Richard

I must say I don't know how to feel being told I make no sense by someone who at one point in time on this site engaged in heated arguments with himself logged into two accounts at a time. You seem to have completely missed my point and gone off on your own tangent. But in this sense competition really only matters in that it creates an environment where creating successful attractions is more vital. Outdoing the competition is in the sense of the park capturing a percentage of the market from competitors; not "one-upping" them on a specific attraction which you'll note our parks almost never use as a competitive tactic. Note that 'attractions' is used in the sense that it refers to anything at a theme park, be it a roller coaster, family ride, show etc. Shows are immeasurably harder to pull off successfully than a ride. You need not look any further than the pure number of shows that have been axed at Movie World over the years to see that it's in no way the same situation as when building rides. Most rides are built by companies who specialise in this task and through their expertise can deliver a product that meets expectations. Unfortunately there are so many more variables at play with a live production that there's no such thing as a turnkey show which generally leads to them being developed in-house by people, though often talented at what they do (i.e. running a theme park), don't typically have the skill set required to produce the sort of entertaining show most park-goers expect. Even seasoned industry veterans can and do miss the mark because of the nuances of the average 20 minute theme park show, coupled with necessary budgetary, talent, etc. constraints.

I'd very much hope that is the case, but unfortunately increased competition can't do much for a poor script. This isn't the sort of attraction that they can simply throw more money at to outdo the competition like they can with a roller coaster or other physical attractions. In this respect the stakes are a lot higher than they otherwise would be because the quality will come down to intangible aspects of the experience rather than higher, faster, longer etc. (forcier?) that are the makeup of quality for traditional rides. I just hope that in terms of production they've gone more along the lines of Australian Outback Spectacular and outsourced aspects like script development etc. which I think history has shown tend to be out of the scope of in-house creative teams, at least for show like this which are intended to be major attractions.

I understood full well what you were getting at with your post. In regards to the ride's capacity, you said that the queue is incapable of handling the number of people wanting to ride; that it is physically not big enough to handle these numbers. I merely suggested that if this is a problem then the queue's design isn't the problem. The problem would lie in the ride's operations as a ride of the theorhetical capacity of Motocoaster should have no problems handling the sort of numbers that it attracts. The fundamental flaw in your argument is that obviously can't make a direct comparison to one ride which has a single queue that starts and ends (e.g. The Claw) and one which splits into several different areas (Motocoaster). In the course of a single day, when the ride would see upwards of 3,000 riders (over 5,000 if we take the 750pph figure). If 50 of them need the queue explained, that is somehow unreasonable? Tell you what, ask the average ride operator how many times they need to explain how the harnesses work, how often they need to ask riders to remove loose objects, or how often they are asked if a certain ride is suitable for person x and then tell me that 50 people needing a queue explained to them is unreasonable. Are these purported problems so bad that trains are dispatching with seats empty because these few riders delay the queue enough to mean queuers aren't reaching the load station in time? This seems to be a gripe based on getting stuck behind stupid people in the queue rather than a genuine problem with anything.

Hang on... what's the issue exactly? Queue length and people getting confused are two totally separate issues. Operators assisting people through the queue 50 times a day isn't that much considering the average theme park goer checks their brain at the gate. Most reports here seem to suggest that whether they're running both trains or just one, dispatches are few and far between. With the ride's listed theorhetical capacity (750pph), it should be handling a full queue with ease. If it's not then the issue most definitely points to operational inefficiencies, not queue design issues.

Is there a Bugs Bunny cartoon that doesn't involve characters getting shot? Everyone knows that cartoon guns only singe the fur/feathers and cover the face in soot. It seems to me that the logical storyline would be that you start out on Elmer Fudd's hunting team in rabbit hunting season. When you 'get one' they respond with a plume of smoke and flip to reveal a blackened yet still living rabbit. Daffy would be hanging about to tell you where they are. Then Bugs comes out and changes it to duck hunting season and you start going after them with Bugs this time helping you out. Then Daffy/Bugs have their scuffle over which season it is and finally settle on "hunter hunting season" at which point you go after Elmer, with a great opportunity to shoot the other team's vehicle to make them spinout, as on MIB. Throw in a few gags like water tanks that leak on the other team when you shoot them and it could be a lot of fun. Really good idea this one. Seems to me like it'd be a perfect candidate for the much-lacking western area. I thought about it replacing Looney Tunes River Ride but I think that'd go better with a major overhaul.

Thanks to everyone that participated! We had nearly 200 photos added in March, which is a truly great effort by everyone. The top five (excluding myself) for March 2008 was as follows: Gavin Seipelt: 84 Dean Wright: 59 Patrick FitzGerald: 11 Paul Hollibone: 5 Vinnie J: 2 Congrats to Gavin for winning the prize with most photos taken in the month. Stay tuned for more competitions in coming months. We now have a fully functional photograph rating system in place so the next competition will probably be a "best rated" competition where prizes go out to the user with the highest rated photo.

Village Roadshow are notorious for getting ahead of themselves by announcing these sorts of things (Sunshine Coast Wet'n'Wild, Australian Outback Spectacular) only to watch them disappear or be delayed by years. I'm not saying this is the case here, but it is something to keep in mind before getting too excited. Victoria is a suitable place to build parks. My concern is that the climate there is more suited to seasonal operation, but a plan like this which is seeking to become a major destination can't easily be achieved without year-round operation. As far as a comparison to Queensland's climate goes, we do have a wetter summer but then we have 6-9 months of perfect, mild weather. We've also had our first wet summer in about a decade which I think took our parks off-guard as increasingly in recent years they've put a lot of emphasis on the peak season and I think we may see that change as they try and get more balanced attendance throughout the year in light of a return to normal weather patterns. I'd hate to see a carbon copy of Animal Kingdom or Busch Gardens Africa. I'm always wary when I see name-dropping of similar parks because it seems like a recipe for plagiarism. The last thing I want to do is go to a park that's a two-bit clone of one of my favourite parks.

At least it's easy to get to.

My point all along was that no one knows if these two individuals started the altercation; there's absolutely nothing in the articles thus far to suggest either party is to blame here. Based on the articles, the attendant is just as likely to have initiated the physical attack; there's nothing to suggest either way what happened. The fact that they were released without charge to me hints that it's not as clear-cut as an unprovoked attack by these two thugs when they didn't get their way. Don't get me wrong, they were carrying around a concealed weapon... that says it all about their character. I'm not condemning or defending anyone here; just looking at the few facts rather than joining the witch hunt.

I don't think anyone can say for certain who's in the right or wrong here. For all anyone knows, the attendant attacked first, prompting the stabbing in defence. At any rate though I don't think that those involved are exactly the cream of the crop. It does raise some questions about attitudes within the travelling amusement industry. At the end of the day, this guy got stabbed over a no refund policy. Whatever went down, it seems that this attendant felt that the few dollars were more important than his own safety or that of the complaining customers. It's a situation that could have been averted for the sake of a few dollars but it seems greed won in the end -- whether that of the customers, or that of the company operating the ride.

It seems to me that all the purported "issues" with having members of the public driven around the studios aren't an issue at Universal Studios in Hollywood, which are is home to major productions year-round. Universal's thrives because they put in effort to make it a theme park attraction. They have a handful of different versions of the tour which allows them to skip out areas of the studio that are inaccessible due to filming commitments. It's an audio-visual experience presented by an entertaining host (a benefit of being in Hollywood is that there's always talent around needing to make ends meet) that is very re-rideable because each tour will be different in some way, and because they update it on a regular basis to reflect the latest and upcoming Universal titles, it's something that can, to some extent, draw people back year after year. The few elements of ours that tried to inject entertainment like the fake set and the costume department were good but more could have been added progressively over the years to actually build it into something enjoyable from start to finish. The reason the special effects show died a miserable death was that evidently no one realised that people won't keep coming back to see the same 15 year-old (read: woefully outdated) special effects. I'd really like to see a revised version brought back, or at least something that is somehow related to the movie-making process because as it stands, what makes Movie World any different from say your average Six Flags park? An interesting side-point relating to some of this is that at Universal Studios you can't walk two steps without hearing about their upcoming features because someone has realised that the few million people that visit the park each year are actually a pretty good captive audience for their products. It's quite clever marketing in two ways: one obviously it'll draw people into cinemas, and second I think it's a really good way to help guests feel the Universal brand around them.

Just to clarify: you're welcome to submit photos of travelling rides etc. from bona fide annual shows, but our system isn't designed to handle individual database entries for rides which move around periodically. Basically, when you're tagging the photo, just include the show/park (Royal Easter Show, Ekka, etc.) and then the necessary ride details in the title and caption. It'd be a good idea to include the year of the show somewhere such as in the title. Basically, individual entries for travelling rides aren't OK, photos of travelling rides at proper annual shows is OK, photos of travelling rides at random locations like a school fete or on the beach for NYE etc. aren't OK. Thanks for pointing out that Rainbow entry. From its individual ID number, it was a very old entry (2-3 years or more) that somehow slipped by back then and had gone unnoticed until now.

Just a reminder to everyone that there's just FOUR days left in this contest. If you've got a bunch of theme park photos then it's certainly not too late to submit them. The person who has submitted the most photos in March will win a free Dreamworld ticket. Simple as that!

I think it's an improvement, but one does get the impression that they're playing catch-up with WVTP's MyFun branding and associated website and as a direct comparison I think it falls short. Though to be fair at least it doesn't play a pointless techo loop every time you change page. Dreamworld using images that aren't theirs on their website? Never thought I'd see the day...

Because it needs photos to go along with it, it actually randomly selects the park based on whether it has photos or not and at the moment it's set to select only photos by staff. Because there's a few thousand Australian photos by staff up but only a handful of international, it'll naturally skew things that way. I may change it down the track to select all photos; it was done this way because initially I wanted to see how user submissions would pan out.

Unfortunately not... this one is Dreamworld because that's just what I had available to me. You can always give it to a friend who doesn't have a pass if you win. If we get tickets to other parks in the future then I hope to do similar competitions with different prizes.

To help get things started and encourage all members to explore the new features of Parkz, we've put together a little photography competition. The user to add the most photographs in the month of March (2008) will receive one free ticket to Dreamworld on the Gold Coast. We hope to have this kind of competition every now and again, so if this prize isn't your cup of tea don't worry because there will hopefully be plenty more as time goes on. The Rules: Photographs tallied are only those added and successfully approved in the month of March. Photographs must meet our standards. Photos which don't for one reason or another will be rejected and as such not contribute to your month's total. Wherever possible the staff member who rejects the photo will leave a note so you know why. Photographs must be your own work and unique, i.e. not photos which already appear on this site. Users can keep track of their total and where they rank on our Photos page. Only the top (#1) photographer of the month will receive the prize. The photographs can be of any theme park, ride or attraction anywhere in the world -- not just Dreamworld. However for a photo to be accepted it must be linked to an existing park or ride in our database, so if we don't currently feature it you will need to add it to our database before submitting the photos. Pending photos will not contribute to your total. Staff will do a final sweep of our photo queue in the leadup to midnight on March 31. We can't guarantee photos submitted close to the deadline will count so it's best if you get in days or weeks ahead of the end of the month. This competition is open to all members excluding myself. The selection process is totally transparent so any registered member is eligible, regardless of whether they are a regular member, subscriber or staff. In the event that I submit the most photos in the month of March, it will be awarded to the next highest member. All decisions are final and no correspondence or debate will be entered into regarding the outcome. Prize will be sent via Registered Post and will need to be signed for. We will make every effort to contact the winner. They will have seven days to claim their prize. If it is unclaimed after this period it will go to the next highest member. The prize is a non-refundable and non-exchangable adult ticket to Dreamworld valid until 30/6/08. I hope that covers everything -- if not feel free to ask. Otherwise good luck with it! I look forward to what you all come up with.

There we are, case closed. Because the ride has been open for a few months, any complaints or negative reviews henceforth are hereby invalid. It's way, way too early to see how the ride has performed from a business perspective. But if you want to, the increase in attendance announced in early January accounts for around 20,000 extra people visiting over a six month period, of which this coaster was open around four. Because the period it was compared against was a downturn on the year prior, factoring in this lost attendance, it's closer to 5,000 extra guests in terms of gross attendance growth. Taking recent per capita spend into account, we're looking at about $330,000 in increased revenue, or about $125,000 earnings. A $10 million investment... I wouldn't be taking this one to the bank anytime soon. As I said up front, there is no way anyone can pass judgement either way on whether it has 'done its job' this early in the game. But with those initial figures and a very wet summer, it's certainly not looking good just yet.

The thing I find odd is that Gold Coast Tourism proudly boasts its 300 days of sunshine a year. Taking their marketing hype at face value, but also disregarding the fact that probably 50% or more of those remaining 65 days are just overcast without rain, we're looking at a structure that serves a valid purpose at most around 18% of the year. Sun protection? I'd look at providing better shade by way of more aesthetic means such as trees in the other 3/4 of the park before focusing on Main Street where, unlike around major rides, people don't generally congregate for long periods of time. Given that the only attraction on Main Street is Shrek, it'll provide little purpose to the majority of guests who will spend most of their day alternating between attractions all around the park. Don't think I could imagine a Fremont Street Experience without the sleaze... it just wouldn't have that same appeal.

Good, because a month or two from now when it's basically six months straight of clear blue skies with tops of 25ºC that's precisely what the park will need. We have had our first truly wet summer in a decade or more. Meanwhile that roof exists at Tokyo Disneyland because that park is subjected to everything from blizzards to monsoon season year in year out. And it was a colossal compromise when they were designing the park because no Imagineer wanted to make the park a big themed indoor mall. Besides, can't they make more money selling ponchos and Tweedy umbrellas?

I don't think prices have changed in about two years. Last time they did was when we shifted from cheaper US-based web hosting to a Brisbane server.

You honestly don't think Dreamworld is making a very tidy profit out of this? I'd assure you that the price being charged isn't remotely tied to covering costs, it's simply because there are people out there willing to pay this much. This is a premium product of which there is a very limited supply. On a daily basis Dreamworld prints hundreds, if not thousands of photos throughout the park; their cost per print would be in cents. I wouldn't expect any more than 10% of the total cost is going to charity. It's great that they are donating a portion to relevant charities, but remember that Dreamworld isn't one; their interest is in making money.

That's in fact one of the features that is planned. The reason it's not there yet is I am yet to find a way to be able to do this in a secure manner, i.e. so that users who don't have access to the high resolution versions can't get to them, even if they're given a direct link to the image file etc. Hopefully we'll see it in the near future.

Hopefully today that'll be fixed; just a matter of getting the design to work and be compatible with the major browsers.

Thanks; that's been fixed. There will no doubt be a few more corrections like that needed around the place so if anyone sees any others let us know.