With both projects being completed at breakneck speed in time for the traditional (or inevitable, depending on how you look at it) Boxing Day opening, it's little wonder that neither have managed to live up to the hype of the marketing blitz that always ensues this time of year.

The excuses are that they're both heavily complicated beasts. One being a live show which may take many months of performances to iron out all the kinks and get all the special effects and stunts going like clockwork. The other being a complex piece of engineering where problems can be expected throughout as each individual component settles into place. You almost feel sympathy for them and the hours that construction and show/ride crews keep in the lead up to the opening, but by virtue of the fact that the marketing is in full swing for both kind of changes this when you realise that customers are the ones that are paying for these shortcomings.

Why are we seeing attractions cutting it so fine at Australian parks? Don't think it's confined to Warner Village parks. The day before 2007's Mick Doohan Motocoaster opened there was no theming anywhere to be seen. Painters were still painting the bare concrete flooring of the station and the crews running the ride were anything but trained.

We're often told it's because of rain delays. Hate to be the bringer of bad news but rain in south-east Queensland isn't exactly a mystery.

Internationally, we see parks typically open new attractions at the start of their season. They manage to build monstrous roller coasters and thrill rides over the winter -- in many cases crews are dealing with rain, snow and consistent sub-zero temperatures. Obviously it's not always perfect, especially with technology, but they manage to get the majority of rides and attractions open on schedule.

Instead we see rides delayed for days, months and even weeks with a mad dash to the finish line in the final days that seems to always compromise the end product. It's to the point now where opening dates are seldom announced by our parks, and rides themselves remain a fiercely guarded secret by our parks' publicity teams.

Reports from inside Sea World suggest that even in the days leading up to Jet Rescue's opening, it had not yet been given the green-light for riders. What resulted has an incredibly narrow window for testing the ride and ensuring they had ironed out as many kinks as they possibly could before opening. Of course, problems cropped up with the ride that resulted in its closure over recent weeks. Spurred on by the saturation of marketing, untold thousands would have been disappointed to find Sea World's newest attraction not operating.

Problems, especially with the increasing complexity of roller coaster technology, are unavoidable. But not giving rides a lengthy period for adequate testing is just asking for problems. Indeed, from reports, the problems with Jet Rescue were the kind that could have been easily detected and rectified before opening to the public.

Now, down to Warner Bros. Movie World, we see a new stunt show replacing the famed Police Academy Stunt Show. Like before, in the weeks leading up to the opening, the set was anything but completed. We were even told that the first partial run-through of the show on its set occurred just a few days before opening (captured for ParkzTV).

The phrase used by Michael Croaker, WVTP's entertainment chief and the mastermind behind the Hollywood Stunt Driver show, was that the show was in preview mode.

I seems to me that when you have an advertising campaign running full steam for an attraction, the idea of 'previews' kind of falls a bit short of expectations.

Comments

Posted by joz at 2:17pm, 25 Jan 09

3 rocky debuts, Ray Reef opened mid January.

Posted by kieron5379 at 8:16pm, 25 Jan 09

I would have to agree entirely with you on the Hollywood stunt driver side of things (i havent had a chance to ride jet rescue so i cant comment on that). i understand that new shows need time to get settled down however, after seeing the police academy stunt show several times, the new stunt show left a bitter taste with the distinct lack of substance. As i've said in other threads, the show has great driving that does eventually get boring after its repeated for the 4th time and the distinct lack of characters that provide physical slapstick comedy and stunts leave me wondering if i want to go back and see it again, which is completely opposite to the police academy stunt show which i wanted to see every show of.

Posted by Gazza at 9:37pm, 25 Jan 09

The thing that bugs me is that these delays happen virtually every year, and it always results in attractions opening part way into the holidays.

It's interesting to look back at when proper construction was started on previous attractions.

Superman: Early June
Batwing: Mid July
Stunt Driver: Early July
Jet Rescue: Early July

Assuming you want to have it open by the start of December (To make the most of the entire school holiday period) they are basically leaving themselves only 5 months, and of course the typical start times render an even more desirable September opening all but impossible. Why not just start building sooner? If you have bad luck then you have a bit of buffer, and if you don't, then you can open the ride early. Is it worse to open early than late?

Anyhow, I agree completely with the article. For a long time I have felt that new attractions are handled poorly.
The common pattern seems to be to start building halfway through the year, pretend the ride doesn't exist to everyone, including the media right to the end, and then do and advertising blitz a couple of weeks before it opens, and then open it halfway into the school holidays.

When the parks rely so heavily on interstate visitors this approach seems silly. You cannot find out about a new attraction a couple of weeks before it opens, and then expect to be able to get a room on the Gold Coast and everything else (Flights etc) within that short period. To me, the net result is just value adding to the visits of people who already had trips planned....they get a new thing to see, rather than actually attracting new customers, as a new attractions are supposed to do.

I mean, did anyone notice the ride 'n' slide passes they were pushing. They were valid until Christmas eve! Why on earth do they need to be deep discounting in the school holidays. If they had the ride open, they wouldn't need to be doing this.

Personally I'd be having the ride advertised on the MyFun site/emails a few months (not weeks) prior, with a link to a blog...the critical thing is to keep it constantly updated, pretty much just bombard people about it and get people hyped. At the same time I'd be focussing on the local market too, pushing annual passes, perhaps with an online offer that if they purchase one by a certain date (within the construction period) they can be assured of a ticket to a VIP event to be 'first to ride'...that way you can have them boosting attendance at the park with their passes during the quiet mid year periods.

Within the park, have a similar sort of approach....on the fences around the construction site, have renderings of the new attraction, and advertising for the annual pass upgrade offer and vip events.

Of course, you'd need to be careful with making sure the ride will open on time, but I guess one approach could be to state the attractions opening date as being slightly later than what is projected internally. Then if the ride manages to be done early, you can hype up the early opening...and all those people who were following it in the blog would suddenly have something to be excited about.

Posted by rival81 at 9:13am, 5 Feb 09

I agree with most of what you are saying Gazza, the parks are doing a pretty poor job of promoting themselves these days. Sure they spend the money but it is poorly executed for the most part, in terms of promoting new attractions well in advance. Official blogs and online social media can be a powerful tool, yet none of the parks seem to utilise them and instead rely on traditional advertising media.