Dreamworld Maintenance 2021

[New display name]

Plus, MW compared to DW won't be doing a summer event.  As a passholder, MW gives me no reason for me to put up with the crowds.

 

[Rivals]

Just now, rappa said:

It’s pretty easy to improve when you were at beyond rock bottom though. 

it’s a lot harder to improve with a reputation like Dreamworld had then it is to fall from the reputation MovieWorld had

[rappa]

For the love of god it’s called Movie World. Two words, neither of them with capital letters in the middle of them. 

[New display name]

@rappa From the outside it looks like VR has been put into a pause mode where possible and DW is pushing forward.  It could 100% be to the fact Village have new owners and are currently reassessing the directions the company takes and where they want to spend the money. 

[Guest 239]

3 minutes ago, rappa said:

For the love of god it’s called Movie World.  

Excuse me!? It's Warner Bros. Movie World™ 

"Hollywood on the Gold Coast!"

1 minute ago, New display name said:

It could 100% be to the fact Village have new owners and are currently reassessing the directions the company takes and where they want to spend the money. 

The last I heard (could definitely be wrong) is that the owners were basically sitting back and watching from a distance to see what parts of the business fall short and they'll take it from there. Whilst they have historic information, I think they want to assess how the business operates under the the watchful eye of the owner because if they're stumbling whilst being watched then they have no chance when left to their own devices.

[themagician]

I think DW knew they were falling short in so many areas and their response to fixing that is to continuously offer new experiences/events throughout the year. And I think this year has been there best for a long time. They’ve still have issues and they’ve still got a lot more to do, but if this year is a preview of what is to come, I think the park could return to its (almost) former self in a few years. 
 

VRTP were mostly in a good spot before COVID, but have been hit pretty hard and have been relying on people just coming back because what they had was already good. WNW has desperately needed something for at least 5 years, so they’ve finally ticked that box. Reading everyone’s comments, it seems like MW is having the most issues and I’d say it comes down to the issues with getting parts from overseas. But they are also having operational issues and their events have taken a hit too. Usually we get the DC Comics event early Jan, but it doesn’t look like we’re not getting that either this year. 

[Guest 239]

I feel Dreamworld cut their losses by removing their more troublesome attractions at the expenses of their image taking a hit but now we're starting to see the fruits of their labour. They're now able to focus on maintaining a quality experience over what they have left. Sure they're a smaller park but they've got a shiny new roller coaster and a whole theme park of attractions to bolster that new experience. Kudos to them for taking a risk and sticking to their plan.

[themagician]

That’s definitely been one of the hardest parts for the park. In the past 5 years they have removed 7 rides. And so far we’ve only gained 2. Where some of those rides were, it’s very obvious something was there and has been left either untouched or as a pile of dirt.

Out of the rides removed I don’t think we’ll ever see something replace TOT or BuzzSaw because of their locations, but there is definitely opportunities to replace the Log Ride, Big Red Car and refurbish the back corner of Ocean Parade where Kevin Hill and Flowrider were. 
 

In term of overall ride count, MW has 14 rides while DW still has 20. And while MWs overall are newer and some are better quality, I think if DW can get another couple really good attractions that match the quality of ST then their overall ride list will be a great competitor for MW. And if DW can fix the ABC Kids area and back of Ocean Parade and fill in the gap where the log ride was I think they could be on their way to becoming a better overall park.

[Moderator]

FYI - we've hidden a few posts talking about the upgrades we're making to the site as they're off-topic.

[Brad2912]

11 minutes ago, Guest Moderator said:

FYI - we've hidden a few posts talking about the upgrades we're making to the site as they're off-topic.

Moderator. Such an impersonal name - can we call you Sven?

[dbo121]

On MW I sense the private equity owner will extract as much value as possible whilst minimising capex.

This happened to DW when Macquarie leisure trust took ownership . A quick bang for buck and return on equity rather than a longer term vision where it became unstuck.

This all runs in cycles and depends on how much they are generating over their perceived cost of capital ( which they can deploy back in ).  Of course they can borrow money but balance sheet positions post covid are not in the best shape . 

Edited December 21, 2021 by dbo121
Spell

[rappa]

That is certainly not the impression they have given the company in terms of their long term plans. 
 

I think you’ll find also there are some significant share holders in the new ownership company that have been around for a long time. 
 

I think it’s just more a case of VRTP having a bunch of catching up to and the buckets of money, time and personnel are only so big. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

4 hours ago, rappa said:

It’s pretty easy to improve when you were at beyond rock bottom though. 

Regardless of where they came from, where they were, or how Long they’ve been there, take any random first-time visitor to both of those parks today, and dreamworld looks a fuck-tonne better. No bias, no rose coloured glasses. 

we’re 5 days away from their peak trading period - who looks more “ready”?

[New display name]

26 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

we’re 5 days away from their peak trading period - who looks more “ready”?

Village are waiting for Covid to end and DW have become battle hardened and are pushing forward.

[themagician]

8 hours ago, themagician said:

Shockwave has reopened. 

And I’ve been told that the seatbelts have been removed 

[Vidgamer]

The seatbelts are actually still there, they just go around the side of each part of the seat, so you can put your own belt on, making it much much faster. The belts essentially go over your knees.

[themagician]

GD seems to be closed today. Shockwave and Tailspin are having some temporary issues. Steel Taipan is running both trains, not a massive queue, but every tra J is running full. 

[xRazzBerryx]

5 hours ago, themagician said:

GD seems to be closed today. Shockwave and Tailspin are having some temporary issues. Steel Taipan is running both trains, not a massive queue, but every tra J is running full. 

To add to this..
 

A lot of things today had downtime due to the wind, with GD the most noticeable being down all day. 
 

Shockwave, Tailspin, MDMC & Gold Coaster were all down for 2-3 hours late afternoon. Most opened around 3pm or so. 
 

Staff were saying it was due to “wind” but Claw & ST operated all day without hassle. 
 

Also, shout out to staff on ST, phenomenal operations 👏🏼

[themagician]

That’s good to know that it wasn’t technical issues, but the wind. 
 

I agree with the ST staff. The staff they’ve got on that ride are outstanding; so enthusiastic, excited, fast and just good at their job. 

[TaipanLover]

5 hours ago, themagician said:

GD seems to be closed today. Shockwave and Tailspin are having some temporary issues. Steel Taipan is running both trains, not a massive queue, but every tra J is running full. 

It's slightly disappointing that Steel Taipan hasn't attracted bigger crowds. Rivals had queues as far as Justice League when it opened but Steel Taipan hasn't been more than a 15 minute wait any time I have been. Their operations are pretty smooth and quick but that alone isn't why the queue is so short. I really hope it starts getting the crowds it deserves. Though I am liking that I can ride Steel Taipan without much of a wait.

[Brad2912]

46 minutes ago, TaipanLover said:

It's slightly disappointing that Steel Taipan hasn't attracted bigger crowds. Rivals had queues as far as Justice League when it opened but Steel Taipan hasn't been more than a 15 minute wait any time I have been. Their operations are pretty smooth and quick but that alone isn't why the queue is so short. I really hope it starts getting the crowds it deserves. Though I am liking that I can ride Steel Taipan without much of a wait.

Not really comparing apples to apples though.

 

DCR didn’t launch in a covid arena with highly impacted domestic travel, community trepidation with crowds, and mandates stopping many families and/or groups of people from attending. The La Niña weather pattern doesn’t help planning a day out with certainty either at the moment 

 

 

[themagician]

MWs carpark today was full, with a couple dozen cars on the overflow grass. DWs was about 60-70% full. WnWs carpark in front of AOS was about half full. With all the different factors as mentioned above, I think the park crowd levels are pretty good, but any ‘normal’ year the parks would be booming right now and we would see the car parks full. The longest I’ve waited for ST is 15 minutes and that was with both trains operating. I don’t think we will see long queues for it for some time unfortunately. Maybe this Easter, but I don’t think we will see major queues until next Summer. The tourism is definitely here to an extent because MW was booming (long wait times partly due to slow operations, out of action seats/trains), but it was much busier than DW. I think with all the attraction closures over the last couple years, the general public doesn’t necessarily see the park as worth it unfortunately. Even with all the extra events/entertainment they are currently have. They really need to sort out the log ride area next though because walking through that area I heard several people comment how there was a ride there or thinking that was where the river rapids was. On a positive note though, there was a lot of people in the ST area and everyone coming off the ride were saying how much they loved it. And with the space active with guests, it’s a really nice area to be in.

[Rivals]

3 hours ago, xRazzBerryx said:

A lot of things today had downtime due to the wind, with GD the most noticeable being down all day. 
 

Shockwave, Tailspin, MDMC & Gold Coaster were all down for 2-3 hours late afternoon. Most opened around 3pm or so. 
 

Staff were saying it was due to “wind” but Claw & ST operated all day without hassle. 

Gold Coaster and Giant Drop have been closing due to high wind for ages (i know Gold Coaster has been since its Cyclone days) and i have witnessed all the other ones besides MDMC go down for wind.

[joz]

18 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

Not really comparing apples to apples though.

 

DCR didn’t launch in a covid arena with highly impacted domestic travel, community trepidation with crowds, and mandates stopping many families and/or groups of people from attending. The La Niña weather pattern doesn’t help planning a day out with certainty either at the moment 

 

 

How sad that DW is the only park affected by those things at this exact moment. Lucky for MW I guess.

 

Nah the weather isn't quite ideal. Dont forget that WWW is the big draw in Coomera, and WnW was pretty moderately attended today. If tomorrow is Sunny, the parks will be utterly rammed though. It's not a huge shock that attendance is not hitting a big peak this year, in fact it was fairly predictable. I think DW more than the others will really be feeling the lower attendance given how much they've thrown at this particular holidays, but really one ride was never going to return it to historical levels. Their best case scenario this year has always been get some good word of mouth out there and build some forward momentum off of these holidays. Maybe a lightly attended park that has some atmosphere might be what they need.

 

Also as much as it's nice to know what's broken down, when you get a daily update of every ride in every park that experiences down time you find yourself saying 'WTF is going on?' when really these sorts of things have been going on since pretty much forever in all parks around the world. It's very easy to lose perspective. Wind also checks out as a reason for downtime with GD and Gold Coaster. Wasn't there to see the wind levels but there was a bit of wind about and those two rides have been susceptible historically.

Edited December 29, 2021 by joz

[themagician]

I wasn’t at the park today, but I’ve heard everything was operating and the park was very busy