Where's Sky Voyager? Dreamworld's biggest ride in 20 years is nowhere to be seen

It has been heralded as a major component of Dreamworld's turnaround strategy. But with 2018 behind us and the peak holiday season drawing to a close, there's still no Sky Voyager.

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It's a shame that the current norm for Australian theme parks when talking about something that is less than positive is to just go hush-hush. Village is guilty of doing the exact same thing after they demolished the interior of Scooby Doo and a large number of guests were left confused and frustrated. When I visited in the peak season last year, I don't think I saw anybody come off that attraction looking satisfied. 

Our theme parks need more transparency. They're worried that they'll be giving us ammunition to attack the parks, but all we want to know is what on earth is going on. Radio silence isn't an option in this day and age.

 

5 minutes ago, CaptainLazerGuns said:

Our theme parks need more transparency. They're worried that they'll be giving us ammunition to attack the parks, but all we want to know is what on earth is going on. Radio silence isn't an option in this day and age.

 

Agreed - pobody's nerfect. Modern marketing & communications is about creating a conversation - the biggest players like Universal & Disney have mostly abandoned the veil of secrecy for this exact reason.

While not directly related, this Forbes article also highlights how brands can actually create higher satisfaction by solving customer's problems well than customers who had no problem to begin with.

Edited January 15, 20197 yr by Slick

The trouble is that SkyVoyager is EVERYWHERE to be seen! 

Not only is the building looking complete externally, but they've removed the wraps from the sign, and added it to the park maps.

There's banners at the park entrance saying "Now you can fly", and much bigger ones for kilometers around on the M1, all of which strongly imply the ride is open! 

I don't mind that it's not open yet. I'd much rather they take longer and it opens fully operational and meets or exceeds guest expectations right from the beginning (unlike Scooby-Doo), and of course most importantly, it's SAFE!

What's wrong is all the premature marketing as described above. Surely someone at Dreamworld could have ensured this was delayed until the ride was actually ready to open. 

Edited January 15, 20197 yr by pushbutton

Maybe they thought it would open on time?

16 minutes ago, Slick said:

Maybe they thought it would open on time?

Of course, but as soon as it became apparent that it would be delayed, the relevant person  (presumably the marketing manager) should have contacted all the companies and contractors responsible for supplying signs etc and told them not to reveal details of SkyVoyager until further notice. 

3 minutes ago, pushbutton said:

Of course, but as soon as it became apparent that it would be delayed, the relevant person  (presumably the marketing manager) should have contacted all the companies and contractors responsible for supplying signs etc and told them not to reveal details of SkyVoyager until further notice. 

What do you reckon the contractors said on Christmas Eve when the penny dropped and all the signs needed to be changed? I'll give you a hint...

 

Edited January 15, 20197 yr by Slick

Really? 

there Is no excuse why we are left with the lights out. Disney gives you every detail at least 1 year in advance and if an attraction opens earlier its a bonus.

32 minutes ago, pushbutton said:

Really? 

I'd imagine it'd be really, really, really, really, really, really difficult to get anyone to step away from their family and do work on Christmas.

15 minutes ago, Slick said:

I'd imagine it'd be really, really, really, really, really, really difficult to get anyone to step away from their family and do work on Christmas.

I'm going to assume you're intelligent enough to know what I meant, so I won't answer that. 

I'm not intelligent enough, what did you mean? Not trolling or anything but I honestly don't know what you were going for?

This tiptoeing is the number one thing I dislike about our parks, especially VRTP. Rather than just saying the same thing to everyone. Maybe expand on generic statements and give actual reasons or some idea what is happening. Would make things a lot easier and more understandable for everyone 

I simply meant what I said!  Once Dreamworld management became aware that the ride wasn't going to open on Boxing Day  (which it's reasonable to assume was well before Christmas Eve), all SkyVoyager marketing should have been delayed. 

 

2 minutes ago, themagician said:

This tiptoeing is the number one thing I dislike about our parks, especially VRTP. Rather than just saying the same thing to everyone. Maybe expand on generic statements and give actual reasons or some idea what is happening. Would make things a lot easier and more understandable for everyone 

Absolutely! 

Edited January 15, 20197 yr by pushbutton

4 minutes ago, pushbutton said:

I simply meant what I said!  Once Dreamworld management became aware that the ride wasn't going to open on Boxing Day  (which it's reasonable to assume was well before Christmas Eve), all SkyVoyager marketing should have been delayed. 

 

Absolutely! 

"Hey, it's Dreamworld, I know it's a day or two before Christmas, but we need a run of 10k park maps done, some billboard footers redone..." "Yeah, everyone at the office has taken the Christmas week off, so it wouldn't hit production until mid first week January after New Years. Do you have the artwork ready?" "Well, no, our whole team has taken the week off too."

Rinse and repeat for who-ever's doing their ad-buys, who's producing the radio segments, looking after Digital spend (Adsense etc.) - I actually feel for marketing here, they've been dealt some average cards & they're the ones copping it despite it not being their problem and having to deal with it with no support.

Yep... those m1 billboards are prime real estate in December, the space would have been booked at least 6 months out, and artwork supplied at least a month out. There was no backing out of that, the marketing team would have created their entire plan over 6 months in advance, around the date that was given to them by ops/management which likely would have been Boxing Day. 

Then most would have gone off on staggered holidays from early Dec-late Jan as is common with most corporate jobs.

Yes I can see how those issues could have arisen, and been to some extent hard or impossible for Dreamworld to control. 

However I'm pretty sure they could have at least not put signs all around the park indicating it's open. They could have left the cover over the sign on the building itself, and they could probably have arranged for the billboards to have a temporary sticker partially covering the "Now you can fly", and reading "Opening Soon".

They could also have used their website and social media channels to publicise that it's opening soon (preferably with an approximate date), and as has been said they could even have maybe informed sites like Parkz of what the delay is and when the new opening date is likely to be. 

To be fair to marketing, I don't think they (or anyone else) know. The only date ever given was Boxing Day. After you miss Boxing Day it becomes a case of "Oh its ready to go? Open!"

Edited January 15, 20197 yr by joz

Yes, I think the general lack of communication is part of what makes it so frustrating. I was at the park last week and a tourist was having a go at a staff member because they thought the ride was open. I think just extra communication would help. Delays happen, but it's how the parks handle it that should be judged and in this respect Dreamworld have done an average job.

So dreamworld are still at it. 

The public facing representatives are kept in the dark and cop the abuse, while those in the ivory tower have no idea what it's really like in the park. 

3 hours ago, joz said:

To be fair to marketing, I don't think they (or anyone else) know. The only date ever given was Boxing Day. After you miss Boxing Day it becomes a case of "Oh its ready to go? Open!"

Any decent project manager would almost certainly have known in October (probably earlier) that it wouldn’t be ready on time, and by November would have been admitting that to their colleagues. Strange that they didn’t pivot the marketing spend to April school holidays, where Dreamworld would have had some clear air (given Village are promoting everything for summer).

Am I right in believing that Trolls Village will be departing in April? Seem to remember it being stated as a 12 month attraction?

25 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

Am I right in believing that Trolls Village will be departing in April? Seem to remember it being stated as a 12 month attraction?

More like June I reckon as that’s when it opened last year as that would be 12 months by then 

2 hours ago, aaronm said:

Any decent project manager would almost certainly have known in October (probably earlier) that it wouldn’t be ready on time, and by November would have been admitting that to their colleagues. Strange that they didn’t pivot the marketing spend to April school holidays, where Dreamworld would have had some clear air (given Village are promoting everything for summer).

The project has had multiple changes that have massively changed the overall scope. To put it less eloquently, there's only so much you can do as a project manager if the client keeps changing what they want, which has clearly happened when you look over previous interviews about Sky Voyager to now. Perhaps if they had kept to the original plan that the previous CEO (Craig Davidson) had that didn't involve scrapping the facades and keeping to the original size of the cinema they'd still have enough fudge time to keep ahead of the unforeseen issues they seem to be facing. Instead, we had Paul Callendar on record on the 20th December on the PCL interview saying that they were still adding things to the final film just days before it was supposed to open.

To be honest, it sounds like Weiss made some major changes to the project when Craig resigned, whilst expecting it to still be delivered on time. And let's be clear here, I dunno of too many $17+ million dollar rides that were conceived and built within 18 months, let alone under 12, let alone under 6. Even if you're a multi-millionaire, you can't just throw extra money and manpower and expect them to be solved on schedule.

Edited January 15, 20197 yr by Slick

4 minutes ago, Slick said:

To put it less eloquently, there's only so much you can do as a project manager if the client keeps changing what they want, which has clearly happened when you look over previous interviews about Sky Voyager to now.

I'm not having a go at whoever was running it, my point is more that if Dreamworld had been realistic about when the ride would open their marketing dollars might have been better spent. Better to push the announced opening date out and get it right rather than promise something that was never going to happen. The current execution is just amateur hour.