Guest 239
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Posts posted by Guest 239
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46 minutes ago, TBoy said:
Must be really big if closed for 2 years.
I don't think this is going to be massive - I just think MW got really unlucky.
My assumption is that they had parts scheduled with Mack but during recent inspections came across some dire repairs so decided to push everything back until the parts arrive.
I'd say this is why we're seeing Surfrider being rushed into MW to compensate for these last minute changes.
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How do we feel this will affect the operations of each attraction? Superman is already very strict about loose articles but I imagine liability will skyrocket when you put people in a queue inside the footprint requiring even more stringent loose article policies that might slow things down even more. I'd imagine this could also lead to that area becoming nets galore to catch anything that might possibly fly off whilst the ride is in motion.
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It's prone to outages due to weather which has been discussed, but it also appears to be very hands on and labour intensive for the ops leaving a lot of down time between cycles.
It's hard to pinpoint what is the problem exactly, but we arrived mid-cycle with nobody else in the VQ line. The ride came back to the station and sat for a short while until the seatbelts disengaged. After that the ops waited until the station was completely empty where they then went through and 'reset' it for the next group. They checked for all loose belongings and made sure that all the seatbelts were completely disengaged. After that they left the loading area and waited for another short moment until it looked like they got the all clear to start loading from tower where they gave the spiel about no loose items, etc. Afterwards they scanned our VQ and we moved to our seat. You're not allowed to touch your seat belt so you have to sit there waiting for an op to check it. However, those ops are also now sorting and moving guests to their seats because there is no staging area so expect to sit for a while. Once they get everybody sorted they then come and clip in your two seatbelts. Once they've done that the other op comes around and checks your seatbelt. Finally after this the ride cycles.
Similar to Vortex, it would be greatly improved if it had a proper staging area. Make the seats numbered and then have them sorted into their number when the ride is in motion. If they don't have the space for that than just print out the numbers and hand it to them and collect it when they're getting their seatbelt checked.
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Finally got to experience Trident with a VQ at Sea World on the weekend. What would be an excellent attraction for Sea World is completely undermined by the fact that it's an absolute lemon. The ops were doing their absolute best to make things as quick as possible and we're very welcoming, but that ride just feels woefully inefficient.
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Went to Carnivale on the weekend.
Pros:- New Atlantis at night is gorgeous. Seriously lucky to have this in the country.
- Atmosphere is great with vibrant lights and music.
- Ride waits are pretty decent early on.
- They don't put you into the cattle pen before the event anymore which is nice and if you've got a wristband you can stay in the park and ride the attractions between park close and the event opening.
- Still great that you get it for free with your season pass.
- Drinks weren't outrageously priced and there was a great selection.
- Families are the real winners for this event. Everything being open alongside the additional entertainment and atmosphere makes a great night out.
Cons:
- The food selection is extremely slim and nowhere near as good as previous years. The food options are also very expensive for a paid event which disincentivises trying multiple things.
- Trident is a lemon no matter the time of day.
Notes:
- Aquacolour is fine as a spectacle but has some major pacing issues. It would benefit from slowing down at some points instead of just going 0 to 100 in the first sequence and then never slowing down.
- VQ was a bit wishy washy. A lot of staff mentioned that VQ was completely down and wouldn't be used for the event despite that not being the case.
- Levi was running single train ops. For a special paid event that's a bit lacklustre.
- For a sold out event it wasn't overwhelmingly busy.
Overall it's a great night out with friends and family and something worthwhile doing if you're in the area. It is starting to feel a little tired though and I'd love to see more emphasis on the food and drink selection in the future.
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1 hour ago, Naazon said:
Better NSW location is Western Syd or between Newcastle and or Gosford and Sydney.
I always thought Williamstown would make a great location for a big resort if an international player came to Australia. You've got plenty of flat land, a nearby port and city, and a pretty decent airport for people to get to it.
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So the Yong family built their home first, got it all approved by council, and is willing to help out where they can to support their neighbours... but they're the bad guys? This is such a bizarre hit piece trying to make us feel sorry for millionaires.
I agree with @Levithian. This is 100% on their builders and architects.
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The family-orientation was an assumption based on their recent announcements plus other park changes but you're right that it's likely just expanding the line up to ensure that everybody has something to do.
1 hour ago, Slick said:Really the question is if Sky Voyager landed with a thud, and Steel Taipan didn't generate the revenue they were after, is three times a charm?
Genuinely, I'm not sure. I still think that Steel Taipan was a good call despite marketing woes, and I believe that the new expansions accompanied by proper marketing should create an enticing package when it's all completed, but I guess time will tell.
I wonder what example they could follow by overseas, but I've been thinking a lot about how people on here mention that the Gold Coast is a completely different beast compared to the rest of the world, and the more I think about it the more I genuinely believe that's true.
I think the Gold Coast theme parks in their entirety are in a weird place thanks to the one-two punch it experienced over the last decade. The incident looked to have forced a lot of expensive change alongside a dramatic reduction of capacity across the board, and then the pandemic came along and basically hit them whilst they were down. Now we have parks sent a decade backwards in terms of capacity that are trying to keep up with modern experiential spending demands.
Not only this, but the Gold Coast is becoming more expensive to both live in and travel to, and the closer that price gets to international travel prices than the more likely people might be to consider just going overseas instead. As an interstate visitor I've seen prices continually hike year by year and whilst luxury options continue to pop up for people to stay in the area the affordable options are becoming worse and lesser.
If it becomes a choice between the Gold Coast parks or somewhere like Tokyo Disney than I know where I'm going.
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8 minutes ago, Slick said:
Buzzsaw's issue was that people didn't want to do thrill rides that seemed psychologically scary right after the incident.
Makes sense considering the parks shift towards a family-oriented experience. Do you think this same thrill ride aversion has affected Steel Taipan considering it's placement and thrill factor?
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4 minutes ago, New display name said:
What is the point of a temporary name?
Likely it's for the benefit of SEO if they are temporary. If they remove the attractions from the site temporarily than it could affect their search authority and the pages for those rides would take a while to come back up on searches once they're updated. It's easier to just change the name for now.
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Cheers for the pictures @themagician. I appreciate that they're sprucing up the gardens and that where they can instead of just removing the models or chucking a wall around them. It'll save this area from feeling like wasteland between themes.
I do hope they update the names cause I agree that a lot of them are pretty bad.
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Not a fan of the name, but I'm interested to see what the do with the ride itself. Do we think they'll give the dragon a coat of paint to make it fit in more with Ocean Parade or will they completely remove and replace it?
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If this thread got any more dense it'd form a black hole. Nobody visiting these forums hates theme parks. Enthusiasts are known for being vocal and critical, but that is because they're deeply passionate about these places.
Going back to reviews, many are overinflated and opinion based, but they still matter. Study's have been done on them.
QuoteOnline customer reviews are recognized as one of the most powerful types of UGC for understanding hidden consumer behavior in tourism and hospitality field (Xiang et al., 2015). Customer reviews represent the way visitors think, perceive, and describe tourism destinations and then share their own experiences.
Overall, the main park performance dimensions expressed in UGS reviews can be described as the “shared features” (e.g. waiting time, show/even/festival, food, and guest service), “unique features” (e.g. unique attractions and
experience, special service), “positive experiences” (e.g. core experiences, roller coaster, staff, and food) and “negative experiences” (e.g. waiting time, cost, and price). We suggest that if visitors give higher satisfaction rating and sentiment score to a theme park, they may have more positive experiences and less negative experiences, and the theme park may perform better in shared features and/or unique features compared to other theme parks.
Our results are consistent with Milman’s (2001) suggestion that theme parks need to provide new and diverse tourist experiences and offer convenient on-site services in order to survive. The literature shows that online tourist reviews genuinely reflect tourist experience and can help theme parks improve their products and services. Our results suggest that on the one hand, the share features among theme parks call for attentions on tourists’ needs in that details of experiencedesign and service may influence visitors’ ratings. On the other hand, uniqueness, which refers to unique attractions and services, is also crucial for the success of theme parks, in which creativity needs to be paid more attention. Theme parks should identify their weakness and improve experience quality and service in order to improve their capacity to stand out within the competitive industry.
The above study concluded that user reviews generally reflect the overall experience within a tourist attraction. But does that matter? Well there are study's on that as well.
QuoteMore recently, Pan, Bahja, and Cobanoglu (2018) concluded that despite increasing level of crowds in popular theme parks, online reviews appeared to be the most influential factor to visit a theme park, followed narrowly by admission price, the type of theme park, distance from accommodation facilities, and appeal for children.
That refers to another study on the matter.
QuoteOn a different perspective, researchers like Yoo and Gretzel (2008) have reported that 75% of travellers referred to online reviews when planning their trip. According to Pan et al. (2018), of the six main attributes that influence U.S theme park visitors, online reviews were the most influential factor. Results ranked price as the second-most influential factor and type of theme park as the third.
So from those three published research papers we can comfortably conclude that reviews reflect the general guest experience and are an important factor in determining future visitation from other guests.
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I really like it! Loopy Lighthouse at LPS is a lot of fun for a family and this looks like an enhanced version of that. Should be a great addition to the kids area.
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Oh my lord if they ever used Hiss-teria I would never let them live it down. I still think the porn actress name situation is hilarious though.
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@jozWhat? I'm not trying to have a go at you mate, I'm genuinely curious on your thoughts. I showed the wait times because I thought people would be interested, not to make you look bad, and show that perhaps there is some truth behind somebody only being able to get three things done in a day. This is one day of data where I purposefully chose the worst case. Other days have been a lot quieter and would be a lot easier to get more things done. The reason I asked about capacity is because you engaged with my comment about capacity, so I assumed thats what you wanted to discuss.
Again, not trying to have a go at you. If you're ever confused about my tone you're more than welcome to ask me what I'm trying to express.
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If there's plenty of evidence than you're welcome to show me some.
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I don't like the name, but I'm not unsheathing my pitchfork because some paperwork was filed.
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1 hour ago, joz said:
Like you get the point of the post right? It wasn't to say 'This is a good game plan' it's literally 'This is the worst possible game plan and you'll still get most of the rides done'
Yeah I definitely get the point your trying to make but it's still not a great outcome. In your worst case scenario you've ridden 5 rides. How much more could this realistically be improved? Then factor in ride outages with queue dumps, toilet breaks, if you've got kids, the fact that you're missing out on every bit of entertainment and all experiences like the batman exhibit and it's hardly a dream day. My point is that even in the realistic best case scenario being the absolute first person in the park to the time they kick you out, on a day like Monday it's just a bad time for everybody, though I'd be happy to know your thoughts on why you believe Movie World doesn't have a capacity problem.
2 hours ago, rappa said:But sadly, by and large, Australian workers at the age and level of your average ride attendant are lazy and unmotivated.
Simply, no. This is just perpetuating unfair stereotypes based on opinion. There is no evidence to back up what you're saying beyond the fact that many young employees are unwilling to put up with poor working conditions. There is plenty of evidence which shows that many young employees are overworked and underpaid with little benefits with room for career escalation despite being just as committed to their workplace as older workers. https://www.pwc.com.au/digitalpulse/impact-millennials-workplace.html https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-22/why-millennials-are-getting-stuck-in-low-paid-jobs-for-longer/9103006
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If your options are get there early and put your body and mind through a marathon of waiting, or get there late and experience very little, than you've got a capacity problem.
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3 rides in one day might be exaggerated if you are there open to close, but wait times can be pretty severe and would make it difficult to get everything done in day.
Medium wait times for Monday 23rd were the following only factoring in when the rides were open:Ride Name Median of Waits Wild West Falls Adventure Ride 110 SCOOBY-DOO Spooky Coaster Next Generation 100 DC Rivals HyperCoaster 65 GREEN LANTERN Coaster 60 JUSTICE LEAGUE 3D - The Ride 45 SUPERMAN Escape 45 Road Runner Rollercoaster 30 Junior Driving School 30 BATWING Spaceshot 30 If you did nothing but wait in line than you'd be doing that for 8.6 hours which is just a little over the 8.5 hours that the park is open. Unfortunately that's not possible, and you need to factor in breaks, eating, getting to attractions, figuring out which one to do, etc.
Here's the waits if you want to figure out how you might tackle the park on that day. Keep in mind the data is uploaded in my timezone so the timestamp is one hour forward.
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Anecdotally I've noticed that the entire New Atlantis precinct seems to be having some teething issues but I wanted to see whether there was any evidence behind that. I wont go into the software, but for research purposes I created a little system that pings the rides every 15 minutes and returns the ride state between 10 AM and 6 PM. This data is only from the 18th - 24th of Jan so there are a lot of factors that could influence why the rides are down.
Ride Name DOWN OPEN Total Pings % DOWN Vortex 161 63 224 72% Trident 101 123 224 45% Storm Coaster 25 199 224 11% Leviathan 90 134 224 40% Jet Rescue Coaster 69 155 224 31% Castaway Bay - Battle Boats 29 195 224 13% This is some comparison data for MW for the same time period:
Ride Name OPEN DOWN Total Pings % DOWN DC Rivals HyperCoaster 197 27 224 12% DOOMSDAY Destroyer 77 147 224 66% GREEN LANTERN Coaster 88 136 224 61% SCOOBY-DOO Spooky Coaster Next Generation 153 71 224 32% SUPERMAN Escape 178 46 224 21% -
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I feel most of our local procedures are security theatre to placate guests who have little idea of how theme park rides work. Modern theme park attractions are incredibly safe but after an event such as TRR people need that extra performance to feel peace of mind.
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Haha, that's fair! I can't remember early visits as a kid (except oddly for one memory on the monorail. RIP) but I do remember it being okay to navigate in 2014 when I first visited as an adult. At least back then you didn't need to walk five minutes to get from the central food court to Storm.
11 minutes ago, joz said:I quite like going to cities I've never been to and being lost and exploring.
I don't think that's weird. There's something fun about getting lost in an unknown place. I love going to a theme park for the first time where I actually need to use a map to get around and everything is new.
Wet n Wild SurfRider taken off website
in Theme Park Discussion
Posted
Great points! Didn't consider those areas.
I enjoy counting credits when I'm on a trip to get an idea of what's on offer within a park and keep a faux diary of sorts, but I despise talking about them outside of travelling. It makes me feel like a wanker.