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Cedar Fair Announces Plans for "Amusement Dark" Rides

Hyde

Hyde

Matt SR
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So an interesting development today in the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/travel/themepark ... story.html

Matt Ouimet, Cedar Fair CEO, mentioned plans in an interview for a series of dark rides across all of their amusement parks, which would fall under the "Amusement Dark" brand. (Remember mention of that trademark?)

Canada's Wonderland unveiled Wonder Mountain's Guardian in 2014 and Knott’s plans to open Voyage to the Iron Reef on May 15. Both attractions were designed by Montreal-based Triotech, a relative newcomer to dark-ride manufacturing.

Cedar Fair president and CEO Matt Ouimet plans to eventually expand the Amusement Dark concept to all 11 park locations in the chain.

"I think ultimately you'll see them at every Cedar Fair park," said Ouimet, a former Disney executive who served a stint as Disneyland president.

...

In typical executive bullet-point fashion, Ouimet distilled his Amusement Dark vision into three S’s: strategy, storytelling and social interaction.

The strategy portion envisions a fleet of dark rides with a highly interactive interface and a digital infrastructure allowing for constant upgrades. Think Toy Story Midway Mania video game screens with Buzz Lightyear Astro-Blasters ray guns.

The storytelling aspect focuses on traditional topics such as pirates, dinosaurs, dragons and cowboys and Indians that don’t require expensive IPs from major media companies.

And the social component seeks to include gaming elements that encourage competition between family and friends while driving repeat visits.
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Ouimet flat out admitted they would never broach the attraction budgets of Disney nor Universal, settling for budgets at "10 to 15 percent" of industry leaders. "Instead, the Amusement Dark rides will tell stories about the 'world underneath our parks," Ouimet said.

Ouimet goes on to mention the possibility of developing multiple themes for various dark rides, which could result in swappable themes across rides.

This does draw into question the recent land clearing we have seen at Cedar Point, but encouraging to hear Ouimet having serious non-roller coaster plans for the chain.
 
Re: Cedar Fair Announces Plans for "Amusement Dark" Rides

Is it me, or does he make the rides sound like awful generic mass produced... Cheap things?

Which is 100% missing the point of a dark ride. Unlike a coaster that can be enjoyed as a physical thrill over and over, they rely on originality unique to site to be long lived and well loved. (Monster Mansion, Bubbleworks...)

Tech heavy dark rides will become outdated in a few seasons. Cheap cardboard cut out dark rides are ALL terrible, even when Disney make them.

Go all out or don't bother, Cedar Fair.

Has anyone ridden Dragon Mountain or whatever its called and how terrible is it?
 
I will agree that he makes them sound cheap, but that doesnt necessarily mean that they will be bad outright. I think Wonder Mountain Guardian has gotten some mid-range reviews that dont make it the greatest thing ever (which I never expected it to be), but its not outright terrible either. Voyage to the Iron Reef isnt open yet, but the story sounds interesting to say the least.

Im glad that he is at least making an effort to put these rides into all the Cedar Fair parks, and that they will at least house a potentially well thought out story. Im interested to see how these will evolve with each addition to any given park.

Im easily entertained though, so these will have to be utter turd for me to not enjoy them!
 
^^ Joey, I'm guessing you're referring to Wonder Mountain's Guardian. Not a terrible ride at all, but obviously not top ten material. I think it was a good addition to the park and would be a good addition to other Cedar Fair parks, but I agree that talking about mass production the way he is does make them sound cheap. Once you've been on one and know what happens at the end, it won't be a unique or surprising experience anymore. I'd call them fun, glorified shooters rather than dark rides, really.
 
^ This really isn't a mass production, as what is proposed isn't a quick addition of rides to all Cedar Fair parks at once. They make mention of Iron Reef featuring better technology that wasn't available for Guardians. In the same light, one would imagine that a slower add of these rides over time would yield better and better rides. Ouimet also mentions using existing infrastructure, which would be great for adding new utility of old buildings without the need to invest in new land development/even more buildings.

It is no secret that good family rides are worth their weight in gold, and it is difficult to find a middle ground ride between kiddie and roller coaster at modern day amusement parks.

The most exciting bit I gleaned from the interview was mention of working further with Garner Holt on animatronics. They have done a bang up job with their refurb work for Calico Mine Ride and Timber Mountain Log Ride at Knott's. Would be excellent to have not only projections but real figures in these prospective dark shooters as well.
 
^ If they can get better and change the concept around a bit, I'm all for them adding these to every park. Besides, it's not like most people go to a plethora of Cedar Fair parks every year. The general public will likely stick to the ones closest to home, so it's not like they'll go to another park and be like "oh, lame, Iron Reef, that's just like Wonder Mountain's Guardian." But it's almost like there's not that much more you can do with a shooter like Wonder Mountain especially if they're not going to be willing to spend a lot of money on them. It's a cool ride, but I don't think it has to be put at every park. It's not an insanely popular ride (half an hour queue at Wonderland in its first operating season on an insanely busy day in the summer), and like Joey said, in a few years they will be very aged and I guarantee nearly a walk on every time. It's one of those things that, once you do it a few times, there's really no need to do it again.
 
^ Definitely emphasis on parks having a regional draw, and not overlapping much in terms of markets. It's almost like they were designed that way. ;)

Again, this would be a ride that would fill a gap in many park's offering. Cedar Point hasn't had an indoor attraction since the removal of the Pirate Ride in 1993. Dorney, Valleyfair, Worlds of Fun, etc. are all also barren when it comes to the indoor ride department.

And in terms of queue length, that's more subjective to how many bodies are in the park. Diamondback and Banshee at Kings Island for instance can often be walk-ons/near-zero waits, but are certainly no slouch.
 
It sounds like the whole American Chain Park industry really is turning to cheap(ish) chain-wide additions. I do however think these will be much more well received than Six Flags' new Larson Looping "Coasters".

As for the content, they made it seem like the movies will be cheap and corny. However, with Wonder Mountain's Guardian and the art for Voyage to the Iron Reef, I don't think we'll have a problem.
 
The statement of traditional story topics does make it seem like they are going the cheapest way into this. Most of the topics have been done and I get why they don't want to create expensive animated show but its cliche and boring. Iron Reef feels like its missing something, something that is related story wise. Looking at Triotech's movie works, it looks like the movie topics mentioned have already been made and are being offered as generic shows for the rides. Not to mention they look absolutely terrible. Probably not their best choice.
 
Re: Cedar Fair Announces Plans for

Joey said:
Has anyone ridden Dragon Mountain or whatever its called and how terrible is it?
Click to expand...

Didn't really do a whole lot for me, apart from the spoiler at the end.

A lot of it was just black painted walls, with rather low resolution projectors. The loading station felt like pretty much any typical coaster loading station, with basically nothing in terms of built props.

Once was enough.
 
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