Should regular season attractions be reworked to facilitate the off-season events?

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Sep 5, 2010
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RICHMOND
In a recent discussion about the sundial at Pompeii, CarterGee offered the following explanation for why it has been placed there:

Here's the deal. That sundial is there so that during things like HS and CT that area can be a centerpiece. Remember how awkward santa looked there last year? Now seasonal props can be easily placed there turning it into a multi-use piece of land. I don't think the sundial is terribly. Yes, it's not as theme-y as what was there, but that's a small sacrifice to make to assure that that area of the park can look perfect for seasonal events.

...and that's a fair enough point. Now, my question is:

Should standing, regular season attractions be altered to accommodate the off-season special events?

It would seem to me that your spring-summer season would take precedence; that you would place *first* priority on getting things right for spring-summer, and taylor your special events to match that spring-summer setup. However, as Carter is saying here, it seems like Busch is willing to alter the spring-summer setup to fit in better with the fall-winter setup.

What do you guys think?

EDIT: I should add that I'm not talking about seasonal overlays...I'm talking about making structural or thematic changes to existing attractions so that when the holidays come around, they're easier to make-over. EXAMPLE: Permanently removing the wolf statues from the front of DarKastle to make the structure more suitable for a cheerful CT setup.
 
It's all about scale. Here is what I see about that sundial.

1) It will make special events look better.
2) Sundials are pretty cool from a technological view.
3) Once the plants have grown, that area will look amazing.
 
Disney does this with Holiday layovers. It can be done. When it is done proper, it is amazing.
 
I think, with Disney, they work with the existing architecture for their layovers...they don't, to my knowledge, make structural/major theme changes during the regular season to setup for the off-season.

As far as the sundial, I don't like it, because it effects the story of the ride. That place is the staging area of the story of the ride...you have to have the tents and shovels and stuff, or else it doesn't make sense...it's just an old building with a boat in it.
 
CarterGee said:
One reason: $

There's a 54 million dollar "car ride" where BBW use to sit that says otherwise.

CarterGee said:
Not to mention there's grass now too, plant life, trees, etc.

Now this as a reason I can see. Along with the point brought up by Shane about how disgusting it started getting, and you have a pretty good reason to do this.
 
As far as the sundial, I don't like it, because it effects the story of the ride. That place is the staging area of the story of the ride...you have to have the tents and shovels and stuff, or else it doesn't make sense...it's just an old building with a boat in it.

Not sure if a few small props will totally affect the story of the ride, but what the park should do is instead of getting rid of the props altogether, just move them to an area more fitting (entrance area, visible area close to Deadline's entrance, etc) and then keep the sundial. Add a few sign boards and TVs in the queue to explain the story better. I recall there's plenty of room for the theming to be placed around the ride without it being removed altogether.

EDIT: I should add that I'm not talking about seasonal overlays...I'm talking about making structural or thematic changes to existing attractions so that when the holidays come around, they're easier to make-over. EXAMPLE: Permanently removing the wolf statues from the front of DarKastle to make the structure more suitable for a cheerful CT setup.

I guess it depends. I can't think of too many rides where the park can do this. I don't think removing the wolves for more generic statues will affect DK's story as much as make the entrance look less nice during the summer - which could be good/bad depending on what they're replaced by.
 
netdvn said:
Not sure if a few small props will totally affect the story of the ride, but what the park should do is instead of getting rid of the props altogether, just move them to an area more fitting (entrance area, visible area close to Deadline's entrance, etc) and then keep the sundial. Add a few sign boards and TVs in the queue to explain the story better. I recall there's plenty of room for the theming to be placed around the ride without it being removed altogether.

But the whole story of that ride is told in the props. And adding TVs to tell the story is KD to the max.

A good movie tells the story through costumes, atmosphere and what is unsaid. A bad movie tells the story through explication-based dialogue. The same is true in theme parks.

Why tell the audience when you can show the audience?
 
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And the dig site look in the building is? There are still plenty of signs that point out the story. Including the biggest one that you're going one that you're going inside ruins.
 
DrMoneyHATESBuschGardens said:
netdvn said:
Not sure if a few small props will totally affect the story of the ride, but what the park should do is instead of getting rid of the props altogether, just move them to an area more fitting (entrance area, visible area close to Deadline's entrance, etc) and then keep the sundial. Add a few sign boards and TVs in the queue to explain the story better. I recall there's plenty of room for the theming to be placed around the ride without it being removed altogether.

But the whole story of that ride is told in the props. And adding TVs to tell the story is KD to the max.

A good movie tells the story through costumes, atmosphere and what is unsaid. A bad movie tells the story through explication-based dialogue. The same is true in theme parks.

Why tell the audience when you can show the audience?

I didn't say to completely remove the props, but to simply move them elsewhere in the queue so that they're still visible, but it doesn't affect the decorating process during the holiday season.

Plus BBW had absolutely no theming at all in the queue (that I recall). You had to get the story from watching those TVs. Griffon didn't even have much of a story to begin with (opening year it just had the typical boarding procedure spiel and some message about conservation).

Most of the coasters were equipped with TVs in their queues which looped the story of each ride along with the ride stats and the boarding/exiting procedures (this was before the park started advertising all their extra upcharge stuff in the lines).
 
Setting up the origins of living dinosaurs is not the same as going into ruins. You're comparing a Stephen Speilburg adventure movie, the story of which has to deal with the ethics of modern science to a boat ride in a theme park.

To be honest, the story of Pompeii is closer to some random teen slasher flick. When the meat of the story is your in ruins near the most famous volcano in the world, you don't care why the teens are in that cabin if there's not that much of a story. While theming is a very important part of the ride, it's a water ride with a big splash as it's main feature. There are still pelnty of tips, including the uniorms that say "Archeological Team" on them.
 
I think the bottom line for me is this: does this alteration help tell the story of the original attraction better, or does it detract from the original attraction's story/theming?

I think in the case of the Pompeii sundial, you are hurting the overall theming of the original attraction in order to gain something for Christmas Town, and that, to me, is a when this concept goes in the wrong direction.
 
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