I finally got my first ride on DarKoaster yesterday. Honestly? Much better than I expected. My expectations going in were about as low as they could’ve possibly been, but I think this little coaster gets a worse rap than it deserves. I purposely avoided watching walkthroughs of the queue and POVs of the ride so I could have an organic first experience and form my own impressions, so these were my thoughts. (I typed this rapidly while I had 30 minutes to kill, so forgive the length.)
I think the coaster itself — for what it’s trying to be — is perfect. Gentle enough that the whole family can ride, but with some nice bursts of intensity in the launches and some surprise zip in some of the turns. I found it much longer than I expected, and between the darkness, the different effects on each lap, and the few different elements in the transition from the first lap to the second, it was far less noticeable that you go around twice than I would have guessed. If I didn’t know ahead of time, I might not have even realized it goes around twice. Really creative way of maximizing the space. And I think the straddle/motorbike configuration is more effective in the dark, adding some intensity and uniqueness — versus in a more traditional setting like SWSA’s Wave Breaker, where I thought the configuration didn’t add much.
Then there’s the theming. I’ll separate the theming into two categories: the queue theming and the on-ride theming. Let’s start with the queue theming. The queue looks fine, although everything great about it is what’s recycled from DarKastle. At the very least, it makes me happy that this magnificent facade and queue is being used, largely in its original form, for something again. The “legs” statue in the queue is a far cry from DarKastle’s awesome wolf statue, but it looks less stupid in person than I feared. I really like the little plaque they added that basically retells DarKastle’s original story — imparting at least some lore onto the ride.
Beyond that though, the rest of the queue is a little disappointing. It’s clearly lazy; they just got their hands on a bunch of old mechanical parts and spray-painted some boxes with a ghost-hunting template, dropped them in the queue, and said “This’ll look like theming.” There’s a vague sense that we’re on a ghost hunting tour of a haunted castle, but coming to that conclusion requires meeting them more than halfway. It’s clear that BGW never really set out with a specific narrative or story to tell with DarKoaster. It’s almost like they knew they were starting with a “haunted castle” setting, threw in some props that fit that setting, and hoped guests would figure out (or just not care about) the rest. Even just a few signs or custom-printed props (like the old Pompeii Tours signs at Pompeii, or all the Verbolten Tours stuff at Verbolten) to establish a clear story would go a long way.
It also feels like they cheaped out beyond that. It seems like for just a few thousand dollars, they could’ve had flickering lights, the occasional strobe of lighting, and booming thunder in the indoor queue as the “storm” rages outside. The lights in the windows (which illuminated blue in DarKastle but aren’t even working now) could’ve flashed like a storm was outside. The old preshow room could be darkened to set the mood instead of the bright commercial lights showing us that we’re obviously in an unused former preshow room. Give me $2000 and an afternoon and I’ll fix it for you, BGW!
Now, as for the ride itself. There’s more going on thematically than I expected. I actually don’t think I’d want a ton more props and sets inside, because I think there actually is some value in just careening through the dark. It is DarKoaster, after all — and there’s a thrill to riding around through the unknown, to an extent. The cutouts of castle walls and tunnels provide enough sense of place to imagine that we’re riding through the castle grounds, although one or two cutouts might not hurt. I love how they strategically illuminate different theming elements on each lap to give the illusion of traveling through a new space each time.
My favorite part was definitely the objects that illuminate suddenly as the train passes. The lightning boxes that illuminate with a crack of thunder are fun, and I loved the way each “ghost” lights up along with a loud sound. The final ghost actually gave me a small jump scare because I wasn’t expecting it.
I also like the music inside the ride building. It’s tranquil and understated, which I think adds a haunting and mysterious atmosphere to the ride. I was expecting something louder and more in your face — something cheesier — so the surprising calmness of the music added some depth to the experience. It’s one of the few elements of the coaster where I feel like they really were trying to capture a distinct atmosphere, and it works.
My only big complaint is the same as others have had — that you can see too much of the coaster at certain points. Some points in the corners of the building are perfectly dark, but when you can see all the way through to the other side of the building and all the track within it, it ruins the illusion. I especially disliked how, while sitting in the brake run waiting to return to the loading platform, you can see basically the entire layout from the back few cars of the train. Ruins the mystery. A few more castle cutouts, or even just some black hanging curtains like Verbolten has (or had…), would go a long way. Why they haven’t spent the money on that already, is beyond me.
The worst part about this coaster is, of course, its godawful capacity. I wouldn’t wait more than 30 minutes for this ride, and with capacity this atrocious, this means I probably won’t be riding DarKoaster very often. It seems like the obvious and relatively easy solution would be a single rider line — I saw countless trains that were being dispatched with 3 or 4 seats empty. With such a short train, that’s a whopping percentage of each train’s capacity being wasted.
But on a very empty day at the park, I’ll happily hop on DarKoaster if the line is short. All lines being equal, I would probably even choose DarKoaster over Tempesto and InvadR.
At worst, I feared DarKoaster would be a cheap insult to DarKastle’s legacy. At best, I expected that it would be a redundant Verbolten knockoff. But I’m happy that DarKoaster is a fun little coaster in its own right. If they can just add a little more narrative, obscure the inside of the show building a bit more, and figure out something to boost capacity (single rider line please!), it’ll be even better. It’s no Curse of DarKastle, but I’m glad there’s life in Ludwig’s castle once again.
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