Why aren't there more dark rides?

[Billy Hill]

I don't expect every park to build a Pirates of the Caribbean, but c'mon... Is there just not enough interest in dark rides, or is it something else? I like the thrilling rides as much as the next person, but something I really notice in non-Disney parks is the woeful lack of dark rides. Am I missing something really obvious here about why they seem to be such a small percentage of the rides in most parks?

[Movieguy]

Well, I think a lot of it has to do with demographics. Parks these days are trying to woo an audience made mainly of teenagers and college students, and other twenty-somethings. And a large percentage of those people prefer roller coasters.

[YoshiFan]

It seems like Dark Rides are a thing of the past. Parks seem to be closing them more than building new ones. It's a shame because they are rides that almost anyone can go on and parks now also seem to have fewer and fewer non thrill family rides as well.

[Movieguy]

I know, it's a shame when you think about it. I'm constatnly talking about how Epcot used to have all these great elaborate dark rides like Horizons and World of Motion, which are both gone to make way for thrill rides.

 

Well, at least I have DVD's about those two from the Exctinct Attractions Club

[CoasterFanatic]

I am so happy when parks build new dark rides. Even old rides that are refurbished are often a step in the right direction. A park just isn't a park without a dark ride.

 

Everyone talks about Cedar Point constantly and they don't have a single one. But they used to have two until around 1983.

Earthquake

Pirate Ride

[YoshiFan]

Cedar Fair must have something against dark rides since besides those two rides, right after they bought Dorney Park, they decide to tear down Journey to the Center of the Earth (and maybe Iceberg, but I'm not sure if it was gone before Cedar Fair bought Dorney or not). Then they closed of Kingdom of the Dinosaur's at Knott's a few months ago.

 

I know, it's a shame when you think about it. I'm constatnly talking about how Epcot used to have all these great elaborate dark rides like Horizons and World of Motion, which are both gone to make way for thrill rides.

 

Well, at least I have DVD's about those two from the Exctinct Attractions Club

 

Yeah, it's horrible how Epcot got rid those 2 rides. Disney is trying to add thrills to Epcot but taking away what made the park so great. I'll admit Test Track is a great ride but I would have rather seen them keep World of Motion and build Test Track where Wonders of Life is (since now, Wonders of Life seems to be closed 75%+ of the time). Same with Horizons, they tore down a really unique ride for a thrill ride that a lot of people aren't even willing to ride because its so intense. And I know it's really not a dark ride, but there's also the Sea Cabs in the Living Seas, so in less than 10 years, Epcot lost 3 Omnimover rides.

[Jose Eber]

People are having less children these days than they did say 50 years ago.

 

The ratio of adults to children has dramatically shifted since the 60's with the advent of birth control and abortion as well.

 

Larger families (of 3 or 4 kids) rarely exist. We miss out on the psychology of the 3rd and 4th child (Roy and Walt were third and fourth children).

 

The psychology of the 3rd and fourth children is dramatically different from the first and 2nd child. A different way of relating. A different way of being.

 

The 'pleasers' (3rd) and entertainers (4th) are a dying breed sad to say.

 

Thus we are left with then a more limited culture, one not as broad in scope as before, hence why (I believe) we are cutting back on these less intense or less intimidating rides.

 

Jose

[Red Benny]

I love dark rides as well. For the longest time I wouldn't go on anything thrilling at Disneyland, but I loved all the dark rides. As much as I would love more parks adding dark rides, I think it's a good thing they don't simply because nobody (except Universal) can come near the quality of Disney dark rides. The Prehistoric Cave Train at SCBB is a perfect example of this. I think it simply comes down to parks not willing to put in the effort and money for something that people may or may not go on.

 

I think it also comes down to licensing. Disney has some great intellectual properties, but what does Six Flags have? They could do a great Superman or Batman darkride, but they can draw more people with another cloned coaster. Paramount has some great properties, but few that would make good dark rides (other than Spongebob, etc.) Cedar Fair wouldn't do well with anything other than a Snoopy themed darkride. Kingdom of the Dinosaurs at KBF was neat, but as it was something people were unfamiliar with, the crowds died as quickly as the hype for that ride.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love dark rides, but Disney does them so well... and I don't think most companies want to spend the money or the effort to try to outdo them.

[JT3000]

Funny thing is, even Disney seems to be shying away from them lately. Now they're making nothing but simulators, coasters, and other types of shows. At least in the American parks. Have they admitted defeat at the hands of Spider-Man or something?

[Movieguy]

Nah, I think it's more of a case of Disney cutting back costs in every way they can. It's like the way they play it safe and just release sequels to already popular movies instead of trying something new and different.

 

So it's the same with the park. Horizons and WOM were getting on in years, and they had many chances to simply shut the things down for a while and update them...but instead of that, they let them sit and rot, before tearing them down in favor of more thrill rides, when those thrill rides could have easily shared the land with the existing rides.

 

Animatronic heavy rides are just too expensive to maintain now I guess. And why go to all that trouble when you could just make another 3-D show and thrill the audience with some cheap scares. Pretty soon when you mention the term dark ride, a lot of people are gonna think you're talking about one of these 3-D shows, because they're everywhere now.

[Coasters 4 ever]

Dark rides can still be thrilling. Take Spider-man for example. It's still fun, but not too intense for kids. I've seen 5 and 6 year olds go on that ride, and they never came off crying or anything like that.

[CoasterFanatic]

^ But I have seen kids coming off of Dinosaur that looked like they needed therapy.

[Movieguy]

Well, I don't blame them, cause I have a hard time handling dark rides that intense as well, and I'm 24 hehe. I've never gone on Dinosaur, cause I'm not a big fan of stuff jumping out and scaring me, so I'd just close my eyes the whole way through. My nerves are too easily frazzled for that. But, I still realize the importance of dark rides despite that, and that's why I defend them.

 

I've heard the stories about kids being taken off Dinosaur crying, especially during it's "Countdown to Extinction" days, and I wonder if that's been happening with Journey at DisneySea, because I saw the sample video here from Tokyo Disney and that looked like one hell of an intense ride. I almost jumped myself seeeing that big worm-like thing appear.

[Red Benny]

This is a little off topic, but along the lines of making dark rides more thrilling. When I was a kid I was afraid that the dark maintenance areas of It's a Small World led to some huge drop. That would be a major thrill.. just add a 50 foot drop somewhere in the middle of the ride. Then again, that would just be cruel

[FlyingScooter]

i miss EarthQuake and Pirates. Thanks for showing those pics, Ted.

DollyWood has an indoor coaster which is more like a dark ride than coaster. Blazing fury was a nice surprise.

Conneaut lake has Devils Den which is not scarey at all. I'm surprised it still works..

[ChrisFL]

I think one reason is cost

 

For example, Spiderman and Mission Space cost over $100 million each, whereas Millennium Force cost $25 million.

[Movieguy]

Plus, dark rides take years of planning. Remember that The Indiana Jones Adventure in Disneyland opened after planning that went back to the late 80's.

 

Yup, that's what parks are all about these days, cheap and quick.

[shepp]

I think it's aso a matter of technology. Once someone's ridden DL's Haunted Mansion, how thrilled is he going to be with a local park's cheesy spook ride featuring papier mache skeletons and bad special effects? And while darks may be appealing to a wide variety of people, they do have a limited rerideability factor, unless they're truly amazing, like Spidey.

 

The 2 closed CP rides actually came from Freedomland, a defunct early '60s park in the Bronx. It may be an invention on my part, but I remember being disapponted by their Earthquake ride even way back then, and that was wayyyy before Universal Studios trashed BART every ten miinutes.

 

So the traditional dark ride has now been largely supplanted in most parks by motion simulators, which provide many of the attractions of the dark ride - motion, plotline (more or less), startling effects - in a form that's cheaper, takes less maintenance, and can easily be updated. There are also interactive darks like Men In Black. And since the golden era of dark rides, there's been a rise in combo attractions, heavily themed incorporating conventional thrill ride elements, like ROTM, PKI's Tomb Raider, or even DD, whose queue area is considerably more amazing than many classic darks.

 

And economically, it probably makes more sense for a family-oriented park like BGW to invest in a mega-dark (Curse of Darkcastle) than for a coaster park like CP to keep indoor rides that were 40 years past their prime.

[Rastuso]

Well, classic dark rides will never be built again, for starters. Insurance liability make a new Pretzel-type dark ride a non-option for large themers. SOme folks are opening new Pretzels using old parts, but they are privately owned, not part of a mega-park. Sally has really revolutionized and revitalized dark rides, and they DO offer more than just Scooby Doo, although nobody in the the US has decided to make a scary Sally ride, which is quite a shame.

 

I don't think there is a real good answer as to why parks dont' build dark rides. Scooby ones usually have VERY long lines, and they only cost a few million. They do get a bit stale after a while, but so do coasters. I think Dark Castle at BGW is a GREAT sign for dark rides. I'm amazed that they built that, and really wish I could make it there this year.

 

Any park without a dark ride needs one. Hell, Astroworld could really use one. But, that brings up another issue with dark rides, which is vandalism. Most successful old dark rides operate as special pay rides. Few kids will pay for a ride ticket just to ride a dark ride to vandalize it. But if they have a POP and can ride it free, then they can start planning their vandalism. That's why Knoebel's Mansion is a separate ticket ride.

 

Dark rides are experiencing a Rennaisance if anything, imho.

 

 

Rastus

[pgathriller]

I agree that there are not enough dark rides. Those are some of my favorite rides. I think every Theme Park should have one. I think Theme Parks don't have many of them is because of all the upkeep. There are so many props and electrical equipment that it might just be too much of a pain. Here in El Paso, the amusement park Western Playland had a haunted house and it had a electrical problem and the haunted house burned down. These are the reasons why Theme parks don't have many of them.

[BiCoastal Kid]

Then they closed of Kingdom of the Dinosaur's at Knott's a few months ago.

That's because it sucked.

 

IB has Den of Lost Thieves and it freakin' rules! Disney built Buzz, and I think the shooting dark rides will probably bring the dark rides back again. Really, I've never seen people not like those rides, because there's nothing more entertaining than competition. If theres anything a kid would wanna do more then ride some rollercoaster, it's totaly own his brother or even parents at laser shooting!

[Guest]

Well I for one love dark rides, and I am very lucky that I have a home park that has 2 (used to be three one burned down about 4 years ago).

KW has Old Mill (Which is now called Garfield's Nightmare) and Noah's Ark.

I for one LOVE Noah's Ark, especially when the boat is rocking pretty good. During fright night's, they actually have people (employees) hide and scare patrons, which is AWESOME.

 

As for the Old Mill/ Garfield's Nightmare....I absolutely hate what KW has done to the ride. After 100 years of operation they did a HORRIBLE re-vamp. PERIOD! I rode it to see what they actually did, and was so horrified that they did that to a great dark ride. I am done rambling, I just hate that ride now.

 

As for other dark rides, I love Disney's Haunted Mansion...the effects and the presence alone is amazing, Disney spares no expense coming out with spectacular rides and attractions.

 

*TRIVIA*By the way, does anyone know the name of the other dark ride in KW, when it was operational? Answer to come within a few days....lol

[ChrisFL]

Disney spares no expense coming out with spectacular rides and attractions.

 

or at least, they USED to.

 

[JT3000]

Haha. Disney cuts corners every chance they get now. I mean, how can you watch them open a Soarin' clone in Florida with the California movie, and call that effort? I won't even get started on M:S.

[Movieguy]

Exactly. Disney used to be all about taking chances and doing stuff that would make other people around you say "You're crazy! This'll never work!" Now they're just going with what's a guaranteed profit instead of what's truly innovative.