Dark Rides?

Disney adds them often, Universal has many of them in their parks and adds them occasionally, and some other parks add big ones every so often. Dark Rides!

With the new "focus" of SF, does anyone think that the chain may obtain a few of these? I know none of the SF parks I have been to have any and in the case of DarKastle they can be big draws for non-coaster families.

I guess what I am saying is I am hoping for more of these to pop up in the next few years. CP removed theirs over 9 years ago and PKI ruined their's by making it a Scoobie clone so I am without my annual dark ride fix!

I would think that would be the obvious "Family" way to go, as far as adding new rides to the park in the future. God knows, as well as we do, that Six Flags is starving for dark rides. Hopefully they see it the same way.

St. Louis has the Scooby Dark Ride. Not sure about any of the others.

There is one at La Ronde too- but it was closed the last 2 times I went there.

BTW- why is Scoobie Doo/Sponge Bob found at both SF and Paramounts' parks and for that matter why is Nick at both Paramount and Uni?

^Scooby Doo is at both parks because Paramount owned the rights to the Hanna Barbara characters (and have since dropped all but Scooby) for quite some time, Six Flags owns the rights because they own the rights for all cartoons broadcast on Cartoon Network, which includes Scooby.

Nick is at Paramount parks because Nick is a former part of Viacom, Nick was at Universal because in exchange for studio space Universal got the rights to use their trademarks. *** Edited 3/3/2006 6:36:23 PM UTC by Touchdown***

I know this opinion is probably not popular on this site, but the reason why parks in FL can get away with so many dark rides and other rides that emphasize theme over other thrills is these rides are usually one trick (or limited trick) ponies. After the story and surprises become old hat, there is not much left. They are great for vacation destinations that familes go to once every 10 years, but who is going to marathon Pirates 20 times in one day and come back next week or even next year? Parks that rely on local repeat business get much less value from theming, in my opinion, but they still get some. Of course interactive rides and rides that incorporate more thrills beside just theming are the exception.

Even if SF had dark rides, they'd only run them with single car operation. :) (Sorry, couldn't resist)

The dark ride at La Ronde has been removed since 2 years. Only the building still stand.

My buddy that lives in Belgium says that they have a dark ride there that has different endings depending on how well you do shooting stuff. You actually take different tracks through different rooms at the end depending on how well you do. He says that makes you want to ride again. Or a major production like DarKastle where you have to ride a few times in order to see everything. I'm not talking about the stagnent story-line old school dark rides (though I do like them).

^MIB at Universal has different endings too, it is by far the best shoot-um dark ride I have ridden.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned SFoG's Monster Plantation yet. SFNO has Jocco's Mardi Gras Madness, a Sally shooter/dark ride, but I'm not sure whether that ride, or the park itself, will still be around in the future. Also, TGE used to have a dark ride called the Tornado, but it was removed when Canyon Blaster was put in.

You southeners have all the good rides!

Enchanted Forest's "Challenge of Mondor" will have different rooms you go into if you hit *special* targets...I believe it's the first Sally-Brand (TM) ride to do that...

Robocoaster will correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I understood from their renderings and artwork....

Honestly, Raven TTD is right, It works for FL parks because it's new or not often seen by the majority of visitors.

I liked Phantom Theater in the begining but ten years of it was very old. I remember as a kid even the wonderful world of HB and Smurfs got old and something we would only ride for the air conditioning.

The Sally Solution keeps a new element of competition in a ride that never changes.

Now there are some great fun houses and darkrides out there that I think should never be removed or changed to a sally type ride. Knoebels, Waldameers, IB's Frankensteins Castle.

Even if they are pay extra, In most cases it's clear they reinvest it in the ride.

Chuck

See, I could easily marathon on a number of darkrides. Knoebels' Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean... the list goes on and on.

I think interactives are the way of the future. They're like living, breathing video games and when you get a bunch of competitive people together, the challenge to score the highest becomes a very big thing. I've seen groups of all ages get very competitive on rides like Ghost Hunt at Lake Compounce and Men in Black at USF.

IMHO, ALL Six Flags parks need darkrides. Very long overdue.

I guess I'm not one of these ultra competitive people since the idea of shooting at things one a dark ride doesn't appeal to me that greatly. Now, if they'd let me shoot at all the people in the park I find annoying that day, THAT I could get into.

Doesn't SFFT have the Scooby ride? I think I recall riding a Scooby themed shooter right next to the Frisbee ride. Am I crazy?

Didn't/Doesn't SFNO have one? If im not Mistake PCW has one too

I just want to make one little correction for most of the people in this thread--it's 'darkride'--all one word according to the Darkride and Funhouse Enthusiasts or D.A.F.E. for short. From the D.A.F.E. website (which looks like it needs updating) here are the Six Flags parks with darkrides:

1) Six Flags Fiesta Texas with the Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Mansion shoot-em-up which debuted in 2002 [Sally]
2) Scooby-Doo Ghostblasters shoot-em-up boatride at Six Flags St. Louis [Sally conversion]
3) Yosemite Sam and the Gold River Adventure-boat ride-through featuring all the Looney Tunes characters in a variety of scenes--many featuring motion [Sally]
4) Treasure Mountain-Frontier City ?
5) Great Escape-Tornado ?
6) Houdini the Great Escape-SFNE Haunted Swing* by Vekoma
7) Houdini's Great Escape-SFGadv. Haunted Swing* by Vekoma
8) Monster Plantation-SFOG ?

8b) This might be a stretch, but Typhoon Seacoaster at SFA has two long tunnels, which I consider to be darkride-like. I hope that there is money to fully restore the tunnels to their former glory. I would also love to see the outside section finished off. You can tell that Premier ran out of money with the concrete sections after the second turntable, since there are engineering/contractor marks on them.

If you go to the Sally rides website, you'll see a promotional video for the darkride that was built at the former Six Flags Belgium. They show a lot of footage of it, and they explain how the ride works. The themeing detail is unbelievable and the cars don't run on any tracks at all! There are two endings, and it takes everyone in your car to get a good enough score to proceed through both endings. What suprised me is that there is a VIP mode that lets someone go through all the rooms without a sufficient enough score. *** Edited 3/4/2006 2:23:24 AM UTC by Intamin Fan***

I love the traditional dark rides where you just sit there and watch. I know the newer interactive dark rides are more popular, but I still think there is a place for the traditonal rides that used to be at all the parks. I do not agree that they get boring over time, if they are well done. I would love to see the SF parks and Cedar Point add dark rides to their parks.