The New Atlantis - Construction Updates

[Cactus_Matt]

According to ~internet statistics~ only 8% of people in Australia have ever been to a Disney park so by that measure you can understand why Australian theme park owners are less concerned about the "theme" aspect of their parks because the bar for impressing the average theme park goer is a lot lower. Not really a great excuse for our parks to slack off but when the competition is so minimal there's probably little reason for any of the parks to spend money on theming.

What we really need in Australia is a new park to come along and completely blow joe public away with attention to detail and immersive experiences that way it'll force the other parks in the country to try a little harder.

[Guest 239]

28 minutes ago, Cactus_Matt said:

What we really need in Australia is a new park to come along and completely blow joe public away with attention to detail and immersive experiences that way it'll force the other parks in the country to try a little harder.

100%. There is no reason to raise the bar when you set the bar in place in the first place. If VRTP released Atlantis as an entirely themed, immersive, world-class experience then it'd cause the rest of their property to suffer or feel dated so they almost have no incentive to do anything extraordinary especially when their primary goal is to satisfy shareholders. 

[Naazon]

1 hour ago, CaptainLazerGuns said:

100%. There is no reason to raise the bar when you set the bar in place in the first place. If VRTP released Atlantis as an entirely themed, immersive, world-class experience then it'd cause the rest of their property to suffer or feel dated so they almost have no incentive to do anything extraordinary especially when their primary goal is to satisfy shareholders. 

Also, every other future works will need the same level of detail increasing future costs.

[rappa]

On 08/10/2020 at 3:36 AM, T-bone said:

This also looks pretty awesome (attached pics) IMO modern architecture has no place In a theme park. Theme parks are supposed to transport you away from the world you live in, modern architecture such as what we see here (and there are plenty of other examples in our parks) doesn’t do that and only cheapens the whole experience.
 

So whilst Vortex looks neat and tidy, it doesn’t take me anywhere other than my local Westfield. It worries me that this is the standard for the rest of the new Atlantis, but we will see what happens. 

Perfectly summed up!

[Tim Dasco]

Huss Engineers are in QLD doing 2 week Quarantining according to Mr Kirby Vortex should be opening late November hopefully. 

[Naazon]

1 hour ago, Tim Dasco said:

Huss Engineers are in QLD doing 2 week Quarantining according to Mr Kirby Vortex should be opening late November hopefully. 

Hope they weren't the new hotel case recorded this morning!

[T-bone]

2 hours ago, Tim Dasco said:

Huss Engineers are in QLD doing 2 week Quarantining according to Mr Kirby Vortex should be opening late November hopefully. 

But someone said this was the case a few weeks ago, so that wasn’t true?

[themagician]

Sea Wold said the ride was going to open a year ago. Don’t believe everything you hear 

[Rabbit2014]

3 hours ago, Tim Dasco said:

Huss Engineers are in QLD doing 2 week Quarantining according to Mr Kirby Vortex should be opening late November hopefully. 

It is likely to still be 6 weeks from when they actual start looking at the ride so it will likely be Boxing Day 

[Guest 239]

I'm actually really surprised that they managed to get in the country this year. Europe is absolutely falling apart at the moment in terms of COVID and its wild that ride engineers are considered an essential service worth the risk of bringing them over. Definitely good news for the theme park community though.

[westical]

25 minutes ago, CaptainLazerGuns said:

I'm actually really surprised that they managed to get in the country this year.

They said they were Hollywood celebrities. 

[colonelbmx]

8 hours ago, Tim Dasco said:

Huss Engineers are in QLD doing 2 week Quarantining according to Mr Kirby Vortex should be opening late November hopefully. 

There was 8 suits in, around and under vortex today, 2 I’ve seen on site before the other 6 looked like new faces 

[SuperV]

1 hour ago, colonelbmx said:

There was 8 suits in, around and under vortex today, 2 I’ve seen on site before the other 6 looked like new faces 

Did you start screaming German at them to see if they’d turn around?

[rappa]

1 hour ago, colonelbmx said:

There was 8 suits in, around and under vortex today, 2 I’ve seen on site before the other 6 looked like new faces 

Well that’s odd because there’s only one person working at the company that I know still wears a suit. 

[colonelbmx]

11 hours ago, SuperV said:

Did you start screaming German at them to see if they’d turn around?

Unfortunately my German’s not that great 😂

[Brad2912]

11 hours ago, rappa said:

Well that’s odd because there’s only one person working at the company that I know still wears a suit. 

Maybe the guys from BGH Capital checking out their new investment..

[themagician]

I don’t know how or why I haven’t noticed this before, but how ‘great’ does the ride control booth look

 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

On 15/10/2020 at 5:27 PM, CaptainLazerGuns said:

its wild that ride engineers are considered an essential service worth the risk of bringing them over.

A new, multi-million dollar piece of plant and equipment has been installed, and needs to be commissioned by the manufacturer before the purchaser can begin to operate it as part of their business.

If this were the manufacturing industry, it'd be a no-brainer. While the leisure industry certainly doesn't appear as an 'essential service' - at the end of the day, its still an industry, has staff and customers wanting their product, and nobody, no matter the industry, would be happy at spending that sort of coin, having their sparkly new machine sit and rot because their industry wasn't deemed as important as another.

[red dragin]

The ride opening will also increase domestic tourism on the Gold Coast, which helps the economy.

[Naazon]

Seaworld posted a new video on Facebook

 

https://fb.watch/1nuDp4NJJL/

Sorry, no idea how to post the video here

[Slick]

2 hours ago, Naazon said:

Seaworld posted a new video on Facebook

 

https://fb.watch/1nuDp4NJJL/

Sorry, no idea how to post the video here

Really slick looking video and i'm really, really glad that they're making US-style construction content (which is worlds apart from the strategy they had with Rivals, which left the greater public and community turning to Parkz and OurWorlds for updates - a total missed opportunity and definitely meant a slow reception by the GP as a result.)

I did notice the clip isn't really engaging though, which is a real shame, and I hope the lack of engagement doesn't deter them from doing more content down the line. I'd imagine the poor engagement (and feel free to scroll if this is not quite your bag) is due to the fact that a) Facebook prefers 1:1 or 16:9 for organic content and the art studio have uploaded the same video everywhere instead of optimising it for each channel b) the content subject isn't that strong (the clip should be separated into "new ride" and "coaster construction" - when people hear precinct update #1 it sounds like it's about the gardens or something dreary and 99% would keep swiping as a result and c) most importantly of all, there's no context, no "why", no story. Clark should be explaining why the wooden coaster matters to Joe Public and that should be supported with visual context e.g. i'd be getting him to say stuff like "this coaster is going to be the ultimate wooden family thrill machine. It's going to be wild and out of control whilst still having a height restriction low enough that even the youngsters can jump in with the rest of the family. An unlike the wooden coasters of old, this new coaster will be buttery smooth, so no sore heads afterwards, just crazy-good fun." And then i'd have some CGI shots to support what he's saying and then voilah, you've just given the clip some usefulness and thus, far more engaging and hype-worthy for the general public.

There's a few other things i'd do to increase the engagement and ROI on the clip but to be frank, if they want to know they should hire me.  Otherwise, the cinematography, the audio and the cut are all 10/10 and as I said, great stuff otherwise. I really hope to see more.

[themagician]

I can’t wait to ride ‘the greatest family coaster in the world’

They really are setting the bar very very high

[Slick]

12 minutes ago, themagician said:

I can’t wait to ride ‘the greatest family coaster in the world’

They really are setting the bar very very high

I'd argue too high, tbh. It's not the 90's anymore, and the marketing text-book that phrase came from should be shot and buried. It's not like Aussies don't travel or don't have access to the internet. They know what Disney parks look like. And so "The greatest family coaster in the world" would sound like BS to anyone, and is enough of a big stretch that most people would just keep scrolling or click away. "Australia's fastest and tallest ever wooden roller-coaster" is far more effective as a hook - interstate travellers would think of Bush Beast or Scenic Railway and have some sense of nostalgia and/or reference point which would get people's attention and intrigue to want to find more information, from there you just need to create new comms on likely consumer touch-points e.g. "will it be rough" "will it be boring" "can my kids ride" "how big is this coaster compared to other coaters" etc. etc. etc.

Edited October 27, 2020 by Slick

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

All very good points @Slick - i for one am just happy Village is actually doing construction updates rather than pretending "nothing is behind the curtain" as they did with rivals.

TO add to that, this also builds on the 'our theme parks are your theme parks' hook by reusing Kirby as the face of the 'family' company as we've discussed recently. This time of course he introduces himself and his position instead of a hurriedly added subtitle like the last video too.

Unkle Clark will be a fairweather indication for village as they transition to the new owners, and the consistency is reassuring.

(I just wish Clark didn't look like he'd snorted a bag of cocaine before the shoot - how much powder is on his face? Did he just come from shooting a fright nights video with ghost makeup or what?)

[Naazon]

Clark needs to come back out with his family to introduce the ride fully soon, explain why its a great family ride and show that his whole family will love it.

The post COVID ad and using his family to say its a family park has set a standard for me.