Slick

Was in earlier - Wipeout and Motocoaster are both open, so no worries there, but Buzzsaw, Tower and Sidewinder are all closed.

Had a quick walk around, here's what I noted: work is barrelling ahead on i-Ride - there's plenty of folks on-site cracking into construction Looks like they're gearing up to start work on the Lazy River in WhiteWater World - plenty of flags on-site. How does this relate to i-Ride you might ask? There's additional temporary buildings on-site near the cinema and a lot of buzz around the reservoir - all signs point to them using the dirt they pull up for the Lazy River to help fill in the reservoir (when I say all signs I mean I easily over-heard a few hard-hats chatting about it from the Giant Drop walkway.)

Yeah, and? Hundreds of zoos don't have rides and seem to do great, just as much as there's other "SeaWorlds" that have a ton more rides and seem to do great, too. There's no rule for what exactly to do here - not all hotels need to have pools to be successful just as much as not all cars need four doors to sell well. But keeping with the car analogy - if i'm going to build a 4WD, I expect it to have a 4WD engine, not something out of a Corolla that's underpowered and not what I expected or paid for. That's Sea World's problem - from the perspective of either a day ticket (where you're paying the same as Dreamworld or Movie World) or as a season pass holder wanting to get a full day's worth of fun, it doesn't stack up compared to the other parks anymore, and it's compounded by the fact that for the longest time it did. So many things have been pulled out and either not replaced or have been filled in with cheap alternatives that hyper-focusses the product to such a specific age group that it alienates others. Continuing on that thought, the mentality of "competing against your own product" is so, so fundamentally flawed that it's a big contributor to why Village are so far in the hole, in my mind. It's like saying you don't need Paradise Country because you have animals at Sea World, or you don't need AOS because there's a stunt show at Movie World, or Movie World's kids area is okay to be left half-arsed and shitty because Sea World's is a bit better so they should just go there. If your products can't stand on their own feet, they're probably shit. It's how Dreamworld have managed to stay competitive - they've got a great full day product whilst every other park is still, at best, a solid half day product. It's not a hard thing to fix either - Village just needed to maintain what they had in the first place (cough, Skyway, cough Vikings). If their products can't stand on their own two feet as diverse & quality day experiences worth revisiting then as a park owner you're going to fail on driving revenue because there's no reason for guests to come back, and that's where the money is. Funny... other theme park chains have figured this out and they seem to be do fine.

Let's be clear firstly - the fact that Sea World isn't a badass theme park that can keep up with Dreamworld & Warner Bros. Movie World in terms of attractions (which it did very well for nearly twenty years) is 100% a management oversight. The shift from "excellent standalone park" to "an upsell for Movie World customers and a playground for resort customers" should've never happened, and the result of that choice is a park that in some aspects still can't hold a candle to the park that it was over a decade ago. Will VRL sell Sea World? Last time I checked, the park, the resort and the resort's conference centre make great coin, so probably not. But should they be doing more instead of letting it cruise on autopilot like Wet 'n' Wild GC has done? Absolutely, VRTP has a lot to gain from the current CEO being less part time on-site nice guy & more like the Williams, Menzies and Longhursts of old, who were laser focussed and unabashed with their passion to get it right.

For a kiwi in New Plymouth you sure are switched on. :P

The bus is now leaving Coneyor Street, Cameron Park, NSW.

Good thing someone is "standing by Dreamworld" because not many are these days.

Yeah this isn't Back To The Future The Ride - even though it was a large IMAX Theatre at one point in its life, it was still the smallest IMAX (70mm/GT) screen in the world - space is tight in there, which makes me continually wonder why do it there at all if you're going to literally replace everything. Must be tight on coin to want to use the footings that badly.

Guest communications at its finest - "why say anything official and have a relationship with our guests when a Facbeook page can make an announcement for us?"

Update Time.

Does anyone know the actual time these rides have been down for now? I believe the start dates on the maintenance page aren't accurate. I'd almost dare say there's a history of screencaps on some Parkz threads that might be a clue.

Yeah, if not drink play Fortnite or vape or do whatever young kids are allowed to do these days.

Fair to say I think enthusiasts often forget we're having fun talking about having fun. I don't think the formula for a good community is hard - we're always happy to see curious, interested and passionate folks on here sharing their thoughts and ideas for other like-minded folk to read and reply to. Conversely, I'm personally not happy to see people bullying/trolling/backseat moderating just as much as i'm not happy to see members use this as a dumping ground for their stream of consciousness to exist. You get my drift? Chillout, have a beer, use the search function, have fun.

Is this a statement, a question, or a thought? Either way, i'm glad the community is making good use of the fountain of improbability.

Having the 3 main roller-coasters down at the same time is a bit odd, particularly with not a lot of chatter from park or enthusiasts. Have folks simply switched off and don't care much about what's happening at Dreamworld anymore? I dunno, would be a shame if that were the case, but here we are. What i'd like to see done better is even just the communication (I know, classic Slick trope, blah blah comms & marketing etc. etc.) because particularly during school holidays families are planning entire holidays around Dreamworld and I imagine it'd be frustrating in terms of planning and also quite worrying in terms of safety (constantly pushing back opening dates doesn't instil confidence), and a lot more could be done to alleviate both IMO.