Theme Parks Reopening Post COVID-19

[aussienetman]

Yes confirmed mid-september

[Prequel]

1 hour ago, princesssalexx said:

I just heard on the news dreamworld will reopen mid September 🙌 

Quality source.

[mssveattck]

Ardent Leisure announced it themselves in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.

They also announced that they will be receiving financial assistance under the Queensland Government’s COVID-19 Industry Support Package and Queensland Tourism Icons Program 2020.

You can read here:

 

Edited August 7, 2020 by mssveattck

[Park Addict 93]

Interesting little tidbit buried in the opening hours FAQ for WNW.
 

Quote

Will Dive’n’Movies be going ahead?

It is our intention for Dive’n’Movies to return to the park on Saturday nights from the 19th September. Please keep an eye on our website for updates on Dive’n’Movies.

 

[aussienetman]

On 05/08/2020 at 12:40 PM, themagician said:

Driving past DW this morning I noticed that all staff are having to park on the eastern side of the carpark (closed part to the highway). Some areas of the carpark have been roped off.

Sidewinder getting a new paint job. Seems overkill, but carpark was cordoned off to avoid overspray...

[themagician]

@aussienetman I doubt that as they were painting it while guests were in the park 

[aussienetman]

That was the reason given to staff.

[Gold Coast Amusement Force]

2 minutes ago, themagician said:

@aussienetman I doubt that as they were painting it while guests were in the park 

I don't recall it being painted while people were in park, I thought they were painting it after hours. Probably wrong though. 

[Jdude95]

8 hours ago, aussienetman said:

Sidewinder getting a new paint job. Seems overkill, but carpark was cordoned off to avoid overspray...

Seems overkill until some random exec comes back to their black car to find it's covered in white and blue specks 

[Retardent]

Tell me i'm wrong, but when it was clear the federal government wasn't going to bail Ardent out, they sacked a bunch of their employees and stopped building the rollercoaster.

So now with this state loan, are the 50 people that got fired getting re hired? If not, how do they open Dreamworld up again with the same competencies in place and without compromising the guest experience despite having a quarter of their full time workforce gone?

if they plan on re-opening but with a smaller experience like Movie World, how on earth are they going to pay the loan off when they can't possibly charge the money they need to in order to pay the loan back because the experience for guests is no longer what it was?

It would then seem that the game for Gary Weiss then is to strip down Dreamworld to its bare parts and sell it before the balance is due.

Edited August 10, 2020 by Retardent

[Gold Coast Amusement Force]

7 minutes ago, Retardent said:

Tell me i'm wrong, but when it was clear the federal goverment wasn't going to bail Ardent out, they sacked a bunch of their employees and stopped building the coaster.

So now with this state loan, are the 50+ people that got fired getting re hired? If not, how do they open Dreamworld up again with the same competencies in place and without compromising the guest experience despite having a quarter of their full time workforce gone?

 

The attendance when they reopen will be mostly interstate meaning the crows aren't likely going to be much larger than they were prior to closure. They are already running at less capacity because of Covid so I don't think 100 people being laid off, some that are only working behind the scenes, is going to compromise guest experience to the point it is of concern. Guest experience is more likely to be compromised when more than half of your major attractions are closed compared to being short staffed. 

7 minutes ago, Retardent said:

 if they plan on re-opening but with a smaller experience like Movie World, how on earth are they going to pay the loan off?

They will be lucky to break even when they reopen. Dreamworld knows they aren't going to be funding the loan repayment by reopening, merely hoping to stop the losses that occur while closed. Until restrictions ease and everything settles domestically and internationally, there isn't a big enough demand to have a full opening of the park.

Edited August 10, 2020 by Gold Coast Amusement Force

[Retardent]

5 minutes ago, Gold Coast Amusement Force said:

The attendance when they reopen will be mostly interstate meaning the crows aren't likely going to be much larger than they were prior to closure. They are already running at less capacity because of Covid so I don't think 100 people being laid off, some that are only working behind the scenes, is going to compromise guest experience. Guest experience is going to be compromised more when half or more of your major attractions are closed compared to being short staffed. 

By that flawed logic, with Disney's latest earnings report being so bad they should let go of its imagineering department as it is just "behind the scenes."

Edited August 10, 2020 by Retardent

[Gold Coast Amusement Force]

1 minute ago, Retardent said:

By that flawed logic, with Disney's latest earnings report being so bad they should let go of its imagineering department as it is just "behind the scenes."

Disney haven't been performing like shit for four years have they?

[StingRay]

1 hour ago, Retardent said:

So now with this state loan, are the 50 people that got fired getting re hired? If not, how do they open Dreamworld up again with the same competencies in place and without compromising the guest experience despite having a quarter of their full time workforce gone?

VRTP pretty much did the same thing. They actively told people to go look for other jobs. Many didn't return. Hence rides down and food outlets not all open at all properties (Yes I know it is not a busy time of the year). Yes, the first weekend was busy. But that was people wanting to do something after being in self isolation.

So what part of the guest experience is actually going to be seriously affected?. A company can operate the same with extra staff or not. You budget for it and made amendments in daily operations for this to occur. It is rather simple.

 

[Slick]

19 minutes ago, StingRay said:

VRTP pretty much did the same thing. They actively told people to go look for other jobs. Many didn't return. Hence rides down and food outlets not all open at all properties (Yes I know it is not a busy time of the year). Yes, the first weekend was busy. But that was people wanting to do something after being in self isolation.

So what part of the guest experience is actually going to be seriously affected?. A company can operate the same with extra staff or not. You budget for it and made amendments in daily operations for this to occur. It is rather simple.

 

I think your opinion would definitely apply if they were all front of house staff - it's easy to make a schedule work when you've got plenty of casuals to bridge the gaps. To be frank though, it was 50 salaried positions that were made redundant, most of which were skilled positions which can't be as easily filled.

[StingRay]

Just now, Slick said:

I think your opinion would definitely apply if they were all front of house staff - it's easy to make a schedule work when you've got plenty of casuals to bridge the gaps. To be frank though, it was 50 salaried positions that were made redundant, most of which were skilled positions which can't be as easily filled.

Oh, I am aware that it was not a case of Dreamworld letting go 50 casuals. I completely understand that. But VRTP has let many go (non-casual & salaries) from its various parks worldwide during this. 

The staffing levels between the two companies are vastly different also. 50 staff being stood down from VRTP would be nothing compared to what Dreamworld has just done. With multiple properties, it can be absorbed rather easily.

I still don't yet see how this could affect the daily operations upon reopening unless they don't have any duty managers or supervisors anymore. It's obviously hard to speculate what positions are gone. But looking 50 indeed was a massive blow for the company. I do wonder if under the old management people has rather large salaries hence why some* are gone. VRTP has done the downscaling before and placed even more workloads on staff (not talking frontline). So this could be some form of streamlining within the organisation.

They are not the only ones to do this within this industry in Aus unfortunately.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

What sort of positions were actually made redundant? does anyone know? like we're debating whether the park could operate without them and\or whether they could be easily filled - but i only know of one specific position... what were the other 49?

[Naazon]

1 hour ago, AlexB said:

What sort of positions were actually made redundant? does anyone know? like we're debating whether the park could operate without them and\or whether they could be easily filled - but i only know of one specific position... what were the other 49?

Assistants to that 1 position you know of

[Jdude95]

ABC Radio is reporting that DW are announcing a reopening date at 10:30am today 

Edited August 11, 2020 by Jdude95

[aussienetman]

Wednesday 16 SeptemberMagic King

[Naazon]

Quote

PARK UPDATES

Dreamworld and WhiteWater World are re-opening on 16 September!

The world has changed and so has ours, so you will notice some changes to the parks throughout our staged re-opening. The following changes have been made as a result of reviewing our offering of rides and attractions to ensure the longevity of our parks well into the future:

Based on low demand in the cooler months WhiteWater World is becoming a seasonal water park. WhiteWater World will operate from early September until late January annually and across some peak weekends on either side of these dates where demand (and warmer weather!) allows us to swing open the gates. This will be a great opportunity for our team to carry out a lot of our scheduled maintenance throughout our winter closure.

Some areas and attractions within our Dreamworld Corroboree precinct will be temporarily closed, due to restricted international tourism and therefore visitation. Dreamworld Corroboree employees are important to our team and will be re-deployed to other areas within the business. As a result, the Dreamworld Express will also be temporarily closed as a part of Dreamworld’s staged re-opening. Visit our Park Map to find out more.

The Big Red Car and Flowrider will be permanently retired as a result of our attraction review. We know our guests have enjoyed many happy memories on these attractions and look forward to continuing to create many more memories on our wide range of family and kids rides and attractions.

We understand how challenging the past few months have been for Gold Coast families, so for a limited time only, we’re offering our valued locals an Annual Pass for only $99* (usually $139). Learn more here.

Dreamworld and WhiteWater World will operate under an approved COVID SAFE Plan. Keep scrolling to learn more about how you can help us stop the spread during your visit.

We can’t wait to help you make new Dreamworld memories! Visit the Ride Information page to plan your next visit.

 

DREAMWORLD COVID SAFE PLAN OVERVIEW

The health & wellbeing of our guests and team members is incredibly important to us. We have introduced a range of measures to ensure every visit is a safe and enjoyable one, once we are able to re-open. Our comprehensive COVID SAFE plan has been reviewed and approved by Queensland Health and we look forward to welcoming you back to our Parks. 

As a part of our approved COVID SAFE Plan, the following attractions and activities will be temporarily unavailable upon opening:

• Gamesite Arcade
• Mad Jungle Jam 
• Play School Art Room iPads
• Corroboree Face Painting Experience
• Corroboree Virtual Reality Experience
• Animal Experiences
• LEGO Interactive Building Area
• LEGO Mini Figure Station

*This list does not include attractions under scheduled maintenance and is subject to change without notice. 

2 more attractions lost at Dreamworld.

Edited August 12, 2020 by Naazon

[Jdude95]

I believe BRC was already on the chopping block as it's part of the ABC Kids revamp and refurb. Flowrider is a bit unexpected but it didn't really get too much use and if they ever wanted to put a new one in, they aren't exactly expensive 

[Rabbit2014]

10 minutes ago, Naazon said:

2 more attractions lost at Dreamworld.

Also white water world is now a Seasonal Park only opened September to January from now on

[Flynn_Smith]

Interesting to see that they've brought back the $99 Annual passes. Smart move, I think. 

Buzzsaw and Sidewinder will be the only major rides closed upon re-opening. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

• Annual passholders received a 208 day extension to their pass expiry
• Rides retired are officially announced instead of being SBNO for 8-9 months without word from the park (and Flowrider was a low throughput attraction to be taking up prime real estate in OP)
• 3 major attractions won't be operating on opening - Sidewinder (painting), Buzz (coaster construction) and train (botched entirely).
• No other huge swaths of 'down for annual maintenance' like we saw with Movieworld, so the suggestion that they were getting maintenance done in their extended closure seems to be accurate
• The other 'experience' based attractions are closed as distancing and hygiene are harder to manage. Rick's was a similar reason I believe?
• Seasonal waterpark operations which have long been suggested for WnW also and probably a wise move all-round (for both companies)
• A reduced pass price for locals (non locals probably aren't coming right now anyway) is also a nice concession (although probably needed with all of the ride removals recently). I'd have liked to have seen Village do similar - especially when so much was closed.

 

Proof is in the pudding and it will remain to be seen whether they sustain this post-opening week (after which, we saw Village cut back a lot due to low visitation), but on paper it looks like a much better way to return to operations.