Are Dark Rides Dying?

[shiekra38]

Regional amusement parks have never really been known to have dark rides and it's also not what their guests come to those parks for. You don't see SeaWorld building dark rides either and that's because they've sort of become the closest thing Orlando has to a regional coaster park. SW has a bunch of APs and they come to the parks for the coasters, exhibits, festivals, etc. Just like regional parks, this is a lower spending group of people who are just looking for a fun time out and a lot of that includes riding coasters which is why that's what SW has focused on lately.

Disney and Universal build variations of dark rides all the time though. The reason for this is because the demographics that go to regional parks and what they expect there is completely different from what people expect at the top tier parks. A well done dark ride is what sets Universal and/or Disney apart from other parks. Rides like The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, Forbidden Journey, Rise of the Resistance, etc all are experiences you can only find at a park that has the resources at their disposal to pour into a dark ride. Even a bad dark ride like Superstar Limo rarely gets made outside of a larger park.

That doesn't mean that dark rides are dying, it means regional parks are allocating their yearly budgets to projects that their guests will enjoy rather than going all out and spending multiple years budgets on a dark ride that guests may or may not respond to.

This does seem to be the case

But I have to think of parks like Blackpool Pleasure Beach and many of the Ghost Trains that are staples of Amusement Parks

It seems Sally has made the dark ride business a lot more accessible to regional parks...maybe we're just in a lull

 

[Nick]

Well, if the attractions your park offers are all geared to teenagers and twentysomethings, your guests will be primarily teenagers and twentysomethings. Then it becomes a never ending cycle.......The great thing
about Kennywood is that, except for school picnic days, a walk through the park will have as many over 30's, over 40's, over 50's, over 60's and parents and grandparents with young kids along, as there are teenagers and
twentysomethings. Kennywood has coasters, but it's not overtly coasters. There's plenty of attractions for all segments.....Balance a park and you'll balance the demographic....BGW 'used' to be like that when AB ran
the park....and they had much better attendance then they now have, since they've now just become another coaster park, of which there are many in the northeast and midwest.

What it comes down to is coasters are cheap to build and dark rides aren’t.

 

[Tobias]

Regional amusement parks have never really been known to have dark rides and it's also not what their guests come to those parks for. You don't see SeaWorld building dark rides either and that's because they've sort of become the closest thing Orlando has to a regional coaster park. SW has a bunch of APs and they come to the parks for the coasters, exhibits, festivals, etc. Just like regional parks, this is a lower spending group of people who are just looking for a fun time out and a lot of that includes riding coasters which is why that's what SW has focused on lately.

Disney and Universal build variations of dark rides all the time though. The reason for this is because the demographics that go to regional parks and what they expect there is completely different from what people expect at the top tier parks. A well done dark ride is what sets Universal and/or Disney apart from other parks. Rides like The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, Forbidden Journey, Rise of the Resistance, etc all are experiences you can only find at a park that has the resources at their disposal to pour into a dark ride. Even a bad dark ride like Superstar Limo rarely gets made outside of a larger park.

That doesn't mean that dark rides are dying, it means regional parks are allocating their yearly budgets to projects that their guests will enjoy rather than going all out and spending multiple years budgets on a dark ride that guests may or may not respond to.

Pretty much. Another factor to consider is dark rides are not cheap, and they certainly don't get any less expensive through its life due to general upkeep. If you're putting in a dark ride, you have to commit to taking care of it. It's not an impossible feat considering the number of Europe parks that have them, but for a regional park it's a big risk, investment and so forth.

And to highlight a particular comment..."Even a bad dark ride like Superstar Limo rarely gets made outside of a larger park."
Even with Superstar Limo being a notorious Disney dark ride, that most likely had a bigger budget and had more effort put into it than some notable duds from regional parks. Be it the Submarine Ride at SWSD, or the MonStars of Rock from Freestyle Music Park.

 

[Mad Dog]

What it comes down to is coasters are cheap to build and dark rides aren’t.

I'm not referring to the 'high tech' dark rides that Universal &I Disney are building. Most regional parks don't have the budget to build those. As @belloq87 and I referred to in our previous comments,
we're talking about the dark rides that are similar to Snow White and a few of the other Disney classic Fantasyland dark rides. Many of these parks had almost exact, except for IP, rides in their past.
They really shouldn't be very expensive. Kennywood did their shooter dark ride in this century on a fairly small budget.

 

[Nick]

I'm not referring to the 'high tech' dark rides that Universal &I Disney are building. Most regional parks don't have the budget to build those. As @belloq87 and I referred to in our previous comments,
we're talking about the dark rides that are similar to Snow White and a few of the other Disney classic Fantasyland dark rides. Many of these parks had almost exact, except for IP, rides in their past.
They really shouldn't be very expensive. Kennywood did their shooter dark ride in this century on a fairly small budget.

Even those old school style dark rides are still fairly expensive for regional parks and they are also low capacity. The shooters have definitely been something that had been popping up more at some regional parks, but again it's just not gonna work for every park or they aren't going to want to risk that type of investment. Especially because with dark rides like those, if they aren't properly maintained, then you could run into trouble pretty easily and then you spent a bunch of money on a ride that guests can't even ride.

 

[Mad Dog]

Even those old school style dark rides are still fairly expensive for regional parks and they are also low capacity. The shooters have definitely been something that had been popping up more at some regional parks, but again it's just not gonna work for every park or they aren't going to want to risk that type of investment. Especially because with dark rides like those, if they aren't properly maintained, then you could run into trouble pretty easily and then you spent a bunch of money on a ride that guests can't even ride.

Yes, but many coasters have also proven to be breakdown nightmares and have very low capacity. That stuff happens in all ride categories. Regional parks won't be able to expand their demographics beyond their very
young crowd unless they start differentiating a bit. And, with the population numbers showing a decrease in the youth numbers, that's going to be a hard mountain to climb to keep attendance from falling. Look at what
happened to Six Flags last year when they quit giving away cheap AP's and cheap tickets. Their parks became ghost towns. A healthy park should have a broad based age demographic.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Most regional dark rides were indoor pretzels or something similar. As the steel looping coaster became viable in the 70s and 80s we saw more park add those over new laugh in the dark rides. Many old ones burned to the ground or were turned into arcades (another very 80s thing).

I think the dark rides @shiekra38 are the Disneyland style ones with movie design. Those have never been super popular outside of destination parks - even DarKastle was best known as being a universal ride at a regional park because it never happens.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Interesting this topic is being brought up. Funtown Splashtown USA is adding a new interactive dark ride this year. So I’d say they aren’t dying, but something interactive is needed in order to complete the experience is maybe the trend we’re heading towards.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Viewing it from the "business side" of operating a theme park, I've always held the belief that dark rides aren't approved by corporate overlords since it's difficult to market unless you attach an IP to them. And once you attach an IP, it becomes a costly licensing nightmare that reduces the potential for one to get built.

Not saying IP rides are better than original rides, but in the modern day, it seems like if a dark ride doesn't have an IP attached to it, might as well build a roller coaster instead. Spending $10-20mil on a world-class coaster is a much safer investment than spending that on a dark ride that may or may not be well received.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Interesting this topic is being brought up. Funtown Splashtown USA is adding a new interactive dark ride this year. So I’d say they aren’t dying, but something interactive is needed in order to complete the experience is maybe the trend we’re heading towards.

See: the new sally dark ride in Lost Island.

 

[Mad Dog]

The bottom line though, is if regional parks want to attract guests beyond a low spending very youthful demographic that's shrinking in size, they need to expand their offerings to attract a wider, and higher spending, demographic.
If the vast majority of their attractions are high thrill coasters, the park's long term survival is questionable. Six Flags, probably the embodiment of that high thrill coaster business plan, is living proof of the fallacy
of that business plan. Parks have backed themselves into this position, and the future is not bright for them. Differentiate to attract a wider customer base, or disappear. Again, I'll use my BGW example. Their attendance was higher and more broad based when they offered attractions and entertainment that attracted guests from all ages. Now their attendance basically sucks since they've become another coaster park. Inexpensive classic oriented dark rides, or their
equivalent, are one way to differentiate their offerings. Many of the regional parks, BGW/Kings Island/Cedar Point were more balanced parks in the 1980's than they are now. When the vast majority of your attractions are targeted to a narrow demographic they become more vulnerable to a long term existence.

 

[GA-MBIT]

I reject this slander of Monster Mansion!

To be fair, Monster Mansion is one that I remember legitimately loving, it's just been 10 years since I've been on the thing! Went to SFOG a few years back and it fell through the cracks, but with the state the rest of the park felt to be in, I didn't have much hope for MM.

 

[GAcoaster]

Monster Mansion has actually been getting maintained fairly well.

 

[shiekra38]

What it comes down to is coasters are cheap to build and dark rides aren’t.

And getting simpler and more efficient to maintain over time

Dark rides have all these little parts and such

I'm honestly surprised parks haven't leaned into the black box and projection mapping method

Perhaps it's something we could see in the future


And yet again, Twitter was no help to anyone

 

[Frank Drackman]

I started thinking the other day that I haven't seen too many dark rides being added regionally in a while.

Granted, you have Alton Towers that is redoing their haunted house this year, and of course parks like Effteling

Yet, the SeaWorld parks have been ripping out their old closed dark rides and replacing them with coasters

Other "dark rides" added have been simply shooter attractions by Sally, and even they seem few and far between

My question is (outside of Disney and Universal) do we see dark rides as a dying breed for regional parks

Or are we just in a weird moment where these types of attractions are getting a break?

And am I missing some that have been added recently?

Remember this is outside of Disney and Universal...but, are they part of the issue? Is it just impossible to top them and therefore parks don't even try?

isn't Alton Towers part of Merlin? Merlin has Logo Land, I think they have two or three dark rides at Lego Land Orlando. Anyhow, it would seem to me that they could develop rides for multiple parks if they really wanted to.