aaronm

The lack of protein must do something to these people’s brains. Was volunteering down at Collingwood Children’s Farm this week and one of the workers was recounting how some activists came to set their horses “free”... into the wild prairies of inner Melbourne I guess...

Or at the very least they’d be promoting the pass offer with a pic of the new ride, not one that’s been there over a decade.

Apart from Universal Japan, all of those options have a great selection for young kids. If it was me I’d go for Hong Kong and save the Tokyo Disney trip until your boy is a little older. With a four year old the smaller Disney park will work in your favour and while Ocean Park’s ride lineup is just OK the aquarium and animal exhibits are excellent.

So the press release indicates that Minions will replace Madagascar, nothing on where NIntendo Land will go though. There is an expansion pad on the New York street but that doesn't seem big enough, can only assume they will sacrifice Waterworld and possibly part of the Jurassic area (maybe Canopy Flyer and the spinner?).

3D dome attraction makes me think it will be similar to Turtle Trek: https://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201204/3025/

RMC Raptor would be perfect, great ride and the right size for the park.

And in the meantime they are fast running out of product to sell, there are only so many rides you can close before people completely stop bothering (especially the current ticket price). At this point I'd consider the waterpark to be their core attraction, everything else is a bonus...

They heard about Dreamworld's new covered seating attraction and are building a bigger one to compete.

If it was the first addition in a 3 year plan to refresh the attractions (i.e. Sky Voyager, one major flat ride or family coaster, two-three kiddie rides) I would be optimistic. Right now it seems like SV is the "ride most likely to be relocated when Dreamworld inevitably closes".

Harry Potter land confirmed

One down, eight to go...

Hmm... too early for Santa. What's the odds it's one of the failed Eurovision contenders?

Wasn't the blue area where the hotel was going to go, or is that in a different carpark?

Sound attenuation? Given it's already next to the M1, what are they being asked to do? Also where is the pedestrian bridge going - over the creek to Kopps Rd? Apologies if I'm completely confused about where this carpark is and these questions make no sense...

We love it, cultural capital of Australia. Some areas are better served than others for sure, where this proposed park is going is predominantly light industrial/warehouses and golf courses so even the bus routes are a bit thin out there.

Not a terrible idea, will save on some opex. Aussie World already shuts at 3 on a weekday.

I was just pointing out that the bus a reasonable alternative if people want that extra 45 minutes in the park. Most of the time it seems to start emptying about 3:30 anyway so a 4:15 ferry departure may well suit a good number of guests.

I'm impressed if you can make a Sea World visit last that long. Even seeing all the shows and taking your time, it's hard not to be done by 3pm. Looks like the ferry is $10 one way though, so you could take the ferry up and bus back if you really want the full day experience.

Well if a glowstick party doesn't turn park performance around I don't know what will.

It's in a bit of a public transport black hole but that doesn't appear to have hurt the other Victorian parks. I suspect a lot of that $100m is going towards the structure, hopefully they have enough left over to build a decent collection of slides.

So is this a Queensland thing or did Dreamworld screw up? Brogent have installed enough of these rides that I assume the ride system isn’t at fault.

On one hand, good on them for waiting until it's properly ready before opening. But fairly terrible on the marketing/expectation setting front, not only is their ride not open (seemingly not any time soon either), an already cash-strapped park has wasted a pile of money on promotional spend as well. Once again, Ardent clearly have no idea how to run a theme park...

July school holidays

Thanks, that's definitely interesting - particularly that none of the parks fall into any other's "90 minute" zones. I think this shows that while there's some overlap, they all have solid potential to grow without cannibalising too much of the others' business. And while West Gippsland has historically been mostly farmland there are suburban developments springing up either side of Gumbuya at the moment so it's definitely in the right spot to benefit from the population boom one that side of the city.

If you had a version of the map that showed population within a 1 hour drive, there'd be some crossover in the northeastern suburbs but generally I think my theory still stands (bearing in mind Gumbuya is right on the freeway but Funfields is a bit more out of the way, and Adventure Park requires a drive through the middle of Geelong).