Dreamworld reduces operating hours

[themagician]

WWW has reduced hours of 11-4 and the majority of DWs attractions have reduced hours, but these do vary 

[Brad2912]

So...

TOT2, GD, TS, SW, RHLR are now only open until 4, including on weekends

MDMC open 11-4

All of ABC4Kids Land closes at 3:30, including weekends

90% of Dreamworks closing at 4 every day

 

How to destroy a theme park 101 

[RossL]

So it is easier to list what is open all day, also the only rides open after 4pm:

Pandamonium
The Claw
Escape from Madagascar
Bumper Cars

And redline simulators until 4.30.

[jjuttp]

On 04/02/2019 at 7:12 PM, Slick said:

If there was ever a time for Dreamworld to get signed up onto Parkz it's now, because i'd imagine they're blasting away tons of guest goodwill by not posting any new information anywhere.

You mean like back when we had Belinda/Kenny/Someone posting as an anthropomorphic Koala on here?

[Slick]

3 minutes ago, jjuttp said:

You mean like back when we had Belinda/Kenny/Someone posting as an anthropomorphic Koala on here?

Bingo. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Obviously some boffin has crunched the numbers and determined that after 4, most things aren't very busy - and they can save some coin on wages and utilities if they close them down a little bit early - but this is disgusting.

I'd rather the park close for 1 day a week, or operate on a reduced hours for the entire park during the week (with a cheaper day ticket available on those days) than to close well over half the park while still open for an hour or more.

It's laughable that over the summer they actually extended their trading hours, and now they're cost cutting rides running time. I am so glad we didn't renew our passes to this place. I'll wait until it's sold.

[themeparkaddict]

To be fair, a lot of rides did only at around 11am as very often testing was running late.  However, A very realistic option which would allow Dreamworld to save a tonne of money but also keep customer satisfaction would be to operate rides on a weekday timetable similar to that of Rainbows End in Auckland.

Having 50% of rides operating throughout the entire day would be much better than having all rides operating after 11am and closing 90% of them past 4pm. A simple 10-1:30 and 1:30-5 timetable would ensure that there are plenty of rides open at a given time and they wouldn't be being closed all at once. The new operating hours are very, very random and confuse the hell out of me, given it's the most random rides open past 4pm (claw, panda and Madagascar ) customers are not going to know which rides are open past 4pm and there will likely be a lot of complaints in regards to this. A SIMPLE timetable which is UNDERSTANDABLE to the customer would cut costs on labor and operation expenses by miles.

[RossL]

1 hour ago, AlexB said:

I'd rather the park close for 1 day a week, or operate on a reduced hours for the entire park during the week (with a cheaper day ticket available on those days) than to close well over half the park while still open for an hour or more.

PR is the only reason not to reduce the actual operating hours.  They'll cop another hammering in the news if(/when) it happens.

[joz]

Really feel for the frontline staff here who will cop it from the guests while also having their hours cut right back. Not sure how someone is supposed to live off 5 hours a day, its not like the staff are making a heap of money to begin with. I think reduced hours were clearly coming, but only 4 rides open after 4, and one of them is bumper cars? That's pretty crazy.

 

It's getting hard to see how they intend to get out of this hole they're in or even if they're still trying. I agree that operations do need to be more lean but holy hell what positive things can you point to?  Sky Voyager is late and way over budget, so many of the rides have ongoing unexpected downtime, hours cut right back and attendance down on last year. I get the impression they were expecting a triumphant return to being profitable this year but there is a such a long list of things at the park still trending in the wrong direction that at this point I really can't see how they can turn it around without serious money going in. For the first time ever not only do I think DW will close, but I now suddenly get the impression it will close with 2 weeks notice. Probably not until this time next year to be fair, Sky Voyager alone cost a lot of money so you'd want to see what affect that has on things before you pull the plug, but Sky Voyager alone will not save the park, and it won't be enough to turn the tide while everything else around it is spiraling downward.

[aaronm]

The park has had 2+ years of 3-4 major rides being "down for maintenance" on any given day, I guess they figure guests don't care that much about rides being open. 

That said I seem to struggle to make a Dreamworld visit last more than 3 hours these days anyway, so shorter ride ops probably won't make much of a difference.

[Tim Dasco]

They should do what Adventure World do In very quiet/off peek days. The less popular rides AW puts on rotational schedules IE 1 hour on 1 hour off. For the whole day. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

2 minutes ago, Tim Dasco said:

They should do what Adventure World do In very quiet/off peek days. The less popular rides AW puts on rotational schedules IE 1 hour on 1 hour off. For the whole day. 

Wonderland did the same thing...

[themagician]

All of the parks have done that as some point. The water parks in particular often have the slides either sharing a tower or next to each other on rotate. MW and DW have done rotational operations also, but less in more recent years.

[joz]

Buzzsaw Sidewinder Wipeout the train and the pointless ferris wheel all closed right now. If you alternate rides now there really isn't going to be much left.

[Slick]

Have we had a full roster of rides running for a realistic amount of time post TRR?

[aaronm]

43 minutes ago, Slick said:

Have we had a full roster of rides running for a realistic amount of time post TRR?

I'm not sure it happened all that often pre TRR.

[themagician]

@Slick I've believe since TRR incident, there has only been a week when all rides have been operational

I have been been to the parks and can understand why WWW is only open from 11-4, the waterpark is empty. No real queues for anything. It is a rainy day, so that could be potentially why. I do remember last year the waterpark had reduced hours, but was mostly in the winter period. Really they should've done 11 or 12 to 5 or even 6. They could push that really hard and try get people visiting after school to cool down.

DW did have a few people in the park, but no major queues.

Edited February 6, 2019 by themagician

[Jamberoo Fan]

8 hours ago, joz said:

...Sky Voyager alone will not save the park...

I think it should be pointed out that we have found out recently that SkyVoyager was never built to "save the park" as you say @joz. A ParkChatLive interview early last month with DW's COO revealed they had planned SkyVoyager 3 months prior to the Thunder River Rapids incident occurring. 

Since SkyVoyager was announced after the incident (13 November 2017), we've all assumed this is what they were banking on to "save the park" but since they were planning it before the incident, that means the Whitewater World expansion is now most likely their 1st true reaction on how to "save the park" after the incident.

How that & their other post-SkyVoyager plans occur should tell enough about how Ardent have been dealing with DW's future.

SkyVoyager seems to have never been built to fix DW's attendance and finances. It seems to be just a coincidence that the ride's development began roughly when the incident occurred and after the incident, it seems Ardent just 'hoped' that in 2 years it would open, fix all their problems and everything will be back to normal.

Also, can anyone explain to me why the COO's name tag says 'Melbourne, Australia' on it? (See 47:56 in the video)

Edited February 6, 2019 by Jamberoo Fan

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Interesting that the Queensland Times published this article on 2/11/2018, headlining 'dreamworld hopes ride on $17M attraction', which also mentioned the ride would 'open in time for the summer holidays'  and states

Quote

...theme park officials are hopeful the new attraction will turn the tide...

The fact that they'd planned it beforehand doesn't mean that they aren't now 'banking on it' regardless of anything said on PCL.

As for the nametag, Disney usually lists your hometown (or your college if you're on the college program) on your name badge. It may have been an idea they're hoping to roll out, or alternatively, already dumped? Perhaps its his corporate badge for overseas visits so everyone knows where they're from? Any number of reasons, i would imagine...

[Evie]

3 minutes ago, AlexB said:

Interesting that the Queensland Times published this article on 2/11/2018, headlining 'dreamworld hopes ride on $17M attraction', which also mentioned the ride would 'open in time for the summer holidays'  and states

The fact that they'd planned it beforehand doesn't mean that they aren't now 'banking on it' regardless of anything said on PCL.

As for the nametag, Disney usually lists your hometown (or your college if you're on the college program) on your name badge. It may have been an idea they're hoping to roll out, or alternatively, already dumped? Perhaps its his corporate badge for overseas visits so everyone knows where they're from? Any number of reasons, i would imagine...

Every staff member at DW has their hometown on their name tag, been that way for years.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Can't say i've seen it (or at least, that i can recall) but that would be why then!

[WalleyWorld]

23 minutes ago, Jamberoo Fan said:

Also, can anyone explain to me why the COO's name tag says 'Melbourne, Australia' on it? (See 47:56 in the video)

I believe the location is where the individual is from/born. I'm not sure how long this has been a thing though.

11 hours ago, AlexB said:

I'd rather the park close for 1 day a week, or operate on a reduced hours for the entire park during the week (with a cheaper day ticket available on those days) than to close well over half the park while still open for an hour or more.

^Agreed. They could have copied Disney. Have different operating hours everyday that are based off past attendance, and have tiered day ticket pricing to suit those operating hours or predicted 'busy days'. Having rides shut at different times, or rides operating on a ride rotation system is confusing and annoying for guests. It blatantly indicates they are trying to save money.

Edited February 6, 2019 by Luke

[Rabbit2014]

None of this is helping the public image of this once great theme park. I have been hoping they would pull there finger out and save the theme park but with too many rides that are too old and always breaking down it not looking great. I still hope that they just close the park down for 6 months remove the broken and re open as a  refurbished with a few new attractions (keeping sky voyager for reopening)and a new image for the public so people can trust the place, I would hate to lose another theme park in the end like we lost wonderland

[joz]

The problem for Aussie parks is 10-5 is already lean. There isn't really any fat to cut off it for changing seasons. I honestly think they'd  e better off saying 'weekdays the whole park is open 10 till 4' than pretending that 4 rides constitutes an open park. Half functioning park all day is worse than a full functioning park for one less hour. Apart from that there's no where to go so calling for flexible hours isn't going to help.

[Richard]

13 hours ago, Jamberoo Fan said:

they had planned SkyVoyager 3 months prior to the Thunder River Rapids incident occurring. 

Watch it again. They commenced talks prior to the accident. At the same time Brogent were also in talks with several other operators/locations and Dreamworld were also looking very closely at other attractions around this time.

Even so, let's say the deal was signed prior. A deposit is normally paid to a manufacturer to secure an attraction. That doesn't mean it can't be put on hold or even cancelled by the operator if circumstances change.

Simplifying the situation, it is entirely correct to state that they proceeded with the I-Ride to "save" Dreamworld.