Also, apparently BGW did some things with the ride they weren't supposed to, like when they changed the ride to make it more "thrilling" when they removed the ballroom scene and stuff. Apparently those ride vehicles were never meant to be able to spin at a high (ish) speed with a full load, and that did a number on the vehicles, hence the removal of the spinning. It was expensive to maintain the ride, but it is more so the fact that they went a while without maintenance. They wouldn't do much periodic refurb to the ride to keep cost low, they more would wait years to do anything and then suddenly a huge cost faced them to bring everything back together. The ride closing is a big part negligence as well, and I blame that mostly on AB losing control of their company and Busch being passed down like an unwanted child. This contributed to the low ridership since people every time they rode it got a slightly worse ride than the last, and it just became a lost cause. The ride wouldn't draw new people in, and its ridership was composed of the people who were attached to it already, so it wasn't much of a smart business move to attempt to keep the ride around.
Curse of DarKastle
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
Also, apparently BGW did some things with the ride they weren't supposed to, like when they changed the ride to make it more "thrilling" when they removed the ballroom scene and stuff. Apparently those ride vehicles were never meant to be able to spin at a high (ish) speed with a full load, and that did a number on the vehicles, hence the removal of the spinning. It was expensive to maintain the ride, but it is more so the fact that they went a while without maintenance. They wouldn't do much periodic refurb to the ride to keep cost low, they more would wait years to do anything and then suddenly a huge cost faced them to bring everything back together. The ride closing is a big part negligence as well, and I blame that mostly on AB losing control of their company and Busch being passed down like an unwanted child. This contributed to the low ridership since people every time they rode it got a slightly worse ride than the last, and it just became a lost cause. The ride wouldn't draw new people in, and its ridership was composed of the people who were attached to it already, so it wasn't much of a smart business move to attempt to keep the ride around.
This wasn't an issue considering the film was original and made for the park. The company that made the film decided to rent the film out to anyone within recent years. If anything, this just meant the film was no longer exclusive to BGW.
I wasn't 100% sure what it was that I read, might have even been you that posted it. But that's got to be part (even if it's a small part) that played into the decision to move on from the ride. When something is no longer exclusive to you or your group, the value of it just isn't there.
I saw a video and an article with some people debating things and a former employee brought up some information about how all of the changes made when the ballroom scene was removed were made with the intent of making the ride more thrilling, and without consulting Oceaneering. They just asked Falcon to make some visuals and did the rest themselves with the motion programming, and apparently some of the stuff they did themselves wasn't meant to be. But I don't know how reliable that information is, that's why I said "apparently". I just find it interesting, and it seems very likely to me for them to do that since they wanted the ride to be more thrilling so desperately.
One can also just think about how the ride vehicle is designed and how the motion is controlled, and since it uses pneumatic bags to simulate the motion, the rotating feature is very secondary and was always used slowly to position to a new screen. Spinning it 360 degrees continuously rather quickly would wear down any heavy complex mechanism like that, especially one where the primary motion doesn't even utilize similar mechanics to the rotation mechanics. Granted I don't see how this led much to the ride closing since the ride operated for a while without the spinning, so unless we never see those vehicles used again, I doubt it had anything to do with the vehicles being almost broken
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The sleighs were made to rotate 360 degrees at 15 RPM continuously. Spinning should not have been an issue from what I understand. Maintenance workers on DarKastle have told me that the ride was never used to its fullest potential and that the sleighs could have been pushed much further than they were.
The other, probably more likely reason for the removal of spinning is that people got sick. Any ride is a pain to clean, but DarKastle had several disadvantages over roller coasters in that regard. Not to mention, I have heard stories about certain higher-ups at that time that had motion sickness on DK, who presumably wanted the spinning removed. In my opinion, that was the second big hit to the ride after the fireplace effect was removed, although it was later brought back toned down.
Special effects came and went away throughout the ride's duration. When the ride was toned down and each sleigh gave a drastically different experience- that was when I think the ride was running out of time. I hoped the park would revive it, but that hope turned into despair as the company kept descending into more debt. I also rejoiced when I first heard about FrostBite, but I soon realized that FrostBite was DK's big tombstone. I got as many recordings and photos as I could, but I hope that some taken with better equipment will surface over time.
P.S.: I don't think the park's official "farewell" video quite makes the cut.
The other, probably more likely reason for the removal of spinning is that people got sick. Any ride is a pain to clean, but DarKastle had several disadvantages over roller coasters in that regard. Not to mention, I have heard stories about certain higher-ups at that time that had motion sickness on DK, who presumably wanted the spinning removed. In my opinion, that was the second big hit to the ride after the fireplace effect was removed, although it was later brought back toned down.
Special effects came and went away throughout the ride's duration. When the ride was toned down and each sleigh gave a drastically different experience- that was when I think the ride was running out of time. I hoped the park would revive it, but that hope turned into despair as the company kept descending into more debt. I also rejoiced when I first heard about FrostBite, but I soon realized that FrostBite was DK's big tombstone. I got as many recordings and photos as I could, but I hope that some taken with better equipment will surface over time.
P.S.: I don't think the park's official "farewell" video quite makes the cut.
This is correct. The sleighs were never used to their full potential, but upkeep, or lack thereof overtime them led to numerous issues with each. Airbags would stick on some and others would have A/V syncing issues repeatedly. Each sleigh developed a mind of its own over time.
The reduced spinning in scene 6 was a combination of guests getting sick and drink spills. Floors in the sleighs were an absolute pain to clean to the point during the summer you would have team members back in maintenance just cleaning sleighs.
From talking to numerous individuals with deep knowledge of the attraction and its operation, newsie has this 100% right—specifically the drink spills part.
So, we heard that DarKastle's building is cleared out, except for the booth in the center and the back 1/6th of the building (maintenance area). That includes the tracks and fake walls. I imagine that would leave a lot of room for special event space.
Is it odd that I want to see pictures of the demolition? I doubt the park would ever publicize anything like that, however. I also wonder what happened to the sleighs.
Edit: ^ For clarification, what booth do you mean? Do you mean that just the pit of the show building was cleared, except for the maintenance area?
Edit: ^ For clarification, what booth do you mean? Do you mean that just the pit of the show building was cleared, except for the maintenance area?
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There was a center wall that ran from maintenance to the load area which featured a lot of catwalks on the top where the projection booths were located, I'm sure they had to leave all that standing for structural reasons. It's also probably valuable to have an overhead view of the space inside when doing lighting and maze designs...
Bump a reeeealy old post. You can blame this one on Zachary. He got me looking in old promo photos and I saw these again. I had already put these up once.
My how quickly the mighty has fallen.
My how quickly the mighty has fallen.
About a month ago BGW applied for a permit to install some new electrical mechanisms in the DK building, and has recently been issued. Description of permit is as follows:
"Install 7-100A disconnects for future use by entertainment at Dark Castle "
First, they are still referring to this as Dark Castle (misspelled) but interesting. Also, if this building is intended for special event use, there is no way they would need something like this, right? These are some big boy switches for some big boy power needed. And that it mentions future use, they clearly have plans for something.
"Install 7-100A disconnects for future use by entertainment at Dark Castle "
First, they are still referring to this as Dark Castle (misspelled) but interesting. Also, if this building is intended for special event use, there is no way they would need something like this, right? These are some big boy switches for some big boy power needed. And that it mentions future use, they clearly have plans for something.
True, but DarKastle the ride ate up a TON of power, and I can't imagine the effects they have for houses are more demanding than the ride system.
Unless during demolition they ripped out the existing power systems.
Seconded, "Entertainment" makes me think of shows and/or haunts, more than ride mechanisms.
You have to consider where much of the existing power was centered. Sure some went down the "thrid rail" but much was also used in the ETC dimmers and other theatrics. When I toured the space years ago I counted 200 2.4k dimmers. That is a WHOLE lot of lighting control. It seems unlikely that they would have ripped out thoes, VERY expensive rack dimmers and other lighting/ sound systems. That is sort of a "sunk cost" of power.
It is entirely possible that they are setting up taps for other, maybe sound hookups.
I bet that someone else said this before on this thread, but closing this without warning was a slap-in-the-face to fans of this park.
Now ppl like me have to go all the way down to Florida or some other place to ride smthg like this, and even then it’d just be themed to some already existing IP (at Universal/Disney, at least) and not a creative and original idea.
Now ppl like me have to go all the way down to Florida or some other place to ride smthg like this, and even then it’d just be themed to some already existing IP (at Universal/Disney, at least) and not a creative and original idea.