Favourite Dark Rides

[ThomVD]

I searched for this, but I couldn't find an existing thread.

Coasters are my favourite rides in theme parks, but when a dark ride is of very high quality, they're right up there. I love how they give you a sense of experiencing a journey, and they can be very immersive. So what are some of your favourites?

1. Fata Morgana (Efteling) - I have a really hard time deciding between #1 and 2 because they are both incredible, but also very different and compliment each other perfectly. It was with the recent refurbishment when I felt that this is my favourite of the two. From the start till the finish it takes you on a journey and you forget that you're in a massive building in a theme park. The sets are so incredibly detailed that no matter how often I ride it, I see new things every time. The pacing is great; it starts slowly and relatively calm, gets darker the further you get in, and towards the end it gets intense because of the music, wind effects and lighting. The entire ride has a fantastic dark atmosphere. What gives it the edge over number 2 is the sheer length. It never fails to amaze me how long this ride is, with every following set more detailed than the previous ones.

2. Droomvlucht (Efteling) - This one is very nostalgic for me and was my favourite ride when I was little. It has a very different atmosphere than Fata Morgana. Much more relaxing and lighthearted. All five sets are incredible. It's just such a shame that it moves past those sets so quickly. You get very little time to enjoy them. I love how they've also added smell effects <3 Beautiful ride.

3. Blå Tåget (Gröna Lund) - Never expected Gröna Lund to have one of my favourite dark rides rather than parks like Phantasialand and Europa Park, but this ghost train is just awesome. It's not really scary, but it has so many cool effects with fire and lights, and it also has some added cheesy humour. I re-rode it multiple times and it never got old. Not to mention the seats with their "surprises"!

Some honourable mentions are Maus au Chocolat (Phantasialand), Geisterschloss (Europa Park) and Discovery Club (Hellendoorn).

I haven't ridden that many dark rides yet, so I will update this list once I've been to more parks, like Disney.

 

[elephant58]

Valhalla.

 

[PeskyTrimBrake]

1. Spiderman, IOA
2. ET, Unversal Studios
3. Curse of Darkastle, BGW
4. Toy Story mania, Disneyland California and WDW
5. Haunted Mansion, WDW
6. Ellen's Energy Adventure, Epcot

 

[gavin]

Not going to order them, but the ones that are above and beyond the rest:

Any Disney ToT ride, though I guess they come more under the drop tower category.

Spiderman, Transformers and Madagascar at Universal.

Mystic Manor, Indiana Jones, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Sinbad's Storybook Voyage and Pooh's Hunny Hunt at Disney.

Pharaoh's Fury and Sindbad at Lotte World.

Dino Rampage, Qing Dynasty Adventure and Sorcerer's Academy at Fantawild.

 

[Ben]

Florida's ToT is my ultimate fave.

Mystic Manor, Transformers, Spiderman, Indiana Jones and DarKastle are my other faves.

 

[andrus]

1. Fata Morgana (Efteling)

I didn't even know this ride existed.. And yet I've been to the park twice! :lol:

Anyway, on to my top 3:

1) Haunted House - Knoebels
I really enjoy the old school charm and feel of this ride The effects are really nice too, and several of the CF members screamed their asses off when we visited the park in 2012 (including Katia); which must be a good judgement! :--D

2) Reset - Mirabilandia
Still the best dark ride shooter I've been on to date. I like the immersive theming and landscaping around it, the length, the fact that you can control the cars yourself, the ride (gun) technology that actually works (in contrast to a lot of other shooters) and the overall atmosphere

3) Piraten im Batavia - Europa Park
Antother old style ride like Haunted House at Knoebels, although this one is a bit more cheesy! But I really like all the detail and work that has gone into creating this ride, and the sheer vastness of this thing! I am also fond of all the extra thought that has gone into this attraction with it's surplus value; like the little drop in the beginning, the fact that you're travelling on water (which makes it cosier) and the fact that your travelling through the restaurant/gift shop in the end.

 

[Serena]

This is a hard one to rate, because I love many dark rides for lots of different reasons. Some are outstanding because they are so technologically impressive, whereas others have a basic ride system - but loads of atmosphere and charm.

1. Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey (Islands of Adventure)

2. Mystery Castle (Phantasialand)

3. The Haunted House (the 90's one) (Alton Towers)

4. Spiderman (Islands of Adventure)

5. Nemesis Sub Terra (Alton Towers)

6. Fata Morgana (Efteling)

7. The Flying Trunk (Tivoli Gardens)

8. Bla Taget (Grona Lund)

9. Valhalla (Blackpool Pleasure Beach)

10. Tower of Terror (Disney World Florida)

 

[nadroJ]

I **** love dark rides. LOVE. Even the crap ones, I'll go out of my way to find them. Dark rides <3

Have a random selection of ones that I like (I'm not including things like ToT or Mystery Castle because in my opinion they are more drop tower than dark ride, I'm choosing to represent the ride in the classic sense):

1) Ratatouille (can't remember its proper name) - the suspension of disbelief this attraction thrusts upon you is ridiculous, so good to the point that I actually did a ride where I tried to 'take myself out' of the ride and have a look at things from a technical perspective, but it just kept drawing me back in. It's excellent, everyone go ride it now.

2) Fata Morgana - the amount of animatronics in one room oh my Christ. And I love things themed to stuff you don't get that often, it's nice to see something a little different even if one can't help but feel all of these attractions are a little bit more 'inspired' by Disney than the creators would care to admit.

3) Maus au Chocolat (definite rodent theme here) - I'd been on Toy Story Mania before riding this but wasn't exactly blown away by what was effectively a game on wheels. Maus on the other hand is fantastic! It has an original (enough) theme, a great storyline, a fun game that doesn't distract from the narrative, and it ends in a cake shop. yes.

4) The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman - Arguably, Transformers is better 3D technology or whatever, but I love Spidey. I prefer the use of live sets alongside the screens over just screens any day. I wish they'd bring back the original soundtrack though =[[

5) Transdemonium - I don't have much of a memory of this other than it reminded me of a Tim Burton directed nightmare, and what's not to love about that? It was utterly mad and full of 'what the **** was that?' moments, which are always a winner.

6) Pirates of the Caribbean (Cali) - Nothing like a classic Disney E-ticket dark ride, and for me Pirates is king. The Cali version is my favourite, mostly because of the bayou setting at the beginning of the ride but also because it has all the good elements of the Paris version and they have seamlessly incorporated the Sparrow animatronics. It's very very enjoyable.

7) Drumvlucht - I sat with my mouth agape the entire ride. The detail! The smell! The fairies! It was like somebody had been inside 7 year old Jordan's imagination and put it there in front of me to ride through. I adored it, it had an incredible sense of nostalgia for me and that just added to the enjoyment.

8) Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey- you can't exactly NOT include it, can you? It's ridiculous, the queue is as legendary as the ride (if not more so) and there's a real element of peril, which I enjoyed. That and the ride vehicles are interesting and different.

9) Hobs Pit - OK, I visited and rode this when it was at its peak during Halloween and had extra actors and stuff, but my god I just was not expecting how good this was! It was actually scary and for a moment I actually believed I wasn't in a shack in the middle of the Norfolk countryside but actually down a mine fearing for my life. Excellent, shame I'll never get to experience it in the same way again.

10) Indiana Jones - another 'Wow!' moment, when you go through into the 'open' bit of the ride and there are just cars and snakes and crystal skulls and whatever else all just going mad in one room. And I LOVE the movement of these ride vehicles, a sense of complete lack of control and it's awesome.

Dark rides <3

 

[Ben]

Oh God, I totally forgot Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey which I LOVE.

And Pirates of the Caribbean in California is just absolutely ridiculously amazing, so much better than the others I've done. Just the sheer scale of it is stupid.

And Haunted Mansion is a personal fave <3

And Dinosaur, I LOVE Dinosaur so much, it's just awesome. It's so dark and ridiculous but intense and awesome.

 

[Darren B]

All dark rides should be binned. They take up time and money that should be spent on Coasters or something more thrilling.

If I had to point out a few I actually liked then I'd say Wonder Mountains Guardian & Valhalla, that's about it.

 

[BBH]

All dark rides should be binned. They take up time and money that should be spent on Coasters or something more thrilling.

If I had to point out a few I actually liked then I'd say Wonder Mountains Guardian & Valhalla, that's about it.

#totallynotagoon

 

[caffeine_demon]

I **** love dark rides. LOVE. Even the crap ones, I'll go out of my way to find them. Dark rides <3

Me too! I'd sooner go to a park for a cheesy dark ride than a big apple!

some faves:

1 - Spiderman - IOA - Haven't been since potterland was built

2 - Knoebels Haunted house - Great old style dark ride

3 - Brean - Terror castle

4 - Duel - Alton towers - I used to love the haunted house, But I seem to like duel more each time I ride!

5 - Golden nuggets - Drayton - Say cheeeeese!

I Don't know if I can count indoor towers as dark rides! but TOT is the best ride ever, whatever it's classed as!

 

[DelPiero]

Just the ones that I'm very fond of:

1: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey - IOA - I'm a Potter nut so this takes it by a mile, everything about it is amazing, even the shop.

2: Transformers The Ride - USF - I expected this to be good but it was much better than anticipated, fast paced, exciting, immersive, fab.

3: Blue Taget - Grona Lund - Really excellent haunted house with one of the best effects I've ever seen.

4: Spiderman - IOA - Nearly as good as Transformers, a little bit vom inducing but overall brilliant ride.

5: Dual - Alton - Big softy for this, even with the guns, prefer to just drink in the ride rather than shoot nowadays. Always end up spotting something I missed/forgot about from the olden days.

 

[Hyde]

Pirates of the Caribbean - Disneyland. It was apart of the first wave of Disney animatronics back during the 60s, and still maintains that unique charm. Disneyland's PotC was the first and longest (to my knowledge) of the 5 attractions in the world.

Spiderman - IoA. Full disclosure - I had no idea what the ride was when I boarded it. I thought it would be a simple dark ride; so needless to say I was blown away with the opening scene of Spiddy jumping onto the hood of the ride. Loved the blending of 3D projectors, ride motion, and real-life effects.

Wacky Shack - Waldameer. Because why not?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU4JWQ7OwUI[/youtube]

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

Can't disagree with most of the ones listed on here already...

I'd like to add the Il Corsari at Gardaland, because it's also ridiculous, completely hidden from view and is amazing... Ramses as well at Garda is quite good (better than Reset by miles)...

 

[Serena]

Oh, and honorable mention to Hex <3 It's still a cut above all the other Vekoma Mad Houses.

 

[nadroJ]

I'd like to add the Il Corsari at Gardaland, because it's also ridiculous, completely hidden from view and is amazing... Ramses as well at Garda is quite good (better than Reset by miles)...

Is that the RIDICULOUS boat ride with the terrifying man-faced sea serpent? Because THAT is going on the list.

Also, not hard to be better than Reset because Reset isn'tverygood.

 

[peep]

I'm totally more of a dark ride goon than a coaster goon so I love this topic. I'm not going to do a top 10 or anything because that's impossible.

I'll start by blabbing about my favourite dark rides from the Disney parks. Sinbad's storybook adventure at DisneySea is one of my favourite attractions, the animatronics (the sheer amount of them and their incredible movement and design) are outstanding, the music is catchy and just perfect and the scenes just flow so well. It's one of the most well designed attractions I've ever seen and it's annoying it's so far away. Wish Paris would get it.

Pooh's Hunny Hunt at Tokyo Disnyeland is also ridiculous and fab. Before I rode it someone mentioned in an article about how you can't see the lighting rigs, everywhere you look is just scenery and they were right, the scenes are seemless because of the OTT design into hiding all the little things that make it work and look good. It makes you feel like you really are having a wander around the 100 acre woods.

Ratatouille: and the over-long subtitle is excellent and while it doesn't get the screen/scenery covered as well as say Spiderman the 3D and animation is so immersive that only us goons will notice. It's a really fun (albeit short) adventure and it flows between the different rooms extremely well. Disney trackless rides are fab <3

Pirates of the Caribbean, Paris - definitely my fav PotC out of the three I've ridden, the queueline feels like part of the journey (in an exciting and mysterious way, not laborious and dull) and the Blue Lagoon restaurant in the first scene really provides the ride with a great send off into your Pirate based adventure.

Ellen's nightmare: the ride at Epcot is one of my favourite rides in Florida. The scale of the thing is stupid and the story is ridiculous. The ride system and the fact it's powered by solar power is nuts and the fact it has a random appearance from a famous actress always confuses me. Everything about it is just insane and I love it for that.


At Universal Spiderman is by far the best (that I've ridden), like everyone else has said the screens hidden within actual sets just adds to the superiority over similar attractions. The fact it's 15 years old and is still one of the best in the industry is crazy though.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is pretty ridiculous too. I thought the projection systems were way too out of focus when I went (totally why so many people feel ill and apparently has been fixed in a new update) and I felt that was a little sloppy for such a high profile and big budgeted attraction. Nevertheless it's an all-rounder with a great queueline that's immersive and some unique story telling elements. Really looking forward to Gringotts.


Efteling has two winners with Fata Morgana and DreamCred. Both are excessive in detail and have unique themes and styles. Then again that's Efteling all-over. I'm looking forward to going back next year to see the new updates on both attractions.

Phantasialand's Maus au chocolat is brilliant and makes Toy Story Mania look like it's something designed by Merlin. The queueline for a start is amazing, the attention to detail in the theming is just superb. The design of everything is just really nice and makes for a pleasant attraction for all ages. By far the best interactive dark ride out there.

Gardaland do have a hidden gem in Il Corsari (and to an extent Ramses - Iron Maiden inspired music set to The Mummy meets Terminator, genius). I adore the fact the giant dark ride is totally hidden underground - with a pirate ship on top. The whole area design is fantastic with the only small error being the car park escalator to get out of the ride at the end. The ride is totally a rip off of Disney's Pirates (Europe is riddled with them) but this is definitely the best copy (although Europa Park's Piraten in Batavia gets a worthy mention in this category because fire).


Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything. I also realise that most of that is what has already been mentioned.

I'd like to say that I really want to ride that Madagascar ride at Universal that Gavin mentioned, it looks superb (and I dislike the films!).

 

[ThomVD]

Efteling has two winners with Fata Morgana and DreamCred. Both are excessive in detail and have unique themes and styles. Then again that's Efteling all-over. I'm looking forward to going back next year to see the new updates on both attractions.

Just a heads up, don't expect too much from the Droomvlucht update. Only the starry corridor and the last scene (coaster part :wink: ) are significantly improved, the rest is basically the same. The queue is also mostly the same except that it has a bit more decoration.

Fata Morgana however did really improve a lot. The major change is a "surprise" at the first scene, but they fixed a lot of stuff that hadn't been working for years, some extra stuff (like rats) are added, lighting has improved significantly, the wizard doesn't sound like he's shooting a machine gun anymore and there are now little strobe lights when he opens the doors. There are also new boats which look exactly the same and it didn't feel different in any way.

 

[peep]

Oh yeah, don't worry the majority of the updates I'm fully aware of (but haven't seen pics or video of), it'll just be nice to see it all in person.