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Sea World updates 2016

Theme Park Girl

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Theme Park Girl
Theme Park Girl

Beat the crowd up first thing this morning to get some empty snaps of the new Plaza precinct ?? More pics to come when I get home and upload

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Reanimated35 Experienced

Reanimated35

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2 minutes ago, Santa07 said:

And to think people were worried the monorial wasn't going to fit... not only does it fit but it also has a fair amount of room above it.

I don't think anyone ever really believed it wouldn't fit. At least I hope not. From the right angles, the roof is surprisingly deceptive. 

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joz Experienced

joz

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I'd describe it as greater than the sum of its parts, which is lucky as its parts aren't that impressive.  The shops are the same, the facilities are the same, the midway games building still looks like crap.  The new facades, while a welcome change are pretty bland, and lack the detail that an immersive themed area would include.  It's also fairly generic, it could be any shopping centre built in the past decade.

 

Its unambitious; the Sourthern end feels like it's missing a stage or big screen.  The eastern side feels like it should have a proper row of shops (Bar?).  For an all weather venue there is no Monorail drop off, so if it's raining it's a 300meter walk through the rain to get to your all weather function venue.      

 

So it's crap right?   Well, no.  It's a massive improvement. The real breakthrough is the approach from the South, and the way the paths have been done; it makes it feel like the plaza is the obvious way to go through the park, rather than the inconvenience it has been previous.  The best feature is the roadway through the middle of the area.  Not only does it guide you Through the area without you even realising it, but unlike Main Street there are no kerbs, it's 100% flat in the plaza making it totally wheelchair friendly.  It feels like this is part of a master plan rather than trying to fix what was in truth rather unfortunate placement at the start.  It's big it's airy and it's pleasant to be in, and that's a big plus for the park.  

 

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Reanimated35 Experienced

Reanimated35

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@joz I'll have to both agree and disagree with you on that. You seem to be looking at it purely from a day to day theme park venue. You need to look at it as both a day to day park area, AND an after hours entertainment venue. 

This, and MW Main Street are always going to have small things they could improve to be a better either day venue or AH venue.

Having seen the Plaza set up as an entertainment venue, while I don't want to be responsible for giving too much away before the advertising comes out, there was plenty of entertainment, stages and 'pop-up' inclusions in the area which made it look great. 

Even the carnival games played a part and kept the VIP's entertained. 

It's a fine balance between a day to day operation and an after hours event venue, and personally I think they've done it really well. 

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Reanimated35 Experienced

Reanimated35

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12 minutes ago, joz said:

I don't see how anything I said is at odds with anything you said though?  My comments aren't that it's bad, but merely that it's unambitiois in places.  I said that it works well and it's a massive improvement.  I don't think the fact that it looks nice at night changes anything.

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I'd describe it as greater than the sum of its parts, which is lucky as its parts aren't that impressive.  The shops are the same, the facilities are the same, the midway games building still looks like crap.  The new facades, while a welcome change are pretty bland, and lack the detail that an immersive themed area would include.  It's also fairly generic, it could be any shopping centre built in the past decade.

I disagree that the new facades are bland. They look great and fit the area and theme quite well. It would have been nicer if they managed a way to have the pillars behind the shop fronts though. 

Also, what shopping centres have you been visiting that look anything like the plaza? I've clearly been going to the wrong, un-themed places. 

 

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joz Experienced

joz

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Weirdly the poles in front of the facades don't bother me. 

 

Ok so the good news is I can see where the difference between us is.  It's my use of the word generic, so I'll explain what I mean.  

 

image.jpeg

This is Pacific Wharf.  It's themed to look like an old wharf.  There are multiple hints that this isn't an area of a theme park, but it's a real wharf with its own history and backstory as to how it looks like it does.  It makes you feel as though you're not in a theme park, but you are at an actual Wharf.

 

image.jpeg

This is a retail shop at Sea World.  It is a retail shop.  It looks like some effort has gone into not making it look like it's not the flat building that it clearly is.  It evokes no place other than the the fact it's a retail shop at Sea World.  It's fine, it's not unpleasant but it hasn't got any character either.

 

Again, the new plaza at Sea World isn't bad, what it does for the park is great!  All I'm trying to say is they didn't really do much.  All they did was put a roof on it, do some work on the shop fronts to change them a bit, and rework paths.  The net result is something significantly greater than the sum of its parts.

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Theme Park Girl Experienced

Theme Park Girl

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31 minutes ago, reanimated35 said:

 @joz

@djrappa - Am I overthinking this or is there actually a shopping centre with this kind of theming to their shop fronts? And if so, so you happen to have any photos of this? 

Here, @reanimated35... from my instagram account:

 

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rappa Experienced

rappa

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Sorry no Reanimated I was more referring to the feel of the area than the actual shop fronts. 

 

Whilst I think The Plaza shops look very nice. I wouldn't call them themed. If so what is the theme?

To me they look more styled, like you would see with high end shopping. Go look through the high end fashion area of Pac Fair and you will see what I mean. Each store front has a unique look to it. 

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