Reimagining the Park's Hamlet Lineup

[warfelg]

New France -> Scandinavian Country, Festa Italia -> Greece, Forest of Fun -> New Threadneedle Faire, etc

I actually really like these.

New France becomes Sweden
Festa Italia becomes Greece
Forest of Fun becomes Luxemburg (Little thrills for little people)

Adding two more:
Oktoberfest becomes just Germany with BBW area becomes in Black Forest area, allowing current Germany to become Austria/Switzerland
Escape from Pompeii area is what becomes Spain

I would also put alternative of:
Wild Reserve becomes a Romania/Hungary/Croatia area
Escape from Pompeii and Forest of Fun combine together to become a Spain/Netherlands area

Basically I do like the concept that they should be working on how they can take some out of place areas (New France) or oddball areas and just give it a fresh theme.

Heck I would LOVE if they would bring back Olde Country tag, and I know that BGT's old tag might be controversial but do it as Safari Country. I know I'm getting off topic here but you can so similar with the Sea Worlds - Orlando as SWO: Rough Seas, San Antonio as SWSA: Tropical Seas, San Diego as SWSD: Open Seas.

 

[halfabee]

Revamping existing square footage (hamletage?) seems to me the only economically reasonable way to add new countries to the park anytime soon. I really like many of the above ideas.

A Netherlands revamp of the Pompeii area, featuring a new water attraction that leans into mechanical waterworks themes with a reskinned Dutch style ride building, would be pretty terrific. And have Luxembourg across the way as the kiddie area, like warfelg said.

I'd want to save Spain for 20 years in the future when Pantheon is long in the tooth, and that entire Festa Field expanse and hillside get reclaimed to host considerably more than a single attraction.

New France is dying to become Switzerland, and has been for at least 30 years. Maybe longer.

 

[filter]

I like warfelg's suggestions but I would make a few tweaks . If new France became Sweden or IMO a better solution is Scandinavia, the Viking themed coaster would be perfect along with a rename/slight design tweak to le scoot but what about trappers? The food wouldn't fit the area anymore. not to say it has to, but at least a name change there too and perhaps a new menu?

I loved the Italian gardens theme and rides from the latest survey for the gardens, and I still support the battering ram moving to pantheon and going Greek for that entire area, there were many mock ups of the infield with fountains and pathways that would be amazing.

Something I would like to see is some form of ride in the England area. Of course there is a huge problem with real estate but to have an entrance ride that encircled and crossed over that section would be amazing and I would lean towards a jack the ripper theme. Perhaps if the forest of fun has to get reworked and can expand, some land could be used for an England ride addition

 

[Jonesta6]

We're heading into concepts territory, so that said:

If all possible new hamlets have to be developed from existing hamlets, as in no additions to what exists by using up expansion plots (and there was a desire to make the changes via future capex outlays):

Not changing

• Banbury Cross - there's no real way to effectively place an entrance plaza ride in this section without either completely removing the existing iconic buildings or destroying what sense of forced perspective scale may exist through tree removals and ride placements in the sightlines.
• Heatherdowns - it's the home of the stables and Nessie, it needs to stay thematically consistent
• Killarney - this was already the retheme of Hastings, which took part of Threadneedle Faire
• Aquitaine - for a proper European depiction, France has to go somewhere
• Oktoberfest - where else would Das Festhaus make thematic sense? They already tried to stick one in Tampa incongruent to the theming...
• San Marco (including Da Vinci's Garden) - One of the original expansion hamlets, it's themed well as-is
• Land of the Dragons - c'mon, it's a cute non-IP driven playground theme thus should make periodic updates relatively inexpensive
• Grimm's Landing - besides the questionable ADA access, it's the Rhine River Cruise dock and the connecting path between Rhinefeld and Heatherdowns; it's hard to imagine further theming implementations since there's not much else they can build in that area
• Black Forest - between the catering area and the new Big Bad Wolf, it wouldn't make sense to change the theme here even if there's an argument to say holistically it would have been better to have created a brand new hamlet in this space.

Questionable

• Jack Hannah's Wild Reserve - while having animal ambassadors is great and further theming doesn't make sense with the animals still there, there is a sizeable plot from the old Bird Show theatre and some other relatively unused spaces in the vicinity that could be repurposed
• Escape from Pompeii area - it's on a thematic island; Vesuvius is Italian but not connected to the other two Italian areas

Definitely changing

• Festa Italia - it's a cluttered and confusing thematic and literal dead-end
• Rhinefeld - not including the giant clock tower and fountain plaza, this area headed into Alpengeist's plaza could be literally anything
• New France - Canada gets representation but not Mexico (nor Spain itself)?

That leaves the thematic changes themselves:

• Greece and/or ancient Rome, not to be confused with modern-day Rome in Italy - yes, geography is what it is, but the average guest probably isn't concerned about the difference between Greek gods and structures vs. Roman
• Spain - obviously needed - perhaps this takes over when EfP's shelf life ends?
• Switzerland - maybe the Rhinefeld makeover? Keeps some German influence while exploring others
• Portugal - lesser known to the average guest, but that may be an advantage if there's any interesting folklore that can be exploited
• Scandinavia - we already have Invadr, may as well go full Viking
• Slavic territory - without focusing too much on currently political borders and their realities, this area has a rich cultural history that may translate well to theming

There could be other specific countries in time to explore through a European lens, but these stuck out the most to me

 

[Zachary]

I split the last few posts from the After the Sim Building rumor thread off into a new concept thread.

Basically for as long as I can remember I've dreamt of more Killarney-style hamlet rethemes at BGW. My biggest gripes have always been that New France exists and both Germany and Italy have two (or in some ways even more) hamlets each.

I have many thousands of words written about some of these ideas in draft posts that I've yet to share publicly—some many years old now. Realistically, I'll likely never finish writing up all of the related concepts in my brain for some of these rethemes so now is as good a time as any to dump the broad strokes ideas out into the world here.

My ideal hamlet lineup at the moment looks a little something like this:

1. Banbury Cross (England)
2. Heatherdowns (Scotland)
3. Threadneedle Faire (Traveling Peoples of Europe)
   • A retheme of Sesame Street Forest of Fun and a callback to the park's previous Threadneedle Faire area, this renovated children's area would capitalize on the Americanized Renaissance Faire vibe and aesthetic to present a charming, diverse collection of influences from the various itinerant groups throughout Europe (most notably the Romani, but the idea is that many different traveling cultures would be represented). This Hamlet would not be set in any specific country—it would be a fictitious melding of many different traveling cultures—essentially it would be Busch Gardens Williamsburg's version of Tampa's Pantopia, but with a Ren Faire aesthetic instead of the "reclaimed, repurposed" aesthetic presented in Pantopia.
   • The strength of this theme is that it allows the park to represent a number of different groups while also capitalizing on the popular food, drink, and aesthetic of American Renn Faires. Keeping it a general travelers theme ensure avoidance of particularly sticky cultural and political issues surrounding groups like the Romani. It's also a very cheap and flexible thematic style to implement that lends itself well to cobbled-together-looking rethemes of existing rides and facilities.
4. Port Hercule (Monaco)
   • The Escape from Pompeii area should be its own hamlet. I don't know what will replace Escape from Pompeii one day, but whatever it is, it should include a new hamlet representing a new country. The area is way too disconnected from Italy to be part of that hamlet, England and Heatherdowns are already fully-realized, and there's too much separation from the Forest of Fun plot to tie these areas together thematically—it just needs to be its own thing.
   • In my current vision for the area, the Pompeii ride building would stay and be lightly rethemed as a temple to Hercules. A new (family) coaster would be snaked through the repurposed ride building and around the existing water pool. A new antique car ride would be placed behind Escape from Pompeii (on the originally planned "Italian Le Mans" site) with an entrance in this area. Taken together, we would have a new Monaco hamlet with two anchor attractions. The coaster would center the Hercules/Monoikos lore of Monaco's founding and the antique car ride would convey the more recent, rich, iconic car racing heritage of the Grand Prix de Monaco.
5. San Marco (Italy)
6. Theoxenia (Greece)
   • A retheme of Festa Italia, this new Greek hamlet would take a page from the Oktoberfest playbook and be a hamlet set in a festival: Theoxenia. Theoxenia, as I understand it, was an ancient Greek feast day meant to celebrate all of the Greek gods collectively, but specifically centered the 12 Olympians: Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, and either Hestia or Dionysus (per Wikipedia).
   • This theme allows much of the festival aesthetics of Festa Italia to remain alongside its existing e-ticket names and themes (Apollo and Pantheon) while refocusing the hamlet on Greece instead of Rome/Italy. This ensures costs can remain low with much of the budget focused on simply renaming things throughout the land.
   • Apollo's Chariot is safe. Tempesto gets a god retheme—take your pick, I don't have strong opinions at the moment. Also don't have specific details to share on Roman Rapids, Tradewinds, or Elephant Run, but all can be simple renames in my assessment—basically no budget needed. Meanwhile, Turkish Delight gets rethemed to the Altar of the Twelve Gods with each of its 12 cups painted to represent one of the 12 Olympians—a sort of place setting for the god in question during this feast day. I have lots of ideas for plussing Pantheon, but for the purposes of this retheme, it fits as-is.
7. Oktoberfest (Germany)
8. Grimms Hollow
   • The Wolf's Revenge area needs to be expanded and it needs to be a new hamlet when that expansion occurs. Oktoberfest is already too large. Expanding its area all the way out into Festhaus Park is a mistake.
   • It seems super obvious to me that the park should resurrect the Grimms Hollow name and make a non-country-specific storybook-themed land focused on the famous fairy tales recounted by the Brothers Grimm (and potentially other European contemporaries to which we owe a lot of our classic, thankfully public domain, children's stories). This is a change that could happen on park maps tomorrow and I think it would be good. Next time an attraction is added back here though, it's a must in my mind. Bonus points if that new ride is my Rumpelstiltskin-themed concept from a while back.
9. Ursanne (Switzerland)
   • Look, Rhinefeld should be Switzerland. It just should be. I understand why it's not given the park's history but today, 100%, it should be Switzerland. The architecture works, many of the building and shop names still work as German is the primary language spoken in Switzerland, and Rhinefeld's e-ticket is already alps-themed. Moving its lore from the German alps to the Swiss alps literally requires changing nothing. This entire "retheme" could basically be accomplished by BGW by hanging up a few Swiss flags and declaring that Rhinefeld is now Switzerland.
   • I picked Ursanne for the hamlet name because of the town of Saint-Ursanne with its Rhinefeld-esque streets and river-adjacent location, but you could go a few different directions here really easily.
   • Sincerely—and I do very much mean this—all Kevin Lembke needs to do is announce that Rhinefeld is now a Swiss village, buy and hang a few flags, and I will be content. Sure, reopening some of the closed storefronts would be nice. Sure, a little something extra like my ZeitMaschine concept would be great, but none of it is needed. The land has clocks, steins, and the alps. It can just be Switzerland tomorrow. BGW just needs to say it's so.
10. Land of the Dragons
    • I have had ideas over the years, but for now I'd just leave it be. It's cute, it's original, dragons are pretty universal in European lore, and there's nothing wrong with what we have going on here right now.
11. Røros (Norway)
    • I currently have an over 6,500 word draft concept for an insanely comprehensive retheme of New France to Norway that I originally started writing over a year ago that is still far from complete. Like Rhinefeld -> Switzerland, this needs to just happen and, like Rhinefeld -> Switzerland, it would be an INCREDIBLY easy, INCREDIBLY cheap retheme to pull off. They need to swap out all of the names of the area's rides, stores, eateries, etc (sans InvadR), hang up some Norwegian flags, paint some of the buildings, add a little Norwegian flare through prop work, and boom, a Røros, Norway hamlet. If the park paired this with some food & beverage updates, some minor, added Le Scoot theming, and maybe some InvadR retracking, it's easy for me to imagine this being marketable as "Busch Gardens Williamsburg's First New Country Since Ireland in 2001!" Maybe one day I'll actually finish my mega concept for this area, but if BGW needs specifics before then, give me a call, I've already done SO much homework on this project for them.
12. Aquitaine (France)
13. Wild Reserve
    • This is a lot like Land of the Dragons for me. When something needs to be done, something should be done, but until that occurs, Wild Reserve isn't hurting anyone. If the bird theater is doomed (likely), I wouldn't mind seeing another animal moved into the space (*cough* Reindeer *cough*), but that is a concept for another time.
14. Killarney (Ireland)

So yeah, two super easy easy rethemes fix both major duplicative hamlets in the park (Festa Italia -> Greece and Rhinefeld -> Switzerland), one easy retheme finally fixes the park's original sin of Canada (New France -> Norway), and then more involved but still relatively small-scale area overhauls for Forest of Fun and Pompeii can bring even more unique, new cultural representation and entirely fresh vibes to BGW without requiring any prohibitively expensive guest area footprint expansion at all. We need new hamlets, but we don't need new square footage added to the park's footprint. I think improving what we have is better than trying to build new from scratch. By and large these ideas are cheap, pretty easy, and, implemented well with a bit of entertainment/food and beverage/merch investment, they can be marketable and profitable too.

 

[Thomas]

I like the idea of Pompeii or FoF becoming Wales. We have England, Scotland, and Ireland; so why not keep it close?

 

[Zachary]

I like the idea of Pompeii or FoF becoming Wales. We have England, Scotland, and Ireland; so why not keep it close?

An Arthurian approach to Wales for Forest of Fun is something I could definitely get behind. Knights, princesses, magic, etc make for a great kids area and could reintegrate some of the lost BEC-era BGW characters nicely. Gotta keep dragons out of it because of Land of the Dragons, but yeah, I support—especially if the back path from Banbury is consistently reopened to connect it more directly back to England again.

With a Wales solution for Forest of Fun, I can shift my spin on a Threadneedle Faire return back over to more of its original home in Wild Reserve. Easy to keep the animals with this theme while just filling in gaps (especially in the upper portion of the Wild Reserve) with wagons, tents, outside craftspeople and merchants (the popcorn and jewelry vendors in Oktoberfest should be moved here), primitive games, a tiny, (probably automated) puppet show theater, some Renn Faire food & beverage staples, etc.

Probably like this arrangement more than what I posted last night. I've only been thinking about SSFoF retheme options seriously since the lawsuit came out so my pitch there was very fresh and far from well-developed in my mind. A specifically Arthurian Wales is uniquely suited for the Forest of Fun site and a new vision of Threadneedle Faire is uniquely suited to preserving the wildlife in the Wild Reserve so yeah, I'm a fan.

 

[Jonesta6]

As long as all the signage is in Welsh...