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I had this conversation the other day with somebody. Why should management shoot themselves in the foot for the entertainment of their guests? There is little incentive for a park like Movie World to reduce capacity or control the crowds when they've got guests flooding in. Disney understands this and it's why before recent years they've been incredibly careful about their public image. I can't remember the numbers exactly, but in their early days they found that people were more willing to discuss a bad trip then a good trip, and that bad news spread quickly. This negativity bias is hard to control and once it grows its own legs it snowballs to rather outlandish proportions. I genuinely think that Village have gotten incredibly lucky to avoid negative press in the past 12 months and, to a degree, I think it's why we are seeing such an apathetic response to guest experience. Dreamworld was changed by their incident, but also the immense pressure that came post-incident from the public, press and officials. Despite Village failing to deliver on their new additions at Sea World several times, providing an exceptionally poor guest experience at Movie World which has been reciprocated by both enthusiasts and the public, having multiple SBNO attractions within their parks including Arkham and Sea World's Log Flume, announcing a hotel before their replacement attractions for Arkham, removing hosts from shows like Affinity and reverting Seal Guardians to it's preview format, bringing third-party vendors into their parks outside of special events with the intention of raising revenue, and the rest, we have really only seen positive articles come out of Parkz towards Village, and I'm not trying to throw the Parkz team under the bus here, but it takes a lot of pressure off the company when they know they're not under the magnifying glass. These threads and discussions are exactly what is needed to try and kickstart change because it shows that people are taking notice of the problem, and they're only going to continue to get worse for Village as the year goes on. Come September there are going to be a lot more season passes purchased to experience Sea World's new hotness, and Movie World needs to be ready for that influx... But I genuinely don't see how it can.

The biggest problem for Movie World right now - beyond everything else mentioned in this thread (or even on this site in other threads and articles), is this: As long as those turnstiles keep spinning, bean counters don't think there is a problem. Experience based managers who walk the park and talk to guests, who view the park through the eyes of a guest and say 'this won't do at all' are going to see the unhappy faces and do something early. Folks who look at attendance charts in a boardroom don't know how pissed off they're making people until they stop coming. ...and then they stand there and wonder why.

I have, but they aren't there anymore.

What do you think IS masterclass about the mini-land's execution? I'm interested to know why you disagree. I should be more specific with my opinions. I think the story, theme and name of the mini land is fantastic. Conceptually it had so much potential, but the overall execution of it was terrible: 1. The land was placed in the wrong location. Movieworld had a perfect area ready and waiting for this concept - the Arkham courtyard. This is where the land should have gone. It would have complemented the existing unofficial DC land, and Arkham Asylum theme perfectly (Joker has broken the villains out of Arkham and are reeking havoc). The old lethal gift shop could have been re-opened to sell the upcharge experience. Furthermore, the old lethal theatre could have been used for an indoor themed portion of the land (similar to the Knockturn alley mini-land at USO's Diagon Alley). Yes the available area is a lot smaller, but I think this compactness would have added a lot of atmosphere to the land (again similar to Diagon Alley at USO). The old boot hill graveyard and show stage should have been used for an expansion of the wild west area. 2. The Intamin Twin Hammer was a poor ride choice for MW and the land: Unpopular model that had a bad maintenance record with previous installations. Despite being a staple/classic amusement ride type, Intamin had only built 1 of these before (Space Attack) - which permanently closed in 2015 (1 year prior to doomsday opening). Richard wrote an article on the ride's downtime during 2015. This alone should have been enough red flags to find another manufacturer for this ride type, or a different flat ride altogether. Doomsday has been a maintenance nightmare since opening and has had a lot of downtime over the last 7 years. The themed land was designed for families, yet the anchor ride does not suit this demographic. Inverting rides scare off a lot of people, and a min. height requirement of 130cm prevents kids/tweens from riding. Movieworld didn't need another thrilling ride. It needed, and still needs, a reliable, high capacity, family-thrill flat ride with a 90-120cm min. height requirement. The ride system is unremarkable in the aus amusement/themepark landscape, and delivers underwhelming physical sensations. It's quite a dull experience for a "max thrill level" ride (as described on the MW website). The travelling Hangover delivers a more thrilling ride. Yes Doomsday is a "filler" attraction, but that doesn't mean the ride experience should be mediocre. 3. The upcharge experience is mediocre - and the negative influence it had on the land's design is not proportional to the experience it delivers. The decision to place the gift shop at the front of the land was made by bean counters (late in the project) to encourage sales of the wristbands. Because of this the spectacular Doomsday figure and sign is hidden from most guests, the land's entrance is a guest flow pinch point, and the shop obscures the view of Doomsday from the midway. All to upsell an upcharge that is dull, repetitive, not maintained regularly and not enticing for all ages. Originally a paid upcharge, turned into a free one, and now out of order. The upcharge didn't sell because the product was lacklustre. 4. The land doesn't blend in with surrounding areas. The transition between scooby - villains unleased - wild west is jarring and harsh. There is no graceful fade. It makes the mini land feel like a standalone experience that could have a separate admission fee.

Was at Wet n Wild yesterday and looking over at MW the carpark looked pretty healthy despite the very obvious issues discussed in this thread. A few years ago MW was the undisputed king of Australian theme parks, but I will also chime in and say the last few times we have visited MW late 2021 early 2022 we have been left feeling considerably underwhelmed and can resonate perfectly with most of the complaints in this thread. I am taking my son to Seaworld tomorrow, he chose SW over MW despite all of his favourite rides being at MW and we did SW just as recently as well. It wasn’t even a difficult decision for him. This speaks volumes to me. MW are losing touch with their key audience, it may not be immediate, but every day the parks crowded and every day there are a few more disgruntled guests feeling like they wasted the day and people will stop coming. MW needs to turn this around and go back to their roots of creating a good overall customer experience. Rivals alone is not enough to carry the park through poor operations, faulty effects and an underwhealming customer experience, especially now Steel Taipan is just down the road in a park that is just putting in a little more effort. To finish on a positive note, we had a fantastic day at WnW despite the chilly temps. The new precinct is really good and Kaboom is an amazing ride. The park looks great staff and operations were awesome so I can speak for at least one VRTP park doing everything right.

Just remove the kinect games already. That whole area is a masterclass of how NOT to design a theme park land. The #1 worst decision execs made was swap the position of the gift shop and the Doomsday ride entrance - for the sole reason of forcing entry through a gift shop, in order to sell more upcharge wristbands. They hid arguably Australia's best ride entrance sign (also a very instagramable photo op) at the back of the land. And instead built a lacklustre faux brick gift shop as the land's entrance portal. This shop with the tall themed billboards obscures the 'reveal' of Doomsday from the midway (as you walk towards WWF) - making the ride look smaller and thus less grand/intimidating. Upcharge experiences should compliment an existing experience. Yet in this case, all it did was ruin any positive potential the land had. And now you can't even use the games! 0/10. Put the land and Doomsday in the bin.