Sea World Wild: What Could It Be?

[Gazza]

Hey RAC, can you get an image of WnW Sydney for us?

[rac2703]

Here is WnW Sydney as of 22nd April 2014

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

doesn't look as 'green' as I would have expected it to...

[Gazza]

^Most of the areas under rides are bark chips at the moment.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

^the fly coaster looks like its just very very dead grass...

[GoGoBoy]

^Most of the areas under rides are bark chips at the moment.

Yeah, that's one of the many areas that really needs fixing before next season. Some nice lush tropical greenery wouldn't go astray. I'd even settle for a few random plants there and there. The park needs some friggin atmosphere!

[iwerks]

Went on the Amazon River Quest flume ride at Singapore's River Safari today. Despite the promotional pictures presenting this as a sedate little river raft ride, it actually has three nice little flumes in it. I don't know if it's the best way to see wild life, as it zipped past some enclosures pretty quickly; however, it does make for a great family-friendly attraction. It's a $5 add-on on top of the entry fee to the park. River Safari, itself, is just under a year old and they're still expanding - at this stage it's a little underwhelming. You need to book your river ride at least 1 hour ahead of your entry into the park as it takes 45 minutes to find your way to the start of the attraction.

It would probably cost Sea World $15-20 million to pull off something like this ride, but that's what they should be aiming at.

Edited July 1, 2014 by iwerks

[themagician]

I don't think a ride of this size would fit into the space reclaimed and I don't think this is the best way to show animals. But that's just me.

Edited July 1, 2014 by themagician

[Mecca]

i messaged seaworld today asking why the billboard were taken down andd if wild was still going ahead .. ''we haven't released any information regarding this so stay tuned '' so idk whats going on over there if they have given up on wild ):

[Brad2912]

Nice blow off there... Don't talk about something for long enough and people will forget it ever existed...

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

To be fair - a park is allowed to change it's mind... Wild was the first time one of our parks started a teaser campaign before we knew what it was, and before anyone had stumbled onto any information relating to it. Things happened, and they had to pull the billboard... but if we rag on them now - they'll never do teasers again!

Wonderland announced a new ride once - and it never got built...

[themagician]

I think we can say that Wild isn't happening anymore. I would say that me might hear some news about a new attraction/ride to be built on this land next year.

[MickeyD]

Yeah like a new coaster to replace old unusable piles of orange steel

[BigKev]

I think we can say that Wild isn't happening anymore.

Can we though?

After all the animals talked about aren't just ones from the local pet shop and not the sort of thing you can chuck a free to good home ad in the Trading Post once you no longer want them.

Surely the animal aspect would have required some long term planning and organising and would be hard to just abandon?

[Jobe]

Thats a good point Flea but the exact opposite of that COULD be the reason for Wild's ultimate demise or deferral at the very least. There could be an unforseen problem with the animals themselves ( either in the acquiring, legal or technical aspect) that were required for the attraction, and this is the reason that Wild has quietly slipped off the radar for the present.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Not to mention that timing issues are even more important than that - the animals that may have been on the cards would have REQUIRED relocation from a certain date or time - when it was deferred, the animals would have found an alternative home (and there are usually many zoological facilities that can accommodate short term relocations) -

You all realise the Lair at dreamworld was built solely to house the big cats whilst the Canberra Zoo was renovating their enclosure?

[Brad2912]

My opinion, the further they got into the planning and details of the projext, the more they realised the cost for firstly set up & development, and secondly the upkeep and maintenance became cost prohibitive when factoring in all the other running costs of a theme park.

It likely became a situation of Wild having to be an up-charge attraction to be financially viable, and a combination of market research and historical data from the success/failure of upcharge attractions showed this wouldn't be successful. Up-charging at theme parks is not something locally that visitors are familiar or in agreeance with, and I believe the thought of investing so much, advertising so heavily, but then having to charge people extra drew thoughts of massive PR issues & negative feedback from the local tourism/theme park community.

Could be completely wrong, but that's my take on it all.

[rappa]

You could be right and perhaps it has been put on hold as a new gate somewhere or something has caused a shift of immediacy direction.

Look at mini cars, it was happenjng, then we got pola bear pre school instead and now a year later we have cars coming in.

No reason to think Wild couldn't be the same.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

No reason to think Wild couldn't be the same.

..or it could be completely different - and end up somewhere else?

[jjuttp]

I don;t think it really came down to costs in that aspect. 1 single seal costs $50K per year in FOOD ALONE, yet they managed to get SH in 18 months ago. I'd say its just been delayed because of Harry and Storm, plus the "land budget". Meaning it'll probably be back on track next year.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

it'll probably be back on track next year.

That's a big call - especially since the more we found out about the project the more it seemed like suicide to put it into Sea World... I'll be extremely surprised if it comes back to the Spit.

[BigKev]

Terrible source I know but just noticed the Sea World wikipedia page says Wild will open in 2015.

[themagician]

^That has been like that for a while and hasn't been updated since SW announced it

[Brad2912]

Anyone can update a Wikipedia page