Happy Halloween 2021

[Guest 239]

On 16/10/2021 at 11:13 PM, Brad2912 said:

For anyone interested, the red line was the queue line at 6:20pm when we were finally able to get a carpark (after a 40min drive from Coomera Westfield 😡)

the arrow is where the queue started 

we didn’t even try to do any rides. 

we got into the park just after 7pm. we managed to the 4 trick or treat stations, the spider trail add-on, have a bite to eat, and do the mystery manor. It was then 9pm and time to go. 

I don't mean to be a stickler to your planning but is there any reason you aimed to get to the theme park right on the event start? I went to Hamilton in Sydney earlier in the year which was capped at about 1,500 people and got to the theatre almost an hour and a half before it started to ensure I was ready and seated in time for the show to start.

I'd be interested to know whether they start processing guests right on 5:30 or whether they start letting people into the event. If they have problems with mixed crowds then I agree that a wristband system should be used and just keep people within a manageable area like Mainstreet and kick out anybody not wearing wristband. Want to generate hype for your new ride? Stuff people in the currently constructed Steel Taipan area to wait and cycle the ride a few times to generate some free hype. 

[Brad2912]

4 hours ago, Dom said:

I don't mean to be a stickler to your planning but is there any reason you aimed to get to the theme park right on the event start?

I live approx 5-7 mins from dreamworld depending on if you cop red lights all the way. 
 

I left my house at 5pm, expecting extra traffic like other night events previously, but still giving myself plenty of time to be parked and at the very least lined up at 5:30. 
 

At 5:05pm the traffic was already backed up to Coomera train station along foxwell rd. it then took 45 mins from the train station to the lights (circled yellow) due to the amount of traffic getting off the highway to enter dreamworld. 
 

I got to the entrance of the carpark at 6.05, and then it was chaos trying to merge, find parks etc

[MacPark]

On 17/10/2021 at 9:33 PM, Rivals said:

we all have different views on topics and in my opinion; besides the amount of tickets sold, the event was well planned out and had a lot of stuff to do other then the rides and normal day to day operation attractions 

A well planned event generally doesn't have heaps of complaints all over social media. A well run event would be full of praise. This event was not full of praise. You have an opinion but are wrong here regardless of your view. 

[Guest 239]

5 minutes ago, MacPark said:

A well planned event generally doesn't have heaps of complaints all over social media.

I haven't actually seen that much regarding the event outside of Parkz. Where are people posting about the event? I wouldn't mind seeing the feedback.

[themagician]

[Im Hungry]

Really feeling for Suzie Simpkin's child exchanging instagram handles with a boy... Hope they find each other soon.

[Guest 239]

Sorry @themagician I should have clarified that I thought it was about Spooky Nights which is why I was confused. Sorry!

Looking at these though I don't know if I'm reading this wrong but it seems like most people's major criticism was regarding other people. It seems like everybody tried arriving at the park right on the event starting and it caused huge amounts of congestion. Then once that crowd sorted out their parking they all bomb rushed the front gate. The last complaint is because the family decided to go get Maccas and then got caught in traffic. Why would Dreamworld be so heartless and do this to them? 

Seems that once people got through the gates they had a lot of fun. I haven't been to the event (thanks COVID!) so I can't really judge it, but I certainly wouldn't be getting there right on start and expect to get through the gates easily. There's an element of personal responsibility here to make sure that you plan ahead and factor in that other people also attend these events.

[Brad2912]

22 minutes ago, Dom said:

certainly wouldn't be getting there right on start and expect to get through the gates easily

Would you expect that if you got there 1 hour later than opening (perhaps to avoid the rush) that it would still take you more than 30 min to get inside? 
 

 

23 minutes ago, Dom said:

There's an element of personal responsibility here to make sure that you plan ahead

How does one plan that they are going to oversell tickets to the point that hundreds of people literally cannot get a carpark for the event? 

[GoGoBoy]

26 minutes ago, Dom said:

Sorry @themagician I should have clarified that I thought it was about Spooky Nights which is why I was confused. Sorry!

Looking at these though I don't know if I'm reading this wrong but it seems like most people's major criticism was regarding other people. It seems like everybody tried arriving at the park right on the event starting and it caused huge amounts of congestion. Then once that crowd sorted out their parking they all bomb rushed the front gate. The last complaint is because the family decided to go get Maccas and then got caught in traffic. Why would Dreamworld be so heartless and do this to them? 

Seems that once people got through the gates they had a lot of fun. I haven't been to the event (thanks COVID!) so I can't really judge it, but I certainly wouldn't be getting there right on start and expect to get through the gates easily. There's an element of personal responsibility here to make sure that you plan ahead and factor in that other people also attend these events.

There seems to be a correlation between rising complaints and DW's flogging off of cheap annual passes. They're getting the customers they're asking for. But I guess  DW's current ride line-up can't really justify a high price 

Edited October 19, 2021 by GoGoBoy

[Guest 239]

3 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

How does one plan that they are going to oversell tickets to the point that hundreds of people literally cannot get a carpark for the event? 

The same way we go to any event. Stadiums don't sell tickets based off their carpark capacity but how many seats they can fill. First in, best dressed. Similarly Dreamworld would be selling to what their event can take and it'd be silly to expect them to undermine their capacity to ensure that everybody can arrive by the luxury of a car. There are more ways to get to the park than just that. Even using your own examples it would be quicker to park at the Westfield and walk than wait in traffic. All of these are not Dreamworld's fault. 

3 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

Would you expect that if you got there 1 hour later than opening (perhaps to avoid the rush) that it would still take you more than 30 min to get inside? 

If I get there late than I'm clearly not stressed about making the most of the event. What's another 30 minutes? 

When I was at WDW this happened all the time. We'd sleep in, head to a park and then be stuck in a huge crowd of people because it seems everybody else had the same idea. Even with dozens of security lanes it was like herding cats and you'd be stuck in the bag check area out the front of the Magic Kingdom for 45 minutes waiting to move. Is it the Magic Kingdom's fault that if I got there earlier then I would have avoided this? Nope. They can only do so much to control crowds and after that it's up to people to do the right thing and make sure they're being as efficient as possible. 

[Brad2912]

1 minute ago, Dom said:

it'd be silly to expect them to undermine their capacity to ensure that everybody can arrive by the luxury of a car.

You mean like how every other event in their history has been run? I’ve attended every night event they’ve run for the last 15 years and they’ve never sold more tickets than their carpark holds. 
 

the example of stadiums is stupid given stadiums hold in excess of 50,000 people often, and the majority of stadiums do not even have carpark but are located in public transport routes. 

4 minutes ago, Dom said:

All of these are not Dreamworld's fault. 

It is 100% dreamworlds fault the capacity they set vs their ability to cater for that amount of people 

5 minutes ago, Dom said:

When I was at WDW this happened all the time

Are you really comparing the two? Come on mate. 

[New display name]

28 minutes ago, GoGoBoy said:

There seems to be a correlation between rising complaints and DW's flogging off of cheap annual passes. They're getting the customers they're asking for. But I guess  DW's current ride line-up can't really justify a high price 

DW isn't currently flogging off cheap annual passes.   The Queensland Government & the Gold Coast council have been giving people money towards the passes.

[Naazon]

The Stadium example is horrible. I've seen the ticket booths at Suncorp fail and they enter 20,000+ people in 15 minutes. It helps that they have 4 main entry gates with around 15-20 turnstiles at each gate.

[Im Hungry]

Agree with @Dom here.

Movie World can have a capacity of 11,000 or so, but they don't have that many parking spaces... or do they?

Edited October 19, 2021 by Im Hungry

[Guest 239]

17 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

the example of stadiums is stupid given stadiums hold in excess of 50,000 people often, and the majority of stadiums do not even have carpark but are located in public transport routes. 

This literally just proves my point? Dreamworld having a carpark is just a bonus over stadiums, but it doesn't mean that is literally your only option to get there. Dreamworld has Coomera station which is 20ish minutes walk away but you can also grab an Uber/Taxi from here. Equally you've also the TX7 which leaves every 10-20 minutes. It's not like Dreamworld is the middle of nowhere. 

17 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

It is 100% dreamworlds fault the capacity they set vs their ability to cater for that amount of people 

So what are Dreamworld's options? Cut the tickets so that people can have a comfortable experience in the carpark but more people have to miss out on the event?  Also how do they plan for their carpark capacity? Do they do 1 person per car? 2 people per car? What if they plan for 5 people per car and then it averages out that only 2 people per car arrived so now the carpark is congested because there are more people arriving by car than they had planned. Can you see how that even with proper planning this can quickly spiral out of control from the human element? 

You mentioned in the Spooky Nights thread that you don't bother with Sea World's car park because its a hot mess and that you park in a park/down the street. Why is Dreamworld different here? Should Sea World equally take the flack for their poor car park management and only limit their event to what their carpark can contain? They're probably further away from anything than Dreamworld. 

10 minutes ago, Naazon said:

The Stadium example is horrible. I've seen the ticket booths at Suncorp fail and they enter 20,000+ people in 15 minutes. It helps that they have 4 main entry gates with around 15-20 turnstiles at each gate.

Was that under COVID restrictions?

Edited October 19, 2021 by Dom

[Vidgamer]

I think the major problem here is that the Entry process was so poor. I think the car parking being full is a reality of an event like this and Dreamworld could have countered this in several different ways. The fact they knew they had 8500 people and didn't really do anything to try and improve the entry process is poor. 

In the interests of proactivity they could have done some of the following

* Communicated ahead of the event to people attending that it will be busy and to seek other transport options
* Allow people to come into the park earlier
* Organised for adequete signage about where other parking can be found
* Had a redemption station inside the gates so that they could speed up entry
* Had entertainment outside of the park for the wait
 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

2 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

At 5:05pm the traffic was already backed up to Coomera train station along foxwell rd. it then took 45 mins from the train station to the lights (circled yellow) due to the amount of traffic getting off the highway to enter dreamworld. 

To be fair, the Motorway looks like this at the Movie World exit at 5pm on Fright Night event dates. 

I suppose Dreamworld's added difficulty is all the day guests leaving and all the night guests arriving are all trying to use the same roundabout (along with other usual traffic), whereas Movie World exits guests through two different lanes depending on departure direction.

I think to a degree there is a certain element of responsibility to be taken by guests to get there early enough to allow for processing. I recently commented here about the security checks and Magic Mountain taking a while to get through and encouraged visitors to get there early to ensure plenty of time to get that done and I don't see this as any different... 

There's the added requirement of a covid checkin which I assume the park was verifying at the gate in some way too. By the sounds of things though, everyone choosing to get there right on opening didn't help, and sometimes, its the rush that you just can't recover from. Allowing early admission, even if that be through wristbands or some other method like a holding pen near Taipan might help. Using Carpark B's entrance?

Surely they'd have contact details for booked tickets for this event - could it hurt to use a broadcast text message to ticketholders advising them to arrive early... perhaps even having.... gasp.... boarding groups? lol. ok too far but you get the drift. 

The park needs to communicate better about arriving early (and admitting them - one of the screenshots above says a ticketholder was asked to exit the park, when they were already letting others in - that's a shitty way to add to your already big queue), but the guests need to do their part and anticipate being there beforehand. 

 

[New display name]

15 minutes ago, Dom said:

There are more ways to get to the park than just that.

Public transport to and from DW on a Saturday night isn't really a thing.  

I just tried a Translink planner for this Saturday night and I can't get a bus home.

I also tried the train planner also and if I was to leave DW at 9.00pm the first train I would make would be 10:32pm.

 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

26 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

You mean like how every other event in their history has been run? I’ve attended every night event they’ve run for the last 15 years and they’ve never sold more tickets than their carpark holds. 

If I recall, Dreamworld has opened the animal area, and vintage cars, two traditionally off limits areas in previous night events. Perhaps this increased the previous capacity of the event to levels the carpark couldn't accommodate?

23 minutes ago, New display name said:

DW isn't currently flogging off cheap annual passes.   The Queensland Government & the Gold Coast council have been giving people money towards the passes.

That still requires Dreamworld to participate in the scheme. They didn't have to accept subsidised purchases from the government if they didn't want to. They knew what cheaper passes would do here, lets be honest.

22 minutes ago, Im Hungry said:

they don't have that many parking spaces... or do they?

On your marks - get set - go!

15 minutes ago, Vidgamer said:

I think the major problem here is that the Entry process was so poor. I think the car parking being full is a reality of an event like this and Dreamworld could have countered this in several different ways. The fact they knew they had 8500 people and didn't really do anything to try and improve the entry process is poor. 

In the interests of proactivity they could have done some of the following

* Communicated ahead of the event to people attending that it will be busy and to seek other transport options
* Allow people to come into the park earlier
* Organised for adequete signage about where other parking can be found
* Had a redemption station inside the gates so that they could speed up entry
* Had entertainment outside of the park for the wait
 

• Do a deal with westfield to utilise overflow parking areas and operate a dedicated shuttle bus (or several) and give the shuttlebus a dedicated entry gate to encourage people to use the bus to skip the main gate queues?

[New display name]

14 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

They knew what cheaper passes would do here, lets be honest.

So, it's not ok for DW to participate in the scheme but it is ok for VRTP to participate in the scheme?

Edited October 19, 2021 by New display name

[Im Hungry]

14 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

On your marks - get set - go!

• Do a deal with westfield to utilise overflow parking areas and operate a dedicated shuttle bus (or several) and give the shuttlebus a dedicated entry gate to encourage people to use the bus to skip the main gate queues?

Taking a look at this image below:

Only accounting for the section of the carpark not scribbled out by the red, there is approximately 484 parking spaces.

I will let you know when I finish counting 🤪

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

No - just noting your logic is flawed in responding to GoGoBoy's supposed correlation.

They could have offered a special pass that didn't include halloween for the discounted price if there were any capacity concerns...

[New display name]

Good luck counting the overflow car parks on the grass @Im Hungry.😂

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

11 minutes ago, Im Hungry said:

I will let you know when I finish counting 🤪

When you're done - how many does Dreamworld have?

3 minutes ago, New display name said:

Good luck counting the overflow car parks on the grass @Im Hungry.😂

Here's a vertical view. Perhaps taking a known painted area and pasting it over the grassed area might give you an approximate?

[New display name]

2 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

No - just noting your logic is flawed in responding to GoGoBoy's supposed correlation.

?

3 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

They could have offered a special pass that didn't include halloween for the discounted price if there were any capacity concerns...

Or maybe the cap is to high so DW should have run it over more nights and reduced the cap.

 

I went to DW the other weekend and the park wasn't busy.

 

ONE EVENT being busy and the park running at reduced hours every other day means DW need to sell more tickets not less tickets.