Dreamworld's new IP applications 2022

[New display name]

Ardent Leisure recently lodged 2 new IP applications.

 

1. Kenny and Belinda's Dreamland

(Amusement parks; Amusement park services; Amusement rides (entertainment); Conducting of exhibitions for amusement purposes; Provision of amusement facilities; Children's adventure playground services; Theme park services)

2.Jungle Rush

(Amusement park services; Amusement parks; Amusement rides (entertainment); Theme park services)

 

Is this what DW was hinting at during their FY22 results presentation?

Kenny & Belinda's Dreamland replacing ABC kids?

[Rivals]

Kenny and Belinda’s Dreamland i could definitely see replacing ABC Kids, but i'm very curious as to Jungle Rush would be for. Would it be for a new ride or new area?

[New display name]

Jungle Cruise?

[Smol bean]

Since both Jungle rush and Dreamland were filed around the same time I think that jungle rush might have something to do with dreamland. if this takes over ABC I'm thinking Jungle Rush will be either a kids coaster like Boating school blast to take over the area of the pirate ship and fun maze or a dark ride in the big red car building. I could also see Dreamland taking over DreamWorks and jungle rush is the name of a cheap retheme to Madagascar but that sounds the most unlikely.

[themagician]

This IP as a replacement for Dreamworks or ABC would be a great fit, but my hope is it for ABC because that area needs some major love and there’s so much opportunity and potential for this area. And I love the park is pushing Kenny and Belinda as an IP within the park because they’re a key part of the parks identity. 

[Ashley]

 

13 minutes ago, themagician said:

This IP as a replacement for Dreamworks or ABC would be a great fit, but my hope is it for ABC because that area needs some major love and there’s so much opportunity and potential for this area. And I love the park is pushing Kenny and Belinda as an IP within the park because they’re a key part of the parks identity. 

I agree, ABC kids world needs a reno, and I personally think this would be a great idea.

But in saying that a reno of Dreamworks is also due I think

[Natti_amusements]

I think dreamland is a re-theme of the ABC kids area for sure. The last visit I took to Dreamworld was about 6 months ago, and let’s just say that ABC world has seen better days lol. My hope is that jungle rush is a dark ride, cause Dreamworld desperately needs one, I hope to think it might be a shooter style attraction.

[Cactus_Matt]

It'd be cool if Jungle Rush could be a new attraction that utilizes the lake (is it a lake? more like a water donut) as that area especially the island is the only part of the park that could pull off looking like a jungle. Or it could be a retheme of MDMC, just change the motorbikes to animals.

[Natti_amusements]

4 minutes ago, Cactus_Matt said:

It'd be cool if Jungle Rush could be a new attraction that utilizes the lake (is it a lake? more like a water donut) as that area especially the island is the only part of the park that could pull off looking like a jungle. Or it could be a retheme of MDMC, just change the motorbikes to animals.

Yeah that would be pretty lack-luster if it was just a re-theme to MDMC

Edited October 25, 2022 by Natti_amusements

[Rivals]

a retheme of MDMC to Jungle Rush does makes sense, they just dropped the Mc Doohan licensing and it would give the Dreamland area even more space to work with and add new rides. Have the entrance to the area be just past the train crossing (on current ABC kids area side), tear down the building across from the MDMC entrance and add a flat, build a mini coaster where the kids maze is, and a dark ride in the Big Red Car building. 

Edited October 25, 2022 by Rivals

[joz]

Nothing says Jungle like a heap of gumtrees...

 

Surely it's a very generic retheme of Dreamworks with a new name for Madagascar?

[franky]

Didn't they just get new trains for motocoaster? Seems like a terrible financial decision to have to dump the bike theme.

My thoughts are that (if DreamWorks is done), than Escape from Madagascar will be renamed to Jungle Rush. It's kinda already Jungle themed, but without the IP association. Problem with my thoughts are that it doesn't factor in any of the other DreamWorks attractions

[Ogre]

Maybe Dreamworks land as a whole is becoming Kenny and Belinda's? If it's a "dreamland" you can easily keep the jungle/fantasy/chinese theming for it. 

Also, didn't they say a couple months ago that Wiggles World was getting a refresh? Retheme ABC to a new, larger Wiggles World for the toddlers and have Dreamland be for the kids.

[TBoy]

Unfortunately I could only see 1 new kids ride coming, with Kenny and Belinda's Dreamland replacing either ABC Kids or Dreamworks. 

One little kids ride won't make up for:

• Buzzsaw
• TOT2
• Rocky Hollow Log Ride
• River Rapids
• Big Brother House
• Wipeout
• Dreamworld Cinema
• Big Red Car
• Giggle and Hoot Hop and Hoot
• FlowRider
• Reef Diver
• V8 Supercars RedLine

That is at least 12 rides gone since 2013. Movie World have only closed 3 since 2013 (Arkham, Sylvester and Dodgem) and Sea World have only removed Viking/Sky High Skyway since 2013. Not even Steel Taipan made up for the lost rides, in which the first two were victims of ST. The Gold Rush Country area has been hit hardest with all rides but Giant Drop removed and Steel Taipan coming in, removing the others.

Edited October 25, 2022 by TBoy
more info

[Ogre]

2 hours ago, Ogre said:

Also, didn't they say a couple months ago that Wiggles World was getting a refresh?

(can't edit my other post) Had a looky and found what I was referring to:

"The kids love the wildlife area, Slater tells Young, but, she says, the rides for young children are looking a bit tired. 

“We’ll have some news on that soon,” says Yong. “We just signed a new deal with The Wiggles and you can imagine we’re going to do a lot with that.”

Yong is close-lipped about the rides to be announced before Christmas, apart from saying they’ll be family focused, themed and “highly immersive”. 

“I visualise Grandma or Grandpa riding with a young grandchild and having a very good experience, as opposed to big, scary thrill rides. That’s part of what we do, but the next few things are very much about family and intergenerational experience.”

Source: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/they-were-very-dark-days-inside-story-dreamworld-boss-reveals-how-close-theme-park-came-to-closure/news-story/64593ab8fd18fefee06bf2a0c88f7878

Interesting...

[Slick]

7 hours ago, TBoy said:

That is at least 12 rides gone since 2013.

This is my list:

Closed Attractions & Experiences as of 25th October, 2016

1. Thunder River Rapids
2. Eureka Mountain Mine Ride
3. Wipeout
4. Kevil Hill
5. Flowrider
6. Corroboree
7. Woolshed
8. Buzzsaw
9. Tower of Terror
10. Old Time Photos
11. Big Red Car
12. Wildlife Nocturnal House 
13. Rocky Hollow Log Ride
14. Dreamworld Cinema
15. Giggle & Hoot Kid’s Ride
16. Dreamworld Parkway Bakery
17. Boost Juice
18. Big Brother Cafe
19. Rivertown Restaurant
20. Billabong Restaurant
21. Parkway Cafe
22. Sky Voyager Shop
23. Peter Brock’s Garage
24. V8 SuperCars Redline
25. Big Brother House
26. Dreamworld Amphitheatre
27. Play School Art Room
28. Trolls Village

————

Ride/Attractions Opened as of 25th October, 2016

1. Sky Voyager
2. LEGO Store
3. Play School Wheel
4. Steel Taipan
5. Fully6

Ride/Attractions Closed as of 25th October, 2016

1. Thunder River Rapids
2. Mine Ride
3. Dreamworld Cinema
4. Wipeout
5. Flowrider
6. Buzzsaw
7. Tower of Terror
8. Log Flume
9. Giggle & Hoot Hop Ride
10. Big Red Car Ride

[Rivals]

When you look at the list of closed rides, a lot of them were old, unreliable or had low ridership. TOT2, Buzzsaw, Wipeout were all very unreliable with Buzzsaw also suffering from low ridership. Flowrider made no sense were it was and v8 Supercars had very little traction, same with RHLR after the TRR accident. The Cinema and TRR have already been replaced with big, reliable attractions. I’d much prefer quality over quantity attractions.

Edited October 25, 2022 by Rivals

[Slick]

8 minutes ago, Rivals said:

When you look at the list of closed rides, a lot of them were old, unreliable or had low ridership. TOT2, Buzzsaw, Wipeout were all very unreliable with Buzzsaw also suffering from low ridership. Flowrider made no sense were it was and v8 Supercars had very little traction, same with RHLR after the TRR accident. The Cinema and TRR have already been replaced with big, reliable attractions. I’d much prefer quality over quantity attractions.

That’s fine to justify from an enthusiast’s perspective, and the average guest sees that list wildly differently which is reflected in the different micro-economic circumstances between Village and Ardent. Simply put - rider capacity doesn’t matter - people see multiple, multiple major iconic intergenerational rides closing and they’ve been replaced by, at best, two rides. Over the other side of the road, the experience doesn’t “feel” gutted. And by extension, whatever rides or experiences that have closed have generally been either directly replaced or plussed elsewhere. Easy to see then why one park is struggling to meet capacity and why the other is constantly receiving “praise” for having such short queue lines.

Edited October 25, 2022 by Slick

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

The average guest isn't counting the closure of a bakery in the exit store. (They also aren't counting the Lego Store as an added attraction either, just to be fair).

Like - fair suck of the sav - The GC as a whole has had numerous ride losses without direct replacements on both sides of the fence, but including food outlets to inflate the list is exaggerating it a bit far. Many F&B outlets haven't reopened in many places simply because there isn't the crowd to sustain it (except in peak periods and hence why Rick's opened only for the school holidays). I recently visited Singapore (TR to come eventually) and the majority of food outlets around Universal were closed too. 

I would suggest (my own opinion) that the reason for lower crowds at DW is not because it feels gutted (because IMO, it really doesn't) but because of the stigma of the fact that they killed people, and the past years of recovery were botched horribly. 

Even absent the removed attractions, I've had a far more pleasant day at Dreamworld recently simply because ride wait times were reasonable, staff were pleasant, and the park was clean. 

Village constantly struggles to meet capacity because they've constantly given away the gate, oversold, removed high capacity attractions and replaced them with lower capacity ones that are less reliable, and then hobble their staff by imposing ridiculous arbitrary and unnecessary operational restrictions instead of encouraging them to be (safely) efficient. But as i've said repeatedly - until people vote with their wallet, nobody is going to take notice of the problems.

The current flux at Dreamworld is the result of people voting with their wallet, but recovery takes time.

 

[themagician]

So if we were to only include closed attractions and their location/area replacements:

- Thunder River Rapids replaced by Steel Taipan

- Dreamworld Cinema replaced by Sky Voyager

- Wipeout not replaced

- Flowrider not replaced 

- Buzzsaw not replaced 

- Tower of Terror not replaced

- Log Flume not replaced

- Giggle & Hoot Hop Ride location not replaced, but they did add to Play School Wheel

- Big Red Car Ride not replaced

I didn’t include Mine Ride in this list because it closed many many years ago, it was just SNBO until recently

[Slick]

1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

The average guest isn't counting the closure of a bakery in the exit store. (They also aren't counting the Lego Store as an added attraction either, just to be fair).

Exactly, that's why I was quite specific around "iconic intergenerational rides" and have separate lists for that. All guests can tangibly articulate the ride difference, and feel the fact that it's been gutted at an intangible yet experiential level. At six years and one day, I think we can lay the incident to bed as the actual reason why attendance suffers now. If anything, the incident lay bare an unsustainable business strategy (low CAPEX yield, lack of master planning for ride replacement and procurement, unsustainable OPEX and systems practices) and the current strategy of contracting the offering and plussing through non-attraction initiatives simply isn't resonating.

1/2 FY '20 for Ardent clearly shows that had the pandemic not occurred that a return to profitability would've happened that fiscal year. By extension, literally the rest of the entire global industry is doing pre-pandemic attendance and 40%+ per cap spend at the minimum. The issue isn't the people, because they're spending practically everywhere else but at Dreamworld.

1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Village constantly struggles to meet capacity because they've constantly given away the gate, oversold,

And I don't know how Village are giving away the gate when their prices are the highest on record now. Furthermore, Fright Nights is the most expensive one they've run by design - they're making a move on supply and demand to bring the feeling of oversold events down.

1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

removed high capacity attractions and replaced them with lower capacity ones that are less reliable,

Is this a reference to Viking's and Storm? I'm not sure which rides you're talking about.

1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

until people vote with their wallet, nobody is going to take notice of the problems.

This is the thing though - people are voting with their wallets, and they'd rather Village's offering over Ardent's, perhaps now more then ever. But to be honest that's always been the case - the purchase ratio has always been somewhere around 1:4-2:5 - now I wonder if it's more like 1:5 though.

Edited October 26, 2022 by Slick

[TBoy]

3 minutes ago, themagician said:

 

- Buzzsaw not replaced 

- Tower of Terror not replaced

 

I would say those two were replaced by Steel Taipan, as one of the reason Buzzsaw was closed was due to the proximity of the two rides and TOT2 disappeared due to “future investment in the park”. Like I have said, Gold Rush Country is a shell of its former self, with all rides from a few years ago gone except Giant Drop and only replaced by ST.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

4 minutes ago, Slick said:

At six years and one day, I think we can lay the incident to bed as the actual reason why attendance suffers now.

It is still very much a factor - one only has to read comments from regular folk on socials about where to visit. However the main reason it's still a factor is because they absolutely botched their recovery - for several years - with plans of ampitheatres, adventure rivers, return of the mine ride, rebuild of wipeout, et al. 

I think much of the time Osborne was CEO should be written off, just my opinion.

6 minutes ago, Slick said:

And I don't know how Village are giving away the gate when their prices are the highest on record now.

I'm not suggesting they are now, but they did. Boiled frog syndrome at play. The thing is - people ARE starting to notice the higher prices, and the lack of ongoing investment. Thats all we've heard on social this year.

7 minutes ago, Slick said:

I'm not sure which rides you're talking about.

Losing rides and attractions like bermuda, LTRR, PASS, studio tour - the loss of experiences has been replaced with rides that simply cannot physically offer the same capacity.

9 minutes ago, Slick said:

people are voting with their wallets, and they'd rather Village's offering over Ardent's

That's the dichotomy at play here though - people are still paying to visit village, based on their last trip being better at village. It isn't any longer - and that's why the socials are what they are at present. The tide is turning in my opinion, and the efforts village are taking now to try to correct capacity and overselling issues are evidence that they've noticed - its a question of whether it may be too late for the folks whose annual trip in 2022 left them with a bad taste. Next years plans are based on this years trip, so we may see the tide swing over the next 6-12 months unless Village can rejig things a bit quicker

(and to be perfectly honest, losing some of the attendance (at least at Movie World) would be a boon for village as it would be the easiest correction to many of their current issues - the fight will be whether those losses are diverted to Sea World or Dreamworld.... and only time will tell.

[Natti_amusements]

From personal experience of not living anywhere near the gold coast, hence having to always buy day tickets like the average GP, I can say I always prioritise MW because of it's collection of rides and rollercoasters, only every going to Dreamworld when I feel like there's something new there eg. ST. However, whenever I've been to dreamworld in recent years, it's always an enjoyable experience, and while it may not have the better experiences or rollercoaster compared to it's competition, I always have a better day there because of the friendly staff, clean park & the fact that lines are a no show. If they we're to add a dark ride, water ride and maybe another good rollercoaster in the next 10 or years or so, I think that it would be the better park in my opinion, but I guess that the GP are put off of going because of the TRR accident. Only time will tell ig.

 I also noticed that the IP application for Jungle rush is due in 2024. Maybe it's actually something substantial to compete with WoO that year, and not just a re-theme of something.   

Edited October 26, 2022 by Natti_amusements

[Chalky]

1 hour ago, Slick said:

By extension, literally the rest of the entire global industry is doing pre-pandemic attendance and 40%+ per cap spend at the minimum. The issue isn't the people, because they're spending practically everywhere else but at Dreamworld.

Fully agree, Dreamworld attendance is poor, although it is acknowledged that they are making efforts is changing foot traffic through a number of seasonal themes such as the recent winter festival and so forth. 

Dreamworld since the change in hand of management through spilling of the previous board have struggled and without expediting their long-term plan will continue to fall behind other Gold Coast theme parks. 

Foot traffic between Movie World and Dreamworld over most recent school holidays should provide a real concern about Dreamwold's ability to be competitive.  Movie World was buzzing with crowds, but Dreamworld lacked the same level of foot traffic.  Maybe a change in Dreamworld board of directors is needed for rejuvenation of foot traffic and appreciation of revenue and thus, additional rides and attractions.  

Currently, Movie World is heads and tails ahead of Dreamworld in most aspects in my opinion.