A late season passholder preview would be a slick marketing opportunity for renewals and new sales
News Project 2027/Purple: Delayed “World Record Breaking Coaster" (Phantom Spire?)
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Bare minimum it’s going well past Big Bad Wolf: The Wolf’s Revenge, which already has an absurd amount of posts. If they don’t do previews in the fall (which I doubt they will, they shouldn’t want a soft opening for this kind of addition), I think 300 before riders is easy.
Wait, yeah, this is sorta a really compelling idea, no? I'm confident they would presell A LOT of 2027 prestige memberships if having one entitled you to a couple weekends of Phantom Spire previews (even if most of the theming/queue/whatever isn't finished) before the park closes for the 2026 season. People would be renewing/upgrading to Prestige in DROVES. Could actually be enough of a financial incentive there for SFGAdv to consider it in my opinion.
I do think they should keep it gated to the highest pass level though. You don't want 8 hour lines—just like... three hour lines.
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Agreed, though I think that's reeaaallly optimistic. Best chance is a PR event very late in the season with "media" methinks.
That was spitballed a few months ago in here as a best case scenario. That they could maybe get the ride and enough of the grounds in shape to preview it somehow during Fright Fest, if it were at that stage, or just get some event in before the park closes for the year. Most who weighed in then thought a soft opening wasn't the way to go and to just open totally done and ready to rock 'n roll in March '27. At the time we were all still waiting on shipments to start and wondering how delayed things were going to be because of tariffs and when would anything begin happening at all?! If stuff ships early in 2026, some speculated, maybe the ride could be mostly done by summer or early fall and then....who knows? Ryan was still fuzzy about opening in late '26 or '27 at this time, too.Wait, yeah, this is sorta a really compelling idea, no? I'm confident they would presell A LOT of 2027 prestige memberships if having one entitled you to a couple weekends of Phantom Spire previews (even if most of the theming/queue/whatever isn't finished) before the park closes for the 2026 season. People would be renewing/upgrading to Prestige in DROVES. Could actually be enough of a financial incentive there for SFGAdv to consider it in my opinion.
I do think they should keep it gated to the highest pass level though. You don't want 8 hour lines—just like... three hour lines.
I would absolutely hate this and it would really put the icing on my Decline of the Arts Under Fascism/Socialize All Amusements cake
I do think they should keep it gated to the highest pass level though. You don't want 8 hour lines—just like... three hour lines.
I feel like the attitude this gives off is The Poors Can Wait For Their Slopcoaster. Not that that's anybody's actual intention (I do think it's baked into the ride due to its intentionally low capacity in order to induce Fast Lane sales but we knew that) I just think seeing other people being able to ride an attraction the park claims is "closed" inherently feels unfair to a day ticket holder
Idk...I've been all for the influencers getting a closer look at the ride during construction (means I get close photos of the construction lol) but a preview months before anyone else gets to ride is kinda crazy and doesn't feel like a good move. You get videos out telling people how awesome the ride is annnndddd.....everyone has to wait months to actually get on it. By that time the initial hype has died down and its old news by April. If they want to do something like that a passholder preview isn't a bad idea, soft open around Fright Fest would mesh with the rumored theme. Even then though that takes so much away from the spring hype around the ride. They've been very adamant about the 2027 opening so that's my expectation.
Oh, I agree. I don't think a media-only event would be the right way to debut this ride. Just figuring it's probably the only way anyone sees it before next spring, unless things really go well and they do a soft opening before the close of the season to all. Which I think wouldn't be worth it. Best PR/sales strategy here is stick to a grand opening next March/April. But the thoosie in me would love to see this thing sooner than a year from now, even if second-hand thru influencers.
well, rapterra at kings dominion construction lasted through the 2024 season and officially opened on the opening day for the 2025 season so my guess that anything else for phantom spire for fright fest after putting the coaster together will be focus on big theming for the ride and enterance & exit & queue line and maybe some pre show filming if this ride has a pre show area
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I would love a preshow and well themed indoor station. I hope they go with the haunted lighthouse theme. I can imagen a backstory: picture this..visitors touring an historic lighthouse on vacation and like tower of terror, there is a preshow with some special effects and jump scares when they realize it’s haunted! I believe this tower should have a becon at top, lit up purple/pink at night and a large strobe light for lighting effect when train reaches top. Some scary music..crows, seagulls, and sounds of harbor should be broadcasted in que area and entrance to set theme and contrast in the upbeat festive shoreline pier. Having this coaster be well themed would make this coaster really incredible even from a non rider. Ryan has mentioned that theming would be big with this coaster and I am looking forward to seeing one of the most highly anticipated ride from the new merger and seeing “ceder fair” quality for GA!
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I mean I get this criticism and I don't entirely disagree with it, but at the same time, the amusement park experience is already so financially stratified that it's sorta hard for me to care about a little more capitalism, you know? In my perfect world amusement and theme parks wouldn't need to maximize shareholder value, but if I'm in a world where parks either need to optimize shareholder value or risk withering, I'm going to want to see some aggressive shareholder value optimization. I'd rather the art exist in a "corrupted," capitalist state than for it to not exist at all.
Walking away from the philosophical side of the argument (though one day I will write a diatribe on this forum about my belief that some amusement parks definitely should be owned by means other than privately-held/publicly-traded corporations), the United Parks properties have stratified pass member previews for their attractions since COVID and I honestly believe it has made the experience far better for everyone. Doing so has substantially distributed opening crowds over multiple weeks making it way easier for everyone—from the highest tier members to the single-day ticket holders—to experience the attraction. The vast majority of people don't care about riding a ride RIGHT when it opens, they just want to experience it soon and without much headache. These tiered debuts have been great for that—they keep lines short, reviews positive, impacts of operational hiccups minimal, etc.
I also think a pretty easy-to-explain, pretty reasonable case can be communicated to guests with a promotion like this. "Phantom Spire is our new-for-2027 coaster. If you want to give it a spin early—before much of the ride's surroundings are ready for guests—you can get exclusive, limited-capacity, preview access by buying a 2027 Prestige Pass today and visiting during FrightFest 2026. The complete Phantom Spire experience will debut to everyone in 2027 as previously announced."
Lastly, circling back to your main critique, though I do think we share a lot of agreement re: the harm aggressive profit-seeking has done to the art form of amusement parks, I do believe that, given this is the environment in which we find ourselves—an environment where parks have to maximize profits and an environment where regional parks are entirely dependent on subscription-based, tiered membership programs—I do think it's reasonable that the people contributing most to the financial health of the business (those buying the highest margin products such as top-tier passes), be provided outsized access, preferential treatment, etc. If you've ever read about the economics behind premium seating on planes, I think that's a good parallel—people buying these ultra-high-margin products are subsidizing the broader business and enabling prices for other, lesser products to remain more accessible for the masses.
Like I said, I very much don't like the environment in which our parks exist, but given that's our current reality, I do think premium benefits offered exclusively to certain groups is, unfortunately, reasonable.
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Yeah I do agree it's an unfortunate reality and I've resigned myself to it in many ways. I have Fast Lane Ultimate for the season because it's a year when I'll have a lot of opportunity to travel so I know I'll make good use of it and the size of the chain is at an all time high. So I will feel entitled to preferential treatment, because I did pay for it, and I'm playing into the system that stratifies guest experiences.
I guess that's the problem to me, though, is that it increasingly feels necessary to "upgrade" to have even an okay experience. Something I told myself to cope with the cost of FL for the season is that I won't need to pay for upcharge lockers at Great Adventure because they provide lockers for FL users. But why should anyone have to go through the inconvenience? Is "luxury" just not being shaken down, or not feeling cheated?
See this post:
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
Regardless of your thoughts on this person's attitude, it's VERY authentic to my generalization of the attitude of the people in the NYC metro. It ends with "I spent 4 1/2 hours at your crappy park and went on one F-ing ride," complete with "Epstein class" accusations. Just delicious.
Anyways, I just feel most parkgoers are being confronted with the realization that they are now an underclass if they don't have FL, and things like these tiered openings are even more likely to screw over daily ticket holders, who are more likely to be first timers making their first impression. I just very simply think Great Adventure in particular should not implement something like this because of how unlikeable the park has made itself already. They don't need more people feeling scorned (in my opinion, I'm sure some people think it's profitable and/or somehow ethical) , whether anyone believes they should feel that way or not.
Building this coaster before formally announcing it is definitely creating attention and excitement. With this coaster being completed by summer and not opening into next season, it will definitely create anticipation. I can see a preview during halloween being a great marketing initiative and many people will definitely buy 2027 passes just to ride it this season because they eagerly been watching it the entire season.
It definitely looks quite spooky at night!
I understand the frustration with Fast Lane but at the same time when it comes to Great Adventure I’m less bothered. I’m honestly trying to think about the last time I felt I might need it at Great Adventure and it was opening day last year. Anyone who was there that day remembers how bad crowds and ops were. Outside of that I’ve never really been to the park on a day where I was wishing I had fast lane, keep in mind I purposely avoid major holidays like the 4th of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day. I can always get on Toro, Nitro, JDC without much issue. Flash has a long line usually but it’s also brand new, it’ll tame as time goes by. My personal feeling is that when I go to a park I want to interact with my phone as little as possible. If I can put my phone in my pocket, explore the park on my own, get on the rides on my bucket list without issue then I’m fine with whatever fast lane policy the park has. An example of a fast lane policy I’m not okay with: Disney Genie. You have to be on your phone 24/7 because of it and I missed out of Rise of the Resistance because of how its setup. Left the park very disappointed.
You can tell me to avoid major holidays but I'm not really talking about me. Your average "GP" only gets so many days off and likely has to pick a weekend or holiday. I don't think that should mean a completely unworkable experience. I think the park should be built to handle crowds because that's what amusement parks are for. Instead, they're being built to handle smaller groups of people who paid more for "special" experiences while distributing the limited resource of "capacity" intentionally unequally. And that's why I hate Phantom Spire. Nobody should have to plan around a certain low-capacity ride to the point where they may feel their options are a one-time Fast Lane or just don't ride, and that is how some people currently feel about Flash. I know I didn't ride it until I finally got the chance to visit on a weekday in November. Most people aren't planning for repeat visits and will end up feeling like they lost out on the big new experience if they don't commit to the wait, which of course, is worse because of Fast Lane (I can't believe there are grown adults who "disagree" with this fact)
As far as the phone thing goes I completely agree. It's incredibly stupid to have to "book" fast lane rides online and part of the dystopian push to prevent all organic interaction for more Data Driven profit seeking. I often use Disney as an example for everything I despise about the organizational taskmastering of "conquering" modern theme parks/getting EVERYTHING done. Amusement parks should be environments where everything is approachable and fun and easy to understand, dare I say relaxing. Instead, we get policies that force guests to strategize against a class of people who paid to have the "luxury" of waiting a reasonable amount of time.
Jenny Nicholson in her video on Star Wars Land explained this better than anyone I've seen. I'll have to find some timestamps later because it's four hours long lol. But modern amusement parks are now tiring environments where it feels like you're missing out unless you pay to upgrade. Not everybody is gonna give up like me and say If you can't beat em, join em. Some amount of people will just not come back because of how cheated they feel by the tiered structure, or even if they don't get that far in thought, just because they waited so long.
I don't want to continue to veer off-topic and turn a thread that should be about (very active) coaster construction into a conversation about the current state of the industry so I'm not going to respond here in any substantive way here other than to say I agree with all of that, @northdetective. I made a new, long-overdue thread to discuss the broader state parks broadly with a substitutive response here:
parkfans.net
Anywho, back to the purple thing.
Industry Discussion - State of the Parks
I completely agree with all of that @northdetective—and I believe parks haven't realized how much damage this approach has done to their reputations. They blame increased competition from at-home entertainment options, they blame the weather, they blame poor marketing strategy, they blame bad...
parkfans.net
Anywho, back to the purple thing.
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Random thought I had this morning:
Some of my favorite launches ever are Taron’s second launch, the Falcons Flight launch down the mountain, and the second part of Stardust Racers’ first launch. All three of these are LSM launches which you enter at speed, so I’m theorizing that the third launch on Phantom Spire may join that list. Obviously nothing beats a hydraulic launch from stationary, but a high powered LSM when you’re already speeding along has its own joy. (Especially when they go BRRRRRR)
Some of my favorite launches ever are Taron’s second launch, the Falcons Flight launch down the mountain, and the second part of Stardust Racers’ first launch. All three of these are LSM launches which you enter at speed, so I’m theorizing that the third launch on Phantom Spire may join that list. Obviously nothing beats a hydraulic launch from stationary, but a high powered LSM when you’re already speeding along has its own joy. (Especially when they go BRRRRRR)
I can’t even begin to tell you how much I hope the tower sections are facing outwards as opposed to inwards like on the initial rendering we saw.
Seemingly most are disappointed with the slightly lower height so hopefully this was something discussed and if they faced the climb up the tower outwardly i bet that would erase any complaint on height most would have.
Face down with no structure providing a sense of protection ….. that would make this coaster otherworldly
Seemingly most are disappointed with the slightly lower height so hopefully this was something discussed and if they faced the climb up the tower outwardly i bet that would erase any complaint on height most would have.
Face down with no structure providing a sense of protection ….. that would make this coaster otherworldly
Has anyone else seen that one dude who comments on every post about project purple saying it's not confirmed to be a tower and he hopes it'll be something like stardust racers? It's honestly hilarious