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Carnivale 2017

Zanstabar

By Zanstabar,
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Reanimated35 Experienced

Reanimated35

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4 hours ago, downunder said:

What next, Fright Nights at Paradise Country (disclaimer: I am joking).

If it wasn't for the health and safety of the animals, that would be awesome!

4 hours ago, AlexB said:

We all remember the stolen penguin debacle. 

Wait, can you fill me in please? I vaguely remember a relative claiming they knew the person who was responsible for that a few years back but I thought it was just a BS story.

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joz
joz

I don't know why they haven't brought me in to be honest, I'm doing all the right things; relentlessly criticising the park in an online forum is the best way to get ahead right? Haha

joz
joz

Yeah I'm glad someone finally said it.  After going to a couple of events one last week one this week I was starting to think I was going to a different event than other people.  Sea World is a park f

Reanimated35
Reanimated35

Back at Fright Nights when I first heard that Carnivale was moving to Sea World in 2017 I was shocked and disappointed to hear of it leaving Movie World, even if just as a temporary test.  Right

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Richard

Richard

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4 hours ago, reanimated35 said:

In that case it was a different story to the one I heard about allegedly occurring during trading hours. 

Is it the old urban legend about the young kid that went missing at (insert marine park/zoo/aquarium) for a few hours, turned up soaking wet but was spooked and wouldn't say a word about what happened on the drive home. Then was found later that night playing with a penguin in their bedroom that they'd put in their backpack?

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Reanimated35 Experienced

Reanimated35

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15 minutes ago, Richard said:

Is it the old urban legend about the young kid that went missing at (insert marine park/zoo/aquarium) for a few hours, turned up soaking wet but was spooked and wouldn't say a word about what happened on the drive home. Then was found later that night playing with a penguin in their bedroom that they'd put in their backpack?

Yep, that's pretty much exactly it haha. 

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downunder

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It seems like quite a short notice announcement (correct me if I'm wrong). Shame, I would have liked to have gone, maybe I'll head back up to QLD late Jan if I've got time.

Shame those drunken idiots that stole the penguin didn't go for a swim in the main tank at Shark Bay. Elle (the bull shark) and Diesel (the dusky whaler) might have made it interesting (though they are well fed, and might not be interested). I've done the cage dive and they are f***ing huge.

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joz Experienced

joz

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On ‎12‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 7:41 AM, AlexB said:

It occurred to me that staff at SW might be getting a little upset that MW staff were getting all the primo events

I don't know if you know many 18-23 year olds, but as a general rule they aren't crying out to work Friday and Saturday nights in peak going out season.

 

On ‎12‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 7:41 AM, AlexB said:

Nobody should go to these night events for rides (you'd only get 1 or 2 anyway) so SW's lack of rides isn't as big an issue as some see.

The parade on the other hand is an issue - but - they do have the floats down there, and they have previously done a parade in the park with Spongebob... so its not IMPOSSIBLE. Remember too that the main drag up to the plaza has just been completely redone, with a pathway right through the plaza. I haven't seen it for myself so i'm not sure of the logistics, but could it be possible they would use the 'fountain' just as they used the fountain in MW as a turning circle to marshall the floats back the way they came?

Weirdly, one of the things I really agree with is not doing the parade.  Different entertainment offerings work better at different parks, and Sea World doesn't lend itself to a parade.  There isn't a logical parade route, and even the ones you could invent aren't set up to host parades; there's no speakers, no lights, and the atmosphere is hard to build on Sea World's winding paths.  I think the issue is that they've replaced the parade with nothing.  A show on the main lake to round out the night would be ideal.  Not having the big entertainment option is one of the failings of the event, and does bring the issue of only having 2 rides into focus.  Also before anyone says that 'national music acts' are the big entertainment offering, I'd point out that they also had these at Movie World, AND a parade.

 

On ‎12‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 7:41 AM, AlexB said:

I think, given many passholders have carnivale included in admission will mean that both events will be regarded as an 'inclusion' to many. Charging non passholders just helps put a cap on attendance. If it fails, i'm sure we'll see price drops, or 'included in entry' - but for now, at least they have something to compete with Dreamworld.

This in my mind is the other fundamental issue I have with the event.  In the middle of the school holidays, when the park packed with tourists, at 5pm, we kick them out and replace then with VIP passes (who we largely gave free tickets too) and just kind of hope they spend money.  Reality is that Tourists spend more money than locals; they are the people you want in the park, they are the people who are likely to want to be in the park longer despite it's shorter attractions roster.  It's not just F&B sales either, when everyone leaves the park at the same time the Sea World shop gets slammed, there'd be a lot of people who walk into the shop who get the hell out of there as quick as they can.  Stagger the exit times and you would do wonders for retail sales.  Instead, we rush the people who want to spend money out of the park quickly. 

 

With the hard ticket set up they've got, how much money does a F&B outlet make between 4-6pm?  How much does it make before 6.30 when people finally get down there?   No one in the park is going to get a second meal because they'll be going soon, and it'll take a while for a big chunk of the crowd to even get to the stalls, that is if they haven't had dinner elsewhere before they arrived. 

 

I think including the event in park admission, and adding an after 5 ticket worth $30 would be the way to go, hell even have a 6pm Dolphin Show so day guests stay in the park longer and late comers think they're getting a deal.  

 

I don't think it's an awful looking event, and I think some people will eat it up, Sea World is a great park at night, and having a metric ton of street performers and a few pop up stalls is great!  There is a sizeable segment of the population that this will appeal to.  I just feel like for very little investment and with a bit of actual effort they could have done something really special.  For me though, it just feels like something that was thrown together very quickly and on the cheap.  It has that vibe of "We need to do something at Sea World and we have no time or budget" rather than something that was well considered or planned out.  The fact that it excludes the resort in it's entirety (no Monorail, the entire back half of the park is closed off), the days of the week it takes place on (Only on Fri/Sat is an odd choice, they aren't the traditional busy days during the Christmas holidays) the fact it has no signature entertainment offering and is an upcharge really stand out as phoned in choices. 

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Slick Experienced

Slick

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4 hours ago, joz said:

Weirdly, one of the things I really agree with is not doing the parade.  Different entertainment offerings work better at different parks, and Sea World doesn't lend itself to a parade.  There isn't a logical parade route, and even the ones you could invent aren't set up to host parades; there's no speakers, no lights, and the atmosphere is hard to build on Sea World's winding paths.  I think the issue is that they've replaced the parade with nothing.  A show on the main lake to round out the night would be ideal.  Not having the big entertainment option is one of the failings of the event, and does bring the issue of only having 2 rides into focus.  Also before anyone says that 'national music acts' are the big entertainment offering, I'd point out that they also had these at Movie World, AND a parade.

Could you imagine if they put in a decent showstage on that island in the middle of the river there at the front of the park? Modify the the floats to fit on some hired out barges, throw some characters on each barge and run them around the stage while the show runs ala DisneySea style.

Hire out two or three large live feed video displays and you have something that could be regarded as the "Sea World equivalent of the Movie World parade."

I'd pay to see that.

 

 

Mediterranean Harbour, Tokyo Disneysea, JapanFantasmic Crowd, Tokyo Disneysea, Japan

EDIT: Added some shots for you guys to get what I mean.

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MickeyD Experienced

MickeyD

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There was the "Serpent Slayers" event in the early 90's.  It was largely a Laser Light and Pyrotechnics Extravaganza that also featured a Giant puppet fire breathing Serpent and a lot of water and jetski stunts. - EXTREMELY reminiscent of Disneyland's Fantasmic! and no doubt inspired by it.

The show was held after nightfall over the Ski Lake the Summer before Bermuda opened I recall (BT opened Easter the following year)

I just tried to search Google for more on this one with no luck.. @joz perhaps you have memories of it? It was a great show for it's day and was extremely well received by the Crowds who seem to happily wait behind an extra hour or so after the rides had closed for the day. -No doubt they spent truckloads of moula on Popcorn and Postmix whilst waiting for the night to fall..

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joz Experienced

joz

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16 hours ago, MickeyD said:

There was the "Serpent Slayers" event in the early 90's.  It was largely a Laser Light and Pyrotechnics Extravaganza that also featured a Giant puppet fire breathing Serpent and a lot of water and jetski stunts. - EXTREMELY reminiscent of Disneyland's Fantasmic! and no doubt inspired by it.

The show was held after nightfall over the Ski Lake the Summer before Bermuda opened I recall (BT opened Easter the following year)

I just tried to search Google for more on this one with no luck.. @joz perhaps you have memories of it? It was a great show for it's day and was extremely well received by the Crowds who seem to happily wait behind an extra hour or so after the rides had closed for the day. -No doubt they spent truckloads of moula on Popcorn and Postmix whilst waiting for the night to fall..

Sea World's Serpent througherly shat all over Fantasmic's dragon.  Just saying.

 

I think it's hard to really communicate to people who weren't around then just how impressive that show was, and just how much effort went into it.  It was a bit cheesy for sure, but it was so big and so creative with what it did that it was just a delight to sit through.  They just threw everything they could at it.

 

There's on bit of the show that illustrates this perfectly;  OK kids, let's set the scene, there's a massive evil fire breathing surpent on the Island, our heros have been firing rockets from boats at it to defeat it, all to no avail, what's the next scene?  A Fucking helicopter flys in and hovers next to the serpent, and starts firing pyro at it, making massive explosions go off on the ground all the while the helicopter is being projected on by lasers making it look like something out of the matrix (before the matrix was a thing mind you).  

The whole show was a bit like that, It had such a weird tone, it was sort of this odd Sci Fi/ fantasy fairytale fairytale mash up, but again it worked just because of it's scale and how much creativity they threw into it.  

 

You could never do a show like it again, it's not even on my wishlist to try and top it, it was such an unattainably good show and the tone would be so hard to get right from scratch.  It does show though that with effort and imagination (and cash obviously) you can do something special in that location, there is so much unused potential at that park just waiting to be used for something incredible.

 

Instead we get Carnivale.  For an extra price.  With no big show.  For 2 nights a week.  In a park that has less rides than it did 20 years ago.  Does my cynical lack of excitement make sense now? Lol

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I was so young, but vaguely remember the Serpent Show and had thought wasn't there a helicopter in it! 

Back then we also had PASS & I also vaguely remember a Joker show as part of the Studio Tour. 

I just wish the budget and creativity was there again. Well budget, because I'm sure there's some creative people there that could do amazing things given the freedom. 

With DW offering a night time event for the busy period with longer hours for free I think MW & SW should be upping their game. I mean the parks haven't changed their operating hours in years, but are busier than they ever have been. It's not a good look the tourists trying to fit in as much as they can in their day. 

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