What is your favourite Merlin-created dark ride or dark ride retheme?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. With the recent announcement that Duel at Alton Towers is closing on 6th September, and the ever snowballing rumours about it being rethemed, a lot of discussion has taken place recently about Merlin and dark rides. And rightly or wrongly, Merlin appears to have somewhat of a poor reputation among enthusiasts when it comes to dark rides; most of the ground-up dark rides and dark ride rethemes they’ve done have not been particularly well received at all. So with that in mind, I’d be keen to know; of all the dark ride projects Merlin have undertaken, which is your favourite? I’m including both ground-up dark rides and rethemes here.

Personally, I don’t think Merlin’s poor reputation with dark rides is entirely deserved. Yes, some of their dark ride projects haven’t gone down brilliantly, but all of the Merlin-created dark rides I’ve personally done have actually been pretty decently executed attractions for what they are, in my view. Although I must preface that I’m somewhat more tolerant of screens than most enthusiasts…

But if I were to pick a favourite, I’d probably go for Flight of the Sky Lion at Legoland Windsor. It was a tough choice between Sky Lion and Ninjago in the same park, as I thought that both were excellent, and definitely two of my favourite UK dark rides, but I think Sky Lion just clinches it because Ninjago, while very fun, can get a touch tiring for the arms… in terms of Sky Lion, though, I think it comes together as a very nice experience! The smells are really good, the film is great, and it just overall has a really nice, feel good vibe!

But what is your favourite Merlin-created dark ride or dark ride retheme? And do you feel that Merlin’s reputation on dark rides is deserved?

 

[Rob Coasters]

Let's rank all the ones I've done... a thing to note: these rides are only listed randomly in their respective categories and aren't a proper ranking.

Really great, genuinely enjoyable
Gruffalo River Ride Adventure
Flight of the Sky Lion
Black Mirror Labyrinth
Imperial Leather Bubbleworks
X
Tomb Blaster

Very good
Atlantis Submarine Voyage
Trailers Breakout at Bozos

(Big gap)

One and done
Hocus Pocus Hall
Angry Birds 4D
Laser Raiders

Actively bad
Derren Brown's Ghost Train
The Walking Dead The Ride
Ninjago

Quite evenly spread I would say.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

Easy… Toyland Tours!

For it’s time it was punching!!! Not sure how well it’d stand up today though.

These days I was very very impressed with Flight of the Skylion. (And the lego sculpture on the front too.)

 

[Serena]

1. Nemesis Subterra
2. Dual
3. Ghostbusters (Heide Park)
4. I- Corsari (Gardaland)
5. Flight of the Sky Lion
6. Bubbleworks
7. Hex
8. Jumanji

I'm not including walkthroughs like BML.

 

[Rob Coasters]

4) Tomb Blaster

How on earth did I forget this? Anyway, goes in the "really great & genuinely enjoyable" category.

 

[Robbie]

Does Madame Tussauds' Spirit of London count? It's bonkers and I love it. Apparently it's only 5 minutes, but it feels much longer.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

Well, I've not changed my mind, having just done all of the Florida flying theatres, Flight of the Skylion really is world class... It's genuinely 'one of the,' if not 'the,' best examples of that ride type I've done...

It's nice to think that Merlin are punching with the big hitters when it comes to Skylion.

Also, Toyland Tours was better than Small World, or maybe that's just my fond memories causing a bias.... Either way, I'm starting a petition to bring it back!!!