I would be interested in the inner workings of how some of these deals get done. Like if there was some requirement by Intamin that if they built Pantheon they'd get to build this indoor family switch track straddle coaster also. That if BGW really wanted Pantheon this was the only way to get it or something like that, so the incentive for Intamin to put more effort into Darkoaster theming wasn't there. All purely speculation, but it would be fun to know.
DarKoaster
- Thread starter Nicole
- Start date
If I understood what you said correctly, Intamin has nothing to do with ride theming. And parks/companies will often make deals with manufacturers to build X amount of coasters in order to get a cheaper price on one. Pantheon and DarKoaster most likely weren’t a thing at the same time because of Drachen Spire.
See, these are the kinds of things I'm learning!
Pantheon was a done deal long before Darkoaster was even on the drawing board. Pantheon's lack of theming has everything to do with how to bring a complex and highly expensive coaster in under a tight budget dictated by United Parks. Part of that was the belief by them that if the built a bug enough and flashy enough coaster that the general public wouldn't care if it was themed.
Darkoaster wasn't planned to be the next addition after Pantheon but then Covid hit and budgets got tighter causing them to have to pivot. Park guests were surveyed and two critical needs were determined lower height rides and an indoor ride. United had aldo recently purchased a deal with Intamin to build a certain number of the straddle coasters which they were hoping to get cleared at a lower height requirement. Darkoaster therefore checked three critical boxes and was green lighted. After the prodject had started United saw further drops in attendance and revenue and canceled the deal with Falcon's Treehouse that would gave brought in more extensive Darkastle theming to the ride.
Super minor correction here: Holovis, not Falcon's, is the rumor.
It would be nice to see them right that wrong. I'm a big fan of the strategy of fixing what is there instead of bringing in new attractions.
Although I agree with this premise, any market gains with improving the theaming on DarKoaster will be extremely limited due to the rides abismal throughput.
Yeah, that's too bad. Really seems like a known thing before construction too right? Capacity would be a strong selling point for me.
No two across coaster needs a single rider line. Since every odd group will have someone sitting not next to a member of their group, there is no issue with pairing up two odd groups. The only time this won't work is if you have a group of nine (rare) and can not find a group of one.
At some parks (Europa Park, I am looking at you), they slow down the normal line with the single rider line by putting in a single rider after every odd number group, even if there are two odd number groups in a row. (When I asked, they said they were doing it because the single rider line was too long - there were five people in it and the normal line was twenty minutes long.)
Single rider lines work much better on four across seating, where every group of three, and seven, and most groups of five will leave a seat empty.
Don't get me started on how the single rider line on Griffon lowers the rides throughput due to delaying dispatches by loading the empty seats after the gates close.
This was definitely known by someone during the design phase. Unfortunately, I suspect the ride purchase was signed off on before the ride was was designed. If they were not so set on it being a straddle coaster, the capacity issue could have been solved by changing to a train design with more space efficient seating.
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Stranger adults with a kid is awkward.
Ok, that was weak.
Every time I think about a singles line I feel like it should be a dating app at the same time.
On some rides, I agree (especially PTC trains). However DarKoaster seats are far apart.