Steel Taipan Construction - Dreamworld Mack launched roller coaster

[themagician]

5 hours ago, joz said:

I think there's a sweet spot for announcing a new ride, for me it's when vertical construction starts. I don't like this trend of announcing rides 18 months out. ST was also in the ad for DW LAST Christmas Holidays. I'm pretty much bored of ST and (and to a lesser extent) Leviathan before they've even opened.

To be fair, Steel Taipan was supposed to open late last year, so it’s announcement would have been fine if the original timeline went ahead, but that pandemic thing happened.

It was much the same at SW (sort of). Vortex was originally December 2019, Trident April 2020 and then Leviathan December 2020. Then Trident was pushed back to April 2021. Then shit hit the fan and everything got majorly pushed back. 

I felt the same about the loss in interest at first. When there wasn’t any construction happening for most of last year, I kind of forgot about most of it (except for when the track arrived for ST). But as soon as vertical construction began, things were exciting again. The opening of Vortex was something that I overlooked and didn’t have that much interest in, hence why I’ve only just ridden it 6 months later. But for ST and Leviathan I’ll definitely be there for their opening. 

[joz]

1 hour ago, themagician said:

To be fair, Steel Taipan was supposed to open late last year, so it’s announcement would have been fine if the original timeline went ahead, but that pandemic thing happened.

That would be fair enough if it wasn't announced in the middle of 2019 for an end of 2020 opening. It'll actually be closer to 30months by the time it opens.

 

Again don't get me wrong, looking forward to riding both, but the excitement has worn off for me. I know for the average person on the street who doesn't follow this stuff so closely, it's probably not such a big issue, but I don't see the point of announcing stuff that far out. I don't think it builds hype in the way they think it does, when something is announced there's an initial excitement that dies down. If your year passes that your selling at the time of the announcement don't get you on the ride, I think it's a waste of the initial hype.

 

I do get that Leviathan was announced early as part of bigger development, and Steel Taipan was released early for the ASX, but again, both were too early. Again having ST on the ad for the last year's summer season feels dishonest.

[themagician]

So do you think Rivals strategy of announcing it officially 4 months before opening is better? Or it needs to be somewhere in the middle? 

[joz]

8 hours ago, joz said:

I think there's a sweet spot for announcing a new ride, for me it's when vertical construction starts.

 

[Naazon]

Site works like clearing/demo and ground prep is when teasers start. Going vertical is when it should be announced.

[joz]

You want to put up a sign in park that says 'new ride coming soon' when you're clearing land then that's fine. But keep your powder dry till it starts going up.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I still remember going to Wonderland one day and seeing black vekoma track laid out on the top of the hill from the Zodiac, and that was the first thing I remember of the Demon arriving at the park. About a month later they started vertical construction and advertising.

I think Joz's idea is probably the closest to the right spot FOR OUR MARKET. Our parks are 7/364 parks, and we frequently see construction delays for various reasons. Parks overseas tend to have a flurry of announcements all at once in the off season - this builds hype, and its a competition amongst literal DOZENS of major park locations  -  especially in the USA  -  to try and convince you to plan a trip to their park next season. There is also less risk of construction delays as they don't have to work around an open park schedule - delays are less noticeable when they've got an entire offseason to test and resolve problems.

Our parks don't need to do that. If you're in Australia, and you're planning a 'theme park' holiday - the gold coast is where you typically go. You don't need to pick which park franchise gets your business until you literally arrive on the GC. So there is no need to try and beat the competitor to the presses. There's nothing to be gained by revealing your hand too early and if you do put it out too early you have the potential to either: mislead your guests, making them think the new ride is already open (Like Joz mentioned about ST being in last christmas' ads) or to put guests OFF visiting because they figure they'll wait another year until the new one opens... and then when it doesn't open, they keep putting it off, and then guests end up not visiting for 2 or more years because they're waiting for the new ride, whereas if you'd said nothing, they potentially would have just gone anyway.

[joz]

Oh for sure it changes depending on the market. If you run a seasonal park in the states, September makes a lot of sense as people renew at the end of the season, getting an announcement out there in the clear air before Halloween stuff seems like a good time to announce. When VIP passes were a thing, make the announcement the same day VIP renewals go on sale. The message being renew for next year, here's why.

 

In Australia though, with the current improved ticketing situation, no one needs 18months notice of a new ride.

[xRazzBerryx]

The king of “killing the hype for 90% of their new attractions” goes to Jim Reid-Anderson 😂 An announcement video with 4 of the same ride models, 3 standard looking flats & 1 big coaster just kills it. Everyone starts talking about the big coaster & the others are forgotten. 
 

Anyway I agree with Joz. I’d do teasers until vertical construction & then hit everyone with an announcement. It creates speculation up until the anouncement, then continues the hype until opening. None of this up & down hype 📈 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

22 minutes ago, xRazzBerryx said:

None of this up & down hype 📈 

Thats literally what rollercoasters do!

[themagician]

From memory, Sea World did a good job for teasing and announcing storm coaster. They just had a billboard in the park for months saying a storm was brewing. And then once major construction began, they announced it. 
 

I still think Superman Escape is the best marketing/teasing done on the GC for a new attraction.

Edited July 9, 2021 by themagician

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

6 minutes ago, themagician said:

From memory, Sea World did a good job for teasing and announcing storm coaster. They just had a billboard in the park for months saying a storm was brewing.

Was that the one right beside the upcoming WILD attraction?

[themagician]

I was thinking of this one 

[Im Hungry]

After viewing a couple of rollback test vids of Blue Fire, I guess it's clear to see how slow our initial launch will be (I mean, what else was there to expect from a triple launch?).

It'll be a decent launch for those first-time riders weary and scared of rollercoasters to say the least...

Edited July 9, 2021 by Im Hungry

[Jdude95]

I'm just excited that we'll have another ride with the potential of a rollback 

[themagician]

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

On 10/07/2021 at 12:05 PM, Jdude95 said:

I'm just excited that we'll have another ride with the potential of a rollback 

Will it though? With three goes at the launch track the computer has got three chances to recalculate the launch power - it will no doubt be able to measure the speed off the first launch, and add or remove power off the second depending on the speed, and again coming off the spike it should have a fair idea of the speed its going and how much more is needed to get over the first hill - I've no doubt its still able to rollback but I doubt its likely in the slightest.

[Jdude95]

8 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Will it though? With three goes at the launch track the computer has got three chances to recalculate the launch power - it will no doubt be able to measure the speed off the first launch, and add or remove power off the second depending on the speed, and again coming off the spike it should have a fair idea of the speed its going and how much more is needed to get over the first hill - I've no doubt its still able to rollback but I doubt its likely in the slightest.

Still a higher chance than Goldcoaster rolling back... That one just valleys 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Well, yeah - because its a launch and not a lift chain. If a lift-chain somehow allows a rollback you're gonna have a bad time.

[Jdude95]

2 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Well, yeah - because its a launch and not a lift chain. If a lift-chain somehow allows a rollback you're gonna have a bad time.

That's the day we'll know they can't just slap a new coat of paint and name on the old Arrow 

[ATI]

9 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Well, yeah - because its a launch and not a lift chain. If a lift-chain somehow allows a rollback you're gonna have a bad time.

Lol the coaster right next to Steel Taipan has a chain that allows a rollback and that seems to work just fine. 😆

[Spotty]

On 12/07/2021 at 5:02 PM, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Well, yeah - because its a launch and not a lift chain. If a lift-chain somehow allows a rollback you're gonna have a bad time.

Just look at Twist Coaster Robin... that one had a very bad time!

[New display name]

On 10/07/2021 at 9:35 AM, Im Hungry said:

After viewing a couple of rollback test vids of Blue Fire, I guess it's clear to see how slow our initial launch will be (I mean, what else was there to expect from a triple launch?).

It'll be a decent launch for those first-time riders weary and scared of rollercoasters to say the least...

This testing launch is not a good reference to use on how ST will launch.   

ST will pull a higher G-Force than Bluefire pulls on the initial launch and ST will reach a higher speed than Bluefire reaches after the 3rd launch.

[Gazza]

The thing with ST too is that only has 1/3 of the track covered by LSMs compared the original, so the duration of each launch will be shorter, but just as sharp.

[Im Hungry]

Since the max speed on the third launch will bring the train up to a speed of 105km/h, that would make approximately 35km/h per launch (unless Dreamworld decide to shake up the launch speeds). I'm excited to see how this turns out as I've never experienced a Mack launch before, and I've seen some pretty... gradual launches from them.

Edited July 21, 2021 by Im Hungry