In line with the recent announcement this morning of Dreamworld’s re-openning on December 10 after the unfortunate incident on October 25, more details have emerged on what attractions will open and how much it’ll cost for those choosing to head back (for those who want to dive into detail, you can checkout our article here).
However, buried within the new ticket prices is perhaps the most interesting detail to come from Dreamworld so far today. Since WhiteWater World’s opening in 2006, the waterpark has always been billed as a completely seperate entity within walking distance to Dreamworld. As Wet ‘n’ Wild, Warner Bros. Movie World & Sea World are owned by the same company (Village Roadshow Theme Parks) while Dreamworld & WhiteWater World are owned by another (Ardent Leisure, soon to be known as Main Event Entertainment), both sides of the highway have had their own ways of competing with each other, offering value passes and major discounts to each chain’s own respective gates.
This however looks to change (at least on Dreamworld’s end) with WhiteWater World being rolled into Dreamworld’s existing entrance prices. No longer can you buy a pass for WhiteWater World alone, instead it seems that for the time being WhiteWater World will now be just another land inside Dreamworld’s sprawling space, further adding to the already somewhat meaningless title of “Australia’s largest theme park.”
There’s been hints of a change like this happening for quite a while, with WhiteWater World going through a logo refresh along side the website being amalgamated into Dreamworld’s (in fact, when you visit WhiteWater World’s website, the waterpark’s logo has been replaced with Dreamworld’s.)
By all accounts, given recent media attention, this could be a great way to regain some much needed consumer satisfaction & confidence that the park is focussed on its guests now more than ever.
Personally, this is something i’ve hoped would happen for a long while. In recent years WhiteWater World, for many reasons, hasn’t been able to keep up with the sheer number of slides Wet ‘n’ Wild has. In fact, as far as attendance goes, Wet ‘n’ Wild continues year after year to make an appearance in the top 20 of the world’s most popular water parks. What WhiteWater World has that Wet ‘n’ Wild doesn’t is proximity, that is, the ability to spend a morning on thrill rides and in less then a few minutes spend an afternoon cooling down on waterslides has always been a huge advantage over Wet ‘n’ Wild & Movie World.
I’d dare say up until this point telling shareholders you’re going to cut one entrance fee completely and risk profits in a bid to regain a competitive advantage would be a ballsy move at best, however in light of the last few months, now is the perfect time to really test and implement new ideas that could transform the local theme park landscape for the better.
