House of Dancing Water suspended on account of technical problems
Water-based entertainment show, The House of Dancing Water, has been suspended for the last few days, gaming operator Melco Resorts told the Times yesterday, because of technical problems. However, a company representative informed that shows will resume from next week.
“The show pushes the boundaries of technical requirement and human performance,” the gaming operator behind the City of Dreams-based show said in a note to the Times. “Some of the equipment has required special maintenance to continue to provide our audience with the same thrilling experience.”
The operator said it had made arrangements for a full refund for the affected customers.
The resort’s ticketing website on Monday included a warning and apology message stating that shows between November 2 and 6 had been cancelled for “technical reasons”. That message had been lifted from the website last night.
Also last night, it was still not possible to book tickets for performances before November 13 using the online ticketing system.
The suspension this month follows several last-minute cancellations reported by guests at the show on the weekend of October 28/29.
One visitor, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Times that a performance on October 28 was delayed for about 30 minutes, before being outright cancelled 20 minutes into the performance.
The visitor also expressed safety concerns with how staff at The House of Dancing Water had handled the cancellation and evacuation of attendees.
“After the show [was] cancelled they let the VIP leave the theater first,” she told the Times. “After that people started to line up to leave, then they closed all doors without any announcement. By that time, there were hundreds of people standing in the narrow passageway and all [the] doors were closed including all the emergency exits without any staff present or explanation.”
Describing the experience as “horrifying”, the visitor said she later discovered that the guests were detained in the theater because the management team had not decided on a refund policy.
A second visitor posted a negative review on social media on October 29, claiming that he had traveled from Australia to see The House of Dancing Water performance, but it had been cancelled three hours before it was due to start. A third visitor in mid-September said his show was cancelled 30 minutes in.
Reports of mid-show cancellations are consistent with an anonymous email sent the Times earlier this week from a disposable email address. Signed only “concerned performers”, the nature of the email address meant it was impossible for the Times to verify the source.
The “concerned performers” said that there are a number of dire problems at the show, including technical performance, the state of equipment and serious safety concerns.
“During the last year, the show has undergone a massive decline in quality due to various equipment and technical issues, many times resulting in many show pauses and sometimes out right cancellations,” the email noted.
“We are concerned as performers to hear that over the past year many of the safety systems for the performers were shut down periodically for shows due to malfunctions with the equipment. Since Melco took over the operations last year the quality and the efficiency of the show has been in decline. […] There is a total lack of confidence with the management team since the change in structure.”
The House of Dancing Water is normally staged 10 times each week. Performances are held on Thursday through Monday inclusively, with a 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. showing each day. It premiered over seven years ago in Sptember 2010.
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The production and facility has been an increasing disaster since Melco-Crown took over the operations of the show and proceeded to systematically lay-off its higher paid (experienced and qualified) employees and replaced them with a cheaper incompetent workforce. It is nothing short of a miracle that no one has God forbid been killed on this production since then.
Brought my family of 6 to see The House of Dancing Water today on 21st December 2017 at 5pm as an early Christmas gift for my family and left feeling extremely short-changed because all of the most iconic parts of the show which involves performers diving into the pool were totally eliminated without prior notice and we paid full priced tickets. Yes, these include the acts involving the Boat Masts, the Russian Swings, the Trapeze Ballerinas, and the most anticipated high diving act at the end. If these acts are not considered major acts, then I don’t know what is. It’s like ordering a set meal at a restaurant and you’re served appetizers and desserts but never served the main course, but you pay the same price. I don’t know how that is acceptable. We flew in to Macau especially to see the show for the first time and we came with high hopes full of excitement and anticipation. I had prepped the kids prior to coming and had read the awesome reviews online so we knew immediately when some acts were missing. I didn’t know how to explain to the kids when they kept asking me when the “diving scenes” were going to start and I kept saying “perhaps later, perhaps later..” and finally it was curtain call (??). You should have seen the disappointment in their eyes. Feeling puzzled myself I approached a staff at the control box at the end of the show and all he could tell me was that those acts were eliminated due to technical difficulties. We walked outside to the box office and spoke with a Mr. Allen and asked if due to the unforeseen circumstances of technical difficulties today- which we totally understand, were they able to offer us a return voucher (like a courtesy credit) for the next time we are in Macau so that my kids can see the parts they missed this time- and we were answered with a straight, “No!” I knew right then that asking for a partial refund would be a, “Hell No!!” Mr. Allen kept highlighting article no.5 of the terms and conditions on the back of the ticket, which basically says they have the right to change the show content. Mr. Allen then escalated my request to Ms. Rachel Ng, assistant manager of the box office at City of Dreams. She wasn’t very helpful either and kept pointing to article no.5 again, on the back of the ticket, and she told me these iconic parts have been eliminated for the whole of last week too, perhaps implying that why am I the only one making noise when all those other audiences have peacefully left them alone since last week without anyone complaining of the missing acts? Which brings me to the whole point of business ethics. There are many ways that businesses engage in unethical conduct, exploiting their customers, and even the public at large. To me this is a classic example that illustrates the scope of unethical business practice. Some businesses choose to increase the profits for the owners at the expense of their customers. They KNEW beforehand there was technical difficulties. These technical problems didn’t occur overnight. In fact for the whole of last week they already had these problems, according to Ms. Rachel Ng, assistant manager at the box office. They KNEW that these major acts were going to be eliminated and yet continued to sell the tickets at full price, without informing any of the customers. If they had told me these acts were going to be cancelled, I would have chosen not to buy and come back another time instead of paying so much only to feel short-changed. If you tell me that it was just 1 act which was eliminated, or a minor act, then I would have been more understanding. But this was 3 major acts and basically all of the iconic pool diving scenes. If they think that the Asian customers can be bullied in such a way and not voice out, I think the internet has revolutionised that. When I told Ms. Rachel Ng that I would be writing a review about this lack of empathy and bad customer service shown to us, she just gave me a blank stare and handed me her business card- I take that as a: “go ahead, nobody would care.” So here I am writing this review, my first ever review because I am not one who likes to do this kind of thing, but I feel like I won’t be doing myself justice if I don’t voice out this time. And if Mr. Franco Dragone ever read this review, I hope he understands where I’m coming from, having once been an audience himself.