What's the future for Dreamworld after Steel Taipan?

[Slick]

I'm interested to hear what you all think what's next for Dreamworld after Steel Taipan open and how the future may look for Dreamworld in the coming years. Do you think Ardent will continue to own it for the foreseeable future? What do you think needs work next (refurbishment/improvement wise) and what do you think the park should be adding in order to return to its former glory?

Adding to that, do you think Steel Taipan is enough by itself to return the park to profitability? And if not, why?

Edited March 4, 2021 by Slick

[themagician]

I don’t think we will see any major investments (like Steel Taipan) for a while, but I expect we will see the refurb of ABC Kids World. Eventually they’ll have a replacement attraction for the log ride and they’ll void behind TailSpin. We also may see some investments into Corroboree once international tourism begins to arrive once again.

The real main thing I want them to do is keeping making those minor improvements and keep on top of making the park looking good. I don’t want the park to return to how it was late 2000s early 2010s. There are certainly some focus areas right now that could help the parks overall appearance.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I think Ardent will continue to own the park for the forseeable future primarily because they over-value the park and are asking too much.

Right now the park isn't worth much more than the land value. If Ardent cuts its losses and sells for a reasonable price, a reasonable buyer can come in with money to burn.

If they don't offload it, it will be death by a thousand cuts. taipan will be the last major investment, and the park will bleed to death.

that's my optimistic view on things.

[deano554]

Dreamworld purchased a 10-year licence for DreamWorks, I believe the licence expires the end of 2022

Do you think Dreamworld renew the Dreamworks licence or re-theme the area?

[themagician]

I think the Dreamworks area is one of the best themed areas in the park, so loosing it would be a real shame. Will the movies were released quite a few years ago now, I think they’re still relevant. 
 

If they do renew the contract, they should definitely change the stage show. If they don’t renew it, I see the area just getting a generic theme overall. They’ll remove any Dreamworks references, but everything will remain the same 

[Coasterlife]

1 hour ago, deano554 said:

Dreamworld purchased a 10-year licence for DreamWorks, I believe the licence expires the end of 2022

Do you think Dreamworld renew the Dreamworks licence or re-theme the area?

I feel like they are most likely renewing their licence just because i feel as though they don't really want to do massive things once steel taipan opens and they can turn a profit, I have no idea on if ABC kids world refurb is on hold but i feel like if they were to do a retheme it could possibly be themed to Cartoon Network or Dreamworld could decide they might make like a 90s or 80s themed kids land kind of how they rethemed HWS to a nice 1970's themed coaster even tho that's just me and my imagination i think it would be quite cool but i doubt that will really happen.

[Slick]

2 hours ago, deano554 said:

Dreamworld purchased a 10-year licence for DreamWorks, I believe the licence expires the end of 2022

Do you think Dreamworld renew the Dreamworks licence or re-theme the area?

This is a really great thought. What IP alternatives are even out there these days? It seems like most kid’s characters are owned by either Universal, Disney, or they’re over at Village. 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Slick

[Ogre]

Could anyone see Merlin swooping in and turning DW into a Legoland? Not sure if they have anything to do with the Lego store, but I've been wondering if the store was their attempt at testing the waters for the Lego brand.

[Cactus_Matt]

Obviously Covid has complicated things for most theme parks, especially ones reliant on international travel (I don't know if the Australian parks are heavily reliant on international visitors or would manage to get by 'just fine' without it) but I don't think Dreamworld has much of a future as being a major international draw card without shelling out some major bucks on something record-breaking/mind-blowing. As it stands, even after Steel Taipan is installed, Dreamworld will maybe be on par with 'Wonderland Sydney' in its heyday. That's to say, pretty good for locals, a decent day out for interstate travellers but hardly essential for international travellers unless they have particularly bored kids.

[Park Fan]

1 hour ago, OgreMagic said:

Could anyone see Merlin swooping in and turning DW into a Legoland? Not sure if they have anything to do with the Lego store, but I've been wondering if the store was their attempt at testing the waters for the Lego brand.

I know that when Legoland Malaysia opened Merlin said they were specifically looking at expanding more into both the Asian and Australian markets. In addition I know that Merlin stated publicly that they were happy with the initial success they saw at the Legoland Discovery Centre in Melbourne. So I think its a safe bet that they are looking at expanding into the Australian market with a full sized Legoland park. There are some benefits to buying Dreamworld and rebranding it as a Legoland since it has a good location, good land size, a waterpark that can easily be rethemed and a lego store that is all ready to go. However it is worth noting that there are some downsides to this approach most notably the fact that the main park would likely have to have its rides and structures completely torn down and replaced due to many of these not really fitting well into the theming of a Legoland park. Ultimately I think that whilst its possible that Merlin could buy and rebrand Dreamworld as a Legoland park similar to what happened in florida I think they would ultimately prefer to start from scratch.

5 hours ago, deano554 said:

Dreamworld purchased a 10-year licence for DreamWorks, I believe the licence expires the end of 2022

Do you think Dreamworld renew the Dreamworks licence or re-theme the area?

I dont see this being renewed for 3 main reasons firstly dreamworks is now owned by Universal Studios who I feel would prefer to keep these IP's exclusive to their parks, secondly I think their was some bad blood between dreamworld and dreamworks when they delayed the trolls land opening and finally I dont think dreamworks is comfortable being associated with the TRRR accident and a park that is in overall decline. Ultimately I see dreamworld trying and failing to negotiate a contract renewal before rebranding dreamworks to a generic family area which would see the madagascar section rethemed to a generic african section, shrek rethemed to a generic medieval section and kung-fu panda rethemed to a generic chinese section. 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Park Fan

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

5 hours ago, Cactus_Matt said:

That's to say, pretty good for locals, a decent day out for interstate travellers but hardly essential for international travellers unless they have particularly bored kids.

Worth mentioning - especially on the quiet weekday trade, Wonderland saw more international visitors than locals. Granted, they were mostly asian tourbus groups wanting to hug a Koala, but depending on the timing of their tour, many buses allowed more than enough time to see the wildlife park and jump on over to the theme park for a few hours. (Asian gentlemen wearing dress trousers and business shirts riding waveswingers and looping starships was quite the interesting sight)

I can't speak for Dreamworld's international visitation (they do have a similar tourist trap set up, but its waaaaaaay at the back of the park), but I don't see anywhere near the amount of tour coaches cycling through Dreamworld's carpark the way I used to see them go through at Wonderland.

 

[Naazon]

7 hours ago, Cactus_Matt said:

Obviously Covid has complicated things for most theme parks, especially ones reliant on international travel (I don't know if the Australian parks are heavily reliant on international visitors or would manage to get by 'just fine' without it) but I don't think Dreamworld has much of a future as being a major international draw card without shelling out some major bucks on something record-breaking/mind-blowing. As it stands, even after Steel Taipan is installed, Dreamworld will maybe be on par with 'Wonderland Sydney' in its heyday. That's to say, pretty good for locals, a decent day out for interstate travellers but hardly essential for international travellers unless they have particularly bored kids.

Thats an interesting point and one I haven't thought of. Online you see internationals saying how they would love to come to AUS to ride DC Rivals, Steel Taipan is more or less a clone and there are a number of versions of it globally. The spinning seat is a great money grab, but only if you're already at the park, I doubt it would make many people want to pay thousands of dollars.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Yeah - more likely they'll just wait until their local clone refurbs a-la TOTII and retrofits a spinner to it.

Isn't Rivals a 'near' clone though - wasn't it just a modified 'flash' ? Granted not as many out there as blue fire, but still not that different, yet different enough.

[Gazza]

7 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Isn't Rivals a 'near' clone though - wasn't it just a modified 'flash' ? Granted not as many out there as blue fire, but still not that different, yet different enough.

Lol no.

 

Anyhow, I think this discussion is a massive stretch.

If you’re one of the people in the online chatter motivated enough to make the long journey to Aus for DC Rivals, you’re going to be doing SW,WnW, MW, DW etc anyway to get all the credits. 

Yes DC Rivals is king, but Xtreme spinning coasters are rare too, as is the swing launch.

Some visitors might have ridden Blue Fire given the attendance Europa Park gets, but all the other clones are in China and Russia, which wouldn’t be as well known. 
It’s not like a boomerang or SLC “clone” which are easy to find.
 

[Slick]

17 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Yeah - more likely they'll just wait until their local clone refurbs a-la TOTII and retrofits a spinner to it.

Isn't Rivals a 'near' clone though - wasn't it just a modified 'flash' ? Granted not as many out there as blue fire, but still not that different, yet different enough.

Define near clone - they're similar in that they have a lift hill, they go up and down and are made by Mack but that's about it. Reminds of this clip. 😂

 

10 hours ago, OgreMagic said:

Could anyone see Merlin swooping in and turning DW into a Legoland? Not sure if they have anything to do with the Lego store, but I've been wondering if the store was their attempt at testing the waters for the Lego brand.

I've thought this for a while. Refurbishing Dreamworld like they did for Cypress Gardens and turning it into a Legoland would be brilliant. Keep the waterpark as is, spin the animals off into a third gate and you're onto a winner... maybe.

[Original]

I mean, except for the fact they sold off a lot of their land. I would have loved to have seen Lego Land as third gate. DW as the xtreme park, WWW, and Lego Land. Keep the kids rides they've got now at DW so that park is balanced out for everyone and if you really wanted create a fourth gate and split the animals off, but obviously flesh it out way more and add more enclosures. 

[Ogre]

11 hours ago, Park Fan said:

However it is worth noting that there are some downsides to this approach most notably the fact that the main park would likely have to have its rides and structures completely torn down and replaced due to many of these not really fitting well into the theming of a Legoland park.

I don't think they'd have to do much. Legoland parks often have a lot of non-Lego themed architecture and attractions - see the Woodie at Legoland Florida for example.

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by OgreMagic
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