repeat visit and word of mouth advertising and encouragement for new visitors... my point is that these actions taken by Disney cannot be said to be a direct (positive) impact on revenue. It is a directly NEGATIVE impact on revenue... as I said 'spend money to make money'. My point wasn't that Disney throws money away - they don't. My point was that our parks are shortsighted and have shown that their view on profits and operations is that in order to make money, they need to SAVE money, by cutting costs, rather than investing in the guest experience which in turn will see return custom, as well as word of mouth advertising and encouragement for new visitors.

[JacobSibbald]

 

Of course - it's 'goodwill' but it isn't a direct action taken by the park to increase revenue. Goodwill and reputation solidifies their position and encourages both repeat visit and word of mouth advertising and encouragement for new visitors... my point is that these actions taken by Disney cannot be said to be a direct (positive) impact on revenue. It is a directly NEGATIVE impact on revenue... as I said 'spend money to make money'. My point wasn't that Disney throws money away - they don't. My point was that our parks are shortsighted and have shown that their view on profits and operations is that in order to make money, they need to SAVE money, by cutting costs, rather than investing in the guest experience which in turn will see return custom, as well as word of mouth advertising and encouragement for new visitors.

  They just need to learn from the best...

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Which is what the last few posts (from me and others) has been saying.

[www worker]

Feel so stupid now was just talking to my old boss ( same who told me there would me new 2 rides in 2011 including a disko coaster that I had an argument with a certain member) that these early closures are not permanent and just while they do maintenance and tlc to these areas. Also too die for will be nothing like avpx. Expect something Big by world standards ( cough cough record breaker ) in September 2014