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As far as I know, no one is sure where these rides were supposed to go or even if a specific location was ever selected. I like the Castle O’Sullivan theory given the timeline, but I’ve never seen any EVIDENCE to justify it.

I thought you had once posted evidence for the dragon ride, which in Hastings made sense but in Ireland doesn't really (the dragon chase in BfE included).

Still though, it would have been cool to have a spaceshot ride - wonder if it would have been an S&S or another manufacturer?
 
It's super interesting to now know that the park went through three different highly themed drop tower concepts over the course of ten years, before eventually landing on the bare bones iron ride that is Mach Tower. I guess once the larger budgets of AB faded away, it wasn't even an option to have a super thematic experience for a flat anymore. It seems after the 2007 attendance boost from Griffon, this cemented the parks ideology towards more "record-breaking" thrill attractions, rather than immersive story driven attractions.
 
I highly doubt that the park would have put it in the Abbey Stone Theatre, since that is arguably their premier theater (and especially was at the time). Castle O’Sullivan sounds more likely to me since The Enchanted Laboratory was already long overdue for a replacement, and the theater itself isn’t very practical for anything more than a one person show. Also, I believe Secrets of Castle O’Sullivan was already conceptualized somewhere around the time of that copyright date, so the park might have decided that it was the cheaper option, and would have fit Ireland better, anyway.

Given that, my guess is that this is the ride they would have done if they decided to revamp Hastings, rather than convert it to Ireland. I’ve heard that the park looked at several underperforming areas at that time, and kept looking back at Hastings, so some type of change there was probably eminent.

I’m sure I would have loved this ride, but I think the park made the right decision (look at my username) to get the most bang for their buck. This ride probably would have deteriorated pretty quickly, anyway, and with Ireland we have a whole area of endless possibilities, versus one major attraction to anchor a hamlet that was otherwise losing appeal. I suppose it’s possible that other parts of Hastings would have received a revamp as well, but this attraction makes that look unlikely, budget-wise.
 
Now that Mäch is on its last legs, you think they’ll possibly bring something like this into the park?
I think they should. Use the BfE simulator bays as the “launch” pads. Have one be a launching tower and the other be a drop tower. Gives a combo indoor/outdoor attraction by having the queue inside, can heat/cool the station platform, but majority of the ride is outside. Kinda like Dr Dooms at IOA.
 
Be it as Hastings or Ireland, tbh either way I would much rather push back the hands of time and install a drop tower in place of either CoS or the sims in the mid-00s, thereby retaining the idyllic character of the hamlet's entrance bridge years later. Let the drop tower be the anchor thrill attraction for that area. Finnegan's either doesn't exist in that timeline or otherwise is installed in some other hamlet.

All too easy to theoretically retcon park choices after the fact. Still, the impact of Finnegan's on the bridge viewshed remains a damned shame, and a drop tower would have been great to draw people toward the back of that hamlet.
 
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