Waterford Cineplex - Revamp

Sully

Hey,
Briefly had a look at the News & Star to see that the pretty much derlict Waterford Cineplex plan to redevelop the cinema to something more luxurious and 5 star grade. Work is expected to begin as early as next year (doubt it). Also said there is business in Waterford so they are looking at buying another one on the "outskirts" of the city.

Im sure there website will have the articles up later today.

Interesting eh. If it goes ahead and works out as suggested - two excellent cinemas. To win me back, there gonna have to make it really good and drop their prices.

Storm has taken me from them for many reasons, not just the fact its not falling down around us!

Cabaal

I'm actually amazed that the cinema is still open as it is, the staff must feel like sliting their wrists

BadCharlie

I was told the old cinema was to close when storm opened. And instead off a cinema that it was going to be turned into 5 differint style of pubs.

At the moment i can't see my self going back to them even after the revamp. It has been a dump for such a long time and now they are pulling there socks up cause of storm.

Sully

Aye, I thought either;

A) It would close,
or
They would revamp.

Personally, ill go with wheover offers the best experience and price. Storm has won it by a long shot, so they will need to do a lot to persuade me to re-join.

merlante

I'll believe it when I see it. Good news though, I suppose.

I've heard tell that the cineplex is actually showing some things that Storm isin't, so maybe there's some sign of intelligent life in there after all.

Bards

merlante wrote: »

I've heard tell that the cineplex is actually showing some things that Storm isin't.

Snow:D

JohnC.

So I see I'm not the only one who hasn't been there since Storm opened.

I don't really mind Cineplex, but Storm is a bit more convenient.

merlante

Kahless wrote: »

So I see I'm not the only one who hasn't been there since Storm opened.

I don't really mind Cineplex, but Storm is a bit more convenient.

Storm is well run with nice staff in my experience. Last time I was there, the guy at the counter wasn't happy with the fizziness of the coke, so he poured new ones from another tap thing, rather than let us discover the slightly flat coke in the cinema. I always find them very nice in there.

The Cineplex crowd just don't care and if I can take a part in their downfall to make up for all of the bad will they caused when they had a monopoly, I gladly will.

Cabaal

merlante wrote: »

The Cineplex crowd just don't care and if I can take a part in their downfall to make up for all of the bad will they caused when they had a monopoly, I gladly will.

I'd have to agree, and when the heating broke in two of the screens they didn't give it for months....could be fixed now but haven't been in the place since Storm opened and I have no intention of going back.

Sully

Ya I can see where your all coming from. Its not that the place was falling down, the management just didnt give a **** about their customers in general.

They still get a bit of a crowd to the old cinema, but I cant see them winning many pack unless they pick up there skills a bit and respect their customers.

Sully

Here is the exact article;

Friday, October 19, 2007

Cineplex to battle back with major facelift
By Jennifer Long

CINEMA-goers in Waterford will be spoilt for choice in the near future with the Patrick Street ‘Cineplex’ to be transformed into a new luxury, five-star facility - and plans also at an advanced stage for a third cinema in the city’s suburbs.

In a bid to win back customers lost to the new ‘Storm Cinema’ at Railway Sq., management at Waterford’s long established Patrick St. cinema are planning a major multi-million facelift with work due to begin as soon as early next year.

The same company, meanwhile, have also confirmed to the Waterford News & Star that they’re “seriously” looking at opening a new facility on outskirts of the city which they feel there’s most definitely a demand for.

The site they’re looking at currently is the former Water-ford Crystal sports grounds at Ballinaneeshagh where a major mixed-use development is on the cards.

Waterford City Council recently gave the planning ‘thumbs up’ to the Newrybased ‘Parker Green’.

Those plans are currently on appeal to An Bord Plean·la but one of the elements of the proposal is, of course, a brand new cinema for Waterford.

Paul Anderson, a Director of Amalgamated Entertainment Waterford Ltd., who own the existing Waterford Cineplex, said the company has “big plans” for the city and wanted to end any rumours that they’re on the way out.

“We’re trading in Water-ford many years now and we’ve absolutely no intention of pulling out,” he said yesterday (Tuesday). “Yes, the market has been split because of the opening of the new cinema in Railway Square but there’s no absolutely no question of us being blown out of the water because I can tell you that we’ve got major developments planned.”

“We’re not going to stand still; we’re planning a major investment in the Patrick St. cinema which will bring it to five-star standard. We’ll have luxury seating, lighting, a vastly improved appearance and all kinds of top-class facilities.”

One thing that might happen, he did say, was that the Waterford Cineplex may be re-branded to Waterford Ominiplex, but that was still to be confirmed.

Meanwhile, if negotiations regarding the Parker Green site paid off, he could assure that a re-location of business from Patrick St. would not be on the cards — instead the company would have two facilities in Waterford.

“There is no cinema currently on the suburbs of Waterford and there really is scope catering for the car market as opposed to the pedestrian market which the two already in existence target. We’re a very progressive company and we’ve a lot of very exciting changes in the air.”

‘Storm Cinema’ opened its doors to the public in June at Railway Square.

Source: http://waterford-news.ie/news/story.asp?j=26931&cat=news

red ranger

no they dont.

red ranger

hi sully yes they do care about there customers .when i went in there they where very nice and it cheaper then storm so i will keep going back there .as there revamp is starting in may .

AdMMM

A suspect post from a new member .

The Cineplex is in a prime location, making it convenient for anyone who's in town anyway and with a major facelift would give Storm serious competition. At the moment, many people who go into town, go to the Cineplex, purely out of convenience (especially families) while people who decide at say 7pm that they'll go the cinema, tend to go to Storm. Now if you think about it, if Cineplex open in a second location on the outskirts, where many of the evening cinema-goers are coming from, Storm cinema could be left flapping its arms in no-mans land with people in town for the day going to the revamped Cineplex out of convenience and people on the outskirts of the town going to the newly built cinema because it's only walking distance away!

It will certainly be interesting to see how it will develop, but I can most definitely see light at the end of the tunnel for Cineplex in Waterford.

red ranger

so you list to beat 102-103 when someone from the cineplex was on and said the revamp go ahead in may i belive that when i see it happen

Sully

What? If I didn't know any better, id wonder did you work for them. How would you know Management didn't care about customers if you were not part of the team? Blows your cover imo.

The Cineplex is horrible. It has been run down for ages. Its nothing compared to Storm Cinemas who offer much better service compared to the Cineplex. The Cineplex is in a great location, but its not in the best condition inside. Its not a proper cinema experience, and the place is run down. I remember one room having no heating for ages! Cineplex let the place fall into pieces despite the call for them to clean the place up and offer something better. That's a choice the owner / management made. They were the only cinema in Waterford, so nobody could "vote with their feet" and move there business elsewhere. Cineplex knew this, and never offered to better their services. Until now. They must have lost some load of business, as I drive by Storm and its packed out and I drive past the Cineplex and its either closed or not half as busy! Management / Owners were quick to act - going to the press to tell them they will come back fighting and offering something better! That says a lot.

Storm has better quality rooms, better sound and better picture. They offer a lot more to customers and student prices all week. There adult price might be more expensive, and so might other prices, but I for one have no problem paying it as I am getting a MUCH better quality service. I think many people will agree with me.

The Cineplex have always had very friendly staff, I have no problem with them at all. They are just as friendly as Storm Cinema staff. However, that's about all they have to offer. You cant compare the two. Sorry, but you simply cant. Storm is miles better then the Cineplex. There isn't any room for discussion. I cant believe your even suggesting the Cineplex is better!

Sully

|.Murderer.| wrote: »

It will certainly be interesting to see how it will develop, but I can most definitely see light at the end of the tunnel for Cineplex in Waterford.

Without a doubt. If they offer the same service as Storm, if not better. Waterford can easily take two cinemas if there any good. Bare in mind, there both in for a hefty bit of competition if the new cinema gets the go ahead!

merlante

|.Murderer.| wrote: »

A suspect post from a new member .

The Cineplex is in a prime location, making it convenient for anyone who's in town anyway and with a major facelift would give Storm serious competition. At the moment, many people who go into town, go to the Cineplex, purely out of convenience (especially families) while people who decide at say 7pm that they'll go the cinema, tend to go to Storm. Now if you think about it, if Cineplex open in a second location on the outskirts, where many of the evening cinema-goers are coming from, Storm cinema could be left flapping its arms in no-mans land with people in town for the day going to the revamped Cineplex out of convenience and people on the outskirts of the town going to the newly built cinema because it's only walking distance away!

It will certainly be interesting to see how it will develop, but I can most definitely see light at the end of the tunnel for Cineplex in Waterford.

Why would the cinema be walking distance away if it was on the outskirts of the town? It would be walking distance away for some people and far away for everyone else. There are 10,000 people living in the inner city, which is as much as there are living in any other part of the city, and the city centre is accessible from everywhere. I'm not saying the Dunmore rd., etc., shouldn't have its own cinema but don't assume that just because you and your mates live on the outskirts that everyone does.

merlante

Some people have suggested here that the Cineplex is probably suffering with the presence of Storm, but I'm not so sure. All over Ireland cinema has been booming for 10-15 years, except in Waterford. Waterford was like a black hole for cinema because the Cineplex was piss poor.

It was always inevitable that the introduction of a new cinema, far from saturating the market, would rejuvinate cinema in Waterford and bring huge numbers of people back. Storm is a nice, well run and a proper, professionally run operation, which is the antithesis of Patrick st., at least in former times.

In Galway, a city 40% larger than Waterford, they have double the cinema screens that Waterford has, so the potential for expansion in Waterford was huge and is still there. With the introduction of Storm the cinema market is simply bigger than it has been in a long time. Screens are routinely sold out at the weekend, and the foyer is completely packed with people. Most of these people didn't go to the cinema before, because Patrick st. rarely sold out unless it was the opening of a big film.

It may well be that because of the fact that cinema is now thriving in Waterford that the Cineplex can live off the scraps from Storm and still make more money than they did before when nobody was going to the cinema. I think we'll see people who've been turned on to the cinema because of Storm choosing to go to Patrick st. more and more because the times suit better, because maybe they have films Storm don't have, because Storm is sold out of the film they want to see, or just because it's cheaper/closer. This will definitely happen after they fix the place up and offer an equivalent service to Storm, and there will be no objective difference between them, except the fading newness of Storm.

At the end of day, judging by the Galway example, Waterford is still far from saturation when it comes in cinema screens and cinemas, so I would expect both cinemas to do very well in the short to medium term.

BBM77

I would like to see more choice when it comes to the films on offer, Storm was a great lift to cinema in Waterford there is no disputing that, but the films on offer are still from the mainstream. I know Garter Lane offers some films that are less “box office” but they are still limited as cinema is only a side business to them. Not everyone is interested in explosions, Tom Cruise and CGA.

trishw78

Sully wrote:

Its nothing compared to Storm Cinemas who offer much better service compared to the Cineplex.

Sorry sully while I agree that Storm is a cleaner, more modern Cinema there service leads a little to be desired. I waited in line for 30mins trying to get a ticket on Sunday only to miss the first 5 mins of the film. All because yet again they didn't have enough staff on. I say yet again as I've been there 3 or 4 times on either saturday nights or sunday nights and they don't have enough staff on to deal with the crowd.

Cineplex might not have gotten all the films and it might have a strange lingering smell but I never missed the start of the film.

merlante

trishw78 wrote: »

Sorry sully while I agree that Storm is a cleaner, more modern Cinema there service leads a little to be desired. I waited in line for 30mins trying to get a ticket on Sunday only to miss the first 5 mins of the film. All because yet again they didn't have enough staff on. I say yet again as I've been there 3 or 4 times on either saturday nights or sunday nights and they don't have enough staff on to deal with the crowd.

Cineplex might not have gotten all the films and it might have a strange lingering smell but I never missed the start of the film.

I would just suggest going there early. Those nights are incredibly busy nights in cinemas all around the country where there would often be queues out the door. We're not used to this in Waterford because the Cineplex was so god awful nobody bothered queuing to get in there.

As far as I can see, all the tills are manned on a Saturday or Sunday night and there is not much more room back there for additional staff. One big, but easily fixed, criticism that I have with the place is that there is no division between the food queues and the tickets queues. If you've booked your ticket online you should be able to go straight into a food queue, without queuing with the people looking for tickets.

This is the sort of thing that will push a spillover to Patrick st., though, and will end up giving the Cineplex more business than they ever had before. That's why competition is great.

trishw78

Last sunday night there was only one girl down stairs on the till upstairs there was only 3 of the 7 or 8 tills actually open. I can't see how much earlier I need to be there than 30mins. I've been to other cinema's in Dublin and in Limerick where 30mins before the film was plenty of time, too early infact.

That's the problem there is no division between food and ticket sales.

fricatus

trishw78 wrote: »

That's the problem there is no division between food and ticket sales.

I like Storm, but the way that they don't have a box office, forcing you to go to the food counter whether or not you want food, is quite cynical in my view.

It's an obvious attempt to cajole the weak (and those with children!) into buying nachos, popcorn, and whatever else.

Then again, I book using my credit card, and skip the queues entirely!

What would be really nice is that thing that UGC in Parnell St, Dublin, do. They have a monthly ticket offer for some ludicrously small amount of money, like €20, that gets you unlimited admission on (I think) weekdays.

I can't remember the details, but a mate of mine when I lived up there had it and said it was fantastic value if you lived near enough by. Even three visits to the cinema in the month would cover the cost. It had me asking what the catch was. It would be nice to see Storm doing this, but it might only happen once, as Merlante says, Waterford is saturated with screens in the way Galway is.

merlante

trishw78 wrote: »

Last sunday night there was only one girl down stairs on the till upstairs there was only 3 of the 7 or 8 tills actually open. I can't see how much earlier I need to be there than 30mins. I've been to other cinema's in Dublin and in Limerick where 30mins before the film was plenty of time, too early infact.

That's the problem there is no division between food and ticket sales.

That's bad if that's the case. I have to say, whenever I've been there at the weekend and it's been busy, all the tills have been open. Even with all the tills open though, it took 20 mins to get to the till to buy food. I think we all agree on dividing the box office and food queues.

For those not eating and owning a credit card, as has been said, there's no problem.

AdMMM

merlante wrote: »

Why would the cinema be walking distance away if it was on the outskirts of the town? It would be walking distance away for some people and far away for everyone else. There are 10,000 people living in the inner city, which is as much as there are living in any other part of the city, and the city centre is accessible from everywhere. I'm not saying the Dunmore rd., etc., shouldn't have its own cinema but don't assume that just because you and your mates live on the outskirts that everyone does.

As a matter of fact, I don't live on the outskirts of the city, I live a two minute walk away from Storm on Johns Hill.

It's very careless of you to assume and it's also dangerous to just take into account the number people living in an area without factoring in other variables such as age, place of birth and affluence which would give some indication to the propensity of them going to the cinema.

merlante

|.Murderer.| wrote: »

As a matter of fact, I don't live on the outskirts of the city, I live a two minute walk away from Storm on Johns Hill.

It's very careless of you to assume and it's also dangerous to just take into account the number people living in an area without factoring in other variables such as age, place of birth and affluence which would give some indication to the propensity of them going to the cinema.

It doesn't really matter where you're from, the points I made are still valid. I only assumed you were from the outskirts because of the point you made about a cinema on the outskirts killing Storm. It's a common misconception that nobody lives in the inner city these days!

I'm not going to get into the business of guessing which groups of people can and can't go to the cinema; I'd say it's within most people's budget anyway. At €9.50 in Storm it's pricey but still a cheap night compared to the pub or to a meal out.

Daysha

If I was buying coke and popcorn etc every time I went to Storm of course it would be too expensive, but I never buy my food there. I know they say you can only eat Storm food in the cinemas but nobodys every stopped me walking over to Tesco before the movie and grabbing a few bits and pieces. And with the comfort and general quality associated with Storm compared to the Cineplex this time last year, €9.50 is a price I'd gladly pay

Btw, anyone know when Sweeney Todd will eventually come to Storm?

Sully

trishw78 wrote: »

Sorry sully while I agree that Storm is a cleaner, more modern Cinema there service leads a little to be desired. I waited in line for 30mins trying to get a ticket on Sunday only to miss the first 5 mins of the film. All because yet again they didn't have enough staff on. I say yet again as I've been there 3 or 4 times on either saturday nights or sunday nights and they don't have enough staff on to deal with the crowd.

Cineplex might not have gotten all the films and it might have a strange lingering smell but I never missed the start of the film.

merlante has addressed that issue pretty well. The new cinema draws in a lot bigger of a crowd.

merlante wrote: »

I would just suggest going there early. Those nights are incredibly busy nights in cinemas all around the country where there would often be queues out the door. We're not used to this in Waterford because the Cineplex was so god awful nobody bothered queuing to get in there.

Exactly. However, I was in on Friday and the queues were pretty long and not all tills were covered. Lack of staff seems to be an issue at the moment!

One big, but easily fixed, criticism that I have with the place is that there is no division between the food queues and the tickets queues. If you've booked your ticket online you should be able to go straight into a food queue, without queuing with the people looking for tickets.

There is two (or is it one?) units on the wall beside the lift where you enter your credit card and it will print the ticket. If you book online. If not, go downstairs and queue where the Ice Cream stall is - saves a LOT of time, most people get tickets or a small bit of Ice Cream so there isn't as much of a delay.

I always liked the idea of one queue for both, but I do think maybe a dedicated "Tickets Only" stall might be worth a shot - even though downstairs serves that purpose.

trishw78 wrote: »

Last sunday night there was only one girl down stairs on the till upstairs there was only 3 of the 7 or 8 tills actually open. I can't see how much earlier I need to be there than 30mins. I've been to other cinema's in Dublin and in Limerick where 30mins before the film was plenty of time, too early infact.

Ya in that case, it is under staffed. Id say it to the manager, there pretty decent when it comes to giving complementary passes if you have been disrupted or late going in due to a problem at there end.

fricatus wrote: »

What would be really nice is that thing that UGC in Parnell St, Dublin, do. They have a monthly ticket offer for some ludicrously small amount of money, like €20, that gets you unlimited admission on (I think) weekdays.

I can't remember the details, but a mate of mine when I lived up there had it and said it was fantastic value if you lived near enough by. Even three visits to the cinema in the month would cover the cost. It had me asking what the catch was. It would be nice to see Storm doing this, but it might only happen once, as Merlante says, Waterford is saturated with screens in the way Galway is.

That would be excellent alright. I know of the service your talking about!

JohnC.

I'd love a monthly ticket too. I know people in the UK who use it there, but Cineplex or Storm don't have it. Not sure they are likely to offer it either as it seems to be something that's dying out in the UK, with some who used to do it stopping it.

red ranger

i do not work there but my flatmate used to up to last summer.