Curse of DarKastle

Register or Login to Hide This Ad for Free!
Had the worst ride ever on DarKastle the other day. There was no vertical movement whatsoever. Every time the car should have moved up and down, the seats vibrated momentarily and the car would glide side-to-side slightly. It ruined many of the illusions because there was no motion to sync with the simulated rising and falling onscreen.

I certainly won't miss the ride when it goes down for HOS, and I seriously hope it gets some major work done during its extra downtime. The motion has been weakening for years now, but it really seems to have deteriorated this past season. It's almost embarrassing that what once rivaled Spiderman as the most intense, cutting-edge dark ride in the world is now tamer than Disney's Winnie the Pooh ride.
 
  • Like
Reactions: John, Mad Ludwig, VACoasterFan and 3 others
I just had the best ride on it in a long time. The point is, you never know what type of experience you're going to get, and that's a problem. The sleigh that loaded before me was shaking terribly as guests were walking on. On my ride, I felt almost the full thud of falling, the force of rising, and my personal favorite, spinning. Don't get me wrong, it didn't spin through the fireplace violently like it used to, but at least there was something. The whirlwind in the piano room was one of the best I have experienced since 2008. I have no idea why the ride was acting like this, but there was very little weight in the sleigh for what it's worth.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BBW, John, Mad Ludwig and 6 others
I thought the last day was September 4. Either way, at least they waited for my birthday (September 3) to discontinue all of the fun stuff like All For One. :)

Edit: It's actually kind of scary that they are keeping the ride open this late. Either they might not have enough time to set up everything, or if there isn't much to set up to begin with. I would suggest that everyone keeps their eyes peeled in the fireplace scene. I know there are a lot of turntables, so there may not be much that they can do, but at least that room is in semi darkness. If they could get the blackout curtain to work, they wouldn't have to worry about light leakage.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Flyer and jornor
CastleOSullivan said:
I thought the last day was September 4. Either way, at least they waited for my birthday (September 3) to discontinue all of the fun stuff like All For One. :)

Edit: It's actually kind of scary that they are keeping the ride open this late. Either they might not have enough time to set up everything, or if there isn't much to set up to begin with. I would suggest that everyone keeps their eyes peeled in the fireplace scene. I know there are a lot of turntables, so there may not be much that they can do, but at least that room is in semi darkness. If they could get the blackout curtain to work, they wouldn't have to worry about light leakage.
Click to expand...

I don't know when you think about it they really only have that house and Catacombs to wait on set up. Most the cirrus and lumberhack are standing in place. They can start working on Unearthed and Kornered any time they wish. And Catacombs is probably largely an easy setup given how many times that they have done it at this point so this doesn't serm to extreme at this.point.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jornor
I saw a Facebook comment from someone claiming that Curse of DarKastle is closing for good and opening as something else next spring. A couple of other people commented saying that she's probably thinking of the temporary Howl-O-Scream closure or Europe in the Air which opens as something else next spring. However she is adamant that she has inside info which just hasn't been announced.

I'd bet she is confused, especially since no one here has heard anything. It also doesn't seem likely that they would replace two indoor movie-based rides at the same time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alf33, jornor and Nicole
I wouldn't be suprised if she was either confused or misinformed about Darkastle because removing the ride would be such a left field move and completely out of the realm of reason. Darkastle is the best dark ride in park (Only Dark Ride at the moment) and while it does need a bit of renovation that's not enough to lead the park to removing it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alf33 and jornor
I don't think the ride is going anywhere, but I said my goodbyes and got my photos/videos, just in case. There are some glaring issues with the ride as a whole. Most of the issues seem pretty minor individually, but together they really bring down the whole production value.

If they can make the little changes needed, they might not see any sign of an attendance slump around Halloween of all seasons.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alf33, jornor and Zachary
PrincessArlenasDad said:
I've only ridden it a handful of times over the years; kids are too scared still.

Could you list what needs to be done on it?
Click to expand...

Nothing a little regular maintenance can't fix. Tighten up some screens, upgrade some projectors, freshen up son set pieces, stuff like that. I think some reprogramming of the cars and new special effects within the ride are needed.

In the future I would like to see the actual videos for the screens updated like IoA did for Spider-Man. Maybe have a screen or two be more "random" and have 1 of like 5-7 clips it could show so the experience can be different from time to time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alf33, jornor and PrincessArlenasDad
Mushroom said:
It's almost embarrassing that what once rivaled Spiderman as the most intense, cutting-edge dark ride in the world...
Click to expand...


The ride never held a candle to Spiderman. Uses the same tech essentially, but what makes Spiderman so great is it's integration of sets and screens, and physical things happening in sync in the sets and screens. Darkastle has none of that... Unfortunately. Still a great ride for a regional themepark, but misses the ball by a mile.

Also, Forbidden Journey got built and that changed things too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jornor, Eric, Zachary and 1 other person
Well that girl on Facebook was so sure Darkastle was closing for good this year. XP Maybe they're getting it ready to be something else ala EITA.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jornor
RollyCoaster said:
Interesting to see some altercations were made of DarKastles screen displays to fit with the Frostbite theme. Is this a sign that we could maybe see some updated visuals/screens when Spring comes around?
Click to expand...

Any chance this could be described for someone that won't go through that?
 
  • Like
Reactions: jornor
They said they weren't reusing any of the theming or projections from DarKastle, so I assume they are just Frostbite specific projections. They do really point out how terrible the original DarKastle videos look in comparison though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jornor
phurst said:
They said they weren't reusing any of the theming or projections from DarKastle, so I assume they are just Frostbite specific projections. They do really point out how terrible the original DarKastle videos look in comparison though.
Click to expand...

That's mostly the case, except for this part where they take one directly from DarKastle's existing projections. I thought it looked pretty cool with the physical scenery nearby.

zVsss5r.jpg

 

Attachments

  • IMG_8022.JPG
    IMG_8022.JPG
    1.9 MB · Views: 9
  • Like
Reactions: jornor, Mad Ludwig and phurst
Although this is still a rumor at this point, I definitely made sure to get my last rides, just in case. I really hope they give this ride another chance with major refurbishments, but that is becoming less and less likely.

I uploaded this to SoundCloud to give people something to remember it by. Here is the source output on-board audio for Curse of DarKastle.

https://soundcloud.com/castleosullivan/darkastle-on-board-audio
 
  • Like
Reactions: GeoUSA, jornor, DJTLG and 6 others
You must log in or register to reply here.
Consider Donating to Hide This Ad