Leaderboard

Here's a crazy thought - if the ride doesn't work with either a full load or an empty load, it definitely shouldn't be open. If you were going to hop on a ride at the Ekka and the carnie out front said "just give 'er a bit aye, if we load too many people on it doesn't work properly" you'd be calling Queensland WHS, so why is this any different? Here we have Gary Weiss stating before the inquiry that both him and the Ardent board are "committed to ensuring Dreamworld becomes recognised as Australia's global benchmark for theme park safety" but he's got a ride that literally half works and three signature roller-coasters that have been closed for months with no reason why and no end to their closures in sight. Enthusiasts need to take their rose-tinted glasses off - this is a bloody mess.

I think anyone defending them on this needs to drink less kool aid. There is a minimum to be cheap and run it less and a maximum because it's broke. The fact they turned a group of less than 20 away at the end of the day is pretty shameful.

Yeah, you're right, I guess all of the gift shops Disney & Universal make you walk through for their humungous staple attractions like: Star Tours Tower of Terror Stitch's Great Escape Winnie the Pooh Maelstrom Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Splash Mountain It's A Small World Space Mountain Test Track Toy Story mania Monsters Inc. Harry Potter & The Forbidden Journey Jurassic Park All result in a garbage experience. 🙄 I guess they keep doing it because there's no money to be made. Let me point out what that clip creates that's important for this discussion: generally speaking, over half of purchases made are unplanned capitalising on euphoria (whether that's the dopamine release from a ride or swedish meatballs) makes people buy more good retail design further increases revenue through simple things like optimising flow, lighting and simple window aesthetics (known as the Gruen effect.) You're making it sound like i'm suggesting making guests wonder through an IKEA floor-plan just to get out which is ridiculous. What i'm suggesting is Village should learn from folks like Disney & Universal who spend millions in R&D on stuff like theme park retail design and try and do better instead of doubling down on mistakes.

Say you were the owner of Movie World and you noticed that a shop like Superman's wasn't making any money, surely you'd go "well shit, don't suppose no one's buying anything because the lockers are AFTER the shop where their wallets are" and then modify the pathways to fix that? (Harry Potter & The Forbidden Journey does exactly this.) It'd cost a bit of money sure, but every retail design book on the planet would tell you letting a potential customer walk out the building is a potential sale lost. You'd think given how much debt Village have right now that they'd be looking for ways to maximise revenue instead of finding inventive ways to minimise staffing requirements. But silly me of course, here I am holding the parks to the same standard as everyone else overseas. 😑

What did SW expect? The shop entrance says, come inside. SeaJellies entrance says, come inside for a mugging. If you’re going to put 2 front doors on your house expect to confuse your visitors unless you clearly indicate which door to knock on.

Here's the screengrab from Ardent's ASX release. Another CEO with no theme park industry experience, instead John Osborne's specific expertise is apparently divestment. Thoughts?

That’s who will be called upon in this next 2 week sitting @Levithian - all the regulators and industry bodies

Well if as I have long suspected their real objective is to sell Dreamworld, I really hope they get on with it very soon and sell it to an organisation that specialises in theme parks and that's good at it!

Bollocks..

I thought the same thing when I read it on the ASX site.

You don't need a CEO with theme park experience if you don't plan on having a theme park for much longer.

The Park is now in soft open. Take a look at these pics of this spectacularly themed New Park. I found this on Disneyandmore and themeparx.com if you are wanting to find out more. Some great ideas for our SW here and look @pushbutton they have a snazzy cable Skyway ride with enclosed cabins. -Something that I am sure you would agree our SW needs! Sunday, October 21, 2018 Shanghaî Haichang Ocean Park Pictorial Update - Part Two New pictorial update about Shanghaî Haichang Ocean Park, still in soft-opening until mid-November grand opening. Although the exterior theming looks finished and the marine life exhibits and shows are operational - except the Orcas show - none of the rides are yet working, including the Intamin Steel Dolphin coaster, always in trial operations. But there is plenty of new pictures shot by Chinese guests and posted on social medias site where Michael from Themeparx found them. I remind you that the park is located near Shanghaî at 30 minutes from Shanghaî Disneyland and will be SDL main competitor once all rides and shows will be fully operational, i.e anytime soon. Let's start by a great panoramic shot of the park, and you can see more great pictures in D&M previous article HERE.. New shots of the snow mountain. The entrance to polar mountain. The train ride is not working yet. The fountain at the center of Christmas Town, in front of the The Seal - Sea Lions show / exhibit pavilion is now working. Below, more building from Christmas town and the Kids zone are now finished. The Mermaids and Shark mosaic sculpture at the entrance of the park. The awaited Steel Dolphin coaster is still in test mode and not open yet. Jet-Ski show in the canal and daily show at Christmas town! The Skyway gondolas going from polar mountain to the volcano are now working, so let's board one of them from polar mountain station to have great aerial shots of the park! Let's enter the Volcano Whale Shark Hall to meet sharks! The flume ride is not working yet. New banners before the start of the Dolphin show. n The park has now three Belugas... ...And Polar Bears. Plenty of Penguins await you in the Penguins exhibit... According to Michael from Themeparx, at the seal exhibit inside the polar mountain, "guests can view the seals from both above and underneath the exhibit and come face to face with the seals at the cylindrical glass part of the tank". Guests can also have a close encounter with Sea Turtles... ...and even Mermaids! More pics of the Coral Reef pavilion. The underwater restaurant. The Jelly Fish exhibit. Sunset and night shots of the park! Make sure to visit Themeparx HERE as there is more pictures available and Michael adds new ones daily! Pictures: copyright their respective owners.

I'd love to see the numbers that says one central on ride photo shop does better than shops at each ride v labour costs. I'd have thought the excitement you feel coming off a ride contributed the impulse of wanting to buy a photo. I'm sure the numbers have been crunched but I'd love to see the numbers because seems counter intuitive to me.

That was already there as part of existing theming.

Inside hedges. Love your work MW.

But when you can get thru all the mazes and have a buffet dinner within 2 hours, I’d say you need more entertainment. Having poor scheduled entertainment in the past isn’t a reason to remove it, it’s a reason to improve on it. I’ve also never purchased fast pass mazes in my life and never missed a maze, it’s just about arriving on time and having a plan.

Then from VTP’s perspective you are the absolute best type of customer... doesn’t notice glaring inconsistencies, reduced expenditure coupled with increased cost to customers, and still enjoys it just as much. The type of guest who would go to SW tomorrow and say it was just as good as when they visited in 2010, in fact thinks it’s better!

On the contrary, I think all guests are entitled to be treated better than they currently are.

You have to be joking, well that or you have never been to Fright Nights before so haven’t seen how far the standard and quality have dropped. And I’ll answer the question you posed to Alex too given it’s in the same quote. A good effort doesn’t justify the price they change a regular punter to enter the park for FNs on last nights experience. Nearly every scene in the “new” mazes was a simple rehash of maze scenes from previous years. I don’t expect them to design and construction an entirely elaborate brand new maze each year, but some new thematic scenes and ideas need to be implemented to keep regular returning guests interested. It’s pretty simple really. When the amount of roving characters & entertainment offerings has decreased at least 60-70% on what it was 3-4 years ago, that isn’t effort.

You are way off. This year is amazing. Honestly, 10/10 in my books!

Well, just back from FNs and have to say totally disappointed. I’ve felt it’s progressively dropped in quality the last 2 years, but there was a lot of talk from MW that this year would be a return to more scares, even think “best ever” was bandied about. Well, it was definitely the most flat FNs I can ever recall. I felt sorry for people that spent $60 for their tickets, and even more sorry for any duped into buying Fast Track Mazes. House of Kain was decent without being spectacular, and when that’s the highlight of the maze offering you are in trouble. 7/10 Leatherface was pretty bereft of anything interesting other than noise 4/10 Jigsaw, missed this one last year, had a few decent set pieces and at least some actors in there 6/10 Halloween was ok, as it was last 6/10. Roving entertainment was poor barring a couple around DC Villains which were actively interacting. no shows, no band playing (massive storm an hour or so prior to opening but cleared to be blue skies by opening) - guess they cancelled the band, or I missed it every time I walked past. Maze queues were minimal. HoK was 5-10mins, Leatherface was about 15-20mins, Jigsaw was 5mins, Halloween was 5mins. DCR was a constant 60min wait all night, but as always worth it, especially at night. If it wasn’t for my free entry with membership, I don’t think I’d pay to go next year tbh... hopefully they do something different...

I can confirm, in a rare twist of events, everything Skeet just said is true.

No, I'm not joking. I have been to Fright Nights before. I honestly believe this year's fright nights was amazing as have been previous years. Last year's was great and was the year before that and so on and so forth.