Europe in the Air is Now Closed

Register or Login to Hide This Ad for Free!
It seems like a plausible explanation that the ride was not popular and going to be closed soon anyway, it broke in some major way, and they decided not to spend the money to fix it.

And the verdict of that? Terrible.

You cannot close attractions with no notice and no explanation in the middle of the summer. Public perception will be that the park is short-changing them or falling apart or worse. Mach Tower already doesn't work. Globe theater is empty. Now this?

The park has to get its financial house in order. Sure. And closing unsuccessful rides/attractions/shows is going to be a part of that. But there's a way to do that and a way to not do that and in any case, it's scary as a fan of the place to think that it has come down to shutting down rides in order to save money.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CastleOSullivan, b.mac, Julia and 2 others
Just a note, I saw a "Flight Attendant" sweeping up trash in Festa? I understand people get transfered to different departments, extra hours, etc. but honestly, I think if this was closed on such short notice, they would try to relocate the team members quickly so they aren't standing around doing nothing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Julia
Alright fair enough. I'm math minded enough to figure this out.

Someone please provide me with the seating capacity of the Globe Theater as it was for Pirates 4-D & EitA and approximately how many shows for each per day.

Then provide me w/the rider capacity of Mach Tower & it's ride "recycle" time. 1 minute? 3 minutes? What?

I will do the math. I can already tell you, given their investment in roller coasters, or in rides like Mach Tower, they will continue to run that crap even at 20% uptime, rather than shut it down. The Globe & EitA? The uptime for those were stellar, but still don't match the high investment costs that Mach Tower does & therefore are FAR more expendable. It shouldn't be a surprise at all that those two were first on the chopping block.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Julia
Assuming that they do on average about 7 or 8 shows a day for Pirates 4D, and even assuming full capacity (which we all know, NEVER happened...Maybe 40% at best even on a busy day) that'd put it at about 6,500 to 7,000 people per day, max capacity. (Realistically, maybe 3k people tops....IF that.)

Now, anyone know what the turnaround time for Mach Tower is?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Julia
Wow, it took a while to read 13 pages of comments.

Many of you know that I have been EiTA's biggest champion. My family and I honestly enjoy that ride, we look forward to riding it, and we usually ride it 3 or 4 times during our annual summer vacation to BGW. I even have the t-shirt from it's premier year.

Obviously, I'm very disappointed to hear that it is closed. I'm not quite understanding how everyone can claim that everyone hated it and nobody rode it when my family never rode it without waiting in a line and without a full or nearly full cabin. On the same vacations I've ridden Alpengeist and Apollo's Chariot several times with little to no wait, so I could argue that those coasters aren't popular and nobody rides them. I'm not saying that's true, but I'm saying that the assumption that the general public hated EiTA is a bit of an exaggeration.

Honestly, there have been so many removals and downgrades over the past several years that I'm at a loss about what to do. We've seen the loss of a nighttime spectacle (Imaginique/Kinetix) with an inferior replacement (Illuminights), and many shows that haven't been replaced like the Starlight Orchestra, American Jukebox, the Auction in Castle O'Sullivan, and the Boogie Band. A summer concert series has gone from concerts almost every weekend to just a few scattered about the season, and the quantity of the atmosphere entertainment such as magicians, characters, and street musicians has been greatly reduced. Now this year we see a drop tower that continues to be unreliable and the removal of Pirates 3D and EiTA. I seriously don't know if it's worth visiting until some improvements are made.

None of you would believe that someone wouldn't visit because of the closure of EiTA, but it might be the icing on the cake or the straw that broke the camel's back. My family truly enjoyed EiTA, and it's a huge disappointment to see it go without a replacement or meaningful explanation.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zachary, K8theGr8, Bill and 7 others
Um just a question to Zachary,
Why did you close the EITA thread instead of just moving it to the "defunct Attractions" thread? Just a question.
 
^He probably wants to wait until it is officially confirmed that it WILL NOT return.
 
JuniorBGWfan28 said:
Um just a question to Zachary,
Why did you close the EITA thread instead of just moving it to the "defunct Attractions" thread? Just a question.
Click to expand...

If you noticed that this thread was filled with a lot of thoughts on why it closed and that type of stuff. The official Europe in the Air thread is ment to discuss the actual ride itself. We will reopen it once everything calms down and then you all can talk about the actual ride there and continue to talk about the closure and speculate with others why it closed.

Hopefully I didn't confuse you more, as i'm not sure of the best way to explain. Maybe when Zach comes back from the park; he can better explain the reasoning.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zachary, Party Rocker, Hoopla and 2 others
Wow...I'm surprised about this whole thing. It seems really odd that there wasn't an announcement or even some kind of signage about the closure. :/ Not impressed, BGW!

I can think of two reasons for the abruptness:
1) Something broke, and since the ride was unpopular with the GP the park just decided to close it rather than fix it (many of you have already brought this up; I think this is probably the most plausible reason)
2) I've been thinking about this, and I'm not sure if it's possible/likely, BUT -- could the park maybe have been in the market to sell it? Maybe they had a buyer closer sooner than expected and they went ahead and shut it down so they could turn it over in time.

I know that simulators are on their way out/not rare/not expensive, but it seems to me that the park is trying to refresh its non-coaster rides and/or could use some extra cash.
 
  • Like
Reactions: K8theGr8, Planeteer and Julia
The Globe is already under renovation. They have the lobby open for cool seating on some days and I peeked through the doors and they are already starting to renovate. And think about it EITA usually closes to be converted in to a maze about mid August, so they just pushed it up.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hoopla and Julia
UnicornZiva said:
Wow...I'm surprised about this whole thing. It seems really odd that there wasn't an announcement or even some kind of signage about the closure. :/ Not impressed, BGW!

I can think of two reasons for the abruptness:
1) Something broke, and since the ride was unpopular with the GP the park just decided to close it rather than fix it (many of you have already brought this up; I think this is probably the most plausible reason)
2) I've been thinking about this, and I'm not sure if it's possible/likely, BUT -- could the park maybe have been in the market to sell it? Maybe they had a buyer closer sooner than expected and they went ahead and shut it down so they could turn it over in time.

I know that simulators are on their way out/not rare/not expensive, but it seems to me that the park is trying to refresh its non-coaster rides and/or could use some extra cash.
Click to expand...

The park didn't shut EitA down due to budget limitations, they shut it down in order to increase profit margins to make the park look more attractive as a selling point (more profit, more selling ability). See Atlantis's post for a pretty weird rundown, don't be afraid to read twice.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Julia
Well, I mean they already have it saying it's closed for the rest of the 2013 season on their website. Not sure how much more clear that can get.....

But as far as Mock Tower, just noticed a rule on their sign I hadn't noticed before.....No prosthetic legs allowed? What next? No dentures? No robotic arms? False eyelashes? lol I digress.....
 
  • Like
Reactions: K8theGr8
You must log in or register to reply here.
Consider Donating to Hide This Ad