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Every park needs one (or more)!
Why do dark rides remain such an enduring success for theme parks across the world? Three attraction designers tell us
Benoit Cornet, Alterface, Belgium: The dark ride brings a dynamic to the park unmatched by any other attractions. No other ride captures the interest of such a broad audience, from toddlers to grandma and grandpa. Some of the most successful “e-ticket” attractions in recent years have been interactive dark rides, a great alternative to higher, faster – but always more expensive – rollercoasters. Players are eager to beat their friends, brothers, sisters, parents and even their own score. This means repeat business! Guests will also share their best score on social media. Operating a dark ride also brings benefits such as income from the sale of related products, food and drink etc. At Phantasialand in Germany, for example, guests can buy Maus au Chocolat T-shirts, mugs, tableware, aprons, even ringtones. In fact, dark rides should be a must for every amusement park nowadays!
Maus au Chocolat at Phantasialand
Simeon van Tellingen, Jora Vision, The Netherlands: In dark rides you can carefully control the passenger experience. Each effect, be it lighting, movie projections, animatronics, water, smoke or smell, is triggered by the show control with very specific timing to create an immersive experience. You ride through that story and play a part in it instead of watching passively, however you experience it all in a short period of time, so the story can’t be complicated. Operators like Universal and Disney have many dark rides – from endless loop rides to indoor coasters, simulators and newer trackless systems – and understand that they are one of the ultimate forms of family entertainment. We also see an increase of interest in dark rides coming from other attraction businesses such as museums and science centres.
Nick Farmer, Farmer Attraction Development, UK: The story in a dark ride really has to be told in one sentence, otherwise it’s too complicated. This means you don’t have to use super video tricks and massively complex
animation to get the story across. On
Wallace & Gromit at Blackpool Pleasure Beach we made the best use of current technology to improve the delivery and reliability of some quite simple presentations. It’s not a shooting dark ride, not a simulator dark ride, it’s not Spider-Man; but then it wasn’t hundreds of millions of dollars either.
Wallace & Gromit Thrill-O-Matic at Blackpool Pleasure Beach
SEPTEMBER 2013 47
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