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So GL was most recently closed to install this extra platform for evacuations.

I no longer have a VRTP pass, so here is my best contribution for a construction update

@Whombex they’ve just screenshot that photo from Snapchat. But a great public service announcement

Nice rant. unlimited fast track isnt available in peak season, which it is right now, for very obvious reasons. One front of line per ride is more than fair. The high cost of daily entry is to push people onto annual passes - which is better for both the consumer and Village. If you think $150 for unlimited access to 4 parks for a year is a rip off you have no ability to reason or calculate cost vs value. virtual queue times are often longer than the physical wait times. It’s about spacing out people, and whilst 5 hours is a crazy period and probably reflects an error, it is the busiest time of the year at present, summer holidays, weekend, open to all after lockdown last weekend, was the final day of DC superhero’s and late trade, and a beautiful 30 degree day - all adding up to a likely top 3 busiest day of the season. no one tried to scam you, in the slightest.

I am a season pass holder. When the fast track system was first brought out, I purchased that on top of a season pass and had a blast - no problem paying extra to skip the queue. Visited movie world again today, fully intending to purchase fast track again because it's worth it. Find out that fast track has been completely nerfed - $99 just to skip the queue on 7 attractions just once. And keep in mind - one of those coasters wasn't even running today, and the other two (Road Runner Coaster + justice League 3D) are crap. Come on. So, I decided to see if I could fast track individual rides (as it had been just until recently). No, that is gone as well. On top of that, the app's virtual queue is broken. Joined the virtual queue for one of the rides and was told I could board - in FIVE hours. But visiting the ride itself obviously revealed that the wait was 50 minutes. Useless virtual queue, useless fast track, and sadly, useless season pass. So, to summarise, this park is ripping off its customers. There are not enough rides at MW to justify the cost of entry, especially since wait times are absurdly long and the app which is supposed to reduce congestion via virtual queueing doesn't even function. More than that, the Village Roadshow app doesn't even function properly.. Irritatingly, it doesn't tell you wait times for rides until it detects you are at the park. Gee, wouldn't it be great if the customers could tell beforehand if the park was going to be at capacity, so they could spare themselves the drive? It seems that the app is deliberately designed to create confusion for guests so that the park can entrap them into paying for their garbage, overpriced and useless Fast Track. Customer service at MW is also poor - when inquiring over the phone whether FT could be purchased in the park I was told no, that it had to be pre-booked. When I visited the park (that same day!), lo and behold, you can purchase FT at the gate, not that you would want to since it's such a waste of money. I cannot stress enough how broken the app is and how poorly it is being utilised. Since I could clearly see that Village Roadshow was trying to scam me, I walked out of the park without riding a single attraction. I'm a UX designer myself and the thing that gets me the most (aside from the money grubbing of VR) is how poor the user flow for the app is. You have to sift through different tiers of navigation just to find what you want. The copywriting is vague and just creates more confusion. The confusion exists for staff as well, as you may ask them questions about the app, virtual queueing and expiration of your queue tokens, and they can't answer you at all.

So are DW

That's just some themeing that used to sit in a garden until it was forgotten about because it was mostly out of sight and under spaghetti junction.

Fair call. i was a bit fired up. Guess I get my back up a little when it appears someone just joins the forum to bag the parks. Everyone has a right to be critical, but I think the general gist of this place is it’s a collective of enthusiasts that love theme parks, so some balance or perspective is generally given when pointing out failures or inadequacies

@Brad2912 chill bro. 🍻 Welcome to the forums @cthulhus_lawyer - I think @webslave perfectly encapsulated what I wanted to say - so many UX choices at every level aren’t made with the guest in mind - both company’s maps are a perfect example of it. Village would benefit from two things - a culture change and more money. The fact that Adventure World, a single Perth theme park sells season passes that are more expensive then Village’s passes to four parks says a lot. In regards to culture, where Disney has the “you can never say no” rule for cast members, it feels as though Village has a “try and find a way to say no” rule for its team. Better, clearer processes for staff that aren’t guest antagonistic (thus not making employees’ lives dreadful to enforce) would be a good start.

Brad, I'm venting, critiquing and sharing an experience. What's the problem with that? It's a theme park forum. And I'm also alerting you and others to issues with the app which may affect your experiences in the park - you seem to agree with me that the app should be improved. In fact that is the whole point of my post, that this app is taking value away from paying guests. You seem to be getting really riled up

Thanks Webslave, you are right, the UX on the app is terrible and the lack of competition/innovation is what is holding them back.. To you Brad I would say that even if I agreed with you that these 4 parks are worth visiting on an unlimited or even one-off basis (debatable -they are low/average quality by international standards - few rides and poor theming), the major irritation is the lack of communication re: these peak/off-peak price fluctuations. Again, these things can be built into the app and communicated to users which would improve the experience. As to not letting users know wait times prior to arrival in the park (because the app locks these details until location detection), that is a dark UX pattern. It would have been simple enough to provide that incredibly useful functionality for users (which would actually help the park ease congestion) but it has been cordoned off. This is surely to manipulate customers. With virtual queuing often not working at all (check trip advisor recently - lots of complaints about this app, its performance and overall UX), it's such a lousy digital product.

You're quite right in most respects here. The UX does indeed suck. The pricing on it is indeed inflexible. The sad fact is Village is hardly what any of us would call a 'digital-first' (or second, or third) organisation, and this is ably reflected in things like their web presence over the last two decades. These guys will always be chasing the train, but talking like they are driving it. Their mates up the road are no better either, and that's a large part of why it doesn't get any better.

The arms are back in place on Pandamonium but the reopening date has been pushed back a few days

Just thought I would do a quick TR from the first AW nights of the season. As it was a sold out event it was pretty busy but as it was a very warm day and evening the crowds were spread across both dry and water attractions. Was a great night as always with the typical entertainment, food trucks and live music.

Thanks for the pic, but...