grrofunger
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Posts posted by grrofunger
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I agree with the previous comment that the park has gone downhill since Mark left, however i again bought season passes for the family this year and have been twice already.
Once on opening day Saturday and then also yesterday.
Day 1: Season Pass Family Holders were getting a fair bit of attitude from staff at the members entrance for not adding all family members names to the passes (or photos) - I still can't see where i was supposed to do that online before attending but went to guest services during the day and had it done.
I would have expected that opening day the park should be in tip top condition and almost looking its best for the new season? Far from it.
The Barrels in Dragons Kingdom weren't taking riders just after opening because staff were scrubbing them with some orange oil and disinfectant.
The boat ride in Dragons Kingdom had visible cobwebs all over it and a black spider comfortably tucked in a corner
So after getting "into trouble" at the gate and then those two rides being the first experience i was a bit bemused.
Got out of Dragons Kingdom and went to Water Mountain where we were hit with the scales, was very much a wtf moment and you could see the confusion and annoyance on peoples faces. I had a chuckle at the shit spelling but i thought the lights were way too big and the process was a bit crap/poorly implemented
Got to lunch time and we went and bought food from Kahuna Cafe or whatever its called and then went to sit in TIki Bar area as it was practically empty, shaded and had plenty of spare tables. I got everyone setup with their food, took a bite of my chicken wrap (which was very nice) and then got told off by staff for sitting in the area because it's for Tiki Bar customers only.... I was literally going to buy a beer...which i asked if i did could i sit there and the answer was "YES" ... so being a stubborn prick i said well i was going to but not now... looked around at all the empty tables in the area ... finished eating and left for more rides.
Kids had a good day but i felt service throughout the whole day was quite poor and the park was feeling a bit shit.
I was surprised to read somewhere that the day was a sellout? Park was practically empty and queues were basically non existent.
Next Trip on Day 3 of the season:
Kids wanted to go again, so back we went.
Spelling fixed and covers put over the lights in the pre-line scales so its only barely a pinhole which is much more private and only visible to the user. On the scales right before the ride there is also tape over the guest side so only the operator can see the light.
So there is opportunity to check yourself before getting in line and saving some embarrassment of being kicked out in front of everyone.
I can no longer go on Rocky Rapids, I have no idea why it is a 90kg limit only but its a pretty shit slide anyway. Though my kids did enjoy going all together down it.
Despite signs on Water Mountain saying all slides open all day, Rapids was only operational every second hour for an hour.
Same with Sea Serpents, only operational every second hour for an hour.
Again park was practically empty and no queues
I didn't go on Abyss as i have a sore neck at the moment, forgot to ask my daughter if there scales on it but apparently there isn't.
There are scales on Kraken that all 4 riders have to stand on at the same time. I can see plenty of people not noticing the pre-line scales up there, lining up for ages in peak time (if that ever happens based on feedback and day 1 supposed sellout) and then getting kicked off at the front of the line if they are overweight.... though Kraken can go with 2 riders at 320kg limit... people shouldn't be getting kicked off the ride.
I think they have clearly had an insurance risk assessor through and couldn't demonstrate how they were previously managing weight limits so had to implement the scales to get their risk rating and premiums down.
Chairlift is definitely not operational.
I'm feeling a bit flat and annoyed about spending a ridiculous amount this year (prices were jacked up) for the premium pass so we could go in the summer holidays, kids did enjoy it but we didn't stay full days like we have in the past. (could have been because they were bored after getting extra rides in on everything and no time wasted on lineups...which should be a positive...??)
I think the "fat shaming' angle that has been portrayed has gone too far and deep and they will struggle to recover fully from it.
I'm not looking forward to the 'unvaxxed shaming' when the rule comes in mid season that only vaxxed can enter.
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themagician covers a chunk of it
plus its not exactly legal and singapore authorities arent exactly "friendly" so you are risking your money for no real reason.
there are tonnes of hotels in singapore.
the singapore MRT is excellent, just find a decent cheap hotel near a MRT station and you are set
absolutely no need to stuff about or take any risk with airbnb
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do not airbnb in singapore
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18 hours ago, Redboost said:
For those who've gone to Legoland Malaysia, whats the best way/time to get there? I understand there's a 1.5 hour wait at the border? So that would suggest leaving early in the morning to get to the border for processing, spending the day there, then returning in the evening. Do we have to wait at the border again in the evening for processing? Would be a very long day for the kids. Would we be better off just staying a night at Legoland? Or not enough to do to justify the expense?
I used a private driver, had to pay cash but got the legoland tickets off him and checked vs online price and the tickets were cheaper. We splashed out on a top luxury vehicle think the return journey was $280SGD - definitely can be done cheaper.
We were picked up at our hotel at 8am and were at Legoland around 9:30am. It's not always 1.5 hours at the border.
When we went we were allowed to stay in the car to be processed, just handed all the passports to the driver and he gave them to the authorities and we were verified by waving through the window.
I believe now that has been changed and every person has to get out of every vehicle at the border. So this may add more time.
We were then picked up from Legoland at 6pm and were back by the pool at the hotel in Singapore by 7:30pm. (yes, you need to be processed at the border again..including filling out those annoying immigration cards)
It was a longish day but the kids had an absolute blast , it was one of the top highlights of the week long family trip.
As for legoland - there is a theme park and a water park. We were really lucky both were very empty on the day we went.
Water park we did from 10am to approx 12:30pm and we did plenty of stuff there, multiple rides on slides etc - but there were no queues at all.
Had a quick lunch in the themepark and covered off that whole park by closing time (again-no queues) which from memory was 5:30pm - we were allowed to shop up until 6pm and spent a fortune on lego.
If the park was remotely busy there is no way 1 day would cut it and there is enough there to justify staying overnight and doing 1 full day in each park. Or half day water and 1.5 days theme park.
I will say i went there with low expectations and it far exceeded them so my review of the place may be a touch too much on the 'glowing' side.
Kids had a blast and i guess that was the main thing, they enjoyed it way more than Universal. Ages at the time were 10,8,4
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Good point on the travel to the zoo , definitely cab for that one.
I also recommend NOT staying on Sentosa too
And again, yep most shops wont open until 10am or even 11am for some but then they stay open until about that time pm as well.
Fort Siloso was a good tip, i found it interesting from a historical persepctive, others may find it really boring.
Zipline is still there also a high ropes obstacle course as well which i enjoyed. Has 3 different height/difficulty levels.
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5 hours ago, ads086 said:
- I used Uber in Singapore, so it did/does exist.
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Yep, used to be there but not anymore
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2 hours ago, Redboost said:
After hitting the GC every year for the last 10 years or so, the family has decided its time for a change (that and the fact that the GC parks are in a shambles at the moment with their offerings). So we are planning on hitting Singapore next year. After doing some research, here are the things/places we'd like to try/visit:
* Universal Studios
* Singapore Zoo/River Safari/Night Zoo
* Gardens by the Bay
* Orchard Road shopping
* Sentosa Island Aquarium/Luge/waterpark
*Pop over to Legoland Malaysia (if time allows)
So just wanting to get some travel advice before I start booking everything.
1. Is there a ideal time of year to visit? Taking into account we want to avoid any major holidays and busy periods and bad weather. Also costs 😂
2. How many days would be considered enough to see all the above and then some?
3. Are there any websites that you can recommend for themepark/transport/attraction tickets/travel bookings?
4. How much time should we allow for the above individual attractions? I understand Singapore Zoo/River Safari/Night Zoo are all next to each other - can these all be done in a day (albeit a long day)? Can Universal Studios be knocked over in a day without rushing about or would 2 days be more ideal to take in all the park has to offer?
5. We are going as a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids under 12) - is there anything not listed that anyone can recommend we add to our itinerary?
6. What's considered the best way of getting around - MRT, taxis, buses, hire car?
7. What's the best area to stay in close to public transport, shopping, restaurants and attraction.
I'm sure I'll have other questions but this will do for now - thanks in advance!
Phew...where to start... i love Singapore and visit every couple of months !
You're list is pretty good, i'll try and work through it..
1. Singapore weather is pretty much the same all year round...very hot and humid and scattered rainstorms. you might get a bit more rain in december-march and june-september.
2. *Universal Studios - 1 day is enough
* Singapore Zoo/River Safari/Night Zoo - i reccommend 2 days for this - otherwise its a massive day. i've done it all in 1 day with kids and it killed us..we were too exhausted to really enjoy the night safari which gets packed. you could do zoo and river safari in a day and if you want to do night zoo do it another night... if you need to skip 1.. skip night zoo - its overrated IMO
* Gardens by the Bay - If you go here you must do the cloud forest and the flower dome. you could do this place in one afternoon/night - must do at night for the lights.
* Orchard Road shopping - meh, boring - singapore has shopping everywhere - same same all over the place.
* Sentosa Island Aquarium/Luge/waterpark - sentosa needs a good few days to explore all the activities - plenty to do.
*Pop over to Legoland Malaysia (if time allows) - if you can , make time for this - was a huge highlight of our family trip. we went as a family last year august and did the water park and theme park in one day , covered everything as we had the whole park pretty much to ourselves, if the place was busy no way could it be done in one day. we hired a private driver to take and return us, made the journey and border crossing much easier - leave plenty of time to get there , at least 1.5 hours to allow for delays at the border and traffic.
3. Klook
4. I answered in 2.
5.depends on what you are into, you have covered the typical main things. really explore the sentosa website for all the activities available.
6. the MRT is first class - so easy to use , cheap and gets you pretty much everywhere with ease. otherwise taxi's are cheap and can be found on an app called grab which is like uber (singapore dont have uber)
7. Pretty much anywhere, but just stay near an MRT station - i recommend finding a serviced apartment but most require 7 days minimum, hotels are expensive
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10 hours ago, troll under the coaster said:
It is expensive, but the VIP ticket for Universal is worth looking at.
You get breakfast, VIP front of line access to all rides and attractions for the entire day. While on the tour, the guide will hold your bags etc to prevent you needing to use the lockers, you also get lunch and a VIP tour of the backlot, which is a bit longer than the standard but, the bus is airconditioned, and you do get to get out and walk around some of the set areas (we got to walk around the little europe and war of the worlds sets.
I recommend booking an early morning our time. even if you book a later one the VIP pass is valid beforehand. we used it to sneak a ride on Harry Potter before the tour started.
+1
I was about to type this suggestion.
Did the 8:45am VIP tour in March , it was awesome
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On 11/07/2018 at 7:21 PM, iwerks said:
I love VR gaming, but currently there’s not much comparison. We have Optimus Gaming here in Perth, which has up to 8 players, but the clear market leader would have to be Zero Latency, with their free range multiplayer games. They’ve set up shop on so many continents now. Just curious to see what you think of their product.
I did the zombie shooting at zero latency in vegas.
Was bloody awesome fun
Bit expensive for half an hours fun but fun nonetheless.
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From memory that menu looks better than what was on offer at Top Golf in Vegas but i was pretty drunk there and ate mainly sweet potato fries which were pretty average
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Thanks for sharing this, had never heard of this guy before.... now i am hooked on his videos.
Yes, there is a huge wanker element to him but the guy is a bloody genius scammer.
Some pretty good viewing amongst his videos
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On 3/21/2018 at 1:26 PM, STE4LTH said:
Hey guys, I’m an avid golfer (handicap 9) and I’ve recently been to TopGolf Vegas as well as KDV and the likes.
Topgolf is a completely different experience to a typical driving range as others have already said. I wouldn’t go to topgolf just to hit golf balls, it’s designed for friends and a great night out.
The clubs they give you at topgolf are there for a bash around (not sure if you can bring your own) so don’t expect to be hitting them like you normally do.
I think pricing is very reasonable and they will usually have bands playing and entertainment on so you can hang around for longer.
Just my 2 cents 😀
I have just been to Vegas and went to Topgolf as well.
I'm a casual golfer and really enjoyed Topgolf, its more than a driving range.
Beers were flowing , food was being delivered.
Plenty of different 'games' to choose from for competition and banter with mates.
The screen replays your shot and gives you info like speed,drift etc -
I can see it being a big success. Was pretty fun.
(you can rack up a pretty big bill in a hurry)
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On 4/2/2018 at 11:47 PM, Gazza said:
Universal Studios is definitely a must do ..The studio tour of Course, but the Harry Potter and Transformers rides are worth the price alone.A day is enough, and you can fork out for a VIP pass to skip the lines, but I think it's unnecessary.
I was there yesterday, most queues were 60 minutes and Harry Potter was 2 and a half hours.
I did the VIP tour and had unlimited front of line, well worth the money.
The additional tour benefits and our tour guide were amazing and so was the included VIP buffet lunch.
The motion rides made me sick. I prefer the Singapore versions of Mummy and Jurassic Park.
The park for me was mainly all about the studio tour and VIP is definitely the way to go IMO
We are staying in Downtown LA - caught the red line metro train there - was about an hour door to door. Short walk to a Universal Shuttle when you get to Universal City station or you can walk up the massive hill to the entrance if you like.
Uber home was about 20 minutes. The park was open to 10pm last night.
There are also shops, cinemas and restaurants and an iFly outside the park in Universal City which can soak up some time and $$
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3 hours ago, Mark Shaw said:
Lol. You are way off. Rev too high, margin too low. By some distance. That's all I can say.
Lol. thanks mate. Love it
You had that place running on an impressive margin then 👍🏻
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4 minutes ago, Tim Dasco said:
@grrofunger there annual attendance is just over 500,000 a season. Also investment has been 40 million in 7 years.
Average of 2857 per day then, ok, better than i expected. Good !
40 mil over 7 is obviously much more than 27 mil over 6
Not sustainable
I'll reiterate here also that i am a huge supporter of the park have spent a lot of money on season passes, food, guest passes, fast passes etc over the past 4 or so years so i am not trying to nay say for the hell of it or denigrate the place but i feel some expectations here are very unrealistic.
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Some random maths which mean absolutely nothing but i'm bored at work so lets play....
Open approx 175 days a year
Maximum capacity 5500 (from when they locked the gates december 2015)
Say they got on average across the full season 2000 visitors per day ever day (generous)
2000 x 175 = 350,000 guests per season
lets pretend 35% of those are season ticket holders and use the full adult rate for each of $169 = $20.7 mill
lets pretend 65% of those day guests paid full adult admission of $58 for 1 day = $13.2 mill
We have gate takings on these wild assumptions of $33 mill
lets pretend each person spent $10 on food/merch etc every single time they visited = $3.5 mill
I haven't allowed the plethora people not buying food/merch, child entry $ values, discounted tickets, etc
In this scenario we have income of approx $37.5 mill
After wages,R&M,advertising,admin,tax etc - all outgoings a profit margin of circa 15% would probably be considered healthy
So we have profit of approx $5.5 mil a year
I would peg true profit probably closer to $2 mil
cue Mark Shaw to tell me i'm way off...
Either way recovering $12 mill (abyss) and $7 mill (kraken) and $7.5 mill (goliath) and was it half a mill to fill in that old lake? whats that $27 mill just there in the past 6 years?
It aint sustainable - even at $5 mil per year profit (yes i understand 6 x 5 is greater than 27)
no way AW is generating $5 mil a year profit.
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You have to remember the park only opens half the year and even then most weeks only half the week to recoup all this investment
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There is no way on earth the current rate of capex injection is sustainable for any reasonable return on investment.
I can not see it continuing, the owner has very deep pockets but everyone has a limit.
Of course the CEO will project that it will continue, and i believe the park will continue to improve and invest in small ways and add small attractions (like kiddie water slides) but expecting major capex and rides in the 10s of millions every 2 years to continue is unrealistic.
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Hybrid Theme Park/Water park works perfectly fine.
It is definitely a unique place and one i am glad i have on my doorstep.
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If i had to describe Abyss and was only allowed to use the words "smooth" or "rough" smooth would win hands down.
There are much much much worse coasters around.
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hmm, we'll see..
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nothing is coming
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Thanks @AlexB
Not sure i will be able to stretch to 3 days at Disney but will see.
I'll pay for whatever fast pass/vip/whatever option there is everywhere.
Good tip re: Vegas hotel, cheers
Thinking of going through www.bulletsandburgers.com for a helicopter out to the canyon then some shooting... and a burger ! to save on driving time.
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I'm off to LA for the first time in March will be there for 12 days
So much to do, not sure i am going to have time to get to everything
Definitely want to do Disneyland just cos Disneyland (2 days?) Is it worth staying overnight in the resort?
I love Universal Studios Singapore so would assume LA would be better and i would enjoy it (1 day?)
Six flags Magic Mountain being jam packed with coasters (1 day?)
Knotts Berry Farm seems to get good reviews (1 day?)
Anything else?
Want to get to Vegas for a few days, thinking of driving and seeing the canyon and some other weird and wonderful detours
Must see some NBA games, maybe a dodgers game
Venice Beach
Plus the usual sights i guess ?
Adventure World Perth 'fat shaming'
in Theme Park Discussion
Posted
Abyss has a test seat.
That apology from Sharry is hopeless, just added more fuel to the fire.
He needs to go.