Clone Moan - The world's biggest 'uninteresting' parks

[HeartlineCoaster]

There can be two sides to many trips.
1) Seeking out the obviously good, the new experiences, new ride types and layouts to find things we really enjoy.
2) Grabbing as many creds as possible, no matter what they may be.

Name a park that has little to no unique coaster experiences to offer - the star attraction is a clone or you feel like you could get it all elsewhere.
The bigger the better, somewhere that should be interesting but ends up being a simple whoring of +1s. (Not counting that ugly 17 in Turkey.)
And let us know where you draw the line. Did/would you go out of your way for these parks that are just a number?

 

[gavin]

Fantawild's "Adventure" parks. If you've not done one, they're decent, but they all offer essentially the exact same thing - a couple of Chinese coasters and the same selection of dark rides. I tend to just cred whore them now, grabbing a ride on Dino Ramage and leaving.

Their Dreamland and Oriental Heritage parks offer a bit more variety.

Six Flags America springs to mind as well. Nothing interesting about the place or the coaster selection.

Also, Legoland. F**k all of them.

 

[davidm]

Disneyland (variations thereof)

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

^Interesting choice. Tron and the various mine train/mountain things are reasonably unique/standout.

My inspiration for the topic was Chimelong Paradise.
+5 and the big B&M was probably enough to justify it, but every single coaster being a clone bugged me.

Probably some subconscious inspiration from Legolands as well.

 

[davidm]

Whilst Disneyland-cloneness isn't purely down to cloned coasters (Space Mountain(s), RC Racer(s), Dwarf Mine Train(s), Thunder Mountain(s) - and no I have not experienced all of these) - isn't it just weird standing in one of the parks outside (for example) Its a Small cloned World and wondering if you turn left or right to get to a Cloned Haunted Mansion. Yes the parks do have a few unique-rides as well as the odd unique-coaster, but of all the cloned stuff, Disney is the KING, thats all I mean.

 

[roomraider]

^Interesting choice. Tron and the various mine train/mountain things are reasonably unique/standout.

My inspiration for the topic was Chimelong Paradise.
+5 and the big B&M was probably enough to justify it, but every single coaster being a clone bugged me.

Probably some subconscious inspiration from Legolands as well.

And now they are adding another clone
However if I am being picky (and I am) Dive Coaster isn't a clone. Sure it's similar to the other early Dive Machines but it is Unique layout wise.

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Similar is an understatement. It's Sheikra with a mirrored lift hill, slightly less turn at the top and less turn before mid course.

 

[gavin]

Chimelong is a weird one for me since all of the clones were "firsts" for me. First Intamin 10-looper, first half pipe, first Vekoma Motorbike, first non-Oblivion dive machine...

 

[Hyde]

Lower-tier Cedar Fair and Six Flags parks carry the same marketing design as the top (SFMM, Cedar Point, SFGAdv, etc.)... yet do not have the lineups to back up the hype.

 

[Antinos]

Six Flags parks are interesting ones on the list. We've all identified their clones, but then they throw in a ride like Goliath (SFGAm), Superman (SFNE), Krypton Coaster, El Toro, Tatsu, or other one of a kind rides to completely hook you into dealing with riding more clones.

 

[KristofWB]

Bobbejaanland...it has such little to offer. It's the park that is the closes to my home, only a 5 to 10 minutes away from my home. Last time I visited the park, about a year ago, we arrived at the park at 10 AM, and we were already home again around 1 PM, and we did almost every ride in the park. It has about 2 or 3 rides that are worth taking the trip, but that's about it.

 

[Edward M]

I have to say, from the look of it, Canada's Wonderland looks like far too many clones. Of course, there is Leviathan, Behemoth, and Wonder Mountain, and their two wooden coasters are custom. However, everything else is either a clone or very, very similar to another coaster experience. It has a lot of rides that are the same or at least similar to other common rides.

Universal Studios Hollywood seems to be pretty much only clones now except for the Studio Tour. In fact, all of the Universal parks tend to share rides with a few unique ones thrown.

As much as I love Disney, their castle parks tend to have a lot of clones, especially at opening. WDW Magic Kingdom may be the worst offender here; nearly all of its rides were cloned with only about 5 unique rides and about 7 that were the "original". Tokyo Disneyland has opened two amazing unique rides, but it is very much a cloned park with both cloned rides and a cloned park design. Disneyland Paris is mainly sort of "remakes" to fit the park's theme, so it does seem unique in that sense. Hong Kong Disneyland has opened up three lands (and two of Disney's best rides from what I've heard) that make it unique, but it is quite clone heavy. Shanghai Disneyland doesn't really have many clones at all. Luckily, all of Disney's parks seem to have developed enough to feel very unique from one another.

 

[TMCoasters]

Weiner Prater has about 4 different Wild Mouse style coasters, with the only thrilling coasters being clones.

Most of the Disney parks are pretty lame in terms of coaster collection. While they're more about the theming and experience, they really don't seem intriguing to me.

 

[Pink Cadillac]

Definitely Flamingo land and that Sälämi___ park in Finland looks like it fits the bill. I don't know why people are saying Disney when Universal is way worse at cloning. Wouldn't say either were uninteresting though. I agree that Canada's Wonderland is lots of fat, but little meat. There's a few parks in china that have loads of creds , but nothing interesting like Sun Park and Euro Park, not complaining though.

 

[Pokemaniac]

Gonna echo on Wiener Prater.

On paper, it seems so amazing. It boasts 13 coasters, that's the same as SFGadv, Europa Park, Nagashima Spaland or Kings Dominion. No park in Europe has more coasters than it (yet). Surely, at first glance, this has to be a world-class coaster park...

But the ride selection is so... ugh. It has more Wild Mice than the average forest nowadays, a couple of wooden... things from the mid-20th-century, some kiddie steel coasters, and the unholy trinity of an old Vekoma Boomerang, a Zamperla Volare and a large Pinfari. And most coasters in the park is of the portable kind. None of the coasters seem appealing to people with a marginal knowledge of coasters (of course, more savvy people may be able to point out a gem or two, but unless you're really into the specifics of portable coasters, there doesn't seem to be much to be excited for).

It's as if somebody went to a mid-sized park elsewhere in Europe, found the smallest and crappiest rides it had on offer, and decided to buy a dozen of the kind. Would it hurt that badly to invest in one modern coaster anchored to the ground, by a company of at least decent reputation? Nobody would complain if a handful of Wild Mouse coasters were scrapped or sold to make room/money for the investment.

 

[TilenB]

It's as if somebody went to a mid-sized park elsewhere in Europe, found the smallest and crappiest rides it had on offer, and decided to buy a dozen of the kind. Would it hurt that badly to invest in one modern coaster anchored to the ground, by a company of at least decent reputation? Nobody would complain if a handful of Wild Mouse coasters were scrapped or sold to make room/money for the investment.

The problem is that Prater's rides are operated by individual showmen and not the park itself. Nobody's going to cash out 10m€ to then charge 6€ or so every 10 minutes somebody decides to ride it.
In essence, Prater is just a glorified funfair and not exactly a proper amusement park. There are some absolute gems outside of coasters in there, though.

 

[Jarrett]

I never went but Geauga Lake certainly fell under this criteria. Everything was either a clone or a bad wooden coaster that didn't do anything. #RMCitorWreckit

 

[Alaeriia]

The problem is that Prater's rides are operated by individual showmen and not the park itself. Nobody's going to cash out 10m€ to then charge 6€ or so every 10 minutes somebody decides to ride it.
In essence, Prater is just a glorified funfair and not exactly a proper amusement park. There are some absolute gems outside of coasters in there, though.

It does have Hollenblitz and that Vekoma helix thing, so that's cool.

 

[caffeine_demon]

although Prater isn't really meant to be a "theme park", but more a "hey guys, come build your rides here" type park. Plus it's awesome!

And on the legolands - I will say that Windsor has a great setting, and Denmark has polar explorer!

 

[Pokemaniac]

although Prater isn't really meant to be a "theme park", but more a "hey guys, come build your rides here" type park.

Yes, but... why doesn't anybody want to build something that isn't a portable wild mouse?