Parkz News Ariadne is right: Dreamworld needs more family attractions... but there's no shortcuts

[Parkz News]

Ariadne is right: Dreamworld needs more family attractions... but there's no shortcuts

Kevin Seymour of investment group Ariadne says his group has the business expertise to turn Dreamworld around, and that family attractions are the key. He's right, but the key to Dreamworld reclaiming its place is with blockbuster family experiences.

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[Redboost]

Could not have said it any better myself.

[Santa07]

Quote

 Looney Tunes River Ride, Batman Adventure – The Ride 2 and Bermuda Triangle

In what way is JL not a family ride? I'd also consider Storm to be one too.

I think it's less of "Ardent needs to spend more on family attractions" and more of "Ardent needs to spend more". But family attractions are probably the right way for Dreamworld to go, it was made to be a Disney-like park, it's time they started going down that track again.

[westical]

Santa beat me to the punch about Justice League, but I agree with the rest of the article. Storm is not a family ride, the height and drop scares many off. 

[liz.wis]

I think Dreamworld are currently beyond competing with MW for thrills, and would definitely benefit from focusing on family rides and attractions.  

[Richard]

2 hours ago, Santa07 said:

In what way is JL not a family ride? I'd also consider Storm to be one too.

Broad appeal. Absolutely these rides tick many boxes, but neither are the cross-generational experiences that they replaced. I think you're diluting the definition suggested in the article to argue that these are robust family rides.

Justice League is a lifeless ride experience. You only need to look at how Six Flags implemented the same ride concept to see it done correctly. The dinky ride system at Movie World undermines what could otherwise be an exciting ride. Unless you're one to chase high scores, how many members here ride it on every single visit as they would Superman Escape etc.?

Storm is a visually intimidating ride. The fact is that most kids will enjoy just about any ride, if you can get them on it. I think an important tenant of a good family ride is having moments of speed, height or intensity downplayed as much as possible.

[bladex]

just sell to Ariadne ardent it's obvious you don't care anymore. time to make dw great again start with a few family rides later maybe add a cool coaster?

Edited August 14, 2017 by bladex

[SeriouslyPunked]

Disney have it right when it comes to family rides, and why I would pick something like the Wild Wild West log flume ride over Tower of Terror any day.  or, better yet, Disney should just buy Dreamworld and convert it into Disneyland Australia.  Dreamworld was originally based off of Disneyland anyway so it wouldn't be that hard of a stretch.  OK, that may be wishful thinking but a guy can dream can't he?

[Santa07]

52 minutes ago, SeriouslyPunked said:

Disney should just buy Dreamworld and convert it into Disneyland Australia.  Dreamworld was originally based off of Disneyland anyway so it wouldn't be that hard of a stretch.  OK, that may be wishful thinking but a guy can dream can't he?

They'd be better off starting a new park. Sure, it's possible, but the park would have to be completely re-done in the state it's in, and with the incident last year profits are probably going to be higher with a new park.

Becoming a Disney-like park, sure I'm all for DW doing that, but becoming an actual Disney park probably wouldn't work.

[Brad2912]

Storm at 110cm is not a family friendly height restriction. Whilst my son has cracked that mark, there is no way I'm convincing a 4 year old to go on a ride that appears daunting in its scale and theming. TBH I wouldn't even try to convince him to go on it, even though he could as it would be too intense for him and likely stunt his ride comfort development (much the same as I haven't taken him on SDSC even though he is height-wise ok to ride. 

For the 9,999,000th time, there is zero chance of Disney purchasing DW, and only a miniscul more likely chance of them opening a theme park in Australia in the next couple of decades, if ever. 

I think a Dreamworks IP dark family ride would absolutely breathe life into DW, something along the vein of LTRR. Theme it to Shrek, or a collaboration of characters. 

Im not sure of the terms of the Dreamworks license though regarding further additions and whether the license is all encompassing for future attractions or a cost per attraction, and what that cost would be. All I know is they need a big ticket item to bring crowds and families back - and that's not "hey look at our cool new* Log Ride & Vintage Cars. 

[GoGoBoy]

This was a truly brilliant article. I haven't got much more to add than that.

[Locke]

They just need to invest, build it and they will come.  It's a good park but you can just sense how some investment would really give it a lift.

 

[wipeout94]

Great result. See what happens next.

 

 

New Ardent Leisure board member Dr Gary Weiss is firmly behind investment in the Dreamworld theme park. Pictures: Jack Tran

Business

Ardent Leisure’s new board member Gary Weiss says Dreamworld has ‘strong future’

Alister Thomson, Gold Coast Bulletin

September 5, 2017 12:00am

AN activist shareholder appointed to the board of Dreamworld owner Ardent Leisure has firmly backed plans to revitalise the ailing theme park. 

Gary Weiss — executive director of Ardent’s largest shareholder Ariadne Australia

— and fellow director Brad Richmond were yesterday installed to the board ahead of a planned shareholder vote. Ariadne has spearheaded fierce criticism of Ardent in the wake of the Dreamworld tragedy last October, accusing the board of strategic errors and “losing its way”.

Dr Weiss told the Gold Coast Bulletin they wanted to see more investment in the Coomera park to restore its fortunes.

“We are here to assist in delivering better outcomes for all the component parts of the company and to improve returns for all security holders,” he said.

“We are strong believers in Dreamworld and its future because it does have a good future.”

In July, Ariadne released a rescue plan for the company, which it said could unlock $1 billion of additional value.

Ariadne accused Ardent of underinvesting in its theme parks over the past decade, leading to the company falling behind Movie World operator Village Roadshow.

It called for the sale of 25ha of surplus land adjacent to Dreamworld at Coomera, which would be reinvested into the park to fund improvements.

Yesterday, Mr Weiss backed the plan but said he was open to learning more about how the company functioned.

“We think that (the July plan) is the pathway to restore value,” he said. “It was devised from the outside from our own analysis.

“Now we are inside the tent we can get a better understanding of the important levers (driving the company). It is critical to properly examine the future requirements moving forward.”

Ardent had opposed the appointment of Dr Weiss and Mr Richmond until releasing a statement on Sunday that called for a “collaborative and unified board”.

 

Last week Ardent outlined a $62.6 million loss for last financial year, largely due to the Dreamworld tragedy.

The Dreamworld closure and drop in visitor numbers reduced group revenue by nearly 15 per cent to $586 million while the theme parks operations suffered a 34 per cent fall in revenue to $70.9 million and an earnings loss of $3.4 million.

Comments

 

 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, wipeout94 said:

“We think that (the July plan) is the pathway to restore value,” he said. “It was devised from the outside from our own analysis.

“Now we are inside the tent we can get a better understanding of the important levers (driving the company). It is critical to properly examine the future requirements moving forward.”

Just like any good politician - spout whatever you think people want to hear to get in, and then immediately cast doubt on that plan going forward, and tell everyone you've got more work to do to work out the best way, before announcing something completely different (or sticking to the status quo)

[MickeyD]

Exactly what I was thinking @AlexB. How interesting that Mr Weiss appears to be backing down on his said  'commitments' prior to securing a couple of spots 'inside the tent'. hmm...

[Richard]

It's a very simplistic view to suggest that the Ariadne plan was an election promise to securityholders, so to speak. It was a set of alternative viewpoints that served to highlight various inadequacies they saw in the company's current strategy. 

Considering they were only ever seeking a minority of seats, it's utterly ridiculous to think that this was about anything other than working collaboratively for the benefit of the company. 

The inference here is that they were so keen to get their hands on those seats and the associated benefits (like that juicy ~$150k salary) that they invested $100 million of their own money and just said anything they needed to "win". 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I was drawing the parallels. When I read the article, it seemed to match the Abbott government's succession to the Gillard/Rudd era of "we will do this" followed after the win by "the budget is worse than we thought, age of entitlement is over".

Naturally in a corporate world things are different, but I still think the "sell the land, build the rides" headline was just a way of getting the support they needed to gain a seat at the table. The immediate "now that we're here, our plan might change" statement would piss me off as a shareholder if that was the reason I'd Supported them in the first place.

[JeffreyMoore]

about time someone has come out and said removeing the dark rides from our parks without replaceing them with new ones was a mistake witch I have been pointing out for years 

the gold coast already has to many roller coasters witch I know most do not agree with but its true 

we need new dark rides - water rides something for the whole family to enjoy