Farmyard Friends

[Slick]

Well dreamworld have now released some official photos etc. plus information about the launch of Farmyard Friends at this link, all you have to do is click on the Farmyard friends link! http://dreamworld.com.au/dw/dreamweb.nsf Enjoy!? :confused: PS: i tried to get the exact link but the type of scripting the Dreamworld website uses doesn't allow this! :confused:

[Obstructure]

Is it just me, or are Dreamworld now trying to offer more attractions to children? In the past there really wasn't anything specificly built for children, but more family orientated.

[Slick]

Dreamworld is just doing the right thing, they're Dreamworld's future customers and if they have happy memories now, they will most definitely come back later and spend hundreds more dollars

[joz]

More attractions for families. Its the in thing at the moment, and makes good bussiness sense. The reason is that familes spend more money, and are easier to market too. Its nothing new, every other park on the Gold Coast has been doing this for years.

[GoGoBoy]

Wow - this has seriously got to be the most boring addition Dreamworld has received for some time! Even the ad for it on the DW website looks boring. All I can say is we better get that (or any) rumoured ride this year or else I am going to cry. A farmyard nursery? There's nothing original about that. It doesn't even fit in with the 'Australian Wildlife Experience' theme. I guess that's why they have referred to it as 'Gum Tree Gully's Farmyard Nursery', to show that it is not really associated with the AWE. In saying all this I definitely think the Australian Wildlife Experience was a great improvement to DW and any future expansions in this area would be a good thing. Afterall, it does seem to bring in that lucrative asian market by the bus load. But apart from the AWE I really don't think DW needs any more animal attractions

[Richard]

You're right, it's not part of, nor an expansion of Australian Wildlife Experience, contrary to what has been stated elsewhere. The idea of AWE is to showcase a wide variety of Australia's wildlife in a replicated natural environment. Tell me how a petting zoo with a bunch of lambs and calves and chicks and whatnot at all fits in with this idea. The petting zoo is certainly nothing special or bold and new, but it is still quite an integral attraction for any theme park. You won't find too many that will go to Dreamworld specifically for it, but it's the sort of thing that has the capability to turn many families' day at the park from a good one to a great one. It's no secret that a larger emphasis will be put on family-oriented attractions, namely those with minimal cost yet the potential for great return. This has been been a recurring theme in a lot of Macquarie Leisure's reports. There's still a commitment to delivering top-notch thrill rides, but as has always been the case, such captial-intensive developments are unlikely to happen more than every three or four years.

[Daniel]

I think this is an extremely good idea. Surely, more family oriented activities is good for a theme park. This is definitely not going to harm them as far as I'm concerned. Sure, it may not sound exciting for you or I, but it will appeal to the kids, like Shifty and the like You know as well as I do how much kids love farm animals. Good Move!

[Obstructure]

Yeah, I think the positives for it are that it will appeal to the families (again), but also the Gum Tree Gully area, it is like a ghost town. The Tomb Raider livened up the area and got people going through there again but besides that theres a restaurant and a few shops. I think its a wise move because that has just become wasted space. As for updating rides more frequently, if Dreamworld were to put in a new top notch thrill ride each year, they would be making hardly any profit in the process. These cost millions to put in (as you all know) and are big projects which take time to research and have installed. Then there's all the marketing etc involved. Plus, if over the next 10 years they put in 10 thrill rides, the park's size would grow so big that the ticket price would have to rise alot higher (making it less affordable and appealing to the younger generation and families, who are the target crowd), and it would be moving too far too quick. If they put in a new one, it is good for a few years, take rides like the Wipeout, TOT and GD - still 'fairly' new, and are drawing huge crowds to the very day. The appeal is still there for them. Every few years something major is good enough.

[Richard]

I wouldn't call Tomb Raider livening up Gum Tree Gully. Rather, it just butchered the area. How can you call what's there Gum Tree Gully? No single ride at Dreamworld is still marketable. They loose that after about a year. Try to find someone out there that goes specifically to Dreamworld because of Tower of Terror, Giant Drop or Wipeout. Yes, they probably go there because the collection of rides is better, but individual rides loose their novelty after about a year. You'll notice that the marketability of a new ride pretty well disappears after a year, and Dreamworld's campaigns reflect this. How many ads do you see for Cyclone these days? That's right, zero. I'm not talking about big, expensive TV spots either, I'm just talking things like the Dreamworld website, travel agents (save the particularly out-of-date ones). We're also seeing Nick Central's advertising go down, though with Nickelodeon tie-ins, it's largely a special case. Most Dreamworld advertising these days is concentrating on the "big five" or whatever they're dubbing it - the thrill rides collectively, as that is the only thing they've currently got that is appealing. Obviously when new rides come out, they'll become the new marketing attention.

[joz]

Tomb Raider is a very interesting attraction, but wouldn't fit anywhere in Dreamworld. The thing I'm wondering is what happens in a few weeks when it finishes? Tomb Raider's architecture doesn't fit in Gum Tree Gully in the least bit (true it probably wouldn't fit anywhere) nor does it fit with Farmyard Friends. Its Dreamworld, its mismatched. Heck, I wouldn't even mind if they turned Gum Tree Gully into an 'Adventureland' style area (Everything else is stolen from Disney, so why not the good stuff?) but the park is just continuing to call it Gum Tree Gully to prove there is no real plan for the area.

[kennykoala]

we ppl that got to dreamworld are lucky really! Dreamworld have put in a new attraction every 2 years since 96/97. We first had Tower of terror, then giant drop, then cyclone, then nick, now we have gyro! and if i recall it would of been approx 2 years b4 tot that we got wipeout. ( we also got kennyland 4 a year)

[Obstructure]

The Farmyard Friends is part of "Gum Tree Gully." The map has it called something like "Gum Tree Gully's Farmyard" or close to that. I forgot exactly but I'm sure you will all see it in time when you go next.