Movie World Maintenance Schedule 2025

[themagician]

1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

They don't care about the guest experience. they care about reducing costs to maximise profit. 

Not caring about the guest experience means crowd levels have reduced, which means they have less profit. I don’t know how to run a business, but surely that’s pretty obvious right?

[New display name]

Crowd levels have reduced at every park @themagician.  Village and Dreamworld are handling the downturn differently.

1. DW have reduce hours to keep staff levels down.  (not even being bothered opening WWW)

2. Village staying open but running the park with fewer staff.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, themagician said:

Not caring about the guest experience means crowd levels have reduced

Have they though? My understanding is people were still lining up at the trough while Village continued to coast on their previous reputation?

Have guest numbers finally dropped significantly as a result of the guest experience? or are the numbers dropping due to the current cost-of-living climate?

Any potential investor will see current figures and assume financial climate is the reason for the downturn, so they get to keep shitting on the guest experience and blaming lower profit on 'the environment'.

39 minutes ago, New display name said:

not even being bothered opening WWW

Say it with me folks!

PEOPLE. DON'T. WANT. TO. VISIT. A. WATERPARK. IN. WINTER.

[New display name]

Why is WnW open @DaptoFunlandGuy

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Are you really holding up a village business decision as something to aspire to? or is this one just because it suits your particular position on WWW being seasonal?

[Themepark Enthusist]

11 hours ago, New display name said:

Why is WnW open @DaptoFunlandGuy

When it’s open 10-3 every day I am sure we can agree that it is open due to a lack of competition and even then it does not have enough customers to pull to see full day trading hours. 
 

water parks take a lot of staff to run so operating a second park for 5 guests a day doesn’t sound super efficient. 
 

although this winter has been warm so maybe it would have been best to at least keep weekend trade til july

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

9 hours ago, Themepark Enthusist said:

although this winter has been warm

We are definitely in the dry season, which is typically colder - but Winter doesn't officially start for almost another 3 weeks, we're still in Autumn.

I hadn't realised WnW ran reduced trading hours. I wonder why someone isn't banging on about how they should be open for a full day mid-week regardless of the business sense it makes...?

[New display name]

10 hours ago, Themepark Enthusist said:

When it’s open 10-3 every day I am sure we can agree that it is open due to a lack of competition and even then it does not have enough customers to pull to see full day trading hours. 
 

water parks take a lot of staff to run so operating a second park for 5 guests a day doesn’t sound super efficient. 
 

although this winter has been warm so maybe it would have been best to at least keep weekend trade til july

If you believe only 5 guest turn up in winter, I would say you have never been in winter.

WWW is a better park for winter over WnW.

1.  The water heating is better.

2. The queues have been wrapped to reduce wind.

3. The park footprint is smaller.

1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

I hadn't realised WnW ran reduced trading hours. I wonder why someone isn't banging on about how they should be open for a full day mid-week regardless of the business sense it makes...?

A water park isn't a theme park.

But if you want to talk about how I think DW's trading hours is the lazy way to save money, I'm up for it.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

37 minutes ago, New display name said:

if you want to talk about how I think DW's trading hours is the lazy way to save money, I'm up for it.

I think we're all well aware of your position. 

Nonetheless it was nice of you to concede that the concept does save money, and given current climate all round, as well as the park's particular journey toward profitability, i'm ok with them saving money in non peak times by running one train  (subject to other attraction uptime) or closing an hour earlier than normal, or shuttering a predominantly summer attraction in the colder months. 

I don't think there's anything further to discuss.

[New display name]

It might save money but it doesn't make money.

What did I concede?  I've never said it doesn't save you money.   

 

23 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Are you really holding up a village business decision as something to aspire to? or is this one just because it suits your particular position on WWW being seasonal?

Sorry didn't see this.

WnW is WWW main (probably only) competitor.

 

 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

42 minutes ago, New display name said:

What did I concede?  I've never said it doesn't save you money.   

Well that's a relief. You've been banging on asking everyone and sundry why they're closing a waterpark in colder months and why they're operating less hours for the dry park midweek, so I figured you mustn't have understood the concept.

And as has already been pointed out to you - WNW is open likely because there is no competition. Nevertheless, they're still running reduced hours and you're not crying about that.

Do you want a waterpark open during cold months when patronage is low, and bleed money through payroll and ops costs? Just because WNW has some people attending - doesn't mean its a profitable exercise to open BOTH waterparks - you're likely just splitting the existing patronage even further - making it even LESS profitable to open the park.

Honestly if you start pushing the idea of turnstiles and complaining about seatbelts, we won't have to stick a fork in you - we'll know you're fully cooked.

[New display name]

WnW was open during winter before WWW opened.

WnW was open when WWW, once upon a time, opened for winter.

WnW is now currently open while WWW shuts shop.

I really don't think WnW care what WWW do.

If WWW can't compete it's because they have driven their own prices up with 30,000 lifeguards on the wave pool.  //s

 

 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

26 minutes ago, New display name said:

it's because they have driven their own prices up with 30,000 lifeguards on the wave pool. 

Yeah if they've got a risk assessment that says that number is needed, i'm not going against it. I've seen the lifeguards and the aquatic trainers, and the constant view scanning they do, the frequent fatigue changeovers... much like the requirements in Australia for seatbelts and supplementary restraints on rides, i'd prefer overstaffed lifeguards than dead kids.

[New display name]

4 hours ago, New display name said:

If WWW can't compete it's because they have driven their own prices up with 30,000 lifeguards on the wave pool.  //s

 

 

//s

🤦‍♂️

🤣@DaptoFunlandGuy

[themagician]

8 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

I hadn't realised WnW ran reduced trading hours

They’ve done this for as long as I remember and is generally happens between the April and September holidays, along with the lazy river closing. I believe a few years ago (maybe covid played a part), but they did close a couple days a week during these reduced hour months.

[Aw hype]

You can't reasonably have a grievance against the parks reducing their hours over Winter. It's a common sense business move.

It Must just be because of the lack of competition making WnW stay open over Winter - similar to Maccas being 24 Hours but Hj's not. They cant be making money over there.

All that being said, I'd rather be, as a consumer, at the 'experience is good and I feel Valued for 90 Minutes less' Place than the 'It's open longer, circa 40% of the rides are down at a given time, we wait in line more and get treated considerably worse' one.

Lesser of two evils, but I'd rather of less of the good than more of the shit.

 

[New display name]

I have no grievance with the GC water parks reducing hours over winter.  WWW haven't reduced hours; WWW has locked the gate.

Theme Parks and water parks are different beast and you don’t operate them the same.

A theme park, you want a person to stay in the park as long as you can hold onto them because there is a ton of situations to get your fingers into their wallets & purses, to get every cent out of the guest. 

An example of a park holding onto guest:

When Universal Hollywood is open during the quieter periods, the first showing of WaterWorld doesn’t happen to after lunch because Universal know people will stay in the park to see the show.  Some of those people waiting will get hungry and buy lunch.

An example of a park not holding onto a guest

I turned up at DW the other day at opening, just to see the new SV production.  I entered the park, watched the show, and left straight away.  DW didn’t make 1 cent out of me.  Now if I had turned up and the new experience did not happen for a few hours, 1. I would have purchased a coffee.  2. If you have a child with you, the kid would have started asking for food.

DW spend a lot of time, effort and money getting people into the park in the first place, and when the guest are inside, DW should capitalise on keeping the guest in the park, spending money and not shutting early.   One sure way of not making money is not being open.

A water park has limited opportunities to get extra money out of guest. 

WWW, one gift shop & and one food eatery.   (arcade but Dapto said no)

A water park you’re not making extra money keeping the guest in the park because little Jenny can only eat so many hot chips.   The water park makes its money by people entering the front gate.  You let the guest in, you feed the guest & you kick the guest out.

I've been on a water slide while it's snowing, so if you can't keep a slide open in winter in Queensland, you're doing it wrong.

[Narra]

3 hours ago, New display name said:

One sure way of not making money is not being open

Another sure way of not making money is to open a park that nobody attends.... If WWW was even close to profitable during winter it would be open

[New display name]

20 minutes ago, Narra said:

Another sure way of not making money is to open a park that nobody attends.... If WWW was even close to profitable during winter it would be open

Isn't it the responsibility of the people running it, to make it appealing so people want to come? @Narra  All this chat came from me starting a topic asking, if CE  had given up on WWW.

[Levi]

2 hours ago, New display name said:

Isn't it the responsibility of the people running it, to make it appealing so people want to come? @Narra  All this chat came from me starting a topic asking, if CE  had given up on WWW.

even WNW barely cracks 300 people during most days during winter, nothing you do will make anyone want to go into a waterpark while it’s cold outside, that’s just simple logic. parents won’t even take their kids to a waterpark in the middle of summer if it’s meant to rain all day, so why would they go when it’s cold? i need you to start to use some common sense here.

[Narra]

20 minutes ago, Levi said:

even WNW barely cracks 300 people during most days during winter

On top of that, I would hazard a guess that most of those 300 are passholders as well. Tourists aren't visiting waterparks in the middle of winter

[New display name]

1 hour ago, Levi said:

even WNW barely cracks 300 people during most days during winter, nothing you do will make anyone want to go into a waterpark while it’s cold outside, that’s just simple logic. parents won’t even take their kids to a waterpark in the middle of summer if it’s meant to rain all day, so why would they go when it’s cold? i need you to start to use some common sense here.

Cold. 🤣  Maybe you should go when WWW starts trading in winter again.  The water is toasty warm at WWW in winter.

If it rains all day, Theme park numbers also drop by a poopload  so I don't know what your point is.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

20 hours ago, New display name said:

WWW haven't reduced hours

A reduction to zero is still a reduction.

20 hours ago, New display name said:

Theme Parks and water parks are different beast and you don’t operate them the same.

Yes, one stays open over winter, the other doesn't.

20 hours ago, New display name said:

I turned up at DW the other day at opening, just to see the new SV production.  I entered the park, watched the show, and left straight away.  DW didn’t make 1 cent out of me.  Now if I had turned up and the new experience did not happen for a few hours, 1. I would have purchased a coffee.  2. If you have a child with you, the kid would have started asking for food.

See, a different perspective on this is the locals who have been many times who drop in for an afternoon after school, get a couple of rides, stay for the night market on those days. By putting the new thing in the morning, and having it stop before school lets out, those afternoon visitors HAVE to attend the park in the morning, when the kids are typically in school - so that ends up being a weekend visit for the school kids, and well, we're already here dad, can we go on other rides too... etc etc.

Dreamworld doesn't want to put their hand in your pocket for a measly cent - they're going after the families having to make a special trip and likely to spend the day once they've been.

Its the different demographic of the park though - Universal Hollywood guests are not typically dropping in for a single show and leaving, whereas most folk stopping into dreamworld are likely to spend at least a few hours (and a few dollars) while they're there, so bringing them in at a time they otherwise wouldn't have increases spend for normal people.

20 hours ago, New display name said:

(arcade but Dapto said no)

I still say you'd get more money with a second eatery.

20 hours ago, New display name said:

I've been on a water slide while it's snowing, so if you can't keep a slide open in winter in Queensland, you're doing it wrong.

No brain no pain. But it's also acclimatisation. I grew up in an area that regularly got temperatures below freezing. top temperatures rarely went above early 30s except a few days in the peak of summer nosing up to 40.

When I first moved to QLD, I visited WNW in the winter, and everything was a nice walk-on. the wave pool was a bit chilly but everything else - because we didn't stand still in a queue - was pretty warm (I do miss the whirlpool springs being heated though).

Almost two decades on, i've acclimatised. You won't catch me in a pool post-easter. For parks that we well know rely on the locals to support them in the off-season, expecting a bunch of folk acclimatised to a south east queensland climate to go swimming in winter is a bit absurd.

16 hours ago, New display name said:

Isn't it the responsibility of the people running it, to make it appealing so people want to come?

The only feasible way to make it appealing is to build a dome over the park like they do in countries with cold climates so it becomes a greenhouse oasis. Unfortunately that means in Summer it becomes an Oven. 

And truthfully, I don't think anyone could agree that an all-weather dome over a park that big would be a practical and sensible expenditure.

12 hours ago, New display name said:

If it rains all day, Theme park numbers also drop by a poopload  so I don't know what your point is.

A winter attendance of 3-400 in a waterpark dropping due to rain = practically zero guests.

A winter attendance of 3-4000 in a theme park dropping due to rain = still hundreds of guests.

[Naazon]

But... WWW does open in winter? and does make money? Just not as a Water Park. They open up as a Gel Blaster arena (could be paintball but pretty sure its Gel).

[themagician]

@Naazon not sure if that entirely counts since it’s run by an outside business and they just rent the park out. 
 

You could also argue WWW opens in the winter because the Fun Run goes through the park… but again, I wouldn’t say the park is ‘open’.