Silly Mistakes & Stupid Decisions

When Knott's contracted Togo International to build their Windjammer Surf Racers concept after Zierer backed out.

At least it wasn't Intamin. ;)

...or Fahrenheit.

There's a mistake right there: SFOG's marketing for Dare Devil Dive: the country's first ride that...um...uh...has that name, is a Eurofighter in Georgia, and...um...isn't Maverick, Fahrenheit, Spongebob, or Mystery Mine!

Autoworld was a silly concept, mighta worked out if ran differently and in a different area. Hard Rock Park has to be the worst mistake out there.

Don't forget about Wild West World

Demon Drop, I still can't believe CF puts it in Dorney with modern S&S towers and removes bumper cars for it as well.

Also Great Adventure's massive ride removals, what other park not closed has removed or SBNO 32 or 33 rides in the past 10 years

The Boardwalk at Hershey. It was very stupid to build a small water park in the middle of the park that doesn't have nearly enough attractions for a park that size and then have to remove the rapids for an expansion that still didn't help. Who ever heard of a 45 minute wait to get into a wavepool. They should have kept it away from rides or made it a seperate gate full sized waterpark.

Rocket Rods at Disneyland is one that comes to mind. They wanted to put an "E-ticket" ride in place of the Peoplemover but weren't willing to make the E-ticket investment needed to do this right. The budget skimping for the ride resulted in lack of banking on the track (as compared to Epcot's Test Track ride) as well as the absence of reinforcement to the track. Because of this, the ride couldn't maintain enough speed in the turns and wear and tear to both the cars and track was severe making the ride a maintainence nightmare. It closed two years after opening.

This was one of the many penny-wise and pound (or dollar) foolish things that occurred to the Disney parks during the Eisner era. The net result -- no Peoplemover at the California park anymore to give visitors an overview of the Tomorrowland attractions..

All these are awesome point-outs, but YoshiFan's Boardwalk at Hershey is my favorite so far. What in the world were they thinking? That waterpark seems so out of place, and I was nonplussed and confused when it was announced that they were removing their rapids ride. Has any other park ever removed a rapids ride for new expansion?

Sylvester McMonkey McBean's Unusual Driving Machines comes to mind... at least Rocket Rods and HRP opened...

Astroworld made a major goof when they put the infamous "coffin cars" on the Texas Cyclone. By doing this, they ruined one of the best wooden roller coasters at that time. To their credit, they did modify the cars in the early 2000s to get rid of that abominable design.

Six Flags construction at SFNE a few years ago without getting any building or zoning permits, then getting caught with so many violations. Yeah, nobody was going to notice that building going up.

I'll disagree on the Boardwalk. Might not be everyone's idea of what should have gone there, but the place is packed almost every day. I'd say it was a stupid decision if nobody ever went there.

The Queen Mother of theme park mistakes was the ill-fated Freedomland USA park built in New York City in the early 1960s. This park had a Disneyland sized budget and was intended to be as elaborate as the California park. Its big problem was that the rides and other attradtions did not turn out to be as immersive or interesting as Disney's rides. A bad accident involving one of the rides hurt the park's image as well. The final coup de grace was delivered by the 1964-1965 World's Fair with its billion dollars worth of attractions (yes, that is in 1964 dollars) including four that eventually made their way to Disneyland.

I had the same thoughts as RGB about the Boardwalk, but can't really speak from experience since I haven't been there in six years. I've checked out the aerial views of the area using Bing maps, and it looks nice to me. And yeah, how is it a stupid decision or mistake if it draws large crowds?

Three words: Hard Rock Park.

It was a mistake BECAUSE it gets so busy. It should have been a separate gated park, built somewhere outside of Hersheypark. It was placed right in the middle of an already busy area of the park, and does not complement the attractions in that area at all.

"12-E"

Viper at SFGADV and removal of BBW at BGE.

I like Disaster Transport, Jerry.

Not everyone does.

Crashmando said:
Viper at SFGADV and removal of BBW at BGE.

Removal of BBW a silly/stupid decision? Hardly. The thing was nearing the end of its operational life.

Anybody want to take Flying Turns?