2015 in Dreamworld - ABC Kids World, V8 Supercars and more

[AllegroCrab]

Hey, come on now. What is there to hate about Frozen? It's just a kids movie, and the music is well done.

Just because you aren't the target audience doesn't mean you should hate the movie. I think anyone can appreciate that it was brilliant at what it was trying to be.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

There's a great comparison here too....

 

every once in a while, Disney (Dreamworld) come out with a stupidly fantastic product that everyone raves about - Frozen (Insert whichever ride you like best - eg: wipeout, ToT, GD etc) is the most recent example.

But for all the blockbusters - like Frozen (claw) and the Little Mermaid (Thunder River), they also have their foul-ups - like Atlantis: The Lost Empire (MDMC) or The Rescuers Down Under (Buzzsaw).

They can't all be blockbusters. If every film Disney did was the multi-billion dollar success that is the Frozen franchise - they'd have to slow down production - to give each film the chance to earn it's full worth before moving onto the next one.

When Disney has a flop, it lets the film quietly fade into obscurity without much fanfare. They'll even halt work on a theme park attraction and go back to the drawing board if the film isn't as successful as they thought it would be (Atlantis \ Nemo Subs), but they don't withdraw the film for sale or viewing. They let it have it's run on video, and there will be some people out there who absolutely love it despite it being a bomb...

This is MDMC. MDMC is Atlantis: The Lost Empire. It's a bomb. It's so bad because it was hyped up by the company prior to it's debut, everyone got excited. everyone raved about how awesome it was going to be... and then premiere day comes around.... and its disappointing...

But all the merchandising and licensing agreements are in place and we've just spent millions... so we'll just put it out there, slowly try and recoup our costs, honour our licensing agreements and let it fade into the background slowly (or sometimes quickly).

[Brad2912]

Nice analogy. 

 

 

[Zanstabar]

Couldn't agree more AlexB!

As much as I hate MDMC, I'd find it absolutely stupid if they removed it. It still draws crowds and sells some merchandising, so I think that's a win in Dreamworld's book. They probably aren't out to please enthusiasts, but rather the general public (and the GP eat up that motorbike gimmick). Once the ride loses those crowds, becomes a maintenance issue, or ends up losing the park money, I say get rid of it. But right now, it has a purpose and it serves that purpose.

[Gazza]

Yeah, its a bit foamy to suggest MDMC is going anywhere.

 

Plenty of waste of time coasters around the world still going strong.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

^And you're on a mission to ride them all Gazza?

[Xexon]

I don't understand all this hate about the motocoaster. I wouldn't call it a big thrill ride, but for a family roller coaster that can be enjoyed by people of all ages, I think it's actually quite a good ride! The themeing is a bit tacky but I think that's all part of the fun. I doubt it will be going anywhere soon.

I'm wondering if dreamworld would use the peter brock cars as a tie in with the motocoaster? I don't suppose there'd be much space around it though to build a separate attraction, unless they got rid of the murrisippi river, which I don't see happening. 

[Reanimated35]

I don't understand all this hate about the motocoaster. I wouldn't call it a big thrill ride, but for a family roller coaster that can be enjoyed by people of all ages, I think it's actually quite a good ride! The themeing is a bit tacky but I think that's all part of the fun. I doubt it will be going anywhere soon.

​That's exactly the problem that we've been going over and over for years. It's a good family coaster, but it's marketed as a "big 200000 thrill ride"

[Gazza]

^Do any members of the genral public really give a shit about the initial marketing push from several years ago?

Because the website states its a "moderate thrill ride​", and "Motocoaster comprises 14 custom-made motorbikes and two aero-dynamically profiled sidecars designed for small children and disabled guests.", which to me is entirley upfront to any potential visitor exactly what the nature of the ride is.
http://www.dreamworld.com.au/Home/rides/thrill-rides/mick-doohans-motocoaster

Yes it is marketed as a thrill ride, but so is Splash Mountain:
 

Edited June 6, 2015 by Gazza

[Reanimated35]

So they've half changed their marketing? They class it as a "big 9" but also as really designed for kids? Doesn't that just contradict themselves?

[Xexon]

Do you think this quote from the cyclone's page on Dreamworld's website

'If you think you can weather a teeth chattering storm, then be prepared to get blown away by Dreamworld’s Cyclone. '

Is a dig at sea world?

[Gazza]

To be honest, I think its more arse covering. There is a tendency for parks anywhere to overstate the thrill rather than understate it to avoid inadvertley putting guests in an unpleasant situation.

On the MW website http://movieworld.com.au/rides-and-attractions/thrill-rides/arkham-asylum.aspx Scooby Doo is listed as a Thrill Ride, as is WWF, so these rides are put in the same category as much more intense experiences such as Arkham and Superman.

Or on the Alton Website http://www.altontowers.com/things-to-do/theme-park/#alton-towers-theme-park the Blade (A Pirate ship!) is listed as a thrill ride.

Or on the Dorney website the River Rapids is a 5/5 black diamond agressive thrill: https://www.dorneypark.com/things-to-do/thrill-ride

You probably don't need me to keep finding examples, but it's an industry wide thing, but partly comes down to how many categories a park decides to sort their rides into.

In reality, theres a whole spectrum of how thrilling a ride is, at the very top you'd have the really physically demanding stuff...Skyrush, Voyage, TTD, heck I'd even be inclined to put certain SLCs in there.

Step below might be your more run of the mill thrill coasters that every park has.

Step below that might be stuff like Corkscrew at SW, or Surfrider.

The absolute lowest step would be things like trains, or the big red boat ride.

You could probably have 10-12 levels of thrills. But for practicality basically every park only has 3 categories: Kids, Family, Thrilling. Hence what might appear as misleading marketing is really just an attempt to categorise a ride one way or the other.

But again, I ask "What marketing?", Motocoaster is not exactly a new ride any more, and several other attractions have opened since, so are there really guests that walk in and get all dissapointed by the marketing that was on TV in 2007? You can look at the ride before even boarding and know what youre in for.

I get that is a poorly executed coaster, but at the same time, no park is going to ditch something after less than a decade unless it had insurmountable mechanical issues, and at the same time most "thrill seekers" visiting DW are going to have a go a Motocoaster anyway.

 

Edited June 6, 2015 by Gazza

[liz.wis]

IMO it's classed as a 'thrill' ride just so DW can add one more number to their 'Big 9 Thrill Rides' title.  

[JacobSibbald]

I think there is a clear marketing issue though. The fact that Dreamworld still hold "Big 9 Thrill Rides" as one of their overarching campaigns alone makes it different from theme parks who may still classify a moderate ride as thrill. Those other parks don't necessarily highlight "thrill" continuously in all of their marketing paraphernalia. Perhaps it is time for a change... Dreamworld (IMO) should move on from the "Big _" tagline and into another direction that is actually accurate.

[Gazza]

So, how many members of the public could actually name the big 9 thrill rides?

[pushbutton]

Dreamworlds slogan is simply "Happiness", and to me that's very appropriate and much more appealing than promotion of thrills.

Not all theme park visitors care about thrills. I certainly don't.  But everyone wants to be happy!

 

 

I think there is a clear marketing issue though. The fact that Dreamworld still hold "Big 9 Thrill Rides" as one of their overarching campaigns alone makes it different from theme parks who may still classify a moderate ride as thrill. Those other parks don't necessarily highlight "thrill" continuously in all of their marketing paraphernalia. Perhaps it is time for a change... Dreamworld (IMO) should move on from the "Big _" tagline and into another 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I know a few who would disagree with you Push...

 

 

[JacobSibbald]

So, how many members of the public could actually name the big 9 thrill rides?

​I think the lack of knowledge can be thrown both ways. Lack of promotion and the fact that people are genuinely sick of it. Of course, I'm not going to analyse the reactions Dreamworld's target market have towards their campaigns but judging by the feedback on this forum (even if it's a highly concentrated group of theme park enthusiasts), it's time for a change. 

[themagician]

I think the Big Thrill Ride concept was a good one, but now I think they should move on from it. The only rides I think that should be a part of it are: Giant Drop, TOT2, Wipeout, Claw, Cyclone and BuzzSaw. MDMC is more a family ride. Pandaemonium, despite being quite full on, I don't think it should be a part of the BTR. Tailspin can be thrilling, but for most people who can't or don't try to get it to spin it isn't. I think the thrill rides should be classified as a ride which is large and noticeable and one that obviously provides thrills. I'm not saying that a thrill ride can only be a ride within these classifications, but for DW I think so. I don't think DW are going to change the Big Thrill Ride idea, but I do think that once they get to the Big 10 Thrill Rides, that is it for that campaign. If they are going to add more thrill rides after that don't bother with the BTR idea, because it will get ridiculous.

[joz]

I think you could improve MDMC a lot by replacing the trains with ones similar to Jet Rescue.  The gimmick of riding a motorbike isn't comfortable, leads to horribly slow load times, is bad for the staff from a manual handling point of view, and frankly isn't fun.  I'd happily see it taken down and turned into a new themed land, but failing that new trains would help.

[Gazza]

​I think the lack of knowledge can be thrown both ways. Lack of promotion and the fact that people are genuinely sick of it. Of course, I'm not going to analyse the reactions Dreamworld's target market have towards their campaigns but judging by the feedback on this forum (even if it's a highly concentrated group of theme park enthusiasts), it's time for a change. 

This forum is highly knowledgeable and understand rides well enough to know MDMC isn't on the same level as the other rides.

But I think its pretty inconsequential in the scheme of things. Its not like the ride is noticeably less popular than the rest. The public go there, they ride it....Nobody analyses it in terms of marketing or positioning like we do.

Same as Thirteen at Alton towers ain't going anywhere despite having over the top marketing.

 

[themagician]

Maybe one of the new v8 supercar attractions is an re-theme of MDMC

[AllegroCrab]

I don't even think I could name the Big 9 thrill rides without looking it up:

ToT, Giant Drop, Cyclone, Claw, Wipeout, Buzz Saw, uuuuh... the other side of the Giant Drop, MDMC, that old gravitron they had called the Vortex.

Ok, apparently the newer rides Pandamonium and Tail spin are still counted in this ongoing Big 9 malarkey. I thought they stopped that campaign ages ago.

[Zanstabar]

Anyone know who is in charge of the music playlist at Dreamworld? Most of it's fine, but the other day the Giant Drop was busting out some really bad late 90's/early 2000's europop. 

[rappa]

The big (insert irrelevant number here) thrill rides campaign just screams lack of marketing creativity. Someone back in the day came up with this concept when they had a handful of thrill rides and it worked. 

 

Theyve (rather desperately and sad) hung into this for years and just kept adding to the number as they primary marketing concept. It's time to let it go and refocus on a more fitting representation of the brand.