War's 25 year plan

[warfelg]

25 years seems like a ton right? In the realm of planning that is almost no time at all. This sprung from the Project Madrid thread.

So directly from there, I present Catalonia (southern coast of Spain around Barcelona):
Ok so I've worked a bit today to come up with a possible concept if this is a whole new hamlet and I'm kinda proud of the work I've done here. It also doesn't cross the river, but does interact with the river, Roman Rapids, and Apollo.

So first here it is:

Ok, so the red star is where the approximate location of the peak height is supposed to be.

The teal color lines are the boundary of the hamlet. Something to consider here: The approximate area of Festia is about 101,000 sqft. That are is 112,000 sqft for where I have outlined. Gives you the idea of how big it is.

The bold blue is the paths. Connects to the bridge at San Marco so now there's a split there. Connects to the Roman Rapids area of Festa so that is no longer a dead end. Another path that connects to the train station so you don't have to loop all the way around to get there. This connects all of that area nicely.

Light blue box is the coasters station, purple being the track. So a lift to the red star, a drop with a slight left turn, to a high overbanked left turn 180. Leads into some speed hills, with a "wave turn" hill to the river in the middle. High speed overbank low turn at the 'fork' in the river. Big airtime hill, followed by a big turnaround a la Fury. Hill up into the block section. Hill into a low to high to low helix that goes over itself, under the first block high speed turn, then over the high speed bank turn, then under itself. One last bump of airtime, sudden drop like the end of Apollo, into the final brakes.

Bright yellow is a food court area. Traditional Spanish foods and drinks.

Dark green is shopping areas.

Dark purple for flats. I think starting with 4.

The dark orange is a future expansion space. I'm thinking a few years after this opens, you could use that space for a dark interactive ride. Something like MiB or Toy Story.

It's a concept that accomplishes a lot of things, without being too stressful on impact by interacting with the river (as in footers in it). Could stand as part of a 3 piece front gate "wow" factor. Includes a new land that's a good size, that's well connected to parts of the park that could use some extra connections. Gives space for 3-4 new flats, new food, new shops, and leaves space for extra additions.

The "biggest" future projects for the park would then be a rail station in Germany, and using Festhous Park if they wanted. I've mentally developed some project for there, but I'll save that for the concepts sub.

 

[warfelg]

And next, I present "The Balkans". This area includes Turkey, Greece, and just about any country on the southern end of the Black Sea.

So like before the map:

The light red/pink is the estimated area of where the train goes. I'm 95% sure I'm off some here. But anyways. The bright red block is a NEW TRAIN STATION!!!! With the inclusion of this hamlet there's now a bug need for another station to bring the total to 4, giving stops at the "4 corners" of the park. I'm also effectively landlocking the park with this addition.

The bright blue is paths. Utilizing the existing path from Germany, and around Festhaus Park is one main part. The other end of the loop is going to cross the train tracks out a bit into the woods. Hence the Balkans theme. Some awesome history, variety of land, and touching on a few things we all want.

Dark Purple: Shops. By Germany the theme is set to more Greek and Turkish items. On the other end the shops are more themed to gypsies and Romanian themes. Remember this hamlet spans a very large area, so this is going to be quite encompassing.

Neon Green: Food stand. Gyros, and other basic generic snack foods.

Yellow: A first for the park...a FULL SERVICE SIT DOWN RESTAURANT! That's right. Some traditional Greek, Turkish, Romanian. The bright yellow would all be indoor, and the dark yellow is an outside patio overlooking the river. If you've ever been to IoA think Mythos.

Orange: The "centerpiece" of the Hamlet, a big castle looking structure. It's an indoor walkthrough show/dark "ride". Again using IoA as an inspiration, think of Poseidon's Fury here. This on is called "The Count's Castle" and the walkthrough/show starts with 5 lifts (or elevator) that holds 10 people each. In it you hear how your here as an expedition crew, normally you do urban exploring, but today the group chose somewhere remote. When you get into the 1st chamber the guide tells you to keep your eyes open, and as he shines his light around bats fly everywhere, and a voice tells you not to go any further. Into the second chamber, where a old and mysterious butler tells you that you've stumbled onto the castle of Dracula, and now that you've come in there's no turning back and your presence has awaken his master. In the third chamber, up the grand staircase, a battle commences between your guide and the Count, as he's about to lose, he tells you to hide in the closets around the room as the roof collapses cutting him off from you. You split into 5 rooms (10 people each), where you see another guide. They tell you they've been hiding for years for the next group and they know the only way out...to get into the coffin and you vanish to outside. You get in, and it's a drop floor slide that puts you out at the bottom into a small courtyard where you are free to go.

Light blue: Spaces for flat rides.

Pink: Offer a challenge to RMC, an all new ground up coaster with no inversions. A thrilling woodie with the iron horse track. Use the old DF station, exit towards the river on a roughly 110 foot climb. The track turns left, before diving in a twisting first drop from the top to the river going under the path and train. A big airtime hill, followed by a speed hump over a little inlet climbing into a big helix, that then dives back down, up, then dives down under itself, following the terrain up around the inlet with a near 90 degree overbank, twisting around before a triple up that turns left under the station to the block break run. Drops back down to a helix outside the path over the access road, into some low humps and one side over the other bunny hops. Into the final breaks, and a tire drive that takes it back over the path and into the station. Name the new epic woodie The Journey of Argo

So there you have it.

In the coming days: Scandinavia, a retheming of New Canada; Switzerland a retheming of part of Germany; and a new Italy.

 

[warfelg]

So I'm back, and I went where I said I was going next. A new Scandinavia retheme of New Canada.

The Update:

This isn't as complicated as building out a new hamlet so this is much much less involved, so I may be able to get through a bunch in a single day here.

So once again, I used blue to highlight the paths. And I'm going to start with a renaming things:
Caribou Train Station -> Oslo Terminal
Northwoods Trader -> Tivoli Garden Trader, shop rethemed to this look:

Trappers Smokehouse -> Trappers Smokehouse....TBH I don't see a reason to change it.
Invadr -> Invadr = Hey! Nothing needs to change here!
Le Scoot -> Fjord Runner

Ok now with the different colored blobs:
Light Blue: Taking out the existing shop, and putting in a ride. A simple small flat for that space. A whip ride called "Scandinavian Flick". For those that don't know what it is, the Scandinavian Flick is a rallie racing term for flicking out the backend of the car. If you think of the movie "Cars" think of the part of the dirt racetrack with McQueen turns left by turning his wheels to the right. That's the Scandinavian Flick.

The Brown 'L' shape: A front change to the pottery shop, changed to look more like the more modern Scandinavian architecture style. Think something like:

The 3/4 circle around Le Catapult: Alright here's where I get interesting. Le Catapult is renamed "Northern Lights" with a dome put over 1/2 to 3/4 of the ride. Ride is outfitted with new lights. And here's where I get trippy; both the inside and outside are painted white. And use a laser projection system like this:

On that dome is a projection of...you guessed it, the northern lights.

The brown triangle up top is a built fake mountains with snow capping to add to the look of the area. Something to look like:

So around Le Scoot: Retheme the station to look more like a dock than it looks now. The big circle turned into a mountain around that part. The two skinny parallel brown lines are built out to make that part of a suspension bridge designed to:

And right before the drop, a rock outcropping that you drop through after peaking outside real quick, into a basin made more to look like a fjord with walls on both sides. of the basin.

Alright, so I'll try to get to Switzerland retheming of a section of German tonight; soon to come a new Italy, and a new entrance (whaaaa???).

 

[warfelg]

Ok, so continuing my series here with Switzerland!

This takes the Germany section with Alpengeist, Land of Dragons, and Edelweiss. So some updates after the image:

Dark blue traces all the paths with the addition of a new "outlook" that is meant to represent a peaceful overlook from an Alp Chalet.

Brown represents all the rethemeing that needs to go on. For the most part its going to be up around the path through the shops, and updating it to all look like a skiing village in the alps to extend the Alpengeist thememing even further out.

Light blue: The rectangle is an incline to carry people up and down the hillside. Trains to carry about 15 people up and down. Just a people mover on a small scale.

The oval, the Kinder Karussel is set to be moved in my plan, opening space for an enterprise ride to be named Collider, after the large hadron collider at the CERN center in Switzerland.

The Green is a new small outdoor amphitheater. Named Edelweiss, taking the name from the food stand, the amphitheater is home to a show playing the music of the Alps region, focusing on Bach, Motzart, and others. More instrumental than most other shows in the park.

 

[warfelg]

Alright boys and girls, this is a double dip night!!

First up, an updated Italy!

Ok, so once again bold blue is the pathways. As you can see they all stay the same, with additions on the "far side" of Escape, one running parallel to the pipeline, and another crossing and wandering through the trees.

3 light blue circles, a moving of Little Balloons and Flying Machines (I think that's what it's called? I don't have a kid so I tend not to pay attention). Across from them is the return of a favorite: a spiritual successor to Le Mans, "Stella Apina" taking inspiration from the classic rally race in Italy, with cars designed to look like classic touring cars. The big blue circle is a Star Flyer.

Ok so the elephant in the room I'm just now getting to, what's going on at Escape from Pompeii? Well, that would be a conversion my dear friend, from a big splash ride, to a water coaster. Yes they are rare, and I do know it's unlikely to see one again. But here we go: the ride stays "Escape from Pompeii". Although this gets a little more intense, requiring an addition to the show house, with the entrance area getting taller by about 50 feet. The ride starts with a lift into the building, where there's screens/sets depicting everyday life, then you turn right while going down the first drop, with a big up down up helix back into the building, where you go up a second lift hill. Seeing more everyday life as you go up, things start to shake and get dark as you turn left, plummet down the outside, here depicted as a volcano side with "flowing lava" and turn back up and scream uphill back inside with fireballs as things fall, people scream, then you turn right with a slight drop as a column drops right were you were going and with a boom, you go up and dive outside into the splashdown before returning to the station. Also gone are the water blasters.

The yellow and brown right in the middle: Much like Festhaus got a stein club, Italy is getting a wine club. This area is to be set up with an Italian Villa house, cabanas (all the yellow). The brown set up to not only look like a vineyard, but is actually a working one that makes an exclusive small batch wine. During summer nights, at 8pm, this turns into a 21+ only club with music, games, and various events (singles nights, wine tastings, small venue exclusive concerts).

And for part two today, entrance and England:

Ok so let's start outside the park, pass holder services, the shop stay in place, but the shot gets entrance restrooms integrated. The entrance path is slightly redone to open everything up much more and make it more inviting. The self service ticketing and manned ticketing get moved into an "L" shape. All buildings are designed to look like the UN headquarters Geneva. The idea is to make it an opening and welcoming place that promotes unity.

The main gate is build to look like Tower Bridge in London, Union Jack is turned into a replica of London Tower, and the next overlook is designed to London Bridge. The dark yellow is guest services. Globe Theater stays untouched.

The dark purple is shops. The rectangle shape is a general "Busch Gardens" style shop, and the curved is a more England/United Kingdom themed shop with items you would find over there.

The big blue oval is an observation Ferris wheel, this one named "the little eye". The other light blue block is a building built to look more like the Parliament building, and is a theater 3D show of a wizard who time travels the audience through key moments in history.

The bright yellow between the Globe and the new show/ride is a new eatery called "Chips N Stuff", a restaurant that has all English inspired foods.

And coming up (This is just as much for me to remember whats to come as much as it's for you) is the France update, a Scotland/Ireland update, and a really special surprise.

 

[halfabee]

Also gone are the water blasters.

 

[Zimmy]

that special surprise better not be removing Nessie or really changing anything in or around here....

 

[warfelg]

that special surprise better not be removing Nessie or really changing anything in or around here....

I would rather jump off the train bridge than do that! I wouldn't dare! Anyways after a couple of hectic days I'm going to try to finish this off.

 

[warfelg]

So more updates:

First up is an updated Scotland and Ireland:

No new pathways through this part of the park as I think it's actually well connected. In fact there was very little change.

The light blue is of course space for a flat ride. This place I have a specific ride in mind, a HUSS top spin with the whole thing themed to The Falkirk Wheel.

The light green area is a stage for street performances of bagpipes, and other traditional Scottish music.

Over in Ireland, Grogans Pub is updated and the whole place is redesigned to look like the Blarney Castle, and the dark green is an experience for guests to see a Blarney Stone replica 2 stories above the hamlet.

The light pink, a new coaster. And taking a bit of a risk here, a RMC Raptor single rail with no inversions or big overbanks. Set up to be a smaller family size coaster, you go up the lift, U turn before the first drop, into a slight left turn, followed by a big up and down helix. Airtime right turn, into a figure 8 series of turns, another small airtime hill, banked U turn, a few more airtime hills before returning to the station. The whole thing is meant to stay under the treeline and for kids. Think of a steel version of Invadr to give the part a 3rd family non-inverting coaster.

Onto the France update:

Again, paths stay the same, as this is a well connected area. The only major updates are:
Das Karusell was taken out for a performance area, and gets moved here. Given an update to look more like a classical french carousel.

The outside of the theater gets a makeover to look like Notre Dame and inside (yea some people love it so it might be tough to swallow) the show is set to refelct the story of the Hunchback with the elements of the 3 musketeers.

Brown block of more themeing around the train tracks is a Arch de Triumph replica to welcome you to the France area. Around where the animal encounter used to be, a French style cafe with coffee, espresso, and other French culinary items.

These two updates were somewhat small but I felt they were area's that didn't need a major overhaul like Italy, New France to Scandinavia, Germany to Switzerland, and the new hamlets of Madrid and Balkan's.

I'll try to get my "big surprise" out of the way sometime today. After that just updates to Festa Italia, Oktoberfest, and tying it all together.

 

[warfelg]

Ok, the admittedly most ambitious of this quite ambitious plan.

First, the site plan:

As you can see from the title, "European Union" I decided to go with names of things not tied to one country when outside the park. The "European Union" is the name if the on site resort for Busch Gardens/Water Country/Historic Triangle.

So I'm going to start from the roadway. White is the new inbound pattern traffic. Light grey is the outbound pattern. The extremely dark grey pattern is for a tram path. The big white blocks are parking garages for guests both one day and long term.

Ok, the entire upper left area:
Mid-Yellow is the main hotel building. Mostly single room with 2 room suites. Outside themed to an old castle, 3 stories tall. The lower L section is the grand entry way, without many rooms in the area, but a cafe area, and an indoor arcade.

The dark yellow attached to the hotel is a portico for cars to stop at for check in and check out.

The light blue lines are paths all the way around.

Dark blue is a pool and a lazy river tube spot. Yes it seems strange if this is meant to be a resort that also serves Water Country USA, but it's nice to have a pool right at the hotel.

The orange blocks are Villas. 2 bedroom villa units in packs of 4, ability to sleep 10 with a den and living room, this gives 44 villa "townhomes". In each unit is a kitchenette, 3 full size bathrooms, and a patio. Set off from the hotel and in it's own set off center point from the actual hotel meant to make it feel more exclusive.

Up there, the bright yellow block is a restaurant, with a rooftop patio to serve as a 21+ party spot at night for resort guests. The magenta block is an entertainment spot more aimed at teens and tweens, with it's own rooftop patio for teen parties.

The big blue blocks with the red line is two "ports" for resort guests to take a boat to and from the park as a 2nd gate entrance.

Where there used to be a parking lot in the bottom center:
A multi-purpose entertainment center. Think Citywalk but much much smaller. Now instead of the Friday night concerts being in the park, they are outside on the black oval which will be a stage. The center is all an open space, with 3 more restaurant/food stands. The purple is shopping/entertainment spaces.

The goal of that area is to give people staying at the park things to do in the evenings and at night time if they spent time elsewhere.

 

[warfelg]

Ok so getting onto wrapping up.

Festia Italia:
Nothing major here, in the 25 years the biggest change I would do here is cleaning out Roman Rapids, and replacing it with a river cruise ride with effects. Think more "Jaws" than anything else. The story would be an trade meet in Venice gone wrong.

In Oktoberfest, just an update of some of the carnival games. DarKastle get's the biggest changes with much needed upgrades with projectors, themeing inside. The two most massive changes:
Update to the to the que to be more immersive taking you into the land of the castle. More videos, more audio loops, more "rooms" that you pause in. The other major update would be a boom arm powered coaster like the HP rides. Will lead to a slightly smaller capacity, but that's ok as the pre-ride experience is much more immersive.

 

[warfelg]

So Conclusion time. The timeline of the the whole project:
2018-2020: Project Madid is build, the animal pens are moved, the whole area has it's infrastructure put into place. New France gets the Scandinavia rename, all Canadian themeing gets it's make over to Denmark/Norway/Sweden themeing. The train station gets renamed, Northwoods Trader get's it's big change. The space for "Scandinavian Flick" is cleared, and put in. The New France changeover in 2019, Project Madrid opens in 2020.

2021:Catalonia gets food stands, shopping stands, filled out paths. Le Scoot shuts down to start some themeing work, Germany starts is Switzerland overhaul with some themeing, the clearing for the new small amphitheater is is done and built.

2022: Le Scoot is re-opened as Fjord Runner with the new theme elements put in. The England Hamlet us updated with the new themeing, new restaurants, the clearing and "Little Eye" is put in.

2023: New pathways around Italy are built, Little Baloons and Flying Machines are moved, along with the the inclusion of the Stella Apina classic cars ride is put in. Escape from Pompeii is shut down and the gutting starts.

2024: Starflyer opens, Switzerland incline built, carousel is moved to France, France cafe built, Ireland has Gorgans pub updated with the Blarney Castle experience. In Scotland the Falkirk Wheel ride is built.

2025: Busch Gardens celebrating the BIG 5-0!!! Some major things get done in this year. The whole main gate "United Nations" theme is built out and opened. Unlike Catalonia and it's slow roll out, The Balkans is opened all at once as a major expansion as a gift to itself. The major wood coaster gives BG it's second big woodie, a new train station, 2 new flats, shops, the dark show walk through, and the sit down restaurant.

2026: Down year as just some themeing is done.

2027: Pompeii's conversion to a water coaster from a big splash is completed.

2028: DarKastle update is done with the ride carriage, projectors, que, theme within the ride.

2029: Construction on the resort begins. Parking garage is built for the park, while an offsite location is utilized.

2030: The RMC Raptor built to be more of a family coaster in Ireland is built.

2031: More theme facades throughout the park is done.

2032: Verbolten gets refurbished inside with the themeing.

2033: No major plans.

2034: Two year roll out: In 2034 the main hotel opens, along with the out of park shopping restaurant (at the hotel), the pool, lazy river, and tram to the park.

2035: The villa rooms, the entertainment complex, and the 2nd entrance via the boats is opened.

So basically what I did was heavy load the front, left plenty of things "undone". The point was to spread out some of the major investments for the coasters, try to have the new hamlets done by the 50th, so that the expansion of the park is basically done by this point. From there its about internal change, with slow change. Then in time for the 60th, the resort on site is completed along with the entertainment complex. Over 25 years, the park is evolved and ready to take on the next 50/60 years.

 

[warfelg]

So, I'm all finished. Go ahead, rip into what you don't like, comment on what you do, I'll try to support why I made certain decisions or why I didn't do something else.

I'll welcome any feedback on this. Really would like it.

 

[whanna]

You have spent a lot of time assembling this. You also have provided a plan that comes from your years of work and research, which helps to backup the plan for the realists (like me). You can't build a 500 room resort, three major rides, new hamlet, etc in six months. Some say you can, but obviously that's not reasonable (with enough money anything is possible, sure. But possible does not always equal reasonable).

I was going to suggest that the on-site resort be worked on earlier in the timeline that you've posted, but a quick search returned an answer to my own question:

From last year's article referencing 2015 numbers

Hotel rooms unoccupied

Few people are feeling the sluggish growth more in the area than the hoteliers.

In July, the occupancy rate in Williamsburg hotels and motels was 47 percent, the lowest percentage of all 22 localities included in the monthly results published by the Virginia Travel Corporation. Researchers combine James City and part of York with Williamsburg when calculating Williamsburg's figures.

By comparison, Virginia Beach had 63 percent occupancy, Charlottesville had 73 percent occupancy and Arlington had 80 percent.

Hoteliers have struggled for years against the trend of timeshares.

"What we've seen in last 15 years is the number of hotel rooms slowly has been decreasing to about 8,000, and timeshares have gone up to about 6,000 rooms," said Bob Harris, the Senior Vice President, Tourism for the Greater Williamsburg Chamber and Tourism Alliance.

He said it is impossible to know exactly how many people stay in timeshares because timeshare owners do not have to pay the $2 occupancy tax. Only time-share occupants who rent the timeshare pay the tax.

Harris said the tourism alliance is working to get exact numbers of visitors who stay in timeshares.

If the immediate area hotels are less than 50% occupied during the height of tourist season, there is little demand for an additional set of rooms/villas. Of course, you could also argue that the Comfort Suites shouldn't be charging $150-$200 in July if that is the case, but that's a different argument.

Anyway I don't know if these figures consciously affected the resort timeline you posted above, but thought I would throw them out there for the curious.

Thank you again for fleshing out the above 25 year plan. I'm somewhat aware of a shorter timeline for my local park (Hersheypark) and can attest to how far out items are considered. Bringing this ride into the park in 2018 had to happen so that this other thing could be in place for 2022, because in 2020 this will happen, and then you have this consideration... ad nauseam... Even something as simple as painting an existing ride affects delivery of a new something. Or needs to be done to compliment the new something.

And yes, Apollo should've been painted to welcome Tempesto.

 

[warfelg]

You have spent a lot of time assembling this. You also have provided a plan that comes from your years of work and research, which helps to backup the plan for the realists (like me). You can't build a 500 room resort, three major rides, new hamlet, etc in six months. Some say you can, but obviously that's not reasonable (with enough money anything is possible, sure. But possible does not always equal reasonable).

I was going to suggest that the on-site resort be worked on earlier in the timeline that you've posted, but a quick search returned an answer to my own question:

From last year's article referencing 2015 numbers

Hotel rooms unoccupied

Few people are feeling the sluggish growth more in the area than the hoteliers.

In July, the occupancy rate in Williamsburg hotels and motels was 47 percent, the lowest percentage of all 22 localities included in the monthly results published by the Virginia Travel Corporation. Researchers combine James City and part of York with Williamsburg when calculating Williamsburg's figures.

By comparison, Virginia Beach had 63 percent occupancy, Charlottesville had 73 percent occupancy and Arlington had 80 percent.

Hoteliers have struggled for years against the trend of timeshares.

"What we've seen in last 15 years is the number of hotel rooms slowly has been decreasing to about 8,000, and timeshares have gone up to about 6,000 rooms," said Bob Harris, the Senior Vice President, Tourism for the Greater Williamsburg Chamber and Tourism Alliance.

He said it is impossible to know exactly how many people stay in timeshares because timeshare owners do not have to pay the $2 occupancy tax. Only time-share occupants who rent the timeshare pay the tax.

Harris said the tourism alliance is working to get exact numbers of visitors who stay in timeshares.

If the immediate area hotels are less than 50% occupied during the height of tourist season, there is little demand for an additional set of rooms/villas. Of course, you could also argue that the Comfort Suites shouldn't be charging $150-$200 in July if that is the case, but that's a different argument.

Anyway I don't know if these figures consciously affected the resort timeline you posted above, but thought I would throw them out there for the curious.

Thank you again for fleshing out the above 25 year plan. I'm somewhat aware of a shorter timeline for my local park (Hersheypark) and can attest to how far out items are considered. Bringing this ride into the park in 2018 had to happen so that this other thing could be in place for 2022, because in 2020 this will happen, and then you have this consideration... ad nauseam... Even something as simple as painting an existing ride affects delivery of a new something. Or needs to be done to compliment the new something.

And yes, Apollo should've been painted to welcome Tempesto.

I wasn't at all aware of any of that.

Honestly my reasoning for it being at the end of 25 years was simple: Let BGW turn into a multi-day park (with the attractions added, moved, removed, and two new hamlets) first. If you start a resort before the park becomes a 2 day visit then you negate the effect of having it.

So my plan all along was to do some major work early, lay low, then use the capitol gained from those improvements to fund a hotel/villa/small entertainment complex.

One thing I want to point out is the higher success rate of on site hotels. Typically for a family, if they can show up, park, and leave it those hotels do a bit better. So if this hotel was on site, trams/boats/shuttles can take you to other attractions, and you could pay for everything in one package, I think it would do better.

Last thing....Williamsburg has more hotels then it should have. In 25 years some will go under, so something is going to need to replace them.