Wet 'n' Wild Sydney's queues on Ch 7 news

[GoGoBoy]

Channel Seven News have, reasonably, questioned the hour-long queues for slides and lack of value for money at Wet 'n' Wild Sydney in a story the other night: https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/30637381/wet-n-wild-leaves-customers-flustered-in-hour-long-queues/

[pushbutton]

All that proves is that there is lots of demand for fun things to do in Sydney. Should be a catalyst for more theme parks to open there.

[XxMrYoshixX]

3 hours ago, GoGoBoy said:

Channel Seven News have, reasonably, questioned the hour-long queues for slides and lack of value for money at Wet 'n' Wild Sydney in a story the other night: https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/30637381/wet-n-wild-leaves-customers-flustered-in-hour-long-queues/

That is a stupid thing to put on the news.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, XxMrYoshixX said:

That is a stupid thing to put on the news.

Why? A very popular conversation here recently has been what Movieworld needs to do to fix it's issues with large crowds and long queues...

Being the biggest summer attraction in Sydney, why shouldn't that issue be newsworthy? Certainly more newsworthy than some of the tripe the GC Bulletin comes out with.... 

[XxMrYoshixX]

2 hours ago, AlexB said:

Why? A very popular conversation here recently has been what Movieworld needs to do to fix it's issues with large crowds and long queues...

Being the biggest summer attraction in Sydney, why shouldn't that issue be newsworthy? Certainly more newsworthy than some of the tripe the GC Bulletin comes out with.... 

It may not be as bad as Nine with some of the pointless crap they have put on Current Affair lately or dare I say it Fox News but putting something on the NEWS about the queues at a theme park is in my opinion relatively silly. I agree with you on the GC Bulletin though.

[Slick]

Number one thing that any unbiased news story should have: both sides of the coin, of which this does not have. Don't worry about mentioning the 12 hour trade or, you know, the logical bit about busy crowds during the school holidays. Also worth noting, Kraken is experiencing the exact same wait times over in Perth, as do a lot of waterparks do right across the world during peak season.

It reminds me of the piece they did when Green Lantern had a normal run of the mill e-stop a few days after re-opening "OMG GREEN LANTERN IS IT STILL A DEAH TRAP, OH BY THE WAY, HOW AWESOME IS DREAMWORLD?" 

[pin142]

The queues today seemed like what I would expect for a water park, unsure of how long as I used Fast Pass. Most of them were at the most half way down the tower. Agree with Slick in saying it is seasonal and has 12 hours of trade. The lines will die down as it gets later into the night. 12 hours is more than enough to get everything done even with long queues for some slides.

[iwerks]

On 24/1/2016 at 12:32, Slick said:

Kraken is experiencing the exact same wait times over in Perth, as do a lot of waterparks do right across the world during peak season.

A little harsh on AW, I think.  I didn't want to say anything in case the lines had blown out, but I went today and Kraken's queue was probably about 45 minutes in the early afternoon (a 20 minute wait at the start of the day). Abyss, was about 10 minutes in the morning and so were the majority of rides.  I couldn't complain. 

[Slick]

1 hour ago, iwerks said:

A little harsh on AW, I think.  I didn't want to say anything in case the lines had blown out, but I went today and Kraken's queue was probably about 45 minutes in the early afternoon (a 20 minute wait at the start of the day). Abyss, was about 10 minutes in the morning and so were the majority of rides.  I couldn't complain. 

Well that's certainly good to hear then. I guess the point I was getting at was that I just don't think it's that unreasonable to wait that long during peak season. Alot of other waterparks let alone theme parks experience similar wait times at one point or another.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

And 45 minutes on Kraken vs. an hour at WnWS are comparable - especially since AW isn't a full-water park, and WnWS is... not to mention the sheer size, and population surrounding would increase things for WnWS. I think it's a fair comparison, and is not at all a slight against AW.

[iwerks]

Plus you're talking about a new park vs a new ride. It's definitely not news headlines. Only if they had the great service that we get from Mark and his team at AW.

Edited January 26, 2016 by iwerks

[Slick]

29 minutes ago, iwerks said:

Plus you're talking about a new park vs a new ride. It's definitely not news headlines. Only if they had the great service that we get from Mark and his team at AW.

I'll definitely give Mark that. Engaging with the brand loyalists (us) has earned him and the park a lot of respect in my eyes and would urge the other parks to follow suit in the coming year as they continue to open new attractions. I think this whole idea of needing utmost secrecy is well and truly dead, especially when almost no-one else internationally does it anymore to the level our gold coast parks do and I would even dare say the concept of utter "Apple-esque" hush-hush works to their detriment. Take today's steam train trial at Dreamworld - no-one except for the clued in few and the extraordinarily lucky knew this was going to happen, and given it was a trial today for the park to see if it's worthwhile bringing it back more often, simply engaging their most hardcore fans to drum up hype in advance would've made all the difference.

Taking Mark as a case scenario here, he's effectively taken a group of customers who have an uncanny eye for detail and an unparalleled amount of industry knowledge (for the most part, anyway) and has been able to fine-tune common gripes and potential issues far more efficiently and we in turn have felt actually acknowledged and valued which in turn makes us more passionate about spreading the love for the park and more inclined to help in the future. Welcome to marketing 101 in the 21st century, folks.

And that's not to say the parks don't read this or our feedback either, most do, but I think it's another to sign up for an account and go "hey, we appreciate our most avid fans, and you guys love picking apart crazy details like how to hide Superman in the station, how do you think we should tackle x?" Or "What do you think of the burgers at the new motorsports experience?"

You know what would be even crazier? For them to actually make sneak peaks and content just for the fans, or even create alternate reality games that we can pour hours into figuring out what the next big thing will be.

The crazy thing is that it's totally anything but. Everyone else has been doing this for years, with everyone from Alton Towers to Six Flags and even smaller players like Dollywood doing the very thing i'm referring to.

TLDR: we don't bite, we just seem to bicker. It's the internet, trolls exist; it's all good.

 

Edited January 26, 2016 by Slick

[pin142]

12 hours ago, iwerks said:

Plus you're talking about a new park vs a new ride. It's definitely not news headlines. Only if they had the great service that we get from Mark and his team at AW.

A few months old slide versus a few years old park, the fact that Wet'n'Wild Sydney even with all the negativity getting queues for a hour for a slide shows the popularity of the park. Maybe even time for them to look at expanding the park to help with crowds. They have a wide selection of tube slides already but there is always something that can be added, maybe some body slides as a start. Something like the Mach 5 tower at the Gold Coast park.

Will say the lazy river was a massive missed opportunity to add a "transport" option around the park. Would make for a crowd soaker too. Guess it would mean they can't cut it in half and operate a stupidly small circuit when they don't have/want to run the full course. 

[Zanstabar]

17 hours ago, Slick said:

And that's not to say the parks don't read this or our feedback either, most do, but I think it's another to sign up for an account and go "hey, we appreciate our most avid fans, and you guys love picking apart crazy details like how to hide Superman in the station, how do you think we should tackle x?" Or "What do you think of the burgers at the new motorsports experience?"

You know what would be even crazier? For them to actually make sneak peaks and content just for the fans, or even create alternate reality games that we can pour hours into figuring out what the next big thing will be.

 

I can understand the parks doing the big mass giveaways for the sneak peeks, but what I don't understand is why they don't do any of the physical meetings with some of the enthusiast community. From memory, they would sometimes invite members of FOF for a group session, one of which I believe was viewing a show and providing feedback while also being provided with some small change for your time. Why couldn't they bring something like that into action with the enthusiast community?

Speaking for myself, I would gladly donate my time without any sort of subsidisation to help the parks. It's something I enjoy doing and would willingly do for free, and I'm almost certain that many enthusiasts feel the same way.

 

Back to Wet 'n' Wild, I'm sure there not idiots. Complaints have been rolling through like clockwork and they're bound to see how low wait times are averaging. Surely they have some sort of plan brewing so that the can help raise the satisfaction with the park.