Dreamworld reopening - the summer season

[wipeout94]

Hopefully the date of reopen will be decided soon.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/dreamworld-board-set-to-decide-on-reopening-20161129-gt0ara.html

[Brad2912]

To save people clicking through the link....

 

Possibility of staged restart Dreamworld theme park on Monday

Greg Stolz, Lea Emery, The Courier-Mail

in 8 minutes

• DREAMWORLD is set to reopen next week, with owners Ardent Leisure convening a board meeting to finalise plans to get the theme park back on line after the Thunder River Rapids ride disaster.

The move to reopen the park following the October 25 tragedy that left four tourists dead comes as the Gold Coast City Council allocated $100,000 towards a summer tourism campaign to help the industry recover.

Dreamworld has been closed since the tragedy, amid protracted investigations by police, State Government workplace health and safety inspectors and park-appointed international ride experts.

The extended closure has cost the park about $10 million in lost revenue.

Police completed their on-site investigation for the State Coroner and handed back the park to Ardent on November 7, but a Workplace Health and Safety Queensland probe has been ongoing as part of a Government audit of theme parks.

Inspectors issued 10 breach notices to Dreamworld and sister park WhiteWater World, all related to worker safety.

Inspectors returned to the park yesterday to check if the problems had been fixed.

Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace said that last Friday the park was “ready to move forward towards ­reopening”, but that “no ­amusement ride at Dreamworld will open unless it’s 100 per cent safe”.

It’s believed Dreamworld is looking at a staged reopening, possibly starting on Monday.

Ardent is expected to detail the reopening plan in a statement to the stock exchange ­before briefing media.

The council contribution, meanwhile, will be matched dollar for dollar by the State Government.

The pre-summer campaign will include advertising on television and radio in Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and northern New South Wales and online content in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane.

Gold Coast Tourism members will also offer holidays and deals.

A coronial hearing into the tragedy that claimed the lives of NSW woman Cindy Low and Canberra trio Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozi Araghi is expected to be held next year.

[New display name]

Opening date release:

[stellaclose]

They're donating $25 for each guest. Seems kind of wrong. Would have thought they'd be donating 100% of all admission tickets and $25 for passholders over the re-opening weekend.

"Over this charity weekend, Dreamworld will donate $25 for every guest and passholder through the door to the Australian Red Cross. These funds will be distributed to the families and those most affected by the tragedy through the GIVIT Appeal Independent Distribution Committee."

https://www.dreamworld.com.au/park-info/dreamworld-reopening

[Flynn_Smith]

6 minutes ago, stellaclose said:

They're donating $25 for each guest. Seems kind of wrong. Would have thought they'd be donating 100% of all admission tickets and $25 for passholders over the re-opening weekend.

"Over this charity weekend, Dreamworld will donate $25 for every guest and passholder through the door to the Australian Red Cross. These funds will be distributed to the families and those most affected by the tragedy through the GIVIT Appeal Independent Distribution Committee."

https://www.dreamworld.com.au/park-info/dreamworld-reopening

No, $25 is probably the better way to go.

[T-bone]

So the Dreamworld reopening web page mentions no Thrill Rides, nor Log or Vintage Cars are to reopen at this stage. No mention of the train and the Baldwin though, do we think it will return? I hope this incident wasn't a nail in the coffin of them running the steam locomotive. Time will tell I guess...

[New display name]

Why do you think the steam train may not return?

[themagician]

I think $25 is a good amount to donate from tickets, especially after the big loss financially this has had on the park. The original plan of donating all entry money was good at the time because the park was only closed for a couple of days, but now they have good reason to I think. The park didn't have to give anything so good on them for donating.

[Park Addict 93]

$25 is very generous donation for passholders. Especially considering you can potentially go both days.

Most would be on a season Pass costing roughly $100 (but sold for as low as $80.

Also worth noting.

Quote

If you require additional tickets beyond your current pass, a special reopening summer price will be in place for Dreamworld which automatically includes entry into WhiteWater World. This summer price reflects our staged return to full operations.

 

[red dragin]

58 minutes ago, T-bone said:

So the Dreamworld reopening web page mentions no Thrill Rides, nor Log or Vintage Cars are to reopen at this stage. No mention of the train and the Baldwin though, do we think it will return? I hope this incident wasn't a nail in the coffin of them running the steam locomotive. Time will tell I guess...

Unless there is a specific issue with the Baldwin, I'd expect to see it running again, otherwise every other heritage steam locomotive in Queensland would be stopped too. ARHS and QR are running their trips this weekend, QPSR next weekend so I don't think that will happen. 

You would expect all operations involving the public and any risks (even well mitigated risks) will come under closer scrutiny over the coming year or so. 

Edited November 29, 2016 by red dragin

[themagician]

Going through the DWs maintenance page and there quite a few rides that say closed: BuzzSaw, hot wheels, MDMC, Train, escape from Madagascar, gingys flyer, mad jungle jam, RHLR, shock wave, dodgems, vintage cars, big red boat ride, tea cups, dronkys flyers, hop and hoot and the merry go round. Will be interesting to see if the maintenance page is updated for the park reopens, as that is quite a few rides, some I can't imagine why they'd remain close. Will interesting to see that it says GD, and TOT are open. 

[Brad2912]

All passholders will also have their current passes extended by 6 months as a show of thanks for their patience & support

[New display name]

I think as we get closer to the opening some of the rides will be opened.

 

What would you do at DW if everything is closed?

 

DW has also started replying to comments on Facebook again today.

Edited November 30, 2016 by YLFATEEKS

[Park Addict 93]

^ They have already said kids/Dreamworks will be open. It is also 10 days away, who knows they may operate limited thrill rides.

Very smart to give existing passholders an extra 6 months. Will be interesting to see the ticket options when they reopen.

I wonder what they will be offering members

Edited November 30, 2016 by Jordan M.

[bammrwolfe]

13 minutes ago, YLFATEEKS said:

I think as we get closer to the opening some of the rides will be opened.

I think that's a fair point, I've checked three times since they announced just in case anything new pops up and they have kept taking the open times off of some rides. Which is understandable due to their position to wait for the final sign off. 

 

Absolutely is amazing news though that they are reopening next weekend. 

Also noticed they removed all the maintenance from the page, would it be fair to assume all this time closed has allowed heaps of this to occur as well as these checks?

Edited November 30, 2016 by bammrwolfe

[New display name]

I think the new pricing is up.

 

Summer pass looks good.  What is the difference between the summer pass and the annual pass.

Edited November 30, 2016 by YLFATEEKS

[mission]

The summer pass is valid until 24 December, the annual pass is valid for 12 months from the date of the first visit?

[rappa]

So I just hid the last post and gave the poster a ban. 

I'm not normally one for censorship but posting on parkz is a privilege not a right and I don't think heartless troll assholes deserve that privilege.  

[Santa07]

Dreamworld are doing so much, reducing the price, extending season passes, and I really hope the public return the support and generosity the park is giving to us. I'll definitely be down as soon as possible to give my support, I'm up at Noosa next week so maybe not on opening weekend but most likely the week after  

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I think $25 per entry is far more generous than 100% of ticket sales.

I'd suggest the vast majority of people flocking back to the park over those two days would be passholders who have been sitting in a corner in the foetal position shivering and sweating whilst waiting for it to return. I would suggest takings from actual ticket sales for that weekend would be minimal, whereas $25 for every passholder is really a way of dreamworld dipping into their own pocket as a donation, on the basis of the number of members who flock back.

So for those who couldn't afford to make some sort of donation, or lay flowers, you can still 'contribute' to the ongoing expenses incurred by the families simply by walking through the gate.

Dreamworld itself will benefit from this simply by being able to show images of people flocking back to the park, helping dispell the media myths that the park is inherently unsafe, and giving more people confidence that it is ok to return.

 

Edit: i'm sorry I didn't see the post you're referring to Rappa - i'd have liked to have read it, but no doubt if it raised your ire so significantly that you took immediate action of that nature, i'm sure it was absolutely appalling.

[T-bone]

3 hours ago, YLFATEEKS said:

Why do you think the steam train may not return?

Well at this stage there is no indication that it is returning. It's a very safe engine but it does cost to run, with the financial loss the park has undertaken I hope they don't see the Baldwin as a liability. Time will tell.

[themagician]

Single day entry tickets are also now cheaper for th summer, with children tickets $55 and adult tickets $65. And you can now no longer purchase a WWW single day entry ticket 

[Slick]

20 minutes ago, themagician said:

Single day entry tickets are also now cheaper for th summer, with children tickets $55 and adult tickets $65. And you can now no longer purchase a WWW single day entry ticket 

Funny you mention that, I wrote an article about this very thing over at OurWorlds this morning - i've wanted to see something like that happen for a long while. It's a ballsy move for sure, and I think now's the perfect time to do anything pro-customer that may not see a direct return on investment in a fiscal sense. I certainly don't see any shareholder backlash while the company's theme park division find its feet again, and if this works over the summer period i'd love to see it extended and have the parks properly amalgamated and developed (i.e. adding in a lazy river etc.)

[joz]

Did anyone else notice that this release came from Ardent Leisure, not Main event?  Wonder if they're trying to keep the Main Event name untarnished? 

 

The response i think is a good one, while I think they do need to get a couple rides open, cutting ticket prices and adding in White Water World to the Dreamworld ticket price is probably what was needed right now, and it seemed like it was the long term plan anyway.  Extending the passes by 6 months was also a good move, a lot of passes expire in December, and I can't imagine there is much desire out there to renew, but an extra 6 month so of healing and I think people will be more inclined to spend again.

[Jamberoo Fan]

7 hours ago, T-bone said:

No mention of the train and the Baldwin though, do we think it will return?

5 hours ago, themagician said:

Will be interesting to see if the maintenance page is updated for the park reopens, as that is quite a few rides, some I can't imagine why they'd remain close.

5 hours ago, YLFATEEKS said:

I think as we get closer to the opening some of the rides will be opened.

What would you do at DW if everything is closed?

In case you all didn't see it (though I'm sure you all did):

Quote

The Dreamworld attractions re-opening from 10 December include all WhiteWater World slides and pools along with the park’s wildlife areas, entertainment and family attractions in DreamWorks Experience, Wiggles World, ABC KIDS WORLD and the Motorsports Experience.

Other rides will progressively open at Dreamworld as they are signed off by the safety review process.

Our website will continue to provide regular updates for guests to outline when attractions are open to the public.

Judging from that @T-bone, I think Dreamworld Express will continue to operate once it is signed off as safe. If it was not to return, I'm sure they would have announced it by now.

43 minutes ago, joz said:

Did anyone else notice that this release came from Ardent Leisure, not Main event?  Wonder if they're trying to keep the Main Event name untarnished? 

The name doesn't officially change until the ASX has amended the company's registration. As of now, it is still Ardent Leisure.

Edited November 30, 2016 by Jamberoo Fan