Curse of DarKastle

[SLC Headache]

I appreciate how nostalgic people are for this ride, BBW, and many others.  I am sad whenever any ride closes especially when there is no replacement.  

That preamble out, I recognize that this is not a popular opinion, but much like BBW before it, DK had run its course.  The ride system was failing, even on its best days on the best carriage it was still actually kind of boring.  I only rode it because it was a thing with my friends, and of course the puns.  I don't care how, one of a kind, or amazing the ride was when it opened, if it has not been maintained or has not really translated well over time, then it is frankly not honoring a ride to keep it going after it is past the point a park can keep it running at its best.

Now in the interest of full disclosure, VR, 3D, Spidermen, and Simpson rides, bore the living crap out of me.  I don't know why, if it is ocular in nature, inner ear, or just being pretentious unless I am with friends who want to go on them, I never ride.  (Shuttle Sim at KSC being the only acceptation.  Because it is so different and  NASA)

Rides past their prime: Makes me think of the logic behind some of the RMC conversions (Texas Giant, Georgia Cyclone). As El Toro is Six Flags's flagship woodie today, Texas Giant was the flagship woodie in the 90s.

Finding screen-based dark rides boring: It's for this reason that I would not really get much out of going to Universal Orlando. I mean, DarKastle was fun and a nice diversion in a park with more coasters, but I'm not sure I would enjoy a park with mostly dark rides. I'll have to see if Harry Potter 2019 is a good coaster or not.

 

[warfelg]

Different style rides for different people. I enjoy rides that tell stories sometimes. That's what DarKastle, Spiderman, Transformers, Jimmy Fallon, The Potter rides do. So not everyone thinks they're boring. To me it's why I personally think IOA was a great park before the dragons went extinct. You had the mix of family friendly, coasters, thrill rides, and dark story rides. Now with the dragons gone it doesn't quite have that balance. USO has it with HRRR, Mummy, it's Potter dark/coaster; then Transformers, Jimmy, incoming FF ride.

Basically, you need balance of shows, story based rides, thrill rides, flat rides, and coasters for a good park IMO.

Without DarKastle, BGW loses some of that IMO.

 

[acrossdapark]

The park needs a good communal "space" that is not the Festhaus. FH gets packed more often now that Christmas Town and HoS are bigtime events, and some people need to just sit and cool down from the excitement, DK's building fulfills that need. I think its a great move and closing of a great 13-year chapter.

How are they supposed to use it as "communal space" during HOS and CMT when FrostBite and Santa's Workshop is in there?

BoE VR is a one and done IMHO if it stays stagnate and no updates every couple of years, so was this ride really but was an escape from the heat for many people. The park should be investing in AR over VR/3D.

All rides are basically built one and done, with little variation like flat rides and coasters. That is the nature of the ride, that people like it so much they keep riding it, not that it's new or different each year.

VR is a hot topic right now, you can't fault them for capitalizing on that. It's pretty hard to invest in AR when it has very limited to no application to actually riding rides.

The focus should be to design and create better rides, not trying to find the next trend. I mean better overall theming, storytelling, designs, etc. BfE seems to fit that perfectly. Like DK, it looks to be extremely detailed and themed with good storytelling.

Extremely disingenuous to say about AR. Looking at Flight of Avatar as an example and the minimum 2 - 3 hour waits along with Fastpasses booked up 60 days in advance.

Look at Pokemon Go with millions of users over a year after coming out or AR stickers available in the Google Pixel as other examples. VR is a cheap gimmick that's becoming quickly overplayed especially when you can walk into a Walmart and buy 3D-VR glasses for $10-15.

 

[WahooJunkie]

The 2018 website is up. Curse of Darkastle is not listed on the rides page.

 

[Ghost of Pretzel Kaiser]

I hate to break this to you...

 

[Thomas]

I don't see Big Bad Wolf on there either.

 

[Merboy]

WHERE IS KING ARTHUR'S CHALLENGE!?

 

[Lord Robert]

WHAT THE DEVIL HAPPENED TO LES MANS RACEWAY?!?!?

 

[Zachary]

Ok, ok, I think we get the point.

New information is always welcome and the fact that it's not on the site is new information.

 

[CastleOSullivan]

DarKastle still looks unchanged on the park map. This is the map, minus the text.

http://parkfans.net/attachment.php?aid=11714

 

[Zachary]

This isn't the new park map though, no? From what I can tell it is last year's still.

 

[lightninlady]

It looks like the old one, I feel like a map for 2018 would have something about Battle For Eire on it?

 

[Zachary]

That was my reasoning exactly, actually! I would expect a more visible BfE entry tower.

 

[CastleOSullivan]

That is the map that they currently have on their site, but it looks like they haven't changed it yet from last year.

 

[Shane]

I don't imagine they will change it until March. Random off topic side-note. Nessie and Apollo are the only two coasters on the map without trains in the illustrations.

 

[CastleOSullivan]

I don't think anybody has mentioned this yet, but why do the "farewell videos" to DarKastle say 2005-2018? Is it just a mistake? Elsewhere, they say "after 13 years..." It's just too strange an error for me to ignore it anymore.

 

[Ghost of Pretzel Kaiser]

I'm not crying. It's just allergies.

 

[Mushroom]

Any idea where they are headed? It seems strange that they would cart them offsite in one piece.

 

[luseendesi]

Any idea where they are headed? It seems strange that they would cart the offsite in one piece.

Down the street to Great wolf lodge?

 

[Thomas]

They're to be displayed in my living room.