Adventure World 2015 - 'Mi2' Kraken Tornado slide

[grrofunger]

Not many people there today

[iwerks]

It seems ironic that they were closed earlier in the week when it was 40 degrees. I suppose it's something you can't plan for.

[Mark Shaw]

20 hours ago, iwerks said:

It seems ironic that they were closed earlier in the week when it was 40 degrees. I suppose it's something you can't plan for.

Hi Iwerks

You are correct. We would rather stay consistent with our opening times and besides which, things like essential weekly maintenance have to be achieved and rosters are fixed a minimum of two weeks in advance. I also believe anyone who might have attended on those days will come on another day anyway.

 

Pirates arm has been fixed this morning. we wont let the idiots win. Obviously the join needs painting!

Car park plans are coming along nicely (I know, not hugely exciting news) but MI3 plans are coming along. It wont be as big as MI1 or MI2 though. MI4 however?

Mark

[GoGoBoy]

Hi Mark. When you've finished making Adventure World amazing, would you please kindly offer your services to one of the parks on the Gold Coast? I think any one of them would benefit from having you around!

[Reanimated35]

3 hours ago, Mark Shaw said:

MI4 however?

So it's confirmed? Wooden looping B&M flying hypercoaster for Adventure World in 2017? 

[Tim Dasco]

38 minutes ago, reanimated35 said:

So it's confirmed? Wooden looping B&M flying hypercoaster for Adventure World in 2017? 

Don't be silly! Mark said MI3 will happen in 2017 and MI4 will happen in 2019. The Wooden looping B&M flying hyper coaster will come then.

[iwerks]

7 hours ago, Mark Shaw said:

Hi Iwerks

You are correct. We would rather stay consistent with our opening times and besides which, things like essential weekly maintenance have to be achieved and rosters are fixed a minimum of two weeks in advance. I also believe anyone who might have attended on those days will come on another day anyway.

 

Pirates arm has been fixed this morning. we wont let the idiots win. Obviously the join needs painting!

Car park plans are coming along nicely (I know, not hugely exciting news) but MI3 plans are coming along. It wont be as big as MI1 or MI2 though. MI4 however?

Mark

Thanks Mark. Great to see the pirate is no longer armless. If MI-3 costs less than the Kraken that still leaves lots of options. I presume you'll be choosing a ride option with a fairly high capacity or perhaps we'll see the return of the castle. Could make a great venue for a bigger live performance show.

Keep up the great work. 

[grrofunger]

With all the recent investment, Abyss, Kraken etc- Adventure World is now a fully fledged, quality theme park.

I think it is time the opening hours reflected this. Call it bad luck or whatever but the Tuesdays and Wednesdays so far this year that the park has been closed have been very hot and ideal to visit the park.

Everyone i speak to lately agree, from enthusiasts to small time visitors to people who haven't been yet, that it is odd the park is closed during the week.

It made sense years ago when the park didn't have as many attractions but not now. It needs to be open to get the patronage the park deserves and capitalise on the recent investment.

I know the excuse trotted out is forecasts suggest patronage wouldn't be enough but surely those forecasts are based on outdated attendance numbers.

Should be open until 7pm in February as well for after school visits, its 6:30pm now and still bloody hot.

Next year should be amended, even as a trial.  "Build it and they will come"

 

EDIT TO ADD:

 

I think this is ridiculous too:

To help Adventure World to manage the popularity of accessing Kraken using Fast Pass, an adjustment to the product has been made that is effective from 20th Feb where Fast Pass holders can only ride twice from the Kraken Fast Pass lane. More information:https://adventureworld.net.au/.../upgrade-your.../fast-pass/

Changing the goal posts mid season again.

Either you have a fast pass or not, don't limit the use on 1 ride amongst all the others. Pretty poor decision IMO especially mid season.

Change the loading rules if you must - eg at least 5 groups go before you can use your fast pass but to limit it to 2 uses for the day is ridiculous.

I probably wont bother now which is at least $105 a fortnight gone from me.

Edited February 16, 2016 by grrofunger

[iwerks]

Wow is someone hot and bothered?

I agree with the fact that changing the rules with Kraken and fast pass is a bad move. Even when I had a fast pass I wouldn't ride it more than three times in a day - the fact is I could if I wanted to.

Surely there'd be a lot less people visiting this late in the season. When I don't have a fast pass I don't mind, because I didn't pony up the money for a fast pass and I go first thing.

Being a full time park would help, however I was at Peel Zoo today and there were like five people in the park (which was great for me).

[grrofunger]

Maybe that sounded more aggressive than it was meant to...

i am annoyed about the fast pass change though, I think that is a poor decision.

[iwerks]

I thought the Kraken handled the fast pass situation really well. Even when AW sold out of fast passes I never saw more than a handful of people in the fast pass line (probably because they had to walk back up that hill). It would be interesting to find out why they're changing it.

[dukeofwhales]

The fact that the queue operated 1 raft from regular line/1 raft from fast pass made queuing without the fast pass super slow.  I queued 80 minutes for one ride back in November on what wasn't even really a particualrly busy day (Abyss was <5 minutes all day), while I watched the same kids with a fast pass ride it 5 or 6 times as they'd jump on as soon as they got to the top of the hill.

I understand that's the point of a fast pass but it didn't leave the most positive impression.

[Mark Shaw]

All

Some interesting points been raised since my last visit here. There is an old saying "you cant please all of the people, all of the time"  I'm talking about fast pass. Everyone is entitled to an opinion of course.

Because the Kraken has proven so popular,  the queues have been longer than expected. When you have a theoretical throughput of 600 guests per hour, you kind of expect/assume, that the queues wouldn't often blow out over 40 minutes.

That was not the case during the hot peak months. The fast pass option is a consumer choice option and is limited deliberately (believe me, we could sell twice as many, at a higher price and bank the cash thank you very much!) so as to not upset the balance of emotions of the guest experience. Consider on a busy day, 230 Fast pass users and 5k other guests, most of whom, want to ride Kraken and don't want to queue for more than half an hour on a hot day.... right?  So imagine if your in that non fast pass purchased group (and remember, they may have wanted one but they had sold out?)  you've been queuing to get your first (and probably only ride of the day) and you see a fast pass guest pass you 4, maybe five times, in the time you've been waiting? We have observed this frequently and if I were that guest in the main queue line, that's just going to anger me even more. Our social media is littered with feedback based on the Kraken situation as it was.  We feel that 2 rides jumped queue is fair and if you have sense you will re-visit the ride later in the day when queues have died down and ride again if that's what you want to do.  

We do have to react to imbalances, sometimes it is dynamic and I make no apology for changing the policy mid season. What difference does it make if we make that change now instead of September?  the only difference is we are reacting to the majority feedback to try and redress the balance to be a little bit more fair.

Next two rides will have high capacity. Other changes to the park layout may also be designed to address capacity issues.

I think we do need to be cognoscente of the changing global economy and how that affects us over the next few years. So that's a watch and wait situation regarding  MI4/5 at this stage.  We all want to see continuous improvement however we have to work within our financial constraints and keep testing the market place to see where the growth potentially tapers away.  Aside from that we will continue to improve our theming, landscaping, infrastructure and commercial opportunities in food and beverage and retail as well as constantly driving the highest possible service standards through our awesome team.

Chat soon and thanks everyone for your support.

 

Mark

[iwerks]

3 hours ago, Mark Shaw said:

Next two rides will have high capacity. Other changes to the park layout may also be designed to address capacity issues.

I think we do need to be cognoscente of the changing global economy and how that affects us over the next few years. So that's a watch and wait situation regarding  MI4/5 at this stage.  We all want to see continuous improvement however we have to work within our financial constraints and keep testing the market place to see where the growth potentially tapers away.  Aside from that we will continue to improve our theming, landscaping, infrastructure and commercial opportunities in food and beverage and retail as well as constantly driving the highest possible service standards through our awesome team.

Thanks for the clues about the next rides and the feedback, Mark.

I would have thought the Kraken would have already had its peak period and that crowds will lessen off after this.  I really wish the GP would educate themselves better on what the system was so we wouldn't have to change the fast pass rules for them. 

I also read at one stage that fast pass wouldn't allow people on to the same ride twice within fifteen minutes.

Hats off to those people who can climb that hill 5 or 6 times!

So looking forward to MI4/5.  There's certainly a few high capacity rides under $7 million I would love to see at the park.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Good on you @Mark Shaw for recognising an issue causing problems for your guests and dealing with it, even if it proved an unpopular decision, rather than allowing it to continue. 

Unfortunately, many folks on here (myself included sometimes) forget the past when a new issue confronts them. We all see a product that previously offered unlimited rides on your new number one attraction all day, at the expense of others. Now, the same product doesn't offer that, and we want to whinge that it isn't as good as it was - but we forget about how often we've complained about how VRTP oversells night events so you can barely move \ experience every attraction they have. Banking the money and to hell with the guests!

When I read this thread earlier today, I found myself siding with those who were disappointed the policy had changed, but given how much praise we've had for you, and for AW in the past 12-18 months, as well as how reactive (and proactive) you have been to the little things, I felt there was more to the story... so I refrained from commenting until I heard your explaination (you know - the one that you don't owe any of us, but still give because you care)... and now I understand perfectly. It's a shame the system is abused as it is.

A couple of years ago I visited Magic Mountain. I had one day in the park, I knew it's reputation (and had visited before) so I booked their premium fastpass experience. top of the line, all the upgrades etc - over $300 for three people... They even made me pay EXTRA to include the rides that the park considered to be a premium (X2 and Lex Luthor Drop of Doom) at $15 per person, per attraction, and then, I only got ONE ride on each. I still considered that to be perfectly fair.

I think the only reason why this is being perceived as unfair is because it's a mid season change - but this is precisely why we appreciate your input, opinion and observations. You listen to us enthusiasts, you react to them. You mow. You resurface a path. you install all sorts of aides and provide all sorts of extra services when you could have said ' to hell with it' and kept raking in the cash.

In my opinion, the only other thing I would do with your fastpass queue is to slow down how fast you load from it - ie: take a full raft once every 5 slides. Regardless of how busy \ quiet it is, from the time the first person arrives at the fastpass queue, wait five rafts until you load them. then another 5 rafts before you take the next lot. It is still a heck of a lot faster than queueing in the standby queue, it's how Disney does it too, and unless you promise people they'll be loaded immediately, they won't mind a short (2-3 minute) wait as opposed to the 40 minute queue everyone else is standing in.

 

Please keep up the good work.

[grrofunger]

9 minutes ago, AlexB said:

 

In my opinion, the only other thing I would do with your fastpass queue is to slow down how fast you load from it - ie: take a full raft once every 5 slides. Regardless of how busy \ quiet it is, from the time the first person arrives at the fastpass queue, wait five rafts until you load them. then another 5 rafts before you take the next lot. It is still a heck of a lot faster than queueing in the standby queue, it's how Disney does it too, and unless you promise people they'll be loaded immediately, they won't mind a short (2-3 minute) wait as opposed to the 40 minute queue everyone else is standing in.

 

 

This is what i said before and think should have been done instead of limiting to 2 rides.

Anyway, i accept Marks reasoning and acknowledge the Kraken queues overall have been an issue this season. Will be interesting to see the impact of this change on the regular queue times.

[dukeofwhales]

If I've learned anything from simulation video games, it's that what appears to be a small adjustment can have a massive effect on wait times.  Even though there is essentially no line with the 1:1 regular/fastpass queue system, increasing it to 2:1 (never mind 5:1) could easily make a big difference on the queue sizes and make those who paid for the fastpass feel poorly treated - I think the two rides is a better solution.

I don't blame the kids who ride it over and over with a fastpass - they paid for it (and when I was a kid at AW you better believe I ran between the attractions for the entire day, exhausing myself and my parents) - but the ride experience in the regular queue made me feel something needed to be changed.  Perhaps I just got unlucky and picked a peak queue time on a busy day because my wait genuinely was 80 minutes.

[Mark Shaw]

On ‎18‎/‎02‎/‎2016 at 9:08 AM, dukeofwhales said:

If I've learned anything from simulation video games, it's that what appears to be a small adjustment can have a massive effect on wait times.  Even though there is essentially no line with the 1:1 regular/fastpass queue system, increasing it to 2:1 (never mind 5:1) could easily make a big difference on the queue sizes and make those who paid for the fastpass feel poorly treated - I think the two rides is a better solution.

I don't blame the kids who ride it over and over with a fastpass - they paid for it (and when I was a kid at AW you better believe I ran between the attractions for the entire day, exhausing myself and my parents) - but the ride experience in the regular queue made me feel something needed to be changed.  Perhaps I just got unlucky and picked a peak queue time on a busy day because my wait genuinely was 80 minutes.

All

Thanks for the comments everyone. Alex, I will review the ratio in accordance with current queues, which have obviously come down a bit from January anyway as I think you might have a fair point, certainly to move from 1 in 3 to 1 in 4 might be something we trial. Iwerks,  it is unlikely we might spend $7m for a few years on one attraction.  Unfortunately January's poor weather (worst in 26 years!) had dampened enthusiasm to take such big risks until we see improved returns and more steady weather patterns. That shouldn't be read as "we wont be" but at this stage, it would be "unlikely".  Interestingly I was talking to Dax at Jamberoo yesterday and he reckons queues of an hour and a half are common on their tornado.... still!  I guess Sydney park goers are more used to queues than Perthlings! (look at Sydney's traffic for example?) as they do not seem to complain about it as much.

Duke of Whales, you truly must have been on a very busy day. Our reports suggest the average queue time in January for Kraken was 45 minutes. This is taken from readings every half an hour through the entire trading day.

Speak soon.

Mark

[dukeofwhales]

Cheers Mark, I appreciate you keeping on top of things.  I was there on a weekend in November (the 22nd) and queued from about 10.30am - so it was probably a combination of people visiting just for the new ride, the "longest queue first" rush (we hoped we'd beat the crowds but we obviously didn't) and staff still getting familiar with loading the ride efficiently.

[Mark Shaw]

15 minutes ago, dukeofwhales said:

Cheers Mark, I appreciate you keeping on top of things.  I was there on a weekend in November (the 22nd) and queued from about 10.30am - so it was probably a combination of people visiting just for the new ride, the "longest queue first" rush (we hoped we'd beat the crowds but we obviously didn't) and staff still getting familiar with loading the ride efficiently.

that sounds about right. the team are dispatching around 30% faster now compared to November! sorry! 

 

[iwerks]

Paid a rare weekday trip to the park, today.  It was only about 25 degrees when I visited in the early afternoon and I was surprised to find the car park half full. 

It was great to see that the themed shading was being installed for the Kraken.  There also appeared to be some theming where I hadn't seen it before - between the other slides going down the hill. 

Was pleasantly surprised to see that the kangaroos were closer to the old food trough today, including a couple of joeys. What really amazed me here was that one of the keepers was patting one of the emus, which seemed to really enjoy the attention.

Except for some patches of missing grass, the park was looking really good. 

[Mark Shaw]

Thanks IWERKS.  The Kraken additional theming still has patches and stitching to be applied and there are now new shade sails in the actual queue race where we had gaps which also need the stitching and patches added over the next few weeks.

 

The additional theming you mentioned has been there since we launched the ride.  We hope to add more in Nautica over winter, budgets allowing.

 

Talk soon.

 

Mark

p.s. I know its old hat on the Gold coast but we should be introducing a 10 week payment plan for Season passes this winter/spring. We had hoped to launch it last year ( see, we didn't copy the Gold coast parks) but our ticketing system needed upgrading in line with the new website before we could launch it.

All,,

What do people think about a Lazy river sometime in the future? 

 

Please note, just because I am asking peoples opinions should not be taken as anything other than curiosity about the popularity of the LR in preference to other rides/slides? Please do not post to Facebook. Thanks.

 

Mark

 

[iwerks]

A lazy river would be great, Mark, especially considering how popular the rocky mountain rapids are.

Something I forgot to comment on the other day was that Freefall was down again and it doesn't appear to be even mentioned in the 'What's On Guide'.  I presume it's had its day. 

I hope the early bird payment option will still be available next year.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I think a LR would be great - but only if you actually do something with it - make it a (lazy) transport option for people to hop in and out of all the way around the park. This concept has been put forward several times (most notably at WnWS) and never eventuated.

If you can't finance it all at once, do it in stages in such a way you can 'add on' to it later? That would be AWesome.

 

p.s. - re: asking us not to post to facebook, i'm fairly confident most peeps on here wouldn't do that, but as Parkz does tend to be one of the top results in google for most theme park things in Australia, you can't guarantee it won't be picked up by a googler and run with - so if you didn't want it all over facebook, it's probably not wise to post here for that reason alone.

[Mark Shaw]

Freefall : The saga continues. Huss are building new shock absorbers. I think I explained in a previous post that having ordered new shocks (over $50k worth) last March to give sufficient time to ship and install ready for this season, they then turned up 10 weeks late. By the time they were installed and everything else on the ride tested and balanced it was early November I think and we found they were faulty. They are safety critical so they have to be perfect. We had a local company strip them down and eventually a rep from Huss came and inspected first hand and said, "send them back, they're no good".   The good news is we have a new contact at Huss in their CEO of the new rides sales company (who oversee service and parts) who seems to have given his colleagues a kick. Subsequently we believe the ride will return in Season 2016/17. Fingers crossed.  It is a very complex ride unfortunately.

 

Yes the early bird option will be available.

8 minutes ago, AlexB said:

I think a LR would be great - but only if you actually do something with it - make it a (lazy) transport option for people to hop in and out of all the way around the park. This concept has been put forward several times (most notably at WnWS) and never eventuated.

If you can't finance it all at once, do it in stages in such a way you can 'add on' to it later? That would be AWesome.

 

p.s. - re: asking us not to post to facebook, i'm fairly confident most peeps on here wouldn't do that, but as Parkz does tend to be one of the top results in google for most theme park things in Australia, you can't guarantee it won't be picked up by a googler and run with - so if you didn't want it all over facebook, it's probably not wise to post here for that reason alone.

Thanks Alex and a fair point. I recognise there is always a risk of info leaks but this is really just curiosity at this stage so if it did leak its not the end of the world as people would be simply barking up a tree that doesn't exist. I appreciate most if not all peeps wouldn't anyway.