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Zachary

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Sep 23, 2009
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There has been some concern over the concepts board being flooded with half-baked ideas instead of fully fleshed-out concepts for park changes and additions. So, to hopefully help fix that, here's a thread where you can toss your general ideas and, if other people like them, they can go and form them into a more complete concept worthy of its own thread. Though I'm not going to tell you not to have fun, please try to keep discussions in this thread fairly serious. I'm sure many people wouldn't appreciate having their legitimate ideas overrun with "less valuable" posts. Thanks for understanding!
 
Here's a concept: The *new* Hastings/Medieval England (see the oxymoron there :cool: ?) I love that mystical medieval feel, and it's something that Busch Gardens still has, despite Hastings's 12 years absence from the park. Now, let's say we were going through with this, the problem would be where it would go, which is what's preventing more planning and possibly this concept's own thread. Ireland definitely wouldn't be a possibility, that would be really stupid on the park's behalf for letting two hamlets basically "tag-teaming" for a spot, and Ireland already has a better, more magical feel than a lot of other hamlets. Festa Italia sits on some good land, but it would make little sense for someone to leave England (the main entrance), pass through Italy, only to enter England from a different time period all over again (then again, we do have Canada smack in the middle of European countries, so who knows :cool: )Another possibility that would be super unlikely, difficult, and heartbreaking would be to re-theme Scotland, but I certainly can't see that happening, especially with how signature Scotland is to that area of the park. Something I do see as possible would be to get rid of the Pompeii area, which has been brought up as a possible area for other hamlets (Italy expansion, Greece, etc.), and this connects right to England and could lead the way all the way to Italy, giving plenty of space for that Medieval feel. While something would almost undoubtedly have to be sacrificed for this idea, as much as I love, love, love Ireland and how nicely it fits the magical feel of the park, the feel of an old medieval court, in the old, classical "story" told only by Busch Gardens (*cough* Old Country) is something that I always have associated with the old, dusty, magical feel of Busch Gardens. It's probably not the direction they'd want to go in right now, but there would be tons of possibilities for new things, especially with the technology and innovations for new attractions now. Maybe it's just me, and unless they liked the location/size alone, I'm sure there was a reason Hastings was the hamlet being the one sacrificed for Ireland. But stare at that little sign with the knight riding the horse on the "Banbury Market (?)" building just before the park entrance...it seriously gives me goosebumps as I get that feeling... It would be wicked cool, not incredibly challenging, and very well received by guests if they decided to do this, the question is mainly how. Thoughts?
 
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^ I'd actually totally be into that. Actually, even if they just gave the set a little family-friendly Halloween overlay, changed some of the props, etc. I think it would be pretty neat.
 
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Here is a really old post from the thread "Ride concept ideas for the park:"
BGWFans-Fan said:
Here is the complete info for the coaster that I want to replace Europe in the Air.

NAME: Leprechaun Caverns

RIDE TYPE: Mine Train Coaster (similar to Expedition Everest) or indoor-outdoor Eurofighter (similar to Mystery Mine) Either one would work well with the theme.:)

QUEUE: Same cave queue as before, followed by extra switch backs in a castle themed room. The station is past a hole in the castle chamber, which is themed to a mine shaft. There is a queue line video that displays the storyline for the ride.

STORYLINE AND THEMING: The storyline is you and a group of foolish tourists sign up for a tour of Leprechaun Caverns. Leprechaun Caverns is an abandoned gold mine underneath the Castle O Sullivan grounds. The mine used to be the main source of wealth for the people who lived in and around Castle O Sullivan. Then the mine workers stroke a massive emerald that has been cursed by the magical creatures of ancient Ireland. The mine quickly became possessed by thousands of both evil and good magical creatures. The mine was soon quarantined due to the
casualties, lack of workers, and lack of precious medals the mine produced.

Thousands of years later the abandoned mine has been long forgotten. Then a selfish tourism organization bought the mine and started giving tours of Leprechaun
Caverns. The organization is raking it in as hundreds of tourists sign up for tours of the mine. Once you arrive for your tour, you board the mine train to start your tour of the mine. Then as soon as you enter the sacred tunnels of Leprechaun Caverns, the tour guide flees and leaves you at the mercy of the ancient mine inhabitants. That's when the fun begins and you search the the mine, trying to find an escape
route while being stalked by the good and evil Irish creatures.

THE RIDE: As soon as you board the train, a voice comes from the front of the car introducing the tour guide and welcoming you to Leprechaun Caverns. you take a ninety degree turn to see a door marked with a logo saying "Welcome to Leprechaun Caverns." The door is then pushed open... [Info no longer relevant]
Somehow, this concept has stuck with me over the years. However, especially with Verbolten being so new still, instead of a coaster, what about an exceptionally-themed Sally interactive dark ride in the area currently occupied by Europe in the Air along the lines of this theme? It's not really something that's been brought up here before, and if Boo Blasters on Boo Hill at KD has taught us anything, it's that everybody loves shooting dark rides, and they're fairly easy additions (considering it's something even KD would be willing to do.) If I'm correct, they're fairly/relatively inexpensive attractions, low-maintenance and easily fit into any spot, easy to put in great theming and attention-to-detail, and are very well received by guests and enthusiasts alike, and, unlike EitA, it could bring in repeat visitors all day (I once took 8 rides in a row on Boo Blasters, heh-heh :blush: ). Not like this would be a rip off of KD, which is a smaller-scale attraction, this would be a big, nearly E-ticket attraction for Ireland, going off of this theme and assuming they had plenty of attention to detail. What do you guys think? :cool:

And why isn't there a dancing leprechaun smilie???

EDIT: Hold it, I'm in the process of designing an all-new story, but I'll leave this here to give you the general idea. I hope to have a whole new thread for this sometime...
 
pandorazboxx said:
I would enjoy an animal show during HOS. maybe a spooky version of Pet Shenanigans? Pet Shenanigans Revamped if you will.

I don't like Pet Shenanigans, however, lots of people love these kinds of things, and a Halloween version would probably go over big. Good idea.
 
I have an EXCELLENT idea. Why not extend the cashless wristband for use in the Oktoberfest games area? This would save parents a TON of problems having to reload their kids with cash by just giving them pre-paid wristbands so every time the kids play one of the games, they just get scanned & they're good to go?

Signed,
Wile-E-Coyote......Suuuuuper Geniussss.
 
I have an EXCELLENT idea. Why not extend the cashless wristband for use in the Oktoberfest games area? This would save parents a TON of problems having to reload their kids with cash by just giving them pre-paid wristbands so every time the kids play one of the games, they just get scanned & they're good to go?

As long as the park forces parents to put limits on the amount of cash their kids can use, I'd support this idea. Or how about expanding the cashless wristbands to merchandise/food. No more having to stumble around for a wallet or risk losing it on a coaster/ride. Disney's experimenting with RFID wristbands, it's about time for Busch to follow through.

I know the park did something like this with the Discovery Dollars, but I'd like to see an expansion on that idea.
 
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Best part about the cashless wristbands is that you can either prepay & set a flat amount on each one, or you can link it to a credit card for a pay as you go type of thing. Either way, this beats the snot out of carrying around a wallet all day, getting it soaked on the water rides, losing it, etc etc.....

If anybody has any in-depth knowledge of how the wristband system for the F&W festival works, we could use your input on this & maybe then move this convo over to it's own thread.

Zach, would you agree?
 
netdvn said:
I know the park did something like this with the Discovery Dollars, but I'd like to see an expansion on that idea.

This IS Discovery Dollars. They just renamed it to something more generic. And it works at ALL shops and restaurants.

As far as games go, they are looking into how they accept cards and such at the game, but at the moment they have Game Passes, which is where you put a set amount of money on a card that can be used at any game.
 
I like the wristband. I tend to bring only a ziploc bag with my Driver's License, Car Key, and Credit Card when visiting the park. If I could just wear a wristband that I got issued with my member pass, it would be very nice. Actually, if the member pass were the same band, it would be even better.
 
The only thing I would worry about if you had a wrist band fall off in the park and someone was using it like crazy. I prefer to have the retail/ food sales associates check my ID.

I like the fact that there is a $50 limit on cashless wristbands for that very reason. Should it become stolen or lost; I would like to know that someone couldn't walk out of the park and charge hundreds of dollars on my credit card.
 
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Here's a novel concept....Jam all cellphones so those zombie teenagers will finally realize where they are & stop running into people while using their phones to text their friends every 10 seconds. lol

^^^ Not to be taken seriously, but WOW have times changed. When I was a teen, rules were simple. Don't run. What cash you've got is ALL you've got. Meet back at the clock tower at (whatever hour).

Now get off my lawn, kids!! :)
 
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