Lets Talk Wet And Wild Gold Coast

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

The river rapids have already been replaced once (although, that was back in the days of Terror Canyon I & II still operating). I think if they decide to remove what they have (and I really hope they don't as they are a fun set of body slides with minimal wait) - then I think its time that entire hill got reworked into something very different.

[Jamberoo Fan]

On 25/11/2016 at 6:30 PM, Jamberoo Fan said:

I have this theory related to people's expectations and thought I'd test it out on theme parks. Due to their nature, it's more complicated to apply to theme parks than TV shows etc. but I've made this 3 question survey that should make it easier. I decided to try it out on Wet 'n' Wild Gold Coast first as it's the easiest theme park to try it on. When there is enough survey results, I'll post a graph. It'd be great if you all can fill it out.

Here's the graph:

The blue line is the park's rating over time whilst the green line is the 'expectation' of someone who went to the park on it's opening day in 1984. The purple line is the 'expectation' of everyone who answered Question 3 (rate rides/attractions) whilst the red line includes people who answered Question 1 (year of 1st visit) - some of these people didn't answer Question 3. Those 2 lines begin at the average year of the participants' 1st visit to the park. No one who answered Question 1 visited the park prior to the early 1990's.

My theory states that if the blue line goes below, above or along any of the coloured lines, the park is under, above or at expectations respectively to that audience. Also, the closer the blue line is to those other coloured lines, the more loyal that audience is to the theme park.

Most people said the park was 'at expectations' in the survey but the graph clearly shows the park is apparently 'under expectations' to the survey participants. I believe this discrepancy is due to the upcharge attractions. A lot of iconic attractions were closed between 2009 & 2012 such as the Terror Canyons, Twister/Speedcoaster & Dive-In Movies. Whilst replacements were built such as Constrictor & AquaLoop, most replacements were upcharge attractions (ZipLines, SkyCoaster & FlowRider). Nearly none of the people who answered Question 3 rode the upcharge attractions (or if they did ride them, rated them 0/10). Thus, I believe, the combination of the lost of iconic attractions + the low participation in upcharge attractions saw the park drop to 'under expectations'.

This is what the graph would look like if no upcharge attractions were built:

This matches people's opinion that Wet 'n' Wild Gold Coast is approximately 'at expectations'. This survey was only a trial of my theory being applied to theme parks & it would've been more accurate with more responses but I'm happy with the amount of responses I got. Happy to hear what people think of the results (and maybe some suggestions to improve the theory's application to theme parks). This, so far, was just based on people's opinions of the park's rides & attractions - not shops, amenities, theming, atmosphere etc.

The park's biggest boost was in 1992-1994 when Dive-In Movies was introduced (1992), Rampage Toboggan Ride got upgraded to Double Screamer (1993) & Whitewater Mountain was created (1994) with Terror Canyon & River Rapids (the latter being an refurbished White Water Flumes). (If any of these didn't open in their respective time periods, please let me know)

Based on the upcharge attraction-included results, I think Wet 'n' Wild Gold Coast would need to either make upcharge attractions free or build very high quality rides/attractions that boosts it's rating back to 'expectations'. A starting point could be holding Dive-In Movies again. This is, of course, if you all think upcharge attractions should be included in the theory. If not, the park is fine as it is (but we all want the park to be 'above expectations' ). If more people rode the upcharge attractions, it probably would boost the park's rating too back to 'at expectations'.

Edited November 28, 2016 by Jamberoo Fan

[Intimidator305.]

Wow.... You've gone over the top. This is awesome. This is the quality of posts I enjoy reading.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Constrictor was a direct replacement for terror canyon, and Aqualoop was a direct replacement for Twister and Speed Coaster. Twister had two flumes, and so did speed coaster - 4 slides, replaced with 4 aqualoops. You even linked those two together above as you said "Twister/Speedcoaster". As for Constrictor - although only one flume compared to the two terror canyons, it does have a higher capacity, and so, while not completely, does offset most of the impact of terror canyons.

So the only removals have had direct replacements. In addition to this, the upcharges were installed - but they ARE ADDITIONS, not replacement attractions, so i think theres a flaw in your reasoning there. You also left out Kamikaze which was installed in 2008 - only one year outside your bracket.

Dive N Movies is a loss, but it wasn't really an attraction to lose, simply an additional use of an existing attraction (like whirlpool springs) - the fact that the park doesn't stay open late as much anymore is probably the bigger factor there than simply what they did when they were open late.

[Jamberoo Fan]

11 hours ago, AlexB said:

 As for Constrictor - although only one flume compared to the two terror canyons, it does have a higher capacity, and so, while not completely, does offset most of the impact of terror canyons.

Remember, the survey is more about the visitor's perspective - not the management's perspective. The general public won't judge a ride based on it's capacity (unless the queue was so long that they didn't ride it or the wait significantly affected their on-ride experience).

11 hours ago, AlexB said:

So the only removals have had direct replacements. In addition to this, the upcharges were installed - but they ARE ADDITIONS, not replacement attractions, so i think theres a flaw in your reasoning there.

Yes, they weren't replacements for AquaLoop/Constrictor - bit of miswording on my part. To clarify, the low participation in the upcharge attractions was the main reason of the decline in Graph 1.

11 hours ago, AlexB said:

Dive N Movies is a loss, but it wasn't really an attraction to lose

If you're referring to capacity again, yes, it isn't much of a loss as the Giant Wave Pool still exists but like I said, the graph is based on a visitor's perspective. Dive-In Movies was only 1 of 3 rides/attractions that got a 10/10 rating but not everyone who participated in the survey experienced it (probably due to visiting on non-Dive-In Movies days) so whilst it doesn't operate all the time, for those survey participants who were there when it did, it made a huge part of their park experience & might have made up for other rides that they found disappointing. Therefore, it's closure might have been a huge loss for them but for those who didn't experience it, it probably wouldn't have been much of a loss as it wasn't 'part of the park' on the day they visited.

Edited November 29, 2016 by Jamberoo Fan

[Brad2912]

I think many members of the public judge a ride based on its capacity.

whilst I could understand a 2 hour queue in opening season for a coaster, if it was a 2 hour queue every day 6 months later then I would start to view that ride as poorly operated or designed, therefore dropping my satisfaction in the ride itself. 

[grrofunger]

On 29/11/2016 at 4:52 PM, Brad2912 said:

I think many members of the public judge a ride based on its capacity.

whilst I could understand a 2 hour queue in opening season for a coaster, if it was a 2 hour queue every day 6 months later then I would start to view that ride as poorly operated or designed, therefore dropping my satisfaction in the ride itself. 

.....Kraken at adventure world

[Flynn_Smith]

Okay, from experience of rides saying they were shut for maintenance and not saying when they were re-opening, I am starting to get cautious. Mammoth Falls was scheduled to re-open on the 8th of December and now, it has been put into maintenance indefinitely. I will be able to get some pictures of whats going on down there on Monday, but until then, all we can do is speculate!

[themagician]

When I've visited the park to get photos of Super 8 Aqua Racer, I've had a quick look at mammoth falls, and haven't noticed anything major 

[Jamberoo Fan]

Why stop at Mammoth Falls? On that logic, we might as well speculate about FlowRider & SkyCoaster too as they are also in indefinite maintenance.

[Park Addict 93]

Mamoth had someone on a cherry picker the other day, inspecting? 

[Intimidator305.]

THIS IS A JOKE

What if Sea World removed theirs and put it on top of Mammoth falls and they dueled? Then we'd get Wet n Wilds new ride, and there would be even more room for Sea World to do nothing with!!!!

Edited December 10, 2016 by Intimidator305.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Um.... dude? The Mammoth slide at Sea World originally WAS at Wet N Wild GC...

[bladex]

i think his describing the original ride layout at wnw sarcastically

[Flynn_Smith]

Okay, I just went into wet n wild and got some photos on the way out, there seems to be what looks like two cherry pickers and a crane on the ground. As I was inside, it looked like stairs leading up to the slide were being pulled apart. Could they be closing it??

In other news, the aqua racer is still at the same place it has been for a while. 

[Intimidator305.]

It appears VRTP has been busier than we first thought, with their plans for Sea Wolrd, New Movie World Coaster, and Wet n Wild GC. They're being very secretive about their plans, though.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Funny though that on the one hand they've announced an attraction to replace VR, but on the other hand they're building MW's new coaster and they still haven't said much more than worlds best theme park drawcard.

[MaxxTheMonster]

38 minutes ago, AlexB said:

Funny though that on the one hand they've announced an attraction to replace VR, but on the other hand they're building MW's new coaster and they still haven't said much more than worlds best theme park drawcard.

That's where I was wondering if they will use the date they are going to announce the VR replacement to announce at least something more about the coaster...

[New display name]

Interesting fact by skeet.

Mammoth Falls has no opening date.

"Closed for scheduled maintenance from Saturday 5th November 2016."

 

On 11/12/2016 at 2:32 PM, ClassifiedLlama said:

Okay, I just went into wet n wild and got some photos on the way out, there seems to be what looks like two cherry pickers and a crane on the ground. As I was inside, it looked like stairs leading up to the slide were being pulled apart. Could they be closing it??

I did see the cherry pickers weeks ago in that same position.

Edited December 12, 2016 by YLFATEEKS

[Intimidator305.]

If VR is anything to go by, that's not good... But I doubt that would be the case. Mammoth Falls is one of the best family slides there, one that everyone enjoys. And it has a conveyor belt so you don't have to carry the raft. It's one of my favorites.

Edited December 13, 2016 by Intimidator305.

[Reanimated35]

2 minutes ago, Intimidator305. said:

If VR is anything to go by, that's not good... But I doubt that would be the case. Mammoth Falls is one of the best family slides there, one that everyone enjoys. And it has a conveyor belt.

...

2 minutes ago, Intimidator305. said:

Mammoth Falls is one of the best family slides there, one that everyone enjoys. And it has a conveyor belt.

...

2 minutes ago, Intimidator305. said:

And it has a conveyor belt.

...

2 minutes ago, Intimidator305. said:

conveyor belt.

[Jamberoo Fan]

8 hours ago, MaxxTheMonster said:

That's where I was wondering if they will use the date they are going to announce the VR replacement to announce at least something more about the coaster...

It would match what they did for SE if that ended up as the case - SE was first formally announced to the media in a media call about massive expansions at all VRTPs. That media call happened in mid-September 2005. In my guess timetable, I've put it as early June 2017 but I've also put construction fencing marketing being added in early March 2017 too.

[Tim Dasco]

I highly doubt a ride would take 2-3 years to build. Plus SW would not be getting anything to the scale of the new roller coaster at MW. If they are going for a 2019 Boxing Day opening I would say deconstruction of the log flume would start I would say from mid to late 2018. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Take Sea Viper as your lead here - Sea World can not afford to have old SBNO rides laying about.

Once a decision (and an announcement) is made, removal of the ride is very quick:

• Bermuda
• Sea Viper
• SkyWay

just as examples.

[joz]

Bermuda sat closed for like an entire year or more.  Sea Viper was closed after already being closed for months.  I'll give you skyway and then I'll remind you about the train which still has remenants around the park and the decaying remains of the water park.