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Theme Parks Pocket Guide App


sam11
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I just found out about the new app that Village released for Movie World, Wet 'n' Wild and Sea World and had a look and it's pretty good. I wasn't sure if you guys knew of its existence but I posted anyway. The map looks really good and you can also register your VIP pass information as well which gets you extra things in the app. It seems they have taken all the info from the maps you usually get at the parks and made it look nicer and more interactive. But sadly no Android version :(https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/theme-parks-pocket-guide/id658174041?mt=8

Edited by sam11
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Just had a look, must say, not a bad little app. Nothing overly ground breaking here, but a solid offering. Things like show times available on the phone is very handy. I haven't checked out the VIP Pass features, but it does look like there's a bit of a ticketing stuff involved; the demo picture shows a barcode, so I wonder if you'll be able to show your iPhone instead of having a paper ticket now?

It'll be interesting to see what more they do with it. It uses location services, so I wonder if the plan is park map that literally shows where you are in the park on a park map. The other possibility is they could be planning on having alerts appear when in park, whether it's for promotions, specials, or anything else (think https://geoloqi.com/). Imagine how handy it'd be being at MW on a busy day and getting a notification that there will be an extra HSD, or being at SW on a rainy day and getting an alert that today's parade has been canceled so you don't end up walking all the way to the other end of the park. The marketing opportunities for specials sent to people in the park are obvious; $30 off AOS tickets tonight, 50% off tomorrow's whale watch tour, or randomly getting a voucher for a upgrade to a large ice cream.

Also, on the grounds that occasionally these boards get checked by park managers, I feel a fan boy duty to point out that the photo that's supposedly an Indo Pacific Humpback Dolphin is actually of a Bottlenose Dolphin. I feel very pathetic now.

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^ Phones have been able to be scanned at the turnstiles & ticket booths since about February. Those new handheld scanners attached to each turnstile and booth PC are what scan the phones. They can also often scan cracked screens too. I believe the website was also updated to say that they can present their phone.

Edited by Bmull19
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So I guess your first impression of Disneyland in 1955 would have been the same?

Anyone who tries to go live with a fully fledged, fully featured app, website, business etc needs their head read. Its foolhardy and asking for trouble. Build it slowly, test each part as you add it and make sure it all works seamlessly.

For older members - i'm referring to Dreamnova.

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You could relate it to 1955, but this is 2013. Apps have been around for years and I'm simply quoting they could have added few more features, quite easily.. And this is an app not a business.. There's not much to stop the average person clicking delete. I wasn't starting a debate, I was speaking my thoughts on it, there's nothing to correct.

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Anyone registered with Future of Fun probably has an email with the next survey in it, all about a theme park app. They are having testing days in a couple of weeks and looking for people to come along and test our app / free entry to park, free lunch & drinks, express ride entry. Sounds great.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dreamworld's app does not require an internet connection, but it is better if you do. Dreamworld and White Water World do offer free wifi, but it is restricted. The Theme Parks Pocket Guide app always requires an internet connection. I haven't been to Movie World, Sea World or Wet n Wild for a while now so I don't know if they have free wifi, but I am assuming they would.

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I can't see the parks offering free wifi anytime soon. If the App proves profitable enough from upsells and special offer sales they might offer it to encourage people to use the app, but at present - with internet kiosks in MW, not to mention the expense of establishing a park-wide coverage for a product you aren't going to make money on, I can't see that it's going to happen.

I'm user testing next week so i'll post my opinion review after that.

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Dreamworld's app does not require an internet connection, but it is better if you do. Dreamworld and White Water World do offer free wifi, but it is restricted. The Theme Parks Pocket Guide app always requires an internet connection. I haven't been to Movie World, Sea World or Wet n Wild for a while now so I don't know if they have free wifi, but I am assuming they would.

MW, SW, WNW don't have free wifi...
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So international guests (including the multitude of guests from NZ) can eat a dick?

Not to mention - most people when they fly overseas find their roaming rates far too high, and some just buy a pre-paid sim with data access, and put it into their existing smartphone... so wheres the issue?

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I'd like to see wait times included into the phone and in the park as well, on boards and the ride entrance. To be fair the parks now use a system to work out ride times and use an A-Frame sign at the entrance but I'm talking a better system with an electronic sign. Would make life much easier, I often find the sign wrong and don't really know how long the wait time is until I actually get into the queue. Having it also on your phone would be even better.

MW is still a large park, imagine being at HSD and checking your phone to see ride times you can work whether you want to walk to the front of the park, or over to the back. Or SW everything there is stretched out, knowing wait times when your at Dolphin Cove would definitely come in handy.

A notification to tell you if a ride is broken down or reopen would be great! I haven't used the app so I don't what it can do maybe set a reminder to see a show and 15mins or so before it tells you.

On free wifi at the parks, one day I'd like to see it, we've used this argument before, but while they won't make money off it, and used Disney as an example, it does improve a guests day, which in turn creates good word of mouth. Try and get people to jump on Facebook to check-in maybe an incentive if they do it. But if people have free wifi they may be more inclined to be on social media sharing photos and thoughts about their day on it. A lot of cameras now come with Instagram and Facebook apps built in with wifi to just upload photos and on the subject of social media, VRTP are good with Facebook, but they really need to get into Twitter and Instagram, its free advertising, you'd be mad not to.

A lot of people also vent their frustration at companies on Twitter, if VRTP they could catch and fix it, a lot of companies do that and all of sudden a negative experience turns into a positive one.

Anyway, way off topic there, I'm really happy to see parks going the extra mile to improve guest satisfaction and no doubt their hoping it'll cut down their costs on park maps/

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