DaptoFunlandGuy

Nobody mentions how easily it could have been MW who killed 4 people. Oh I know. It was all S&S' fault right? 🤐 I don't think Village is suffering an image problem stemming from TRRR. They went gangbusters post-TRRR and pre-covid. Village's image problem is down to their contempt for guests, and their disregard for the guest experience. It has long ago been about making money, not memories. THAT is the fucking image problem at village.

Just be warned - as far as your 'credits' are concerned - their maintenance schedules aren't easily identified - we had several places we planned to visit based on certain attractions we wanted to do and ended up discovering several were closed for maintenance. The japanese websites sometimes had the info, but the english mirror sites weren't always updated. Some places didn't really advertise the closure - I can remember two places we went to where we literally arrived at the queue entrance to discover a no entry \ closed sign, and nowhere else could we find this info. For one of those, the website was still allowing people to purchase tickets for that date (so i'm really glad we didn't pre-pay!). This may not impact you but do keep in mind this can happen.

Didn't they entirely reprofile the bowls? is there maybe some compliance issue with the new profiles?

You should probably cut back.

Might not be uncommon, but there's something pretty common in all of your examples...

Big Thunder and Splash both get significant waits. Rope dropping Splash is probably the way to go as it's all the way at the back of the park. When you come out you'll probably see a few fantasyland walk-ons (we got Peter Pan walk-on immediately after rope dropping splash). If you do this, while walking to Splash you can be trying to get a 40th anniversary pass for Big Thunder, and you've knocked 2/3 on the head in less than an hour. The gadget coaster will be a solid wait all day, but it moves quickly. We hit that after big thunder and waited about 45 minutes. How our day went down: Splash (rope drop) Peter Pan (standby - walkon) Big Thunder (40th) Pinocchio (standby - 10 mins) Gadget Coaster (Standby - 45 mins) Roger Rabbit (standby - 30 mins) Space Mountain (40th) - now closed Haunted Mansion (40th) Haunted Mansion (40th) we lucked out and picked up a second pass while in the queue so figured it was worth it for the AC Carousel (standby - 10 mins) Snow White (Standby - 25 mins) Small World (standby - 20 mins) Pooh (standby - 30 mins - during parade) B&TB (DPA) Star Tours (40th) Western Railroad (Standby - 15 minutes) Tiki Room (Standby - 5 minutes) Jungle Cruise (Standby - 20 minutes) Pirates (Standby - 30 minutes) Big Thunder (40th - night ride) Splash (Standby - 15 mins) (Happy 15 early entry got us the first two, and probably really helped with the first BT 40th pass - the 15 minutes doesn't let you ride anything though, so it only ensures you're front of the line when rides commence operations)

Since you're arriving early on the 25th, you might consider the USJ "1.5 day pass". You get a half day in the park on the first day, so you could head in in the afternoon to 'get the lay of the land' and knock some things on the head to clear up your full day. USJ can be done in a day but the extra afternoon gives you a bit more time to pace yourself. We did it last year in June and i'd recommend it if you've got nothing else to do that afternoon and you aren't staying far from Universal City. Then you get your 7 ride pass for the second day, and you've already sussed out the lay of the land and how things work. Your plan to hit everything else in the morning is good if you've got SNW locked in already. Just remember the Japanese don't really have weekends like a lot of western countries do - their work ethic is typically a 6 day work week (or more) so the low days aren't always going to be midweek. Thrill Data's crowd calendar shows the back end of September is likely to be 'average crowds' every day. Disney still offers the free 40th anniversary pass on their app, though they do disappear quickly. The best advice is to research what are your 'must-do' attractions and target them first by either rope dropping them or prioritising them in the app if they're available on the 40th pass. On our last day in TDL we managed to do 21 attractions in a single day (Disney considers 8 to be a 'satisfying day' in most parks). We had happy entry and 3 pre-booked fastpasses, but everything else was just working the app and strategically planning our route, plus constant refreshing of the app. The biggest tip is if you see a fastpass popup for something you're keen on, don't wait, don't ask your party if they want to do it, just book it as it will disappear in the time you have that conversation. Have your tickets pre-loaded into the app prior to arrival, and have your credit card info loaded in and\or handy to add in for online ordered food and premium access upgrades - Premier Access is an option pay for play, and is probably the best way to experience Beauty and the Beast or Soarin' - a shame you aren't planning Disney Sea by the sounds of your family members, as Sea is probably the prettiest park in the world. TDRExplorer has done many videos on how to use the apps, and cool tips not just for TDR but also for USJ so if you haven't already - go and watch his channel. Gone are the days where you could rock up to the front gate, buy a ticket and have a good day. Disney Parks - but especially Tokyo require intense pre-planning and constant app-monitoring to fit the most in. If you just want to see the castle and consider that a good day you could get away with doing nothing in advance but if you want to experience more than a couple of attractions, you need to do your research.

It's a controversial topic at present - and no matter which side of the fence you're on, you're going to have one group or another take issue with your position on it, so the smarter option in these is to not engage in the debate at all - but of course then you'll have people who will take issue with you not taking a position at all - so it's lose-lose.

"Sea World's Doomsday" How long do we think before it only goes halfway up due to guest feedback?

My god you have zero idea about consumer logic. They're not relying on a couple of people forgetting. Spend it or not, some of the additional funds are still profit. And it incentivises people to buy. You're not buying a gift card for yourself. you're buying an annual pass. the gift card is a freebie for something you were going to buy anyway. Therefore you may or may not use it. A few years ago they included free ride express passes with renewals. i've still got 1 or 2 I never used. it costs them virtually nothing to include this sort of 'extra' but it bundles it up to make it more attractive (and is the same reason why Village included fright nights, then white christmas, then carnivale and so on with their annual passes) The flyer is of course what I was forgetting that makes up the 11 not including Rivertown. thanks mate.

Full price is $159, which is a fair comparison given Village's local's lite pass is $189. Retaining an existing passholder is far cheaper than attracting a new one. There's plenty of people who alternate properties - one year at dreamworld and one year at village. Offering a renewal with a 37% discount makes it a deal you can't refuse and locks them into another year at Dreamworld instead of forking out almost twice the price for a village pass. I don't know if $129 would be enough of a difference to sway people from 'trying the other side of the highway' if they haven't been in a while, but $99 sure is. Dreamworld needs to hang on to every passholder they have right now - retention is super important. They'll up their prices more in time, but there's still recovery time to go. 2016-2019 wasn't really recovery time because of the inept folk running the show who tried to build crocodile rivers and ampitheatres, and resurrect eureka mountain. Then we had Covid - every corporation's excuse for poor performance. Steel taipan should have been built near the start of 2020 and it didn't open until December 2021. I'd say 2021-2022 FY would be their first 'year of recovery' where they actually had good direction and backing. By that metric we're approaching four years in - and if I recall, everyone believed it should have taken 4. (and don't forget all the other good rides they lost along the way - through poor maintenance and management). So - while i'm not giving them a pass on those earlier years - i'm conscious that - because of prior mismanagement - they're not '8 years in' - they're only 4 - now is the point they should have been at in 2020. I suspect we'll continue to see modest lifts in the pricing, but they're still the 'underdog' so they'll still need to price themselves under village, not because village is better, but to win the 'cheaper' argument and maintain retention.

Pretty sure we discussed this a while ago and the logic we arrived at was that they were counting all the rethemed attractions in Dreamland and so on. Jungle Rush Murrisippi Serpent Slayer Big Red Boat Big Red Planes Forest Flyer BIP Carousel Maze Treehouse Dodgems Splashpad If we're not counting Rivertown in the number then you can also grab the Dreamworld Theatre. Not sure what the last one would be but it's marketing...

Say it with me everyone...

The only thing GD needs is what they do every night - winch the catch car to the top of the tower so the rope doesn't bash around in the wind. The two attractions are very different structures.

Remember that the initial closure was done very suddenly, which points to an unplanned event necessitating closure. So they wouldn't have commenced work immediately. Chances are the majority of the time it's been closed has been awaiting new 'things' from various suppliers \ manufacturer. The update videos they have posted have shown a lot of stuff is getting changed, and they're no doubt very close to being ready to reopen, but again - much of the time it's been out has likely been a waiting game.

Like he said, they're wrong. We've seen the carpark entirely inundated, not just little patches of the creek. And this event is likely to be worse than that. Yes, Trident has tie down points surrounding it and is intended to stabilise the tower in strong winds.

Kudos sir - the atmosphere is so much nicer than Hot Tomato's top 40. Would love if you could share the full playlist as not everything comes up in Shazam.

Yeah I don't think there's any wisdom in anything (show, theme park, or any other event) going ahead in the face of a cyclone that has inched closer to the gold coast by the hour (this morning's track map has it somewhere over southern brisbane \ logan, whereas yesterday it was northern end of Bribie Island). Just because village made the decision earlier, doesn't make dreamworld late. they both made it in advance of the system's approach, and did it at a time where the data made sense. My organisation advised yesterday afternoon that all our offices in SEQ would close today. I've seen some private schools and bus companies also close today - however public schools remain open. I've seen a lot of people crying foul over schools staying open but there's many critical workers out there preparing for this event that wouldn't be able to go to work if their kids weren't at school. Today's forecast has wind and rain, but nothing is forecast outside 'usual' summer storm parameters, so schools being open today makes sense - however i've no doubt in my mind they'll be closed tomorrow. A lot of other things will probably announce closures today, and the disaster press conference today is probably going to have a lot more information now that the system tracking is close enough to reasonably predict landfall location. Wherever you are - stay safe. Your family comes first. possessions can be replaced, but you can't. Don't enter floodwater - even if your 4x4 is modded to the max. Take the time today to secure anything outside that could potentially fly away (and remember that the winds are a lot stronger so heavier objects can fly too), stay inside, away from windows, and don't go outside when the wind stops - you may just be inside the eye. Wait until you've confirmed with official sources that it has passed. Don't run generators in enclosed spaces. boil tap water before drinking until declared safe by water authorities. Turn on location services on your phone, and tag your location on social media posts. If you need help with flooding or storm damage, call the SES on 132 500. If anyone's life is in danger, call 000.

Considering village's staunch opposition to closure in the face of a pandemic, I will give credit where it's due and applaud them for being so proactive in making the call ahead of time to close the parks. I've no doubt Dreamworld will do similarly - it is the smart thing to do. There is a lot of complacency out there - a bunch of folk thinking "oh it won't get this far south" or "it won't come this far in land" and these are the people who grew up in SEQ and have never seen a cyclone this far south. ...and on the flip side the amount of people flipping out and buying up all the "milk sandwich" supplies is ridiculous. Be prepared, not panicked.

Best thing that they could get would be management by Miral group.

The thing is the town isn't what it once was. I doubt the council will spend up - its a sleepy little seaside town - rampant with petty crime and vandalism. We have family in the Coffs region so will always be stopping, but the bypass will still save us time going through the main strip at 60. The banana feasibly could be a stop, but rather than go through town, we'd take the exit at korora and double back if we wanted to do that. A park more akin to Aussie World would be worth the stop for more folks though I reckon.

probably why they're recruiting someone.

I'm a fan of the wiegand toboggan (though the coffs toboggan is very much the poor cousin to the likes of Jamberoo or Corin Forest, for example) and i'm looking forward to an opportunity to try out the Alpine coaster, so will most likely make a stop there once it's open. The facilities and attractions at Banana are great for families. We always stop in to the candy kitchen for a supply of fruit rock, and between the ice rink, mini golf, reptile park, toboggan, waterpark and a couple other attractions we haven't gotten to try yet - there's plenty of things to do on a stopover day if you're making coffs the halfway mark to sydney. But definitely they've been targeting the families with young kids with their current offerings. I do think they need to lift their game with what they offer to make them worth the detour as the coffs harbour bypass is coming (you can see it on Google now) and you can only rely on family 80's nostalgia to bring people by for so long before they stop coming.