DaptoFunlandGuy

So you think because intamin has a LSM launch like Red Force, this automatically translates to itbeing compatible with the RFC model, despite intamin withdrawing support for the model? Don't you think Intamin would have offered the upgrade to the parks whose rides were slowly dying and make a bit of coin if it were viable? YOU'RE LIVING IN A FUCKING DREAMLAND MATE - WAKE UP.

Almost always. Yeah we've been trying to get our parks to move away from leaving things SBNO, so that alone is enough to disagree with you there. The manufacturer doesn't support it. SFMM - which has far more money to spend than Dreamworld does - is still cobbling together parts to keep theirs running (and not very well, I might add). It's not like an accelerator coaster where theres plenty of installs around that could be retrofit - bringing a company in to design and install a new launch system would literally only benefit two parks in the entire world, one of which was cash strapped enough that they took their old parts to cash converters. No. Nobody is reviving the reverse freefall coaster. It was built for one purpose - to break records. Its a one trick pony and while it hauls ass, that's really all you can do with it - and modern coasters do the exact same thing, but with loops and top hats and all sorts of far more rounded experiences. The ride design is dead and as soon as the last remaining drives die in Valencia, it's done. How many people you reckon drive the M1 after dark? And that's why you're not in charge of a theme park.

@joz has given a very accurate explanation to answer this - but one final thought: Locals are more likely to visit more often, but they're also less likely to spend in park on every visit. If they feel like they got a cheaper deal to enter, they won't hesitate as much about spending in-park. They've already saved money, so a little in-park spend is ok... every. single. visit. If they just refill their unlimited refill sipper on every visit (about $9) they're making $8 additional profit. Kids want to try that new donut milkshake? cha-ching. There's a new hat-graffiti-cape-embroidery-latest-gimmick store open on main street? try it out. no, the postcode restrictions are necessary, for the reasons already mentioned above by Joz - tourists will pay more, locals will be more likely to visit if they have cheaper passes. Most locals won't go near the parks in peak periods anyway, so blackout dates won't change much. (Back when all passes were $99, blackout dates would have worked for a tiered system, and they tried it, and then quickly backed down on it - rewarding the cheaper pass-buyers by allowing them to enter christmas week, while stiffing those who paid the extra for VIP Gold, making the extra money paid essentially worthless.) People have different opinions Tone doesn't come across well in written text Absent the tone that might imply humor or sarcasm, many people misinterpret intention and react to that misinterpretation. Also - some people are stupid, and because you can't smack some sense into them, they keep coming back with ridiculous unrealistic proposals, and won't accept being told it won't work by logic, reason, or experts in the field. (But that doesn't relate to this current thread).

These posts where you don't add any commentary are really starting to grind. What are you trying to say by posting this video and nothing else? If it's the height argument - According to this article the top third of the track is painted red. This video shows it only just enters the red section, so it barely makes it 2/3 up the top of the tower. If its the argument about it being consistently shut - S-EFK was closed for the entirety of my recent visit to the US - in the middle of spring break. If you're arguing that this version continues to operate, it's already been said it's because Dreamworld sold them their spare parts - something that wouldn't be possible if this "perfectly good ride" as you claim - continued to operate.

Which is cheaper than the non-locals one-pass.

For anyone wondering whether "$30 off, one time only" was a good deal - here's the terms of the one pass renewal offer: Since a switch to the onepass is technically a renewal, it's pretty poor that they wouldn't offer these *essentially* free extras as a sweetener.

That's not possible. Pay by the month Memberships weren't introduced until about 2015. Prior to that it was a VIP pass. Prior to that it was a Q150 pass. Just to clarify, the locals annual pass is $219 The pricing you are seeing is based on the membership offer, which is a discounted offer (but only for this year): Still better than the offer for non locals: Which is still discounted from the standard offering: I'd love to fix that for you, but instead, allow me to rephrase: Village management really need to get a public relations department that handles this stuff.... because they sure as shit don't appear to have one now.

From everything i've seen, they've collapsed all of the various tiers into one tier, which was the middle (premier) membership. That was $12 a month, now doubled to $24. This is because all of the benefits that were offered to different tiers no longer exist, and everyone gets the same benefits, so they pay the same price. I assume the cost of debit success' involvement adds to the base cost. Definitely not by the same amount as the price difference, but like everyone has been saying, it seems like a way to push people to cancel - so there has to be an incentive to do that, and the big increase would probably be it as it makes the onepass look like better value. (I don't think the difference is $100 more between the new pricing). I mean, late may, off-peak, outside of school holidays is when you want that level of downtime to occur, for sure - but its bad optics when you've trying to convert a small monthly subscription into a large single output before end of financial year. I'd love to see the stats on memberships, how many stay, how many convert, and how many just outright walk away, but I get the feeling that they couldn't care less either way, so the stats don't really matter. They should have just announced the closure of the program and issued a 'membership only conversion offer' with something to lessen the sting, rather than just simply doubling the price, flattening the tiers and going 'take it or leave it'.

that was me, referencing an overpriced waterslide in ballina, not a theme park on the GC.

Horses for courses I guess - i've never really felt any differently no matter where i'm sitting. You can't see the tower while on board so it's not like a 'floorless' type experience. Only difference is you don't have people on both sides of you but that's 50% of the seats on batwing.. Just recently took my son to SFMM and we rode drop of doom - every time we rode we ended up with an edge seat and it didn't really feel any different. *shrug*

Yes the timing couldn't have been worse - from what i'm hearing MW's current maintenance and downtime is crazy out of control, and not a lot left in the park to do - and thats the moment they choose to come out and ask people to pay double?

Small Lines = Park with low popularity = closed park. You need to take a lesson in economics. Dreamworld doesn't have the diversity in offering that overseas parks who have done this have. Six Flags and Cedar parks get away with mods to drop rides because they offer so many more tiers to the rider levels. Happy Thoosies don't keep a park afloat. Tower of Terror wasn't a perfectly good ride. The manufacturer no longer made the drive systems. The park literally had run out of spares - they were in a situation where the ride would be irrevocably shut down as soon as just one of the motors died. So they announced the closure so people could give it a farewell, and sold all their spares and parts to SFMM, helping them fund their ongoing developments.

Bear in mind when memberships were offered, they were a MORE expensive option than the standard pass, rather than a 'good deal'. When you take into account the buy three get one offers on the VIP pass, the memberships were sometimes more than $65 a year more than the VIP \ OnePass. Despite the T&Cs still referencing it, the in park discounts and offers haven't been around in years, so realistically it's been a pay-by-the-month premium pass with Fright Nights included for years (which, remember, used to be included in the VIP for far less). Those same T&Cs continue to say that the Elite level passes get lifetime access to Wet N Wild Sydney, despite that park not existing now for 6 years. You don't consider it brand loyalty to continue paying and renewing your pass or membership, fine. I do. Annual passes have an expiry date, and you have to choose to renew each year. Many folk let them expire until they're ready to visit again, and others switch parks each year, so only buying village every 2 years. A membership was a guaranteed auto-renewal. In my opinion it was a no-brainer for them to continue a non-expiring option (and I think the only reason they did was the difficulties with DebitSuccess, which is a loss for them). I feel they've let the memberships stagnate out of apathy - not knowing what to do with them. If they'd made small increases over time, most folk probably would have been ok with that, especially seeing the onepass increases, but in this case its the boiled frog scenario - they've dropped members into boiling water, and the retention rate is going to be close to zero. Maybe that's what they want, so they can finally shut down the program, but it seems to me someone willing to sign up to an ongoing commitment with no expiry date is the kind of person i'd want to keep on the books - especially when they were prepared on sign up to pay a lot more than average. Its supply and demand though, isn't it? You can charge that to a bunch of teenagers in ballina who can't drive to the gold coast for the weekend, and parents locally are happy to pay that to drop the kids off at the pool for the weekend and get them out of the house. The GC offering is a lot more competitive.

With changes taking place from 1 July and a discounted one pass, that does seem likely. Thanks @westical for picking that up.

Village are showing once again that they prefer the stick over the carrot.

I haven't received anything, but it was inevitable the price would increase eventually. Doubling the price, and removing Fright Nights is probably intended to push the remaining members into the One Pass. The inclusions are now no different to the OnePass (the memberships will get WC, Spooky Nights and Carnivale instead of the Fright Nights admission), but it will cost $61 more than a locals pass for the privilege of being a loyal, long standing payer - even through covid - albeit pay by the month rather than in 4 afterpay instalments. Honestly, I've almost never used my Fright Night ticket, and sort of kept the village pass active because the set and forget monthly fee was easy to leave in place, despite not visiting that regularly (maybe 2-3 times a year). Given that the pass is no different (just more expensive) than the one pass, this change will be the end of my constant membership. We just picked up a B3GOF pass at Dreamworld, so I guess we're not paying anything to Village for at least the next 12 months.

This is Disneyland level quality! #Peoplemover #RocketRods

Let's be honest, for all the things they 'could' have done, the ride is already a foreboding presence in the park. I know a not insignificant number of self-confessed thoosies who won't ride it, and many GP friends of mine won't go on it either. I can imagine tilting seats or other fancy mods to the gondola would only further alienate the ridership, which would see the barriers to entry raise even higher (the ride already has both a height and an age restriction) and this would result in the popularity of the ride dropping even lower.

What part of the ride experience would you like them to change? Gravity? We haven't seen inside the station, so we've no idea what they've done inside during that time. Probably a little premature to be bemoaning them on this yet.

Precisely right.

I think this is the part where someone says that covid is the cause of delays due to supply chain issues that are still ongoing in the industry, and we all just accept that as a satisfactory excuse and move on with our lives. I think the tower looks great. the lights aren't as bright as I had imagined, but they also redid the queue and station area, so I imagine it's possible we'll see some extra touches inside the building we aren't expecting. I'll wait until it opens before I burn them at the stake.

Yep, construction wont take long, but just because the track stands, doesn't mean it's close to being ready to open.

I didn't argue that point when you said it originally. I only raised it as the suggestion was 'leviathan level station' which to me implied pre-show.

Yes. I did say I wasn't so sure of that. But there is also a chance. You also conveniently left out the first word of your original post, so just to be clear - you weren't sure either: So don't make out like you already proved something.