Concepts Think Tank

[Mushroom]

Madhouses are super cool, at least on the first ride, and I think they have almost unparalleled novelty value. I do worry that they might not have a lot of repeatability though.

But here’s a potential solution: what if they programmed literally dozens of different “shows” and one is randomly selected for each ride, so you never know which story you’ll get? Madhouses tell their story almost entirely through audio and lighting effects, so aside from the upfront cost of recording the audio and programming the lights, they could really vary the ride experience without adding much expense at all.

As a really poorly thought-out example, maybe the idea is you’re in some magic box that can conjure up any of Ireland’s mythical creatures. Sometimes it conjures up leprechauns, or banshees, or fairies, or trolls, and so on. With a creative premise for the ride, you could tell a lot of stories — and make the ride far more repeatable — for not a lot more money.

 

[Jonesta6]

Madhouses are super cool, at least on the first ride, and I think they have almost unparalleled novelty value. I do worry that they might not have a lot of repeatability though.

But here’s a potential solution: what if they programmed literally dozens of different “shows” and one is randomly selected for each ride, so you never know which story you’ll get? Madhouses tell their story almost entirely through audio and lighting effects, so aside from the upfront cost of recording the audio and programming the lights, they could really vary the ride experience without adding much expense at all.

As a really poorly thought-out example, maybe the idea is you’re in some magic box that can conjure up any of Ireland’s mythical creatures. Sometimes it conjures up leprechauns, or banshees, or fairies, or trolls, and so on. With a creative premise for the ride, you could tell a lot of stories — and make the ride far more repeatable — for not a lot more money.

This is a different direction in what I'm thinking, but seeing as Disney is doing it with Star Tours and the Avengers Tower (of Terror?), it's definitely a worthwhile concept.

I was thinking that based on ride descriptions it relies on practical effects over screens (though could use both), so that may make things difficult to depict multiple stories without either constantly changing out the practical effects or severely limiting the scope of the changes to be almost imperceptible... Which sort of negates the need for changes.

 

[cricket]

Non Sesame Street walk-around characters haven't been a thing in the last few decades.

They have characters like Rudolph walk around. Same with Gingy the gingerbread and the abominable snowman!

 

[Jonesta6]

They have characters like Rudolph walk around. Same with Gingy the gingerbread and the abominable snowman!

Clarification: park-specific characters for the summer season, not general holiday-specific characters that are depicted elsewhere.

 

[Mushroom]

Yeah, I don’t think it’s 100% accurate to say that non-Sesame Street (and non-holiday) walk around characters haven’t been a thing in decades. The park brought back a handful of old characters and street performers for the 40th anniversary in 2015, they had the Three Musketeers roaming Aquitaine back when All For One was a thing, and recently I’ve seen characters in traditional German outfits (I think they’re actors from Burgermeister’s Hideaway?) wandering about the paths of Rhinefeld and interacting with guests.

Obviously, the path characters are no where near the level they were back in the park’s glory days. (If I were made King of BGW, one of the first things I’d do would be to put the knights, dragons, villagers etc. out on the pathways every day again.) But it’s not right to say that these characters haven’t been there, and it’s not fair to shut down others’ ideas based on that inaccurate perception.

 

[Hamptonian]

Old country or old attractions?

Fwiw the whole park is supposedly based around the old country concept.

Nostalgia for previous attractions is something, perhaps that focus would be good for some kind of limited retrospective event seeing as there isn't any kind of permanent history exhibit.

I always said some sort of simulator ride themed to going back through Busch gardens history, like you’re sent through a time rift and wreck through the old country. In Ireland and have the line become a museum of Busch gardens memorabilia and pieces of old coasters,rides, and shows.

 

[warfelg]

So I've been kicking this thought around of a refurb/redesign on Escape from Pompeii.

I know Catapult Falls has had some issues in getting off the ground, but it starts with that system for the ride.

The ride building stays, as does the station. Instead of the station giving way right to a lift, the pathway turns left out of the station into the woods. Now I would make this happen with as little disruption as possible. Making that complete U-turn and S-Turn, the pathway would eventually turn back towards the station, and parallel to the station, the ride would have it's launch, hill over the track exiting, and splash down where the current lift is, and turn right immediately. Now this is where I will admit that the queue entrance and exit will need some reconfiguring, but that's ok it can be worked out. After the splashdown and turn you take another launch out of the water, into a banked turn to work around the path side of the event building and onto the backside of the building. Back here the building would be themed to be the outer walls of the city of Pompeii. At the end of the building is where you make a U-turn to face the lift that takes you up to the show room level of the building. Inside the entire area gets completely redone to restore all effects, but more of the ride up to this point is more about place setting of Italian countryside and the town. And finally the drop comes to the same place in a very similar way but with the little bunny hill before splashing.

 

[Nicole]

Can you explain how the additions and changes would incorporate the ride’s story? I feel as if you would need a lot of additional narrative to expand the threat of and escape from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius.

 

[Jonesta6]

Tbh, I must be a more visual person as I can't quite understand the ride path explanation.

 

[warfelg]

Can you explain how the additions and changes would incorporate the ride’s story? I feel as if you would need a lot of additional narrative to expand the threat of and escape from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius.

The ride is supposed to be an archeological dig visit of Pompeii so I don't see what needs to change about that. It would rather be an expansion through the gardens of Pompeii, and after some rethinking the trip in the back would be visualized to Anfiteatro di Pompei. Using offboard audio these things would be narrated, with interjections that there's been rumblings that Mount Vesuvius is overdue for activity, some strange things have been happening. The launches would have audio of your guide saying "woah what's that, the waters boiling and the ground is shaking", resulting in the boat being launched forward. After the second launch and splashdown the audio starts explaining the lift is special designed to take you inside the Temple of Jupiter, but he should divert your tour out, as these unpredictable rumblings has grown too much and the boat is moving faster than anticipated. After you go up the lift and get into the event building, the audio is yelling "What are you doing, get them out of here" as the effects starting kicking in. Another voice yells "This way, the aqueduct is the only way" and the in water jets push you towards the plunge, and the audio one last time yells "No, wrong turn, not tha--" as you start the plunge.

The intent of this expansion is to help build more suspension by not just going from tour to event happening. Rather throughout the ride there's warning signs that you should get out of there. My intent is to have the events get closer together as you get closer to the event building where the primary action takes place.

Tbh, I must be a more visual person as I can't quite understand the ride path explanation.

Hope this helps.
Red is the slower moving areas of the ride, with the pull let out of the station, and wander through the woods, the light yellow is the launch section, dark yellow is the bunny hill, and blue the splashdown.
In front of the even building you are back to the slow part with the red, the light yellow is another launch, the pink being the "tracked" turnaround into the splashdown in back.
Then the red is the last turnaround, the black block being the lift. Brown is the part following the existing path, into the drop, and the dark yellow of a little bunny hill into one last splash down and back to the station.

 

[Jonesta6]

Interesting - the dialogue is giving me Poseidon's Fury vibes

 

[warfelg]

Interesting - the dialogue is giving me Poseidon's Fury vibes

That’s kinda what I had in mind. Less of a cautionary don’t go in there and more of a “nervous” energy.

 

[AIR]

The ride is supposed to be an archeological dig visit of Pompeii so I don't see what needs to change about that. It would rather be an expansion through the gardens of Pompeii, and after some rethinking the trip in the back would be visualized to Anfiteatro di Pompei. Using offboard audio these things would be narrated, with interjections that there's been rumblings that Mount Vesuvius is overdue for activity, some strange things have been happening. The launches would have audio of your guide saying "woah what's that, the waters boiling and the ground is shaking", resulting in the boat being launched forward. After the second launch and splashdown the audio starts explaining the lift is special designed to take you inside the Temple of Jupiter, but he should divert your tour out, as these unpredictable rumblings has grown too much and the boat is moving faster than anticipated. After you go up the lift and get into the event building, the audio is yelling "What are you doing, get them out of here" as the effects starting kicking in. Another voice yells "This way, the aqueduct is the only way" and the in water jets push you towards the plunge, and the audio one last time yells "No, wrong turn, not tha--" as you start the plunge.

The intent of this expansion is to help build more suspension by not just going from tour to event happening. Rather throughout the ride there's warning signs that you should get out of there. My intent is to have the events get closer together as you get closer to the event building where the primary action takes place.


View attachment 32163
Hope this helps.
Red is the slower moving areas of the ride, with the pull let out of the station, and wander through the woods, the light yellow is the launch section, dark yellow is the bunny hill, and blue the splashdown.
In front of the even building you are back to the slow part with the red, the light yellow is another launch, the pink being the "tracked" turnaround into the splashdown in back.
Then the red is the last turnaround, the black block being the lift. Brown is the part following the existing path, into the drop, and the dark yellow of a little bunny hill into one last splash down and back to the station.

This layout concept would block all maintenance service to Pompeii and Loch Ness, not to mention the first half of your concept is a steep ravine. Currently, there are service roads and mechanic shops underneath the show track for Pompeii and next to the lift needed to remove boats.

I do like the idea of improving Pompeii to some degree. (Like show changes) I think the current layout serves itself fine for the theme and story it has.

 

[warfelg]

This layout concept would block all maintenance service to Pompeii and Loch Ness, not to mention the first half of your concept is a steep ravine. Currently, there are service roads and mechanic shops underneath the show track for Pompeii and next to the lift needed to remove boats.

I do like the idea of improving Pompeii to some degree. (Like show changes) I think the current layout serves itself fine for the theme and story it has.

I know there’s a ravine over there, I wasn’t super exact with my drawing. Curious how that would block all access. Again I’m not an expert on any drawing tool with a computer but in my mind it would be right to the building. And then the lift would be removed. I don’t know how they take out the boats for Catapult Falls, but given they are much smaller than EfP’s boats I imagine you don’t need as much space.

I did the concept because similar type rides are dying across the industry, so I was offering a concept of how to reimagine EfP with a new system for a water ride that can expand on the story.

Edit:
I’d be willing to say that you can eliminate the behind the building element and make it up elsewhere. But I would feel like you lose some of the depth of storytelling I was attempting to add.

 

[Jonesta6]

I question why that ride system - it's a log flume in essence, and there's already a refurbished classic Arrow flume in the park.

Could the idea work with innovation to the Intamin splash boat track design/elements?

 

[warfelg]

I question why that ride system - it's a log flume in essence, and there's already a refurbished classic Arrow flume in the park.

Could the idea work with innovation to the Intamin splash boat track design/elements?

I see the new launch flume ride as the spiritual successor to the water coaster. If you watch the Catapult Falls video you can see the “track” uses water jets to move the boats faster than a normal flume would.

Basically the long story short - I think the future of the new system could be really good and expanded into something bigger and better - and would create a “high thrill flume”.

 

[Coasternerd]

Tbh, I must be a more visual person as I can't quite understand the ride path explanation.

I’m getting Mack water coaster vibes… not intamin launched flume vibes purely from the written description.

 

[Jonesta6]

I see the new launch flume ride as the spiritual successor to the water coaster. If you watch the Catapult Falls video you can see the “track” uses water jets to move the boats faster than a normal flume would.

Basically the long story short - I think the future of the new system could be really good and expanded into something bigger and better - and would create a “high thrill flume”.

Yes, but...

It's still a flume. When we collectively applaud parks for expanding their ride variety, why would there be a desire to remove some of that to replace it with a fancier new version of an existing ride type?

I also wonder how much more marketable that would be - if popular, would that affect ridership on Le Scoot as it'd be likely to be compared as the less thrilling version?

 

[warfelg]

Yes, but...

It's still a flume. When we collectively applaud parks for expanding their ride variety, why would there be a desire to remove some of that to replace it with a fancier new version of an existing ride type?

I also wonder how much more marketable that would be - if popular, would that affect ridership on Le Scoot as it'd be likely to be compared as the less thrilling version?

I mean…Yes EfP is “different” but at the end of the day it’s just a bigger log flume no?

They have the ability to offer really different experiences. Le Scoot a slower more serene experience while the offered concept has more pace and thrills to it.

To me, this would be like arguing the FHP coaster shouldn’t be built because we have Alpengeist. Both are inverted coasters so why need two? I know I’m going over the top with the comparison but from what I understand from Catapult Falls it could be different enough from a standard flume.

 

[Jonesta6]

Eh, I think the average thoosie may see the merit in having both ride systems, but the average guest who still generally points out rides by color and if it's above the track or not won't really notice or care. It's a log flume, whereas splash boats are a different enough experience that they're easier to differentiate.