DaptoFunlandGuy

I know what you're saying Rappa, but many discussions have been had about the GC parks single day tickets being too costly, when compared to other parks across the world. I felt $69 was a good price - it isn't far off what they are now, but a slight reduction to encourage those day trippers to give it a go. Pushbutton - The whole idea of having the single day ticket so much more expensive in comparison to the other options available was so that it would not appear to be as good a value as even the 28 day pass. Think about it - if it's $70 for a day, or $110 for a month... which would you choose? If it were $45... or realistically anything less than $70, some might choose to buy two single day passes to the two parks they would prefer, rather than the 28 day pass for all three.... the 28 day pass at $110 is the classic upgrade offer... would you like to pay $70 to visit one park for one day, or for an extra $40 (just over 50%) get all three parks, for a whole month! And the same 'classic upgrade' works to go from the 28 day pass to the annual passes too.

Single day entry is too cheap. It needs to be a little higher, just as an incentive to go for the more expensive ticket. Not to mention - if it's $20 for an adult - what are you charging for a child??? Your tiers make everything pretty even - each one has the same value or appeal for it's particular purpose. I'd say something more like: Single day admission to one park $69 (adult) 28 days to all 3 VR parks $110 (includes 10% discount on food and merchandise) Annual pass to all 3 VR parks $199 (includes early entry and 15% discount on food and merchandise) Annual pass to all 3 VR parks $299 (includes early entry, 20% discount on food and merchandise, plus 1 free entry into Australian Outback Spectacular, and each of the parks special events) This weights the value towards the highest tier as being the best value... thereby encouraging more people to consider upgrading. This is why fast food everywhere offers upgrades to a larger meal for 'just $1 more'... the perceived value is better, and therefore, more people think 'why not' and decide to get the better one. The structure above also means that those who aren't going to be coming back to the park alot put more money down for their day - ensuring a high per-cap intake. Those who invest in the better value pass receive a lower 'per day' cost, along with the discounts to encourage a higher in-park spend on each visit, ensuring that while a 'cheaper' alternative for admission, more money 'per visit' comes into the park from those people.

Funnily enough though - Annual passes for Village used to be around the $300 mark (but can't remember if that was for one park or all three), and they did contain discounts, and other passholder benefits like what is being described above - no blockout dates either. The VIP passes were effectively the death of those passes and they faded into obscurity. They cannot offer two products so separated in price point, and have the only major difference as passholder discounts. What they need to do is make the cheap VIP or equivalent passes more restrictive with blockouts and special events. Change the name, publicise all tiers they're offering, with a clear comparison table of what's included in each, and let people decide. I forsee that about half the current VIP holders will get the new restricted pass, whinge about it, but wear it, and the other half will upgrade to slightly more expensive passes that deliver more. I don't predict that many will elect to 'not renew' that wouldn't have already anyway (besides of which the premium passes will roll in more money to cover that anyway). I think most will stay though - few will walk away and not renew simply because a trip to the park for most VIP holders is as casual and natural as going to the shops... it's just the 'done thing' now, and i think the parks have let this go long enough to form the habit now, so now it's time to wean them off it, whilst they're still in the habit of going whenever it pleases.

That's a brilliant idea!

Lol - we're talking about an attraction that's existed for more than 25 years in a thread about new expansions... i don't think the onoff topic issues really play here. I know the one you mean - i haven't been to NZ, but they have another site on Sentosa Island which I have been to. Essentially the controls for the luge are directly attached to the front (steering) wheel, and pushing full forward disabled the front wheels somehow, whereas pulling back applied a friction of some sort to slow it down. The brakes at Jamberoo aren't attached to the wheels at all, but are a system of levers underneath the toboggan, with brake pads (similar material to a skateboard brake) that either raise up off the track, or press down onto it. Purely metal-on-plastic friction stops you in these things... and nothing more.

Nothing like it reanimated - its a single direction brake - all the way forward is 'all the way off' and all the way back (ie - leaning back and pulling the lever back as far as you could go) was full-braking.

It's simple - give everyone 'something'. Everyone scans their pass with every purchase, entry, booking etc. If they're entitled to receive something in particular, the scanner permits it - so for discounts, if everyone scans their pass, the register recognises the premium ticket and discounts automatically. With blockouts - if someone with a blockout tries to enter on a blocked day, the turnstile simply denies them entry... if they want to complain, they should have read the terms and conditions better.

Both DW and VRTP have occasional passholder offers - on my most recent visit to DW to ride Pandamonium for the first time (which was closed... on a saturday... so that they could spray-crete the ground), passholders received a free upgrade to frozen coke with any meal purchase. On previous visits to VRTP, passholders received discounts if they dined at Rick's. For the price we currently pay, i think any of those offers are pretty generous... For a VIP Gold, I feel there should be a little more. I'm in total agreeance with this concept, and pretty much said the same thing on my future of fun survey, calling for tiered ticketing, with better offers the higher you go, and more restrictions the lower you go.

^Usually means you didn't have the lever far enough forward. New brake blocks need to be lifted far further up to not affect the speed - which means pushed further forward on the stick.

In short, i've probably ridden Jamberoo's Toboggans as many as anyone else here. If it's been a while since i've done the tracks I will go down with a slight tap to the brakes where they 'suggest it' using little signs, basically to familiarise myself with the course and remember the tricks... However, you can go down flat stick without crashing it, provided you lean into each and every turn along the way - it's a matter of calculating the lean - if you lean too much you can roll it as well - and believe me in the middle of summer, on a hot day... sliding down a stainless steel track is not pleasant. My advice is just to 'feel it'. Ride it flat stick but be prepared to tap the brakes if you feel a little out of control. the littlest tap on the edge of control can bring you back in easily.

Gazza - yes to the toboggans - head for them immediately. The queue for the chair lift is compounded by the fact that you get people who just go for the ride up the hill, those who want to stop off up the top and look around, as well as those who want to ride the toboggan, so it is quite large by mid-morning and doesn't let up most of the day. Each track has a green-light signal system to tell you when it is safe to go. In my experience (if you're used to riding Wiegand bobsleds), wait until at least the third green light if you can. I've done a film shoot down the fast and slow tracks, drivingbraking with my foot while using both hands on camera gear - and i've made it down both tracks full throttle without stopping or slowing until the final brake run - i just rest my shin across the brake lever... any less than three green lights and you're going to catch up to someone really quickly.

Always interested to hear what a person's experiences were in the parks near and far... bring it on! (Not to mention that i'm going there in 3 months myself... so all the info would be great!)

This is essentially a Q4U in a different form. It's the same concept of allowing people to jump the queue. We've all accepted Dreamworld applying it to most of their big rides (including Shockwave in it's 'Maiden season'). To those who don't purchase it - it seems unfair. To those who do, it seems very fair that for their money, they get a few premium experiences. As for missing out on things as given in examples - sure - let them build a premium seating area for the parade - but anywhere you do that is taking away from street-space that GP would be able to sit at, so they're still losing out for the premium product, although technically not as bad because there are other areas they can stand, if the park is at a certain capacity, there are still less places to sit and watch the parade. AOS is another example in that vein - they have 'top rail' - but others aren't losing out, you say? Well - on a sellout night, if top rail is empty - that's a few people who missed out on visiting that night because they didn't want to pay extra. Paul's point with Disney wasn't about fast pass (or at least thats how I read it anyway) - Disneyland opened with a concept that EVERY RIDE had to be paid for. You had to buy tickets to spend on riding attractions (hence the phrase 'e-ticket'). These tickets usually came in a book which included every 'grade' of ride. Meaning you had tickets to ride several 'lower excitement' attractions (shall we say bumper cars in MW) as well as tickets to ride the e-tickets - (let's say green lantern and superman escape) so you either rode EVERY ride you had a ticket for (putting people on the bumper cars) or you ONLY rode the e-tickets (green lantern and superman escape) and wasted your other tickets - meaning you were PAYING MORE to RIDE MORE. Fast Track is the same thing. You're paying more to ride more. Disney's original concept for the park was all about charging people more to ride the big attractions more than others (in the loosest analysis of it's operation), and so is Fast Track. Bottom line is - VRTP have already done this. It's going to impact positively on revenue streams, and very little negative impact on anything else. Those who have passes might be upset, and might not buy a pass next year, but there'll be many more queueing to buy one for the next season. If this means more money for the park to invest in development, i'm all for it. On a slightly sideways note - as most of you know i'm going to the USA in a few months, and it is my intention to purchase a platinum flash pass at magic mountain (for those who don't know what it is, it's basically a fast track fastpass queue jumper pass). I'm doing this because i expect the park to be reasonably busy, and want to ensure that i get a chance to ride everything in the park in a single day, because thats all the time i have to spend there. Having this option at WnW means for a tourist visiting the park, they have this same opportunity. (and as I understand it, both the platinum flash pass, and the fast track pass at WnW are sold in limited numbers each day, so the impact is the same)

Adelaide, Perth, Wichita.... these are many parts of the world... of course the gold coast beats them... that just means you haven't been to many GOOD places of the world...

I don't agree with doing that on Calypso - the whole concept of it is that you can just kick back and float around for a while... However - a one-lap-only policy could easily be implemented - you simply place some sort of beam or bar at water level at the lagoon entry exit point. It won't cause a traffic jam as the beam redirects everyone into the lagoon, out of the current, where the next group can take up the tube and carry on. Good luck policing it though.

^ Tell that to the GC parks.

BASTARDS! Stole my idea!!!

Theres many more K-Marts, Coles etc that share that building structure Gazza... But I pass that building almost every day, and i'd never made the connection...

Screw it - make it $15 per person, per ride on top of a Q-bot... like they do for X-2

I can confirm this. I was at SW today, but didn't go in to it... it was definitely open though...

Pretty sure the cash bonanza sets are still up though, aren't they?

I'm not sure the dominos staff are VRTP employees or employees of dominos, but i've always found them to be some of the sourest people in any of the parks. Hopefully your pizza wasn't coldmissing toppingsonly half cutdropped on the floor.

it always is...

[*]Limit the number of passes available. [*]Have set times when those passes can be used

I do think the show stage is grossly underutilised. It currently houses a show that was originally in toon village, that was evicted when they installed RRRC. Last time i looked, the sets for 'Cash Bonanza' are still hidden behind black curtains at the rear of the toon stage. I'd like to see them return to a style of western stunt show - it's what used to be there in some form, which is why it's in the western area, and the tunnel is all rustic timber logs. This is more in the theme of a movie park than the current 'what's up rock', and would fill the gap left by PASS as a 'hollywood stunt' type show (which stunt driver is not)... although the tech that's been installed now is probably more appropriate to a stage-show (magic?) than a stunt show.