Theme Parks Reopening Post COVID-19

[joz]

Wow Shane Warne would be proud of the spin you've achieved there.

[Slick]

Enthusiasts when Movie World had only two coasters open for a few days due to maintenance - how dare they, Village is evil.

Enthusiasts when Dreamworld will open with two coasters - nah it's alright, they're trying.

Something something not aimed at management something something pointing out enthusiasts are biased.

Edited August 12, 2020 by Slick

[Jay Jay The Jet Plane]

Happy Halloween at Dreamworld will still be going ahead this year 

Dates will be announced soon

[Vidgamer]

Moving White Water World to seasonal is a no brainer, i think the season should be extended out a little but that's a minor gripe. I wonder if the ABC expansion will be going ahead still, a Bluey themed area (as was hinted) would be a magnet for visitors and I believe the capital spend on that was going to be low.

If they were smart they would wrap the roller coaster area in promotional imagery for the coaster and wrap the Big Red Car in some promotion for 'something new...' so that people can see the park is still investing.

[Naazon]

Quote

Dreamworld announces reopening date

Dreamworld has announced it will reopen within weeks, nearly six months after closing in response to the coronavirus crisis.

Hannah Moore

Dreamworld has announced it will reopen its doors on September 16, nearly six full months after it closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the park’s extensive COVID-safe plan, indoor dining has been scrapped, queue rails and outdoor theatre seating has been reconfigured for safe physical distancing and seats on some rides will be left vacant.

Character appearances will also be contact free, to prevent transmission between guests.

Park capacity has been reduced, and monitors at the entry gates will take contact details for all guests in the event contact tracing is necessary.

Indoor areas at the park will have their maximum capacity signposted and enforced by team members.

Dreamworld Gold Coast theme park is offering a $40 discount on its Locals Annual Pass in an attempt to get visitors back in the door, which will give purchasers access to Dreamworld. WhiteWater World and SkyPoint.

Chief Operating Officer, Greg Yong said despite the company’s horrific year, which has seen six months of lost revenue and criminal charges filed against its parent company, Ardent Leisure, over the deaths on the Thunder River Rapids Ride in 2016.

The company was charged with three counts of failing to comply with health and safety legislation and exposing individuals to a risk of serious injury or death.

Mr Yong said it was not all doom and gloom for the theme park, with construction on a $32 million multi-launch rollercoaster commencing in the near future, which he says will create more than 250 local construction jobs, and new jobs at the park after completion.

“This will be a real boost for the local economy,” he said.

The park is also undertaking major refurbishment works on the SideWinder rollercoaster and the Pipeline Plunge at WhiteWater World.

Dreamworld opens from 10AM and WhiteWater World from 11AM on Wednesday September 16.

Source: https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/dreamworld-announces-reopening-date/news-story/2202d1785a4076dd99c6f3f57ea617ce

 

Key thing I pull from this they specifically call out the coaster construction starting in the ambiguous "near future".

[StingRay]

Well, it's positive news. The park (DW) will reopen. BRC was due to leave us anyway so that was somewhat known. Flowrider is a shock as last year it had a refurb. It has always been in super awkward place within the park anyway. So not a really big lose plus it was the only upcharge attraction in the park.

Obviously numbers are going to low at the park. With no interstate travellers for the foreseeable future, it means all parks will seem rather quite. 

Whitewater World moving to become a seasonal park is a good move. Operating cost get lowered straight away and they also have the ability to take those staff and keep them on (if they choose to) within DW. This will help in the definite short term in lowering that all-important overall coast. I would like to see the parks season be a little longer tho. January it's way too early. You could easily run it until the end of easter.



 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, joz said:

Wow Shane Warne would be proud of the spin you've achieved there.

 

1 hour ago, Slick said:

Enthusiasts when Movie World had only two coasters open for a few days due to maintenance - how dare they, Village is evil.

Enthusiasts when Dreamworld will open with two coasters - nah it's alright, they're trying.

Something something not aimed at management something something pointing out enthusiasts are biased.

Hey hang on a minute.... I'm very much not in the 'dreamworld can do no wrong camp' and have stated many times I prefer Village over Dreamworld. This illustrates just how hard you guys are going on 'beating down pro-dreamworld sentiment'.

What, exactly is the issue with what i've said? I've made comparisons to Village \ Movie World in numerous dot points, but everything is pretty factual - please tell me which of them isn't a reasonable comparison?

As for the coaster count - thats fair. It has however been long stated that Dreamworld kills Movie World on the flat front, so the ride count still available is vastly different. There is still plenty to do for most demographics at Dreamworld with Sidewinder and Buzz down. Movie World's image wasn't helped by the fact that Arkham was still on their 'maintenance list' instead of just being removed entirely too.

[auspicious]

Neither company was performing anything but the bare minimum of preventative maintenance while things were shut indefinitely. Dreamworld have a full 5 weeks from today and a check for 70 million to catch up on maintenance and certification. They also had 7 weeks before now to get ready.

The comparison is accurate but not the full picture.

[Slick]

2 hours ago, AlexB said:

 

Hey hang on a minute.... I'm very much not in the 'dreamworld can do no wrong camp' and have stated many times I prefer Village over Dreamworld. This illustrates just how hard you guys are going on 'beating down pro-dreamworld sentiment'.

What, exactly is the issue with what i've said? I've made comparisons to Village \ Movie World in numerous dot points, but everything is pretty factual - please tell me which of them isn't a reasonable comparison?

As for the coaster count - thats fair. It has however been long stated that Dreamworld kills Movie World on the flat front, so the ride count still available is vastly different. There is still plenty to do for most demographics at Dreamworld with Sidewinder and Buzz down. Movie World's image wasn't helped by the fact that Arkham was still on their 'maintenance list' instead of just being removed entirely too.

I wouldn't take it personally - more of a read of the room as of late. In regards to Arkham - both chains could do a lot better with being transparent, direct and consistent (see Log Ride, Bermuda Triangle, Looney Tunes, Wipeout etc. etc.) in announcing permanent closures.

All in all it's great news - there's a lot of great people that work at Dreamworld and i'm glad that this closure saga is finally over for them.

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by Slick

[Brad2912]

I’ve actively avoided having another child since my son outgrew BRC for fear I’d end up having to repeat 4 years of that god forsaken ride. 

My partner will be over the moon when I tell her it’s time to start trying again....  

[Slick]

34 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

I’ve actively avoided having another child since my son outgrew BRC for fear I’d end up having to repeat 4 years of that god forsaken ride. 

My partner will be over the moon when I tell her it’s time to start trying again....  

One of the few times a ride closure will actually increase ticket sales.

[Tim Dasco]

I’m hoping that as flow riders aren’t expensive it’s being closed and a new one will be built down the track. However the new one being built inside WWW not dreamworld. 

Also hopefully the BRC ride closing for good means the ABC kids world revamp is finally happening along with buzzsaw closing for construction of the new coaster to commence.
 

Also side note; I thought mega threads weren’t allowed anymore?

[xRazzBerryx]

For someone who is currently only holding a VRTP annual pass right now, I am contemplating getting the $99 annual pass. I was originally going to get it closer to December when the new roller coaster was expected to open, however now I’m not sure if I should wait until there is confirmation of it actually being built & then also an opening date. 
 

 

[Tim Dasco]

12 minutes ago, xRazzBerryx said:

For someone who is currently only holding a VRTP annual pass right now, I am contemplating getting the $99 annual pass. I was originally going to get it closer to December when the new roller coaster was expected to open, however now I’m not sure if I should wait until there is confirmation of it actually being built & then also an opening date. 
 

 

It seems they wanna press ahead with the coaster. But at the same time you wouldn’t wanna build the coaster and not be able to get MAck into the country to commission it and you paid $32 million dollars for a ride to sit empty. Like currently is the case with Vortex.

[Aw hype]

5 hours ago, Tim Dasco said:

Also side note; I thought mega threads weren’t allowed anymore?

#RipOffTopicTopic

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

13 hours ago, Tim Dasco said:

not be able to get MAck into the country to commission it and you paid $32 million dollars for a ride to sit empty. Like currently is the case with Vortex.

I've thought about this a bit.

Dreamworld needs this coaster to open. Desperately.

Sea World on the other hand doesn't NEED Vortex to operate - its a flat. A good flat, but still a flat. Opening in due course - or even together with Leviathan will probably have the same impact as if they opened it now.

Dreamworld dropping $30m kinda warrants a few extra thousand to pay for quarantine and commissioning in order to get that ride open ASAP.

Just have to wait and see what happens with borders and restrictions yet...

[Naazon]

There is a remote possibility that both parks will collectively work with QLD Government to arrange some form of a plan on how to cost effectively get these people in and out of our country in a safe way.

If the QLD Government wants their loan paid back they need to allow the parks to open new rides.

[Jdude95]

Many industries are allowing skilled workers to come over and provide support in key industries that are lacking here. They are heavily pushing for skilled farm workers at the moment. Though I'm sure a technical specialist provided by an overseas company would be provided with an exemption to enter the country to undertake work... providing they also complete the required 2 weeks quarantine. Honestly, the money would be the main thing holding SW back at the moment. There's no point paying to fly a team down here, pay them to not work for 2 weeks while also paying accomodation for at least 2 weeks. It's definitely possible to get people into the country at the moment, it's just a logistical and monetary nightmare. 

Edited August 12, 2020 by Jdude95

[StingRay]

I think any of these companies are going to have a struggle right now getting anything signed off. Gotta think on the flip side here. Maybe these overseas companies don't want to risk employees health also. In the event, something goes drastically wrong here or back in there homeland.

 

[Jdude95]

6 minutes ago, StingRay said:

homeland.

Even when it was the Germans, I knew it was the Soviets! 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

33 minutes ago, Jdude95 said:

Many industries are allowing skilled workers to come over and provide support in key industries that are lacking here. They are heavily pushing for skilled farm workers at the moment. Though I'm sure a technical specialist provided by an overseas company would be provided with an exemption to enter the country to undertake work... providing they also complete the required 2 weeks quarantine. Honestly, the money would be the main thing holding SW back at the moment. There's no point paying to fly a team down here, pay them to not work for 2 weeks while also paying accomodation for at least 2 weeks. It's definitely possible to get people into the country at the moment, it's just a logistical and monetary nightmare. 

Cost of hotel quarantine could be drastically reduced for Sea World though - they could easily guarantee quarantine at SWR, and minimal cost - stick the guys in the presidential rooms... done!

[Naazon]

9 minutes ago, AlexB said:

Cost of hotel quarantine could be drastically reduced for Sea World though - they could easily guarantee quarantine at SWR, and minimal cost - stick the guys in the presidential rooms... done!

Pretty sure its cheaper using the government run facilities.

[StingRay]

13 minutes ago, Jdude95 said:

Even when it was the Germans, I knew it was the Soviets! 

Just little explosion...

[red dragin]

Just chuck them in a couple of rented caravans right next to the ride site and put them straight to work.

[Brendo88]

Can't remember if its been mentioned or not, but I note that GL Maintenance period has had it's November end date removed.  It now has no scheduled end date, and joins its mate AA with no set re-opening date. 

 

Anyone know if its an actual maintenance thing, or perhaps part of the covid restrictions?