Hersheypark's Roller Soaker to be replaced with "sprayground"

Ok, I can totally accept that. Distracting...sure. I've gotten mixed up and had to backtrack a couple times in both parks (and a few others). It may be semantics, but "sucks"--to me at least--is quite the exaggeration.

I think SFA's layout sucks. Not even in the same league as BG or Hershey. And I'd even argue that Hershey is sort of similar in that as it expanded, it seemed the designers didn't really think things through long-term. Just multiply that by 10 with SFA.

I never minded BGW's layout. I always thought in their case function followed form, - in other words, the park was contrived around one of the most beautiful settings you will find with hills or bridges naturally dividing the themed areas, and I was always willing to forgive them their large, strenuous loop for a layout.
Oh, that is until I fell victim to their weird staggered opening policy. At park opening I was trying to get to Verbolten and got stopped at Sesame Street. After more than 1/2 hour we were released, but only got as far as Italy. (Davinci's garden) The girl at that barricade explained we could wait another 1/2 hour for Octoberfest to open, or go back around to England for Lochness Monster. Well, no, since I was trying to get my first ride on Verbolten I waited. Once they finally let us across the bridge we found out the only ride operating was the drop tower. Verbolten was down, had been down for a couple days and likely wouldn't open at all that day either. (the crowd was none too happy, I wasn't the only one who thought someone, somewhere along the line might of said something...) Anyhow, being that I'm outta shape, I decided to sit on a bench and complain about it for the 45 minutes it took them to open the rides and attractions in Germany. I was so stuck, and didn't feel like making the trek back around to rides that were surely very busy. After all, the park had been open almost 2 hours by then.

Speaking of random layouts, how about Knoebels!? I've gotten lost there in the past, but on this last 2 day visit, I finally learned the layout. It doesn't even matter getting lost there - everywhere you are there is something DYNO-MITE to do! I still haven't done everything there.

You want to talk about a crappy layout? Knoebels wins in that category. It's kind of like you have some trees, buildings, rides, and other various attractions, you pick them up in your cupped hands, shake it around, and then randomly drop them onto a gravel pit with a creek running through it like you are rolling dice.

It's a really fun park though. As small as it is, I find myself getting lost there sometimes.

LostKause wrote:

The Kings Island of ten or so years ago is my idea of a perfect layout. Six Flags America is my idea of the worst layout.

Funny you should mention that. Kings Island's design, with its themed areas fanning out from the end of International Street, is really a pretty brilliant concept. It's actually a more sensible, understandable, and walkable layout than almost any other modern park. The concept borrows heavily from Disneyland, and what I can't understand is why more parks are not built (like Kings Island) with some variation on the Disney hub system. What is particularly remarkable is that Disneyland's design is recognized almost universally as a good concept, and yet almost nobody, not even Disney, copies it.

Later, LostKause wrote:

They should have built a separate water park. That would have helped the ascetics of the park while adding a reason to stay overnight at their hotel and spend more money on a second park experience. Cha-ching!

Something tells me that there aren't very many ascetics visiting Hersheypark, let alone staying overnight in their hotel. The park would generally do better catering to hedonists instead.

Jeff wrote:

So Gonch thinks CP is like Columbus, Ohio, and Hersheypark is like London, England. I can accept that.

...And I happen to like Columbus, thankyouverymuch...

It's not the meandering paths themselves that are such a mistake, it is that so many parks were designed with these paths that were designed to hinder navigation and hide the fact that there weren't very many attractions. Then when it came time to add attractions, parks were left without usable access. To me, the bigger problem...and the one that I just plain don't understand, is the attitude that amusement rides apparently don't belong in amusement parks. They are necessary to get people into the park, but they should be tucked away into the dark recesses, hidden behind fences and hills, not noticed from the midway where they might spoil the illusion of some imaginary locale. You see a lot of this in places like Darien Lake and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Darien Lake is particularly annoying: if you can see the ride, if you head towards where you would expect the entrance to be, that's the *exit*. The ride entrance is down the midway, around the corner, out of sight, tucked in between the gift shop and the rest rooms...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Six Flags has done some terrible things to a few nice parks.

Kings Island has a pleasant layout excluding the drawn-out Paramount-era queues /stations of Flight Deck and White Water Canyon.

I was going to knock the expansion through Racer. Action Theater, X-Base, and Dinosaurs Alive feel a little awkwardly hidden behind Racer. But, I can see why it was done. With Racer lining the whole Coney Mall Midway, there just wasn't enough to do along there.

I'm just happy that they're staying away from the hidden Beast territory.

The hidden Beast and its territory IS sweet. I actually had a little bit of trouble finding it the first time I was ever there (thank goodness the thing left tracks). We were in on a preview plan and by the time we finally got a around to heading to ride it, it was dark. That, and our head scratching decision not to bother getting and using a map, winded up being quite the adventure.

Overall, it took me a few times to get the hang of the layout, but it's definitely a beautiful park and I can't wait to go back.